As a children's yoga teacher for over ten years, I am often asked to share advice on how to teach yoga to babies and toddlers.  Parents are dubious as to how young children can sit still to practice yoga.  After all, at that age kids are prone to temper tantrums, find it hard to wait or make choices, and they can't understand reason or control their impulses.  The good news is that they love to copy adults, in both appearance and activity.  Thus, yoga can become a fun bonding activity for you and your child.

Even if you have never practiced yoga, you can still be a role model by introducing children to simple yoga poses such as Queen pictured below.  This posture is my 'go to' pose when first teaching yoga to toddlers and their parents, as it simply involves standing tall and breathing.  It is important to remind children to focus on breathing in and out through the nose while practicing yoga postures;  doing so increases lung capacity and helps to prevent the fight-or-flight response that occurs from mouth breathing.

Yoga for Babies and Toddlers

Here are ten basic tips to guide you through sharing yoga with babies and toddlers:

1. Make sure that children do not eat a big meal right before doing yoga;  it is best not to have a full stomach when practicing yoga because many of the poses twist across glands and internal organs.
    
2. Pick a quiet place to do yoga with kids;  a yoga mat can help to create personal space to do the poses but is not necessary.  Kids can practice on a soft carpet or use a beach towel.
    
3. Children should practice yoga postures at their own pace and rest at any time.
    
4. It is best not to adjust children in the poses;  rather, let them feel the postures in a way that makes sense for their own body.
    
5. The main focus of teaching yoga to young children is to expose them to simple yoga poses to help them connect with their bodies, learn how to calm themselves, focus and concentrate, and get physical activity at the same time.
    
6. There is no magic number of yoga poses to practice in order to get the most out of yoga for babies and toddlers;  just sitting and breathing in Easy Pose (pictured below) can be enough yoga for one day.
    
7. Just as there is no magic number of yoga poses to do in one session, there is no definitive length of time to hold each posture.  Anywhere from 8-15 seconds is a good place to start for young children.
    
8. For babies and toddlers, there are no strict time parameters for practicing yoga;  even 3 to 5 minutes a day doing some basic yoga poses will go a long way toward establishing a routine of healthy physical activity.
    
9. Babies are natural yogis (people who practice yoga), as they instinctively do certain poses as part of their natural range of motion.  Parents can gently help babies do simple postures such as Butterfly pictured below.
    
10. Lastly, the key to instilling a desire in young children to take up yoga lies in making it fun for them.  If kids enjoy their yoga practice, they will stay engaged with it and reap its benefits:  fitness, relaxation, concentration, and awareness.

Let's start with what you know:  you should be doing deadlifts in your workout.  Let's take that one step further with what you hate to admit:  you can't stand doing deadlifts.  That's common, but what you probably don't know is that you're very likely doing them wrong.  And that isn't a small problem.  In fact, doing a deadlift improperly could result in a serious injury or a minor recurring pain in the lower back at the very least.  We asked certified personal trainer Heather Neff for the biggest deadlift problems and she gave us the solutions you'll need to be deadlifiting like a pro in no time!

1. You're Not Letting the Plates Touch the Floor

In between each rep, you should be releasing the barbell weights to the floor.  You don't have to take your hands off of the bar completely, but you should be setting the weight down and releasing all tension in your body.

Why Is That Bad?

Your muscles don't have to stay under tension for long in order to see results.  If you aren't releasing the weight to the floor with every rep you take for the simple fact that you want to feel the burn, you should probably add a bit more weight instead.  Also, by setting the weight on the floor between reps, this will allow your back to rest and reset to neutral position, which will set you up for the next rep.

How to Fix It

Simply lower your weight all the way to the floor and release the tension completely.  Allow your back to go to a neutral position and begin again.

2. You're Slamming the Bar to the Floor Between Reps

After you've come up to standing with your deadlift and then returned to the floor, if you are bouncing the weight off of the floor instead of setting it down calmly and with control, this might inhibit your strength.

Why Is This Bad?

By bouncing the weight off of the floor between reps, you're preventing yourself from getting the full tension of the entire rep.  The weight, when bounced or slammed to the floor, may rebound to as far as your shins, so from your shins up, is where your strength will be and you will be weak from the floor to your shins.  This also prevents you from resetting the back to neutral.

