Virabhadra = the name of a fierce warrior, an incarnation of Shiva, described as having a thousand heads, a thousand eyes, and a thousand feet; wielding a thousand clubs; and wearing a tiger’s skin.
Warrior III Pose: Step-by-Step Instructions

Stand in Tadasana (Mountain Pose), exhale and fold foward to Uttanasana. From Uttanasana, exhale and step your left foot back into a high lunge position. Your right knee should be more or less at a right angle. Lay the midline of your torso (from the pubis to the sternum) down on the midline of the right thigh (from the knee to the hip crease) and bring your hands to your right knee, right hand to the outer knee, left hand to the inner. Squeeze the knee with your hands, lift your torso slightly, and with an exhalation, turn it slightly to the right.

See also More Standing Poses

Now from the lunge position, stretch your arms forward, parallel to the floor and parallel to each other, palms facing each other. Exhale and press the head of the right thighbone back and press the heel actively into the floor. Synchronize the straightening of the front leg and the lifting of the back leg. As you lift the back leg, resist by pressing the tailbone into the pelvis.

See also Poses for Better Balance

Normally students come up into Virabhadrasana III by lunging the torso forward. This tends to shift the body weight onto the ball of the front foot and unbalance the position. Don’t allow the torso to swing forward as you move into position; instead, as you straighten the front knee, think of pressing the head of the thighbone back. This centers the femur in the hip joint, grounds the heel into the floor, and stabilizes the position.

The arms, torso, and raised leg should be positioned relatively parallel to the floor. For many students the pelvis tends to tilt. Release the hip [of the raised leg] toward the floor until the two hip points are even and parallel to the floor. Energize the back leg and extend it strongly toward the wall behind you; reach just as actively in the opposite direction with the arms. Bring the head up slightly and look forward, but be sure not to compress the back of your neck.

See also Master Class: A New Sequence to Warrior III

Stay in this position for 30 seconds to a minute. Release back to the lunge on an exhalation. Bring your hands to the floor on either side of the right foot, and on an exhalation, step your left foot forward to meet your right. Stay in this forward bend for a few breaths, then repeat for the same length of time on the other side.

GO BACK TO A-Z POSE FINDER

Sanskrit Name
Virabhadrasana III

Modifications and Props
Balancing in this pose can be very challenging for beginners. Prepare for the pose with a chair positioned in front of you, just a bit in front of your sticky mat (face the back of the chair toward you). When you stretch your arms forward (as described in step 3 above), take hold of the top of the chair. As you rise up into the full pose, push on and slide the chair away from you and use it to support your arms. Try to hold the chair as lightly as possible.
Deepen the Pose
Advanced students can enter Virabhadrasana III from Virabhadrasana I. Perform the Warrior I with the arms stretched upward. Exhale the front torso down onto the top of the forward leg. From here move into Virabhadrasana III as described in Step 3 above.

The Amazing Benefits Of Yoga

Have you ever watched dogs and cats wake up? What’s the first thing they do? They stretch!
Have you ever watched a brand new baby resting? They are totally quiet and still, there breath is deep and peaceful.
Have you ever taken the time to notice how you feel when you laugh, see a beautiful sunset, hug a loved one, sing a song?
What do all these things have in common?
The answer is yoga.

Yoga is the oldest form of stretching to human kind. It is over five thousand years old; yet, it is only now seeing increased popularity across our world. Why?
Because of its many and everlasting health benefits.

Yoga means union of your body, mind and spirit, (spiritus is Latin for breath).
Our breath is everything in life. We simply cannot live without it.
Have you ever noticed when life is perfect for you? Maybe you have found a new love, your kids are behaving perfectly, you are in the zone while playing golf or tennis or exercising or you are just simply peaceful in this moment. That is yoga.

Ancient yogis tell us the body is the past, (it is history), the mind is the future, (it is a mystery), but the greatest gift given to us, the connection between body past and mind future, is our breath!
That is why it is called the present. Indeed our breath and our bodies are an incredible gift!
Walt Whitman reminds us,” Happiness, not in another place, but in this place; not for another hour, but for this hour.”
Isn’t time to enjoy your present?

The main purpose of yoga is to focus on our breath and bodies, to open us up to the awareness of who we already are. Many of all ages, from little leaguers to professional athletes, from the physically and mentally challenged, from our young to our experienced elders, all are finding the amazing and wonderful affects of yoga. Those who are new to yoga and think that they will be bored and will get very little in the way of a workout, (who think that all they will do is to chant Om for an hour), soon find themselves huffing and puffing, sweating profusely and saying,”Wow” this is not what I thought it was.

