After the lovely relief of a two minute floor savasana if in a full on Bikram Class now it’s time for this stimulating posture. It’s great for relieving a bloated stomach!
Lying down on the floor you raise your right knee up and with the help of interlocked fingers, keep it as close to the chest as you can aiming for the right shoulder. At the same time, keep your chin down and push your neck and spine on to the floor. Your head, shoulders and pelvis should be touching the floor throughout. Keep your elbows close to the body and hold the position for about 20 seconds. Your straight leg should remain straight with the calf touching the floor. Alignment, alignment, alignment!
Repeat with the left leg.
The final part is lifting both knees up and wrapping your arms around them to keep them as snug to the body as you can. Ideally you should grab your elbows rather than just grasp your hands to get a better compression. No worries if this is not possible at first but with time you may find you can achieve this. Concentrate on pushing your lower spine to the floor.
Come out of the posture, stay still and relax – fresh new blood is now flowing into areas that were compressed, stimulating organs and lubricating the joints.
Benefits:
- Relieves bloating and prevents flatulence
- Strengthens arms and hands
- Works the digestive and endocrine systems (stimulates the thyroid)
- Naturally creates traction of the spine, great for posture