Yoga Exercise - Bow Yoga Pose (Dhanurasana)

This exercise expands the chest, mobilizes the entire spinal column, and can be a welcome change to the usual movement of your body. The Bow Pose is a good exercise to improve posture and strengthen the back muscles.

	STEP 1: Lie on your stomach, arms on your sides, and palms facing upward.
	STEP 2: Bend your knees. Bring your heels near your buttocks.
	STEP 3: Reach back with your arms and grasp your ankles. Let your weight rest on your stomach and not on your pelvis.
	STEP 4: Raise your knees further by pulling your ankles with your hands. Continue breathing regularly and try to increase the stretching in the chest and the backward bend for a relaxed body and mind.

If you like you can end this exercise by letting go of your legs without letting them move towards the floor and building up some extra strength by "floating" over your Yoga Mat. 

I took tis information from: http://www.abc-of-yoga.com/yogapractice

The Bridge Pose

SET-too BAHN-dah)
setu = dam, dike, or bridge
bandha = lock

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.

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.

Slimming Tips

The only way to really enjoy the asanas in yoga is if you don't have excess fat around your waist. Actually, the slimmer your body is, the more enjoyable and less difficult the stretches and bends will become.

Try this!

Yoga Advice That All Beginners Need to Know

By Lauren Rudick

Starting a yoga practice can be well, weird. Walking in to a class with thirty other people who seem to know exactly what is going on is intimidating. Compounding this is a teacher directing you into shapes and poses that feel entirely alien, while asking you to stay…calm?! And …breathe?!

The first few yoga classes can feel strange. The physical body, energetic body, and the mind are going places they never have before (hmm maybe this is other wordly). With so much new sensation and stimulation in muscles and joints, how do you know if you’re teetering on the ledge of injury? 

For someone new to stretching, where is the line between pain and sensation?

This question came up in my class yesterday, and there is a simple answer: calm eyes and a soft smile. 

When a yoga teacher instructs, “soften the face” or “turn up the corners of the mouth and relax the eyebrows,” this is not just to look pretty.  

Pain has a very clear expression. When we experience physical and even emotional feelings that induce ache, the brow furrows, the jaw tenses and the eyes widen. A soft gaze, slight smile and space between the eyebrows means that a practitioner is still breathing.

If you are practicing yoga at your own comfortable, personal edge, you should be able to relax your face and gaze. Grinding teeth, flaring the nostrils, or squinting suggests that you might be working too hard. Back off, this could lead to injury. Grinning from ear to ear probably means you are not pushing yourself enough. 

As a Buddhist would say, take the middle path.  Check in with your facial expression frequently during your practice. When you experience a novel sensation, ask yourself, Are my facial muscles at ease? 

If yes, hold and maybe go a little deeper in to the posture, if not, do less or ask your instructor for a modification.

Photo Credit: Shutterstock

About Lauren Rudick

Lauren Rudick is an international yoga instructor, based out of Montreal, Canada. Appealing to Canada's love of hockey she works with individuals and teams on injury prevention/recovery. In addition to her regular local teaching schedule Lauren also hosts workshops and retreats abroad. Her classes are infused with humor and positivity, helping students build confidence on and off the mat. When not teaching yoga she dabbles in clothing and jewelry design. Lauren’s joys in life include her dog Julius, bare feet, snowboarding, delicious food, beaches, climbing trees and spontaneous world travel.

Lauren is certified with the international yoga alliance E-RYT 200, RYT 500

Find Lauren on

Facebook: facebook.com/laurenrudickyoga

Twitter: @avignayoga

URL: www.avignayoga.com