Yoga Asana Exploration of Purvottonasana for Yoga Teachers and Yoga Teacher Training students – Eastern Intense Stretch Pose
Purvottonasana Pose in Sanskrit translates to ‘Eastern Stretch’ more or less. This Yoga Asana gets its name from the fact that as Yogis we are traditionally supposed to be facing East…towards the rising sun. As such if we are facing East then the front of our body is the Eastern facing side of the body…while the back of the body is the Western facing side. So Purvottonasana is a posture designed to help us experience the opening of the front of the muscles along the front side of the body!
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There are two version of this pose. One is pictured above and is called Reverse Table in english… the other variation of this asana is called Reverse Plank in English and is similar but with legs straight and the feet together.
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Top 3 Benefits for Practicing Purvottonana Every Day:
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1. Front Body opening poses lead to more heart opening and fearlessness
Whenever we perform asanas that open the front of the body it helps to experience something called ‘heart opening’. This action of heart opening has meaning not only in our ability to experience connection to all that around us..but also to give us a freedom to experience fearlessness which comes together with an open heart.
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2. Tones Abs
Toning abdominal muscles is a common goal of students as they seek to look better in that bikini or start to just feel more toned and confident. This pose is a great way to target those abdominal muscles and feel them shaping up! This is also a great foundation to a weight loss plan as this pose can be done many times during the day!
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3. Activates Agni
Benefits have different levels of importance… and the stimulation of the force of Agni, or digestive assimilative fire, is fundamental to both yoga transformation and general health. Agni is as much a spiritual concept and a physiological one and the more we activate it and our 3rd chakra along with it…the better and more efficient we can assimilate the experiences in our life completely.
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Purvottonasana is an excellent posture for all the above reasons! However it is critical to recognize that only Daily Practice of a fairly wide spectrum of Asanas will deliver the real complete benefits that the world of yoga has to offer!