Written By: Satata Karmakar | Updated : January 11, 2021 11:25 AM IST
Feeling lethargic? Try these yoga asanas to melt away winter stiffness
Yoga comes in a lot of forms; it is more than just Asanas. It includes a combination of breathing practices, meditation, and other Yogic Techniques. Regular practice of Yoga can help you to reduce the aches and pains in the body, increases flexibility, and also keeps the stiffness away.
During winter days, the body becomes stiff which makes it prone to cramps, joint pain, and injury. Scared? do not worry! Yoga can cure your winter lethargy and stiffness.
All you need is your yoga mat and as little as 20 minutes thrice a week to see the difference. Exercise heats up the body from the inside and releases stiffness from the muscles making you feel active and energetic.
When a person doesn't use the body and has a sedentary lifestyle, then the muscles, ligaments, and tendons become weak and are unable to support the joints. Before you start with your yoga asanas, make sure to provide fuel to your body. How? Warm-up. Here's how.
Start your day with sukshma vyayam. In yoga, warming up of the body starts from the toes and goes all the way up.
You can start with:
- Ankle rotations.
- Warming up the ankle joints
- Moving on to your knees, hips, arms, neck, and head.
Warming up the body ensures that your production levels on the mat are high and you also remain free from injuries.
Practice gently and slowly keeping awareness of each movement and syncing your breath along with each posture. Keep these in your mind while performing yoga asanas:
- When you practice slowly it ensures that you are mindful of your movements and this results in better strength flexibility and a positive outcome overall.
- Establish communication between the mind and the body through the breath in a gentle and slow manner.
- Practicing any movements in a hasty way not only leads to injury but can also harm the respiratory and the nervous system.
During the winter, choose a warm and cozy place for your practice. How? Follow the below guidelines:
- If indoors, choose a room or a spot where there isn't a cold draft in the air.
- If you are practicing outdoors make sure that you are well covered in warm clothing.
Practise is vital to keep your body in good health and in a mobile condition. Practice the following yoga postures:
- To get into this pose, kneel down placing your knees under the hips and palms under your shoulders.
- Inhale and curl your spine to look up.
- Exhale and round your back and shoulders to look at your navel.
This asana is good for warming up the spine.
- To form a downward dog, you can start in Child's Pose resting your pelvis on your heels and reaching out in front of you with your forehead on the floor.
- From here, bring your toes down to push your knees and pelvis up forming a triangular shape with the body.
- Make sure the distance between the palms and your feet is neither too far away nor is it too close.
- Come to plank posture and from here gently drop the pelvis and the stomach down without touching the floor.
- Lift the chest and the shoulders towards the sky and lookup.
- In this posture do not bend your elbows and squeeze the glutes to activate the back muscles.
This pose helps to deeply stretch the hamstrings and gluteus while freeing the spine of its morning stiffness.
- Start by stepping the right foot forward while keeping the left foot at a 45-degree angle.
- Maintain a distance of 3 feet between the legs.
- Interlace the fingers behind your back and fold the body forward toward the front leg.
- Allow your arms to stretch open while keeping the gaze to the toes.
- Hold for 30 seconds. Repeat the same on the left side.
Bhujangasana or the cobra pose is a wonderful back bend asana, which helps to get rid of the stiff and tight muscles in the back, especially during the winters. This yoga posture also helps to open the chest cavity and improves respiratory function.
- Lie on your belly in a prone position.
- Place the palms to the sides of your chest and slowly push into the floor to lift your body up.
- Do not straighten the arms fully. Keep a slight bend in the elbows.
- Allow the shoulders to be rested down and relaxed. Make sure to not tense the neck.
- Hold for 30 seconds, slowly release and repeat.
These are simple and effective postures that can be performed by practitioners of any age. Once you are able to perform these postures with ease then you can add advanced level asanas in your practice such as Wheel Pose, Bow Pose, Peacock Pose, Headstand, and so on. Along with your yoga practice, ensure that you monitor your food intake and consume water at room temperature.
