carole baker ~ health & wellness adviser ~ yoga teacher ......carole baker ~ health &...

carole baker ~ health & wellness adviser ~ yoga teacher

t: 07770 766744 e: [email protected]

www.carolebaker.co.uk

yoga posture info 5 postures for stress relief

UPWARD FACING DOG POSE Benefits • Improves posture • Strengthens the spine, arms, wrists • Stretches chest and lungs, shoulders, and abdomen • Firms the buttocks • Stimulates abdominal organs • Helps relieve mild depression, fatigue, and sciatica • Therapeutic for asthma

Precautions • Back injury • Carpal tunnel syndrome • Headache • Pregnancy

How to do it

Step by Step

Lie prone on the floor. Stretch your legs back, with the tops of your feet on the floor. Bend your elbows and spread your palms on the floor beside your waist so that your forearms are relatively perpendicular to the floor.

Inhale and press your inner hands firmly into the floor and slightly back, as if you were trying to push yourself forward along the floor. Then straighten your arms and simultaneously lift your torso up and your legs a few inches off the floor on an inhalation. Keep the thighs firm and slightly turned inward, the arms firm and turned out so the elbow creases face forward.

Press the tailbone toward the pubis and lift the pubis toward the navel. Narrow the hip points. Drop the pelvis but draw the navel up to the spine.

Firm the shoulder blades against the back and puff the side ribs forward. Lift through the top of the sternum but avoid pushing the front ribs forward, which only hardens the lower back. Look straight ahead or tip the head back slightly, but take care not to compress the back of the neck and harden the throat.




CHILD’S POSE Benefits • Stress

• Gently stretches the hips, thighs, and ankles • Calms the brain and helps relieve stress and fatigue • Relieves back /neck pain when done with head/ torso supported

Precautions • Diarrhoea • Pregnancy • Knee injury: ask for the supervision of an experienced teacher.

How to do it

Step by Step

Kneel on the floor. Touch your big toes together and sit on your heels, then separate your knees about as wide as your hips.

Exhale and lay your torso down between your thighs. Broaden your sacrum across the back of your pelvis and narrow your hip points toward the navel, so that they nestle down onto the inner thighs. Lengthen your tailbone away from the back of the pelvis while you lift the base of your skull away from the back of your neck.

Lay your hands on the floor alongside your torso, palms up, and release the fronts of your shoulders toward the floor. Feel how the weight of the front shoulders pulls the shoulder blades wide across your back. If you can’t get your head on the floor put a cushion or block down or similarly put under your bottom.

This is a resting pose. Stay anywhere from 30 seconds to a few minutes. Beginners can also use this to get a taste of a deep forward bend, where the torso rests on the thighs. Stay in the pose from 1 to 3 minutes. To come up, first lengthen the front torso, and then with an inhalation lift from the tailbone as it presses down and into the pelvis




SHOULDERSTAND POSE Benefits • Calms the brain and helps relieve stress and mild depression • Stimulates the thyroid and prostate glands and abdominal organs • Stretches the shoulders and neck • Improves digestion • Helps relieve the symptoms of menopause • Reduces fatigue and alleviates insomnia • Therapeutic for asthma, infertility, and sinusitis

Precautions • Headache, High blood pressure, Menstruation, Neck injury • Pregnancy: If you are experienced with this pose, you can

continue to practice it late into pregnancy. However, don't take up the practice after you become pregnant.

How to do it Step by Step

Option : Fold two or more firm blankets into rectangles measuring about 1 foot by 2 feet, and stack them one on top of the other. You can place a sticky mat over the blankets to help the upper arms stay in place while in the pose. Then lie on the blankets with your shoulders supported (and parallel to one of the longer edges) and your head on the floor. Lay your arms on the floor alongside your torso, then bend your knees and set your feet against the floor with the heels close to the sitting bones. Exhale, press your arms against the floor, and push your feet away from the floor, drawing your thighs into the front torso.

Continue to lift by curling the pelvis and then the back torso away from the floor, so that your knees come toward your face. Stretch your arms out parallel to the edge of the blanket and turn them outward so the fingers press against the floor (and the thumbs point behind you). Bend your elbows and draw them toward each other. Lay the backs of your upper arms on the blanket and spread your palms against the back of your torso. Raise your pelvis over the shoulders, so that the torso is relatively perpendicular to the floor. Walk your hands up your back (toward the floor) without letting the elbows slide too much wider than shoulder width.

