Check out the graceful sequence of moves which also include balancing postures, combining multiple variation of crane, headstand, handstand, scorption, astavakrasana and more.

Never knew he is on YouTube! Go Gil!

It really depends on your personality and what you are comfortable with. I came across an article in The Star yesterday titled “Fitting the Right Gym”. Quoting Mark Davis of Triyoga:

“If you want washboard abs and the ability to bench press your own wait and run a six-minute mile, it isn’t going to happen with yoga. But if you want a strong, vital body that feels light, dynamic and pain free, an elegant posture and naturally healthy eating habit, and a calmness and inner radiance that has everyone thinking you’re in love, then sign up for a yoga class.”

Well said indeed. But let’s face it… none of us yogis get to feel that good by just signing up for one class. Do it 2-3 times per week for a couple of months, and you really get what Mark Davis is saying.

Yet another YogaZone ex-teacher - Nanci Traynor - has decided to branch out and start her own studio.

Yoga Dance guru Nanci is founder of Yoga Mind, which offers a yoga and wellness practice set in a comfy and homey ambience in Bandar Manjalara (near Sri Damansara),

“Yoga Mind”, like its name suggests, is about harmonizing the body-mind-soul.

Practitioners are offered a variety of Yoga, Pilates and Dance classes to add zing to their wellness routine. The studio caters from beginner to advanced levels.

In addition to regular classes, Yoga Mind also caters to companies or studios in search of:

- Wellness Programs & Corporate Classes at the Workplace
- Special Workshops & Clinics (e.g. Injury Prevention, Dance, Yoga, Pilates)
- Wellness & Detoxification Retreats
- Events & Performance Planning

Strength Training for Belly Dance - Vertical Hip Movements
Venue: YOGA MIND, Medan Putra Business Centre, Bdr. Manjalara
Date: 5th Oct, 2008 (Sunday)
Time: 10.00am – 12.00pm
Fees: RM50.00
Contact person: Ms. Jo 017-201 6776 / 03-6276 6776

Have you ever wondered how to move your hips with technical precision?

This class will show you how to break down the basic vertical movements of the hips. Learn how to control the up and down movements required in dances like Salsa, Samba, Hip Hop and Belly Dance.

Muscle isolation exercises (drills) are the only path to precision and sexy abs. This class will show you how the pros do it!

Strength training doesn’t have to be boring. Nanci say “Turn up the volume and let’s dance!”

About Nanci Traynor: Nanci has been dancing and performing Tribal Style Belly Dance for over 10 years. She lived in San Francisco and studied with gurus in this style of dance. Nanci’s command of anatomy and physiology comes from over one thousand hours of Yoga Certification.

Address:
70 & 80-1-2, Jln. Medan Putra 3, Medan Putra Business Centre,
Bandar Sri Manjalara, 52200 K. Lumpur (above UOB Bank)
Tel: 03-6276 6776
yoga.mind @ hotmail.com

I didn’t even know they had a website, but here it is now:
http://urbanyogasb.blogspot.com

Seems that a couple of YogaZone teachers are still there: Jess, Jessie, Chaniel, Au Yong, Leric, Dr Ameen, Ken, Kim, Pari etc. Quite an impressive line up indeed.

Just a thought, why don’t some of the teachers get together, invest some money and get their own yoga business?

Running a Yoga centre is one of the lowest cost business to start-up. There’s no capital equipment unlike a gym, what you need is a nice environment (most YZ outlets are already fully fitted out and just needs a little renovation to move in). And great teaching quality.

I’ve had the privilege to attend classes taught by some of the above teachers, and TRULY, I wouldn’t mind paying RM20 per class for some of your classes.

Don’t sell cheap. And you guys don’t need to advertise… all the YZ students are readily lining up to be taught by you!

Anyway just my 2 sen worth…

After a couple of weeks silence, Ninie Ahmad (Yoga Zone’s “celebrity” instructor) is now posting on her blog again.

Just last month, Ninie shared her deepest thoughts and emotions over the traumatizing period: She writes on her blog:

“… when your life saving is zeroed,
- when your credit card(s) reached its’ limit,
- when your utility bills are mounting,
- when you can’t even ask for personal loans from banks because apparently your supposedly-deducted-EPF-monthly and annual tax deduction have never even been debited,
- when you had to ask for advance rent from your housemates just so that you can feed your car, drive to teach and pay for parking,
- when you can’t afford to continue paying your house rent, car’s monthly installment, life insurance, phone bill AND when you had to swallow your pride to ask for a handsome loan you never know when you can ever pay back; from the upset father you hardly communicate with and has never really approved of your chosen career,
- when you had to depend on your boyfriend to buy you dinner every night for the past six weeks,
- when you can’t afford to go to your weekly futsal trainings because you have to carefully choose; fork out RM10 for your court’s share and you won’t have lunch tomorrow,
- when you still continued teaching 10 grueling yoga classes within Monday and Tuesday despite your body was only fed with soy milk and bananas for those two days, not to mention the weekend earlier,
- when your resources and spirit are dampened to the core;

…I know, I have changed.”

