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Yoga Poses Info |
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Yoga Poses Info
Yoga poses or Asanas are bodily postures taken in
certain sequences during Yoga
classes and aimed at preparing a person for more exquisite training of
their mind.
Yoga poses were originally intuited by Yogi as comfortable positions
for hour-long meditation; and while the ultimate purpose of Yoga is
self-cognition and achieving the state of perfect awareness, the more
Yoga poses one could use the better.
Yoga poses range from simple and subtle to extremely complicated ones;
and the combination of Asanas as well as their order is likely to vary
considerably depending on the school that is teaching Yoga. Thus, the
founder of Bikram Yoga
copyrighted his programs of Yoga poses and claimed them to be unique,
Joseph Pilates
sorted out a number of Asanas focused on training the 'powerhouse' of a
person (their back, abdomen, hips and buttocks), and Sahaja Yoga
practitioners maintain that the enlightenment can visit one even
without performing any Yoga poses. Anyway, it is important to remember
that Yoga is not just a set of physical exercises to build your
muscles, but it is a whole philosophical system helping achieve harmony
and balance between one's body and mind, and become aware of one's
place in the universe.
Nevertheless, Yoga can appear an extremely challenging practice,
especially if you are a beginner and not really physically fit. A
competent Yoga instructor won't urge you to try complex Yoga poses from
the very beginning, in ideal, you will be progressing gradually and
smoothly, with no pain or stress. At the initial stages you could make
use of special props like chairs, belts, wooden blocks and similar
devices.
Every class should start with warming-up Yoga poses. These can include
eye-training, exercises for the neck and shoulders as well as some
stretching to help prepare your muscles for more difficult tasks,
relax, ease tension and concentrate on the following practices.
Then you could proceed with some standing Yoga poses like the Mountain
pose, Triangle pose, Warrior poses, Chair pose, etc. The names sound
simple in English and do make some sense in terms of connection with
the concepts they denote: the Chair Yoga pose really resembles a chair,
and the Warrior Yoga poses are actually warlike, but some people prefer
the original names of Asanas: for them, words like Virabhadrasana or
Tadasana sound kind of solemn and provide the exciting sensation of
being initiated into some mystery. Besides, having learned some words
like Chaturanga Dandasana or Ardha Chandrasana you could then astonish
your friends with the deep knowledge of Yoga terminology! However, even
if you don't, you will still benefit from these Yoga poses as they
improve coordination, reduce fatigue, increase stamina and provide
better blood flow to internal organs.
One of the main body areas that will surely thank you for taking up
Yoga is your back. Twisting and stretching, backbending, lengthening
the spine that is done during certain Yoga poses carefully and slowly,
under the supervision of an instructor, will soon make you forget about
backaches.
There also exist sitting and lying (supine) Yoga poses. Among them, the
most widely practiced are the Lotus pose, the Child pose, Corpse pose,
etc. Such poses may appear simple and relaxed (and mostly, they are),
but they are also very good for health and nerves, letting you calm
down and have a rest in-between of more difficult exercises or finish
your class.
So do Yoga, and keep fit, healthy and happy!
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