Author Archives: Lada

Yoga with Meadow

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Sunday:
Yin Style yoga- A wonderful practice to encourage a mindful week ahead.
Following a more slow and earthy practice, we will start with a long meditation, arc our way up into a standing posture and mellow it back down with a savasana meditation. All postures are held for slightly longer with an emphasis on melodic and mindful breathing. Great for beginners and yogis of all levels!

Wednesday:
Gentle Yoga- This practice focuses on how we can release and let go through a series of asanas (postures) slowly and with intentional movements. With minor engagement of the muscles and focus on the breath, this gentle yoga practice is just as healing as it is a ‘good stretch’. Great for all levels of yogis!

Kummooyeh

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(Way of Korean Sword)
Instructor: J.T. Dean
Thursdays at 6:15 pm, main room
Free trial lesson, $10 drop in fee after trial. $40 per month, $30 current core star members.

Kummooyeh, also called Kumdo in short is composed of many types of training, such as moving meditation, basic movements, sword patterns, cutting, sparring techniques and Korean traditional archery. Each type has a different purpose for developing students of Kummooyeh.

facebook.com/Eugene Kummooyeh/ , Kummooyeh.org

Jerry T Dean began training taekwondo in 2001 and attained his black belt in 2006. He has experience in various other disciplines such as judo, karate, hapkido, kickboxing and weapon arts sword, archery and more. He currently holds 4th degree black belt in taekwondo. He is now training and teaching the art of Kummooyeh “way of korean sword”. He also traveled to South Korea and competed in the 2017 world taekwondo Hanmadang with team MooDo TKD.

10 Ways to Drink 3 More Glasses of Water Per Day

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-by Nate Guadagni

WaterYou know that you should drink more water today. How much more is up for debate, whether it’s the old 8 glass rule, the half-of-your-body-weight-in-ounces rule or Michelle Obama’s more recent plea to “just drink one more glass of water per day”. Even Bruce Lee is a fan, as he wisely said, “be formless, shapeless… be water, my friend.” Apparently we mostly are, as water makes up nearly 85 percent of your brain, about 80 percent of your blood, and about 70 percent of lean muscle. Hydration is so important that it’s number 3 of Bo Yoga’s S.E.V.E.N (Seven Essential Values for an Energetic Nature) and so we challenge you to drink three more glasses of water per day. (The First Lady would approve)

Where to start? Well, since three out of four people around you are chronically dehydrated you won’t be able to follow the crowd on this one. Follow these ten easy tips to join the 25%er club of well-hydrated humans.

  1. Make your plan.
    • When you wake up in the morning, figure out your 3x glass plan.
    (see the next tips for ideas)
    • At night, check if you completed it, if not, chug the missing amount before bed. Your midnight appointment with your bathroom will be your incentive to not miss the next day.
  2. Keep a bottle by the bed. Why not a glass? First, because no one wants to drink a glass of water with a layer of dust on top of it, and second because with a bottle you can drink lying down.
  3. Bottle in the car. During red lights or traffic jams instead of unsafe texting or road raging, reach for the agua. Your fellow drivers will thank you.
  4. Bottle at work. There’s a theme here, more bottles = more water drinking. The investment that you are making in your health will far outweigh the money spent on strategic bottle placement.
  5. Drink that restaurant water. Not only will you trim some fat off the check by not ordering expensive drinks, you may trim some off of your waistline. A 2010 study in the journal Obesity says drinking (water) before meals can help you lose weight.
  6. Water your juice. Only fill half a glass with juice and pour water in the other half. You’ll cut your sugar down as you hydrate yourself and hardly notice the difference.
  7. Juice your water. Just a squeeze of lemon or lime or an infusion can really make water more interesting. Try fresh fruit in the summer and a frozen berry or two in the winter. You’ll find that a strawberry really helps the medicine go down.
  8. Use a straw. Leverage simple physics to speed up the water to body transfer. As you are contemplating suction physics consider the fact that water is 90% oxygen, the most important element for your brain function, which should help your contemplation.
  9. Hold other drinks hostage. When you sit down to a meal, join a party or bar, only allow yourself to drink something else (wine, soda, tea, beer) after drinking a full glass of water. Not only will you not gulp that next expensive drink so fast, you will enjoy it more after cleansing your palate. Delayed gratification is a skill that you may find useful in other situations like work, relationships and experiments involving marshmallows.
  10. Exercise more. Sweating, breathing faster and increased blood circulation will all require you to replace the lost H2O with fresh water. Not only will you look super cool while you drink in slow motion with sweat pouring off of your face, your body will stay cooler, be more flexible and energized with proper hydration.

