So you have a Backache and aching legs due to bad posture? Let’s fix it. – Part four of sixy

So you have a Backache and aching legs due to bad posture? Let’s fix it.

The Centred Spine Bend

1.    Stand up straight, feet together and your hands at your sides. Cross your left foot over your right with the toes of your left foot on the floor and the heel off. Your right knee-cap should lie behind the back of the left knee. Resist the temptation to move your body to the left as it is important that your spine should remain centred, and do not try to straighten your knee.
2.    Inhale deeply through the nose and while exhaling bend forward, very slowly and carefully, until your finger tips touch the floor or if you are very stiff bring your fingertips as near to the floor as you can. Do not try to force your hands lower than they will comfortably go. With constant practice you will be able to reach the floor when you will obtain the maximum benefit from this exercise.
3.    Remain in the bending position for as long as you comfortably can  without  inhaling.  When  the  impulse  to  inhale appears do so and at the same time straighten up again.
4.    Repeat the CENTRED SPINE BEND three or four times then reverse legs and repeat thus three or four times. Two points to note. Firstly do not move your shoulders or your buttocks while bending forward, as all the work should be done by the spine above the waistline.  If you perform this exercise very slowly and carefully and practise it faithfully at least three or four times a day you will soon experience relief from your sacroiliac troubles.

The next Yoga asana in this chapter is the BOW POSTURE (Dhanurasana) which is an intensification of another asana named the Cobra which you will meet in chapter twelve. Dhanurasana is so named because it strongly resembles an archer’s bow and is, you will agree, a very beautiful posture and incidentally is a powerful weapon in our war against backache for the vertebrae are moved in such a way that the nerve ganglions receive a richer supply of blood.
It also exerts a healthy pressure on the kidneys, thereby correcting any disorders in their function.

Bow Posture
1.    Lie face downwards on the floor, hands along your sides and feet together.
2.    Inhale deeply and bend your legs keeping them as close together as possible. Stretch your arms upwards and backwards and grasp your ankles.
3.    Pull your legs as high off the floor as you possibly can by fully arching your spine. Hold this position for as long as you comfortably can while holding your breath.
4.    When the impulse to exhale appears do so and slowly return to the starting position. I have demonstrated the correct position in figure 18, and you can see why this posture is named the BOW.
At first you will be able to hold this posture for only a few seconds but very gradually extend this period until you can hold it for a full minute. You may perform it up to six times a day, but no straining though.
I foresee that many of you will have some little difficulty with this asana. Either you will not be able to keep your knees together or worse, you may not be able to raise your legs off the floor at all. In this case try this easier method. Pull one leg up at a time and you will soon find that your muscles will be stretched and limbered up and you will be able to bend your body into a perfect and beautiful Bow.
This is a wonderful exercise for the relief of backache but as it is rather a strenuous posture do please practise it carefully.
The Bow Posture may be preceded by the Stomach Balance which is the very simplest of the backward bending exercises for the relief of backache.
1.    Lie face downwards with your arms extended in front of you, palms downward.
2.    While inhaling deeply slowly raise your arms and legs off the floor so that you are balancing on your abdomen. Bring your head up as high as you can.

The higher you can raise your head and legs the more effective is the Stomach Balance. Hold the position for as long as you can without exhaling and then, as the impulse to exhale appears slowly return to the starting position. Though a simple exercise it needs care as all the backward bends tend to be somewhat strenuous. The Stomach Balance tones up the entire nervous system and stretches the muscles of the back and abdomen.
The Bow Posture being one of the most beautiful of the Yoga asanas it will appeal especially to women and here is a variation which is also striking in its aesthetic appeal. It looks like the graceful swimming of some exotic fish, and on a more practical level let me assure you that it is considerably easier than the full BOW POSTURE which I have just described.

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”
Or you can hit the buy now button on the right of this article and purchase this great book in one complete hit and be reading it within minutes!

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.

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So you have Backache and aching legs due to bad posture? – Part two of six

So you have Backache and aching legs due to bad posture?

