International Yoga Day 2021: Try These Yoga Poses To Improve Your Posture

Maintaining a healthy spine is largely influenced by a good posture. A strong, flexible spine plays a major role in your health. This ensures that your skeletal system is well aligned with the rest of the body. A good posture keeps the tension in your muscles and ligaments balanced and evenly distributed. This allows all your body parts to remain in their correct positions with minimal stress.

Yoga can help you rectify any postural imbalances. Yoga works on the whole body, bringing alignment, and balance along with strength and flexibility to it.

The following yoga poses will help you to open up the body and bring flexibility to the spine. When you make it a habit to dedicate a minimum of 15- 30 minutes every morning to practice, you'll start to notice the positive changes in your body and consequently enjoy better posture, a straighter spine and healthier life.

International Yoga Day 2021: Yoga for better posture

1. Malasana (Waste Evacuation Pose)

• Begin by standing straight with your arms by the sides of your body
• Bend your knees, lower your pelvis and place it over your heels
• Ensure that your feet remain flat on the floor
• You may either place your palms on the floor beside your feet, bind them around your knee or join them in front of your chest in a gesture of prayer
• Spine remains erect

Also read: International Yoga Day 2021: The Benefits Of Deep Breathing And Meditation For Diabetics

2. Shalabasana (Locust Pose)

• Lie down flat on your stomach
• Stretch your hands out forward
• Inhale completely (Purak), hold your breath (Kumbakh) and then lift your legs up together
• Balance on your stomach, lift up your head and shoulders
• Keep your knees straight
• Hold the posture for 10 seconds, slowly bringing your legs down and then exhale breath

3. Adomukhi Svanasana

• Gently drop your knees and palms down to form table top position
• Align your palms under your shoulders and knees under your hips
• Lift your knees off the floor to form an inverted 'V' shape
• With hands placed shoulder- width apart, point your fingers ahead
• Keep your focus on your big toes

Also read: International Yoga Day 2021: 5 Morning Yoga Poses For Beginners

4. Marjariasana

Urdhva Mukhi Marjari Asana

• Get down on your knees, place palms under shoulders and knees under hips
• Inhale, curve your spine to look up

Adho Mukhi Marjari Asana

• Exhale, curve your spine to form an arch of the back and allow your neck to drop down
• Focus your gaze towards your chest

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Ideally, you can begin each morning with a yoga practice session to for an energizing day. With yoga comes awareness, and this can keep your posture healthy reducing unnecessary backaches and other spinal problems. Commit to a few minutes of practice towards your overall well-being. It is advisable for beginners to hold the pose for shorter duration initially and increase the duration gradually.

(Grand Master Akshar is a Yoga Master, Spiritual Guide and Lifestyle Coach)

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