Setu Bandha Sarvangasana: Bridge Pose
Lie on your back. Bend your knees with your feet on the floor hip-width apart. Bring your feet as close to the sitting bones as possible. Inhale; press your feet and arms actively into the floor and lift your hips up. Firm, but do not harden the glutes. Clasp your hands together, walk the shoulders down, and press into the floor with your feet and arms. Open the chest and reach the front of your legs and pelvis toward the sky. Hold for five breath cycles, exhale down, and repeat 2 to 3 more times.
Benefits: Stretches the chest, neck and spine. Calms the brain and helps relieve stress and mild depression. Stimulates the abdominal organs, lungs and thyroid. Reduces anxiety, fatigue, backache, headache and insomnia. Therapeutic for high blood pressure.
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