Instant energy

Feeling a little tired or a bit ‘out of it’? Slightly blue or need to feel perked up for that important meeting or presentation? Backbends in yoga are your answer if fitness is a part of your life. Believe it or not, just the simple action of ‘unwrapping’ the heart leaves you feeling energized and positive.

Well executed backbends open the chest and lungs, stimulate the body and send more oxygen to the brain and therefore become instant energy boosters. Due to this free flow of energy boosters. Due to this free flow of energy backbends are believed to open the charkas or the energy centres in the body leading to other myriad benefits to the mind and body. Apart from increasing flexibility, backbends stretch the front body, open the heart, help in the release of emotions and ease the tensions in the body.

Here is a series of simple backbends that will work on the lifting your spirits up. Always counter-pose a backbend with a simple forward bend like the child’s pose to ease the tension in the spine. Make sure too exercise caution and never overdo a stretch till the point of pain.

Bridge

Lie supine on the floor. 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. Press the top of the sternum toward the chin. Firm the outer arms, broaden the shoulder blades. Stay in the pose from 30 seconds to 1 minute. Release with an exhalation, rolling the spine slowly down into the floor.

The inclined plane

Sit on the floor with the legs straight and hands flat on the floor behind yoga. Allow the head to drop back. Inhale to raise the hips you stay on the heels. Exhale to lower hips and bottom to the floor. Go up and down a few times and then hold the pose as you breathe for 10 seconds. Rest in child’s pose.

The locust

Lie flat on the floor, face downwards. Put your arms by your sides, then tuck them under the boys and clench or clasp them. On the inhalation, raise the left leg slowly while the left stays firm on the floor. Do not twist the hips. Hold a few seconds, breathe and come down on the exhalation. Repeat with the right leg.

Then try lifting both legs off the floor on another inhale, keeping then straight and strong. Hold and breathe and repeat again. Relax by resting your cheek on the floor.

The cobra

Lie face down with the forehead on the floor. Place the arms under the shoulders and tuck the elbows close into the body. As you press the arms down, on an inhale lift chest and shoulders off the floor arching backwards only allowing the upper body to lift. Take a deep breath, and exhale slowly out of the pose. Repeat a few times. Relax by resting cheek on the floor.

The fish

Lie flat on the floor and place the arms close to the body, palms down. Now tuck the arms close under the body as if you are trying to bringing the elbows together. Tilt the head back until the crown rests on the floor. Inhale and arch your chest upwards working on the lift. Stay in the pose and breathe for about 30 seconds. Slowly roll the head back to normal. Hug knees to chest and rest a few minutes before you rise.

The wheel

The wheel is a dramatic and beautiful backbend but more complicated to execute. It is one of those poses which when you are able to do well you can perform at a party to leave everyone in open-mouthed wonder! It is meant for a more serious yoga practitioner who has built some strength and flexibility with the with the spine. So do exercise caution. Lie on your back and bend your knees so your feet are flat on the floor behind your shoulders with the fingers pointing towards your shoulder blades. Lift your hips, arching your entire spine and dropping your head back. Only your hands and feet stay rooted to the floor. In the final pose the arms straighten out fully as the sternum moves forward from the arms to create a deep back arch. Hold for a few seconds. Ease yourself down and hug the knees to the chest to relax the spine.

Finish in the child’s pose. Relax. Enjoy the rest of the day.

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