What is Yoga?

Yoga is an ancient art – known in India for thousands of years.

It’s basic aims are “spiritual” in nature. However, as a basic component exercises were developed designed to gain and maintain good health – and to purify the body so it would serve as a suitable vehicle.

These exercises form one of the “limbs” of yoga – known as “Hatha Yoga” – which translates roughly as bodily yoga.

Finger Yoga is an excellent and easy way to stretch and relax the hands, for anyone who uses their hands in a stressful or repetitive manner. Whether you play an instrument like the guitar, perform needlework, garden, or, like many people in the Internet Age, type or text a lot, Finger Yoga can help keep your hands loose and limber and can help ease aches and pains. Finger Yoga is a healthy, wholesome exercise for our all important hands, once you try it, you will see how easy and helpful it is!

Hatha yoga is one of the most fundamental, and remedial forms exercise.

It is universal in scope – and can be practiced by anyone.

Hatha yoga should be the foundation of any exercise program.

In other words, regardless of whether you dance, play sports, practice martial arts, do resistance training – or whatever – you should learn and practice yoga first – for the sake of safety and in order to best attain and maintain good health.

Hatha yoga is centred around static stretching exercises.

It includes passive and active stretches,

Finger yoga is hatha yoga for the fingers.

Extremities need yoga like every other part of the body. However hands are rarely given much attention in yoga classes – where focus naturally is concentrated on very important areas – such as the spine.

To a certain extent, hands represent a microcosm of the organs of action. They need a slightly different emphasis, perhaps from the other limbs. In particular, they are easier to apply excess force to, and potentially expose more connective tissue to stretching forces.

How To Learn Yoga?

The best way to learn Hatha yoga is from a human teacher.

Also finger yoga is best learned after studying the other aspects of yoga for some time.

However, I will take this opportunity to briefly present some of the most basic and fundamental elements of hatha yoga here.

Hatha yoga involves stretching

Traditionally Hatha yoga consists of a range of exercises that affect the body and mind.

Many of these are static postures with the limbs placed in extreme positions.

These positions are impossible for untrained individuals to assume – and stretching exercises are typically necessary in order to adopt them.

Hatha yoga also employs balancing poses, inverted poses, locks, strengthening poses – and a number of other things that have nothing to do with stretching – but I won’t discuss those much further here.