Incorporating yoga along with meditation, cardio, weight bearing density exercises, gratitude and leaving our world a better place, is a recipe for a wonderful, healthy and peaceful life. Who doesn’t want that?

Namaste’
Michael Zerner

How I Became An “Expert” Yoga Teacher Through A 20-Minute

September is National Yoga Month. So in celebration, one recent afternoon, while drinking rosé and binge-watching Friends on Netflix, I sat at my laptop, paid $69.99, and cheated on an online yoga exam. Only 20 minutes later, I was a certified yoga instructor — and with an “expert” designation to boot.

After becoming a yoga “expert,” I quickly put together a résumé, pulling phrases about my “collaborative” personality and “strong leadership skills” from a sample yoga-teacher résumé I found thanks to a cursory Google search. I didn’t embellish my experience at all; I even went out of my way to specify that I was new to teaching. Then, I sent my résumé to 16 yoga studios and gyms around New York and L.A that had posted ads for yoga teachers on Craigslist. Within a few days, 10 of these places had responded, asking me to come in for an interview.

Over the past 10 years, initiatives to regulate yoga teacher certification have failed in at least five states, most recently in Colorado. In both New York and California, there is no broadly accepted, official certification process, though many schools do seek accreditation through the Yoga Alliance, a membership organization that sets standards for and maintains a registry of schools and yoga teachers. At the same time, New York regulates the licensing of athletic trainers in the state, though California does not. The Alliance’s training standards are far more comprehensive than those required of traditional fitness professionals, with even its lowest designation of “RYT 200” requiring at least 200 hours of dedicated training. However, not all yoga teachers or schools are registered with the Yoga Alliance, and there are ways to sidestep training altogether and still become certified through non-registered programs, as I did.

Arguably, if I had actually followed through with any of the interviews, the studios would have immediately realized that I didn’t know my head from my asana and I likely wouldn’t have been hired. But to these places, at least on paper, I seemed just as qualified as any other candidate who had actually undergone legitimate training.
Photographed by Justin Namon.
Contrary to its reputation as the ultimate “chill” workout, yoga isn’t risk-free. Practicing under the supervision of a teacher who doesn’t quite know what he or she is doing can be dangerous, especially for inexperienced yogis like me. Two years ago, during an overcrowded, pay-what-you-want class in New York, I had a teacher who didn’t correct my form as I went through my sequences and I ended up with a lower-back injury that required nearly a year of time-consuming physical therapy, on and off.

Novices need experienced teachers to make modifications and let us know when we’re doing a pose wrong; without supervision, we risk moving our bodies in ways that can cause injury. Andrew Tanner, spokesperson for the Yoga Alliance, said, “A good teacher…can prevent injury and really help you get the poses. The slightest little tweak can totally change a pose and make it safer.”
For even the most seasoned practitioner, yoga can still be dangerous. Lifelong yogis can injure themselves from pushing too hard or not remaining mindful of their alignment in a given pose. Jessica F. Lillian, a registered yoga teacher in the New York area, told me that she is still dealing with a wrist injury she suffered in March while attending an arm-balance class that was taught by a celebrity yoga teacher. Lillian said she pushed herself too hard during the class, and for weeks afterwards, continued to power through the same painful poses despite knowing that she should have stopped.

After a diagnosis of traumatic tendonitis and six weeks in a brace, Lillian’s wrist still hadn’t healed. Despite yoga’s reputation as a low-impact exercise practice, its injuries can be just as severe as those from any other sport. If this could happen to a yoga instructor with over 200 hours of training, then it could easily happen to a yoga newbie who is still learning the ropes.

In fact, according to data provided to Refinery29 from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, there were 20,719 yoga-related injuries in 2013 that required both doctors’ office and emergency room visits. The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health said in February that its National Health Interview Survey showed that 21 million adults practiced yoga in 2012 (the latest available data). So while the number of injuries is relatively low, it’s still bothersome, particularly because it doesn’t take into account minor injuries that didn’t necessitate a visit to the doctor. Comparatively, the CPSC’s National Electronic Injury Surveillance System found that in 2013 there were also an estimated 472,212 injuries from exercise (including with and without exercise equipment) that necessitated a visit to the emergency room.

