Posts in the Keep Moving category:

Detox Yoga Workouts To Undo The Holiday Damage For Good

Posted on by Yoga Hive
Morning Yoga

First things first. There are no quick fixes.  You think they’ll work but they will really bring back all the weight you lost and more. But wait, don’t be disappointed. There are measures like detox yoga to lose holiday weight quickly. There is a difference between holiday weight and stubborn fat Holiday fat is mostly gained from irregular and abnormal eating over a certain period (like between Halloween and Christmas) If acted upon timely, holiday weight can indeed be lost very quickly. But if you are looking for a quick fix to your weight goals then na-ah, we advise you to stop looking and start accepting that it will be a longer journey. Longer, but enjoyable. Especially if it involves yoga.

Yoga is our answer to all problems. It’s like looking into your own body for solutions related to health and mindfulness. Certain detox yoga poses fused with a few healthy measures will undo any holiday damage you’ve done. Let’s get started.

1. Urdhava Dhanurasana (Forearm Wheel)

detox yoga pose

This pose is a great way of opening your chest and activating your metabolism. Which means you will burn calories faster than usual.

2. 108 Surya Namaskars, 6 days a week for two weeks

detox yoga pose

If the damage is big, your effort will have to be bigger. Surya Namaskars done in repetition are a great way of working out your complete body. While you do your regular yoga routine, sun salutations will ensure that your extra goal of cardio for your complete body is not ignored.

3. Sarvangasana (Shoulder Stand Pose)

detox yoga pose

This pose is a great one to include at the end of your yoga session. It’s great for your heart and your liver and works wonderfully at flushing toxins away from your vital organs.

4. Garuda-asana (Eagle Pose)

detox yoga pose

This pose stretches your thighs, hips, shoulders and upper back. It also pushes your core to the extreme which directly translates into fresher blood and detoxification.

5. Parivrtta Utkatasana (Revolved Chair Pose)

detox yoga pose

This pose is great for any constipation that you may experience due to al the greasy food that you may have eaten during the holidays. It works wonderfully at activating your digestive system to push out any undesired fat and proteins.

For a period of one month, add these 5 detox yoga asanas to your usual yoga and along with these introduce three new healthy habits:

1. Drink warm water with lemon on an empty stomach

2. Eat 250 calories less per day

3. Drink 3 glasses of water extra

That’s it. In one month, you will be back to where you started from if not even lighter and fitter. We strongly believe in the motto of staying fit and exploring your body every new day. However big may be your goal, as long you keep moving towards it, you are doing great! We hope your holiday weight gain hasn’t lead you to make any unrealistic resolutions. If yes, then you should probably read what to do next here.

We’ve got a hand-picked collection of fitness wear that you are going to love. Pause and take a look. These will inspire you to get out there and get fit for your life! 

Find more fitness related articles or Head straight to our gorgeous yoga pants!

Images of Jennifer Partridge, Author and Yoga Instructor

Getting fit is a resolution for your life. Not just the new year.

Posted on by Yoga Hive
Get fit for life. Couple doing yoga

New year resolutions. They work brilliantly at building the pressure and getting us going. We are all charged up at the start of the year. We push ourselves the first week and drag ourselves the next, and then some piled up work or unplanned evenings take over. Before you know it, it’s June and you are already planning your resolutions for the next year.

The statistics for success with new year resolutions are bleak. Only 8% of people who make New Year’s resolutions stick to them. If you feel you are one amongst the 92% who end up abandoning them after one week, then this blog is for you. YogaHive is all for healthy habits and fitness goals. We live by our mantra to ‘Keep moving’. But we look at fitness as a way of life, as life itself. It’s not just something you hold on to for the new year. Here’s why this year, you should ditch the resolutions about getting fit and adapt the idea of getting fit for life.

1. Slow and steady wins the race, remember?

Yogis should know this the best. Your 45 minutes of yoga might seem slow and boring to someone who is used to 45 minutes of mixed martial arts. You’d think MMA is more strenuous and will probably get you to your goals quicker. But no, yoga heals you slowly. It builds your muscles and enhances your core. In the long term, you will have the body of an MMA expert, the soul of a yogi and the wealth of great health.

Giving yourself a tough goal in the start of the new year and then punishing yourself mentally for not achieving it is the worst way to begin. Don’t plan for the year. Plan for life and start small and slow. Give yourself smaller goals that together give you a great lifestyle.

2. New year resolutions often force us to take up fad diets.

When we miss our first goal, we are still optimistic and believe that we can get to our second one. In the rush, we often succumb to quick fixes, like 10 days to power-abs, or 7 days of the GM diet. We become vulnerable to anything that can help us get to our missed goals. Do you remember Googling ‘magic pills’ that you can pop to get fit? These fad diets to gain muscle or lose weight, might just work if you are resilient and crazy enough (for instance, crazy enough to eat 10 bananas every day!) But as soon as you will be off the diet and on to your normal routine habits, you will undo all the good. Not only will the fad diets harm your health, whatever benefit you got from them, will also vanish.

