Standing Deep Breathing
PRANAYAMA BREATHING

Spread the breath all over your body, creating energy for the rest of the class.

• Increases oxygen content of the blood stream
• Opens cervical vertebrae
• Loosens the shoulder girdle
• Stretches nervous system
• Strengthens leg and abdominal muscles
• Relaxes the mind
• Quadruples lung capacity
• Counteracts emphysema, asthma, and other breathing problems
• Helps regulate blood pressure
• Helps detoxify the body
• Exercises the nervous, respiratory and circulatory systems

You are inhaling six pounds of oxygen in six seconds. This pranayama creates heat in the body. By doing this warm-up exercise you build your lung capacity to four times that of the average person.

Half Moon with Hands to Feet
ARDHA CHANDRASANA with PADA-HASTASANA

 Feel the last four vertebrae of your spine lengthen and open.

• Trims fat all over the body: thighs, hips, waist, buttocks, arms and abdomen.
• Improves and strengthens every muscle in the central part of the body, especially the back and abdomen.
• Increases flexibility of the spine
• Corrects bad posture
• Promotes proper kidney function
• Helps cure enlargement of the liver and the spleen
• Helps cure dyspepsia and constipation
• Helps to eleviate lower back pain, bronchial distress, scoliotic deformities, tennis elbow, frozen shoulder
• Realigns spine

The backbending part helps correct high blood pressure. Blood sugar in diabetics and blood pressure can elevate and then normalize with regular practice.

If you can you must, if you can't you try.

Awkward Pose
UTKATASANA

Build your concentration and determination. Awkward pose gives you great legs and arms - it strengths and trims; heats and energizes the body.

• Strengthens and firms upper arms, abdominal muscles and all muscles of thighs, calves and hips
• Makes hip joint flexible
• Firms the upper arms
• Increases circulation in the knees and ankle joints
• Relieves rheumatism, arthritis and gout in the legs
• Helps to cure herniated disc and lumbago in the lower spine
• Increases inner thigh strength, promoting a healthy knee joint

Awkward Pose aligns the whole skeletal system back into center and opens the pelvic area. It aids in digestion, helps combat obesity, corrects immune disorders, arthritis of knees hips and ankles, and strengthens the lower limbs while relieving sciatica and menstrual disorders.

Eagle Pose
GARURASANA

Eagle pose improves the flexibility of the 12 major joints of the body — ankles, knees, hips, shoulders, elbow, and wrists.

• Flushes out kidneys
• Brings blood to the reproductive organs
• Improves sexual vitality and control
• Helps prostate problems
• Firms legs, arms, and abdomen
• Helps tennis elbow
• Relieves tension in neck and shoulders
• Increases joint mobility in the hip girdle, ankles, knees, hips, shoulder, elbow, wrist and mobility of scapula
• Improves the function of the central nervous system, and the lymphatic system
• Improves balance and grace of the body
• Returns veinous  blood to the heart, preventing vericose veins

Use the mirror to understand, not to judge

Eagle pose relieves tension in the neck, shoulders and legs. This posture strengthens the lower extremities and increases mobility in the hip girdle. By creating pressure in the joints, you stimulate the synovial membrane, the oil can of the joint.

The muscles worked in this posture: sartorius, gastrocnemius, soleus, peronius longus/brevis, abductor mangus/longus. Eagle prevents varicose veins and counteracts cellulite.

Squeezing everything together, the goal is everything in one line, shoulders, hips, knees, ankles. Gain balance by leaning back. Squeeze thighs to sit deeper.

Standing Head to Knee Pose
DANDAYAMANA JANUSHIRASANA

Standing Head to Knee helps develop concentration, patience and determination: it is a marriage between the mind and body.

• Improves circulation and flexibility
• Massages digestive and reproductive systems
• Strengthens muscles around the knee joint
• Develops concentration, determination and patience
• Increases pancreatic functions
• Reduces diabetes
• Relieves nervousness
• Improves memory

No competition. No comparison. Just you and your body today.

• Improves flexibility of sciatic nerve
• Helps combat acidity and relieves flatulance
• Strengthens back muscles and nerves, reproductive organs, abdomen, thighs, legs, upper body and arms

Move one step at a time, always focusing on a standing locked knee. Keep the weight evenly distributed on the foot. Get a good grip down to the webbing just at the ball of the foot.

