Thursday, December 18, 2014
Yoga Asana
Yoga is a discipline that aims to benefit the physical, mental, and spiritual wellbeing of a practitioner.
The physical aspect of Yoga is Yoga Hatha
which practices
the positioning and posturing of the body
to achieve balance between body and
mind.
Applying conscious breathing with mental focus cultivates the ability to
remain in seated meditation for extended periods.
This practice improves the
body's flexibility and vitality,
achieving awareness, strength and flexibility,
and relaxation of the body,
a sense of well-being to the practitioner.
Yoga Asana is the art of practicing these yoga postures or yoga positions.
A way of sitting or standing is an asana,
and a posture like lying on the back, standing on the head and a variety of other positions is a yogasana.
A male practitioner is a yogin or yogi and a female practitioner is a yogini.
Yoga Asana aims to improve flexibility, strength and balance, increase energy and decrease fatigue,
reduce hypertension and improve blood circulation, and reduce stress, anxiety and symptoms of body pain.
A group of 84 classic yoga asanas
taught by Lord Shiva is mentioned in several classic texts on yoga.
Over the years its popularity and practice
worldwide
results in many combinations and variations of these yoga postures
or positions,
some of which rival the art of contortionists.
Today the number of yogasanas is beyond
categorization.
In 2008, the government of India formed a team of yoga gurus, government officials,
and 200 scientists from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research to register all known asanas in a public database.
The team collected asanas from 35 ancient texts including the Hindu epics,
the Mahabharata, the Bhagwad Gita, and Patanjali's Yoga Sutras;
and as of 2010, had identified 900 asanas for the database
which was named the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library and made available to patent examiners.
Yoga Asanas
are graceful in performance and beautiful in stillness;
while some advanced
asanas are limb twisting and bone testing contortion challengers.
Asanas also have imaginative and
meaningful names.
Names such as The Scorpion Pose, The King Pigeon Pose, The Tiptoe Balance Pose,
and The Mermaid Pose do help the imagination of these respective poses.
King Pigeon Pose
Stretches the thighs, groins, abdomen, chest, shoulders and
neck.
Stimulates the abdominal organs. Opens the shoulders and
chest.
Tiptoe Balance
Improves strength and flexibility in the toes, ankles,
knees, hips and thighs.
This is an intermediate level pose.
Mermaid Pose
This pose stretches the thighs, groins, shoulders, and
chest.
It improves mobility in the spine and hips, strengthens the
abdominal muscles,
and stimulates the organs of the torso.
Scorpion Pose
Strengthens the torso, back, arms and shoulders.
Improves sense of balance and flexibility,
and releases stress in the shoulders and spine.
# posted by chunmu @ 5:03 AM 
