If your heart and mind seem like they’re in two different places or if your shoulders and neck are feeling tight, try the Seated Yoga Mudra Pose. Mudra means “seal,” as in closure or fastening. This opening pose stretches muscles in your entire body and helps give you a new perspective, but avoid the Seated Yoga Mudra Pose if you have any problems with your knees, shoulders or neck or if you have high blood pressure or glaucoma.
Lower Body Muscles
To get into Seated Yoga Mudra Pose, choose the seated pose most comfortable for you. You can begin in Thunderbolt Pose, sitting on your heels with your back straight. Thunderbolt Pose stretches your quadriceps, hamstrings, calf muscles, foot muscles and gluteus maximus, medius and minimus. Advanced practitioners can use Lotus Pose, which further stretches your hip muscles. Before doing Lotus Pose, be sure to warm up by stretching your hip muscles in lunges and in Bound Angle Pose.
Upper Body Muscles
By grasping your hands behind your back, you can extend your range of motion. You will stretch your pectoralis major in your chest, your deltoid muscles in your shoulders and your rhomboids and trapezius in your upper back. As you stretch forward, your spine extensors lengthen as well.
Other Benefits
Seated Yoga Mudra Pose stimulates your brain and nervous system, opens your lungs to improve breathing and helps relieve anxiety and digestive difficulties. It also connects your heart and mind and opens your sixth chakra, right at your third eye, between your eyebrows. Your sixth, or ajña, chakra represents your intuition and inner wisdom.
Tips
To get the full benefit of the stretch, keep your seat heavy so you remain rooted toward the ground and concentrate on lengthening upward before you bend forward. Keep your belly engaged by pulling your navel in and upward, which will also tone your transversus abdominis. Reach your clasped hands toward the front of the room and slightly bend your elbows so your chest opens and your shoulders widen without crunching. Focus on the expansion of your body by bringing awareness to your breath.
Modifications
Place a folded blanket between your heels and your seat to reduce discomfort in your hips, ankles and knees. If it’s hard to interlock your hands behind your back, hold onto a strap, with your hands as close together as possible. Rest your head on one or more yoga blocks if it doesn’t touch the floor.
References
- Yoga Anatomy; Leslie Kaminoff
- Anatomy of Movement; Blandine Calais-Germain
- BellaOnline: Seated Yoga Mudra Pose
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