One of my favorite series on this blog is Ask a Yoga Question because I love hearing from you, and I love it even more if I can help, because there's nothing more frustrating than having a yoga question and not being able to find an answer you can trust, amiright? Anyway.
I've started seeing the same questions come up, so I thought I'd make a FAQ for reference. Here we go.
Questions about Yoga
What yoga mat do you recommend?
There are a few I like for different purposes. If you're carting a mat around to and from the studio, I'd pick the eKo lite mat by manduka (review here) or the divine mat by wellicious (review here). If you're traveling on vacation and want a super thin sticky surface for yoga, I recommend the eKo superlite mat by manduka (review here) or the Jade Voyager. If you want to park your mat on your floor at home and not move it at all, I recommend the black mat pro by manduka (review here).
How should someone start a practice and how often should they do yoga?
Yoga is all about listening to your body. So long as you feel good, you can do yoga as often as you like. Some people feel good doing it three times a week, some people feel even better practicing six times a week. It's up to you.
I personally think nothing beats having a teacher in the room so I'd suggest going to your local yoga studio. If you prefer staying home, you can check out my free yoga videos online. They're arranged by length, part of body or therapeutic focus, and level of intensity, so you should be able to find what you're looking for. If you're a beginner, just do a gentle practice. If you want a DVD, you can check out my SWEAT dvd, a 60 min power practice (here's the behind-the-scenes post on how I produced it). You can also download our YBC Official App and take our yoga vids with you anywhere. The app is really well organized with lots of great playlists to choose from. You can also check out my book, Namaslay, which is now available at most major booksellers including Barnes and Noble, amazon and indiebound.org. There's a comprehensive guide for beginners, intermediate and advanced students within the book.
Questions about blogging
What camera do you use?
We use a canon 6d and canon 5D with a few lenses: 24-70mm f/2.8 L series, 50mm f1.8 and 100mm f/2.8 macro L series.
What program do you use for making your yoga pose posts and yoga videos?
I use photoshop for our yoga pose cut outs, and Adobe PremierPro for video editing.
What lighting and microphone do you use for video editing?
We use this impact kit, this LED light and stand, and this Sennheiser mic.
Questions about lifestyle
What do you do to stay fit besides yoga?
I love lifting weights and doing hiit style workouts. You can read about how I got into the best shape of my life here.
What do your tattoos say and do you regret any of them?
I've answered that here. :)
What do you eat?
I followed the GAPS diet to heal my stomach from longterm antibiotic treatment for Lyme Disease for two years. The diet is explained in the GAPS book by Dr Natasha Campbell-McBride, but basically it eliminates all processed foods, sugar (except for honey) and grains, and adds in healing foods like fermented veggies and homemade bone broths and yogurts. The diet has helped me tremendously. You can read my 9 month update here and two year update here. Now, I am following a flexible diet and you can read about that here.
Have a yoga question? Submit it here.