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September 2013 E-Newsletter

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The Endless Benefits of Yoga

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The Endless Benefits of Yoga

By: Laura Flood PT, DPT
Published: July 25, 2013 :: 4:00AM PST

 

The benefits of yoga are as varied as the yoga studios, classes and teachers that you will find within a 10 mile radius of your home these days......Vinyasa, yin, Asthanga, Anusara, flow, restorative, Iyengar, power, slow flow, acroyoga, therapeutic……the list goes on and on. Each yoga class will have specific benefits depending on their length, speed, postures, level and teacher style. Some classes are energizing while others are more restful and aimed at renewing and revitalizing our energy rather than using or depleting energy. Above all I recommend finding a class, teacher and style that suit your needs, needs which can vary greatly daily and seasonally. Choosing the incorrect class for your body and mind cannot only negate the benefits of yoga but can be harmful. But finding the right yoga for yourself can be life changing. Here I will discuss some of the general benefits of yoga, drawing from my experiences over the past 13 years of practicing, teaching and integrating yoga into my daily life, as well as using it as a powerful rehabilitation tool in my profession as a physical therapist. 

There is no doubt as you take one look around a yoga studio, that yoga is physically beneficial. Yoga sculpts the body, enhances core strength, sharpens balance and agility, stretches tight muscles, strengthens weak ones and helps prevent injury. I personally feel much less prone to sports injury since I began a regular yoga practice, mainly because I think I am able to fall better. When you spend time jumping around on a yoga mat regularly it teaches you the balance between agility and stability, as well as improving flexibility and strength for skiing, trail running, biking, climbing, paddling and much more. Yoga is attractive to the sports and recreational athlete because it can complement the rigors and physical demands of sports performance perfectly. Whether you are an athlete with an injury or just simply have pain that disrupts your daily life, yoga is a powerful tool for addressing specific rehabilitation needs.  Firstly yoga poses increase blood flow to specific areas to help accelerate the healing process. Yoga also aids in realigning the body and improving posture, which can be incredibly beneficial because the root cause of so many people’s musculoskeletal pain is mal-alignment and postural dysfunction. Yoga also teaches us to breath. As simple as it sounds, many of us do not realize what a positive effect focusing on our breath can have on our pain, anxiety and fear. Yoga can offer us a greater sense of control and empowerment of our own body – a feeling that can be lacking as part of the injury and chronic pain process. Yoga strengthens our connection to the inner body, thereby creating healthy and sustainable energy flow so that our mind and body can let go of fear and tension and allow healing to begin.

 

  

I actually began practicing yoga in my early 20s, seeking relief from the stress of a rigorous research year as part of my undergraduate college education.  Yoga is a constant source of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual wellbeing in my life. I believe that yoga has the greatest benefit in calming and healing the mind and body. While I love a hard workout as much as the next Bend girl, I find myself seeking out yoga more and more as a means to help balance the physical and mental demands of living in the 21st century.  We are all master jugglers in this day and age; balancing careers, families, finances, health, fitness and nutrition. We are challenged every day to keep all of these balls in the air. Yoga can offer an incredible reprieve from the chaos of everyday life with time to focus on oneself, breathing and slowing the mind. Traditional yoga poses were designed to calm the nervous system and balance the complex processes within our body, which in turn balances the mind and feeds back to the body. After all yoga means ‘to yolk’, to bring together. Yoga is all about uniting the body, heart and mind. Through this process yoga teaches us to live life more fully – with less fear, more compassion and kindness, greater humility and grace and with a more expansive perspective. Yoga makes us better human beings. I believe that a daily yoga practice for everyone may even be the key to world peace! But seriously, this yoga is pretty powerful stuff.

A wise yoga instructor once warned against “coming to your yoga mat in desperation”. This teaching has stayed with me and continues to inform my yoga practice and my life. While yoga is tremendously beneficial in a plethora of ways, its true benefits lie in practicing yoga in our everyday lives. If we are able to experience the benefits of our practice longer and live in greater harmony and balance every day the benefits of our yoga practice will be more sustainable. We will be able to go deeper and deeper. And that is the true beauty of yoga: the benefits just keep on coming. I will be sure to update you as I discover more yogic benefits as I enter my 14th year of yogi life. Yoga has truly changed my life. It has shaped who I am and continues to inform my own body, mind and the treatments I deliver to help my physical therapy patients heal and recover from injury and manage their pain.
 



