Today’s Poses: Supported Shoulder Stand and Upward Abdominal Lock
- Supported Shoulder Stand
- Upward Abdominal Lock
Supported Shoulder Stand and Upward Abdominal Lock – Poses and Benefits
Supported Shoulder Stand
Shoulderstand is entered from a supine position with the knees bent. The shoulders may be supported on folded blankets, and the upper arms may be held in with a belt just above the elbows. Beginners may lift with bent legs, advanced users with straight legs. The back is supported by the hands: once up, the hands reach lower down the trunk towards the head, and the trunk is lifted further; the legs may then be straightened to a vertical position.
Benefits:
- Calms the brain and helps relieve stress and mild depression
- Stimulates the thyroid and prostate glands and abdominal organs
- Stretches the shoulders and neck
- Tones the legs and buttocks
- Improves digestion
- Reduces fatigue and alleviates insomnia
Upward Abdominal Lock – Uddiyana Bandha
Upward Uḍḍīyana Bandha (Sanskrit), also called abdominal lock or upward-lifting lock is the abdominal bandha described and employed in hatha yoga, in particular in the nauli purification. It involves, after having exhaled all the air out, pulling the abdomen under the rib cage by taking a false inhale while holding the breath and then release the abdomen after a pause. The process is repeated many times before letting the air into the lungs, resuming normal breath.
Uddiyana Bandha is practiced by pulling the abdomen inwards after exhalation and holding the breath outside. The abdominal muscles press the organs in the abdomen against the wall behind the organ, next to the spinal column.
Benefits:
- Uddiyana Bandha massages all the organs in the abdomen.
- It tones the adrenal glands and balances its function.
- It improves digestion by increasing digestive fire.
- It helps to remove stress and tension.
- It improves the function of the liver and pancreas
- Improves lung capacity
- It also has an effect on the heart and improves the circulation of blood throughout the body.
- It improves all functions related to that nerve center.
- It is a great tool for liberation.
Transcript: Supported Shoulder Stand and Upward Abdominal Lock
Hi there, it’s Maurene with YouVeda. Welcome to the yoga series for general support.
- Today, we’re going to be doing the supported shoulder stand, which is going to help stimulate our abdominal organs, thyroid, and prostate glands.
- We’re also going to be doing the upward abdominal lock, which is going to increase our gastric fires, and that’s going to help with digestion assimilation elimination and also to help relieve our body of toxins.
So let’s go ahead and begin so for the supported shoulder stand.
- We want to gently lay down on the ground, someplace nice and comfortable. I like to keep my knees bent from here, pressing my palms front to the ground.
- I’m going to gently use momentum to bring my knees up and over my forehead so that my hips come off the ground from.
- Here I’m just bending my ink elbows supporting the lower back and extending those legs out pushing my hips forward and straightening my legs over the top this is the Supported shoulder stand
- It should feel nice and awesome and
- Then we’re going to gently come down bringing the legs over in a backward motion
I like just rolling out of it for the upward abdominal lock
- We’re going to stand up with our feet shoulder-width apart give ourselves a slight bend at the waist
- We’re going to place both hands on the sides
- We’re going to take a big inhale through the belly and exhale almost forcibly through the mouth and
- As we get here, we’re going to hold that exhale and focus on expanding the ribcage not by inhaling but just using the muscles to expand the ribcage really pulling that abdomen in
- We’re going to hold that expansion for about five to fifteen seconds, so here we go
- Inhale nice big. Exhale expand those ribs holding for five to 15 seconds and hold that expansion
- You still got your exhale. Hold it, then relax, repeat this a few different times