Physically it tightens abdominal and thigh muscles, improves flexibility of the sciatic nerves and hamstrings muscles in addition to the deltoid, trapezius, latissimus dorsi, and rhomboids.  Strengthens the biceps, deltoids and triceps muscles.

Develop patience, determination and concentration.

• Improves function of the cardiovascular system.
• Can help remove plaque from arterial walls
• Develops concentration, determination, patience
• Improves flexibility and strength of entire spine, relieves lower pack pain
• Increases size and elasticity of rib cage and lungs
• Flushes out kidneys helping to eliminate toxins
• Improves muscle fatigue, lethargy, and stimulates the nervous system
• Flushes out the kidneys, helping to eliminate toxins

Don't give up on yourself, you can do anything you can imagine.

• Revitalizes the endocrine system, especially the adrenals, pancreas, thyroid and gonads
• Improves sciatica
• Strengthens thighs, buttocks, hips, abdomen, and arms, reduces abdominal fat
• Helps anorexia
• Improves posture
• Best posture for the developing fetus 
• Helps tennis elbow and frozen shoulder

Feel the pressure in the lower spine, creating compression there. Keep the standing leg locked as you reach for the mirror and kick back and up.

Muscles worked include the erector spinae, triceps, serratus anterior, gluteus maximus, gluteus minimus.

Balancing stick gets your heart pumping - like running 10 miles in 10 seconds. This posture increases blood flow all over the body at once.

• Stretches the entire length of the spine
• Exercises pancreas, liver, spleen and nervous systems
• Reduces symptoms of asthma
• Perfects control and balance
• Improve physical, psychological, and mental powers
• Strengthens the heart muscle
• Strengthens and firms arms, hips, abdomen, buttocks and upper thighs
• Stretches capacity of the lungs
• Corrects poor posture
• Helps tennis elbow and varicose veins

A natural human tug of war - stretching and reaching simultaneously. Both knees are locked and the elbows are with the ears. The focus is four feet in front.

Balancing Stick lengthens the latissimus and strengthens the deltoid, rhomboid and trapezius muscles.

 This posture brings your heart rate back to normal rate.

• Improves hip flexibility
• Brings blood to the brain
• Aids functioning of most abdominal organs, especially the small and large intestine
• Combats clinical/psychotic depression
• Good for diabetes and hyperacidity of the stomach
• Reduces signs of aging (the yogic fountain of youth!)
• Stretches sciatic nerves
• Combats abdominal obesity
• Stimulates hypothalmus locations of memory and emotion and source of the human growth hormone

Your yoga is different every day. Some days just getting to class is your yoga.

The Standing Separate Leg Stretching Pose cures and prevents sciatica by stretching and strengthening the sciatic nerves and tendons of the legs.

Your goal is to have your back perfectly straight and knees are locked. If you are having trouble, try relaxing and releasing the buttock more. To fully stretch the hamstrings, you must engage the quadriceps and lock the knees.

It helps the functioning of most of the internal abdominal organs, especially the small and large intestine, and improves the flexibility of hamstrings, calves, pelvis, ankles, hip joints and releases the last five vertabrae of the spine.

Triangle works every muscle, tendon, joint and internal organ in the body.

• Number one posture for the hip joint
• Firms thighs and hips
• Slims waist
• Good against obesity
• Helps cure rheumatism and lumbago in the lower spine
• Improves crooked spines
• Alleviates "saddlebags"

100% effort = 100% benefit

• Helps correct frozen shoulder
• Changes chemical balances in the system
• Helps eliminate menstrual disorders
• Improve upper arm and body muscles
• Improve menstrual problems
• Improves function of cardiovascular system

Both shoulders come out of the body so the deltoid and scapula are stretching. The elbow should not go below the knee. The weight should be distributed evenly over the whole foot. The whole torso should be stretching out in a forty-five degree angle like a canon, in line with the straight leg, and arms should be up and down perpendicular to the floor.

• Works 100% of the muscular system all at once
• Good for thyroid, kidneys and adrenal glands
• Helps reduce overproduction of cortisol, the stress hormone.

During the Triangle posture, the lower portion of the body becomes a solid base with upper body twisting. This creates a cardiovascular benefit with very little movement.

 This is the most important pose to increase the strength and flexibility of the hip joint. You must sit down all of the way to get the benefit. 

