Navasana outline
Navasana is a Sanskrit word which means boat pose or boat yoga. This asana can be done both lying on the back and the stomach. Do the ing boat pose is quite simple. One can learn it easily by following its technique step by step. It has many variations, like Paripurna navasana, Ardha navasana, and Ekapadanavasana. It is also known as Naukasana. Navasana provides adequate stretching to the entire body from head to toe. It has many health benefits like weight loss, diabetes, making abs, curing naval problems, and preventing diseases of the pancreas, liver, kidney, and gastric juices.
Navasana step by step to do boat pose
- Lying down on your back.
- Straight your legs and bring your arms towards your knee.
- Now inhale and raise your legs and upper body parts at 30 degrees.
- Maintain the pose as long as one can
- Do inhale and exhale normally.
- Exhale and bring yourself to the original position.
- This is one round. One may do 3 to 5 rounds or at one’s convenience.
Variations of savasana
- Follow the above steps.
- But raising your legs and upper body parts ensures that your palms come out of your knees.
- It will happen when both body parts are raised at 60 degrees or above.
- Here, the body looks V-shaped.
Boat pose lying on stomach
- Lie down on your stomach.
- Bring your arms before your head.
- Minimize the gap between your legs and arms.
- Inhale raises your body at 30 degrees.
- Maintain the pose as long as you can.
- Do normal breathing.
- Exhale; bring your body down slowly.
Navasana benefits
- Abdominal muscles: Navasana gives suitable stretch to the abdominal muscles, thus toning the abdominal body part.
- Lower back: If you want to strengthen your lower back, this is one of the best bets to practice.
- Strengthen the nerves: It strengthens the nerves and the entire nervous system by making appropriate stretches for the whole body.
- Stress reliever: Practicing the asana helps to relieve stress.
- Improves digestion: It helps to secrete gastric juices and ensure proper peristaltic movement, thus suitable for digestion and the digestive system.
- Lower abdominal organs: It is one of the unique yoga poses which is good for the health of lower abdominal organs like the kidney, intestines, and prostate gland.
- Belly fat: The yoga pose is good for burning belly fat and is an easy asana to make abs.
- Waist: It helps make the waist slim, beautiful, and pleasing to reduce fat around the waist.
- Endocrine glands: Due to suitable stretching, it is good for the functioning of endocrine glands like adrenals, pancreas, thyroid, testes, and ovaries.
- Navel displacement: This is quite an effective yoga pose for navel-related problems, especially in managing navel displacement.
- Diabetes: The variation, especially the advanced navasana, is beneficial in preventing diabetes.
- Improves blood circulation: Asana is good for burning fatty layers from the inner layer of arteries and veins, thus suitable for smooth blood circulation.
- Lethargy: It removes toxins from the body and makes the body active and energetic.
Navasana precautions
In the following conditions, savasana should be avoided, or one should consult an expert before practising it.
- Hernia
- Spinal injuries
- Blood pressure
- Asthma
- Heart patients
- Pregnancy
- Hip joint pain
- Migraine
- Diarrhea
- Heart problems
- Insomnia
- Neck injury
Navasana preparatory poses
- Tadasana
- Stick pose (Yastikasana)
- Uttanpadasana at and 30o and 60o
- Uttanpadasana with alternate legs.
Navasana follow-up poses
- Stick pose (Yastikasana)
- Shalabhasana
- Shalabhasana variations
- Halasana
