Yoga Pose:
Karnapidasana
Important Note
Take special precautions while doing any asana. If you are learning yoga, then take the advice of a knowledgeable person. Do not put any kind of force in the event of pain or unable to do so. Keep in mind that you will be able to succeed only with constant practice.
Brief Introduction Of The Karnapidasana
- Karnapidasana is a fantastic Yoga posture that helps ensure good health for practitioners. In English, it is also referred to as “Ear Pressure Pose” and “Knee to Ear Pose”.
- When you practice this pose, you can usher in some positive changes into your own health. This is also referred to as ‘Raja Halasana’, given that this is an advanced form of the pose called Halasana. This is among the initial Yoga poses to so. After you attain mastery in Halasana, you can perform Karnapidasana easily and able to have expertise in this Yoga posture.
How To Do The Karnapidasana?
Here are the steps that you need to perform in order to do Karnapidasana in a proper way:
- First and foremost, you need to lie flat on your back in the pose of relaxation or Shavasana.
- Keep the hands at the sides, both of them.
- Now breathe in once, so as to allow your mind and body to be relaxed as much as possible.
- While breathing out, you have to elevate your legs up into the air at a right angle.
- Now attempt to bend the legs over the level of your head, as is done in the Halasana pose.
- To be able to provide your back with enough support, elevate the butt and bend the knees. Try holding these together until you are able to touch the surface of the ground.
- Now comes the ultimate position. You have to bend the knees at a right angle in relation to the lower legs. Put these on either side of the face, adjacent to the ears.
- Your hands need to be in the starting posture, or you may put your hands over your own back, to provide it with enough support.
- As you perform this pose, you should try looking at your own nose.
- Keep your body in this posture for 1 to 1 ½ minutes.
- Now get back to the original position, and keep the weight of your body rested on the arms.
- Keep in mind that the posture is to be maintained for a period of 30 to 60 seconds. But, practitioners who have attained expertise in Halasana are able to hold this for more time, according to their level of practice.
- After you inhale a few times, you need to come back to the original state by first releasing the arms, and then your spine – vertebra by vertebra. Breathe in for a few times deeply, before finally relaxing.
Benefits Of The Karnapidasana
There are quite a few benefits of this Yoga pose, which make it effective for the mind and the body.
- The Yoga pose is able to activate the thyroid gland. When there is inversion of the body, the thyroid gland comes under pressure. This leads to the stimulation of the gland, and helps release the Thyroxine hormone. This is the hormone which controls various metabolic activities of the system, and has a major part to play in the overall growth and development of a person.
- It can make the abdominal organs operate well, and improve digestion. The pressure on the ab area helps massage the different internal organs as well as the digestive organs. It can stimulate the Digestive fire (Jatharagni) that is known to aid in assimilation and boosting appetite. It can help prevent various digestive problems, such as gastric issues and constipation.
- It is able to make the shoulders and spine stronger, and help extend the same. When you perform this pose, it can help flex the spine, make muscles stronger and remove pain. As it manages to stretch the whole back area, it can improve flexibility of the spine and eradicate mobility problems.
- It can tone the thighs and the buttocks, as it stretches your shoulders and legs.
- It can also be effective in reducing tension and stress. The Yoga pose is also able to regulate high blood pressure.
- The yoga pose is also useful for managing the symptoms of menopause. It can also act effectively against back pain, sinusitis and infertility problems.
- Its regular practice helps rejuvenate the mind and the body. As practicing this pose improves the flow of blood to the brain, the tissues of the brain can get oxygenated blood – that can help overcome anxiety and stress. It can also make practitioners more alert.
- When Karnapidasana is practiced regularly, it is able to burn extra fat from the abdominal area. As per one research, practicing this asana on a regular basis along with various other Yoga poses helps reduce body weight very effectively. It can also reduce fat percentage, skinfold thickness, PI, BMI and more.
- The torso is stretched due to rolling back of the shoulder area, which can improve breathing even more. A specific study mentions that the practicing of Karnapidasana along with some other Yoga poses helps make respiratory muscles stronger and cam make respiratory centers develop a higher level of tolerance against higher amounts of pCO2.
Precautions To Be Taken While Doing The Karnapidasana
There are some precautions to follow while practicing this pose:
- Women who are planning to conceive or are pregnant already need to prevent the practice of this Yoga pose.
- It must be avoided by all those suffering from headache, menstruation, high blood pressure and constipation.
- This being a tough posture, in the initial stages, it needs to be done under the supervision of an expert Yoga practitioner.
Conclusion
- It can be great for your overall health to perform this pose. Keep in mind that Halasana and Karnapidasana happen to be part of the closing series of the Traditional Ashtanga Yoga. These need to be practiced in sequence, one followed by the other.
- This is regarded as among the strongest sequence of trunk flexion, given the way these two poses help transform the body. But it would not yield any success for beginners to directly take up Karnapidasana.
- Before practicing this pose, performing Halasana would be a better idea.
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