How to Fix It

If you're slamming down the weight or bouncing it off of the floor for the simple fact that you're losing strength, the best thing to do would be to lower the amount of weight on the bar to where you can perform the entire deadlift correctly from start to finish.  If you are OK with the amount of weight that's on the bar, simply take it all the way to the floor and release the tension for every rep.

3. You're Leaning Back at the Top of Your Deadlift

As you lift the bar off of the floor and come to standing, you may find yourself arching your back and pulling the bar with you as your shoulders lean back behind your hips.  You may see a lot of power-lifters doing this to show the judges that they've completely locked out.

Why Is This Bad

Leaning back at the top of a deadlift puts excessive squeezing pressure on your spinal discs.  This can most definitely result in a herniated disc or other injury.

How to Fix It

As you come to the top of your deadlift to lock out, keep your back neutral and make sure that your shoulders are in line with your hips.  Don't go any further.

Crossfitters and kettlebell enthusiasts in gyms everywhere have run into this problem:  what do you do with your wedding or engagement ring while you're exercising?  Intense workouts can damage or dent your jewelry, while you risk losing your ring during outdoor adventures.  If you're the type of person who still wants everyone to know you're married even when you've safely stashed your ring in your gym bag, the creators of QALO ring ($20-$60) have a solution.

The QALO founders told us that they developed the inexpensive rings as a way to "show our commitment of marriage and wear a comfortable wedding band that could withstand our active lifestyle."  Made of medical-grade silicone, the ring is a temporary replacement for your main bling and lets you be as active and intense as you want without worrying about what's on your finger.  Would you showcase your love to your spouse all the time with a QALO ring, or is taking off your wedding ring until it's safe to wear it again enough of a declaration of your devotion?

With Halloween parties on the way, it's time to get (or keep) those abs in tip-top shape!  The next time you hit the gym or go to stretch after a workout, bring these three ab exercises to your usual routine.  This combination doesn't take very long, nor does it require equipment (commercial break activity, anyone?), but the combination of the three will tighten and tone your tummy in no time, so you can rock that costume or LBD with confidence.

Russian Twist

Russian twists are a great way to tone your abs, especially your obliques.  You can do them without equipment, but for quicker results, try holding a dumbbell or adding a medicine ball at chest height.  Watch this video for a few Russian twist variations, or follow these steps:

• Sit on the ground with your knees bent and your heels about a foot from your bum.
• Lean slightly back without rounding your spine at all.  It is really important, and difficult, to keep your back straight, so don't let it curve.
• Place your arms straight out in front of you with your hands holding either side of the dumbbell.  Your hands should be level with the bottom of your ribcage.
• Pull your navel to your spine, and twist slowly to the left.  The movement is not large and comes from the ribs rotating, not from your arms swinging.  Inhale through center, and rotate to the right.  This completes one rep.  Lift your feet off the ground for a more advanced variation.
• Do 16 full rotations.

Toe Touches

If you often do traditional crunches, try bumping up the intensity with toe touches.  The challenge here is trying not to bend your knees to fully target your upper abs.  Follow these easy steps:

• Lie on your back on the floor.  Raise your arms to your ears or directly above your chest.
• Without lifting your hips from the ground, raise your legs, holding them there throughout the set.
• Use your abs to slowly curl your shoulders off the ground, bringing your fingertips to your toes.  Now slowly lower your shoulders to the ground, pausing at the starting position to complete one rep.  Don't use your neck as momentum to make the motion.
• Do 20 reps.

Elbow Plank

A traditional elbow plank offers total-body tone and is a great way to target your entire middle.  There are many variations to challenge your plank, but first master the basic elbow plank following these steps:

• Start on the floor resting on your forearms and knees.
• Step your feet out one at a time, coming into a plank position.
• Contract your abs to prevent your booty from sticking up or sinking.  Your spine should be parallel to the floor, with your abs pulling toward the ceiling.
• Hold for 30 seconds;  work your way up to one minute as you build strength.

Circuit workouts are a great technique to keep things interesting and bust boredom at the gym, and it doesn't hurt that this workout gets your heart rate up while building strong muscles!  Learn how to do all the moves in the three circuits, and then get the printable poster of the workout here.  This way you can always have it on hand at the gym.