Yoga Balls = Party Chairs

I threw a Calzone Party at my apartment the other night. I invited over some of my closest friends and we all enjoyed some drinks and made calzones. However, I did not have enough chairs for everyone who showed up, so I got the bright idea to use Yoga Balls! Since I had about 5 of them laying around my apartment, I brought them all out & they instantly became a hit!



Two of the friends I invited over were dancers, but the rest were unfamiliar with what the Yoga Balls were used for, and as the night went on, we all did a little ab work, fell off the balls occasionally, and generally had a great time on our new chairs! I recommend using Yoga Balls for chairs at any party!

Yoga Ball = Computer Chair

This week I decided to switch out my regular computer chair with my Yoga Ball. I decided to do this mostly because my body is incredibly sore from dance rehearsals this week and slouching in a regular chair proved to be more uncomfortable than relaxing. The Yoga Ball I am using is a silver 75cm ball from YogaDirect.com (of course!).




At first I thought I'd get tired of sitting on the thing, but that never happened. I feel like I have been sitting with perfect posture the whole time I am working, and it is even great to take a little break now and again to do some Pilates on the Ball while I am working, because well, why not! I also enjoyed being able to bounce whenever I feel like it, and that is always fun to break up the big tedious projects I have going on.

Since I work at YogaDirect.com, I don't have any co-workers really giving me weird looks because of the ball, but one of the newer employees asked me all sorts of questions about it. He wanted to know if it was weird to be sitting on something that could "oscillate" all over the place. Yes, he used the word oscillate! So I told him the ball is supposed to move around, and when it moves, your abs have to work extra hard so you can stay balanced on the ball. He then asked if he could try sitting on it, and as soon as he did, he fell right into me! Guess it takes a little practice to sit on a ball.

If you'd like to sit at a ball at your own desk, I suggest getting a size or two up from the ball you'd normally get to work out with. I think any ball within the 75cm-85cm range will work best. We have a pretty good selection of Yoga Balls at YogaDirect.com, of course, so go get one for yourself and start sitting with perfect posture at your desk every day!

Half Tortoise Made Me Nauseous

After 3 nights of really strenuous rehearsals for Soma Dance Company (the modern dance company I perform with), I was really looking forward to stretching out my aching muscles at my regular Bikram Yoga class (I go to Bikram Yoga Farmington in Connecticut).

For the first half of class I found that I was just having one of those days that I couldn't balance at all! I tried relaxing myself & just breathing instead of thinking about how wobbly I was, but I pretty much fell out of every standing posture that required me to stand on one leg no matter what I tried. All except Balancing Stick pose, which is the one I usually fall out of. But I think the only reason I was able to "stick" that pose (pun intended) was because the teacher was standing right next to me at that point, saying "stretch equally in opposite directions - body down, leg up...BODY DOWN LEG UP!" So i did :) I heard from someone that if you have citrus fruits, it kind of throws of your balance, and I had been drinking a lot of orange juice. So maybe I can use that as an excuse for being wobbly.

During the 2 minute corpse pose I felt REALLY good, which is unusual. I usually lay uncomfortably in that posture because my mind tends to wander everywhere, but I think I was just so exhausted from rehearsals that I really allowed myself to just lay there and breathe. The next few back bending postures went really smoothly, although I started to feel a little nauseous. So I tried to breathe, but nothing was helping. Before Fixed Firm pose, I took a sip of water, which is something I normally do. During the first set of Tortoise Pose, I was feeling extra bendy, so I pushed myself a little farther than I usually do, and then I got a little nauseous again. So I continued breathing. I almost felt like I was going to throw up!

So today, looked up what others have had to say about feeling nauseous during class, but most people have said nausea may be a sign of heat exhaustion, or dehydration. However, I am not sure this is true in my case, as I am a regular in class, and I always drink plenty of water during the day. I looked to see what Half Tortoise Pose does to the body, hoping to find that it does something to your digestive system. I learned that Half Tortoise pose massages your heart, lungs, and coronary arteries, stretches your lower lungs, and cures indigestion, constipation, and flatulence. Bingo. I guess maybe that water I had sipped before Fixed Firm hadn't gone down to my belly all the way & Half Tortoise stirred it up a little bit. Ha! I don't know for sure, but I do know that it wasn't pleasant. I am definitely going to think twice before I take a sip of water during the second half of class again!