Tag: Sitting Yoga Postures

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Virasana – Hero Pose

Names

Virasana, Hero Pose

How to sit in Virasana

At first sit on your heels and then move them out from under your buttocks so that your perineum is also in contact with the floor.

Benefits of Virasana

This yoga poses strengthens your thighs, knees, ankles and calves. It is good for digestion and recommended for people with issues of diabetes. Women who start the time of menopause should sit in Virasana to reduce pain and irregularity. It is said to control high blood pressure and is beneficial against asthma.

Tips and Help

Beginners can use cushions under buttocks, knees and ankles if any body part hurts.

Practice Time

3-5 minutes per training session. Practicing for longer time periods can harm your knees.

When to Avoid Virasana

If you have knee problems, pain and weakness in the knees or if your ligaments are worn or torn, you should avoid this position. If you are in doubt, please consult your doctor or physiotherapist and let your yoga teacher know about it.

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Vajrasana – Kneeling Position

Names

Vajrasan, Vajrasana or Sitting on Heels

How to perform Vajrasana

Kneel on the floor and slowly sit back on your heels until you comfortably sit with your spine straight and your hands on your legs.

Benefits of Vajrasana

This sitting yoga pose is one of the basic postures that you can use for practicing Pranayam, breathing exercises. Vajrasan helps you to sit straight without much effort.

This is one of the very few Yoga poses that you can do on full stomach. If you sit in Vajrasana after food it will help your digestion.

Focus Points

Be aware of your pose and listen to your body while in this position. You should feel relaxed and your back should not feel any strain. If you feel your muscles aching and your body trying to shift, allow it to leave this position and change into another sitting position.

When to Avoid Vajrasana

If you have knee problems, pain and weakness in the knees or if your ligaments are worn or torn, you should avoid this position. If you are in doubt, please consult your doctor or physiotherapist and let your yoga teacher know about it.

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Uttan Mandukasana – Stretched Frog

Names

Uttan Mandukasana, Stretched Frog, Uplifted Frog

How to perform Uttan Mandukasana

The stretched frog pose usually follows directly on the sitting frog pose, Mandukasana.
Sit in Vajrasana on your heels. Open your feet apart and place your buttocks on the floor in between your feet. Now open your knees wide and let your toes touch each other in the back of your buttocks.


Sit straight, grab your right elbow with the left hand and vice versa, and stretch your thus folded arms up and behind your head.


You can include your breathing by inhaling when you move your arms upwards and bring your arms down again with exhalation.

Benefits of Uttan Mandukasana

Full stretch for nearly all your muscles. Your feet, calves, thighs and hips are stretched through the way you are sitting while your torso and arm muscles are stretched when you move your arms up and down.


Your organs get room to expand and work properly.


This yoga posture is good for lower back pain.

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Utkatasana

Names

Utkatasana

Some people also call Utkasana the ‘Crow Pose’, a name which we use for ‘Kagasana’. Please do not get confused, this is only a name. The Sanskrit term ‘Utkatasana’ is difficult to translate literally, this is why in English several names appear for this yoga posture.

How to sit in Utkatasana

Squat with the weight on the front of your feet and lift your heels up so that your buttocks rest on your heels and bring your back up straight. Place your hands on your knees.

Benefits of Utkatasana

This yoga posture strengthens your feet, toes, thighs and buttocks as well as the hamstring. It brings flexibility into your toes and ankles and id great for practicing balance.
Utkatasana also helps with gastric problems and digestion difficulties. It stimulates and activates digestion and the Apan Vaiu which is responsible for your metabolism and your natural urge. 

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Upavistha Konasana

Names

Upavistha Konasana, Wide Angle Seated Forward Bend

How to perform Upavistha Konasana

Sit in Dandasana with your legs and spine straight. Spread your legs apart as wide until you feel a light stretch in your upper inner thighs. Bend forward with exhalation as much as possible. The aim is to place your upper body flat on the floor with the chin on the floor.

Benefits of Upavistha Konasana

When you perform the wide seated forward bend, you will immediately feel where this yoga pose works: at the inner side as well as the back of your legs. The leg and thigh muscles as well as the hamstrings are being stretched.


Through the pressure on your belly, your intestines get a nice massage which stimulates your digestion.

Focus Points

In order to get the best effect of this exercise, you should keep your knees straight at all times and also try to keep your spine as straight as possible.

Tips and Help

In order to support your hips during this exercise, you can place a cushion or a rolled blanket under your buttocks.


If you have problems in bending forward, you can bring your legs closer together in beginning and then bend forward. After some practice however you should then try to open them wider again.


In your first attempts, you can place your hand on the floor and slowly move them further to the front, like walking on the floor.


If you want to feel some more stretch, you can grab your toes and pull yourself down.

Upavistha Konasana with a Partner

This yoga posture can nicely be practiced with a partner. Practicing it together makes it easier to go down with the upper body.


Sit in front of each other, spread the legs wide and let your feet touch each other with the soles. Now you hold your partner’s hands and pull him towards you until he tells you to stop. Hold him in this position and then slowly let him come up again. Then it is his turn to pull you down towards him.

