Questions about diet and tight hamstrings

Yoga Discussion General Yoga
#1

Hi all!

I’m a 23 year old university student from Sweden, who’s very new to yoga. I just ordered my first mat and DVD (a power yoga DVD, featuring Rodney Yee - do you know it it’s any good?) and I’m really excited about starting the workout. However, I have some questions:

  1. Is it generally recommended to go on a vegetarian diet, to benefit completely from your yoga practice, or can you continue eating meat?

  2. I have extremely tight hamstrings, which I suspect might be a problem - does anybody know of an effective way to try to eliminate this problem?

  3. Would you recommend that I get any additional props before I start practicing power yoga? Straps, foam blocks and so on? I don’t think Rodney Yee uses any props in the video, but maybe they will help me with the postures?

  4. What’s the relation between power yoga and Iyengar?

Any help with these questions is really appreciated!

Andy

#2

Hi Andy!

I personally don’t own any of Rodney’s DVD’s, but I do know people that do & they like them.
As for the rest of your questions:

  1. No, you don’t have to go on a vegetarian diet to benefit from your yoga practice. However, if you get serious about doing yoga regularly you may find yourself switching to a veg diet without realizing it…that is what happend to me, after I started going to class 4-6 times a week and the days I didn’t go (I practiced at home for about 2 hours each day) I did not want meat (chicken or fish…beef upsets my stomach) but maybe once every 3 or 4 weeks. I’m a vegetarian due to the fact that I crave fruits & vegi’s. I only eat meat when I want it really bad.

  2. Your hamstrings will loosen as your practice advances.
    Forward bends are a good one for loosing them…please be careful, there is nothing more painful than a torn hamstring…not only that, it takes a very long time to heal.

  3. Props, depending on how loose you are, you may or may not need them. If money is a littl tight don’t forget that when practicing at home you can substitute a stack of books, or a small box for a block, and you can use a belt, tie or a length of rope for a strap.
    A sandbag or two would be good to have, but not necessary at all.

  4. I have not taken a power yoga class but I do believe that one of the main differences between powr & Iyengar is that in power yoga you are pretty much constantly moving, without alot of attention to positioning of the body in the poses. Iyengar on the other hand is geared towards positioning and holding that postion for a period of time

Hope this helps!

#3

Marzsaetel:

That really helped, thanks a lot!