Yoga exercises in yoga picture sequencesThe sequence of yoga exercises below is a hip opening sequence. It has 3 parts and involves something called the pigeon flow seen right. It is important that you warm up a little before doing this yoga exercise because it is dangerous on the knees if you don't. This advice should be followed by those who have inflexible knees and especially by those who have a knee injury or ailment. This is a common aggravator of knee problems. You will not have to warm up for these yoga exercises if your knees are flexible but take care and enter any yoga posture slowly if it involves a joint being twisted and force being applied to it. |  |
We begin in the simple standing pose called tadasana. This posture seems simple but there is actually quite a lot to it. It is a fundamental yoga posture and the principles that apply to this posture apply to every other yoga posture. We will touch upon a few of the many thousands of topics that can be applied to this yoga posture. When in this posture align the heels, tailbone and the top of the head vertically. We want as much of the surface area of the feet to touch the floor as possible. This included the toes so be playful and explore this task by shifting the weight around the feet and toes until you have increased the amount of contact with the floor.  We then enter a forward bend while standing. Weight naturally shifts forward so lean back a little to counter balance this effect. On an exhalation come back to downward dog. You can hold this pose for 5 breaths then very carefully take the right knee down. Wait a moment until the muscles surrounding the knee open up then begin to flow. Inhaling up and exhaling down. Do this yoga exercise 8 to 12 times. Hold the pigeon pose for 5 breaths with the head slightly tilted up. (Tilting the head back can aggravate the neck and suppress the flow of water to the mind. Leave some space at the back of the neck so that the elements of air and water can flow.) Come back to downward dog and hold or flow for 5 breaths. Flowing in downward dog can be seen in the yoga postures page. There is a tendency to hold downward dog a number of times during yoga sequences in this day and age. It is a great pose but is over practiced. This leads to wrist injuries and fatigue. In order to prevent this come down to the child pose as much as you like. You can also try to change the way the weight and force of the bodies mass fall upon the wrists. Try pushing down on the fingers to engage the wrist muscles or try evenly distributing the weight on the surface area of the hands, fingers, and thumbs. If the wrists become strained try changing the pressure if this does not relieve the problem just |