Gate Pose (Parighasana )
This pose provides a gateway to blood to flow through those parts of our body which were obstructed due to the inactivity of our body. Parighasan is called gate pose because it is a gateway for blood flow.
In Sanskrit, parigha means ‘the bar used to close the gate’, asana means ‘pose’.
Practicing this pose, we do stretching of our body. This pose gives us a good stretch to the sides. It gives a good stretch to the inner thighs, legs, hips, and core muscles. prighasan was known even before the 20thcentury. Krishnamacharya, the father of modern yoga, derived this pose from gymnastics. This side bending pose is great for deep breathing. It is a great exercise for an individual who is suffering from asthma or any other breathing problem. It is a great warm-up before sun salutation practice. It can be performed all alone for 15-20 minutes. It will stretch out your body and help to reduce the side fat. You can use this pose to tone your muscles. This pose can be performed by any age group. There are very few chances of injury. This is one of the most underrated poses in yoga.
You can perform child pose, kneeling crescent moon before performing this posture. it will avoid any kind of injury. You can follow up by gate side plank or a good stretching to end this pose. Gate Pose is an invigorating pose that provides a good stretch to the sides of your body and increases the flexibility of your spine. You can also use this pose to tone your abdominal muscles and improve your circulation. Gate Pose is an excellent pose to perform in preparation for Triangle Pose. While both poses stretch similar muscles, Gate Pose does not require an intense stretch to the back of your legs.
Performing Gate Pose stretches the muscles that connect your ribs, allowing your lungs to expand to help increase your capacity for deep breathing. As a result, practicing this pose is especially useful if you have a breathing problem, such as asthma.
While performing Gate Pose, make sure your elbow does not move in front of your face but stretches up above your ear. You should also focus on lengthening your spine with each inhalation and stretching to your side with each exhalation.
Benefits:
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It promotes deep breathing: Practicing this pose will stretch our inner muscles. It enhances chest movement and aid in respiration. This is a great exercise to improve your breathing. As it opens up our chest movement, it can be a great exercise for those individuals who suffer from asthmatic problems.
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It helps you in losing weight: This pose can help you to fight obesity. It can be a great posture for reducing your sides fat or love handles. This pose stretches our sides. This is a great exercise to reduce the inner thighs fat as it focuses on stretching our inner thighs. Just by performing this simple pose, we can see a huge difference in us.
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It will help you in increasing flexibility: This pose will help you in increasing your flexibility. It gives a deep stretch to the calves, hamstring, quadriceps, biceps, triceps, abdominals, hip flexors, and gluteus. This pose will be great for our flexibility.
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This is a great posture for organs health: Bending sideways will help you in massaging the abdominal organs like liver, kidney, pelvic muscles, etc. This will improve the overall health of our abdominal organs.
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This posture will help you in mobilizing pelvic joints: This posture will help in opening up your pelvic muscles which will ensure flexible movement and increase the period of holding.
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It will help you in yogic breathing: It will help you in strengthening your chest muscles and enhance thoracic volume which will increase your overall stamina for practicing pranayama.
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It helps in improving the digestive system: This pose enhances the digestive system and abdominal organs by exchanging deoxygenated blood from oxygenated blood.
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It will activate your Ajna chakra: Ajna chakra is one of the most important chakras. People with unregulated emotions should activate their Ajna chakra. This yoga will help you to activate your Ajna chakra. Ajna chakra is beneficial for your eyes and nose.
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This pose stretches your torso and spine: This pose will give a good stretch to your torse. it enhances the flexibility of your spine as well as your torso. Gate pose will strengthen your spine and torso. It improves the overall health of your torso and spine.
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Improves your back health: This pose stretches out your back as well thus giving good health to your back. it can be a good pose to avoid back pain or stiffness. Individual who tends to sit for more than 4 hours a day need to practice this exercise.
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It will help you in regulating your emotions: This exercise helps an individual to regulate their emotions. It enhances your mood and an individual will feel more energetic and less stressed.
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It is a great pose to improve your balance: this pose will help you to improve your balance. This will lower the risk of knee, back, ankle, or spinal injury.
Technique:
To perform this asana or pose please follow the following steps:
Step 1: Kneel on your yoga mat. Sit on your left knee and let the right leg expand towards your right side. your knee torso and your expanded leg should be in the same line.
Step 2: Keep the right foot flat on the surface and point forward. Your knee should be straight but locked. Balance this position. Your torso should be straight and shouldn’t be bent toward the left side of your body.
Step 3: Bend yourself on the right side of your body towards the expanded leg. The bending of your torso and the expanded leg should be in the same line. You must not bend yourself too much forward or backward.
Step 4: The position of your right hand will be towards your right foot and the left hand should be in the upward direction and slightly bent toward your right side. The position of your head, torso, and hands should be bent towards the same side and in the same line as shown in the picture.
Step 5: Stay in this position for as long as you can from 20 seconds to 1 minute or more. Breathe naturally. Don’t forcefully control your breathing.
Step 6: Calm down and slowly get back to the normal position. Take a deep breath, relax and complete the pose.
Step 7: Repeat the above steps for the other side. You can perform this practice from 2 to 15 times.
Precautions:
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Breath naturally. Don’t try to control your breathing.
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Avoid doing this exercise if you are suffering from any kind of knee injury.
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Don’t practice if you have an ankle injury.
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Consult your doctor in case of backache or any kind of spinal injury or pain.
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Don’t force yourself to perform the pose. Bend as much as you can. Forcing yourself to bend might cause injury.
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Balance yourself first. Poor posture or poor balance might cause injury.
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Be very particular about your posture.
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Do not hold for too long.
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Practice on both sides.
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Consult your doctor if you are suffering from any kind of hip or knee injury.
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Try to follow the posture same as directed to avoid any kind of injury.
Props and modifications:
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You can use a blanket or yoga brick to balance your body. you can support your hand or knee with a blanket or yoga brick and avoid injuries.
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Support yourself along with a wall and balance your posture to avoid any kind of injury.
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Instead of placing your foot flat on the floor you can stand on your toes pointing in the upward direction. This will help to stretch your hamstrings too. It will give a deeper stretch to your hamstrings.
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If you feel this pose is easy, you can try to touch your head to the knee. It can be the advanced version of this pose.
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You can balance with the help of a chair.
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Instead of placing the sole of your foot flat on the floor, place your heel on the floor with your toes pointing up toward the ceiling. This modification also provides a deeper stretch to your hamstring.