How to do Markatasana

Markatasana

 Namaskaram (Hello), I'm sachinguru, and today we'll learn exercise for back pain, which is called 'Markatasana' (Spinal Twist pose). The Spinal twist is suitable for everyone, whether he is a child, a young adult or an aged person. At any age, I've seen that someone or the other suffers from back pain at some point of time in life. There won't be anybody who has never faced back pain Otherwise also in yoga the importance that our spine has, nothing else has that much of importance. In your daily exercise routine, if you practice this Spinal Twist Pose even for 5-7 minutes, At last, after doing all other exercises And then lie down in the corpse pose then you'll feel very light and fresh all day long. This is such a wonderful exercise. Many times people get some jerk in the back and doctors suggest that it's a slip disk problem Or at times you would have noticed that pulling weight, wrong sitting habits, or some other wrong habit may lead to back muscles pull. Be it any type of pain or even if doctors have recommended complete bed rest, in which the person is not able to walk a bit, not even to pick a glass of water. Such people can also practice Spinal Twist Pose. This is so effective & suits to everyone.

For your information, we have divided it into two parts First is dynamic version (Gatimaya), which means doing it speedily. If we do something fastly, without pausing then we call it 'Gatimaya' in Hindi and in English we call it Dynamic version. Version refers to an aspect of something. Though this is the same pose but when we practice this in speed then it becomes Dynamic version. If we do this pose with pauses, then this called 'static version' in English and 'Sthir' in Hindi 'Sthir' means doing something by taking pauses in between. Let me first give you an overview of this pose. So that you can understand that who has to do it in static version and who should do it in dynamic version.

 Dynamic version is for the people whose body got stiff because of prolonged lying and who do not do much of the physical work, due to which their body got stiffed. Those who get tired after sitting for long & their body gets stiff or if someone wants to unwind the jammed body in all such situations, the Dynamic version is to be done. Sometimes Doctor suggests you not to walk at all because of some gap or displacement in the bone or at times I've seen people having severe back pain In such a painful situation, don't do it fast, then you need to do the Static version. For Static version, give a minimum pause for 10 seconds gradually increase the pause for 15-20 seconds, and you can pause up to 30 seconds in one position. I want to clear this at the beginning itself the longer you'll pause, the more it will benefit & give you relaxation also. The faster you'll change the positions, the less relief you'll get in pain.

 That's why you need to start the pose by breathing in & release the pose by breathing out. and for the duration you pause in a posture, you need to hold your breath also. If you have high BP or heart problem or if your lungs are weak, & you have deficiency of oxygen in your body then even if you don't hold your breath, it's okay. This was the overview of the Spinal twist pose. Now let me tell you, Spinal twist has 7 poses. we've divided it into two parts. The reason for dividing in two parts is that one part is to be done in the condition of pain, that means when your back has a problem, in such a condition the first part is to be done.

 When you start recovering After 1-2 weeks or 3-4 weeks, whenever you feel that you have got relief from pain and now you need to strengthen your back ; body so that the pain doesn't reoccury back 's condition improves. Then after that, you can do all 7 poses together. So without further delay, let's learn how to do it. First of all spread a mat on the ground or if lying on the ground is not allowed then you can lie on your bed or on some other mattress inside the room or anywhere else. For this pose, there is no restriction of doing an empty stomach only. If you have taken food 1/1.5 hours ago then also you can do this, because there are no hazards of doing so. If you do it on an empty stomach then nothing like this. But if you have pain then do this at least 3-4 times a day, i.e. morning, afternoon, evening and at night before sleeping. You’ll have to do it at least 3-4 times a day then only you’ll get relief from pain. Though, if you just want to keep your back healthy then doing it once in the morning with Yoga is sufficient but in the pain, this is necessary to do 3-4 times a day.