For those who have attended her Gentle Flow and Slim Hot classes, many know her to be the most excellent of teachers who demonstrates high competency and a caring heart. At the end of her classes, students are asked to bow low and be humble, then you would hear those familiar words:

“It is not about how strong or how flexible you are…. to change the world outside, you must first change the person within you”

Truly words of wisdom from a great teacher.

Ninie is currently available for corporate and private classes. I hope you will support her and visit her blog The Yoga Instructor Diaries for contact information.

Some thought it was for feng shui purpose!

But no mistakes about it now. Once again red paint ruled the day… this is how the green outlet looked like as of yesterday 9 September.

Another sad sight indeed

I thought Yoga helps one to calm the mind and spirit. No excuses for such a shameful act…. is vandalism supposed to solve any problem? Who would have done such a thing!

Q: I am a GC member of YogaZone but with all the mess up lately, I have to find another alternative way to practice. Before i settled my monthly installement with bank i can only afford to do it at home. Please could you advice what are the better Yoga training CD i can get from the counter. I have practicing Yoga for the past one and a half year. I think i can be classified in Basic to Intermidiate level. Thank you for your time, siewfune

A: It is rather difficult to substitute good yoga teaching with a training CD, however a popular one would be the Rodney Yee CD series. You can try to practice your basic series doing what you are familiar with but it will be hard to take your yoga to the next level. If cost is really an issue, you can also find good yoga videos in YouTube. Do a search for your topic of interest (eg sun salutation, astanga yoga, yin yoga, warrior pose, yoga for arm strength etc and see what you can find).

The following is an example of a video from YouTube showing you how to improve your Warrior pose.

Do check out good yoga books too. One of my favorites is Jean Hall’s Astanga Yoga. It shows you postures in detail, explains the correct methods and looks at dristi, pranayama etc. Combine this with your training CDs and you should be able to work your postures into a good flow sequence. Hope this helps you.

In the aftermath since its closure last week, Yoga Zone is now appealing to its Members to buy a RM99 voucher to support its operations.

If you are a Yoga Zone member, you may have been frustrated when they shut down all their classes last week. This was also featured in TheStar on 1st August.

Basically from my understanding, many teachers and staff have not been receiving salaries for the last 2+ months. Some of these teachers and staff really love what they do and are doing their best to see the club through this difficult time.

So even without salaries, they continue to hold classes out of goodwill and are hoping that Members will buy the vouchers to help them through.

I’m sure many will agree that Yoga Zone has played a huge role in promoting health and yoga in the Klang Valley and even Malaysia. It will be sad to see them go.

Do spare a thought if you have been blessed by them in some way. There are great teachers there… I hope they can sought things out in this restructure and transition period.

Just as I write this article, TheStar reports today that a yoga centre in Bukit Serindit has closed shop with 150 members are crying foul over paid fees and no classes. It is sad to see such things happen.

I hope yoga schools will focus more on quality teaching… there are students and practitioners who would not mind paying higher fees for top quality teaching and a good practice environment. Instead of commoditising the teaching of yoga, I wouldn’t mind seeing higher fees and better services.

Yoga Zone has a huge member base, some 20,000 I believe. If it can scale down its operations and get back to basics, it can still turn a profit and regain lost goodwill among Members. A good start would be to start communicating more with members and reaching out to them with offers and services which add value to their lifestyle and yoga practice.

If you are a YZ student, I hope you will buy a voucher to support the staff and teachers there. The voucher is for unlimited classes for a month until 31-Dec-08 and you can give it to your family and friends too. This will help keep classes open for the time being until they sought things out.

BRAIN - Starts aging at 20
As we get older, the number of nerve cells - or neurons - in the brain decrease. We start with around 100 billion, but in our 20s this number starts to decline. By 40, we could be losing up to 10,000 per day, affecting memory, co-ordination and brain function.

LUNGS - Start aging at 20
Lung capacity slowly starts to decrease from the age of 20. By the age of 40, some people are already experiencing breathlessness. This is partly because the muscles and the rib cage which control breathing stiffen up.

SKIN - Starts aging mid-20s
The skin starts to age naturally in your mid-20s.

HAIR - Starts aging at 30
Male hair loss usually begins in the 30s. Hair is made in tiny pouches just under the skin’s surface, known as follices. A hair normally grows from each follicle for about three years, is then shed, and a new hair grows.Most people will have some grey hair by the age of 35. When we are young, our hair is coloured by the pigments produced by cells in the hair follicle known as melanocytes.

MUSCLES - Start aging at 30
Muscle is constantly being built up and broken down, a process which is well balanced in young adults. However, by the time we’re 30, breakdown is greater than buildup, explains Professor Robert Moots. Once adults reach 40, they start to lose between 0.5 and 2 per cent of their muscle each year. Regular exercise can help prevent this.

FERTILITY - Starts aging at 35
Female fertility begins to decline after 35, as the number and quality of eggs in the ovaries start to fall. The lining of the womb may become thinner, making it less likely for a fertilised egg to take, and also creating an environment hostile to sperm.
French doctors have found that the quality of men’s’ sperm starts to deteriorate by 35, so that by the time a man is 45 a third of pregnancies end in miscarriage.