For more ways to look cool while you exercise check out Bo Yoga, which uses a bo staff for leverage, balance and spins to make yoga safer, easier and more effective.

Yoga Your Way to Longevity and Graceful Aging.

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“You’re the gestapo, get out of my room!” With a sigh, I’d leave my granny angry after each day’s physical rehabilitation session, puzzled at her resistance to move her body. The sessions weren’t painful. She was regaining her strength and slowly walking after her hip replacement. She just truly disliked exercising, as well as having me tell her what to do. That was her job.

Lada_and_GrandmaAs a caregiver to my now 98 year old grandmother, who is an inspiration in persistence and a warning of challenges of old age, I am keenly aware of the need for total self care throughout one’s life. Grandma has been a spunky, vibrant senior until a few years ago. Remaining stoic through multiple surgeries while eating her steak and sweets, she seemed to defy old age. She was preparing to transition with a bang. However, her disregard for movement and exercise throughout her life made her rehabilitation after medical intervention extremely challenging. I was by her side making sure she got back up on her feet and regained her mobility after each procedure. Because she had no routine or history with exercise, these months were grueling.

If only she could have found some passion for movement earlier in her life. She watched me enjoy so many sports for years, and as I encouraged her to participate in easier activities with me like chair yoga and taichi, she kept choosing to remain a spectator.

Life is not a spectator sport.

Our wonderful bodies are our homes and we must take care of them. Exercise and movement is critical throughout out lives. Combined with healthy food, proper hydration, engaging work and leading a life of purpose, we can truly thrive and remain resilient into our later years. It takes discipline, self love and finding a set of physical activities that bring out the joy in us. Keep trying to find what you love. From dancing to the martial arts, from yoga to rock climbing, just keep moving.

After experiencing many movement modalities, yoga for me was clearly the winner. It’s the most adaptable, portable practice that one can have for any season of life, mood, stress load, energy level and time frame. Studies show that when practiced long term, yoga is superior to short term high intensity workouts. Many people try a fad workout only to quit because it’s too demanding or leads to injuries.

Why yoga?

• Asanas (postures) in yoga improve the body on many levels. Asanas engage and benefit all systems and organs, improve circulation of blood and lymph, build endurance and resilience, train the brain, promote better sleep, increase flexibility, strength and balance, encourage detoxification and aid digestion.

• Yoga trains the breath. Most people have forgotten how to breathe properly, instead breathing shallowly, with the top portion of the lungs. Yogic deep breathing oxygenates the bloodstream and brain, relaxes the peripheral nervous system, charges up the lower power centers bringing extra energy and prana (lifeforce) into the body.

• Meditative aspects of yoga work magic on the mind. Meditation and focus increase sharpness and memory, ward off degenerative disorders of the brain, bring about inner peace and de-stress.

• The spiritual aspect of yoga offers the practitioner a way of merging with the Universe by dropping the ego self, attaining liberation and living in a state of love. Through the practice of yoga you are also taught to release negative thoughts, emotions, patterns and habits.

• Yoga integrates well with many disciplines and modalities. It has been fused with Pilates, found its way into martial arts schools, supplements routines of professional and amateur athletes, is used in psychotherapy, combines with new age healing arts, is used in warm ups and cool downs for many sports, treats PTSD, depression and anxiety. The uses and benefits are endless, making yoga one of the most powerful and flexible modalities that can be easily incorporated into any person’s life at any age.

How has yoga benefitted you or a loved one?

Lada is a yoga instructor at Core Star Center. Her current classes are TGIF Yoga on Fridays at noon in the main room and Yoga Recess on Thursdays at 5:30pm in the side room.