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The Rishikesh Yoga Festival, one of the biggest annual yoga gatherings in the world, took place in the Northern Indian town of Rishikesh last week.  Participants from 36 countries traveled to the small Himalayan town to learn from renowned teachers by the banks of the sacred river Ganges. 

Attendants paid $600 to practice 60 hours of yoga classes taught by famous yogis from around the world.  The program also included meditation and discussions with Indian spiritual leaders, as well as vegetarian cooking classes.  Life happens at a decidedly non-Western pace in Rishikesh: classes start at 4am and finish at sunset, and, to protect residents and visitors’ “chakras,” the city is officially vegetarian and bans the use of alcohol and tobacco.

Apart from the festival, Rishikesh houses several yoga centers, including the Kailas Ashram Brahmavidyapeetham, the 120-year-old ashram where many of the famous yogis of the twentieth century studied.  Rishikesh is often called the yoga capital of the world, and, as such, attracts many foreign tourists.  In fact, it’s said that visiting the city, and, in particular, bathing in the Ganges River, will help aspiring yogis attain moksha, a kind of enlightenment.

Mainstream western interest in Rishikesh started in the late 1968s, when the Beatles famously traveled there to study with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.  Since then, the presence of foreigners in the town has snowballed.  One US yoga teacher called Gurmukh Kaur Kalsa offered this explanation for why Rishikish had become so popular with foreigners:

“[There is an] absence of inner peace in the West.  In Western countries, we try to get a god education, to make a lot of money, we don’t find peace, we get sick.  But now priorities have changed: we now want to feel better, be closer to ourselves.  That’s what yoga is.”

Couples who are trying to conceive may feel alone, but they most certainly aren’t: according to the most recent numbers from the Center for Disease Control, a full 10 percent of women of women ages 15-44 have fertility problems.   Typically, doctors and fertility experts recommend a variety of treatments to help women get and stay pregnant—mostly hormones treatments and lifestyle changes—but, recently, yoga classes with an emphasis on increasing fertility have become a popular alternative and supplement to more traditional methods. 

Yoga for fertility addresses both emotional and physical problems.  For many women, fertility problems dredge up sadness and anxiety, and take a toll on their relationships with their partners.  Support groups for women trying to conceive are common, and fertility yoga classes are a new extension of the support group principle.

"As important as the yoga postures was the idea that women could come out of the closet with their infertility and be supported in a group," Tami Quinn, the founder of the fertility yoga group Pulling Down the Moon, told the New York Times. "If you say ‘come to my support group,’ women going through infertility are like, 'I don't need some hokey support group' or 'I'm not that bad.' But with yoga, they are getting support and they don't even realize it."

In addition to community, yoga also offers an alternative to aerobic exercise, which many women have to give up while undergoing hormone treatments.  The poses are gentle and the programs focus on restoring inner balance.  Stress itself is a hormone killer, and the upsurge in negative feelings women trying to conceive experience can often turn into a vicious cycle. 

While a single study has yet to prove that yoga has measurable physical effects on fertility, anecdotal evidence suggests that committing to a yoga practice (in addition to doctor-recommended treatments and lifestyle changes) can increase a woman’s chances of getting pregnant.  And there is some science behind the physicality.  Brenda Strong, founder of Strong Yoga 4Women, says this on her website:

“Yoga for fertility can help to detoxify the body while relaxing tight muscles and connective tissue. The specific areas in Yoga for fertility of the low back (sacral plexus) hips, groins and pelvis begin to improve in blood flow and circulation-which can aid in healthier gynecological function. As the body relaxes, the mind calms and the nervous system is aided by the breath to help lower stress hormones like cortisol, which can impede reproductive hormone function.” 

Yoga isn’t a quick fix for fertility problems.  But it can help treat the emotional stress and strain on relationships caused by infertility, and science showing if and how it can help you get pregnant doesn’t seem to be far behind. 

by Emma Needleman

Most people think that to protect your bones, you’ve simply got to get enough calcium—specifically by drinking your milk.  But the truth isn’t that simple: Americans, for their part, get about 70 percent of their total calcium intake from dairy products, but we’ve also got some of the world’s highest osteoporosis rates. 

In fact, studies increasingly show that higher dairy consumption is actually associated with increased risk for broken bones.  And, on the heels of a new study that shows calcium and Vitamin D supplements don’t do much to increase bone density, the science increasingly shows that our old habits aren’t cutting it when it comes to protecting our bones.  And while you do need calcium, you also need to consume it in a way that allows for the best possible absorption into your bones.

Let’s start with the dairy issue.  Consuming dairy products is more or less a Western habit—in Asia and Africa, dairy is generally not part of the diet.  Instead, people get their calcium from vegetables, at much lower levels than our recommended average of 1,200 mg a day.  But since vegetables have higher levels of magnesium—which your bones need to absorb calcium—people living in these countries tend to have lower rates of broken bones and fractures.  In diets where fruit and vegetables are the primary sources of calcium, your body will take in calcium and magnesium in a ratio of about 1:1.  In diets where dairy is the primary source of calcium, the ration is more like 12:1. 

