How to Do Wheel Pose, Chakrasana

The word ‘Chakra’ means wheel. While doing this posture our body would look like a wheel, so it is called ‘Wheel Pose’, too. This is one of the poses of the yoga system known as Hatha Yoga. This helps in balancing the relationship between our mind and body. The posture given here is known as Supta Chakrasana, too.

Both men and women can do this posture. The women should avoid doing this pose during pregnancy. If a pregnant woman gets advice to practice certain yoga posture as an exercise, she should do it in the presence of a trained teacher only.

How to Do Wheel Pose, Chakrasana

• Arrange your yoga mat properly and lye on your back. Bend you knees in a manner that both the feel remain flat on the floor. The distance between two feet should be as wide as your hip.

• Press the feet firmly on the floor and inhale slowly. Then try to lift the hip portion upward. While doing so you would lift your thighs and buttocks on the up side direction.

• Now use the hands. Put the palms firmly on floor keeping fingers facing your head. In order to lift your shoulder, just try to straighten your arms slowly but steadily. After the shoulders, your head also would be above the floor. When the legs and arms are fully stretched upward, the Wheel Pose is complete.

• Here you can hold yourself in Chakrasana until you feel pain. You can inhale and exhale, but try to keep breath inside for more time. It would give you strength to hold the posture for long.

• While coming back from this posture, do it slowly. Get you head down by bending elbow and then let the shoulders touch the floor. There after let the body rest in flat position or in corpse pose. It would help in decreasing fatigue.

Benefits of Doing Wheel Pose

The Chakrasana, the wheel pose is one of the poses defined in Hatha Yoga system. Due to its posturing of our body, we can name it as Beck-Bend Pose. It would help in making our breathing system balanced. If we breathe following the natural rhythm, we would achieve many benefits or we can avoid many physical illness. The physical side of benefits of such backbend postures is multi-faced.

Those who are suffering from Sciatica Pain, they can arrive benefit by doing wheel pose. But care must be taken if more pain is felt; in this case do this asana in the presence of a trained yoga instructor. A person feeling back pain would find it relieving a little bit. In the beginning this posture should be done in the presence of a trained teacher. You can join a good yoga classes where advanced yoga is practiced and taught.

If this posture is done with wearing proper yoga outfit, it would make you feeling more comfortable. A good yoga suit and a long yoga mat are advisable. While relaxing, you can use a soft yoga cushion. [First Image courtesy By Marcocarvalho [CC-BY-3.0], from Wikimedia Commons , Second Image courtesy By http://theholisticcare.com [null], from Wikimedia Commons]

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How to Do Downward Dog Posture, Adho Mukh Swanasana

The word Adho means downward and Mukh means the face. Thus literally the meaning of Adho Mukh would be downward face. This posture is called Downward Dog Posture or Down Dog pose.

You can repeat this posture as many times as you wish. But ensure that it should not result in fatigue or over stretching of any muscle.

How to Do Downward Dog Posture

• Sit in a positing where your knees are together and your buttocks are touching your hills. Keep the spine and head in a straight position. You can sit in the posture called Thunderbolt (Vajrasana)

• Arrange your hands as far as possible from your knees. Put the palms facing downward on your yoga mat, keeping your fingers wide.

• Come on to your knees and then lift the knees from the floor. Stretch your tailbone towards ceiling.

• Put your paws flat on the floor or yoga mat. At this moment your head should feel free and resting.

• Ensure that your paws are kept as wide as your hips and the palms are as wide as your shoulders.

Benefits of Doing Dog Posture

In general the act of doing yoga postures is an exercise in stretching muscles and to increase the circulation of blood in specific parts of our body. Here are some of the benefits of doing Dog Posture.

• When we are in this pose, our heart remains at rest. The flow of blood becomes regular. This is the situation wherein our heart gets some relief. Doing Downward Facing Dog pose would help in providing rest to our heart.

• This pose stretches the muscles, which are in on either side of the back of the knees. It makes the tendon or sinews of knees working.

• This posture would create a feel of awareness. A person would feel strength after doing the same.

• As all the yoga postures would make our limbs more flexible, Down Dog pose helps keeping our body fresh and all the parts flexible. The hands, arms and legs would be actively involved in doing it.

• If we look at the curative side of this posture, a person doing it regularly might get some relief in headache and back pain.

If you feel pain in any muscle, while doing this pose, feel free to make yourself at ease. If your back is paining or hamstring is feeling uneasiness, keep you knees a little bit inside. It would ease the pain and the pressure.

Caution: Pregnant women should do this posture after taking proper instructions from a trained teacher. (Image courtesy By Joseph RENGER [GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0 or CC-BY-SA-2.5-2.0-1.0], from Wikimedia Commons)

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How To Do Lion Pose, Simhasana

Theme: How to Do Yogasanas. Yoga Postures for Health and Fitness. Lion Pose, the Simhasana

Simhasana 2, originally uploaded by tadasimha.

Meaning of the Sanskrit word ‘Simha’ is "Lion". When we are in this Yoga Posture, the shape of our body looks like a lion. Thus this asana is known as ‘Lion Pose’. This asana is one of the easy postures. Those who are beginners, they can do this pose without much assistance from their teachers. Other more complicated postures would require presence and active guidance of a trained teacher.

Lion pose is different than other poses of yoga. This is the pose that benefits our vital limbs like face, jaw, mouth, throat and tongue. There are perhaps no other similar poses which would provide exercises to these parts of our body.

