Tumblr Crushes:
Simple Yoga for Sinus Drainage
blissmanifesto replied to your post: Help with flexibility
Actually, doing yoga always helped to drain my sinuses whenever they got bad. Plus, of course it is aces for flexibility.Could you suggest anything specifically, or maybe a video or something? I just don’t really want to spend more than 20-30 minutes doing it.
I would do a video but I’m going out of town tomorrow and I wanted to answer you right off. So here is what I would normally do. The overall theme is “move your head slowly around so that the gunk has a chance to drain.” All the movements are performed gently and slowly.
A. Uttanasana sequence: Stand up nice and straight. Inhale and reach up, then exhale as you stick your butt out a bit and fold forward at the hips. Keep your spine straight and your neck in line with your spine as you hinge forward until your hamstrings tell you to stop. Ideally you would fold until your hands reach the ground, but whatever happens is fine. Inhale, exhale, then inhale as you rise up, reaching your arms up, and then bring your hands to your heart into prayer position. I will do this little sequence a whole bunch of times, at least 5 or 6, or sometimes 10 reps or more, depending on how I feel.
B. Side bend sequence: Stand up nice and straight. Inhale and reach up, then exhale as you bend gently sideways as far as your ribs and waist will permit without pushing or straining. As you bend, gently twist your navel up toward the ceiling a bit; this keeps your torso well-aligned. Inhale, exhale, then inhale to rise up to center again. Exhale as you bend to the other side, inhale, exhale, inhale to rise up, hands to prayer position. Give this one a nice 5 or 6 reps as well.
That’s the core of the practice: a bunch of forward bends and a bunch of side bends.
If you want to be really fancy, then you can do more fun stuff like Down Dog and Triangle. But just the two things I outlined here will do the trick for the sinus thing, plus they will open up your hamstrings and rib cage and spine.
C. Here’s one more easy sequence if you can squat. Malasana sequence: Step your feet apart and sink down into a squat, letting the weight sink back into the heels. Both feet should be completely flat on the mat. (If you can’t squat deeply but you still want to do this pose, fold up a blanket and put it under your heels for some support.) Your hands are in prayer position, your elbows gently press your knees apart. Take a moment to draw your navel in and extend your spine fully, like a turtle coming out of its shell. Now lower your left hand toward the mat and press your left elbow firmly into your left leg. Leaning into that support, inhale your right arm up to the ceiling and open up your chest, twisting open to the right, letting the eyes follow the hand. The head will lean back slightly and tip to the side slightly as well. Exhale, inhale, then exhale the arm back down. Let the right hand come to the mat, the right elbow presses into the right leg, inhale the left arm up, twist open, exhale, inhale, exhale to come down and return to prayer position. Give this one maybe 6 reps as well. I love this one, so relaxing.
Lemme know how that works for you. If you want a video showing a simple Down Dog-Triangle sort of sequence, I can try to make that next week.
For Annie because apparently she needs it.
Here is a brief photo essay on how to make a fist, based on my brief experience with TKD back in the day. Why Doingtheneedful has not stepped up here, I can’t imagine. WTF, dude. Okay, here it is:
First, the open hand. The fingers are evenly joined together and that is how they will stay:
Then you curl your fingers down at the middle joint until the tips of your fingers snuggle into the top of your palm. Again, all the fingers are joined together. Here is probably where you are allowing your fingers to come apart from each other. So you get this:
Because my middle finger is longer, it sticks up here. But my fingers are joined together, so the whole thing is a flat package:
See how the fingers are aligned? If your fingers are not aligned, now’s when you fix them. Stay here until you can align them.
Next, fold the curled fingers down and place the thumb across them:
Check out my tendons!!
Here’s the front view:
Wooo, check out my gunshow there!!
And there you go. Fist of Fury.