The last of the seated postures: Samasana or (The Symmetrical Pose)

Sit down on the floor and bend the right leg, placing the heel against the pubic bone and resting against the left thigh. Bend the left leg and place the foot over the right one so that the heel is set against the pubic bone and the toes are pushed between the right thigh and calf. People who cannot master the other three seated postures I have described are often able to sit down in Samasana without difficulty or discomfort. All three positions will hold the spine in a naturally erect position and so promote better posture.

The effective functioning of the entire organism is closely linked to the healthy condition of the spinal column and cord. As your body grows older there is a tendency for the vertebrae to become rigid especially after a lifetime of abuse in the form of bad sitting, walking or standing. If the body is habitually held in postures which involve slouching the spinal column tends to get out of alignment. In discussing this problem of backache we must face the fact that much of it is due to bad posture. Cure the one and the other disappears, and automatically there is an improvement in the genera! health and well-being.
I must warn you before I go any farther that a few days practice of the asanas I will describe in this chapter will not eliminate the effects of years of bad posture. If you would cure your backache, your round shoulders, and your rather ungraceful carriage you will have to work at it. You must keep a wary eye open at all times to see if you are slouching. People who work at typewriters are among the worst offenders here. Do sit with the base of your spine firmly against the back of your chair so that the back of it supports the lower back. Sit erect at all times and soon it will become a healthy habit.
The following simple exercise will help to limber up the spine and prepare it for more difficult postures. It is easy and bracing and is a vital first blow in our battle against bad posture.
Try this when you get out of bed in the morning.

The Half Somersault
1.    Sit down cross-legged and grasp your toes with your arms outside your knees.
2.    Bend forward and try to touch the floor with your forehead. No? Well bend forward as far as you can.
3.    Still holding your toes straighten your back and at the same time inhale deeply through the nose.
4.    Hold your breath for a moment and then bend forward again while exhaling and when your lungs are empty roll backwards keeping your chin pressed firmly down into your chest in the chin lock I have mentioned before.
5.    Roll forwards once more while inhaling until your spine is straight. Hold this position while you complete your inhalation.
6.    While exhaling through your mouth bend forward once more to the starting position.

And that is all.
Very easy this one, but two points to remember. The whole exercise should be performed slowly and rhythmically, with nasal inhalations and oral exhalations. It is best performed with the eyes closed which are very calming to the mind and nerves. The benefits are many but principally the Half Somersault brings into play the muscles of the back, toning and stretching the whole of the spinal column.

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”
Or you can hit the buy now button on the right of this article and purchase this great book in one complete hit and be reading it within minutes!

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If you are suffering from Backache and aching legs due to bad posture, – Part one of sixread on.

If you are suffering from Backache and aching legs due to bad posture, read on.

HAVE we not often admired the graceful and dignified carriage of the average Indian man and woman, the coltish grace of their brown-limbed children? There is no magical secret to this natural grace; it is simply that in the East there are two natural sitting positions which are adopted from early childhood. One of these is cross-legged, whether in the so-called tailor fashion or with the soles upturned, in the classical Lotus Posture. The other is on the haunches with the feet flat on the floor.

Americans complain that the cross-legged and squatting positions are unnatural and so they are—to those who are used to sitting on chairs. But in the East they are so accustomed to sitting like that that they actually find it more comfortable than any other position. Years of sitting in these positions tends automatically to hold the spine in a naturally erect position, not rigidly straight as some people seem to think, but held with its natural curves in the right place. And so, in walking the spine is also held naturally and gracefully and this is the simple ‘secret’ behind the superb carriage of the average Indian.

I do not for one moment expect the average American who reads this book to acquire the habit of sitting down in the Lotus Pose or even in one of the easier cross-legged poses. These positions should be included in the daily schedule of Yoga exercises and held for a limited time only unless you wish to proceed to the more contemplative forms of Yoga. The Lotus Posture, though graceful and serene in appearance is difficult and painful for the beginner and likewise the Half-Lotus position I have demonstrated on the cover.
However, there are three cross-legged poses which are not beyond the reach of the suppler among you; though I warn you that even quite young people in their early twenties sometimes have knees so stiff that they cannot sit cross-legged on the floor. I will describe these seated postures in turn, beginning with the LOTUS POSITION and you can try them for yourself.

