isvara pranidhana

Dunno about the asthma. I'd wonder whether chest-opening poses might help.

I *prefer* to do yoga without a mat-- but only on a hardwood floor (not carpet). Depends on the position, too. In class I usually compromise by having my hands on the floor and my feet on the mat, because my hands slip on the mat (I don't know why; they don't sweat at all).

Well, that's handy because we have hardwood floors. :) What about vinyl floors? We'll be moving soon, and the floors at our new house will be all vinyl.

I like my big towel. I tend to slide all over on my mat once the sweating begins.

Urgh, yeah, same here. Waste of money, mats.

See, I'd feel like I'd break my bum on a towel.

I noticed after commenting that you say you have hardwoods. That might be danger. I've always used a towel on carpeted floors.

Not sure about the asthma thing either. Might want to ask your instructor.

One of the ladies at my studio does her sun salutations without a mat and she seems fine. She does use the mat for poses where the little bit of cushion is helpful. Me, I prefer having the mat. And hardwood floors are definitely best.

:)

Yes, yoga can be very helpful for us asthmatics!

First, the chest opening poses are great (I especially like camel, but sometimes I just clasp my hands behind my back and open my chest up, that's quite nice).

Secondly, the relaxation is good. Stress is bad for asthma.

And thirdly, yoga really has a lot to teach us about breathing. Deep consistant breathing. Not getting frightened when an attack comes, but sitting with it until the meds kick in or until it passes.

In terms of a mat -- I don't always use my mat, but you HAVE to have clean floors to do that if you're asthmatic. I'm sure you could have figured that out, but I thought I should say it anyway :D Hardwood is good. Vinyl I think I'd slip on, but I don't know. A towel might help.

I'm not sure abnout asthma itself, but yoga is extremely helpful for clearing stuffy noses and sinus headaches. It's great for whenever I have a cold.

I did the YogaZone yoga workouts twice a day every day for about 3 months when they were on Channel Health in the UK, and in all that time, I didn't need to use my inhaler more than maybe once or twice at the start. Dunno about specific poses, but the ones that I felt gave the best benefit were the sessions where the instrctor said he was going to take us through an ashtanga vinyasa workout, and I've since found the MTV yoga workout very useful in the same respect, and that's another ashtanga vinyasa session, so I'd say ones where you have to breathe in a controlled and rythmic manner and at the same time really exert your muscles and work up a sweat. Because you're concentrating on breathing but you're having to move maybe a bit faster than you might want to pace yourself, and are therefore doing work, I figure maybe it makes your body adapt and become more efficient at using what oxygen you do get. Plus all the chest-opening, thoracic spine stretching stuff tends to be good, especially if you get a lot of gunk in your lungs living near main roads and suchlike.

The best thing yoga has done for my asthma is shown me how to breathe through my nose. The breath work in general has been pretty useful, actually.

Nothing I'd ditch my meds for. But helpful just the same.

you might want to do a search on the Yogajournal.com site for asthma, it'll probably produce a couple asana's that might help you out. if it's seriously an issue, maybe consider some private lessons from a yoga therapist?

as far as the mat, every yoga body is different :) luckily there are all kinds of mats out there! some are bamboo, some environmentally conscious, some have a towel-like surface; the possibilities are endless so you might as well try any option you can.

good luck finding what works for you :)