Yoga asana for weight loss
September 1, 2023 | No Comments
1. Chaturanga Dandasana – Plank Pose
Chaturanga dandasana is the best way to strengthen your core. As simple as it looks, its benefits are immense.
It is only when you are in the pose that you start to feel its intensity on your abdominal muscles.
2. Virabhadrasana – Warrior Pose
Virabhadrasana 1 may be one of the more common yoga poses. It may also be one of the most challenging. Warrior 1 Pose requires you to push past your perceived physical, mental, and emotional limitations to move into a deeper expression of the asana. It’s an opportunity to focus and practice determination.
It may seem strange to name a yoga pose after a warrior; after all, aren’t yogis known for their non-violent ways? But remember that one of the most revered of all the yoga texts, the Bhagavad Gita, is the dialog between two famous and feared warriors, Krishna and Arjuna, set on a battlefield between two great armies preparing for an epic fight.
What’s really being commemorated in this pose’s name—and held up as an ideal for all practitioners, is the “spiritual warrior,” who bravely does battle with the universal enemy, self-ignorance (avidya), the ultimate source of all our suffering.
Warrior 1 Pose is filled with opposing alignments, but when all of the opposing movements work together, the pose offers a full-body experience. You will stretch the ankles and calves, strengthen the quadriceps and back, lengthen the psoas, and stretch your upper body and arms. There’s almost no body part that doesn’t reap the rewards of holding Virabhadrasana 1.
Benefits: Warrior I strengthens and stretches your legs and buttocks (glutes), the front of your hips (hip flexors), and shins. In your front leg, this pose strengthens the your thigh, calf, and ankle. In your back leg, it stretches the back of your thigh (hamstring) and calf muscles.
It’s also a powerful pose for the upper body. Reaching up stretches your torso from your psoas along your chest up to your shoulders. It also stretches and strengthens the area around your shoulders and builds power in your back and arms.
Other Warrior I perks:
Boosts energy, helps fight fatigue, and improves balance
May help build confidence and empowerment
Improves posture and counteracts the effects of prolonged sitting and doing computer work
3. Trikonasana – Triangle pose
The word ‘Trikonasana’ comes from the Sanskrit words, ‘Trikona’ meaning three corners, and ‘Asana’ meaning posture. In trikonasana yoga, the person extends their legs apart without bending the knees, wherein hands spread apart, forming an angle of 90 degrees between the upper and lower part of the body.
Stand straight and keep the legs apart. Extend both the arms in a way that is parallel to the ground.
Inhale and raise the right hand upwards. Exhale and bend the torso at the waist, towards the left side.
While bending, bring your left arm to the left foot. Slowly and gradually, hold the ankle. Meanwhile, keep your right hand upward, above the shoulder.
Keeping the shoulders aligned, turn the head up and look towards the ceiling. Hold for a few seconds. Return to the standing position and repeat on the other side.
4. Adho Mukha Svanasana – Downward Dog Pose
Downward Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana) is the poster pose for yoga. The reason it has become the best-known asana is that it’s so important in contemporary practice. It may be the first pose you learn as you begin a yoga practice. It is done many times during most yoga classes, particularly in Vinyasa yoga. Downward Dog is one of the poses in the Sun Salutation sequence.
Benefits
Downward Facing Dog stretches the hamstrings and calves, and it strengthens the arms and legs.1
Yoga Journal. Downward-Facing Dog. The pose also helps increase the strength of the external oblique abdominal muscles.2
As a mild inversion, Downward Dog acts in reverse of the usual forces on your spine and brings more blood flow to your brain. When incorporated into a weekly yoga practice, it may even help relieve chronic back pain.3
Step-by-Step Instructions
You can do this pose anywhere you can lay out a yoga mat.
Come to your hands and knees with your wrists underneath the shoulders and your knees underneath the hips.
Curl your toes under and push back through your hands to lift your hips and straighten your legs.
Spread your fingers and ground down from the forearms into the fingertips.
Outwardly rotate your upper arms to broaden the collarbones.
Let your head hang and move your shoulder blades away from your ears towards your hips.
Engage your quadriceps strongly to take the burden of your body’s weight off your arms. This action goes a long way toward making this a resting pose.
Rotate your thighs inward, keep your tail high, and sink your heels towards the floor.
Check that the distance between your hands and feet is correct by coming forward to a plank position. The distance between the hands and feet should be the same in these two poses. Do not step the feet toward the hands in Down Dog in order the get the heels to the floor.
Exhale and bend your knees to release and come back to your hands and knees.
Adho Mukha Svanasana tones your whole body with a little extra attention to specific muscles.
It helps to strengthen your arms, thighs, hamstring and back. Holding this pose and concentrating on your breathing engages your muscles and tones them, as well as improves your concentration and blood circulation.
5. Sarvangasana – Shoulder Stand Pose
What is Shoulder Stand Pose?
Shoulder stand pose, or sarvangasana, is an inverted posture wherein the weight of the body rests on the shoulders and the feet reach toward the sky. In the full posture, the arms rest on the floor. Shoulder stand pose brings a fresh blood supply to the brain and relaxes the mind.
Instructions
Lie on your back. Inhale and reach your feet up, lifting your hips.
Support your low back with your hands.
Draw your elbows toward each other. Walk your hands further toward your shoulders to lift your hips higher.
Straighten your legs and relax your feet.
Exhale and release your arms to the floor.
Breathe normally while holding the pose.