BREASTS - Start aging at 35
BY their mid-30s, women’s breasts start losing tissue and fat, reducing size and fullness. Sagging starts properly at 40 and the areola (the area surrounding the nipple) can shrink considerably.

BONES - Start aging at 35
‘Throughout our life, old bone is broken down by cells called osteoclasts and replaced by bone-building cells called osteoblasts - a process called bone turnover,’ explains Robert Moots, professor of rheumatology at Aintree University Hospital in Liverpool. Children’s bone growth is rapid - the skeleton takes just two years to renew itself completely. In adults, this can take ten years. Until our mid-20s, bone density is still increasing. But at 35 bone loss begins as part of the natural aging process.

TEETH - Start aging at 40
As we age, we produce less saliva, which washes away bacteria, so teeth and gums are more vulnerable to decay. Receding gums - when tissue is lost from gums around the teeth - is common in adults over 40.

EYES - Start aging at 40
Glasses are the norm for many over-40s as failing eyesight kicks in - usually long-sightedness, affecting our ability to see objects up close.

HEART - Starts aging at 40
The heart pumps blood less effectively around the body as we get older. This is because blood vessels become less elastic, while arteries can harden or become blocked because of fatty deposits forming on the coronary arteries - caused by eating too much saturated fat. The blood supply to the heart is then reduced, resulting in painful angina. Men over 45 and women over 55 are at greater risk of a heart attack.

KIDNEYS - Starts aging at 50
With kidneys, the number of filtering units (nephrons) that remove waste from the bloodstream starts to reduce in middle age.

PROSTATE - Starts aging at 50
The prostate often becomes enlarged with age, leading to problems such as increased need to urinate, says Professor Roger Kirby, director of the Prostate Centre in London. This is known as benign prostatic hyperplasia and affects half of men over 50, but rarely those under 40. It occurs when the prostate absorbs large amounts of the male sex hormone testosterone, which increases the growth of cells in the prostate. A normal prostate is the size of a walnut, but the condition can increase this to the size of a tangerine.

HEARING - Starts aging mid-50s
More than half of people over 60 lose hearing because of their age, according to the Royal National Institute for the Deaf.

GUT - Starts aging at 55
A healthy gut has a good balance between harmful and ‘friendly’ bacteria. But levels of friendly bacteria in the gut drop significantly after 55, particularly in the large intestine, says Tom MacDonald, professor of immunology at Barts And The London medical school. As a result, we suffer from poor digestion and an increased risk of gut disease. Constipation is more likely as we age, as the flow of digestive juices from the stomach, liver, pancreas and small intestine slows down.

TASTE AND SMELL - Start aging at 60
We start out in life with about 10,000 taste buds scattered on the tongue. This number can halve later in life. After we turn 60, taste and smell gradually decline, partly as a result of the normal aging process.

BLADDER - Starts aging at 65
Loss of bladder control is more likely when you hit 65. Women are more vulnerable to bladder problems as, after the menopause, declining oestrogen levels make tissues in the urethra - the tube through which urine passes - thinner and weaker, reducing bladder support. Bladder capacity in an older adult generally is about half that of a younger person - about two cups in a 30-year-old and one cup in a 70-year-old.

VOICE - Starts aging at 65
Our voices become quieter and hoarser with age. The soft tissues in the voice box (larynx) weaken, affecting the pitch, loudness and quality of the voice. A woman’s voice may become huskier and lower in pitch, whereas a man’s might become thinner and higher.

LIVER - Starts aging at 70
This is the only organ in the body which seems to defy the aging process.

So next time you are with more elderly people, show RESPECT…. spare a thought and be more understanding!

Please note that the above has been extracted from an email sent by a friend. I have not done any research to verify any of it, so take it with a pinch of salt. After all aging should be a graceful process

Q: Is there anything call dance yoga? I joined a session of Aerobic Dance / workout sometime ago and i found that it is what i like to do, but i have no idea it is yoga/dance or the combination. But it is definitely not just stretching, it has music to go with it and sweat a lot …. what lesson am i looking at? please enlighten me. thanks.
Nicole

A: There are several places in KL which are currently offering Yoga Dance however I don’t think it has taken off. Basically Yoga Dance is a continuous series of graceful movements derived from Yoga postures.

The movements are done with music and most schools emphasize the fun element in it although some practitioners believe that proper practice of Yoga Dance can increase and transform one’s life-force energy into a higher inner power.

Some practitioners such as Sarah Brumgart have dancing/gymnastics background and she combines this with yoga postures to deliver a graceful yet unique art.

In Malaysia we have a somewhat limited offering. Les Studio in PJ is currently displaying a big banner for their Yoga Dance classes. Other than that, The Dance City in Desa also offers classes in Pandan Indah and Kinrarra. I believe Yoga Zone had classes before but not sure whether their teacher Nancy is still there or not.

Hope this helps you.