Triangle also firms upper thighs and hip, slims the waistline, and improves the deltoid, trapezius, scapula, and latissimus muscles. This posture exercises the circulatory, digestive, immune, reproductive and muscular systems all at the same time.

Like the Hands to Feet pose, this pose increases the flexibility of the spine and the sciatic nerves and most of the tendons and ligaments of the legs.

• Slims the abdomen, waist, hips, buttocks, and thighs
• Improves flexibility of the spine, shoulders, hips and sciatic nerve
• Strengthens legs
• Improves blood circulation to legs and brain
• Improves memory, helps some types of headaches, brings mental clarity

Practice your yoga like there is no one else in the room.

• Is the marriage of the pituitary and thyroid glands
• Helps offset manic depression
• Stretches, tones and decongests the spinal column and the nervous system
• Massages the pancreas, liver, gall-bladder, kidneys, spleen, intestines, gonads and bladder
• Stretches kidney and adrenal glands
• Helps relieve diabetes and hyperacidity
• Helps releive constipation, dyspepsia, flatus dyspepsia and hemorrhoids

The knees should be fully locked for maximum benefits. Both heels should be on the floor. The forehead must touch the knee. Hands in prayer to work the upper back, no cheating.

Muscles worked inlcude: rectus abdominus, obliques, iliosoas, quads, deltoids, trapezius, biceps, triceps, semi spinalis.

The posture is not the object.  Your body is the object.

• Improves posture, balance and grace of the body
• Helps prevent hernia by strengthening the oblique muscles
• Helps muscular rheumatism
• Helps neuralgic pain
• Improves circulatory disorders
• Good for post-partum rehabilitation
• Relieves tension in neck and shoulders
• Increases joint mobility in hip girdle
• Improves the function of the central nervous and the lymphatic systems
• Traction to the entire spine, increasing the cushioning function of the intervertebral discs

Standing knee is locked, the shoulders are relaxed, and the hips press forward relaxing the knee down and back.

If you can, you must.  If you can't, try.

• Develops psychological and mental powers, especially patience
• Especially good for the feet
• Helps cure gout and rheumatism of the knees, ankles and feet
• Helps cure thyroid problems

Balance in the Toe Stand is a matter of patience and concentration. Use the toes of your balancing foot just like fingers to grip the floor and help keep your balance.

• Helps cure neuropathy or diabetic neuropathy
• Creates balance in body and mind
• Strengthens stomach muscles
• Combats arthritis, knee, leg or gout pain
• Strengthens weak joints

Savasana returns blood circulation to normal. It teaches complete relaxation. The pose is done after each posture in the floor series.

• Returns circulation to normal
• Improves concentration
• Helps reduce hypertension, nervousness, anxiety, and irritability

Inhale belly rises, exhale belly falls.

• Massages the colon
• Helps and prevents constipation and irritable bowel syndrome
• Stimulates the liver, small and large intestine, and spleen
• Improves flexibility of the hip joints and neck
• Relieves lower back pain
• Firms the abdomen, thighs and hips
• Normalizes production of hydrochloric acid in the stomach
• Reduces excess gas production
• Palpates lymph nodes in groin and neck.

• Relieves back pain
• Increases spinal strength and flexibility
• Improves functioning of the large and small intestines, liver, kidney and spleen
• Improves pigeon chest by opening rib cage, permitting maximum expansion of the lungs increasing oxygen intake
• Improves digestion
• Helps relieve lumbago, rheumatism and arthritis of the spine
• Reduces symptoms of gout, herniated disc, sciatica, tennis elbow
• Helps relieve menstrual problems
• Strengthens the immune system and revitalizes the thyroid
• Improves flexibility of hip and shoulder joints
• Strengthens and firms abdomen, hips, legs, buttocks and arms

• Relieves back pain
• Increases spinal strength and flexibility, especially the upper back
• Improves functioning of the large and small intestines, liver, kidney and spleen
• Improves digestion

It's only 10 seconds. You can do anything for 10 seconds.