Laura Flood is a licensed Physical Therapist at Therapeutic Associates at The Athletic Club of Bend who specializes in therapeutic yoga, as does her colleague Laura Cooper, who is the Director of Physical Therapy at the same location.

Call to schedule an appointment with us today if you have individual rehabilitation needs and are interested in us incorporating yoga into your plan of care. Also be sure to look up one of the wonderful yoga studios in the Bend area and find the class and teacher that best suit your needs.

 

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Meet Our New Physical Therapist

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Laura Flood PT, DPT

Laura Flood PT, DPT


Laura graduated with her Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) in May of 2013 from Regis University in Denver and moved to Bend this June with her husband to pursue their career and recreational aspirations. Laura is from Melbourne, Australia where she studied a Bachelor of Applied Science in Exercise Science at Deakin University, graduating with Honors in 2001. In 2002, Laura represented her University at the National level in basketball and tutored undergraduates, while completing an arduous yearlong graduate research project investigating glucose metabolism during endurance cycling exercise, culminating in a published paper in the Journal of Applied Science. In 2003, Laura left her studies behind to follow her dreams of travel and headed to the U.S with a backpack and her ski gear! Laura worked as children’s ski instructor in Vail, Colorado for two winters and a bakery assistance in the small seaside town of Seward, Alaska in the summer. In 2004, Laura met her husband Robert at the local gym. They went mountain biking on their first date on a trail just minutes from where they were married 5 years later. While in Alaska Laura also worked as a PT Aide for two years in a small orthopedic practice and fell in love with helping people rehabilitate and heal. In the fall of 2009, Laura, Robert and their dog Aly, moved to Golden Colorado so that Laura could realize her dream of becoming a PT.

 

< CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO ON LAURA'S BACKGROUND >
 

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Free Golf Lecture:: Tuesday, September 24th

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Pre-Round Preparation

Pre-Round Preparation

 

Injury Prevention, Physical Preparedness, and On-Range Warm-up Sequencing

 

Join us for some ON-RANGE hands-on instruction and learn about current concepts from golf, medical and fitness professionals in pre-round preparation to get your body ready for the rigors of a 4-5 hour round of golf.

Look forward to seeing you there!
 



Lecture Details:

DATE: Tuesday, September 24th
TIME: 6:00pm - 7:00pm
WHERE: Tetherow Golf Academy [Location]
COST: FREE!
RSVP: ccooper@taiweb.com (Space is limited)

WHAT TO BRING: Golf clubs, alignment sticks, and attitude for improvement

TOPICS WILL INCLUDE:

  • On-range instruction in pre-round movement warm-up drills
  • Specific injury prevention exercises
  • Foam roller usage and technique
  • Pre-round practice drills
     

LIMITED TO THE FIRST 10 PARTICIPANTS WHO RSVP! 

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD OUR FLYER (PDF)

 

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2nd Annual Monster Dash 5K :: Pround Sponsors

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Monster Dash 5K

GREAT SHWAG, GREAT COURSE, GREAT COSTUMES!!!

 

The 2nd Annual Monster Dash 5K and Little Monster's Mile are coming to town Sunday, October 27th, 2012 at 10AM. There will be prizes for the best costume and the fastest little monsters!

Both courses will start and finish at Highland Elementary School in the parking lot behind the school. The Monster Dash 5K course takes runners through the older section of Bend, crosses two bridges (Colorado pedestrian bridge and the Harmon bridge) while running an out/back in Drake Park along the Deschutes River.

Last year, in its inaugural year, the event had 250 participants and raised more than $1500 for Angel Flight West. This year, our goal is to hit 300 participants! The 2013 beneficiaries are the four Bend La-Pine High School Track and Field teams. There are many student-athletes in the area who can not afford shoes/spikes, or other equipment for the sport and we would like to help them out so they can accomplish their goals and enjoy running as much as we do!

 

< CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO ON THIS EXCITING EVENT >
 

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