The last few months have been a wonderful time, enjoying the solitary winter months here in the Costa Vicentina National park. After which the spring flowed into blossom with a stunning array of wild flowers. Going on long beach walks, occasional longboard sessions and loads of time for my own yoga practice. Resulting in passing my Iyengar introductory level 2 exam. All in all a tranquil, inspirational time seasoned with some excitement and nervousness for the exam. Now the summer season is slowly starting to find it's way again, the wild flowers are seeding and the wind is blowing warmer. Time for me to add some (hopefully) inspiration to your yoga practice, in which simplicity is the key. 5 Yoga poses with which you can deepen your practice, start again or to be used easily wherever you are.
ADHO MUKHA VIRASANA
Sit on your heels, knees apart and big toes touching. Keep your buttocks planted firmly on your heels and extend the upper body forward. Place your forehead on the floor and extend your arms fully forward.
If the buttocks don’t stay on the heels while placing the forehead on the floor, then put sufficient height under the forehead until the buttocks release down.
ADHO MUKHA SVANASANA (WITH HANDS ON HEIGHT)
Place your hands on a bench or chair, extend your arms and walk your feet back behind your hips. Let your neck & head hang. Push into the hands to extend the arms and trunk into the hips, engage the legs and release the heels towards the floor.
ARDHA UTTANASANA
Place your palms at chest height on the wall or place them on any other height available. Walk your feet back until your ankles and hips are parallel to each other. Don’t drop your head but keep it in line with your arms. Engage your legs & extend through your arms and trunk.
If your back stays rounded try placing your hands a bit higher.
If you are very flexible watch out that you don’t push your lumbar forward here, instead move the sacrum away from the lumbar, so that the front waist can move towards the spine.
PARVATASANA IN VAJRASANA
Sit with knees together on your heels, feet flat on the floor. Interlock your fingers all the way to the webbing and turn your hands inside out. Extend your arms and slowly bring your arms overhead. Don’t let the arms bend while trying to take the arms overhead, instead keep the arms straight and stop when they start bending. Release the arms down and change the interlock of your fingers to do the pose again.
If you feel any pain in your knees then place a blanket on top of your heels to sit higher, if you feel pain on the front of your ankles then roll a thin blanket or towel and place it under the ankles.
PARSVA VAJRASANA (WITH SUPPORT)
Stay seated as in the above pose on your heels with knees together. Sit with the right side of your body close to a wall or other support. Extend both sides of your trunk and twist to your right. Place your right hand on the wall and your left on your right thigh. Make sure that your hips stay parallel, so don’t let the left hip move forward. Stay a few breaths and then change sides.
Photos by: Concha @seasoulstories
(This article was originally written for surfgirlmag http://www.surfgirlmag.com/2017/04/5-yoga-surf-poses-you-can-do-anywhere/)