• Helps relieve lumbago, rheumatism and arthritis of the spine
• Reduces symptoms of gout, herniated disc, sciatica, tennis elbow
• Helps relieve menstrual problems
• Strengthens the immune system and revitalizes the thyroid
• Improves flexibility of hip and shoulder joints
• Strengthens and firms abdomen, hips, legs, buttocks and arms

• Relieves back pain
• Increases spinal strength and flexibility
• Improves functioning of the large and small intestines, liver, kidney and spleen
• Improves pigeon chest by opening rib cage, permitting maximum expansion of the lungs increasing oxygen intake
• Improves digestion
• Helps relieve lumbago, rheumatism and arthritis of the spine
• Reduces symptoms of gout, herniated disc, sciatica, tennis elbow
• Helps relieve menstrual problems
• Strengthens the immune system and revitalizes the thyroid
• Improves flexibility of hip and shoulder joints
• Strengthens and firms abdomen, hips, legs, buttocks and arms
• Strengthens middle spine

The previous Cobra series poses strengthen the lower, upper and middle back. Bow pose puts all three together for a spine compression.

• Relieves back pain
• Increases spinal strength and flexibility
• Improves functioning of the large and small intestines, liver, kidney and spleen
• Improves pigeon chest by opening rib cage, permitting maximum expansion of the lungs increasing oxygen intake
• Increases flexibility of the shoulder girdle

100% effort means 100% benefit.

• Improves digestion
• Helps relieve lumbago, rheumatism and arthritis of the spine
• Reduces symptoms of gout, herniated disc, sciatica, tennis elbow
• Helps relieve menstrual problems

360 degree backward bend against gravity.

• Strengthens the immune system and revitalizes the thyroid
• Improves flexibility of hip and shoulder joints
• Strengthens and firms abdomen, hips, legs, buttocks and arms

• Strengthens and firms the abdomen
• Increases flexibility of the spine, hamstrings, and sciatic nerve
• Clears out the lungs

You are your own best teacher. Listen to your body. That is yoga.

• Helps to cure sciatica, gout and rheumatism in the legs
• Helps to prevent hernia
• Strengthens and improves flexibility of lower spine, knees, and ankles
• Firms thighs, calf muscles and strengthens the abdomen
• Lubricates joints
• Prevents varicose veins
• Reduces edema in the legs
• Can help bring back full range of motion to the knee joint
• Stretches the spleen and increases function of the immune system

• Provides maximum relaxation
• Stretches lower lobes of the lungs
• Increases blood circulation to the hypothalamus and brain
• Good for diabetes and anemia
• Massages heart, lungs, and coronary arteries
• Increases flexibility of the hip and shoulder joints
• Firms abdomen and thighs
• Massages abdominal organs
• Stretches the spine with natural traction
• Increases flexibility of the shoulder girdle

Healer of the Spine

• Compresses kidneys and adrenal glands, helps reduce excess production of cortisol, the stress hormone.
• Eliminates toxins from the body
• Stretches abdominal organs and cures constipation
• Stretches the throat, thyroid gland and parathyroid
• Stimulates the nervous system
• Good for anxiety and depression

It's not unusual to feel dizzy or nauseous after this posture. Just let it go.

• Opens rib cage to allow for maximum expansion of the lungs
• Maximum compression of spine improving flexibility of the neck and spine
• Firms the abdomen and slims the waistline

• Maximum stretch of the spine allowing nervous system to receive proper nutrition
• Maintains mobility and elasticity of spine
• Nurtures the nervous system, helps with depression
• Improves digestion
• Helps cure sinus problems, colds and chronic tonsillitis
• Strengthens and firms abdomen
• Stretches back muscles
• Removes tension from upper back and neck
• Improves posture
• Stimulates thymus gland, improving function of the immune system

• Helps balance blood sugar levels
• Improves kidney function
• Improves digestion
• Improves the flexibility of sciatic nerves, ankles and hip joints
• Strengthens and firms back, abdomen and arms
• Reduces symptoms of asthma
• Deep hamstring stretch

150 degree rotation of the spine, all vertabra rotating 1-5 degrees from top to bottom.

• Increases circulation and nutrition to spinal nerves, veins, and tissues
• Improves spinal elasticity and flexibility
• Helps cure lumbago and rheumatism of the spine
• Improves digestion
• Firms abdomen, thighs and buttocks
• Strengthens back and abdominal muscles
• Increases flexibility of the hip and shoulder joints
• Prevents and heals herniated disc
• Detoxifying
• Helps arthritis of the knee and sciatica

• Increases circulation
• Removes exhalable toxins and metabolic waste products
• Strengthens all abdominal muscles
• Increases circulation to abdominal organs 
• Trims the waist line
• Energizing
• Improves mental clarity
• Good for high blood pressure
• Normalizes bowel function