1. Standing Forward Bend (Uttanasana)
Duration: 15 to 30 seconds | 2 Sets
Let’s start the routine with a nice stretch. Keep your legs straight and close together. Bend forward from your hips and try to reach the floor without bending your knees. Your palms should be able to touch the ground when you are bending. Do not force yourself too much at the beginning, bend as far as you can. Aim to touch your toes at first and with practice, you can proceed to touch the ground. The forward bend gives a nice stretch to your hamstrings and makes them strong and flexible.
2. Chair Pose (Utkatasana)
Duration: 30 seconds | 2 Sets
Now slowly shift into the chair pose. The chair pose is like a squat or a wall sit. Bend your legs at the knees and stick out your hips. Balance your body on the hips while you stretch the hands above your head. Sink your bottom towards the ground and stretch your hands towards the ceiling. Keep the core muscles engaged and see that your legs are parallel to each other. The chair pose will work on your hamstrings, quads, and shoulders.
3. Downward Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana)
Duration: 60 seconds
Transition to the downward-facing dog poses slowly. Take your feet back slowly and make sure your heels are touching the ground. Your hips are up in the air, while you extend your arms and touch the ground with your palms. Bend your head to open the shoulder bones. In this pose, you are making a triangle pose with your body. You should feel the stretch from your hamstrings right to the bottom of the heels. This pose is great to build strength and to pump up your heart rate. It works your hamstrings and shoulders.
4. Camel Pose (Ustrasana)
Duration: 60 seconds
The first 3 poses help to work out the legs and thighs. Now let us work out the back. Camel pose provides a good stretch to the lower back. However, be very careful while doing the camel pose. Do not overstretch as you may risk injury. Sit on your knees and bend backward to place your palms on the top of your heels. Feel the stretch on the lower back. Hold for a minute and come back to the sitting position. Bend forward and do the child pose for a few seconds to remove any strain on the back.
5. Cobra Pose (Bhujangasana)
Duration: 15 to 30 seconds | 2 Sets
Next comes the cobra pose. This pose will stretch and strengthen the lower back, while also working out your arms. Lie on your stomach. Place your palms on the ground, close to the chest. Bend your elbows and tuck them inside. Lift your head and chest up. Make sure that you raise the body only from the chest. Your abs, hip flexors, thighs, legs, and feet are on the mat.
6. Upward Facing Dog (Urdhva Mukha Shvanasana)
Duration: 15 to 30 seconds | 2 Sets
From the cobra pose, slowly change into the upward facing dog pose. Though both the poses may seem to be similar, both of them are entirely opposite and have unique benefits. While doing this pose ensure that your shoulders are dropped away from the ears. Engage your chest and lift your body up. The backs of your feet and palms are the only parts that are on the mat while performing this pose.
7. Forearm Plank Pose (Phalakasana)
Duration: 15 to 30 seconds | 2 Sets
Now it is time to work out the abs. The forearm plank will help you to strengthen the back, abs, arms, and legs as well. To perform the forearm plank, place your elbows and arms on the ground and lift up your body to the plank position. Keep the body straight and avoid pushing up your hips while holding the position. Your arms and toes are the only parts touching the mat in this pose.
After holding this pose for a minute, you can also perform side forearm planks to make the routine a bit more challenging. The side planks will work out your obliques and help to remove the love handles. It also strengthens the whole of your upper body. Place your right elbow and arm on the ground and lift your body up. Extend the left-hand straight overhead. Balance your body on your right forearm and your toes. Hold for 30 seconds and repeat with the other hand.
8. Bridge Pose (Setu Bandha Sarvangasana)
Duration: 15 to 30 seconds | 2 Sets
The bridge pose helps to relax your back and strengthen the glutes. It also helps to reduce back pain. Lie on your back with the knees bent and feet on the floor. Slowly lift your hips, lower back, and upper back off the floor. Breathe slowly and deeply. Hold for a minute and come back to the lying position.
you can become strong with the help of yoga if you practice the 5 points of yoga everyday and turn them into a habit. These 5 points are:
1. Proper Exercise [daily practice of asanas]
The 12 basic yoga poses that are taught in the Sivananda tradition stretch the spine in every direction: front-to-back, side-to-side, and twisting to both sides; however, these postures are more than just stretching. Each asana [“steady pose”] helps to open the energy channels of the body while increasing the flexibility of the spine, strengthening the bones, and stimulating the circulatory and immune systems.
The purpose of practicing asanas is that of bringing in alignment our body and mind - so it is important to perform them in a steady and comfortable way. With regular, extended practice, asanas become a valuable tool for training in concentration, patience and endurance.
2. Proper Breathing [daily practice of Pranayama]
Pranayama is the science of breathing. Pranayama literally means “the control of prana”.
According to the philosophy of Vedanta, our breath is strongly linked to prana (or our vital life force). Also, it is the most accesible link between our body and our mind. If you come to think about it, the first thing that changes when we have a reaction to our environment is our breathing pattern.
For example, if we feel scared or anxious, our breath becomes shallow and superficial, if we are concentrated, or breath flows harmoniously from the abdomen and so on.
The practice of pranayama stems from the theory that the breath is the most handy tool that we can work with in order to influence our mind. If we learn to master our breath, then we can master our mind.
3. Proper Relaxation [Conscious Relaxation, Savasana]
As we grow up we learn many different things from our parents and teachers, we pass many exams and we accumulate much knowledge.
But few of us are actually taught the very basic knowledge of relaxation. Because some of us equate relaxation with mind-numbing activities, we end up feeling more and more tired in our everyday lives.
Proper relaxation, as it is taught in the Sivananda tradition, is a conscious process in which the mind is actively engaged.
We lay down in Savasana and bring our awareness to the body, consciously relaxing our body starting from the toes up to the head, then we do the same with our internal organs and finally with our mind. We do so by pacing this process with our internal dialogue. For example, we begin from our feet saying: “I relax my feet, I relax my feet, my feet are relaxed”, then we move upward and repeat the process with the whole body.
When we reach our mind we can visualize it as a lake that has very very still waters, or like a blue, cloudless sky.
4. Proper Diet [Vegetarian]
Eating is an intimate act.
The food we eat is fuel for our bodies and much more than that. It becomes our bodies, an integral part of our physical structure. Following this reasoning, the food we put into our bodies will influence the state of our body and the state of our mind.
This is the reason why being mindful of what we eat and how we eat it is so important.
The yogic diet is based on ayurvedic principles and it is a Sattvic diet, based on fresh fruits and vegetables that take in directly the light of the sun and that are prepared and eaten peacefully, mindfully.
5. Positive thinking and Meditation [Vedanta and Dhyana]
By calming the mind, cultivating its beneficial qualities and by training in concentration we are able to lead meaningful, productive lives and find the greatest of joys in the simplest of things.
Also, the philosophy of Vedanta stresses on the importance of following strict ethical and moral guidelines in our everyday life, the most important of these being the principle of ahimsa or non-harmfulness.
One of the quotes from Swami Sivananda that outlines the peak of our spiritual practice is the following:
“Bear insult, bear injury - highest Sadhana Bear insult, bear injury - highest Yoga.”
This should not be mistaken with the victim mentality. It is our mere willingness to train in choosing our own reaction to the outside environment and in acknowledging the fact that someone’s anger belongs to them, and as such it harms them greatly - so, based on this understanding, we can remain calm and we can grow much compassion in a situation like this!
Finally, through cultivating the habit of awareness and presence we can truly be there for ourselves and others, and thus benefit ourselves and those around us.
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