Yesterday’s Yoga Clinic was about recommended asanas (yoga postures) to practice every day. Please note, this is a personal opinion explaining which pose along with a short explanation as to why.
1. Tadasana and Raised Tadasana (Mountain Pose)
-Good for balance, anxiety, and a preparatory pose for balancing poses. Good for postural awareness, creating a neutral pelvis, elongating the spine (pushing up, rooting down). Good for generating strength for difficult times as you’re channeling the strongest structure you can. Beautiful, expansive, rooted and stable. In raised Tadasana, you rise up from your heels as you expand and lift your arms while focusing on a drishti (focal point).
2. Balasana (Child’s Pose)
-This is a pose where magic happens when the breath is engaged. It’s a resting pose during a vigorous practice, a transitional pose or segway-going from belly to back or to standing, a Yin pose with thighs touching or wide and also a restorative pose. It brings gentle length down to the tailbone, balances out backward bending poses, stimulates/activates the digestive system and is an inversion (heart above brain). In balasana, the student is folding forward so it’s a good pose for anxiety.
3. Salabasana (Locust or half locust pose)
-Locust pose is a back bend and backward bending poses stimulate and tone the sympathetic nervous system (the fight or flight response in the body). It energizes the body and helps to improve focus. Practicing locust pose involves core strength when practiced on the floor. As we engage the core muscles, we’re also lengthening and extending the entire spine, thus strengthening the back muscles, particularly the low back. Some other amazing benefits of this pose are that it opens the chest, which we all often collapse during the day due to our posture and how much time we spend sitting. Locust is great for strengthening the gluteal muscles in the butt that support the back, and it tones the inner thighs, hamstrings, adductors and calf muscles. When we put our body weight and balance into our abdomen (if practicing the mat version) the internal organs get a massage and we activate our digestive system, getting everything moving along effectively.
4. Setu Bandhasana (Bridge Pose)
-Stretches the chest, neck, and spine. Builds butt muscles that support the back, specifically gluteus maximus. Calms the brain and helps alleviate stress and mild depression. Stimulates abdominal organs, lungs, and thyroid. Bridge pose rejuvenates tired legs and improves digestion. It helps relieve the symptoms of menopause, relieves menstrual discomfort when done supported, reduces anxiety, fatigue, backache, headache, and insomnia. It is therapeutic for asthma, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, and sinusitis
5. Viparita Karani (Legs up the wall or legs up the chair)
One of the best yoga postures to use for back issues and overall relaxation. While not considered an inversion, it benefits the body by helping the blood circulate toward the upper body and head, thus creating a feeling of restoration. It helps realign the body after prolonged standing or sitting and is particularly nice if you’re feeling stressed, fatigued, or even jet-lagged. It’s a posture that promotes the feeling of the myriad of positive results of doing less, not more. It creates a paradigm shift in the mind and activates the relaxation response in the parasympathetic nervous system (a countering of the fight or flight response in the sympathetic nervous system).
In Yin Yoga, a more passive and meditative form of yoga, this posture targets the kidney and benefits the urinary bladder meridian. It helps to reduce swelling in the body and tempers overall anxiety. It’s also effective for fatigue and insomnia. Note: Another variation of this posture is legs up the chair. Contraindications: Glaucoma, Hypertension, and Hernia.
6. Surya Namaskaram (Sun Salutation)
-Considered a complete warm up for the body and a regular practice promotes balance in the body/mind. It improves blood circulation, strengthens the heart, tones the digestive tract, stimulates abdominal muscles, respiratory system, lymphatic system, spinal nerves and other internal organs. Tones the spine , neck, shoulders, arms, hands, wrists, back and leg muscles prompting overall flexibility. Psychologically, it regulates the interconnectedness of the body, breath, and mind, thus making the student calmer and boosting energy levels.
7. Cherry pick body segments from Yoga for Arthritis practice (taught twice a month) based on what the student is feeling in that particular body part. But also keep in mind that everything is connected and what might be, for example, the shoulder, could be the neck so good to look at the “neighbors” too.