Setubandha Sarvangasana over Crossed bolsters

Setu bandha Sarvangasana over Crossed bolsters

Whole body bridge pose over crossed bolsters

Restorative pose

Key Benefits

• relieves backache and strengthens back muscles
• rejuvenates pelvic area
• curative in conditions of inferiority complex, unsteady mental condition in menopause and high blood pressure
• good for hot flashes

How to get into Setu bandha Sarvangasana

1. Take two bolsters and cross them over each other like a (+), the bottom one is horizontal and the top is vertical. Belt your top center top thigh and Sit on the vertical bolster and lie back. your head and shoulders will touch the floor.
2. Take the arms out to the sides and roll the shoulders under opening the chest then either leave them there or take them over the head. 
3. Extend the legs one at a time till they are both straight heels resting on the floor or a brick. 
4. To exit slide towards the head till only the legs are on the top bolster and rest there for a few breathes.

Key Point

1. Press into the heels and move the tailbone towards the hamstrings as you roll the thighs towards on another.
2. Open the chest and spread the collarbones

Modifications:

• lower the arms so they are straight
• add a brick under the top bolster top and bottom to add more support for the chest and sacrum as seen in the picture below. 
• Add support for the head. 

Practice with Children

For the first 3 years of my Child life my yoga is my kids. That is what BKS Iyengar once said. Not to me, but was repeated to me from my teacher Carolyn Belko. So everything else I do on top of that is extra credit right? That is good because adding in an hour or hour and a half of yoga every day is hard with children. There is no good way to do it.

Best way during the day, hire someone to keep the kids occupied. I'm serious. Kids are naturally very interested in yoga. Mom is bending this way and that, she is going upside down, is a great time to copy mom and try to get her attention.

If you can't hire a babysitter for the kids, try an in house Mom's helper, they are cheaper, but still honestly how many of us can? I tried having my kids come with me to Inshape and have them be in the kids area.... ya we have gone maybe 2x since I have done that. If I do that every day then the few hours they get with me after school would be spent at the gym, and I don't want that, on top of the expense of having them on your gym membership.




So your at home, alone, with your kids what do you do? I have told my kids to go outside and play, my two older ones this works well for at least 45 minutes. My youngest it depends. I did this one time then I went and did my inversions, I got knocked over by my baby, then he gave me a bloody nose. So he goes in the crib when I get ready for inversions and I am practicing while he is awake.

If you do not have an outside to do that with then you can have them read while you do yoga, or do it during nap time. That has never worked for me because it takes me so long to get them down by the time they are down I am exhausted I want to sleep!

You can include them in your yoga. My kids have yoga mats and I have so many yoga games that I have found and the kids love them. But they are usually only good for 30 min max. And I do not feel I get a good yoga session out of it, it is more playing with the kids, which is really good to do, but not what I was trying to do.

Your other option is to do it in the morning before they get up, or wait till after they go down to bed. Honestly I typically wait till they go to bed to do yoga. I am no longer a morning person. I wish I still was and could get up at 5 for a yoga routine, but I can't. So I wait till they are asleep then pull out my mat and get a good long session in before I go to bed at night. Sometimes that means I do not start till 9pm.

I have tried SO many different options and failed at most of them, there is no right answer to do yoga with a child in your life. Just know that your child is your yoga practice and everything else is extra. I reminded that to myself the other night when my baby needed me at 9:30 and took over my yoga practice.

Salamba Sarvangasana on the Chair

Salamba Sarvangasana in Chair

Supported shoulder stand in chair

Inverted pose

                                             

Key Benefits

• Panacea for most common ailments
• Bathes endocrine organs, ductless glands in blood- thyroid and parathyroid venous blood flows to heard wit h no strain
• Healthy blood circulates around neck and chest, suffering from breathlessness, palpitation, asthma, bronchitis, throat ailments get relief
• Nerves are soothed, headaches disappear
• Eradicates common colds and nasal disturbances
• Hypertension, irritation, shortness of temper nervous breakdown, insomnia are relieved
• Bowels move freely constipation vanishes, system is freed of toxins one feels full of of energy
• Recommended for urinary disorder,uterine displacement, menstrual troubles, piles and hernia
• Relieve epilepsy, low vitality, anemia
• Feel new vigor and strength and be happy and confident, new lift will flow to him
• Activates abdominal organs, relieves suffering from stomach and intestinal ulcers, severe pains from abdomen and colitis

How to get into Salamba Sarvangasana 

1. Have chair near the wall. Sit in chair with knees over the bar of the chair. 
2. Hook your ankles against the bar of the chair and start to lower yourself down the chair curling your back as you go down letting your hands go down the bar of the chair till you touch the bolster or blankets.  
3. Roll your shoulders under and take your arms to the inside back bar of the chair
4. Straighten your legs
5. To come out lower your feet to the bar of the chair and slide down the seat of the chair till only your legs rest on the seat of the chair. 

