Revolved Abdomen Pose

Hi, welcome to Yoga & You. I am Sanjana Prasad. Jaṭhara Parivartanāsana and Jaṭhara Parivarti. Jaṭhara refers to the digestive fire, or the jaṭhara agni, and Parivartanāsana — and Parivarti is to twist. So the posture literally translates to belly twist. So this is a great posture to activate your digestive fire, to strengthen your abdominal organs and abdominal muscles, in addition to releasing tension around your hips, your lower back, your neck and shoulders. There are a lot of different ways in which you can practice Jaṭhara Parivarti, and we are going to be exploring a few of these today. So get on your mat and let's begin.

We are going to be starting on our back with the knees bent, feet parallel to each other. Now from here, as you inhale, you are going to open your arms up to shoulder level on both sides, palms facing the floor. You can bring your feet together, knees and toes touching each other. Now take an inhale here, and as you exhale, simply drop your knees towards your right side as far as they can go and turn your head towards the left. Inhale, bring your knees back to center, exhale to the other side. This is like the easiest, simplest version, often called windshield wiper with the knees. Inhale, back to center, exhale and move it to the right. And you can stay here for a couple of breaths if you like. When you are doing this posture, make sure that the shoulder isn't coming off the floor. So when you inhale and you exhale and you're dropping the knees and you're turning your head to look at the opposite fingertips, my right shoulder is not going to peel off the floor. As much as you can, keep it on the floor and you just allow the side of the body, the belly, to get a nice twist, and also the lower back to open up. Staying here for a few breaths, on your next inhale, you're going to come back to center.

And if you think this is really, really comfortable for you, we're going to go on to the next one. You're going to extend the left leg forward. Then as you exhale, hug your right knee in towards the chest. This is Eka Pada Pavanamuktasana. Keeping the knee close to the chest, release only the right hand down to the floor. Take your left hand, use it on the knee, and as you exhale, slowly release the knee towards the left side. It's okay if the knee doesn't touch the floor — keep twisting, anchoring your shoulder and right upper back to the mat. Gazing at your right fingertips, stay here for a few breaths. The bottom leg is active, so keep it straight, don't let it bend. Keep extending it downward and forward on the mat. Breathe. Every exhale, see if you can release the knee a little closer to the floor. After three to five breaths, inhale and slowly you're going to come back to the center. Take an exhale here, following inhalation you can bring your foot down and release, and you're going to practice the same on the other side.

Exhale and first hug the knee. Take an inhale here. Next, exhale, try and draw the belly, empty out from the belly, so that you have space to allow the knee to come to the floor, and turn and look at your opposite fingertips. The knee can stay off — if you find this very uncomfortable, you can always slide a block, a cushion or a pillow to support the knee, go as far as your body allows. Breathe here. Every exhale, use your palm to release a little bit closer to the floor, anchoring your left shoulder. Three breaths, following inhale, slowly come back to center. And hug the knee again, and as you inhale, you're going to release the leg forward.

Moving on to the next variation, you're going to bend both your knees, place your feet on the mat. Now from here, exhale, bring both the knees close to the chest, drawing your lower belly in, wrap your arms around the knees, coming into an Apanasana, or a Pavanamuktasana. Now, keeping the knees really close to the chest, you're going to open your arms out to shoulder level. This requires a little bit of strength from your obliques and abdomen, because you're going to switch side to side without using your hands. Take an inhale, and as you exhale, you're going to drop both knees to your right side, as close as you can towards the elbow, without lifting the left arm or shoulder off the floor, turn your head and look at your left fingertips. Inhale, come back to center, exhale and you're going to switch to the other side. Do it one more time — inhale, come back to center, exhale to the right, keep drawing the belly in. Inhale, when you're lifting your legs up, make sure you're not lifting one leg and then the other leg. Use your abdominal muscles, keep drawing the lower belly in, lift together as one unit, and as you exhale, drop to the left side, turn your head to the right. Now if this is still comfortable for you, you're going to take your fingers, interlock your fingers underneath the head. Now you have to make sure the elbow and the upper back stay on the mat — you're using your right elbow. Inhale, bring the knees together as one unit, exhale, drawing the lower belly in, drop to the right side, turn your head to the left. Inhale, back to center, exhale to the other side, inhale, back to center. You can do this a few more times to just experience the posture a little bit more, and then slowly bring your feet down on inhalation and release your hands.

Moving on to the next variation of the Jaṭhara Parivarti, for this we can use a yoga strap. If you don't have a yoga strap, you can always use a dupatta or a belt to support you. Now I've looped my yoga strap, I'm going to lift my right leg up, loop the strap around my foot, make sure it's nice and tight. From there, extend my right leg up, continue holding the strap. My left leg is going to be extended downwards. I'm going to flip my grip, change my left hand to hold the strap, right arm is going to be down at shoulder level. We're going to take an inhalation here, and as you exhale, allow your right leg to move towards the left side as high as you can towards the shoulder, turn your head, look at your right fingertips. If this is too easy and comfortable for you, you can always take a three-finger grip on your big toe and do the same posture without lifting the shoulder off, stay here and take a few breaths. This is more of a static posture than a dynamic. Once you're done with three to five deep breaths, inhale and slowly come up to center, exhale here, release the strap, and slowly you're going to bring the leg down. If you've done it on one side, make sure you're repeating it on the other side as well.

The last variation of Jaṭhara Parivarti we're going to do — bring your arms up to shoulder level, take an inhale, exhale, make sure you're drawing the lower belly in, requires a bit of abdominal strength, lift both your legs up to 90 degrees. If you need a little bit of support here, you can always bend your knees and then from here go up to 90 degrees. Take an inhale, and as you exhale, you're going to release both the legs simultaneously towards your left palm. Turn the left palm up towards the ceiling so your feet can reach your left palm, and turn your head to look at your right fingertips. If comfortable, hold on to the big toes and keep pressing the right shoulder down, so you get a nice deep twist in the lower back and nice good compression in your belly. The longer you exhale, the deeper this posture becomes, and you find a nice opening in the hip as well. Now, once you're done here, release the toes, inhale — you require the strength of your abdomen to slowly come up as one unit, come back into 90 degrees, and you're going to repeat this on the other side as well. Once you're done on this side, as you inhale, slowly with straight legs bring your leg down. If that's uncomfortable, you can always bend your knees and drop your feet down to the mat. Once you're done, you can relax, bring your hands down, close your eyes, and see how this posture feels for you.

So those were the different variations of Jaṭhara Parivartanāsana that you could practice. So practice the one that suits you on that particular day and gives you the maximum relief and leaves you feeling the best.