Inhale and lift your bent knees toward the ceiling, bringing your thighs in line with your torso and hanging the heels down by your buttocks. Press your tailbone toward your pubis and turn the upper thighs inward slightly. Finally inhale and straighten the knees, pressing the heels up toward the ceiling. When the backs of the legs are fully lengthened, lift through the balls of the big toes. If this is not possible do the whole posture lying with your bottom against a wall and walk your legs up the wall instead.

Firm the shoulder blades against the back, and move the sternum toward the chin. Press the backs of your upper arms and the tops of your shoulders actively into the blanket support, and try to lift the upper spine away from the floor. Gaze softly at your chest. Start with 30 secs and build up daily. To come down, exhale, bend your knees into your torso again, and roll your back torso slowly and carefully onto the floor, keeping the back of your head lifted.




PLOUGH POSE Benefits • Calms the brain • Stimulates the abdominal organs and the thyroid gland • Stretches the shoulders and spine • Helps relieve the symptoms of menopause • Reduces stress and fatigue • Therapeutic for backache, headache, infertility, insomnia Precautions • Diarrhoea • Menstruation • Neck injury • Asthma & high blood pressure: Practice it with the legs supported on props e.g a chair • Pregnancy: If you are experienced with this pose, you can continue to practice it late into

pregnancy. However, don't take up the practice of Plough after you become pregnant. • With the feet on the floor, this pose is considered to be intermediate to advanced. It is not

advisable to perform the pose in this way without sufficient prior experience or unless you have the supervision of an experienced teacher

How to do it

Step by Step

From Shoulderstand , exhale and bend from the hip joints to slowly lower your toes to the floor above and beyond your head. As much as possible, keep your torso perpendicular to the floor and your legs fully extended. If your toes don’t reach the floor try walking your legs down a wall or onto the back of the sofa, they will reach the floor in good time.

With your toes on the floor, lift your top thighs and tailbone toward the ceiling and draw your inner groins deep into the pelvis. Imagine that your torso is hanging from the height of your groins. Continue to draw your chin away from your sternum and soften your throat.

You can continue to press your hands against the back torso, pushing the back up toward the ceiling as you press the backs of the upper arms down, onto your support. Or you can release your hands away from your back and stretch the arms out behind you on the floor, opposite the legs. Clasp the hands and press the arms actively down on the support as you lift the thighs toward the ceiling.

Plough is usually performed after Shoulderstand for anywhere from 1 to 5 minutes. To exit the pose bring your hands onto your back again, lift back into Shoulderstand with an exhalation, then roll down onto your back, or simply roll out of the pose on an exhalation.




BRIDGE POSE Benefits

• Stress • Stretches the chest, neck, and spine • Calms brain & helps alleviate stress/mild depression • Stimulates abdominal organs, lungs, and thyroid • Rejuvenates tired legs / Improves digestion • Helps relieve the symptoms of menopause • Relieves menstrual discomfort when done supported • Reduces anxiety, fatigue, backache, headache, insomnia • Therapeutic for asthma, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, and sinusitis • Strengthens the pelvic floor

Precautions :Neck injury How to do it Step by Step

Lie supine on the floor, and if necessary, place a thickly folded blanket under your shoulders to protect your neck. Bend your knees and set your feet on the floor, heels as close to the sitting bones as possible.

Exhale and, pressing your inner feet and arms actively into the floor, push your tailbone upward toward the pubis, firming (but not hardening) the buttocks, and lift the buttocks off the floor. Keep your thighs and inner feet parallel. Clasp the hands below your pelvis and extend through the arms to help you stay on the tops of your shoulders.

Lift your buttocks until the thighs are about parallel to the floor. Keep your knees directly over the heels, but push them forward, away from the hips, and lengthen the tailbone toward the backs of the knees. Lift the pubis toward the navel. Don’t clench the buttocks

Lift your chin slightly away from the sternum and, firming the shoulder blades against your back, press the top of the sternum toward the chin. Firm the outer arms, broaden the shoulder blades, and try to lift the space between them at the base of the neck (where it's resting on the blanket) up into the torso.

Stay in the pose anywhere from 30 seconds to 1 minute. Release with an exhalation, rolling the spine slowly down onto the floor.

With thanks to www.yogajournal.com/poses

Please take care in all poses, if unsure please come to a class or ask for a private lesson. Consult your GP if taking medications.

carole baker ~ health & wellness adviser ~ yoga teacher ......carole baker ~ health &...

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