 So lets do it. First of all, lie down on your back. Spread your arms open on each side like this. Neither too upwards nor too downwards. Keep it perpendicular to your body i.e. open your arms at a 90 degrees angle. Join your legs and place your feet like this so that your ankles touch the hips. If you have very much problem in touching the hips then it’s a different case but if you can do it then touch. Open up your arms like this & keep the neck straight. For the first pose, take a deep breath,Twist your legs towards the left side & neck towards right. Make sure the shoulder doesn’t rise up. Both shoulders should stay on the ground. Elbows should also touch the ground and neck should be opposite to legs. Similarly heels, toes, ankles & knees of both the legs should touch each other.

inhaled while twisting, so exhale while coming back to the initial position. Then again inhale & twist in the opposite direction (Legs to the right and neck towards left). Hold for some time. Exhale & return. Inhale and twist legs to the left. This is the first pose of Spinal twist. In the first pose, you need to keep your legs together. In the second pose, make a gap between the legs. Take care that your heels should not go beyond your hips. Keep your heels at a distance equal to your hips width. So, spread your legs. Place your hands again in the same position. Take a deep breath (twist legs towards left & neck towards right) (Hold for some time). Exhale & return to the initial position. If you don’t have the strength to hold the breath because of a heart or high BP problem then don’t hold it. Take a deep breath (twist legs towards right & neck towards left) (Hold for some time) Exhale & return to the initial position. Do like this alternatively right & left and neck in the opposite direction. This is the second pose of Spinal twist. Now let’s see the third pose of Spinal twist. In this you need to fold one leg from the knee & keep the other straight. Keep the hand at the same place. Inhale and twist legs left & neck right. (Hold this position for some time) (Exhale & return to initial position.) Then change the leg and twist in the other direction like this. These are the 3 poses of the spinal twist. Now, let’s do the fourth pose of the Spinal twist. For this, keep your legs straight & cross your legs such that the right foot is on the left. Open up your arms again. Inhale & twist left with neck in the opposite direction. While doing spinal twist, some people raise their body like this. Don’t do this. You need to do it without raising your body, like this. Exhale while coming back to initial position. Again Inhale & twist in the other direction. Hold for some time. Exhale 

Yinitial position. Between the Inhaling you can pause for 10-20 seconds or even up to half a minute. More you hold, the more relief you’ll get & the faster your pain will be cured. Do it 10-15 times then cross your legs the other way. Inhale & twist Give 3-4 minutes to each pose. So, for the 4 poses that I mentioned, if you give 3 minutes to each pose then it will become 12 minutes. After doing it for 12 minutes you’ll feel very fresh. Like I told, if you are healthy & your back doesn’t have any problem & you want to do it for the fitness purpose or if your back is stiff because of non-movement then you can do it fast also i.e. Dynamic version. For the Dynamic version, you need to take care that this is to be done before practicing the static version. You need to do it slowly after doing it fastly. So, let’s do it & see how to do the Dynamic version. (Twist to one direction & to the other without any pauses.) Keep taking the breath regularly. You can inhale & exhale as per your convenience. Like this. You need to do these first & then the static version. But if you have pain then don’t practice the Dynamic version.

Tfexercises are called ‘Gatimay’ exercises.‘Gatimay’ means doing something speedily. Don’t do these for more than 1 minute in each pose, if you are practicing the Dynamic version. For the static version, give 3-4 minutes to each pose. If you’ll practice each pose for 15-20 times (Static Version), then only it’ll benefit, not less than this. If you do even more than this, it is even better. You need to do it 3-4 times a day. So, these are two poses of the Dynamic version. For the third pose, keep one leg straight & other bent from the knee like this. Keep interchanging legs while twisting. Then cross your legs like this & twist. I am mentioning again, those who have back pain shouldn’t practice this fast. They need to do it slowly. After getting completely cured then if they want they can do it fast. So, these exercises that I told you today, will rejuvenate your back again. Whatever problem you have, you can get rid of all the back problems. In the next session, I’ll tell you about the next 3 poses of the Spinal twist which are to be done after you get cured from the pain & you want to prevent its recurrence, and your back gets stronger. In this case, which poses should be done. I’ll tell you in the next video about these poses. I’ll name that video (somewhat related to) 'Rest 3 poses of Spinal Twist'. These 4 poses are to be done during pain. And those 3 are to be done later to keep your back healthy.  Namaskaram (Goodbye). Become a vegetarian! This will give the boon of life to those innocent animals also. 

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