Which is why we believe, getting fit is not a quick fix. Think of it as a life-term relationship. Just resolve to yourself, to exercise every day, 5 days a week for 45 minutes. To not eat unhealthy foods for 5 days a week. To switch from soda to juice, for life! To remove carbs from your dinner, for life! To excel in yoga alignment and all those complicated asanas, for life! If you set for yourself such goals, you will notice a healthy change inside you. You will not stress about them but accept them as a part of your healthy lifestyle.

3. It’s a new year. But what about a new day, every day?

Come to think of it, we get a new day every day. A new year begins every new day. We are blessed to wake up and witness the beauty of this new day. If we start living life, one day a time, we will notice how our worries cease to exist and how every day is like a super-packed year which needs us to be fit. Get fit. Every new day.

yoga-morning

Get fit for life.

If you have given yourself unrealistic goals this new year, look at them again from a larger perspective and try to give yourself a goal for life. Then break down your goal for life into smaller doable actions every day. If you have given yourself realistic goals and are determined to get to them this year, no matter what? Then we sincerely wish you fall in that 8% which is successful.

Keep us posted on your fitness stories on Facebook and Instagram by following our hashtag #GetFitForLife. And remember, goals or no goals, just keep moving. Feel alive and feel grateful. If you are having trouble with that, our yoga pants will surely help. 🙂

Taking The Polar Bear Plunge This Year? Here’s What You Should Know

Posted on by Yoga Hive
Woman floating in water

polar bear swim vancouver
First of all, let us tell you that every swimmer should do this at least twice. Do it twice, and you will end up taking the polar bear plunge every year for the rest of your life. The first time you really don’t know what you’re getting into, and just have dive right in. The second time you actually have to conquer your fear because you remember the experience from the last plunge and you feel a nerve inside your heart turning blue and imagine some hair strands turning icy white. Remember Anna’s from Frozen? Exactly!

Polar bear plunge or swim, as some people call it, takes place across Canada. In many places, you have to pre-register and for each plunge someone takes, some amount goes to a charitable organization. But not everyone needs a good cause to be motivated for the challenge. Often people participate for the thrill of starting the new year with a challenge, diving straight into the icy cold ocean when there is still snow on the shore. Brrrr. And you thought hot yoga was a challenge. For all those first timers out there, we’ve put together some tips that should come handy.

#1. No heavy winter coats and no swimsuits. Here’s why:

If you think wearing your winter wear is going to make the swim any easier then you are wrong. First of all, the wet clothes are going to weigh you down and make your time in the water more difficult. And secondly, clothes or no clothes, the water is going to be painstakingly cold. You should rather focus on being light and active so that you can complete the plunge as quickly as can be.

But that does not mean that your swimming suit is going to be the best fit. You need to wear something like water-friendly yoga pants or leggings with a full sleeves top of the same material. This way your body will be covered and the water won’t lash at your bare skin. But you will still be light and active enough to enjoy the swim!

polar bear plunge canada

#2. Try to keep your head dry

We know it feels like cheating but hey, survival of the fittest and the cleverest! As much as possible try to keep your head from getting into the ice, ooops, water. But if you literally taking the plunge like jumping into the ocean then we guess there is no saving the head. Well, in that case, We suggest wearing a swimming cap underneath a tight skull cap. So that no icy water enters your ears to make you uncomfortable while you take on the ocean like a polar bear. Ear plugs will be great add-ons too.

#3. Eat well. For 2 days before and on the day.

Okay, so those of you planning to show off your healthy winter bodies in hot shorts or some crazy Halloween costumes might want to starve to get those abs peeking out. But that’s not really a great idea. Food keeps your body warm and helps it maintain the much-needed temperature to keep bodily functions going. 2 days before the plunge, start eating normally and healthy and do so on the day of the plunge too. Dry fruits like almonds, apricots and raisins can be great sources of heat and taking them every day keeps your body warm from inside.

#4. Take some friends along. It’s more fun.

The whole experience is more fun when you have people to take silly videos and photographs with. And possible one man on dry ground who keeps towels and dry warm clothes handy. Dry warm clothes. Sounds like a luxury, right? It will on D-day. Especially when you will notice all the people in Eskimo jackets gathered to watch baboons like us monkeying around in ice.

#5. Try to stay shallow.

