Lockdown has forced people to continue their fitness routine indoors. However, since most people don’t have much space in their house, they can try something that can be performed in a confined area. Yoga is one such option. There are many asanas that do not require a lot of space. Yoga also has lots of variations. Here we are with a few new ones which can be done against a wall. Yes, it’s true! A wall is there to catch your heels when you kick up and support your legs when you need to rest and rejuvenate. From helping you balance yourself to stabilizing a pose, there are many ways a wall can assist you in your yoga practice. Discover how.
Uttanasana pose against a wall
This pose stretches your hamstrings and the muscles of your abdomen, makes your blood rush to your head and helps your body relax and beat insomnia.
How to
- Stand in front of a wall, facing away from it
- Come into a forward fold with your feet hip-width apart and knees bent.
- Bring your butt against the wall.
- Press down through the inner edges of your feet, as you begin to lift your sitting bones higher up the wall to straighten your legs.
- To go deeper, step back until your heels are touching the baseboard.
L-shaped handstand against wall
A handstand helps in relieving stress by calming and relaxing you. And when you are upside down, the blood flow to your brain increases your concentration and focus.
How to
- For those not familiar with L-Shape here’s how you set it up: Come onto all fours with your hands under shoulders, knees under hips and the soles of your feet pressing into the base of the wall.
- Tuck your toes on the floor and straighten your legs.
- Then take one foot up the wall with your toes curled at about the height of your hips.
- Begin to straighten the raised leg, pressing the sole of your foot into the wall, and sending your hips over your shoulders as you bring the second leg up to join the first.
- Once you’re comfortable in L-Shape with your hands, shoulders, and hips stacked, draw your floating ribs in toward your core and slowly begin to lift one leg toward the ceiling, stopping when your heel is directly over your tailbone.
- Keeping your lifted leg straight, lower your leg back down, pulling back through your core and brushing the sole of your foot along the wall on its way down.
- Now bend your top knee and tap your bottom toes on the floor before taking the leg all the way back up.
- Press down strongly through your inner palms, move slow, and stay integrated.
- Repeat 3 on each leg before coming down.
Hanumanasana against a wall
Hanumanasana helps stabilize your pelvis by keeping your back leg internally rotated and gives you a boundary to press into, which helps you deepen the pose.
How to
- Fold a mat in half and place it on the floor at the base of the wall with a flatly folded blanket directly in front of it.
- Come into a Low Lunge with your left knee on the mat, left foot pressing into the wall behind you, and your right heel on the blanket.
- Slowly start to press your front heel forward, deepening into the pose. Then pause and reorganize.
- Spread your right toes, press forward through the mound of the big toe as you pull back through the pinkie-side of your front foot and draw your outer right hip back.
- Press the inner edge of your back foot into the wall with your heel pointing straight up.
- Turn your outer left hip forward and down, and slowly press your front heel forward, lengthening out toward Hanumanasana.
- Pay attention to your back foot and leg, keeping an internal rotation to your back leg and outer left hip.
- Once you’ve come as far down into the pose as you’d like, keep pressing through the inner edge of your back foot and draw back through your front heel and outer right hip.
- Take 5 breaths and slowly pull back through your front heel to exit the pose.