By introducing a thick layer of cushioning and an elevated heel between the foot and the ground, modern running shoes alter natural running form. But modern running shoes alter form in ways that lead to injury. Therefore, getting back to a more natural running gait by running in little-to-no shoe will lead to improved form, which should lower injury rates.A key reason to run barefoot or in minimalist shoes is to allow your feet to work more naturally, free from the confines and controls of overly engineered running shoes. Unfortunately, too many runners, eager to run more naturally, have gone too far, too fast, from one extreme to the other. The realities of modern life have weakened our feet, ankles, and lower legs, and our bodies have adapted to the shoes we have worn for most of our lives; if we suddenly start running in little-to-no shoe, our bodies are not prepared for the new stresses.Runner's World Essential Guides: Barefoot Running and Minimalism provides historical context, thoughts, advice, and tips on making a healthy transition. The foremost authorities on running on the planet show you how to ease into a transition from conventional running shoes to barefoot running or minimalist shoes, starting with some simple at-home tests to see if your feet already have the strength they need to handle little-to-no shoe. You’ll learn a step-by-step process for safely moving away from doing all your running in big, bulky shoes, including guidelines on how to introduce barefoot running into your regimen.Whether you want to learn more about the barefoot craze that’s swept the nation or you want to introduce barefoot running into your training plan, this indispensable guide contains everything you need to get started!

    More than fourteen years ago, the Mudra expert Sabrina Mesko Ph.D.H. wrote Healing Mudras - Yoga for Your Hands, the first practical guide for unleashing the healing power of hand Mudras, which became an international bestseller and is translated into more than 14 languages. The book describes ancient healing hand gestures - Mudras - yoga movements involving only the arms and hands. In celebration of this classic work we have created a new edition, revised with additions. Healing Mudras - new edition - is available in two formats; a three volume series with full color photos, or this one-book original version with black and white photos and instructions for performing the Mudras for your Body, Mind and Soul. The Mudra expert Sabrina Mesko includes breathing exercises, eye movements, mantras, meditations, visualizations, prayers, and affirmations to enhance the power of each. Mudras are extremely easy to do, but so powerful they can bring you health, wealth, balance, success, and happiness. How? By liberating the energy locked within your body - the energy channels called nadis and energy centers called chakras - and directing it to help you meet your goals and deal with the problems of everyday life.

    Ayurveda is the perennial body wisdom tradition that co-arose with yoga, the path of living awake. Here lies a simple body habits curriculum that every person can learn as a child, master as an adult, and refine as an elder for their body to thrive. Check out more at www.bodythrive.comThe messages in this book are strong and simple. When we embody the 10 core habits of Yogis, based on the wisdom of Ayurveda, we thrive. By becoming vibrant, dynamic human beings on a growth path, we are a boon to ourselves, our families, society, and the planet. Ayurveda is based on living in sync. When we synchronize our bodily rhythms to nature’s clock, our physiology harmonizes. We experience balance, ease, and flow. When we live against nature’s body clock, we experience stress, rapid aging, and dis-ease. This book grew out of my online Body Thrive™ coaching program, where my Body Thrive Coaches and Yoga Health Coaches™ guide their pilot groups into 10 specific, habits from the teachings of Ayurveda in 10 weeks. That's one essential, daily habit upgrade per week for a few months. This book guides readers through a entertaining and insightful journey into better body integrity. The success and the efficacy of the Body Thrive method came from my search as an innovative Ayurvedic practitioner and yoga teacher. I wanted a more effective path to guide my clients towards their desired health breakthrough and wellness goals. We now have 100 Yoga Health Coaches using the Body Thrive method around the world. As you’ll see in the book, Body Thrive is innovative, practical and results-focused. In a poll of 150 clients working in a group during a 10 week Body Thrive™ program with various Yoga Health Coaches (in training) we discovered:
89% Developed better self-care habits 79% Feel better in their bodies. 59% Are eating a healthier diet 51% Are sleeping better and feel well rested.Based on this practice lab, the 3 core components taught in this book are:1.AyurvedaThe habits of Ayurveda, based on biorhythms, are non-negotiable for thrive. As we align with our biorhythms, we detox our habits. In doing so, our bodies, minds, emotions, and even our kitchens, homes, relationships, and lives uplevel into thrive. We experience the best time of our lives from living in cooperation with our bodies and our ecosystem.2.Behavioral scienceApplying modern behavioral science teachings, or what I nickname habit evolution science, helps people uplevel their habits faster. Being results focused with proven strategies is essential for steady and rapid progress.3.Dynamic Groups + Relationship EvolutionPeople in groups adopt Body Thrive habits faster when with others focusing on similar goals. This book outlines how to create dynamic supportive relationships on the path to daily habit evolution.

