Chakra khan

You asked; experts Tracy and Tanya answered. Unfortunately, they suffer from Freelance Writer Leslie Goldman Always Goes Over Her Word Count Syndrome (FWLGAGOHWCS - won't you help by donating? Specifically, in the form of Old Navy gift cards?) and wrote long, long answers. To give their prose proper space (and it's not boring, I assure you - the word "effing" was actually used), they created a page on their Recess wellness site with everything you could possible want to know about the big Y. Bonus: My book photo is featured, so let's all do a happy dance!

The questions they answered:

I have lost 63 lbs so far but still have a good bit more to lose. Can I do yoga at 244 lbs? It seems like the girls I see doing yoga are tiny.

Any specific recommendations for reputable books, DVDs or Web sites to look for when starting a yoga practice?

My instructor never corrects or adjusts me. Is it appropriate to ask her to do so? She seems to be "hands off" in general but otherwise a good teacher.

My 60-ish mother is interested in doing yoga to add some activity into her life. What's the best way for her to start?

Is my teacher a quack? Is there something I could be asking about their training before going to a class to have a better chance that they'll really know what they're doing?

How important is the mind/body connection to doing yoga? Any tips for quieting the mind during yoga? Or is it OK to let my self-judgmental thoughts go wild?

How often do you need to do yoga in order to see/feel results in flexibility?

I really love yoga and have been practicing with various levels of frequency for years; however, I have "blocks" when it comes to certain poses, inversions for example. What tips do you have for getting past this kind of mental block.

If you don't want to click over, here's one answer I really liked, in response to the question about bigger women doing yoga:

Tracy says: "The traditions of yoga are as varied and diverse as are the practitioners. All body types and ages are welcome to practice and will find benefit. Having said that, there is a tendency in the last 10 years of American yoga to emphasize a particular body type in the media. Yoga Journal is just as guilty as the rest of the media in this regard. The covers are filled with people who look amazing and are doing amazingly difficult things! That is not all there is to yoga...It’s really not weight but shapes and lengths of our bodies that determine the ease, difficulty or appropriateness of a pose... Women of any size with larger breasts will struggle with inversions. People who hold weight in their abdomen may struggle with forward bends or back bends. In any yoga class, someone is coming up against their own body in some pose, in some way. This offers an opportunity to explore issues of resistance, striving and letting go."

Go, girls!

PS Will Cebca please email me at leslie@lrdiaries.com? If I don't hear from you by Monday, another WG reader is gonna win that lucy hoodie. And won't you feel cold and unstylish then?

Comments

Great info, Tracy and Tanya. Thanks!!

This is great! So good to learn more about yoga.

PS I'm ogling that Lucy hoodie right now... :)

Thank you so much to Leslie and the readers who posed these questions. Tracy and I had a blast answering them!

Ooh, you guys answered my question SO well! Thank you!!

Thanks for getting my question answered. Great information all around!

Heather

This sounds like a real workout. Thanks for your information and the wonderful information you have to offer.

Janet Odom

Wow, great post! I have just started to do yoga, and I love it!

I have been working on health site called peoplesmd.com. There is some great information on diet, fitness, and healthy lifestyle. There is some great info on Yoga, check it out!

Tracy and Tanya did a great job! Very nice review!