.jpg)
Week 22 : Seated Postures & Twists
Today our flow will focus on seated postures and twists. Twisting in yoga is known for its detoxifying effects on the body. We also need to be conscious of the movements of the spine so if we twist we need to be sure to re-allign the spine with a straight forward or backward bend. Equally if we do a back bend it needs to be followed soon after by a forward bend to bring everything back to neutral.
Here we go:
Come to sitting in easy pose with the eyes closed and take 3 settling breaths.
Inhale and raise the arms up the sides of the body
and take them up over head raising the rib cage and filling the lungs and
exhale bring the arms down the mid-line of the body to rest in prayer position at the heart.
Inhale take the arms up the front of the body and exhale bring them down the sides working with movement and breath together repeat this sequence 3 more times.
On your next inhale take the arms up and this time as you exhale bring the left arm down by your side to rest a few feet away from your body on your mat, and reach the right arm up and over the head to give yourself a lovely stretch for the right side of the body.
Take a breath here and on and inhale come up and exhale down to the other side.
Inhale now and bring your right arm up over head and your left hand to your right knee, exhale and drop the right arm down behind the body.
Inhale and as you exhale rote the torso to the right for a long spinal twist. Look back over the right shoulder.
Inhale to come back to centre and repeat on the other side.
Come back to centre and keep the legs crossed reach both arms as far out along the floor as you can to gently stretch the spine and open the hips. Be sure to keep the buttocks on the floor and you walk the fingertips forwards. Hold for 3 breaths – noticing that the hip of the leg in front will get a greater stretch.
Come back up to sitting and switch the legs so the other leg is in front and repeat, walking the fingertips forwards along the floor.
Come back up to sitting and stretch the legs out in front.
Bend your right knee and bring the foot in to the inner thigh for Janu Sirsasana. Rotate the body slightly towards the straight leg for a gentle twist and inhale, exhale as you fold forward over that leg. Hold for 3 breaths.
Come up and repeat on the other side and then come back to centre.
Bend the knees and shift the weight back on to your tail bone and raise the feet off the floor, come into boat posture – engaging your abdominal muscles and the muscles of the back as you open the chest and drop the shoulder blades towards the floor. You can do boat with legs down, at 90degrees or straight. Hold for 3-5 breaths.
Bring the feet down and swing the body around until you are lying on your tummy with the hands under your shoulder joints and the legs active with the feet pointed straight out behind.
Inhale come up into cobra with the arms bend and the shoulders down away from your ears.
Exhale turn your head to the right to look at your feet, hold for a breath.
Inhale back to centre and exhale rotate the head to look left.
Gently lower down and realign the spine in Sphinx, by coming up onto your forearms for 3 breaths.
Turn over so you are lying on your back. and stretch out into savasana for 5 minutes or as long as you have for deep relaxation really allowing the body to let go.
.jpg)
Serena is a yoga teacher and the founder of The OM Space . She is a passionate believer in yoga as a life enhancing practice and runs several classes in Colombo including the very popular Yoga for Children and Yoga for Pregnancy. Serena trained in the UK with the British Wheel of Yoga and is a UK Yoga Alliance registered Senior Teacher.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
0 Comments