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Udarakarshanasana

Names

Udarakarshanasana, Janu Padasana, Abdominal Stretch

How to perform Udarakarshanasana

Sit on your heels with your hands on your knees in Utkatasana . With exhalation turn your hip so that your right knee comes down to your left foot. Go back into the starting position with inhalation and then turn your hip again that your left knee comes to your right foot. Repeat this movement ten times for each side.

Benefits of Udarakarshanasana

Udarakarshanasana is good for toes, ankles, knee joints and legs. You turn the joints and move them so that they remain flexible.


Apart from the acupressure points that are activated through the sitting position on the heels, this yoga exercises creates a movement of the bowels which helps the complete digestive system. Your stomach and your intestines are stimulated and if you practice Udarakarshanasana regularly, you hardly run a risk of suffering from constipation.

Perform this posture after drinking water and the effect will be even better. This posture pushes the water down your body and stimulates Apana Vayu, the air in your intestines, so that a pressure is created that will make you go to toilet.


Your bladder, urinary tract and also your liver are stimulated to work properly through this pose. If you suffer from urinary incontinence or urinary retention this yoga posture can help to relieve the symptoms.


It is also one of the exercises used for Shankha Prakshalana which is a yogic method for cleaning the intestines.

Tips and Help

Make sure you have your weight on your toes and wear lose clothes so that there is no pressure on your belly.


Regulate the movement with your breathing to get a proper effect from the posture.
If you wish for a relieving effect, drink warm to hot water before performing the yoga posture and make sure you are close to a toilet. It usually always works!

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Tolasana – Scale Pose

Names

Tolasana, Scale Pose

How to perform Tolasana

Sit straight in Padmasan and place your hands on the floor at your sides. Exhale and lift your buttocks from the ground by lifting your weight with your hands. Hang your full weight onto your arms as if you were a bag of Rice and needed to measure the weight of it. Hold the position for a few breaths, then inhale and slowly come back down to the floor.

Benefits of Tolasana

The scale pose obviously strengthens your arms and shoulders so that they can hold the weight of your body.


Through the way how the muscles work in this pose in order to lift your feet from the ground, your abdominal organs are massaged and digestion is stimulated. People suffering from bloated stomach and gas in the belly get relief.

Focus Points

It is quite obviously what to focus on, right? Lift your buttocks up! With the force of exhalation you lift your whole weight up.

Tips and Help

Do you think you cannot do this exercise because your arms seem to be shorter than other people’s arms? Well, of course the easiest option would be simply not to perform this yoga pose… but a more satisfying solution is to first shift your weight to your arms and lift it as much as you can. Slowly and with regular practice you will be able to lift it a bit more and more until you are fully in the air. Try to compact your lower body as much as you can.

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Titali Asana – Butterfly

Names

Titali Asana Butterfly Pose

How to perform Titali Asana

Sit straight in Dandasana with your legs straight in front of you. Bend your knees, place the soles of your feet together and grab your feet with your hand. Pull them as close to your body as you can so that you feel the stretch.


Next step: start flying!


You move your knees up and down as high and low as you can.

Benefits of Titali Asana

The butterfly pose is good for the spine and lower back as well as your hip joints. It strengthens the muscles of your hips and legs and makes your hamstrings more flexible.

Focus Points

Sit straight and continue your normal breathing. You should feel the stretch in your legs. If not, pull your feet closer to your body and move your knees higher and lower.


Don’t make a hunchback and don’t jump with each movement of your butterfly wings. Just move the legs, not the complete body.

When to Avoid Titali Asana

If you are suffering from spinal injury or experience pain or discomfort in knees and hips while performing the posture, please consult your doctor and yoga teacher if it is safe for you to do the pose.

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Swastikasana

How to perform Swastikasana

Sit in Dandasana, bend your left knee and place your left foot on the inside of your right thigh. Now bend your right knee and bring your right leg over the left one, placing your right foot on the inside of your left thigh.
Keep your spine straight and keep your head and neck in one line. Place your hands on your knees in the Gyan Mudra.

Benefits of Swastikasana

This pose is good for practicing meditation. It is a comfortable way of sitting to ease the mind and an alternative pose for Padmasana and Siddhasana . So when you meditate and feel uneasy in one pose, just change into another.

Focus Points

Keep your spine straight at all times during this pose. If your knees are hurting while doing this pose, change your legs when pain arises.

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Sukhasana – Sit Easy Pose

How to do Sukhasana

Sit down comfortably on the floor and cross your legs. Keep your back and spine straight and relax your shoulders.

Benefits of Sukhasana

This yoga pose is frequently used in meditation and breathing practice. It helps you to relax and calm body and mind.

Focus Points

In this yoga posture you should be able to relax. The focus lies on sitting comfortably, with the shoulders relaxed and no pain or effort in any of your body parts.

Tips and Help when Facing Problems

If you are not able to bring your legs together very closely to the body, do not force yourself but keep them as close as it is comfortable for you. You can support your knees with cushions if necessary.

You can also place a cushion under your tailbone which will help you sit straight and reduce the pressure on your lower back.
If longer sitting is still difficult for you, try supporting your back by leaning against a wall.

When to Avoid Sukhasana

If you have knee problems, pain and weakness in the knees or if your ligaments are worn or torn, you should avoid this position. If you are in doubt, please consult your doctor or physiotherapist and let your yoga teacher know about it.