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Yoga adds happy years to your life

Yoga helps to detox your body of negativity and stress, leaving a clean and healthy person behind. Here is a simple yoga pose to try.

Staff Pose

It might look straightforward, but there’s more to Staff Pose than meets the eye.

Staff Pose: Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1

Sit on the floor with your legs together and extended in front of your torso. If your torso is leaning back, it may be because tight hamstrings are dragging the sitting bones toward the knees and the back of the pelvis toward the floor. It may be helpful to sit on a blanket or a bolster to lift the pelvis.

Step 2

A simple way to check alignment is to sit with your back against a wall. The sacrum and the shoulder blades should touch the wall, but not lower back or the back of the head. Put a small rolled-up towel between the wall and the lower back.

Step 3

Sit towards the front of the sitting bones, and adjust the pubis and tailbone equidistant from the floor. Without hardening the belly, firm the thighs, press them down against the floor (or your support), rotate them slightly toward each other, and draw the inner groins toward the sacrum. Flex your ankles, pressing out through your heels.

Step 4

To lengthen your front torso perpendicular to the floor, think of energy streaming upward from the pubis to the sternum, then down the back from the shoulders to the tailbone. Then imagine the tail lengthening into the floor.

Step 5

Imagine your spine as the “staff” at the vertical core of your torso, rooted firmly in the Earth, the support and pivot of all you do. Hold the pose for one minute or longer.

Pose Information

Sanskrit Name

Dandasana

Pose Level: 1

Contraindications and Cautions

Any wrist or lower back injury

Preparatory Poses

Adho Mukha Svanasana

Uttanasana

Follow-up Poses

Purvottanasana

Bharadvajasana I

Beginner’s Tip

Lay one to three 10-pound sandbags across the tops of your thighs at the hip crease to help ground your thighs.

Benefits

Strengthens the back muscles

Stretches the shoulders and chest

Improves posture

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