“An untrained yoga instructor can compromise your alignment [and] cause unnecessary strain and injury,” explained Sarah Drescher, a registered yoga teacher in L.A. That is one reason why several states, including Arkansas, have attempted to regulate yoga teacher training. Brenda Germann, the director of the Arkansas State Board of Private Career Education, was involved in the push for government oversight of yoga teacher training in the state. She told me that she had taken yoga classes in the past with an instructor who didn’t ask if any of the students had health concerns, like pregnancy or high-blood pressure. She wanted to ensure that yoga teachers in Arkansas were adequately trained to take students’ safety into consideration. Ultimately, the Arkansas legislature opted to exclude yoga from regulation in February. “There is no consumer protection,” Germann said.
Photographed by Justin Namon.
The Yoga Alliance is vehemently against state regulation, though. “There [are] so many reasons why state regulation would not be good for yoga,” Tanner said. “First of all, it would really damage the diversity of yoga teaching and style. There’s no one-size-fits-all for yoga. It’s hard to even get teachers from different lineages to agree on what the right training practices are.” On its website, the Alliance said that state regulation wouldn’t benefit the public and that it unfairly targets the yoga community. Tanner added that even though the Alliance provides standards for schools, some excellent studios decide not to adhere to the organization’s regulations and produce stellar teachers nevertheless. “There are schools in India, for example, that are not registered with Yoga Alliance, whose standards even exceed our own. We think that if it got to the place where the government was trying to force everyone into a particular standard, it would really dilute the quality of the teachings, and it would also get in the way of the student-teacher relationship,” Tanner said.

Because there’s not a uniform set of rules or regulations governing yoga teacher training, it’s the student’s job to do due diligence before class, according to Drescher. “Anyone who is looking to do yoga should be sure [to] go somewhere with credentials. Find the vibe and the kind of class you want, but always be sure the teachers are trained and certified. It’s usually best to get a recommendation from a friend,” Drescher said.
Students can look up their teachers’ credentials on the studio’s website beforehand. Keeping an eye out for the “RYT” designation — given to Yoga Alliance members — is a good idea. But don’t reject a teacher just because he or she isn’t a member of the Alliance. Instead, take a look at the number of hours that person has trained and the school from which he or she received the certification, and determine from that if this teacher has the credibility needed to properly guide you through your practice. “The biggest risk of injury comes when people walk into a yoga class without having done any research about the teacher, about the style — and even if the teacher is qualified, they do a pose that is not right for them,” Tanner said.

I can’t help but wonder if looking into my teacher’s credentials could have prevented my year of pain. Because lack of proper teacher supervision contributed to my injury, it was frustrating to see how many calls and emails I got in response to my lackluster résumé, though I did get a couple of kind emails from studios telling me that my credentials weren’t strong enough and encouraging me to go through Yoga Alliance-approved training. I can’t know whether one of those 10 interviews would have actually led to a job, but it’s enough to make me double-check an instructor’s training. I want to make sure that person’s teacher training involved working on downward dog — not working on a second glass of rosé.

The moon has a rich symbolic significance in yoga mythology. In hatha yoga, for example, the sun and the moon represent the two polar energies of the human body. In fact, the word hatha itself is often divided into its two constituent syllables, “ha” and “tha”, which are then esoterically interpreted as signifying the solar and lunar energies respectively.

(are-dah chan-DRAHS-anna)
ardha = half
candra = glittering, shining, having the brilliancy or hue of light (said of the gods); usually translated as “moon”

Half Moon Pose: Step-by-Step Instructions

Perform Utthita Trikonasana to the right side, with your left hand resting on the left hip. Inhale, bend your right knee, and slide your left foot about 6 to 12 inches forward along the floor. At the same time, reach your right hand forward, beyond the little-toe side of the right foot, at least 12 inches.

Pose of the Week: Half Moon Pose

Exhale, press your right hand and right heel firmly into the floor, and straighten your right leg, simultaneously lifting the left leg parallel (or a little above parallel) to the floor. Extend actively through the left heel to keep the raised leg strong. Be careful not to lock (and so hyperextend) the standing knee: make sure the kneecap is aligned straight forward and isn’t turned inward.

Rotate your upper torso to the left, but keep the left hip moving slightly forward. Most beginners should keep the left hand on the left hip and the head in a neutral position, gazing forward.

See also: Get Strong and Shine On: Half Moon Pose

Bear the body’s weight mostly on the standing leg. Press the lower hand lightly to the floor, using it to intelligently regulate your balance. Lift the inner ankle of the standing foot strongly upward, as if drawing energy from the floor into the standing groin. Press the sacrum and scapulas firmly against the back torso, and lengthen the coccyx toward the raised heel.

Stay in this position for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Then lower the raised leg to the floor with an exhalation, and return to Trikonasana. Then perform the pose to the left for the same length of time.

Come join us for-Yoga For Everyone
Free To The Public

Where: Holland Library
1032 S. McCord Road
Holland, Ohio
419-259-5240
When: Saturday August 8TH
From: 10:00-11:30am

It Will Be Fun!