I’m pretty amateur at yoga… I bought a weighted 5lb ball to add to my stretching and workouts, and I cannot find a good set of excersizes to do with this ball. I was wondering how I could incorporate this into the yoga portion of my daily routine?
what ???
yoga involves balls?
I’m confused.
please, explain this to me - I am new too.
Well I’m doing regular yoga, but holding the ball to add resistance and strengthen my muscles. I also would like to do an ab workout with this ball. I just cannot find any material on using these balls in a workout routine.
Mmm, I think the reason you don’t find anything might be because you’re not supposed to do yoga with a 5lb weight.
While not in the yoga cannon, I offer these options. They will not bring you closer to a yogic ideal, but may make you sweat more and build more muscle. Of course, it’s up to you to figure out whether doing any of these is smart for your body to do yet.
While in boat pose, hold the ball in your hands or in just one hand. Move it around (to the left or right, toward your face or away, up from the floor) and compensate for that movement (hold your pose in a grounded fashion.) This will hit your abs.
In a wide legged sitting forward bend, hold the ball in your hands off the ground to futher weight your forward stretch.
In any standing Warrior pose, hold the ball in one hand.
Depending on the size of the ball, you might also recline over it as a prop to help stretch various parts of your back.
Put the ball on your low belly as you recline just before sivasana to help you notice the belly muscles that are moving your breath.
and most fun of all –
balance the ball on top of your head in any standing balance pose. It’s ok to use a small eye pillow to give it some footing up there.
[QUOTE=nailsrglue;15633]I’m pretty amateur at yoga… I bought a weighted 5lb ball to add to my stretching and workouts, and I cannot find a good set of excersizes to do with this ball. I was wondering how I could incorporate this into the yoga portion of my daily routine?[/QUOTE]
This sort of post is always incredibly challenging for me to respond to. I have to take time and sift through several of my primary or first level reactions.
Frankly I grow tired of drawing the line that divides Asana (poses) from Yoga (A vast body of wisdom in the form of tools for mindful human evolution). But…I’m a yoga teacher. And that means I “signed on” and have a responsibility to hold Yoga. So I’ll say it as many times as it needs saying and to whomever it needs saying to
I cannot, for the life of me, conceive why anyone would add dumbells to an asana practice. But someone has done it (read: Iron Yoga). I cannot image who has determined that a narrow posterior serves any anatomical purpose but is has been done (read: Buns of Steel). I cannot fathom the correlation between the gluteus maximus, Yoga, and ballet and yet…it’s there (read: yoga booty ballet).
I personally find yoga (capital Y) to be so complete that I don’t really need to sprinkle any condiments on it. Not everyone feels this way. A real disappointment to me, I assure you:-) But if you hanker to use a 5 pound ball, or a 150 pound anvil, I think you’re on your own to figure out how it fits for you.