Janu Sirsasana comes from the Sanskrit root words Janu, meaning “knee” and sirsa meaning “head” and asana meaning “pose”. Like many other forward bends, Janu Sirsasana is considered as a restorative pose because of its calming effect. It is also said to re-energize the body, relieving stress and anxiety Waking up at 6 in the morning and having to rush to the gym is indeed a tough job especially when you have to rush back just in time for your office or school. At this time, you really wish you could skip gym just for today, but the new generation has focused more on healthy living and body building, a plague that has taken the nation by surprise. At around this time, replacing your gym with morning yoga would do just fine. In fact, Yoga being a slow paced breathing exercise energizes and satisfies your mind and not just your body. In today’s article, we will talk about one such yoga and the benefits that you can reap from it.
Tips for Beginners (One-Legged forward bend):
Janu Sirsasana (One-Legged forward bend) is a challenging pose especially for beginners. It can take quite awhile for the hips, lower back, and hamstrings to open up enough to allow the full range of motion in these asanas. The key thing to note while doing these asanas is to develop a particular level of patience, since any kind of aggression shown during the practice of these exercises will only backfire resulting in injuries.
Janu Sirsasana (Head to Knee Yoga Pose):
The Janu Sirsasana yoga is also known as the head to knee pose derived from the very structure of the yoga posture. This is mostly a stretching exercise, not only for your outer body but also for the interiors of your body. One main disclaimer that comes along with this is that you should strictly perform this yoga empty stomach for the best results.
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How To Do It?
- Start off by laying a yoga mat and sitting on it with your legs stretched in front of you.
- Make sure your spine is straight and your neck is aligned to your marrow. While sitting with stretched legs, your toes should be pointing upwards as you straighten your leg.
- Now bend one leg, say the right one all the way to your groins. Your right knee should be sticking out now as you pull your feet all the way back.
- Make your toes touch the inner thigh of the left leg as you now exhale reaching out for the stretched leg.
- Now, with your palm grab on to the toe as you bend all the way down to your knees, your forehead eventually touching your knees.
- One might hold the breath at this point or continue with deep breaths.
- Once done retract from the position and after a deep breath start with the other leg.
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Benefits of Janu Shirsasana Yoga:
If growing taller is something you are fighting for, this is the perfect exercise for your body. These subtle stretches and pulls that you would feel while performing this exercise would help your muscles stretch which in turn will elongate your structure. This head to knee yoga posture also helps in stretching the lower back, massages and relaxes the abdominal muscles and also helps to tone the shoulders. Any sort of indigestion, gas and acidity can be relieved with this yoga by your side. While you bend down while forcing your other leg in, your stomach, especially the abdomen and intestines it houses go through a blood rush clearing out any toxin or cause for indigestion. The same thing happens to the stomach when you hold your breath and the oxygen are momentarily cut off replacing the void with a blood flow.
Precautionary Measures and Contraindications:
- The major precautions to be followed by while doing this yoga posture is to avoid dropping your sacrum backward (posterior) and round the spine.If you can’t comfortably reach the extended-leg foot, use a strap.
- Loop it around the sole of the foot and hold it with your arms fully extended. Be sure not to pull yourself forward when using the strap.
- Walk your hands lightly along the strap while you keep your arms and the front of your torso lengthened.
- The major contraindications include:
- pregnant women and those people with Asthma and Diarrhea are advised to restrain from practicing these yoga postures, unless under the strict supervision of experts.
- People with knee injuries and fractured bones are also not advised to practice these postures.
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Janu Sirsasana, like many forward bends, is considered as a restorative pose because of its calming effect. It is also said to re-energize the body, relieving stress and anxiety. Rigidity in your body is a common problem that we all face every now and then. We pull a tendon here and a nerve there every time we are not careful with our postures. This exercise will take care of the body stiffness by stretching the muscles bringing about flexibility in them.This yoga has also been related to heart where cardiac problems can be kept at bay by performing this posture. However, when you bend down this time you do have to hold your breath for a while until your heart starts beating a beat too fast.The abdomen also houses the ovaries and therefore this yoga also has a hand to play in fixing menstrual irregularities and problems. This is useful mainly for the women who constantly suffer a lot with these problems.Yoga forever is known to sanitize your mind along with your body and this is just another of the many benefits this yoga can provide you with.
