1. Workout While Lying Down
To do the locust pose, lie on your stomach on the floor. Extend your legs behind you close to one another but not touching. Extend your arms by your sides. While inhaling, lift your head, chest, shoulders, feet and knees from the floor. Reach back with your arms as if reaching for your feet. Keep your legs straight. Hold the pose for ten breaths, release, and then repeat.
2. Not Easy Being a Locust
If your torso and back are not strong enough to hold your chest and legs off the floor, make the position easier by lifting only one leg at a time. Hold the pose with only the right leg off the floor, relax and then repeat the pose with the left leg off the floor. Another way to make this position easier for beginners is to push your chest off the floor with your hands placed right next to your chest.
3. Head to Toe Benefits
You can reap many benefits by regularly practicing the locust pose. It is an excellent exercise for working out the buttocks, hamstrings, calves, lower back, lungs, upper back, upper arms and the neck. It also strengthens the backs of your arms and your legs. This pose can help ease lower back pain and improve posture. The locust pose also helps cure fatigue and improve constipation, flatulence and indigestion since it stretches the abdomen and stomach organs. This position is also good for increasing flexibility. It stretches the front of the body including the shoulders, chest, belly and thighs.
4. Locusts Are Not for Everyone
People who have some injuries or chronic problems should be extra careful when attempting a Locust pose, although they can still do it with slight modifications. For neck problems, keep your neck relaxed by placing your forehead on a thickly folded blanket. Keep your face forward toward the floor. If you are suffering from a headache, skip this pose for the day because it can increase the pain from pressure. Instead, try one of the poses that can be therapeutic for headaches, like the corpse pose. Those with lower back pain should skip this position altogether.
5. Challenge Yourself
Once you have mastered the Locust pose and can hold it for at least ten breaths, it is time to challenge yourself further. Instead of extending your legs straight behind you, bend your knees. With your shins perpendicular to the floor, lift your knees off the ground as high as possible. Advanced yoga students can still receive benefits from the regular practice of this position with this modification.
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