Satymeva Jayate

YOGASAN

YOGA POSTURES

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Standing Deep Breathing

Pranayama Series

Benefits:

Teaches you to use 100 percent of your lungs.
Most people use only a small percentage of their lung capacity, never allowing the lungs to reach the maximum expansion that nature intended.
Expands the lungs and increases circulation, elevating your core temperature and preparing the muscles for exercise. ________________________

Half-Moon Pose with Hands to Feet Pose

Ardha Chandrasana & Pada-Hastasana

Ardha Chandrasan

Half-Moon Pose

Benefits:

Firms and trims the waistline, hips, abdomen, buttocks, and thighs.
Improves and strengthens every muscle in the central part of the body, especially the abdomen.
Increases flexibility of the spine, corrects bad posture, promotes proper kidney function, and helps to cure enlargement of the liver and spleen, dyspepsia, and constipation.
Increases flexibility and strength of the
rectus abdominis, latisimus dorsi, oblique, deltoid, and trapezius muscles.
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Pada-Hastasana
Hands to Feet Pose

Benefits:
- Firms and trims the waistline, hips, abdomen, buttocks, and thighs.
- Increases the flexibility of the spine as well as the glutes, hamstrings, calves.
- Greatly improves blood circulation to the legs and brain, and strengthens the rectus abdominis, gluteus maximus, oblique, deltoid and trapezius muscles.
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Eagle

Garurasana
Benefits:
- Supplies fresh blood to the sexual organs and the kidneys, increasing sexual power and control.
- Firms the calves, thighs, hips, abdomen, and upper arms.
- Improves the flexibility of the hip, knee, and ankle joints and strengthens the latisimus dorsi, trapezius, and deltoid muscles.
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Standing Head To Knee Pose

Dandayamana – JanuShirasana
Benefits:
- Helps develop concentration, patience, and determination.
- Improves balance.
- Tightens abdominal and thigh muscles.
- Improves hamstring and hip flexibility.
- Strengthens all the leg muscles, in addition to the deltoid, trapezius, latisimus dorsi, scapula,
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Standing Bow Pulling Pose

Dandayamana – Dhanuraiana
Benefits:
- Improves mental determination and develops balance
- Tightens abdominal and thigh muscles
- Tightens arms, hips, and buttocks.
- Improves posture, while increasing elasticity of the rib cage and the lungs
- Improves flexibility and strength. of the spine, legs, hips and shoulders.
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Balancing Stick Pose

Tuladandasana
Benefits:
- Perfects control and balance.
- Firms hips, buttocks, and upper thighs, as well as providing many of the same benefits for the legs as in Standing Head to Knee.
- Increases circulation and strengthens the cardiovascular system, this is an excellent exercise for poor posture.
- Improves flexlibility, strength, and muscle tone of shoulders, upper arms, spine, and hip joints.
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Standing separate Leg Stretching Pose

Dandytamana – Bibhaktaeada – Paschimottanasana
Benefits:
- Improves and helps alleviate sciatica by stretching the sciatic nerves in the muscles of the back of the legs.
- Helps the functioning of most of the internal organs, especially the small and large intestine.
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Triangle Pose

Trikanasana
Benefits:
- Works almost every muscles, joint, tendon, and internal organ in the body.
- Revitalizes nerves, veins, and tissues.
- Helps lumbago and rheumatism of the lower spine by flexing and strengthening the last five vertebrae.
- Improves posture.
- Most important pose to increase the strength and flexibility of the hip and side of the torso.
- Firms the thighs and hips, slims the waistline, and improves the deltoid, trapezius, scapula, and latisimus muscles.
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Standing Separate Leg head to Knee Pose

Dandayamana – Bibhaktapada – Janushirasana
Benefits:

Many of the same benefits as Hands to Feet Pose.

Helps develop concentration, patience, and determination.

Improves balance.

Tightens abdominal and thigh muscles.

Improves hamstring and hip flexibility.

Strengthens all the leg muscles, in addition to the deltoid, trapezius, latisimus dorsi, scapula, and biceps.

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Tree Pose

Tadasana

Benefits:

Improves posture patience and balance.

Increases the flexibility of the ankles, knees, and hip joints.

By strengthening the internal oblique muscles, it helps prevent hernia.

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Toe Stand Pose

Padangustasana

Benefits:

Develops excellent balance, concentration and patience.

Helps to cure gout and rheumatism of the knees, ankles, and feet.

Helps cure hemorrhoid problems.

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Dead Body Pose

Savasana

Benefits:

Dead body pose returns blood circulation to normal.

Teaches complete relaxation.

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Wind Removing Pose

Pavanamuktasana

Benefits:

Alleviates and reduces flatulence, the source of most chronic abdominal discomforts.

Improves the flexibility of the hip joints and firms the abdomen, thighs, and hips.

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Sit up

Sit Up

Benefits:

Strengthens the abdomen and hip flexors.

Increases flexibility of the spine.

