If you are new to yoga, you probably find it hard to contort your body and perform certain yoga positions. Eventually, many people end up abandoning yoga due to either laziness or pain. If such has been the case with you, start looking for ways to make the movements easier. Yoga is supposed to make you feel relaxed, calm, and stress-free. If you have just started, consider giving wall yoga a try. It is much easier to perform and offers the same health benefits as traditional yoga. Are you ready to supercharge your health? Give this article a thorough read to learn about Wall Yoga poses and how they help you improve your physical health.
When it comes to yoga, there is no set limit on the types and variations you can perform daily. The idea is to maintain mind-body coordination and to destress your body (1).
Performing yoga may improve your flexibility, make you more mobile, and alleviate pain (2).
For starters, a wall provides support and stability, allowing beginners to establish balance. They can also get into a yoga routine and form habits with their body. Lastly, after practicing with the wall individuals can transition into traditional yoga more efficiently.
Wall Yoga poses range from standing to your legs up against the wall. Listed below are some of the best yoga wall poses for beginners.
We start the list with the downward dog wall yoga pose or the Adho Mukha Svanasana. It is one of the primary wall yoga poses that offers flexibility and may strengthen your front thigh muscles.
To perform the downward dog wall yoga pose:
Perform this yoga asana repeatedly with the wall to master keeping your heels locked into place.
Read More: Sit Your Way To Wellness: Unravel The Benefits Of Chair Yoga
The Chair Pose, or Utkatasana, is another basic wall yoga pose for beginners. It supports knee balance and keeps them in place.
To perform chair wall yoga:
Repeat the chair yoga pose to strengthen your lower body, especially the muscles in your ankles
The upward-facing wall dog pose or the Chaturanga Dandasana flexes your back and may help your back to get better and stronger. It may also reduce wrist pain and helps yoga-doers align their body (5).
To perform Chaturanga Dandasana:
The camel wall pose or the Ustrasana works similarly to the upward-facing dog wall pose. This pose may enhance flexibility and help yoga-practitioners to maintain alignment.
To perform the Ustrasana:
Repeat the wall yoga pose to enhance your flexibility and establish balance.
If you are fascinated by those complex vertical wall yoga poses but cannot perform such poses, the Virabradhasana wall pose is for you. It is easy to perform and helps practitioners to maintain solid mind-body coordination.
To perform Virabradhasana Wall Pose:
These are a few basic wall yoga poses you can do any time of the day. Performing these restorative wall yoga poses improves flexibility and endurance and helps you transition into traditional yoga.
BetterMe app is a foolproof way to go from zero to a weight loss hero in a safe and sustainable way! What are you waiting for? Start transforming your body now!
The daily hectic work routines can be pretty stressful. In such chaos, one craves peace and relaxation. If you are in the same boat, you must try Viparita Karani or the legs up the wall pose.
It is a part of one of the seven primary inversion yin yoga wall poses and is quite popular among yoga enthusiasts due to its immense health benefits. Also, it is easier for beginners to do and helps them unwind.
Inversion yoga poses are where your body is upside down with your feet high up in the air and your head on the ground. They are relatively easier to practice and don’t require much flexibility and strength.
Legs up the wall pose may also work wonders for your mental and physical health. Practicing it once or twice a day destresses the body and relieves anxiety.
To perform the legs up the wall pose
While doing the legs up the wall pose, you can do a bit of self-massage to enhance your overall yoga routine. Massage your hands or stimulate the acupressure points to relieve digestive, sleep, or other health-related problems (3).
To get out of the Viparita Karani state, slowly pull your legs towards your chest so that you are hugging them and gently roll over on one side. You can also do legs up the wall variations such as the butterfly, straddle, or one leg up the wall pose. To perform these variations:
Read More: Sit, Stretch, And Soothe: Chair Yoga Sequence For A Relaxed Mind And Body
Sometimes, people experience a tingling sensation in their feet and legs due to extending their feet for a long time. To avoid this, consider bending and pulling your legs towards your chest to minimize the sensation and then return to the yoga position.
Also, do not put your body at a 90-degree angle, as this impedes blood flow in the hips. Make an arch and place your body a few inches from the wall.
