Year: 2018

Looking to incorporate Yoga into your health and wellness routine but don’t know where to start? Here are 3 quick yoga poses or Asanas for beginners and tips to practice at home, at the gym or even on the soft, white sandy beach at Meeru Island Resort & Spa with qualified practitioners from our award-winning Duniye Spa.

Each session begins with prayer, Pranayama or breathing exercises, and Salutations to the Sun.

1. Adho Mukha Śvānāsana – Downward-Facing Dog (5 Minutes)

One of the most popular Yoga poses for beginners around the world, the Downward-Facing Dog serves to calm the brain, help relieve stress and stretch the shoulders, hamstrings, calves, arches, and hands.

The pose starts off on your hands and knees with palms and shoulders aligned. Lift up your hips by pressing down through your hands and toes while you exhale. Find and maintain the length of your spine before stretching your knees and thighs. Once you’ve found your balance, you can begin refining the pose with deep breathes.

Tip: Don’t worry if the soles of your feet are not flat on the mat after you’ve lifted your hips. With enough practice, this becomes natural.

2. Bhujangasana – The Cobra Pose (5 Minutes)

Another easy pose for beginners – the Cobra helps open the chest and strengthen the core body while aligning the spine and invigorating the kidneys and nervous system.

Return from the Downward-Facing Dog pose and lay flat on your belly with your palms flat on your mat and legs placed together. Squeeze the thighs, press your pelvic onto the mat and lift your head and chest while you inhale. Keeping the neck aligned with the spine, use your palms to boost you further up as you drop your shoulders and push your chest forward.

Tip: To reduce strain in the low back you can either increase the bend in the elbows or walk your hands further forward.

3. Padmasana – The Lotus Pose (5 Minutes)

The classic pose is known to prepare beginners for deep meditation, allowing the mind and body drift into a state of relaxation and mindfulness.

While seated upright on your mat with your legs stretched apart, pull your right ankle towards your left hip and rest the top of your foot onto your hip crease. Repeat the same for your left ankle and foot onto your right hip. In the full position, your legs become like the petals of a lotus flower, gently dropping open.

Tip: Be sure to incorporate plenty of hip-opening stretches into your regular practice before trying the Lotus Pose.

End your session with 5 minutes of meditation as a part of mindfulness and enhancing your day-to-day awareness. Read more about Mindfulness and holistic wellness while on holiday and at home from the Crown & Champa Resorts Blog.

Enjoy additional peace of mind, consciousness and wellbeing. Sign up for our group yoga sessions on Tuesday, Thursday & Saturday at our Main Reception or by dialing Land Spa’s extension on 3030 or our Over-the-Water Spa’s telephone extension on 3040. The group yoga sessions are complimentary for guests on our All Inclusive Plan.

June 21 is celebrated annually as International Yoga Day. The 5000-year-old body of knowledge harmonizes individual and universal consciousness for a holistic approach to wellbeing. Yoga brings together a number of physical twists, turns and stretches to exercise the body, while the breathing and meditation offers mindfulness in mind, body and soul.

Frequent Yoga and Meditation improves muscle strength, flexibility, and increases bone health and blood flow. Other benefits include releasing tension from limbs and reducing high blood pressure, as well as regulating digestion and easing chronic pain.

Explore more ways to relax and enjoy time away from the busy world in tropical paradise.

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