Better your physical and mental being with power yoga

Power yoga is a popular form of yoga, which derives its style from vinyasa style yoga. Most of the power yoga aasanas are modelled on the ashtanga style of practice that came into popular usage in the mid 1990s. It is an exercise that helps people achieve the best of their health and esteem. The asanas of power yoga emphasise on self-discipline and flexibility. Power yoga makes use of the same asanas as regular yoga does i.e. flowing breath in a certain pattern.

Power yoga requires the practitioner to steadily move from one asana to another and therefore, a short warm up and expertise in performing the yoga asanas is important. Some of the poses in power yoga are held longer than others to enhance concentration and physical endurance though most of them flow effortlessly into each other.

Principles of power yoga

All human beings undergo certain emotional waves like anxiety, stress, depression, ill health and anger. Power yoga can well transform these emotional traits into peacefulness thus enabling an individual to enjoy good and vibrant health and a feeling of love towards all living as well as non-living creation. The techniques of yoga need to be followed consciously in order to achieve good health, stay fit and reach the desired goals.

The backbone of power yoga is the sun salutation sequence. Here are some of the power yoga exercises:

Warm-up

To do the warm-up sequence, stand in mountain pose i.e. with the feet together, toes spread, arms at the side and palms facing forward. While you do this, inhale and raise your arms overhead. Exhale while taking a swam-dive down and touching your toes. Inhale and bend the knees. Exhale and bring the palms together as if in a prayer or Namaste position. Repeat this sequence at least three times.


 

Sun salutation sequence

Stand in a mountain pose with your palms touching each other. Inhale and raise the arms overhead and exhale while taking a swam-dive and touching the toes. Relax your neck and head and rest your hands on the thighs in such a way that your torso is parallel to the ground. Exhale while releasing to the forward bend. Step your feet back into the plank while inhaling and spread your fingers and hands directly beneath the shoulders. Make sure that your body makes a straight line from the top of the head to the heels. Exhale while slowly lowering the body to the ground. Inhale and push the torso to a cobra i.e. keep the head forward and neutral and avoid over-arching the back. Lift the chest as if to open the rib cage. Lift the hips in the downward facing dog like position while exhaling. Keep the heels planted and spread the fingers in such a way that the indentations inside the elbow face each other. Hold this position for a while and jump your feet forward to get back to the original position.

Benefits of Power Yoga

Power yoga has several benefits some of which are:

• It gives stamina and improves flexibility.
• It enhances concentration.
• It helps release stress and anxiety.
• It helps a person improve and maintain posture.
• It helps tone the body.
• Considering that power yoga requires one to work out , it helps remove toxins from the body through sweat.
• It increases lean muscle tissue, which means improved calorie burning, reduction in your body's fat percentage and increased BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate).
• It provides excellent balance and strength.