Swim for a minute and assess what’s happening. Most probably that is just how much you will have to do to complete your challenge. But irrespectively, if you get too charged up and decide to swim really quickly and go too far? Boy, are you going to repent it! You might lose breath or you might stop feeling your legs, that’s when you’ll miss the ground. Which is why staying shallow is a great idea. Worst case scenario, you will be able to wade your way back to safe territory.

polar bear swim canada

Make your own ritual for your polar bear swim. Many people wear funny costumes usually their Halloween ones, some couples take the plunge on their wedding day or maybe wear their wedding dresses while taking it? Hmmmm. Some people strike a yoga pose in the icy water, some try to do a particular dance move. These little rituals just make polar bear swim even more fun. So what’s going to be your signature move?

polar bear swim

We are super excited to participate every year. For yoga lovers, it is just another way of practicing resilience, patience, and self-control. And we love to test ourselves. Plus the polar bear swim is kinda like a little excuse to buy more yoga pants, this time water-friendly ones! If this is not your kind of a challenge then maybe a 30-day yoga challenge is more your cup of tea. We love both! Here’s how the swim looked in Vancouver last year. Aren’t you excited for 2017, already!

Let us know your experience and if you have any special tips for first timers. the time is not far and we gotta prepare for the new year and the polar bear swim, together!

#yogaeverydamnday Taking on the 30 day yoga challenge

Posted on by Julie Rankin
Woman doing yoga

Yoga studio - 30 day yoga challenge

Since joining a yoga studio earlier this year I knew I wanted to join their next studio-wide 30 day challenge. I’d scanned back through their Instagram feed and found the posts about the challenge inspiring and I couldn’t wait to join that community and push myself to do #yogaeverydamnday.

I’d previously completed two 7 day challenges on my own as well a 15 in 30 challenge and I found them so motivating to keep going, even when I’d rather be sitting on my couch for an evening of netflix and takeout. I knew the 30 day challenge would be hard, and I had a busy month ahead so it was going to take some serious scheduling, time management and dedication. What I didn’t expect (or maybe just ignored) was how tired my muscles would be from back-to-back classes. I quickly learned it’s important to keep your body nourished as well as active!

How to survive a 30 day challenge

1. Eat healthy and take supplements where necessary

Being healthy isn’t just about physical activity. You can’t eat pizza and pasta and expect your body to get the nutrients it needs. Maintaining proper nutrition will help your body recover and help you get back on the mat faster. This wasn’t an area I excelled at during my challenge and I ended up getting sick 4 days before my challenge ended! I know I don’t get enough protein and amino acids in my semi-vegetarian diet so I’ll definitely be looking into supplements that will help my muscles recover. Don’t forget to stay hydrated!

2. Do your laundry… or go shopping 😉

Going to yoga every day means dressing for yoga every day. Having a few pairs of leggings, tops and bras to rotate through is essential — no one wants to wear the same pants to flow that they wore to hot the day before! Clothes that work well and fit correctly also really improve the experience. Since I was going every day I really started to notice which items I wanted to replace.

3. Make it as easy as possible

I quickly realized it would be a lot easier to fit yoga into my days if I didn’t have to worry about whether I had my mat with me so I gave myself the option of renting. I much prefer my own Manduka mat so I used it as much as possible but I knew it would take the stress off if I didn’t always have to pack my mat. If you’re planning your own challenge I’d definitely consider getting a lightweight, packable travel mat.

Why join a challenge

Sometimes you need to push yourself to do something you might not think you can do. After 30 days of yoga you’ll feel stronger, more confident and amazed that yes, you can find time. It’s also a great opportunity to try new classes and more advanced poses. And hey, it’s also a great excuse to buy new pants 😉

Yoga 30 day challenge

What I learned from my yoga challenge

What I learned from this challenge is that I can do #yogaeverydamnday, even if it’s just a little bit at home in the morning or evening. I also learned that sometimes, you need to give yourself a break. We all have busy lives and conflicting commitments and it’s okay to say, hey I can’t work out today, but I will get this and this done and that will make me feel good. Overall the challenge made me feel really good about myself. I felt stronger and even found classes easier when I used to struggle through them. I know my poses (and their names!) better and even know what to expect in the classes I usually go to. The 30 day challenge definitely made me feel less like a beginner and it made me excited to maintain a yoga routine!

