How to do Navasana | Boat Pose | Light on Yoga Challenge | Iyengar Yoga

Transcript

hey guys welcome to party yoga i am bharti today we will be learning how to do navasana or the boat pose this pose works on your core muscles and is great for strengthening the back as well as the abdominal muscles it also helps in toning and stimulating the digestive organs we'll start with some preparatory poses and then work our way towards navasana so once you're ready let's hop on to the mat and get going [Music] we will start with a few cat cow stretches to warm up the spine come to a tabletop position with hands under the shoulders and knees below the hips as you inhale let your belly drop and extend your spine to look up as you exhale curl your spine suck in the belly and look towards the navel again inhale stretch up keep the neck long and shoulders away from the neck exhale curl down focus on grounding and opening the upper back let's do this a few times with each movement feel the spine opening up [Music] last one inhale up exhale curl down then come back to neutral now bring the left foot forward and place it between the hands keep the right foot pointing back then bring both the hands onto the left knee try to keep the left knee stacked over the left ankle you can slowly start pushing the hips down to feel a nice stretch in the right hip flexor you can take both the arms up if you want keep the core engaged extending the torso up keep breathing slowly bring the hands down let's switch sides and do it for the other side breathe into the stretch in the left hip flexor we tend to hold a lot of tension in our hips and this is a great stretch for releasing that smile through any pain you feel as the hips open up very good bring the hands down and come back to tabletop position now curl your toes in and as you exhale push into the hands and feet to come into downward facing dog just paddle your feet a few times to open up the hamstrings breathe into the stretch you feel in the back of the legs finally straighten both the legs and try to bring the heels onto the mat extend the tailbone up towards the sky keep the back straight and the neck long then slowly start walking the feet in towards the hands to come into a forward fold now take both your feet out to come into a wide legged stance bring your hands to your hips take a deep breath in and straighten your spine to come into a half fold as you exhale fold forward and come all the way down into prasarita asana or the wide legged forward fold you can keep the hands on the floor and let's just stay here for a few breaths breathe into the stretch you feel in your hamstrings and lower back then heel toe your feet in and lower your hips down to sit on the mat fold your knees and bring the soles of the feet together in front of you keeping a straight back let's start pulsing the legs up and down this is called the butterfly pose let's do this a few times then just hold the pose pushing the knees down let's stay here for a couple of breaths very good finally let's do navasana extend both the legs in front ground your sit bones firmly into the mat and straighten your back taking support of the hands this is dandasana then bend your knees and bring the soles of the feet on the mat bring your hands onto the knees recline the trunk slightly back keep the spine long then with control slowly raise both the feet to bring the shins parallel to the floor if you are comfortable here let go of the knees from here straighten the knees while keeping the torso stable keep breathing and stay here in navasana for five breaths keep the core engaged and lengthen the spine try to keep the chest open look diagonally up keeping the neck in line with the spine slowly bring the legs down and relax this was navasna of the boat pose as taught in light on yoga hope you enjoyed it do to stay tuned to new videos every week i'll see you soon bye