Always consult your doctor before starting any new physical exercises including Yoga.
1. Cat-Cow Pose (Chakravakasana)
How to Do Chakravakasna
- Start by being on your hands and knees and relaxing your spine. Inhale and stretch all your muscles and sink your belly. This is the cow pose
- Look up, pull your shoulders away and look straight. Slowly exhale, round your spine outward like a cat and ease your tailbone
- Relax and slowly release your head towards the floor.
Benefits
2. Bridge Pose (Setu Bandhasana)
How to do it
- Rest on your back and fold your knees. Place your feet on the ground at hip distance
- Stretch your hands parallel to your body and place your palms flat on the ground
- Inhale and slowly thrust the lower part of your body upwards with knees at hip distance
- Press down the shoulders and try to touch the chin to the chest while tightening the buttocks.
- Engage legs to keep lifting the hips higher and open the chest upwards with the head resting on the ground
- Maintain the pose for about 30-40 seconds with a slow inhalation and exhalation
- Exhale and slowly relax your body and lay flat on your back
- Repeat a few times and avoid it if you have neck pain
Benefits Of Setu Bandhasana:
- Treats back pain, anxiety, stress and insomnia
- Strengthens the core body and flexes legs and spine
3. Child’s pose (Balasana)
How to Do Balasana :
- Kneel on the ground and sit back onto your heels
- Raise your hands and slowly bend your body forward
- In the forward pose, rest your hands on the ground and try to touch your chest with your knees, head touching the ground
- Hold the pose for 30 seconds
- Slowly get back to sitting on heels and repeat 4-5 times
Benefits
- Provides stress relief and releases tension from the muscles
- Great for posture, increases blood circulation and stretches the body
4. Legs-up-the-wall pose (Viparita Karani)
Read more about How to Do Viparita Karani :
- Sit on the floor closer to a wall
- Lie straight on the floor adjacent to the wall and put your legs up the wall, knees straight
- The hips could lie by the wall or on the floor
- Rest your arms parallel to your body and hold the pose for 10 minutes
Benefits
- Even though it is one of the simplest poses, it helps in blood circulation to the head
- It provides stress relief and heals anxiety, depression, hypertension and breathing problems, etc.
5. Surya Namaskar (Step 1-4)
How to do it
Surya Namaskar is a 12-step yoga for the body that strengthens the core muscles, releases stress, treats insomnia, brings flexibility to the body and stretches the spine. In this exercise, we will look into the first four steps of Surya Namaskar
- Stand with your feet, hips apart. Keep arms at your side, palms facing inside
- Slowly fold your hands, inhale and stretch your hands forward, palms facing forward.
- Raise your hands above your head and bend backward as much as you can
- Hold the pose for a few seconds and slowly bend downwards, exhaling with the raised hand
- Reach towards the ground, hold the pose for a few seconds and come back to the original position of standing
Benefits
- It is one of the best calming exercises for anxiety and stress, as it opens the chest and eases breathing.
- Builds immunity and revives the nervous system