*This post was shared by new yogi, Julie*

10-Minute Fat-burning Treadmill Workout

Posted on by Yoga Hive

fat-burning-treadmill-workout Hitting your cardio and strength goals every day is not an easy task. On some days, you can fit in a 45-minute Power Yoga class and still have time for a 30-minute meditation round. And on other days, you can’t even complete a sane round of sun salutations without being interrupted by piled up deadlines or pending household chores. Sure you’ve got muscles to warm up, weight to maintain and maybe a new playlist that you’ve been dying to listen to, but sometimes all you have is ten minutes. What do you do? How do you give yourself a fat-burning, heartbeat pumping workout that lets you go to bed content with your fitness goals, if 10 minutes is all you have? Let’s accept, 10 minutes of yoga is like someone gave you one french-fry and then took the plate away. You are left asking for more. So if

Sure you’ve got muscles to warm up, weight to maintain and maybe a new playlist that you’ve been dying to listen to, but sometimes all you have is ten minutes. What do you do? How do you give yourself a fat-burning, heartbeat pumping workout that lets you maintain your fitness goals, if 10 minutes are all you have? 10 minutes of yoga are too less. You just start to warm up and get into the flow in the first ten minutes. So if it’s not yoga, what can possibly be the best workout to squeeze in 45-minutes of exercise into 10 intense minutes?

10-Minute Treadmill Workout

Here’s a simple treadmill workout that won’t need you to spend a ton of time on the treadmill but still give you an effective cardio boost that burns just the right amount of energy before you get busy again. This is a killer cardio session that doesn’t need you to switch those buttons every 30 seconds. Each interval is of 2 minutes. A combination of walking, jogging and sprinting spread over workout amplifying incline levels. These are the most effective ten minutes you will spend on the treadmill!

Grab a gym towel, skip the yoga mat and hit the tread! Save this one to your phone and off you go!

10 minute fat burning treadmill workout

By the way, yoga has its own 10 minute workout for strength training and flexibility. A flow series which mixes some poses of sun salutations with other asanas (mostly our favourite) and is like the perfect concoction of inhaling, exhaling and stretching. It works your core and your legs and also tests your sense of balance. It’s a workout from YogaWorks and we found this on FitSugar’s youtube channel. Well. anything yoga and we are always ready to try, right?

10-Minute Yoga Workout

Ten minutes of intense workout and fat-burning. We’d love to do 4 rounds of these on a day when we’ve got a new playlist to enjoy! These workouts are fun for a change but nothing beats our regular sessions of flow yoga where we get to show off our snazzy graphic leggings and tank tops, on the yoga mat!  If you think these workouts can help someone you know, don’t forget to share this blog with them. And remember no matter how busy it gets, just keep moving!

5 Myths About Yoga Alignment

Posted on by Yoga Hive

Myths about yoga laignment

Every yoga teacher talks about alignment. We’ve all been there. But here are 5 popular myths that need some balancing.

Alignment is a term mostly used to define the practice of some hard-to-achieve yoga postures. Unfortunately, the way the term is used sometimes takes the positivity away from the whole act. Let’s try to bust these common misconceptions to bring back the joy in alignment and yoga.

MYTH #1: You were born with perfect alignment but with time you lost your natural balance and flexibility

That’s just wrong. Don’t be so hard on yourself. First of all, nobody was born with perfect alignment. One side is slightly bigger than the other. For most people, it is the right side. You have one dominant hand and leg. You can write better with the dominant hand, see better with the dominant eye and balance better with the dominant leg. Thus, you see, perfect yoga alignment gained naturally or genetically, is a myth.

What one can gain naturally is flexibility. There can be beginner yogis who will pull off a deep backend pose which even lifetime yogis cannot. But don’t judge yourself for this. Flexibility can also be achieved through practice. Our muscles are toned through lifestyle and postures to become less or more flexible. However, that does not mean that you can be as flexible as everyone else in the yoga class. You can only be more flexible that what you were before. When you feel like the black sheep who needs special instructions, you put pressure on yourself to master that pose. You stop using your body to get into a pose, but start using a pose to get into a body. That’s not yoga. Accept your own levels of flexibility and work on them, keeping nothing as a milestone but your body’s health and inner strength.

MYTH #2: You have got to master the perfect posture

When you try to sing your favourite song, it is not the same as Taylor Swift or Sam Smith singing it. And a 4-year-old girl will have her own rendition. But they are all signing the same song and just as melodious. Just like that, your asana is your own beautiful composition of what your yoga teacher has taught you. Yoga alignment possibly has nothing to do with it. Your yoga pose will be as beautiful as any other perfectly balanced and flexible yogi. Your bones will clash as you twist and bend. You might not be striking a pose for the cover of a yoga magazine, but as long as you are finding peace in it and strengthening your core, you are doing great yoga.

Chanting, visualization, or deep breathing and the shape of your bones, unfortunately, can affect how your yoga pose looks and feels, but not always alignment. So relax, just do your best and feel your best.