Key Point

1. Press the outer shoulders down and move them towards the elbow as you take the shoulder blades in and broaden the chest.
2. Coil and lift the armpit chest
3. Roll the thighs from outside in, take the thighs back and take the tailbone in as you extend  the inner legs to the inner heels.
4. Lengthen the sides of the chest from the armpits to the hips and the the outer hips in.
5. Be sure the extensionof the legs reaches the feet  and open the mounds of the toes.
6. Relax the neck, face and jaw as you look forwards the chest.

Modifications:

• lower the lower the legs so they rest on the wall. 

Viparita Dandasana

Viparita Dandasana

Inverted staff pose

Backbend pose

Key Benefits

• Keeps the spine sound and healthy while chests expands fully.
• One also feels feels the effects of Sirsasana
• Relieves pain in Coccyx region of spine
• Soothing effect on mind, so the emotionally disturbed find it a great boon

How to get into Viparita Dandasana

1. Open a chair place the bar towards the wall and put a mat or blanket on top.  
2. Sit facing the the wall walking the legs in one by one. Belt the thighs. 
3. Sit in the chair so the tailbone is as close to the back edge of the chair. Hold onto the top of the chair.  
4. Slide down the arm of the chair as you bring the torso over the front seat of the chair where the tips of the shoulder blades are barely off the chair.  
5. Extend the legs straight towards the wall either so the heel touches the floor or to a brick. The chair may slide away from the wall.  
6.  Bring the hands under the chair taking hold of the back bar of the chair and rolling the shoulders under turning the palms around.
7. Stay here for 3-5 min. 
8. Release the hands and bring them to the front bar of the chair. Bend the legs. Take an inhalation lift with the chest and come back to a seated position. Rest here. Remove the legs one by one. 

Key Point

1. Roll the shoulders out and under expanding the chest and opening the diaphragm. 
2. Press the heels onto the floor or bricks and move the tailbone to the hamstrings. 
3. Roll the thighs together. 

Modifications:

• Lift the feet higher so they are in line with the thighs. 
• Don't bring the arms under the chair.
• Rest the head on a bolster.

Adho Mukha Vrksasana

Adho Mukha Vrksasana

Downward facing tree pose

Inverted pose

Key Benefits

• develops the body harmoniously. It strengthens the shoulders, arms and wrists and extands the chest fully

How to get into Urdhva Hastasana

1. Stand a 6-8 inches away from the wall come into Urdhva Hastasana and then to Uttanasana with hands shoulder width wide with the palms turn out away from one another.
2. Step the left leg back and kick one leg up followed by the other placing the legs against the wall.
3. Hold this position for as long as you can.
4. Come down one leg at a time

Key Points

1. Keep the arms straight and firm. 
2. Press into your hands and extend the whole body upwards towards the ceiling. 
3. Keep the legs fully stretched toes pointing up lifting the head up as far as you can. 

Modifications:

• Step on a chair then kick up against the wall
• Half hand stand
• sit against the wall, mark where your hips are then place your hands there. Walk your feet up a wall till they are parallel to the floor. Hold that position for a few breathes 

Adho Mukha Svanasana

Adho Mukha Svanasana

Downward facing dog pose

Standing pose

Key Benefits

• Removes fatigue and brings back lost energy
• Good for runners who get tired after a hard race, sprinters will develop speed and lightness in the legs.
• Relieves pain and stiffness in the heels and helps soften calcaneal spurs
• Strengthens ankles and makes legs shapely
• Eradicate stiffness in region of should blades arthritis of shoulder joins is relieved
• Abdominal muscles are drawn towards spine and strengthened
• Diaphragm is lifted heard rate is slowed down
• Rejuvenates brain cells, and relieving fatigue
• Good for High Blood Pressure

How to get into Adho Mukha Svanasana

1. Place thumb and index finger at the wall and spread the other fingers, step your feet back, press your hands into the wall and floor crease to bring your buttocks towards the ceiling.
2. Step your feet towards your hands and come up.

Key Point

1. Press the index and thumb into the wall and roll the triceps together. As you continue that action bring the shoulder blades together and move the torso towards the crown of the buttocks.  Relax the head. 
2. Lift the kneecaps and press the top center thigh back so much that the heels come to the floor. Now lift the inner heel to the inner knee and groin to the crown of the buttocks, as youlengthen theout knee ligament and  roll the groins from the inside out.
3. Contineu to press into the hands and move the torso towards the crown of the buttocks as you press into the heel and lift the inner leg up to the crown of the buttocks. 

Modifications:

• If can’t put hands on floor in uttanasana, bend knees put hands on floor then walk feet abck
• Place heels on a wall if can’t press into ground
• Place crown of head on pillow
• Hands at wall

Urdhva Hastasana

Urdhva Hastasana

Upward hand pose

Standing pose

Key Benefits

• One can feel lighter in the body and mind
• acquires agility
• For an alert body and alert mind and brain

How to get into Urdhva Hastasana

1. Stand in Tadasana with arms extended by the sides, palms facing the thighs, shoulders rolling back as well as down.
2. Exhale, extend the arms straight forward and above the head the upper arm should be in in line with the ears, palms facing each other

Key Point

1. Extend from the inner arms to the inner wrists
2. Squeeze the biceps and triceps together
3. Keep the shoulders away from the ears and spread the collarbones

Modifications:

• lower the arms so they are straight