How To-35: "How to Perform Yoga Postures"

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Yoga can help a person in many different ways. It can help you to find balance, teach you a way of developing how to be calm and can also make your body elastic enough to be able to move to its maximum ability. A good yoga posture can also help you to build inner strength.

Fighting the Cobra posture

1. Stretch out on your stomach with your legs and feet joined in together. Plant your palms on the floor below your shoulders with the fingers facing onwards.
   
2. Start inhaling and lift the upper body by gradually lifting the head first and then the chest, just remember to make sure that you keep your shoulders down. Your pelvis and thighs should never leave the yoga mat.
   
3. Breathe normally and hold your pose for about twenty five seconds. As you breathe, make sure that it is in even breaths all the way through your nose. Then go back to your starting location and do it all over again.
   

Ab Strengthening Posture

1. Place yourself in a standing position with your legs and hip width separately, holding your arms directly ahead with the palms facing down.
   
2. Twist your knees and squat it will be as if you're about to sit in a chair. Make sure that your center weight is in your heels, then lock it and don't bring the hips lower than the level that your knees are at.
   
3. Reach forward, center your eyes in a straight line ahead while breathing in and breathing through the nose. Hold this yoga posture for about twenty seconds. Then you should slowly go back to standing position. Once you are at the starting position you can release your arms.
   

Wind Relieving Posture

1. Recline on your back, then as you breathe in you should drag the right knee near to your chest. Your left leg should be in a straight line on the ground.
   
2. Push your shoulders and the rear side of your neck into the ground while at the same time holding your knee. Then breathe for ten seconds only. This may appear to be too quick but when performing this yoga posture it will seem a lot longer.
   
3. Repeat the first two steps except change the sides. You will then finish the set by hugging both of your knees to your chest and holding it for another ten seconds. Keep repeating the set.
   

Upward Boat Posture

1. Sit on the floor. Bend your knees and place feet flat on the floor.
   
2. Breathe in, bend back and raise heels off the ground, straightening your legs as much as possible.
   
3. Expand your arms with palms facing downward. If you find this difficult to perform, you can also rest your hands beneath your knees for support. This is a difficult yoga posture to perform but after practicing it a few times you will have less difficulty in carrying it out.
   
4. Hold the pose for thirty seconds and keep your back in as straight a line as possible, and make sure your abs are doing all the work.
   

Tips

• Your breathing determines how far you go into a pose. If it is tight and forced, ease off a little bit. If it is relaxed and calm, you can go farther.
  
• Make sure that you practice these yoga postures on a regular basis. Not only can they improve your health but they will also help your backbone and improve your digestive system.
  

Related wikiHows

• How to Do Yoga from Your Work Place
  
• How to Breathe Like a Yoga Master
  
• How to Get Started in Bikram Yoga
  
• How to Do Yoga from Your Work Place
  
• How to Exercise Mentally
  

Sources and Citations

• 5min - A video that shows a Yoga routine to enhance you flexibility 5min is a videopedia for instructional videos. Source of images in this article, shared with permission.
  

• Yoga Poses
  

Article provided by wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world's largest, highest quality how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Perform Yoga Postures. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.