TECHNIQUE: to perform this position can help a wall to maintain balance. Spread a blanket folded in four. Sit on both knees. Interlace your fingers. Affirm on the floor at the elbows. Now keep your crown on these interlocked fingers or between both hands. Slowly raise your legs until they are vertical. In this inverted position, at least 90% of the body weight should rest on the elbows. Barely any pressure should be applied to the head or neck. Breathe through your nose, not through your mouth. At first, be this way for five seconds and, little by little, increase the time from fifteen seconds each week to twenty minutes or half an hour. Then, very slowly, lower the body. After finishing the exercise take a break of at least 5 minutes in the so-called posture of the corpse (see photo at the end of the post) to obtain the maximum benefit of the posture. There are people who perform this position for two or three hours in a row.
BENEFITS:
Physical benefits:
1. Provide the heart with a well-deserved rest, since gravity helps the venous blood to return to the heart.
2._Practiced regularly, helps strengthen the respiratory system and circulation, keeping them flexible and decreasing respiratory and cardiac rhythm at rest.
3._The body is generally favored by deep breathing, and the brain, spine and entire nervous system receive a rich supply of nutrients that renew and rejuvenate the entire body.
4._Reduce varicose veins.
Mental benefits:
1. Increase memory, concentration and intellectual capacity.
2._Improve all sensory faculties.
Pranic benefits:
1. “He who practices the posture on his head for three hours each day conquers time.” (Yoga Tatwa Upanishad).
2. Sublimate the sexual potency by transmuting the seminal energy into spiritual energy (Ojas Shakti).
2. “THE QUEEN”: THE POSTURE ON THE SHOULDERS (SARVANGASANA)
INTRODUCTION: If the posture on the head was by far the most important of all the yoga postures, this other posture on the shoulders does not go far behind either. This is a mysterious position that gives wonderful benefits. It is a panacea, a cure-all, a sovereign remedy for all diseases. It is a position that contributes to the rejuvenation of the organism, nullifies the aches and pains of old age and preserves those who practice it in permanent youth. It keeps the spine very elastic. The elasticity of this means eternal youth.The spine becomes soft and elastic like rubber. This posture prevents the premature ossification of the vertebral bones or vertebral arthrosis, the main cause of back stiffness in elderly people. Just as the posture on the head totally toned the nervous system, This easy and wonderful posture stimulates the functioning of the thyroid gland, and through it the whole body and its functions.
TECHNIQUE: spread a thick blanket on the floor and practice this position on it. You can also help yourself from a wall. Lie on your back well. Slowly raise your legs. Lift the trunk, hips and legs very vertically.Hold your back with both hands, one on each side. Rest your elbows on the floor. Press your chin against your chest. Let your shoulders and neck touch the ground well. Do not let the body shake or swing. Keep your legs straight. In this position all the weight of the body rests on the shoulders. Actually, you are standing on your shoulders with the help and support of your elbows. Concentrate on the thyroid gland in the lower front of the neck.
BENEFITS:
Physical Benefits:
1._The chin presses the throat, which increases blood flow in that area.
2._The thyroid gland is massaged and stimulated so that it reaches its optimal level of activity.
3._Centralizes the blood supply in the spine and stretches it, helping to keep it strong and elastic.
4._ Since most of the body is in inverted position, prevents venous blood from stagnating in the lower limbs and stimulates circulation, which helps reduce varicose veins.
5. Stimulates abdominal breathing, massage the heart and lungs.
Mental Benefits:
1._Alivia the lethargy and mental laziness.
2._Help cure insomnia and depression.
Pranic Benefits:
1. This position is directed to the psychic energy center, Vishuda Chakra, located in the throat area.
2. Stimulates pranic flow in the meridians of the stomach, small intestine, gallbladder and bladder, pericardium and kidneys.
3. POSITION OF THE FLEXION TOWARDS
SENTADO (PASCHIMOTANASANA)
INTRODUCTION: This is an excellent posture. It is very simple to practice but very powerful. In it, the body is folded almost in half, which produces a wide stretch of the entire back of the body, from the head to the feet. The spine acquires great elasticity and for this, permanent youth. Stimulates gastric juices The abdominal muscles are vigorously contracted, reducing abdominal fat and thinning the lower back. This position is a specific remedy for obesity. What the posture on the shoulders is for the stimulation of the endocrine glands, this one is for the stimulation of the abdominal viscera, invigorating kidneys, liver, pancreas, spleen, intestines, bladder, prostate. Relieves constipation, gastritis, dyspepsia and hepato-splenomegaly. It cures lumbago and all kinds of muscle pain in the back muscles. It stimulates the nervous system in its entirety.
