CHENNAI: ParsvaTadasan
Steps: Stand with your feet, hip distance apart. Keep your lower body grounded. Inhale and interlock fingers at the chest, turn palms away from you. Exhale and extend arms over the head. Hold for a few breathing cycles integrating exhalation with stretching.
Hold the finger interlock tight (and try to push the forefingers higher than the little fingers). Maximize the stretch in your torso by elevating your shoulders higher and feeling an opening in your ribs.
This is UttanTadasan.Now at the next possible exhalation bend over laterally to the right for a side bend - ParsvaTadasan. Hold for a few breathing cycles as you look up at your knuckles. Inhale and return to the center exhale and take the asan to the left.
Benefits: They are ideal for stiff neck release and for mobility of the spine. Breathing capacity increases. The wrist, elbow and shoulder joint get a nice stretch. The carpals, metacarpals and phalanges get stretched too. Overall good for desk-workers and for keyboard users.
(The writer is a yoga and fitness trainer at Sri Aurobindo Society, Bengaluru)