Amrita 6: Asana through the ages - Magazine - Page 28
12
Asanas that Use Body Weight
Physical Strength & How to Get It.
1. Asana ardha pincha mayurasana/dolphin
Strengthens arms, legs
Firstly, we must consider what is physical strength. In the
West, a person’s strength is usually defined as muscular
strength: the amount of force you can put out or weight
you can lift. This is closely allied with muscular endurance:
how many times you can lift that weight without getting
tired (Government of British Columbia, 2016).
In recent years, health bodies have emphasised the benefits of strength training as it is important in preserving the
ability to do daily activities, plus it declines
dramatically after the age of 50. An average 30 years old
will have lost a quarter of their muscle strength by 70 and
half by 90 (Harvard Health Publishing, n.d.)
If you want to build strength, then you should do resistance training, which usually involves:
1. Free weights
2. Ankle cuffs and vests
3. Resistance (elastic bands)
4. Body weight to create resistance against gravity
(Harvard Health Publishing, n.d.)
Some modern schools of yoga have devised ways
of incorporating the first three into their classes.
However, a traditional yoga class usually only involves the
use of body weight. This can be as effective as
using weights, according to Dr Edward Laskowski
(Laskowski, 2018).
2. Asana bakasana/crow
Strengthens core, upper back, chest, hip flexors,
hamstrings, arms, shoulders, forearms, wrist extensors
3. Asana utkatasnana/chair
Strengthens ankles, thigh, calves, spine
4. Asana chaturanga dandasana/four-limbed staff pose
Strengthens arms, wrists
5. Asana adho mukha vrksasana/handstand
Strengthens shoulders, arms, wrists
6. Asana high lunge
Strengthens gluteals
7. Asana navasana/boat
Strengthens abdomen, hip flexors, spine
8. Asana phalakasana/plank
Strengthens arms, wrists, spine
9. Asana purvottasana/upward facing plank
Strengthens arms, wrists, legs
10. Asana vasisthasana/side plank
Strengthens arms, wrists, belly, legs
11. Asana sirsasana/headstand
Strengthens arms, legs, spine
12. Asana urdhava mukha svasana/upward facing dog
Strengthens hands, wrists, arms, shoulders, upper
back, abdominals, hip flexors, and quadriceps
Source: Yoga Journal
26 AMRITA Issue 6 / Spring 2021
Muscle Mechanics
Resistance training works by causing microtrauma to the
muscles, which are then repaired using cells outside of
themselves (called satellite cells). This results in thicker and
more numerous muscle fibres. (Kwon & Kravitz, n.d.) From