Jennipher Walters is the co-founder and co-author of The Fit Bottomed Girl Anti-Diet and Editor-in-Chief at Fit Bottomed Girls and Fit Bottomed Zen, Jenn has several fitness credentials under her belt: She is an ACE-certified personal trainer, health coach, and advanced health and fitness specialist, and an AFAA-certified group exercise instructor.

Fitbottomedzen - As Jennipher and company have expanded the Fittbottom world one thing has become so, so, so very clear: health isn’t just about workouts and eats. It’s about your entire lifestyle. Your home. Your relationships with others. Your relationship with yourself. Your career. Your purpose. Your path. And that’s exactly why we created Fit Bottomed Zen — to take that message a bit further and help readers to zen out in all areas of their lives. There will be tips, workouts, how-tos, guides … everything you need to help you find your flow — that magical place where you just feel AWESOME and are not just living in a body you love but also living a life you love.

In this podcast we discuss

Jennipher’s start in yoga

• Found yoga in high school
• Continued trying different types of yoga. Even with a fitness degree, it was often difficult to find the right class.
• Learning curve with yoga. Learned the basics watching and trying different styles.
• Jennipher has now found a home practice video featuring Rodney Yee and comments that she has enjoyed this home practice, and it is a long-standing routine.

Mark talks about his initial experience in Bikram yoga. In many group yoga classes new students do not learn many of the key fundamentals that accelerate the enjoyment and benefits of yoga.

Yoga makes people feel great, and that is what keeps people coming back yet it is often difficult to understand why yoga has such a great physical and mental effect.

Yoga Styles – There are so many! Hot sweaty work-outs or resting in meditation.

Yoga nidra is a meditative style of yoga that has been endorsed by the U.S. Army Surgeon General as therapy for PTSD, a very serious form of stress and anxiety. The results have been amazing. People can try a free yoga nidra session with Richard Miller one of the top experts at www.irest.us or with a great veterans support organization www.theveteransyogaproject.org.

Athletes talk about yoga for durability, stamina and game time focus. Lebron James credits yoga for his incredible stamina. Have you ever seen Lebron look tired?

Yoga and Weight Loss – Calorie burn, yoga postures to help curb appetite and the mindfulness of yoga that puts a pause between stimulus and response. Read more about facts Yoga and Weight Loss.

Jennipher talks about what the mind-body connection means in her life and staying healthy. Listening to your body and finding a place to feel good about yourself and yoga really helps with that.

Yogic Breathing

Learning breathing is a huge and important part of getting the benefits out of yoga. Pranayama is the breathing practice of yoga and there is some pranayama is most yoga routines.

Sinus arrhythmia – The heart rate slows on an exhale, and a simple way to relax is to count as you inhale, and then exhale for double the count to relax and slow your heart rate.

Yoga has helped Jennipher to be more aware of her breathing, and she has integrated breathing practices into here running. Jennipher suggests, breath to relax as you are eating to slow down and realize what you are eating. Breathing helps to find flow.

Alignment – Stacking your bones properly in a yoga posture allows a person to exert greater force without risk of injury. There is now substantial clinical evidence that this “force” on bones triggers bone density growth and can fend off and be therapy for osteoporosis. In a previous podcast Dr. Loren Fishman, who pioneered the research work discusses his research and remedies in his new book Healing Yoga.

Forcing alignment can lead to repetitive stress injury if you try too hard to push yourself into the full expression of the posture or a picture of the posture. Yoga is very individualized so pay attention to your own body as you move.

Jennifer makes the point that the non-impact nature of yoga is a great way to get the positive effects of weight bearing exercise.

Inside a yoga class

• Very individualized. A group yoga class is a group of individuals listening and watching the teacher.
• It is not at all about people watching each other.
• It is your class and your experience
• Students are not on display, or on stage
• Run your own race. Do your own thing
• A person can nail a yoga posture by only going part way in and also get the benefits

A good yoga instructor can be an incredible help to improving your yoga practice, teaching the fundamentals and in learning the modifications that are best for your own body. We offer a list of questions to ask a new teacher and a discussion on the value of a good yoga teacher at www.Yogapilots.com

Yoga will condition your body to move between the excited fight or flight nervous system to the rest and digest nervous system. A yoga practice conditions your body to move from an excited state to a relaxed state, and over time develops better control over which state to be in. The final resting position in a yoga class brings the body’s nervous system back to the rest and digest side of the nervous system. The process of bringing the nervous system back to rest can be integrated into other exercises. As an example; Jennipher has integrated a mindfulness meditation session to be done the end of her run.

Yoga is not all love and kindness. Although the message behind yoga is one of high ethics, kindness and discipline, it does not always follow that a yoga teacher or an experienced yogi will be a loving and kind people.

Yoga will make a person more of what they already are. Realizing this before going to a yoga class will help build a yoga practice that is both enjoyable and sustainable.

Yoga classes will vary greatly in style some will have Indian music, mostly done by Americans. Many classes are now integrating western music

Yoga Clothes – Clothes that stretch, wick away sweat and are comfortable. Have a top on that doesn’t ride-up in an inversion. Comfortable clothes for moving around, so you can think about the yoga you are doing, and not what you are wearing.

Preparation – Don’t eat three hours before class and drink water before a hot or warm yoga class. The first experience in a hot class can be intense, so hydrate before and help your body to acclimate.

Terminology – Sanskrit terminology can be confusing. Always ask. Don’t hesitated to ask what a particular word or chant means. Most of the chants are agnostic with words like peace and phrases like, “may all beings be free.

Chanting OM is not a religious invocation. It is thought to be a universal sound, and it is similar to putting an atmosphere in a room like singing a song together or a hymn in church.

Children’s Yoga – Kids identify with the fun and imitation in yoga. Pre-schoolers identify with the animal names of some poses. Kids also relate to the changing physical states in a yoga class from being active to laying down to rest at the end of a yoga class. Teachers are commenting that yoga in a pre-school and grade school helps kids to focus better with more calmness.

Jennipher has a kids workout to share: http://fitbottomedmamas.com/2016/04/yoga-poses-for-kids-and-you/

How to find Jennipher and the Fit Bottomed Girls

www.Fittbottomedgirls.com http://www.fitbottomedmamas.com http://www.fitbottomedzen.com

Jennipher will be at this event in Dallas on Saturday, June 25th, 2016

Sundown Naturals Goodness Tour: http://www.sundownnaturals.com/goodnesstour

The Fit Bottomed Girl Anti-Diet book can be purchase at Amazon

FitBottomedGirls — Powered by Jennipher Walters, Erin Whitehead and Kristen Seymour — features multiple weekday posts with fresh fitness content for real women (and even the guys) interested in improving their health and their lives through physical activity and healthy eating, minus the deprivation. The blog offers tips, workouts, reviews, personal accounts of their exercise endeavors, tidbits on healthy food, workout music suggestions and fitness humor. The FBGs pride themselves on their honest reviews, their inclusive and fun-loving attitude, and aren’t afraid to tell it like it is.