    Foundational to all yogic thought, they are considered to be the guidelines to the yoga way of living that free individuals to take ownership of their lives, direct them toward the fulfillment they seek, and gain the skills to choose attitude, thought, and action. The first five guidelines are referred to as the yamas—a Sanskrit word that translates to "restraints"—and encompass nonviolence, truthfulness, not stealing, nonexcess, and nonpossessiveness. The last five are referred to as the niyamas, or observances—purity, contentment, self-discipline, self-study, and surrender. A self-study section at the end of each chapter may also be used by instructors for group discussion.

    Beginning with an overview of the history and science of yoga, Dr. McCall describes the many different techniques in the yoga tool kit; explains what yoga does and who can benefit from it (virtually everyone!); and provides lavishly illustrated and minutely detailed instructions on starting a yoga practice geared to your fitness level and your health status. Yoga as Medicine offers a wealth of practical information, including how to:•Utilize yogic tools, including postures, breathing techniques, and meditation, for both prevention and healing of illness•Master the art of becoming more in tune with your body•Communicate more effectively with your doctor•Adopt therapeutic yoga practices as either an alternative or a complement to surgery and to expensive, sometimes dangerous medications•Practice safely Find an instructor and a style of yoga that are right for you. With twenty chapters devoted to the work of individual master teachers, including such well-known figures as Patricia Walden, John Friend, and Rodney Yee, Yoga as Medicine shows how these experts have applied the wisdom of this ancient holistic practice to twenty different conditions, ranging from arthritis to chronic fatigue, depression, heart disease, HIV/AIDS, infertility, insomnia, multiple sclerosis, and obesity. Defining yoga as “a systematic technology to improve the body, understand the mind, and free the spirit,“ Dr. McCall shows the way to a path that can truly alter your life. An indispensable guide for the millions who now practice yoga or would like to begin, as well as for yoga teachers, body workers, doctors, nurses, and other health professionals.

    While the immediate reaction to pain is to take short-term measures to make it go away, this does nothing to address the underlying cause. Vlachonis shows us how to locate the source of our pain, understand its origin and manifestation in the body, and then let it go for good, using a holistic approach that includes easy-to-implement approaches to diet, exercise, and emotional well-being.Vlachonis’ proven and successful pain eradication program was developed over years working with a wide range of clients, from celebrities and CEOs to overworked ballerinas and working moms. The book includes a detailed meal plan with recipes, body maps to identify areas of pain and healing touch points, and step-by-step remedies for specific issues including fatigue, digestive problems, and depression. This groundbreaking approach uses pain as a tool—not the undefeatable enemy—to help you look and feel better immediately, and release your body from physical and emotional pain for good.

    Relieved and reborn, she made it her mission to empower other women to be able to do the same.Whether you are suffering from irregular periods, fertility issues, depression, or lack of sex drive, Alisa Vitti says that meds and anti-depressants aren’t the only solutions. Groundbreaking and informative, WomanCode educates women about hormone health in a way that’s relevant and easy to understand. And the five-step protocol can markedly improve health and overall quality of life.Bestselling author and women’s health expert Christiane Northrup, who has called WomanCode the "Our Bodies, Ourselves" of this generation, provides an insightful foreword.

    The book covers all the worthwhile hiking destinations throughout the county - including the coast, foothills, mountains, and desert - in trips ranging from the short family excursions to multi-day backpacks. This long-awaited fourth edition of San Diego County's most recognized and comprehensive hiking guide has been fully updated and expanded to cover 250 hikes and all new maps.

    In this wellness guide, Healthy Green Kitchen blogger Winnie Abramson compiles 50 small changes that readers can easily make to improve their everyday well-being. Abramson—who has a doctorate in naturopathic medicine—throws fad diets out the door in favor of age-old culinary wisdom, green living tips, cutting-edge nutrition information, and 15 simple and easy recipes. Readers can work through the tips week by week or dip in and out of the book at will. Packaged in a handsome paperback, this game-changing guide will be treasured by anyone hoping to look and feel healthier, younger, and happier.

