Phase 2 · Back Bends and Standing Up

Part of the 8 Week Yoga Program for Low Mood and Low Energy

35 Minute Yoga Sequence for Energy and Opening

Weeks four to six. Standing work and back bends, which is what the strongest protocols were made of.

The two trials with the clearest results here both put back bends and chest opening at the centre of what they did, one of them explicitly as Iyengar back bends and inversions, the other as chest opening poses in an eight week programme that got 60 percent of participants into remission. This session is built the same way: standing work first, then a run of back bends, then the floor. It is more demanding than the first three weeks and that is the progression.

35 min · Level 1

← Back to the full program

Wann hilfreich

For weeks four to six, two or three times a week. Thirty-five minutes. A mat, a block and a wall. This is a way to build a movement habit when your energy is low. It is not a treatment for depression and it does not replace therapy or medication. If your mood is getting worse, or you have any thought of harming yourself, that needs a person rather than a practice.

Physical effect

Legs, the whole back of the body and the front of the chest, in that order.

Energy

Standing poses held for a while do something to how the rest of the day goes that is hard to describe and easy to notice.

Progression

This is a real step up from phase one. If it is too much on a given day, the twenty minute session is still there.

Standing, building up

Fifteen minutes upright, getting gradually more demanding. Take the chair or the wall in any of it.

Tadasana

1 min

Berghaltung

Feet hip width, standing tall, breathing normally.

One minute of standing before anything else. It is a smaller ask than it sounds on a low day.

Mehr über Tadasana erfahren

Parshva Tadasana

45 sec each side

Berghaltung mit Seitbeuge

One arm overhead, leaning gently to the side.

The ribs open and the breath gets more room, at no cost.

Mehr über Parshva Tadasana erfahren

Virabhadrasana II

45 sec each side

Krieger 2

Warrior II, front knee bent, arms level.

The first pose with genuine effort in it. Forty-five seconds is enough to feel like something.

Mehr über Virabhadrasana II erfahren

Trikonasana

45 sec each side

Dreieck

Triangle, hand on a block, both legs straight.

Wide and open, and easier to breathe in than it looks.

Mehr über Trikonasana erfahren

Urdhva Hastasana

45 sec

Gestrecke Armpose

Both arms overhead, ribs lifting away from the hips.

The simplest chest opener there is, and a bridge into the harder ones.

Mehr über Urdhva Hastasana erfahren

Utkatasana

45 sec, twice

Stuhl

Chair Pose, two sets, sitting back.

The legs work properly here, which is what makes the floor at the end feel earned.

Mehr über Utkatasana erfahren

Utthita Parsvakonasana

45 sec each side

Seitwinkel

Side Angle, forearm on the thigh.

A long hold with both legs engaged.

Mehr über Utthita Parsvakonasana erfahren

Virabhadrasana 1

45 sec each side

Krieger 1

Warrior I, back foot flat and turned in, arms up, chest open.

The strongest standing pose here, and the one that most looks like the shape this program is aiming at.

Mehr über Virabhadrasana 1 erfahren

Back bends

The part both of the strongest protocols named specifically. Low and repeated beats high and once.

Bhujangasana

30 sec, twice

Hohe Kobra

Face down, hands under the shoulders, chest lifting.

The front of the body opening while the back of it works.

Mehr über Bhujangasana erfahren

Shalabhasana

30 sec, twice

Heuschrecke

Face down, lifting the chest and the legs without using the hands.

The whole back of the body at once. Harder than it looks and worth two rounds.

Mehr über Shalabhasana erfahren

Setu Bandha Sarvangasana

45 sec, twice

Schulterbrücke

On your back, hips lifted, feet pressing.

The last of the back bends, and the easiest one to do well when you are tired.

Mehr über Setu Bandha Sarvangasana erfahren

Jathara Parivartanasana

1 min each side

Die liegende Drehung

Knees drawn in, then falling to one side. Shoulders stay down.

A twist with the floor doing all of it, once the work is finished.

Mehr über Jathara Parivartanasana erfahren

Apanasana

1 min

Knie zur Brust

Knees in, arms loose.

Small and closed, on the way to the end.

Mehr über Apanasana erfahren

Savasana

5 min

Totenstellung

Flat, covered, five minutes.

Five minutes. Every protocol in this research finished here.

Mehr über Savasana erfahren

Phase 2 · Weeks 4 to 6

This practice is part of a program

It belongs to Back Bends and Standing Up, the second phase of the 8 Week Yoga Program for Low Mood and Low Energy. The program says how often to practise it, what comes before and after, and when to move on.

See the whole program →

Integration

Two or three times a week for weeks four to six. Two is enough: the study that compared two sessions a week against three found no difference between them.

Der Mensch hinter dieser Sequenz

Gründer & Autor

Manish Rana

Gründer von Asanaverse.de. Manish schreibt über Yoga, Ayurveda und Meditation und verdankt seine tiefe Verbindung zum Yoga seinen indischen Wurzeln. Mit über 1000 Stunden Yoga Alliance Teacher Training gibt er sein Wissen an die Community weiter.

Zum Profil →

Go deeper into the poses

Every asana in this practice has a page of its own. You will find alignment cues, what the shape actually works on, and the energetics behind it.

Open the Asana Lab

Make it yours

Keep this practice in your library, print it for the mat, or build your own sequence from all 108 asanas.

Create a free account

Alle Sequenzen

← Zurück zur Übersicht