Iyengar Yoga With Rachel Lovegrove

Iyengar Yoga With Rachel Lovegrove

Workshop Focus – Forward Bends

This month’s focus is on seated forward bends.  When practised regularly, seated forward bending movements have many benefits:

  • Calms the mind and relaxes the brain
  • Extends the spine, shoulders, hamstrings and trunk
  • Stimulates the liver, kidneys, ovaries, and uterus and improves digestion
  • Beneficial during the menstrual cycle and to alleviate symptoms of the menopause
  • Alleviates headaches and fatigue and can reduce high blood pressure

    • Let’s look at a classic forward bending posture, Pascimottanasana (intense stretch of the West). If you have a back or hamstring injury, please only practise this posture under the guidance of a qualified teacher.

    1. Sit on the edge of a folded blanket or yoga foam block with your legs extended away from you. The legs should be together but can also be a little apart if you are a beginner or are pregnant. Toes look at the ceiling and heels stretch strongly away. The more you extend your heels, the stronger your legs will feel.
    2. Using your hand beside your hips, turn your fingertips towards your feet and press into the floor – the elbows should be slightly bent, not straight. From the base of your spine, lift up, lift the chest but keep the shoulders back and down. See that you’re not leaning backwards but lifting straight up from the hips.
    3. On an inhalation, raise the arms up above your head, stretching strongly to the finger tips and feeling the chest lifting higher, the trunk extending upwards. Keep the arms straight, extend forwards from the hips towards the feet. If you can reach the feet easily, catch the outsides of the feet with the hands or use a belt to catch the feet. Keep the arms straight, head lifted up and chest extending upwards.

      4. pascimottanasana forward bend

    4. If you can go further, bend the elbows out to the side and move the trunk further forwards, finally releasing the head down last.  Once you have adjusted your pose and reach your final extension, try to stay quietly without fidgeting.  Relax your belly, your jaw and gently draw the shoulders away from the neck. Stay for between 1 and 5 minutes.
    5. If you are stiffer, have back ache or are heavily pregnant, stay sitting up with the belt around the feet, arms straight and practice the leg extension and the trunk lifting up. This preparation work will progress you towards the final pose but don’t rush or force yourself to bend forwards – it will come in time.

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    Posted by Rachel On November - 1 - 2009 EVENT & HOLIDAY NEWS YOGA FOCUS - MONTHLY ARTICLES AND SEQUENCES

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