Cautions
Avoid if you have had a neck injury, have an enlarged thyroid, a back injury or high blood pressure.
In the beginning stages, support your back with your hands.
Benefits of Shoulder Stand Pose
Delivers fresh blood to the brain
Stimulates the thyroid
Relaxes the mind
6.Sethu Bandha Sarvangasana – Bridge pose
Bridge Pose (Setu Bandha Sarvangasana) is a versatile pose. It can be performed dynamically or restoratively, as a strengthener or as a resting pose. It allows you ample options for finding a version of the backbend that works for you.
Benefits: Bridge Pose gently stretches your chest, shoulders, and abdomen while strengthening your mid- to upper-back muscles, buttocks (glutes), thighs, and ankles. The backbend can improve posture, counteract the effects of prolonged sitting and slouching, and may help relieve low back pain and ease kyphosis (abnormal curvature of the spine).
Because Bridge Pose brings your head beneath your heart, it shares many of the benefits of conventional inversions. It can be used as an alternative to coming into
How to do Bridge Pose
Lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet on the mat, hip-distance apart. Inch your feet as close to your glutes as you can.
Bring your arms alongside your body, palms down.
As you inhale, press down firmly through your feet and lift your hips, initiating the movement from the pubic bone rather than the navel.
Press your upper arms down. You can clasp your hands behind your back and press your pinkie fingers into the mat. Broaden your collarbones and roll your shoulders beneath you.
Continue to press down firmly through your heels and draw your thighs toward one another to keep them hip-distance apart. Reach the backs of your thighs toward your knees to lengthen your spine.
To finish, exhale as you release your hands and slowly lower yourself to the mat.
7. Parivrtta Utkatasana – Twisted Chair pose
Twisting Chair aka Parivrtta Utkatasana is a detoxifying posture. You will twist deeply from the Thoracic Spine as you hold your center in Chair position. This pose could be challenging as you need to use your leg strength for stability and not compromise the squaring of the hips.
Step 1
Start in Mountain Pose with big toes together & heels slightly apart . If you have lower back issues feet hip distance apart with the outer edges of the feet being parallel to one another.
Step 2
On an exhale, bend your knees and lower your hips down. Lift your arms up above head, rotate the triceps in towards one another and draw the shoulder blades away from the ears.
Step 3
Shift the weight into your heels and draw your shins back. Lengthen your tailbone down towards the earth.
Step 4
Bring a gentle engagement to your belly by drawing your navel in and up towards your spine. Tuck the lower ribs in as you open your chest and broaden your collarbones.
Step 5
Bring the hands together in prayer at the heart center.
Step 6
Exhale, initiating movement from the core, twist the torso to the right and bring the left elbow to the outside of the right thigh.
Step 7
The lower half of the body remains as it was in chair pose. If you notice the right hip has moved forward, draw the right hip back so that it is even with the left.
Step 8
Press both hands into one another and the left tricep into the right outer thigh to open the chest more towards the right.
Step 9
If you are comfortable here and would like to deepen the posture, you can extend the arms open. The right fingertips reach towards the sky and the left fingertips reach down towards the mat or a block.
Step 10
Bring the gaze up to the sky (or the right hand if you have extended the arms).
Step 11
Keep the majority of the weight in your heels and sink the hips down a little bit more. With every inhale lengthen the spine and with every exhale twist a little deeper.
Step 12
To release Twisting Chair, unhook the left elbow and get out of the twist. Then, fold over your legs and straighten them coming into a forward fold. Rest for a few breaths and come into the opposite side.
8. Dhanurasana – Bow Pose
The bow has frequently been referenced in Indian mythology. In the Ramayana, Lord Rama broke Lord Shiva’s bow at princess Sita’s swayamvara to win her hand in marriage, a feat that no other prince could do, indicating his divinity. In the Mahabharata, some of the greatest duels involved the bow and arrow. Both prince Arujuna and his arch enemy Karna were adept at using the bow and arrow. However, Arjuna surpassed all others in archery with his determination and constant practice. It is this determination and consistency that you will explore within yourself as you smoothly move into Dhanurasana.
When we do this pose at a specific time in an ideal physical state, it yields maximum benefits.
Make sure you perform this asana 4-5 hours after having your main meal.
It is best to do this pose in the morning. However, if for some reason, you are unable to do it then, include it in your evening practice.
Ensure that you are suitably warmed up with the preparatory poses before you do Dhanurasana.
How to do Dhanurasana (Bow Pose)
Lie on your stomach with your feet apart, in line with your hips, and your arms by the side of your body.
Fold your knees, take your hands backward, and hold your ankles.
Breathe in, and lift your chest off the ground and pull your legs up and towards the back.
Look straight ahead with a smile on your face.
Keep the pose stable while paying attention to your breath. Your body is now curved and as taut as a bow.
Continue to take long, deep breaths as you relax in this pose. But, bend only as far as your body permits you to. Do not overdo the stretch.
After 15 -20 seconds, as you exhale, gently bring your legs and chest to the ground. Release the ankles and relax.
Benefits of Dhanurasana (Bow Pose)
Strengthens the back and abdominal muscles
Stimulates the reproductive organs
Opens up the chest, neck, and shoulders
Tones the leg and arm muscles
Adds greater flexibility to the back
Alleviates stress and fatigue
Relieves menstrual discomfort and constipation
Helps people with renal (kidney) disorders
Full body sequences like Padma Sadhana also include Dhanurasana (Bow Pose).