How to Do Lion Pose

Step-by-Step

• Settle yourself in kneeling position on your yoga mat. You can sit in the posture called Thunderbolt. That would be the most comfortable position. Put the front of your right ankle over the back of the left. The feet should be pointing out to the sides. The perineum should be positioned in snuggling down onto the top your right heel.

• Before starting the lion pose, you are to exhale. Then put both the hands stretched on the floor. Keep the fingers of the hands wide open. You can also keep the fingers in a manner so as they look like the claws of a big bird.

• Now inhale deeply. Ensure that the inhaling should be done by nose only, and not by mouth.

• Open your mouth wide and stretch the tongue out as if you intend to touch your chin by the tongue. Keep the tip of the tongue down toward the chin. Both the eyes should be kept in widely open position.

• Then exhale slowly with uttering the sound “Ha”. Repeating of the same word would provide ample exercise to your throat muscles. You can repeat this pose as many times you wish.

• After doing this posture, you can come again to kneeling position.

Benefits of Doing Lion Pose

• This posture provides adequate exercise to the muscles of face, throat and eyes.

• While doing this asana, we would find that our respiration becomes regularized. Due to the regularized respiration, one would get improvement in certain ailments, especially if he or she is suffering from any trouble in throat.

• Regular practice of Lion Pose would help to improve the memory power. You mind would function with renewed flow of energy.

• As the pose indicates it would provide adequate exercises to the muscles of chest and abdomen, the practitioner would be benefited in this respect, too.

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How To Do Shirshasana, Headstand Posture

If the whole body of yours is supported on your forearms; if your head is touching the floor; and your feet are facing straight to the sky; you must be in the state of ‘Sirsasana’, or ‘Headstand Yoga Posture’.

As this posture makes us to stand on the strength of our head, it is named Headstand Posture. Sanskrit word for it is Shirshasna, but it is pronounced as ‘Sirsasana’ or ‘Sirshasana’, too.

Mountain yoga 5, headstand, originally uploaded by Holistic Directory.

While being on mere support of the head, we can take the assisting support of our palms or ankles as shown in these two illustrated postures.As this postures makes us to stand on the strength of our head it is named as Sirshasana, the Head Stand Posture. While being on mere support of the head, we can take the assisting support of our palms or ankles as shown in these two illustrated postures.

How to Do Shirshasana

Here is step-by-step guidance for doing this pose. It is one of the most difficult postures. But it can be done in two stages.

Stage One

• Come to kneeling position and put your forearms fully touching the floor. The fingers are to keep interlaced.

• Put your head on the area cupped by your fingers and the forearms.

• Then raise your waist as straight as possible. You can do it by taking your feet closer to head. It will send your hips over your shoulder. In this position your body would make the shape of a triangle on floor. This posture is an independent yoga posture. It is called Raja Grivasana. You can stay in this pose as long as you like.

Stage Two

• After you feel comfort in Raja Gricasana, the last pose as shown above, you would try lifting your feet and dragging knees near to your chest.

• Let the feet be settled for a while.

• The slowly and steadily try raising legs up. You should not worry if you fail to do it for one or two days.

• After the legs are straight and upward, the ‘Headstand Posture’ is completed. You are to remain in this pose for ten seconds.

• When you decide to end the pose, first put your one of the legs on the floor and then another.

Benefits of Doing Sirsasana

Like all other postures, it increases the flow of blood to our head and brain. This in turn would result in improvement of intellectual functions. It would help in increasing our memory.

It would help us to get relief from back pain or pain in leg and thigh muscles.

A person suffering from Sciatica would also be benefited. But in that case, this posture must be done in presence of a trained teacher. (Image courtesy By Joseph RENGER [GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0 or CC-BY-SA-2.5-2.0-1.0], from Wikimedia Commons)

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Sarvangasana - The Shoulder Stand

Technique

1. Lie flat on your back. Inhale deeply while raising your legs and spine until the toes point to the ceiling.
2. The body rests on the shoulders and the back of the neck. The body is supported by the hands, which are placed on the center of the spine between the waist and the shoulder blades. Keep your spine and legs straight.
3. Breathe slowly and deeply with the abdomen and concentrate on the thyroid gland. On a male, the thyroid gland is located behind the adams apple. For women, it is located in the same area which is a few inches above the sternal notch (hollow of the neck where the neck joins the rest of the body.) or approximately half way up the neck from the sternal notch. Stay in this position for as long as you can.


Benefits

* Calms the brain and helps relieve stress and mild depression
* Stretches the shoulders and neck
* Tones the legs and buttocks
* Improves digestion
* Helps relieve the symptoms of menopause
* Reduces fatigue and alleviates insomnia
* Therapeutic for asthma, infertility, and sinusitis
* The main benefit of the shoulder stand is to get the thyroid gland working at peak efficiency. It's the thyroid gland which is mainly responsible for your correct weight and youthful appearance.
* The shoulder stand also regulates the sex glands.
* It vitalizes the nerves, purifies the blood and promote good circulation, strengthens the lower organs and helps them to stay in place.
* It gives a healthy stretch to the neck muscles.
* It is beneficial for people suffering from poor circulation, constipation, indigestion, asthma and reduced virility.
* This pose is especially recommended for women after childbirth and for those suffering from painful menstruation, other female disorders, and seminal weakness.

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