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Relaxation and transitions

Every challenging exercise should be fol­lowed by a pe­ri­od of re­lax­ation and ob­ser­va­tion of the stressed bod­y part(s). This serves as trai­ning of bodi­ly aware­ness as well as al­low­ing the nec­es­sary time to trans­port fresh blood to the stretched and squeezed mus­cles in order to provide the nec­es­sary ox­y­gen and nu­tri­tion.

As the transition from ly­ing down to a sit­ting pos­ture can put a lot of stress on the lower back, a few pos­si­bil­i­ties of how to do this in a gentle way are given below as well.

Picture 1 - Relaxation - corpse posture-dtp
Picture 1 - Relaxation - corpse posture
1. Relaxation while lying on the back - corpse pos­ture
(Savasana in San­skrit)
  • Lie on your back, legs straight, feet a little apart and re­laxed to the sides. Arms by the sides of the body, a little apart, palms fac­ing to­wards the body or to­wards the ceil­ing. Neck com­fort­able with­out tension (Picture 1a).
  • In case of back problems, make sure the lower back is in con­tact with the floor, bend the knees and rest the soles of the feet next to the but­tocks on the floor (Pic­ture 1b).
  • Relax the body part, by part, from the toes to the skull. Let it sink into the floor.
Return to Tiger breathing
Picture 2 - Relaxation while lying on the front-dtp
Picture 2 - Relaxation while lying on the front
2. Relaxation while lying on the front
  • Make a cushion with the hands (one on top of the other) in front of the chest and rest the head on the hands, look­ing in the di­rec­tion of the finger­tips of the top hand. Legs straight, feet a little apart (Picture 2a).
  • Crocodile posture: Place the right hand on the left shoulder and the left hand on the right shoulder.The Head is rest­ing on the fore­arms where they cross each other. Legs straight, feet shoul­der width apart (Picture 2b).
Return to Diagonal arm and leg lifting
Picture 3 - Transition from lying down on your back to a sitting posture-dtp
Picture 3 - Transition from lying down on your back to a sitting posture
3. Transition from lying down on your back to a sit­ting pos­ture
  • Bring the straight left arm on the floor be­hind the head, bend the right knee and rest the sole of the right foot next to the but­tocks on the floor (Pic­ture 3a). Roll over to the left side, bring the right hand in front of the chest on the floor and push up to a sit­ting pos­ture (Pic­ture 3b). (Or right arm behind your head, left knee bend and roll over to the right side).
  • Place the hands next to your armpits on the floor, come up on your finge­rtips and push up to a sit­ting pos­ture (Pic­ture 4a/b).

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