Virasana
Benefits
- Stretches the thighs, knees, and ankles
- Strengthens the arches
- Improves digestion and relieves gas
- Helps relieve the symptoms of menopause
- Reduces swelling of the legs during pregnancy (through second trimester)
Contraindications and Cautions
- Heart problems
- Headache: Practice this pose lying back on a bolster.
- Knee or ankle injury: Avoid this pose unless you have the assistance of an experienced instructor.
Virasana is a good pose to rest in, especially after the standing poses. It can be a nice idea to have a folded blanket spread across the mat so there is not so much pressure on the knees and tops of the feet. It can also be nice to press the base of your palms along the outer edges of the feet and gently push the little-toe sides of the feet to the floor.
If you feel you are sitting more in your knees and not on your sitting bones, then use a block or some blankets under your buttocks to take your weight onto your sitting bones and out of your knees.
Establish Tadasana in your torso. Lift your side ribs and torso up out of your pelvis. Raise the top of your sternum upward away from your pubic bone to allow a deep space in your torso in which to breathe. Lengthen the spine up from your sacrum through the crown of your head while you are continuing to ground through your buttock bones. Also take care to establish Tadasana in your pelvis, so your sacrum and coccyx are moving under and up, not back, while maintaining the weight in the front of the sitting bones with the buttock flesh moved back.
The space Virasana creates in the torso makes it a great pose for meditation and breath work. When you come out of the pose be sure to do something to straighten your knees for a moment, sitting in Dandasana should do the trick!
Image from Indra Devi's Yoga For Americans
If you feel you are sitting more in your knees and not on your sitting bones, then use a block or some blankets under your buttocks to take your weight onto your sitting bones and out of your knees.
Establish Tadasana in your torso. Lift your side ribs and torso up out of your pelvis. Raise the top of your sternum upward away from your pubic bone to allow a deep space in your torso in which to breathe. Lengthen the spine up from your sacrum through the crown of your head while you are continuing to ground through your buttock bones. Also take care to establish Tadasana in your pelvis, so your sacrum and coccyx are moving under and up, not back, while maintaining the weight in the front of the sitting bones with the buttock flesh moved back.
The space Virasana creates in the torso makes it a great pose for meditation and breath work. When you come out of the pose be sure to do something to straighten your knees for a moment, sitting in Dandasana should do the trick!
Image from Indra Devi's Yoga For Americans
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