Here’s another restorative pose to bring back the love into your wonderful being! Gorilla pose, also called Hands to Feet Pose or Padahastasana, will help you calm the mind and bring fresh yummy juices to your brain. This way, you can continue to create with your wonderful ideas, and ultimately, make this world a better place. So let’s dive into it shall we?
Benefits
Gorilla pose improves circulation in the hands and wrists by temporarily blocking the blood flow with the weight of your feet and body. And when released, it will bring fresh oxygenated blood to the hands and wrists. So this is good to prevent carpal tunnel syndrome. This pose stretches the backs of the legs(the hamstrings and calves) helping to lengthen and strengthen those tight muscles. It also give you an opportunity to relax the neck and shoulders. As I mentioned earlier, it aids in relieving stress and mental confusion by bring the head below the heart, giving the brain new oxygenated blood to work with.
Steps
- Fold at the hips with your feet hip width apart,
- Bending your knees if necessary, bring the tops of the hands to the floor and palms face the sky, fingers pointing to the back of the room.
- Gently lift your toes and slide your hands under your feet all the way so that the insides of your wrists are kissing the tips of your toes.
- Let your head hang heavy as you begin to bend at the elbows using your arms to actively pull on your feet, naturally straightening your legs. It’s okay if your legs can’t straighten all the way today. In time and with practice, it’ll get there. Don’t force, just love.
- Breathe here for five slow deep breaths. Try not to check out. Focus on every inhale, extend your hips towards the sky and every exhale bend a tiny bit more at the elbows and folding even deeper.
- Gently release the hands from underneath the feet and with your knees slightly bent, slowly come up one vertebrae at a time, chin and head comes up last.
Tips
- If it feels good, you can gently shake your head yes and no, relieving any tension in the neck.
- If your legs are straight, start bringing your weight to your toes.
As you can see, my legs are far from straight in the picture above but nevertheless, I still feel the love from lengthening and stretching in the back of my legs. So this is a friendly reminder that wherever you’re at, in every pose, is PERFECT. Some days you’ll reach new lengths and other days you’re back to where you started. It might be different everyday, but that’s TOTALLY fine. Just listen to your body. Don’t force it, just give it the love it deserves.
That’s all I have for you on this pose. I really hope you find it beneficial to add to your daily practice, especially for those of you who spend most of your day at a desk. 😉
Until next week,
Sending love your way!
Namaste
Image credit: Caren Baginski
