Pancreas & Core

Hi everyone. Welcome to Yoga & You. I am Sanjana Prasad. This is day two of the seven-day series for Diabetes Management. Day one was all about Joint Activation and Stretching. Practice that and then hop on to day two. Let's get started with day two's practice. Day two is all about twists.

Twists are an amazing movement for the spine. They really help to redirect that energy and provide that necessary relief physically for the entire body. And they also have a stimulating effect on the internal organs, which plays a very important role in a person's health, especially when they are dealing with diabetes. So we are going to start off with the first simple, gentle seated twist called Vakrasana.

So for Vakrasana, you are going to extend your legs forward. Bend your right knee. Your knee is pointing up towards the ceiling. Toes are pointing forwards. Now the distance here between your heel and your hip is about, say, a palm distance, and there's a fist distance between the foot and the opposite leg. So it's not touching each other. It's not a very constrictive position. Give yourself some space. Move the foot forward so that the knee falls right over the ankle and there is space between the arch of the foot and the left thigh.

Now from here, we're going to sit tall. Take your left hand, hug the right thigh. Give yourself a tight hug. Now what I like to do to create more space is to slightly round the back, and this helps to move my abdomen out of the way. So I get a nice deeper twist because if I'm here then I'm stuck here. So I like to round the back a little. Create space by twisting. Hug the knee closer. Use the right hand for support behind you, just on your fingertips. Exhale and twist. An exhalation helps to empty out the belly more and you get a deeper twist, and we're going to stay here and breathe. One, two, three, four, five. Inhale and untwist. Come back to center and release your arm.

Let's switch to the other side. So you're going to extend both your legs forward. This time we'll start by bending the left knee. Your left knee is right over the ankle here. Give yourself some space between the thigh and the arch of the foot. Sit tall. Use your right arm to hug the left knee. Again, slight flexion, round, create space so you can really twist and get the chest to face the left side completely, and then you go close to the knee so that the thigh is pressing against the belly. Get a little bit of pressure there. Palm behind you, just on the fingertips. Hug the knee close, exhale and twist. Look back. One, every breath you take on your exhale draw the belly in, and when you draw the belly in you'll notice you can actually twist a little bit more. Two, so in all your forward folds and twists use your breath. Every exhale you draw the belly in, you go a little deeper into the posture. Three, four, five. Inhale, untwist. Come back to center. Release the arm. Extend the leg forward and shake your legs out.

The next posture that we're going to do is Ardha Matsyendrasana, which is also a seated spinal twist but a little bit more challenging than this one. We'll go step by step. The first thing I want you to do is bend the right knee. Here we're going to take the right foot outside of the left knee, and your right toes and left knee will be in the same line. Now from here, we're going to do the basic variation first. We're going to take the arm behind you. We're going to hug the knee. Same as Vakrasana. In flexion, twist. Look over the shoulders, stay there and breathe. One, two, three, four, five. Inhale, untwist. Come back to center.

Let's do the opposite side. I'm going to show you this way so you can see the placement of the foot better. You bend the left knee. Take the left foot outside of the right knee. Toes are in line with the knee. Now for some of us, because the hips might be tight or lower back might be tight, you might be stuck here halfway. In this case you can use a block to kind of give your foot a little elevation to place it on. It might help you stay more stable and comfortable in the posture. Now hug the knee with the right hand. Twist. Look over the left shoulder. Stay there and breathe. One, remember to keep the extended leg active, not dead. Two, three, four, five. Inhale, untwist. Come back to center. Release your arms. Release the leg.

And we're going to go back to the right side again. This time we'll add another layer to it. So you bend the right knee. Take the right foot outside of the left knee. You're also going to bend the left knee and get the heel underneath the hip. Now some traditions practice it by keeping the heel underneath the hip. Some place the hip on the floor. So whichever is more comfortable for you, the idea is to maximize the twist and gain the benefit of the twist. So I like to practice it with the heel underneath the hip here. Toes are in line with my knee. Here what I'm going to do, I'm going to take the right hand behind me for support. Now you're going to inhale and reach the left arm up. Now as you exhale, twist. Try to get your elbow outside of the knee. Again, slightly round the spine. Twist. Look over the shoulder. Stay there, breathe. One, two, three, four, five. Inhale, untwist. Reach the arm up. Exhale and relax.

Let's switch the legs. Extend the legs forward. Bend the left knee. Take the left foot outside of the right knee. Align your toes with the knee. You're going to bend the right knee here and take the heel underneath the hip. Sit tall. Left hand is already ready here to support you. Inhale and lift the right arm up. Make space. Now slightly round your back. Exhale, twist and get the elbow outside of the thigh. Look over the shoulder. Stay there and breathe. One, two, three, four, five. Inhale, untwist. Come back to center. Release the hand and relax. Extend the legs forward.

