Padangushthasan         
Big Toe Pose
As the years pass by, our health is deteriorating. The death age has declined to 60-70years from 90-100years. What could be the reason behind that?  Is it the environmental condition that needs to be blamed? I think the answer is still unknown. Environmental factors indeed are one of the reasons behind that.
We cannot change the environment all by ourselves but we can bring some changes in us by practicing yoga. Yoga was being practiced for years now and it is the only way to live a healthy and long life. Yoga can enhance our health and help us to live long. But in today’s world, it becomes very difficult to practice all the yoga postures daily. We can hence select a few of them that will enhance the overall health of an individual. one such pose is Padangushthasan.
Padangushthasan is a stretching exercise. Its name was derived from the Sanskrit language. Pada means foot, Angushth means big toe, Asana means pose.
Hence, Padangushthasan is known as the big toe pose. The name was derived from the posture that the practitioner makes while practicing this posture. Padangushthasan is an important hand-foot yogic asan. This asan individually stretches our body. It increases flexibility and improves the overall health of our body. Though this is such a difficult pose to practice, it has many hidden benefits. This is not an easy pose to perform but it has therapeutic benefits.  It gives adequate stretch to your hamstrings, shoulders, neck, back, hips, calves, and ankles. It is beneficial in reducing fat, back pain, shoulder, and knee pain.
Benefits:
This yoga posture can be practiced by beginners. Though this is an easy pose but is very effective. It helps an individual in reducing back pain. This pose is very effective in improving the overall health of the internal organs. Practicing this pose can result in improving the health of the reproductive organs. This pose is considered as the post-pregnancy asana as it ensures to tighten the abdomen muscles and fasten the process of the abdomen to get back to its original shape.

• Weight loss: This pose helps you to reduce the excess fat of your body. It improves the metabolism and hence balances the weight. Regular practice of this pose results in weight loss.
• Prevent hair loss: This pose increases the oxygen-carrying blood flow in the head and hence strengthens your root and prevents hair loss.
• Knees and ankles health: Practicing this pose will stretch your knees and ankles. The stretch in your knees and ankles hence allow the oxygen-carrying blood to flow properly and hence result in improving the ankle and knee health.
• Improves flexibility: Padangushthasan improves the flexibility in your body. It allows an individual to increase the flexibility in your arms, spine, back, hips, calves, and hamstrings.
• Stimulate thyroid gland: the pose is a forward bending pose hence, it allows the oxygen-carrying blood to flow in your endocrine glands including the thyroid and pineal, thus helpful in the prevention of thyroid.
• ENT Disorder: The practicing of yoga on regular basis help you to enhance the health of the thyroid glands, ear, teeth, and nose.
• Spinal health: this pose is a boon for your spinal cord. It stretches your spine and strengthens and lengthen the spine. Thus, results in improving the overall spinal health.
• Concentration and alertness: this pose enhances concentration and alertness in an individual. It increases the flow of oxygen-carrying blood in your head and improves concentration and alertness.
• Cardiac health: the pose is beneficial in maintaining cardiac health. It maintains the heartbeat rate and hence improves cardiac health. It provides mental as well as physical exertion.
• Refreshes and rejuvenate the mind: Practicing this pose will refresh and rejuvenate your mind. It enhances the health of your mind by increasing the oxygen-carrying blood flow in your body.
• Tones thighs and abdomen: Regular practice of this pose will tone your thighs and abdomen.
• Constipation: This pose applies pressure to your abdomen and digestive system and releases it. The process of pressurizing and releasing in your abdomen helps you in relieving constipation.
• Height: Practicing this posture helps you in increasing your height. This poses lengthens your spine and hence results in increasing the height. This is a good pose for an individual who wishes to increase their height. This pose can be practiced by people of every age group.
• Sacroiliac: Sacroiliac links your pelvis and lower spine. This pose is very beneficial in improving the movability of your sacroiliac.
• Calmness: This pose enhances the oxygen-carrying blood in your head and hence provides the feeling of calmness.

Technique:
To practice any of the postures it is very important to follow a proper technique to avoid any kind of injury. The correct technique enhances the benefits and restricts any kind of mishappenings. So it is very important to learn the right technique including your breathing pattern before practicing the posture.
Step 1: Stand straight in tadasana. Keep your hands, legs, and back straight.
Step 2:  your feet should be at hip distance apart to stabilize the pose.
Step 3: inhale and raise your arms and exhale deeply.
Step 4: come down to the feet and place your hands beside your feet.
Step 5: keep your head down and close to the knees.
Step 6: bend your torso completely straight.
Step 7: stay in the pose as long as you can.
Step 8: Relax and get back to the initial position.
Precautions:
Taking proper precautions before practicing a posture is essential. You have to read precautions before the posture as it will reduce the chances of getting injured. Practicing the pose with wrong techniques and without precautions might cause a severe injury and can injure you for a lifetime. The following precautions can be taken to practice Padangushthasan.

• Do not practice this pose if you are suffering from back pain.
• Avoid practicing this pose in case of neck injury.
• Consult your doctor if you are suffering from shoulder pain.
• Do not practice this pose for the first two days of your menstruation.
• Do not practice this pose during pregnancy.
• Consult your doctor before practicing this pose if you are suffering from a hernia.
• Practicing the pose is prohibited if you have just recovered from surgery.
• Avoid practicing this pose if you have an ankle or feet injury. This pose may worsen your injury. It is advised to practice the pose after consulting a yoga instructor.
• Do not practice this pose if you are suffering from vertigo. Vertigo is a spinning experience when everything is just still. Practicing this pose may worsen the situation.
• If an individual is suffering from an ulcer, he must consult a doctor first before practicing the pose.
• Practice is prohibited if you are suffering from heart problems.
• Do not try to stretch too much during the initial period of practice. You might end up suffering from severe injury.
• In case of vertebral disorder, cardiac disorders, disc disorder, avoid practicing the pose.
• Avoid practicing this pose in case of high blood pressure. This pose might cause more trouble.

Props and modification:
This pose can be practiced by any age group but sometimes it is difficult for people with different body types and different issues to practice the same posture with the same technique. So, we modify the pose or use props to practice the posture without hurting ourselves.

• To balance yourself in the pose, use a wall or a chair. This will protect you from injury.
• Ask someone to support yourself and practice the pose. You can ask for help from your yoga teacher during the initial period of practice.
• Practice forward bending during the initial period of the practice if you are not able to practice the whole pose.  
• You can practice uttanasana in place of Padangushthasan to modify the pose. All you have to change is to touch the feet instead of placing them underneath.