You have Backache and aching legs due to bad posture? Fix it now. – Part three of six
You have Backache and aching legs due to bad posture? Fix it now.
Many of the Yoga exercises are based on the natural stretching of healthy animals which the ancient Yogis, who formulated the science of Hatha Yoga, observed and emulated. Therefore, many Yoga asanas are named after mammals, birds, sea creatures, insects, and reptiles.
In this chapter we meet the Swan and the Camel.
The Swan Posture (Swanasana) As its name indicates, it is a graceful exercise and will, therefore, especially appeal to women readers, although its benefits also to male sufferers from backache can hardly be over-estimated. Like many other Yoga asanas the Swan Posture consists of two opposite movements.
1. Lie face downwards, feet together, palms flat on the floor at the level of your armpits. Keep your elbows well off the floor. While inhaling deeply through the nose, and pressing downwards on the floor with your palms, slowly raise your head, shoulders and abdomen off the floor until your elbows are straight.
2. Remain in this position for as long as you comfortably can while holding your breath.
3. While exhaling, and keeping your palms firmly on the floor without moving them slowly raise your abdomen, bend your knees, and sink into the kneeling position. Keep your forehead on the floor, your thighs pressed against your abdomen, and your buttocks on your heels. Remain thus while holding your breath.
4. When the impulse to inhale again appears do so and at the same time raise your buttocks off your heels, straighten your knees and, still without moving your palms return to the starting position.
5. Repeat this to and fro movement up to six times and do be careful to perform your breathing correctly.
And that is the Swan exercise. Graceful and beneficial, it massages and helps to reduce the abdomen in the kneeling movement and the other movement helps relieve backache and improves the posture. The to and fro movement combats constipation and promotes the peristaltic movement of the bowel.
The Camel Posture (Ustrasana)
This is another Yoga exercise which involves a backward bend. I warn you before you attempt this exercise that it is not as easy as it looks, and great care must be taken while coming out of this position. As in all Yoga asanas you must take your time and move without jerking and in particular this applies to movements involving the spinal column.
The Camel is simple enough.
1. Kneel down and sit back on your heels with your toes outstretched.
2. Place your hands on the floor palms down, just behind your toes. Your fingers should be pointing away from your body.
3. Lean on your hands, throw back your head, and while inhaling very slowly lift your buttocks off your knees until your spine is fully arched.
4. Remain in this position for as long as you comfortably can while holding your breath then very slowly and carefully lower your body until you have returned to the starting position. It is during this part of the exercise that you have to take the greatest care as there is great strain on the back of the neck and if you jerk back to the starting position you could get a nasty crick in your neck.
So please go carefully and you will greatly benefit from this valuable posture. It tones and strengthens the muscles of the spine and gives it greater elasticity. It will also correct any
displacements in the vertebrae and will strengthen the neck and shoulders.
A word of warning.
The Camel Posture should not be attempted by anyone suffering from hernia or serious abdominal disorders.
In writing this chapter on backache and bad posture I have not forgotten the many people who suffer from sacroiliac troubles. Here is a Yoga exercise which will bring relief from this tiring and distressing complaint.
Keep coming back here for not just tips on real health issues, but more on the ancient practice of Hatha Yoga, which is now widely accepted in the western world especially in the USA.
Better late than never I say “quote Gaylene Slater”
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