    They can be practiced sitting, lying down, standing, or walking, at any time and place. Schooled in the traditional knowledge of this eastern art of healing, well-known Swiss yoga teacher, Gertrud Hirschi, shows how these easy techniques can recharge personal energy reserves and improve quality of life. These mysterious healing gestures can calm the stress, aggravations, and frustrations of everyday life. Readers will learn how to: Apply these simple exercises to prevent illness and support the healing of a great variety of physical and emotional problems.Use mudras to promote spiritual development.Additionally intensify the effect with breathing exercises, a affirmations, visualizations, herbs, nutrition, music, and colors.Also included are several full-body mudras and exercises to enhance any meditation and yoga practice.

    This new edition is fully updated with fresh insights and innovative training techniques from one of the sport's leading voices. Danny Dreyer teaches us how to heal and prevent injuries and also to run faster, farther, and with much less effort at any age or ability.With more than 150,000 copies in print, this groundbreaking program makes running safe and fun for beginning and seasoned runners, while also giving competitive runners the edge they seek. ChiRunning employs the deep power reserves in the core muscles, an approach found in disciplines such as yoga, Pilates, and in this case T'ai Chi. Make knee pain and shin splints a thing of the past Experience the natural efficiency of the midfoot strike Dramatically reduce your potential for injury Transform your running with our new 10-step training program ChiRunning provides powerful insight and transforms running from a high-injury sport to a body-friendly fitness phenomenon. Join the revolution!

    Restorative yoga, says Judith Lasater, is active relaxation. It makes use of props to create positions of ease and comfort that facilitate relaxation and health. In this companion volume to her seminal book Relax and Renew, Judith Lasater, a well-known and respected yoga teacher, offers a fresh set of restorative practices--with accompanying photos--to help balance and reset the body when you feel weak, fatigued, or stressed from your daily activities. They are especially beneficial for the times before, during, and after major life events, or when you are recovering from illness or injury. Lasater points out that restorative yoga is a wonderfully adaptive practice that can be tailored to people of all ages, all levels of yoga experience, and in all states of health. Yoga practitioners and teachers will appreciate this new collection of practices and sequences that build on concepts from the first volume.

    But as Christiane Northrup, M.D., shows us in this New York Times best-selling guide, we have it in us to make growing older an entirely different experience, both for our bodies and for our souls.      In chapters that blend personal stories and practical exercises with the latest research on health and aging, Dr. Northrup lays out the principles of ageless living, from rejecting processed foods to releasing stuck emotions, from embracing our sensuality to connecting deeply with our Divine Source. Explaining that the state of our health is dictated far more by our beliefs than by our biology, she works to shift our perceptions about getting older and show us what we are entitled to expect from our later years—no matter what our culture tries to teach us to the contrary—including:·         Vibrant good health ·         A fulfilling sex life ·         The capacity to love without losing ourselves ·         The ability to move our bodies with ease and pleasure ·         Clarity and authenticity in all our relationships—especially the one we have with ourselves      “Taking all the right supplements and pills, or getting the right procedure done, isn’t the prescription for anti-aging,” Dr. Northrup explains. “Agelessness is all about vitality, the creative force that gives birth to new life.” Goddesses Never Age is filled with tools and inspiration for bringing vitality and vibrancy into your own ageless years—and it all comes together in Dr. Northrup’s 14-day Ageless Goddess Program, your personal prescription for creating a healthful, soulful, joyful new way of being at any stage of life.

    This latest book gives you a precise regimen for self-treatment along with extensive information on other resources now available to you.

    In this book, you will learn how to Take Back Your Life using the techniques and strategies Tami has used to get well. More than just a lifestyle or self-management guide, this is a concise reference book woven with Tami’s own fibromyalgia story. This book is a page-by-page survival guide for the action-oriented fibromyalgia patient who wants to feel better as quickly as possible. It’s written for the patient overwhelmed with a new fibromyalgia diagnosis and for the fibro-veteran who is stuck and needing new ideas. It is also a great resource for the caring family members and support team of anyone suffering with fibromyalgia. In this book, Tami discusses what it means to have a fibromyalgia diagnosis, from the perspective of someone living with it daily. She will show you how to: • Stop the pain. • Increase your energy. • Improve your quality of sleep. • Work with your doctor. • Help yourself heal. • Bring more joy into your life.