TECHNICAL: spread a blanket on the floor. Sit on it with the trunk straight and the legs extended and together. Exhale and bend the trunk forward, until you hold your feet with your hands, as seen in the photo above. You can also help yourself by holding on to the feet of a piece of furniture. The inclination of the body forward must be gradual and very slow. You can sink your face between your knees, but your back should remain straight, not bent, and your chest touching your thighs. Stay in the pose for five seconds and slowly return to the sitting position, lifting the head first and then the body. Then you can inhale. Perform the posture for five seconds. Then, gradually, increase the time to ten minutes. Repeat the exercise 3 or 4 times.
When there is difficulty in completing it completely, you can try it half-way (see photo at the end of the post), that is, with one leg bent and the other stretched. After a few days, it will be possible to carry it out normally.Obese people will find it rather difficult to flex. In the case of the elderly, with a rigid spine, it will take them fifteen days or a month to achieve this position positively.
Immediately after this position, the spine must be flexed backwards, performing a complementary posture called “posture of the inclined plane” (see photo at the end of the post), in which relying only on the heels and hands the body is maintained straight. This can be repeated two or three times, staying each time a few seconds while holding your breath.
Finally you have to relax a minimum of 5 minutes in the posture of the corpse (see photo at the end of the post) to obtain the maximum benefit of the posture.
BENEFITS:
Physical benefits:
1._Provides a powerful massage to all abdominal organs.
2. Stimulates and tones the digestive organs, increases peristaltic movements and relieves and constipation and other problems.
3._Comes obesity and enlargement of the liver and spleen (hepato-splene-megalia).
4._ Regulates the functioning of the pancreas, and is very helpful for those who suffer from diabetes or hypoglycemia.
5._Mobilizes the joints and increases the elasticity of the lower back of the spine.
6._ Relieves pressure on the spine and sciatic.
7._ Strengthen and stretch the Achilles tendon.
Mental benefits:
1. It greatly increases the concentration and resistance of the mind.
2._ Invigorates the mind and nervous system, and controls many nervous problems.
Pranic benefits:
1._Equilibrate the prana; Meditation is only possible when the vital energy is centered.
2._ Establishes the perennial “youth”.
Up to here the post. What follows is a complement. In it I add afourth important position to maintain the rotational flexibility of the column and some photos of complementary positions that I mentioned above.
4. POSTURE OF ROTATION (ARDHA MATSYENDRASANA)INTRODUCTION: the rotation of the spinal column on itself is usually the first type of flexibility that is lost with age. The daily realization of this position helps to avoid it. TECHNIQUE:
Health
spread a blanket on the floor and sit on it. Flex the left leg by the knee and place the heel against the perineum, preventing it from moving from that place. Flex the right leg by the knee, and with the help of the hands rest the foot on the floor, beyond the left thigh. Then pass the left hand over the right knee and hold the foot firmly with the hand. The right knee is placed in the left axilla. Passing the right hand by the back, take the left thigh, in order to have greater mechanical advantages in the twisting movement of the spine. Now quickly turn the torso to the left and accompany this movement by rotating the neck to the right. Keep the chest up and forward. Stay in the posture for 5 seconds and slowly fold your hands and legs. Repeat the exercise for the opposite side, thereby completing the spinal torsion.
BENEFITS:
Physical benefits:
1._Help maintain the elasticity of the spine to maintain lateral mobility.
2._Help to relieve muscular problems of the back and hips.
3._ Eliminates joints from adhesions caused by rheumatism.
4._ Increases the synovial flow of the joints and makes them more active.
5._Tonifies the roots of the nerves of the spine and the sympathetic nervous system, and provides a rich blood supply.
6._Massage the abdominal muscles, thus relieving digestive problems.
7._ Benefit the gallbladder, spleen, kidneys, liver and intestines.
Mental benefits:
1._Help cure disorders of the nervous system.
2._Gives peace of mind.
Pranic benefits:
1. Increase Prana Shakti (vigor and vitality), eliminating countless diseases.
2._ It carries the Kundalini (spiritual potential energy).
5. COMPLEMENTARY POSITIONS.
The “Fish Pose”. It must be done after the “Posture on the Shoulders” . Flex the neck in the opposite direction, thus avoiding cervical rigidity.
The “Inclined Plane Pose”. It must be done after the “Sitting Bending Pose Behind” . Extends lumbar vertebrae that had been flexed thus avoiding low back pain.
Youth
The “Medium Bending Pose Sitting In Front”. This position is for those who at the beginning are not able to do the “Sitting Bending Pose” completed either by obesity or by age. After a few days or weeks practicing it you will be able to do the whole posture.
Eternal Youth
The “Corpse Pose”. It serves to RELAX . In Yoga as important is to make the posture as relax after doing it to feel all its effects. You have to relax after each of the postures for a few minutes and at the end of each session for about 10 minutes.