Yoga poses

MYTH #3: Improper yoga alignment can lead to injuries

Going back to point number 1. We are not naturally aligned, remember? Improper yoga alignment is very natural. And anything that is natural, cannot lead to injuries. Because that is how nature designed it to be, and it is perfect just like that. Have you heard the words, ‘Wabi Sabi’ ever? They mean ‘beautifully imperfect’ in Japanese. And that is exactly what all of us are. Injuries take place in yoga class because people push themselves to achieve a pose, that their body is not yet comfortable in, or maybe never will be. But improper alignment is not the cause behind yoga injuries.

MYTH #4: Proper yoga alignment leads to the perfect flow of energy

Yoga practitioners often believe that a perfect pose creates magic and lights up your nervous systems. Energy then flows freely in your body. But actually, it’s the opposite that is true. When we stretch or twist or bend, we are creating an obstacle for blood circulation and using it is a training course for the body to tame itself to the hardship. If you stay in a pose for too long, no matter how perfect your yoga alignment is, some part of your body will become numb. And when you will release the pose, blood will circulate freely again, leading to the feeling of Prana gushing in every part of your body. This is what yoga wishes to teach. The art of keeping calm and balanced in a difficulty, the art of endurance.

Learning the subtle art of keeping calm and balanced even in the face of difficulty is a powerful lesson—and one with profound implications outside the yoga studio as well.

MYTH #5: Some universal principles of alignment work for everyone

How many of you have heard a yoga teacher say, ‘Don’t let your front knee travel in front of your toes in lunging poses or you’ll hurt your knee!’. We’re guessing, all of you. But what about asanas like skanasana or a yoga squat? Doesn’t the knee travel in front of your toes in these. And there is another ‘universal’ rule. ‘Keep your elbows close to your body in chaturanga dandasana or it could hurt your shoulders!’ But for some people, the elbows-in position can actually be more damaging than the elbows-out position. It’s just a matter of how your shoulder joint is built.

If you’d ask 3 yoga teachers about the techniques or steps to a perfect triangle pose, you’ll learn three different methods altogether. There is no universal rule that bodies follow. Yoga is the beautiful art that makes your soul and your body communicate with each other. Chances are, each body has something different and unique to say. And the diversity is what makes yoga a developing science and not a hard-coded guide.

In truth, the human body itself is the most effective yoga teacher in the yoga room—and the best yoga teachers themselves understand that. Their teaching is as much inside-out as it is outside-in. The best yoga teachers hence, are often not the ones who can make the perfect yoga pose and impose the need of yoga alignment. But the best yoga teachers are the ones who understand and appreciate every yoga seeker. And definitely the one’s who wear the best yoga pants. 😉

 

Anti Aging Yoga Poses: How To Stay Young And Healthy With Yoga

Posted on by Yoga Hive

yoga-benefits-anti-aging

It’s easy to believe that yoga keeps our body strong and healthy. We are living the benefits of yoga every day. One asana at a time. The anti aging yoga poses are some of the first ones that yoga teachers often teach beginners. You are probably already practicing them. But the benefits of yoga extend beyond our body, to our mind and soul.

A recent U.S. based study proves that yoga can help improve memory and the ability to focus, which people often lose as they age. In the experiment, over a period of 12 weeks, one group of adults with mild cognitive impairment were asked to do a series of proven memory-enhancing brain-training exercises, while another group was asked to practice Kundalini yoga and meditation. It was found that both the groups showed the same signs of development, but the group of yogis should a better ability to stay focused, de-stressed and sharp. Isn’t that amazing? So yoga not only keeps our body young, it even works its magic inwards.

What makes yoga anti-aging?

It’s easy to make a list of the benefits of yoga. Nobody will know them better than us yogis who practice yoga every day. A lot of people start doing yoga to stay fit and slim. But the world over, and especially in the east, where yoga originated, the reasons to practice yoga are often health related. Cancer patients, thyroid patients, diabetics, people with vascular diseases, depression, anxiety, the list of people who look towards yoga as the answer to their troubles is long. Making one look younger or live longer, is simply the “by-product” of all these other benefits. Those rhythmic inhales and exhales and those calm mantras that we chant while practicing yoga go deep inside. They purify us from inside, making us stronger, healthier and as a result, immune to common illnesses and troubles.

Which yoga poses are anti-aging?

anti aging yoga poses

1. Equal standing

This pose helps you develop awareness of postural tendencies.  Imagine that a string is pulling you up from the crown of your head. Notice if you’re slouching and stand up straighter, without over engaging any muscles.

2. Tree pose

Tree pose is a simple balancing posture that helps you keep your body strong enough to hold your weight as you age. Make sure you practice the tree pose on both your legs. It is important to maintain blood circulation equally in both.

anti aging yoga poses benefits

3. Squat

Strong thigh muscles will help protect the knees from pain and injury. Knee-injury is one of the most common signs of growing old. Healthy thighs will protect your knees and support your active lifestyle for a longer period than usual.