While legs up the wall pose looks convenient and practical, individuals with specific health conditions must avoid it. These include people with glaucoma, hypertension, or excessive fluid retention problems. The reason is that doing Viparita Karani increases the intraocular pressure in people with glaucoma, causing eye strain, which is unsuitable for them. People with hypertension or high blood pressure problems should also avoid this inversion pose as it increases blood pressure (6).
Although they can do this yoga after stabilizing their blood pressure, they should do it sparingly. Individuals with excessive fluid retention problems like liver or kidney failure must also avoid legs up the wall since it causes fluid retention.
The ease of the yoga poses against the wall makes them popular among beginners. With a slight variation, they unlock new movements and techniques that relax their body and make them feel super relaxed. Some of the best poses in yoga with legs against the wall are
The arms up or the Baddha Konasana wall pose stretches your hips and legs. To perform this relaxing wall yoga pose:
The triangle wall pose is good for stretching your entire body. To perform this sequence,
To perform the tree wall pose,
To perform the Spinal Twist wall pose,
Perform wall yoga poses once or twice daily to relax your mind and body fully. You can do these as a 15-minute yoga routine. The good thing is that you can perform these anywhere as long as you have a wall.
Intense sweat sessions, working weight loss tips, lip-smacking recipes come in one package with the BetterMe app. And all of it is at your fingertips, start transforming your life now!
Legs up wall yoga pose miraculously improves your health and overall well-being. Below are some of the top-notch benefits of this fantastic wall yoga pose.
The best benefit of legs up wall yoga pose is that it vigorously improves leg circulation and eliminates venous insufficiency (4). Sometimes, veins in the legs and feet cannot transport blood back up to the heart, which causes swelling. It may also happen due to prolonged sitting or standing. Doing legs up the wall yoga pose inverts the body and helps the veins circulate blood easily.
The purpose of restorative wall yoga poses is to destress your body and make you feel at ease. Many people may feel calm and stress-free after performing the legs up the wall pose (7).
Sciatica imparts excessive pain in the buttocks, lower back, or hips. This may occur due to sciatic nerve damage. Doing inversion poses may relieve sciatic pain and other mild pains.
Inversion poses like legs up the wall, butterfly, or straddle wall yoga poses may stretch the body and improve flexibility (8).
Performing legs up the wall often works wonders for menstrual pain. Inversion poses like this one support the pelvic floor, which relaxes the pelvic muscles, mild backaches, and menstrual cramps (9).
Wall Yoga poses may also prove effective for migraine as blood flow improves in the inverted pose. Performing legs up the wall pose is particularly beneficial for people with migraines or severe headaches (10).
When doing the legs up wall yoga pose, your body is resting. This triggers the body’s natural response to digest food, cope with digestive issues, and improve digestion.
If you have insomnia or poor sleep, doing the legs up the wall pose may greatly help you. The reason is that your body is in a supine position. Also, you are doing slow breathing, which makes the body believe you are resting. This, in turn, calms your heart, lowers the heart rate, and helps you fall asleep instantly. You can also make this a routine before bed to improve sleep quality.
During the legs up the wall pose, your torso remains supine. Meanwhile, the back is resting comfortably on the cushion or blanket. The entire tension in your back is released, which may reduce the lower back pain (11).
All of these perks reveal the essence of the legs-up-the-wall pose. On the surface, it looks simple, but it offers all the health benefits mentioned above within a few minutes. Including this in your yoga routines may gradually improve your physical and mental health.
Wall Yoga poses help beginners start their yoga journey from the comfort of their homes. With a wall and a yoga mat, individuals can unwind, improve their circulation, flexibility, and maintain strong mind-body coordination.
It is vital to consult your physician before starting any kind of yoga routine. If you suffer from any serious ailment, you must immediately seek medical consultation before beginning.
These wall yoga poses can be performed once or twice a day and can be inculcated in your overall yoga journey for better results.
This article is intended for general informational purposes only and does not serve to address individual circumstances. It is not a substitute for professional advice or help and should not be relied on for making any kind of decision-making. Any action taken as a direct or indirect result of the information in this article is entirely at your own risk and is your sole responsibility.
BetterMe, its content staff, and its medical advisors accept no responsibility for inaccuracies, errors, misstatements, inconsistencies, or omissions and specifically disclaim any liability, loss or risk, personal, professional or otherwise, which may be incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, of the use and/or application of any content.
You should always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or your specific situation. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking it because of BetterMe content. If you suspect or think you may have a medical emergency, call your doctor.