In our increasingly busy world, where so many things demand our attention and are seemingly endless, we have limited time to do a practice to stay healthy and balanced both spiritually and physically. So instead of adding one more thing to your already busy life, follow the adage to work smart, not hard. Begin this practice with squatting yoga poses and bending your torso forward.
These are power poses – essential yoga postures to do, even if you’re not going to do anything else; In addition, no ritual or belief is necessary to do them or to provide you with the many benefits they provide; they are very beneficial postures for our body.
One of the things that predicts longevity is how easy it is to sit on the floor and get back up unaided. The yoga poses of squatting and bending the torso forward (hang) are great ways to practice these important physical movements.
Many yoga poses are simply variations of the squat and forward bend. The squat is a compression and the torso bend is an extension. The two complement each other.
Squat yoga pose
This posture helps us maintain deep and fluid flexibility in the hip joints .
This flexibility is something we all have at birth, but it diminishes as we age, due to lack of use.
Perfect hip joints help you stabilize your sexual energy.
A hip joint that is flexible is able to move easily and makes you feel more liberated in your mood performance as well.
Also, having flexible hip joints is crucial for proper body alignment when walking and standing. In our culture we spend too much time sitting in chairs or in our cars and leaning forward.
These postures shorten and tighten the muscles of the legs (the hamstrings and Achilles tendons) and our shoulders, neck, and back.
The tendency of the upper back and neck to be out of alignment can be directly related to headaches, rapid aging, and even bone deterioration.
Our internal organs need space to move and breathe, and how young our body stays, especially internally, can be directly related to the mobility and motility of our organs, which means the ability of the organs to move with ease, flexion. and compression as we go, and to have a healthy fluid flow in and around themselves, which helps our organs retain their elasticity.
The squatting position helps to reinforce the inherent mobility and motility of the organs.
Yoga pose by bending the torso forward
The forward bend (Uttanasana) is to lengthen and loosen the back of the body – especially the hamstrings – but also the very often tight muscles of the lower back and shoulder girdle.
Bending your torso forward is also an inversion, and you’ll start to get a body used to being upside down – something most of us stop doing after we get out of the cartwheel age.
Allowing the body to extend in this way decreases pressure on the vertebrae of the spine and allows lengthening without compression.
This also prepares us for backbend poses, where we are lengthening the spine – and also compressing it rather than lengthening and opening between the vertebrae.
The forward bending allows the muscles in the legs and hips to stretch, while strengthening. It also calms the nervous system.
In succession with the squat, it helps to free the hips, calm the mind, and strengthen the lower body.