4. Downward dog

A classic and well-known yoga pose, downward dog improves upper-body strength, promotes a healthy spine and stretches the back body. It keeps fat from accumulating on common spots like the tummy, arms and chin. Keeping these areas firm is step 1 towards looking young and feeling healthy.

5. Sun Salutations with rhythmic breathing

anti aging yoga poses

Sun salutations have a long list of benefits. They keep your body in shape and work differently for everyone. If your body type is lean, they will help you stay lean. If your body type is curvy, they will help you stay curvy. At the same time, they will keep wrinkles away. When you inhale and exhale as you make those poses, your lungs purify and pump clean blood. This keeps your skin healthy and glowing. Sun salutations performed in the morning at sunrise have an even greater impact on keeping you looking 5 years younger.

What habits can be added to our lifestyle, to make our yoga more effective?

If its anti-aging benefits are the chief reason behind your yoga sessions, then you will be glad to know that you can couple your yoga asanas with some healthy habits to increase its impact.

How to make yoga more effective?

drinking water benefits

1. Drink 4 cups of hot water every day
2. Eat a bowl of fresh veggies at least once a day
3. Start your day with two glasses of water
4. Have an apple for breakfast instead of coffee or tea
5. Practice Pranayama breathing exercises daily for a minimum period of 15 minutes

Add these simple tricks to the anti-aging yoga poses and you have for yourself a true mantra for longevity and youthfulness. The benefits will start showing immediately for most, and gradually for others. But irrespectively, don’t give up. Adopt these as your regular lifestyle and keep living every day, healthier and happier. You know what else can make you happier, our yoga pants! The perfect leggings for a healthy yogi who has set out to find the secret to staying young and healthy are right here. Take a look.

 

 

How To Stay Regular With Yoga In Colder Seasons

Posted on by Yoga Hive

Yoga routine in the fall

Keeping ourselves motivated to do yoga in the colder seasons! We cranked up our yoga routines to the fullest in the summers. And now as it gets colder by the day, we are finding it difficult to catch up with our routine. The extra 5 minutes of sleep in the morning feel like heaven. And the dark evenings just don’t feel like a great time to do yoga. Is there really a solution? In the middle of deadlines, chores around the house, Christmas parties, Yoga is just getting difficult to maintain. Well, we’ve got you a solution. And it comes in 5 easy steps.

1. Have a weekly plan.

On every Sunday sit and plan your yoga for the week ahead. Give yourself new challenges every day and a fresh routine too. Jot down your favourite asanas and spread them throughout the week. When you hit the rack, you know you have to wake up to a goal and you’ll feel excited to do those asanas that you’ve planned for the coming morning.

2. Get a playlist and freshen it every few days

Your playlist should include the music you love. It needn’t be any meditating trance just because you are doing yoga. It is perfectly fine to do yoga to EDM. Any beat that makes you happy inside is good for your yoga session. So make a playlist of your favourite songs and keep adding more to it every week or so. Music will add to your motivation.

3. Sleep hydrated

We all know it is important to have an early dinner to stay fit and wake up energized and wonderful. But did you know it is also important to wake up hydrated? This means drink enough water and avoid alcohol to close to sleeping time. If you are hydrated, your body will support you when the alarm rings.

4. Pump up the alarm

Set a motivating track as your alarm. Skip the usual phone ringtones that simply depress you, and pick new tracks every week. These can be your own recorded voice message too! Whatever makes you want to sit up and get to your wonderful yoga workout session works.

5. Sleep in your yoga clothes

This is really an extreme. You’ll probably want to do this when you see nothing else working out. And you should also drop this as soon as the problem is solved. Because we’d want you to keep your yoga wear fresh and associated only with yoga. But if the task of changing clothes and getting ready for yoga is simply making you lazier, then just skip it. Wear your yoga clothes and go to bed. This way when you wake up you know all you gotta do is head to the studio or the yoga mat.

These 5 steps will help you keep your yoga routine working even on cold winter days. Once you push yourself a little, your body will get accustomed to it and you won’t need to train it any longer.

By the way, the biggest motivation to do yoga every day and to follow your yoga routine in the fall is to show off your awesome yoga pants! And if you lovely ones like these then nothing can come in your way. Do share your stories and feedback with us on Facebook and Instagram.

Morning Yoga: Why It’s Better

Posted on by Yoga Hive

Morning Yoga

At the end of a usual day, what do you remember the most? The tons of emails that you tackled that day, the exhausting meetings you had at work, the pile of clothes that you folded and placed in the drawers or do you remember your 45 minutes of yoga? If you remember your yoga then you have reason enough to move it to the start of the day. Morning is the best time to practice yoga. There are some common reasons which we won’t talk about in this article. We assume you already know about the healing effect of the morning sun and the fresh dose of oxygen, etc. etc. We are going to give you five too-good-to-be-ignored reasons to motivate you to practice a little morning yoga everyday.

