Life is too short for you to sit and mourn about the sad days of flab build ups and indigestion’s, about stunted hair growths and depressions and mostly, uncontrolled feelings. Believe it or not, with yoga there is a solution for everything. Often depression and emotions are linked to unhealthy body.
An unhealthy body broods a sad human and to top things off, the flab buildup that you so carefully had it in control during your 20s, now gave up on you. This is why in today’s topic, we shall talk about the varsities and benefits of one such yoga amongst the many in the lot. Even though the catalogue will spoil you with choices, let’s make baby steps into taking one at a time. How about your day starting with Uthihita parsvakonasana?
Beginner’s Tips:
If you are new to this, here are some things you must know.
- Start doing on an empty stomach. This means, you, bowel should also be clean.
- Morning is the ideal time to practice it and in case you miss out, practice in the evening, making sure there is at least a gap of 5 hours from your meal and practice time.
- At any point if you experience pain in any part of your body, stop right away. Always remember to seek expert guidance before you try on your own.
See More: Uttana Kurmasana
Precautions:
- If you have a broken hip or soft marrow, it is better that you opt out of it since the marrow twisting into your waist might be fatal for you if gone wrong.
- Not suitable for those with a weak nervous system or weak joints. Since this pose exerts pressure in the joints, it may put you in an uncomfortable pose.
Contraindications:
- Headache is a common contraindication that is associated with this. Stop practicing if your experience headache or migraine. Or stay away from practicing it if you experience any of this. Since the pose involves movement of the neck and the eyes, those suffering with migraine might experience problems while doing this.
- If you have a neck problem, do not turn to look at the top arm. You could look straight ahead and lengthen the sides of your neck evenly. Alternatively, look down on the floor.
- The other common contraindication is insomnia and high or low blood pressure.
How to Do it?
The Uthihita Parsvakonasana is also known by its English name as the Extended Side Angle Pose.Uthihita in Sanskrit means ‘stretched’, parsva means ‘side’, kona means ‘angle’ and asana is ‘posture’.
This is one of the many yoga names that literally stand for their final stance, usually the name imitating the final position. Fortunately, this is one of the easy ones and can be performed by beginners without any difficulty.
However, to master it, practice should be consistently maintained. It will take a lot of patience and time to master it.
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Get Started.
- Standing on your yoga mat take a deep breath and let it out, straightening your spine in the ordeal. Your neck should be aligned with the spine as you look forward locking your gaze in.
- Now lift one foot of the floor and place it a few steps ahead of you. This can be either of your legs, here let’s just say the right.
- Your left leg should still be straight as you form a soft inverted V with your lower body. The spacing between the two legs should be enough to create a soft stretch but not too much discomfort.
- Now start bending down moving your body forward your left leg still straight as your right leg bends down all the way till the thighs are parallel to the ground, your foot and the knee joint centrally aligned.
Resting only your stomach on your knee now make a slight twist to the other side. Since your right leg is up here, twist to the right.
As you use your right arm as a base of support swing your left arm up and over your head keeping it straight. You will now feel a slight stretch as you move the arm backwards, your neck tilting alongside.
Lock the position for some good seconds before releasing.
Why Should you Do It?
- As you stretch out your lower limbs, you are unknowingly partaking in a leg workout which will not only firm and tone them but also stretch them out. A few months into this yoga and soon you will feel a few inches being added to your torso length.
- The stretching is not limited to the lower body only as the stretching up your waist also stretches out your upper body which once again is a good height increasing technique.
- You can now avoid unnecessary cardiac arrests with this stance. When you stretch your arms up, you will definitely feel a soft stretch in your arm that would mean that your heart muscles are being put to over work clearing out the clogged arteries and ventricles.
- This is also a good intestinal exercise where your abdomen now twisted and stretched gives a good workout to the organs within resulting in proper digestion and increased metabolism.
- It stretches your groins, spine, waist and shoulders.
- It stimulates the abdominal organs and will increase your stamina
See More: How To Do Uddiyana Bandha
Uthitita Parsvakonasana is probably a tough pose. For those beginners out there, it could be hard on the joints. The pose also demands a well understanding of your body and the alignment of it. Start with supervision and go slow. The pose demands patience and perseverance to get the art right. But once done, you will be able to reap many benefits out of it, that will positively benefit your body.
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