Reducing the amount of meat in your diet can also help protect your bones.  Protein is important for building strong bones, but excessive meat consumption can create higher levels of acid in the blood and urine, which the body then tries to regulate by releasing calcium.  You don’t have to become completely vegetarian, but reducing the amount of meat you eat and replacing it with vegetables or other forms of protein will certainly be beneficial to your skeleton.

So how can you get calcium without swigging milk or taking supplements?  Here are 5 of the best natural sources of calcium for healthy bones.

Collard Greens.  Leafy green vegetables are one of the most healthful sources of calcium and magnesium.  One cup of boiled collards contains a whopping 358 milligrams.  Kale, broccoli, Swiss chard, bok choy and turnip greens are full of calcium, too.  The one exception is spinach, which has a high concentration of oxalate, making it difficult for the body to absorb calcium. 

Baked beans.  Beans in general are a great source of calcium, as well as a hearty non-animal protein.  One serving of baked beans contains over 100 milligrams of calcium.  Navy beans, white beans and garbanzos are also full of calcium and magnesium, as are soybean products like tofu.

Oatmeal. Surprisingly, two packets of instant oatmeal contains between 100-150 mg of calcium, and more magnesium than a cup of collard greens.  Quinoa is another calcium-rich grain.  Try either for a healthy breakfast.

Sesame seeds.  Just one tablespoon of sesame seeds contains about 88 milligrams of calcium, and about a third of the daily value for magnesium. Make sure to buy the unhulled kind, though, as it’s the seed’s hull (outer shell) that contains most of the nutrients.  Try grinding themup like flax seeds and adding to breakfast cereal or soups and salads.

Almonds.  Almonds are a nutritional powerhouse, providing a dense source of protein and fiber, along with calcium and other minerals necessary for building strong bones.  Just one serving has 750 milligrams of calcium.  Almonds, plain or mixed with dried fruit, make great snacks by themselves, or try replacing your jar of peanut butter with nutrient-rich almond butter. 

by Emma Needleman

For serious yogis, the term “yama” means the intense ethical discipline practitioners undertake to enhance their practice and achieve the ultimate union between mind and body.  But it’s also the name of one of the yoga industry’s most intensely capitalistic ventures yet: a talent agency for yoga teachers aspiring to guru status.

YAMA, which stands for Yoga Artist Management Agency, is the first yogi-only representation firm.  Founded by Ava Taylor (a former Lululemon marketing agent), it’s a small but powerful operation.   YAMA is meant to help rockstar yoga teachers manage their schedules: planning teaching tours, juggling speaking engagements and launching DVDs—all the things a traditional talent agency does, but with a yoga twist.

Critics will say that it’s a ploy to maximize profits, but Taylor says her motivation behind YAMA was to reconcile the “duality between being a [yoga] teacher and living in the real world.”  And in an interview with YogaDork.com, client Sadie Nardini defended her involvement with the agency as necessary to maintaining her “sanity”:

If [people] knew the amount of work it takes to organize just one teacher training at one studio, then multiply that by a hundred for all the classes, workshops, trainings, retreats and travel we are asked (and want) to do each year, just to be able to reach and then teach all our students, they might see past the apparent quest for stardom, and into our desire for plain old sanity!

The fact remains that yoga is a $5.7 billion industry and is only growing.  Are endeavors like YAMA necessary to keep up with the growing demand for yoga, or are they merely symptoms of our yoga industrial complex? 

But, whatever the response, there seems to be no stopping YAMA. At the time of its launch in spring 2010, it already had bicoastal representatives and a roster full of heavy-hitter clients, and has only grown since then.  You can definitely expect to hear more from them in 2011.

Yoga Dork has more coverage here.

Whether you’re an actual Pacific Northwest resident or just a hippie at heart, you might find that the new PEMCO insurance ads hit just a little too close to home.  The campaign features more than 50 profiles of archetypal Seattle residents like “Urban Chicken Farmer,” “Oblivious Left-Lane Occupant” and, of course, “Type-‘A’ Yoga Girl.”

The Washington-based insurance company unveiled these ads in 2007.  Since then, they’ve become wildly popular amongst the self-aware, quirky residents of the Pacific Northwest, so much so that the introduction of new characters warrants a flurry of activity on Facebook and other social networking sites.

Type-“A” Yoga girl, for instance, sports serious workout gear and a battle-ready expression on her face.  “The minute the meeting ends, she’s off—with hair in a ponytail and a yoga mat wrapped so tightly under arm it’d take two downward facing dogs to rip it away from her,” the ad’s copy reads.  “She’s going to find her inner peace.  So don’t even consider getting in her way.”

Yoga girl’s opposite is the Oblivious Left-Lane Occupant, whose laid-back Seattle style is getting on everyone’s nerves.  Apparently, spaced-out drivers going just below the speed limit in the left lane is a common sight in the Pacific Northwest.  Accordingly, Oblivious Left-Lane Occupant has a dopey facial expression and “hands that aren’t even close to flipping on that turn signal.”  Her beverage of choice?  “Decaf tea.”

The ads are featured on billboard and in TV commercials around the Seattle area, but super-crunchy folks they satirize can be found anywhere there’s a yoga studio or a natural foods market.  As the PEMCO ads say, “We’re a lot like you. A little different.”