Now we'll see if we can go for a little bit of extension of this one. Maybe we're going to use the arm to grab the foot. This gives you a little deeper twist. So I'm going to show you on the right side again. So bend the right knee, right foot outside of the left knee. The basics remain the same. So once you have the base here, what we're going to do, you're going to take the right hand behind you. Once again lift the left arm up. Inhale, exhale and twist. Now once you have this twist, see if you can reach your left palm towards the right foot. So you're really pressing the thigh against the belly. At the same time, you're going to twist. One, two, three, four. Slowly reduce the weight on the hand that's behind you. Five. Inhale, untwist. Reach the arm up. Exhale and relax.

Let's switch. Switch the legs. By now you should be familiar with the base because you've done it on both sides. Once you have the base ready, the left hand goes behind you. Inhale and lift the right arm up. Exhale, twist and reach for the foot. Start to reduce the dependency on the hand behind you. One, just the fingertips for support. Two, three, four, five. Inhale, untwist. Reach the arm up. Exhale and relax. Extend both your legs forward and you're going to shake your legs out.

Okay, the next one that we're going to do is Marichyasana. We have different variations of Marichyasana. We're going to practice Marichyasana C today, which is kind of an extension of Vakrasana. So you're going to bend the right knee here. Okay, the base or the alignment remains the same as Vakrasana. Take the right hand behind you. Take a deep inhale. Left arm goes up. Now in Vakrasana, we just hug the knee, right? And in Ardha Matsyendrasana, we just took the elbow out here. Here we're going to try to create a bind.

So I want you to twist and then watch my arm. The eye of my elbow is going to start turning the other way. Okay, so by not reaching for the foot, you—like this—I am rotating my arm so that my armpit wraps around the knee. Okay, so watch again. So from here, the eye of my elbow is going to flip the other way around. Now from here, I wrap my arm around my knee. So I told you in Ardha Matsyendrasana to start reducing the dependency — the preparation for this Marichyasana. See, we are not going to have the hand on the floor. We're going to take the hand that's behind you also behind you and go for a deep bind. I'm clasping my hands behind me. I will show you on the other side. You're going to twist. Look over the shoulder. Breathe. One, two, three, four, five. Inhale, untwist. Slowly release the bind and relax.

So I'm going to show you the bind — I mean the posture — in the same direction, so you can see the bind behind me. You can also use a strap here to complete the bind. So left foot is going to be on the mat, knee pointing towards the ceiling. Inhale, lift the right arm up. Exhale, first twist. Find a nice deep twist. Now you can see my elbow here, right? I'm flipping the elbow the other way around. My elbows point to the ceiling. My hand has also turned so that I can wrap around the knee. Twist deeply. From here, release the weight on the back hand. Wrap around and go for a bind. Look over the shoulder. Stay there and breathe. One, right now I'm at my wrist. The goal is to start working your hand up towards the forearm. Two, three, four, five. Inhale, release, untwist. Come back to center. Extend the legs forward and shake your legs out.

So for Marichyasana — see, for a posture like this, you can see there are a lot of components involved. Your shoulder needs to be ready for it. Your spine needs to be ready. Your hips needs to be ready. So it's a good idea to start with Vakrasana, get more and more comfortable. Practice Ardha Matsyendrasana and then eventually come to Marichyasana. See, so it is a very progressive practice. The deeper your twist gets, the more mobile your shoulder also becomes. The easier the bind becomes.

Now we're going to lie down for a supine twist. I'm going to turn around, lie down on my back. From here, we're going to exhale, hug the right knee into the chest. We'll do two variations for this. For the first one, we're going to simply hug the knee to the chest. Open the right arm shoulder level on the right side. Now I'm going to use my left hand to guide the right knee towards the left. My bottom leg is straight, not bending. Turn and look over my right shoulder. One, two, three, four, five. Inhale, center. Gently release the right leg forward.

Let's switch sides. Exhale, hug the left knee to the chest. Open your left arm shoulder level. Use your right hand to guide the left knee towards the right side. Now when I'm taking this knee lower to the floor, I'm not going to let this hand lift off. I'm going to press the shoulder down as much as I can. At the same time, try to get the knee towards the floor. So this really enhances the twist of the stretch, and your lower back and your hips, and also the twist in your abdomen. One, two, three, four, five. Inhale and come back to center. Exhale and release the left foot down.

The next one is a variation of this posture — one of my favorites also to practice — really helps to open up the hips as well. You're going to place your right ankle on the left thigh. Now lift the left foot off the floor. Bring the legs close up to the chest. You can even hug the thigh if you like with both hands. Now open your arms out shoulder level. I'm not changing my legs here. I'm going to simply drop the legs in the same shape towards your left elbow. Turn your head to the right. And here I can use my hand to deepen the twist. One, two, three, four, five. Release. Come back to center.

Switch the legs. Left ankle on the right thigh. Foot off the floor. Exhale and drop the knees to the right. Use my right hand to deepen the twist. Breathe. One, two, three, four, five. Inhale, come back to center. Exhale and release the legs. Extend your legs forward and relax in your Shavasana.

So that was day two of the seven-day series for diabetes management. We have day three coming up.