For more information, you can check out the full article right here: http://www.builtlean.com/2011/09/12/beginner-yoga-for-men-with-nyc-kristin-mcgee/
Transcripts:
MARK: Hi! I’m Mark Perry the creator of BuiltLean.com
and I have a very special guest here today,
Kristin McGee who’s to my left
and Kristin is a top-notch yoga instructor
from New York City,
her clients include Steve Martin, Ben Stiller,
Tina fey just to name a few,
she’s been on TV, like CNN, FOX and the
CBS morning show
and again, it’s a laundry list of TV shows and
appearances she’s made.
So, I’m thrilled to have her here and I know
from personal experience
that she’s a miracle worker,
I recently had a session with her,
and I’m telling you, she’s top-notch so I’m really
happy to have her here,
and so today in this video we’re gonna show
you kind of an intro to yoga for men,
and I know as a guy, yoga can be really intimidating,
cuz’ you see these women putting themselves into pretzels,
and just the thought of being in that position
is really painful,
and so, Kristin today is gonna talk a little bit
about what yoga is,
why it’s important,and we’re gonna go straight
into three beginner yoga poses
that you can do on your own right now.
KRISTIN: Yoga just means to unite, and we’re
uniting our breath and our body and our minds,
when we’re exercising.
And you don’t have to be a pretzel, as a matter of
fact the first couple of things I show men
is a Chaturanga Flow because they are very strong
and they can do it, it’s like a Yogi push-up,
and Downward Facing Dog, which you’ll find in
almost any yoga class you go to.
The reason why I like this combination
I’m going to show you,
is it flows together, so you can go from Chaturanga,
to Upward Facing Dog,to Downward Facing Dog,
and you can repeat the cycle, you can use it like
a warm up before you lift weights,
you can do it as your own yoga practice,
you can do it at the end
training session just to stretch out.
So Mark’s going to get into High Plain push-up,
and he’s using his breath on the exhale, you usually
you lower down, so in exhale
he’s going to lower into a Chaturanga, which is a
narrow arms push-up, the elbows come straight back,
and he’s gonna focus his energy in not
letting his ribs sag
and then on the inhale he’s gonna lift his chest,
almost like you’re lifting yourself out of a swimming pool
then come on the Upward Facing Dog, now you can come
on the top so your feet
if you don’t have any low back issues,
and then he’s going to go back in Downward Facing Dog
on the exhale,
yes, now Mark breathed out through his mouth,
which is fine.
In yoga we try to breath in and
out through the nose.
because that’s gonna really play into the
parasympathetic nervous system
help calm you down, and it’s almost like
listening to the sound of the breath in the ears,
like the Darth Vader sounding breath,
you try it one more time using the breath in and
out through the nose.
So, inhale through the nose, come forward plank,
exhale out the nose, lower Chaturanga,
inhale lift Upward Dog, now the chest arches,
and then exhale down to Downward Facing Dog,
till the hips go up and back.
That’s excellent Mark, good job!
So, when you’re doing that, you say before
workout, you can rest down now
if you want to,knees down, even sit back in
a Child’s Pose. Which feels really good.
It’s a good stretch to your shoulders and
if you feel tight and stiff in the hips as well.
But you can do this before your workout,
you can do this after your workout,
to loosen back up, you can do this
separately on its own
and you can start to repeat the cycle as
much as you want to,
almost get a little bit of a
cardio aspect as well.
So, I hope that this is really helpful,
I hope that you give yoga a try
if you never been there or done that,
start out with the sun salutation
and you’re definitely gonna love what it
helps you do,
all the improvements in the weight room.
MARK: Okay, so I just wanna thank Kristin,
so much for sharing her insights today,
it’s a real pleasure, if you wanna learn a little
bit more about Kristin you can check out her website
at KristinMcGee.com.
She’s got a number of DVD’s she’s produced,
she also has some classes she teaches
in New York City,
and she does private sessions as well.
So again, I wanna thank you so much for
coming today,
and thank you for watching and I’ll see you next week.