Some easy slow stretching excercises

If you are a beginner in stretching exercises, yoga and many other specific exercises can seem a little difficult. Here are some easy exercises that everybody can manage. These are slow exercizes and you shold keep each stretch at least 30 seconds to make them effective. You should repeate each stress at leat 3 times.

SLOW ARM STRETCHES

- Stand as streight. First swing your streight arms foreward up over your head and backward as long as possible. Hold the stretch. Then swing your armes down before you until they point streight foreward, and the swing them backward stright out to each side. Again try to get as long backwards with your arms as possible and hold the stretch. Then relaxe letting your arms hang down again.

You can make this exercise more effective by standing in a door opening, taking hold of the rims by your hand and pushing towards the rims while streching.

SLOW LEG AND PELVIS STRETCHES

- Stand streight. Then bend your body foreward while pointing your fingers towards tour toes. Try to reach as long as posible downwards with your hands so that you feel it stretches well at the backside of your legs. Hold the position some time while keeping an effective stretch , then rise slowly up again.

- Sit on the floor upon a carpet. flex your legs up and put the soles of your feet together. Then swing down your feet to each side so that you feel it stretches at the inner sides of your thighs and hold the position some time while keeping the stretch. You can make the stretch more effective by gripping around your feet and pushing your legsdown with your elbows.

- Stand with split legs, with a stool before you. Bend down a little and set your hands upon the stool. Then separate gradually your legs further from each other as far as it goes so it stretches between your legs, while supporting your body with your hands at the stool. This may be somewhat difficult, but it will work by twisting movements of your feet. Then bend slowly foreward so that your torso approches a perpendicular position. Stretch well in that position. Then slowly rise and slowly take your legs together again. This execise is a little difficult and a little risky, so use some caution when doing it.

- The best way to stretch your legs out is however to lay on your back on the floor and let a friend split your legs appart so that it stretches, and then let your friend rise your legs so that they point up and stretch them to the side before moving them together again and lay them down.

SLOW TORSO AND NECK STRETCHES

- Stand streight and hold your hands upon your head while trying to have your elbows as long back as possible. Then bend your torso and neck down to the right and hold the stretch. Then bend the opposite way down to the left and hold the stretch before streightening up again.

- Sit on a chair or on a carpet on the floor. Flex your torso an neck in a bow backward do that your belly protrudes foreward. To make the stretch more effective you can hold your hands around your knees and pull with your arms. Hold the stretch some time.

Then flex your torso and neck the other way foreward. Try to get your head as near your lap as possible. Hold the stretch some while before streightening your torso up again.

- Sit on a chair or on a carpet on a floor. Twist your torso to the right as far as possibe. Hold the stretch. Then twist your torso the other way and hold the stretch. Also now you can make the stretch more effective by holding your hands around your knees and pushing.


The Principles of Classical Yoga Exercises

Yoga is a system originated in India with the purpose of stimulating both spiritual growth, mental well-being and physical health. Yoga contains many types of exercize programs, of which phsyial exercizes are one, also called hatha-yoga. In the following you can learn the basic principles of hatha yoga.

An important part of physical yoga is the breathing exercizes. This part is in many ways the most fundamental, because the basic principles of breathing is also a apart of the yoga postures, based upon stretching and upon holding the body in specific positions for some time.


Breathing exercises or pranayama

The compleate yoga-breath is a basic exercise upon which all other breathing exercises are based, and this is also the way you breath during the body postures. It is however also a independent exercize that you can do any time to refresh yourself. It begins with lungs in a totally empty state otained by conracting your stomach muscles and all of your chest muscles.

Then breath in as much as you can by letting your stomach expand. The proseed breating in by expanding the muscles in the mid of your chest. At last complete the filling of your lungs by expanding the upper part of your chest. It is not possible to separate these to faces completely, though, and they shallalso glid e over into each other in a smooth way.

Then you empty your lungs completely in a similar sequence. First you contract your stomach muscles and empty as much as possible using these muscles. While holding your stomach msucles contracted, you proceed emptying by contracying your muscles in the mid of your chest and then complete by contracting the upper part of your chest.

All other breathing exercizes are essentially variants of the complete yoga breath. Some of these are.

- You breath in and out rapidly 8-15 times, and then hold your breath some while.

- You breath in rapidly, using 4 seconds, the hold your breath 16 seconds or as long it feels comfortable, then breath out using 8 seconds.

- You can breath in whie closing one of your nostrils, hold your breath and then breath out closing the other nostrils. The your epeat it while closing your other nistril, hold the breath and then breath out while closing the first nostril.

- You can breath in and breath out through your mouth while pressing your lips towards each other so that you get an extra pressure in your lungs. You can also pressing your lips togeather while breathing in so that you get an under-prssure in your lungs.


Body postures or asanas

A yoga psoture begins with your body in a relaxed position, either laying flat down or sitting right. You empty your lungs before the posture as in a complete yoga breath. - Then you slowly swing your whole body or parts of your body into a stretched position. While doing this your breath in as in the complete yoga breath.

- Then you hold theposition for a short or longer time. If you hold it long, you breath relaxed with the compete yoga breath method, but not in such a complete way that the breath makes you exhausted.

- The you swing back from the stretched state to the original position while breating out like in the complete yoga breath.

Most postures are variant of these basic principles, of which some are:

- You lay on your back. Then swing your arms up and behind your shoulders, stretching all of your body from top to toes. Then lift and swing your body foreward and stretch towards your toes. After holding the position some while swing back to a laying position.

- You lay on our stomach, with a cloth under your lower stomach to protect your genitals. Then lift and swing your uppe body up as long as possible. Push with your hands towards the floor to help the lifing and to get an effective stretch. Then swing back.

- Sit on the floor with your legs flexed and your kbees together near your stomach. Then twist your torso to one side, while pushing against your legs with your arms to help the twisting and get an effective stretch. Then, after holding tha position a while, swing your torso back and twist to the other side in the same manner.

- Lay on the floor. Swing your legs up so your feet come over your head. Then lift your torso up from the floor and streight out your body as much as you feel comfortable, so that your body rests upon your shoulders. Help the lifting and holding the position with your arms. After haveing been in that upright position some while, desend your torso and legs again.


How to learn or start practicing yoga

You can find exact desriptions of yoga exercises in books and in web-sites or you can go to cources. You will probably find that the exercises are difficult to do as described in the beginning. It is however possible to do them aproximately in the beginning and gradually learn to perform them perfectly.

But you can also compose your own exercises that fit your personal condition and need. To be yoga exercices they must be composed according to the principles outlined above. Weather you learn standard exercises or compose your own, you should however choose a set of exercises that will stretch ortwist all your body parts whan all of them have been done in a session.

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