Pranayama & Basic Asanas

Hi guys, this is Surya here, and I hope you've been following my previous two videos, where we did a lot of warm-ups and talked about the importance of warming up before starting any exercises, and then we did a lot of intense flexibility training exercises. So I hope right now you're flexible enough to do the asanas that we're going to do today. We're going to do some basic asanas, and also some of these exercises will help you lose a little bit of your tummy, and most importantly today we're going to do a little bit of breathing. So I hope you are ready, just as I am. We're going to begin with our breathing exercises.

Now, we can sit in Vajrasana, because most people can't sit cross-legged for a long time, or you could sit in Ardha Padmasana, which is what I use for most of my breathing exercises. Hold the Chin Mudra, keep your spine straight, be completely relaxed, and do deep breathing for 10 times at least. Keep your eyes closed and visualize the fresh air coming in, filling your lungs, and as you exhale, let all the bad air out. Do this 10 times and move on to Kapalabhati.

It is pretty much just letting your air out; it is focused more on your exhale than your inhale. Make sure you take a deep breath in between your pranayamas. Now we're going to do our alternate breathing. This is the Vishnu Mudra — hold your thumb and your little finger out, cover your right nostril, inhale through your left, hold your breath, and exhale on your right. Again, you inhale on the right, hold your breath, and exhale on the left. This is the alternate breathing; it really helps you relax your nerves and your muscles, and it also balances your Ida and Pingala, all your energies within your body — it regulates your prana. Do this for at least 10 times.

We're going to do the Gomukhasana, which is actually done with your legs crossed, but we can start off with Ardha Padmasana for the beginning. All you need to do is try to hold your palms from behind — you lift your right hand up and then your left hand from below and try to join them. Keep your chin up and your back straight; this really helps with your posture. You can hold it for a good one minute if it is possible, and you can try with the left hand — as you can see, we always have one flexible hand and the other one that doesn't behave, but that's okay, with practice you can always make it perfect. Now, for a lot of people they say that they can't reach the palms — that's alright, you could use a yoga belt, or you can keep practicing until you finally achieve this asana. Remember to breathe deeply, alright, so you could do your deep inhale and exhale holding this mudra, and you could do this for at least 5 minutes — it does wonders for back pain, and of course it improves your posture.

Now we're going to do a small sequence to help our flexibility in the leg. We start with the butterfly — butterfly is something that everyone does, it's very good for your legs and it helps you stretch your thigh muscles out; you can even notice that pregnant women, prenatal women, do this anyway. You stick your left leg out, stretch it out — this is again a small little warm-up to what we're going to do — and you do this again with your right leg, and if you feel it's not flexible enough, continue with your butterfly again. If you feel you can stretch it, put your left leg out, alright — take your left hand, hold your right knee, and your right hand to your left toe, alright, stay this way for a good 20 seconds, and you twist your left leg into the pigeon pose. So this is a pigeon pose — this helps you with your flexibility on your back, and it's actually a very relaxing pose; it's not as complicated as it looks. Make sure that you twist your leg right from your pelvis and just go down, touch the ground, your forehead to the ground, and just stay this way for 30 seconds, and you come back gracefully and slowly, and again stretch backwards, slowly twist your leg and then bring it back to position, do the butterfly again.

Now we're going to do this with the right leg — stick your right leg out, take your right hand on your left knee and your left hand on your right toe, hold it for two minutes, and you twist your right leg into the pigeon pose — this is the Eka Pada Rajakapotasana, alright. So you do this position yourself, bend backwards, stretch, feel the stretch on your neck all the way up to your lower abdomen. Now get on your elbows, on the ground, with your head down — this is a very relaxing pose, as I mentioned, but it also does a great deal when it comes to flexibility. You could do this sequence for at least 10 times, or however much you're able to do.

Now we're going to do the cat pose — most of you know this. Keep your arms and knees in the same line; you inhale, arc your back nicely, chin to your chest, and exhale, you look up to the ceiling and arc your back. Inhale, stomach in, chin to the chest, exhale, look up to the ceiling, arc your back, feel the stretch from your neck to your stomach. Again you go — inhale, pull your stomach in, and exhale, stretch out. Do this at least 10 times — well, most people can do it at least 20 times. It's a very, very easy pose and it helps your back a great deal.

Now we're going to do the Bhujangasana, the snake pose, which is very simple and easy — keep your arms forward, your legs apart, and stretch. This is very good if you're trying to lose weight on your belly — stretch up and look up to the ceiling, make sure you feel the stretch all the way from your neck to your lower abdomen. If this is too difficult for you, you could just do the simpler version of it, which is your elbows on the ground and look up at the ceiling. The Bhujangasana is something we'll be using a lot in the upcoming Power Yoga video, so make sure you get used to it. You can easily move on to the downward dog pose, which is also called as one asana, alright — let's try to stay in this position for a good two minutes, and you can just push yourself backward, make sure that you feel the stretch on your hamstrings.

Now we're going to do the dynamic swan asana, where you get your knee to your head and kick up — inhale, exhale, and again you repeat it on the other leg. This is a dynamic downward dog — inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale — and you continue doing this at least 10 times. If you feel this is a bit too much for you, you could always take a little bit of rest doing the Balasana — this is the Balasana, also called the fetal pose, which is the best way to relax in between asanas. Make sure you rotate your wrists, because when you're doing the downward dog it could apply a lot of pressure on your wrists, and some people might not be able to cope with it because they're doing it for the first time. The other way to relax is the puppy pose — this is also a very relaxing pose, it's very easy on your back, so do this in between all your asanas as much as possible.

Well guys, that was easy, wasn't it? All you have to do is your warm-up and do those flexibility-enhancing exercises, and you can follow these basic asanas. So what we're doing now is just preparing yourself to start doing Power Yoga or Surya Namaskar, so in the next few days, hopefully you'll be ready both in flexibility and strength.