Yoga as Therapeutic Exercise: A Practical Guide for Manual Therapists

7

Chapter

Selected āsanas for integrating the aims and principles

Selected asanas̄ Selected āsanas

Selected asanas̄ Selected āsanas

Being in the posture: basic work

1. Be strong in your legs; the shin bones and the
   front of the thighs are moving backwards.


2. Push yourself up from your palms and fingers,
   particularly the thumbs and index fingers; feel
   the lifting against gravity up to your hips.


3. Keep your head in line with your spine, between
   your upper arms; keep your neck and throat
   comfortable.


4. Move your chest towards your thighs.


5. Maintaining the lifting from the hands to the
   hips, move your heels as close as possible
   towards the floor, keeping the feet parallel
   and the arches of the feet active
   (Figure 7.43).
   6. If the feet have reached their final position, lift your
   shin bones away from the feet and move the front
   of your thighs towards the back of your thighs.
   7. Breathe naturally.
   8. Stay for 5–10 breaths.

Being in the posture: refined work

1. Move the front of your thighs towards the back
   
   of your thighs, and the inner thighs backwards
   as well; counterbalance this action with a slight
   external rotation of the thighs and a slight
   movement of the lower abdomen towards the
   back of the pelvis.


2. Keep the shin bones moving backwards and the
   kneecaps sucked into the lower thighs; let the
   back of the knees move a tiny fraction towards
   the front, keeping the back of the knees broad.


3. Refine pushing up from the thumbs, from the
   index fingers, from the middle fingers, from
   the ring fingers, from the little fingers; feel the
   different effects on the stretching of the arms,
   the movement of the shoulder blades, and the
   lifting of the trunk, the inner movement against
   gravity.


4. Slightly press the fingers into the floor to get
   some isometric action in your palms and fingers;
   slightly lift the wrists off the floor, play with
   hollowing the carpal tunnels and stretching them
   again; feel the effect on lifting the lower arms
   and the elbows.


5. Balance your elbows between hyperextension
   and a tiny flexion; be firm above the elbows.


6. Maintaining the lifting from the hands,
   particularly from the thumbs and index fingers,
   slightly turn your upper arms away from the
   shoulders; feel the release and the space this
   creates for your neck and between your shoulder
   blades.


7. Vary the position of your head gently; slightly
   lift it from the area between your shoulder
   blades to encourage the back-bending action of
   the thoracic spine.


8. Combine the movement of the upper sternum
   towards your hands and the costal arches slightly

Figure 7.42

Figure 7.43