1.    Lotus Position
The advantage of this position is that it forms a symmetrical and firm seat so that the Yogis, in states of deep spiritual trance, did not overbalance. Sit down on the floor with your legs stretched out, feet together. Take the right foot in both hands and place it high up on the left thigh. The right knee should be pressed firmly to the floor. Take the left foot in both hands and draw it gently over the bent right leg so that the left foot is placed on the right thigh.
2.    Siddhasana (Half-Lotus position)
If you are unable to master the Lotus position this one is considered by many to be somewhat easier, and at the same time more comfortable. Certainly it is preferred by many Yogis to the full Lotus Pose.  Sit down as before and place one foot with the heel against the perineum. The other foot is then placed on the opposite thigh with the heel pressed against the pubic bone. The hands should be placed as in the Lotus Pose, with the thumb and first fingers joined and the palms upwards.
3.    Easy Pose
Sit down on the floor, tailor fashion, with the heel of one foot touching the perineum and the heel of the other underneath the opposite ankle. This is considerably easier than either the Lotus or Half Lotus positions.

If you are very stiff and find all three of these positions agonizing, then please do not pursue the matter. I do not want you to suffer unnecessary pain, but if you think you possibly could master one or all of them then do try for the sake of your posture.

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”
Or you can hit the buy now button on the right of this article and purchase this great book in one complete hit and be reading it within minutes!

Arthritis and rheumatism – Part one of two

Arthritis and rheumatism

ONE of Yoga’s answers to the problems with which this Article series is concerned reads a little like black magic.
Still it adds a touch of the bizarre and the exotic to this exacting science of discipline and, as with all Yoga practices; there is sound good sense behind its methods.

The Indians claim that people who are afflicted with arthritis or allied complaints should keep a raw, unpeeled, winter-crop potato—yes, I did say a potato!—close to their skin day and night until the condition is relieved. It sounds a little like an old gipsy legend and as a matter of fact I did meet a gipsy some time ago who was afflicted with arthritis in the shoulders.

I told him this Yoga story about keeping a potato near one’s skin and he looked at me in sheer amazement. He was completely puzzled as to how I had got hold of this old ‘gipsy’ secret, so it seems that way back in time, gipsy or Yogi, they had respect for the humble potato as a powerful cure for arthritis.

It need not be a very large potato as apparently the smaller ones work just as efficiently and I must say more conveniently. An over-large potato carried upon the person could lead to all kinds of questions and complications. The potato should be discarded when it either grows very hard like a stone or else becomes soft and wrinkled, and should be replaced by a fresh one, but make quite sure it is a winter-crop one.

You could keep it in your pocket during the day and at night slip it into the toe of an old stocking and draw the other end over your hand so that the potato does not roll away from you while you sleep. If you are married this practice could produce some hilarity from your partner but the laugh would be yours if you cured your arthritis by this unorthodox method.

So bear with the jeers of your mate and try the experiment. You may be agreeably surprised.
For good measure, while you are on the potato cure, you should drink potato water, which is one of the very best alkalizing drinks and helps the system to eliminate the impurities which are to blame for your complaint. To prepare this drink and it need not be unpalatable if you flavour it well, wash four or five fairly large potatoes but do not peel them. Put them in a saucepan with two pints of water and bring to the boil. Simmer them slowly for about an hour and then strain through a fine sieve or cloth.

Drink the water first thing in the morning, at least once or twice during the day, and just before you slip your hand into that stocking with the potato in it before you hop into bed at night. If you visit your local health shop you will find all kinds of vegetable extracts and salts with which to make your potato water more drinkable.

It is also highly beneficial to arthritis sufferers to eat one or two finely grated raw potatoes, including the skin, every day. I know it sounds revolting but, added to soups, stews, salads or vegetables just before serving you would hardly know it was there! However, your system will know it is there and react ”n a very favourable way. It is worth trying is it not? and I would be most interested to hear from my readers who notice an improvement in their condition through the ‘potato cure’.

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