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Cobra Pose

Bhujangasana

Benefits:

Increases spinal strength and flexibility, helps prevent lower back pain, and helps cure lumbago, rheumatism and arthritis of the spine.

Improves menstrual problems (irregularity, cramps, backache)

Cures loss of appetite

Helps Improve posture

Improves the functioning of the liver and spleen.S

Strengthens the deltoids, trapezius and triceps.

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Locust Pose

Salabhasana

Benefits:

Strengthens the upper back, arms, fingers, hamstrings and calves.

Helps back or spinal problems such as gout, slipped disc, and sciatica.

Helps tennis elbow and is also excellent for toning the buttocks and hip rotators.

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Full Locust Pose

Poorna – Salabhasana

Benefits:

Same therapeutic value as the Cobra Pose and the same upper-body benefits as the Standing Bow Pulling.

Strengthens the middle back, upper arms, hips, and hamstrings.

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Bow Pose

Dhanurasana

Benefits:

Improves the functioning of the large and small intestines, the liver, kidneys, and spleen.

Helps straighten rounded spines, relieves backaches, and improves kyphotic upper body posture (rounded shoulders) opening the rib cage and strengthening the upper back, permitting maximum expansion of the lungs and increased oxygen intake.

Revitalizes all spinal nerves by increasing the circulation of the spine.

Improves digestion and strengthens abdominal muscles, upper arms, thighs and hips.

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Fixed Firm Pose

Supta – Vajrasana

Benefits:

Helps sciatica, gout and rheumatism in the legs.

Strengthens and improves flexibility of lower spine, hip flexors, quadriceps, knees and ankle joints.

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Half Tortoise Pose

Ardha – Kurmasana

Benefits:

Provides maximum relaxation.

Helps indigestion and stretches the lower part of the lungs, increasing blood circulation to the brain.

Firms the abdomen and thighs.

Increases the flexibility of hip joints, scapula, deltoids, triceps, and latisimus dorsi muscles.

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Camel Pose

Ustrasana

Benefits:

Stretches the abdominal organs to the maximum and helps constipation.

Stretches the throat, thyroid gland, and parathyroid.

It opens a narrow rib cage to give more space to the lungs.

Because it produces maximum compression of the spine, it improves the flexibility of the neck and spine and relieves backache.

Firms and slims the abdomen and the waistline.

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Rabbit Pose

Sasangasana

Benefits:

Produces the opposite effect of the Camel; as a result, it stretches the spine to permit the nervous system to receive proper nutrition.

Maintains the mobility and elasticity of the spine and back muscles.

Improves digestion and helps sinus problems, and chronic tonsillitis

Wonderful effect on thyroid and parathyroid glands.

Improves the flexibility of the scapula and the trapezius muscles.

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Head to Knee Pose with Stretching Pose

Janushirasana with Paschimottanasana

Benefits:

Helps to balance blood sugar levels.

Improves the flexibility of the sciatic nerves, ankles, knees, and hip joints.

Improves digestion.

Enhances the proper function of the kidneys.

Expands the solar plexus.

Relieves chronic diarrhea by improving digestion.

Increases the flexibility of the trapezius, deltoid, rectus femoris, and biceps muscles, as well as the sciatic nerves, tendons, hip joints, and last five major vertebrae of the spine.

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Spine Twisting Pose

Ardha – Matsyendrasana

Benefits:

The only exercise that twists the spine from top to bottom at the same time.

As a result, it increases circulation and nutrition to spinal nerves, veins, and tissues, and improves spinal elasticity and flexibility of the hip joints.

Helps lumbago and rheumatism of the spine.

Improves digestion, removes flatulence from the intestines.

Firms the abdomen, thighs and buttocks.

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Blowing in Firm Pose

Kapalbhati in Vajrasana

Benefits:

The last breathing exercise strengthens all the abdominal organs and trims the waistline.

Exhales expelled toxins from the body.

Cools the body.

Completes the practice.

Increases circulation.

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http://yogaday.narendramodi.in/home Yoga Positions (Asanas) may be practiced at any time of day except within 2-3 hours of having eaten. You can do postures when the body feels stiff, tense, tired or hyped-up. Be aware not to do too many over-stimulating postures just before bedtime. Asanas are best practiced first in your yoga routine, followed by breathing (Pranayama) and then meditation.

Restrictions & Precautions

There are no age limits either young or old for the practice of yoga. However the application of the techniques will vary according to the abilities of the practitioner. Keep in mind the following.

Never practice any yoga techniques under the influence of alcohol or mind altering drugs.

Those with disabilities, severe, acute or chronic medical conditions should consult both with their medical practitioner and their yoga teacher to assess any dangers or difficulties which may arise.

There are no hard and fast dietary rules necessary to begin the practice of yoga. One does not have to give up smoking, become vegetarian, or be a purist to learn yoga.

With Blessings and Inspiration from

H H Swami Sri Asangananda Saraswati Maharaj

(Gyan Vihar Ashram Heranj, Kheda Gujarat, INDIA)

Hari OM Tat Sat

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Photographs by Haresh Patel
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