1. That’s What Nature Wants

After we wake up and as soon as we have checked our phone for any notifications (let’s admit that’s the first thing we do), our body likes to stretch on its own. We involuntarily pull off some real good stretching asanas at that moment. That’s because it’s natural. It’s our body’s way of waking our muscles from sleep. Which is exactly why it’s a great time to freshen up and do some stretching. Your body will be light and flexible and you will be able to perform your yoga better. Having trouble acing that Sirsa Padasana? Try doing it in the morning.

Sirsa Padasana
Sirsa Padasana

2. You Won’t Find A Better “Me-time”

Once the day begins you are going to be caught in a race. There will be people, messages, phone calls, chores and crisis-control. The busy-ness will never let you find even five minutes to yourself. There are chances you might end up missing your evening yoga class. But early in the morning, things are still mute. The world is still slow and you can spend some time in it alone, at peace and doing yoga. Just as you like it.

3. You Will Breathe Better The Whole Day

If you set your rhythm correctly in the start of the day, your body will swing to it the rest of the day too. Yoga is all about correct breathing techniques. Inhale and exhale. Not only will you be inhaling good fresh air, but you will also be training your lungs to breathe healthier from that moment on.

Morning Yoga

4. Your Yoga Will Be More Effective

Have you been doing yoga to lose weight? Or are you trying to get a perfect and fit body? Or maybe you are trying to soothe your system and fight some disease. Whatever your yoga goal, you will reach it quicker if you do your yoga in the mornings. Your asanas will be more powerful and their strength will be able to hit your core.

5. Get Yourself The Perfect Routine

Yoga teaches us to be regular and persistent. When we try to squeeze our yoga class into our maddening days, no matter how crazy it gets, we are being persistent and determined. If we move our yoga to the morning, it will make us wake up on time and get a head start on everything that needs our attention. And the best result is the extra time you’ll find in the evening for other things you love. Like reading a book. Playing with your pet. Or trying a new salad recipe. Morning yoga is the precursor of a healthy lifestyle.

Morning Yoga

When the birds are singing and you still haven’t checked your emails. When there is no stress on your mind. That’s the best time to do yoga. Give it a try and you’ll know for yourself. And by the way, sun salutations work best with the sun. Namaste!

How to make Yoga interesting for kids

Posted on by Yoga Hive

Yoga for kids
Aren’t you always trying to squeeze in some asanas into your busy “mom schedule”? But something or the other keeps interrupting you. Maybe your cat or your dog wants to jump right into the act. Or maybe there is something at work that needs your attention, right that minute. And if your kids are around while you do your yoga, they can react in two possible ways. They might just complain about getting bored and hence, disturb you repeatedly or they might be doing an excellent job at imitating your asanas and hence, distracting you each time. Either way, when it comes to kids, the best solution to enjoy your yoga sessions, is to get them to join you. Not only will you get your kid to start early on a beautiful healthy journey, but you will actually give yourself a fun yoga session with your little one.

Tip #1. Fix a time

Kids follow routines that we make for them. There is a time for school, for homework and for fun outside. While you can have your yoga sessions at anytime, with kids it is advised to stick to a routine. Pick a time, when they are free and have nothing to look forward to. Don’t pick a time right before they leave to play or meet their friends. That way they will be too excited for play-time and will just skip through the fun yoga session you had planned for them.

What to eat before your yoga class? Read.

Tip #2. Don’t force them

If you force them to do anything, you just take the fun out of it. Let them be silly or fool around. Don’t expect them to sit through the entire yoga session. Let them take their goofy breaks. As long as they think they are in a “yoga-class”, everything is okay.

Tip #3. Get them a mat

You might be planning to give them one of your old ones or maybe thinking they can do without it completely. But if you want to get them excited and feel like an important part of the activity, you should get them a new mat. Each time they’ll pick up and spread their bright new mat, they’ll want to do something with it.

Find some great yoga mats from the YogaHive store here.

Tip #4. They play the music

Let them choose the music each day. You’ll see how excited they’ll be to find something cool each time. And hey, you’ll enjoy a little change from those soothing and soft tunes you always do yoga to. You might just get a dose of some billboard hits. Let your little DJ get to the music.

Tip #5. Get creative, skip the sanskrit

Kids like to keep all complicated words restricted to their vocabulary class at school. Don’t get all those tongue twisting names that you know, even if you are a pro at pronouncing them right and teaching others too. Change them to names your kid will enjoy and will be excited to remember. Here’s graphic that explains the common ones.

Illustrated yoga poses
Image Credit and Copyright: Karin Ekland for joyfulbirthbaby.com

Tip #6. They won’t meditate, but they can imagine

Kids aren’t really a fan of meditating. They are meant to be restless and curious. So skip the Om meditation and get them to imagine. Let their imagination run wild. Let them lie down flat on their backs, like a dog who wants a belly rub, get them to close their eyes and then narrate a nice story, keeping them in the centre of it. Kids will love imagining being Cinderella or Mogli in their thoughts. This will probably be the best part of the yoga session for them.

Tip #7. Give them a weekly challenge

You might be struggling with the headstand, but your kid will rock at it. Give them a challenge each week and you’ll see how excitedly they work towards it.

Tip #8. Mommy does extra

Once you have your kid to join you, let them know that Mommy does extra because she is the older one. After your yoga session together is over, ask them to let you do some extra yoga alone. They will be tired and they will feel like it’s a a part of the act. Basically, they won’t disturb you.

Give these tips a shot and start enjoying yoga even more. And who knows your little yogi might just grow up to be a maestro. If nothing else, the yoga will surely keep them healthy and healed. Put this on your mental list of happy to-dos.

Interesting to-dos for yoga lovers. Read

Outdoor Yoga – 5 Ideas You Must Try This Summer

Posted on by Chris Lam

Yoga In The Sun

We just love taking hot yoga classes and we love the after effects. But here’s a fact, yoga is meant to be practiced outdoors. If you didn’t know that already, you have got to try it once to understand why. Originally, thousands of years back, Yoga was practiced by Brahmins and Rishis in Northern India under the skies where they used to meditate and preach. Also because breathing is an integral part of Yoga , Yoga practice is meant to be done in the open. If you breathe correctly, you can multiply the effect of your Yoga Asanas. So wouldn’t you rather breathe the fresh summer air than the recycled carbon in your yoga studio?

Yoga Hive has taken time out of fetching you Yoga Fashion and has put together 5 great outdoor yoga ideas you have to try this summer. They are just too good! Here goes:

1. Paddleboard Yoga

Picture yourself practicing classic yoga poses while floating on a paddleboard in the middle of the blue ocean. It adds just the right amount of adventure and helps train you for better balance. You can always pick the asanas that destress you the most or you can start with the ones that you are most comfortable with. Sitting poses are generally easier to do on a paddleboard. By the way, it’s also called yoga boarding and did you know that most of the yoga wear that we offer on our website is water friendly? Get ready, already!

2. Yoga Festivals

Some yogis do like to practice yoga in isolation, but for those who love travelling and meeting the Yoga community, yoga festivals are the best summer vacations. A good yoga festival will always teach you something new, help you meet more people who share the same passion and bring you closer to nature (most of the yoga sessions are held under the clear blue skies). Some yoga festivals will even offer live music, amazing organic food options and of course, a chance to explore a completely new place. Here’s a website that can help keep you updated – www.yogafestival.com or you can always wanderlust! (They are coming to Whistler in July , by the way)

3. Yoga at Sunrise

The first rays of the morning sun have healing powers that can never be bottled in a medicine or a tablet. And when you add to that the power of yoga, you have yourself the best remedy to many serious ailments. Did you know that waking up before the sun, brings your body in harmony with the rhythm of the universe? And your health improves, as your body heals from inside. If our hectic urban work routines don’t allow us to do this every day, we can definitely take in some healing yoga at sunrise during these beautiful summer weekends.

4. Yoga in the mountains

We are Canadians, and we are always close to the mountains. Maybe a weekend getaway or maybe a 45 minute long drive, but we promise you, it will be worth it. There is a charming mystery that engulfs you when you are in the mountains. Practicing Yoga in a place which is already soothing your senses, will help heighten your sensitivity and make your soul relax. You will be closer to the nature, and you will feel motivated to push yourself harder. Your yoga session in the mountains, might even help you crack that headstand pose you have been struggling with for weeks.

5. Barefoot yoga on the grass

Where yoga originated, it had its own lists of do’s and don’ts. And one very interesting do, was doing Yoga barefoot on the grass. Especially on grass with morning dew. It is believed that when your feet come in touch with the grass, the contact releases pressure waves in your body that make you live a longer healthier life. It’s like a quick morning detox. You might need to look for an even spot because you are used to the smooth surface of a mat. Don’t let the grass or the mud or any tiny bugs bother you, enjoy being in touch with nature.

We hope we have convinced you to give at least one of these a shot, this summer. The amazing collection of yoga wear, accessories and props at YogaHive.ca are all there to help make your experience stylish and trendy! Do share your pictures or experience with us in the comments below. Or you can also get in touch with us on facebook and instagram. We are never tired of any yoga stories!

Best of luck, yogis! Keep moving… with YogaHive.ca