Our heart beats 100,000 times in twenty-four hours, pushing 5000 gallons of blood every day. It delivers oxygen to all body parts and carried away waste in the form of carbon dioxide from the blood. Such a fundamental organ needs to be fit and healthy, isn’t it? You must be concerned about your heart health and should include some yoga poses in daily routine for a healthy heart.
Benefits of yoga for heart
- Lower heart disease risk
It is seen that practicing yoga improves the factors that affect heart disease. The people who took yoga sessions regularly are seen with low blood pressure and level of cholesterol, and healthy heartbeat rates.
- High supply of oxygen in the blood
Performing yoga helps to increase the oxygen count in the body. While yoga, heart beats faster and demand more oxygen for supply which eventually helps to revitalize the blood cells in the body.
- Opens up the chest
Gentle stretch in the postures allows your muscle range to expand effectively. Postures including the stretch in the front open up your chest area and allow your respiratory system to function better. The sufficient amount of oxygen in the lungs allows the body to fulfill the requirements of oxygen in the cells.
- Cardiac rehabilitation
Yoga has proved to be more than a physical exercise. It works as a therapy in cardiac rehabilitation as yoga also involves deep breathing and meditation. Meditation allows the person to let their locked emotions go off and generates a body-mind-emotional balance.
7 yoga postures for heart health
Before diving into yoga, make sure you do some warm-up with beginners yoga poses. You can do sun salutation three times before starting with these poses as they need a certain amount of flexibility to start with. So let’s begin!
1. Warrior 1 Pose
How to do: Standing straight with your legs open and wide facing the same direction ( probably front ) and raise your arms and take them back, placing them down on your back leg. Open to look up with your back bent backward and eyes looking at the sky straight.
Benefits of the pose
- Strengthen your back and widely opens up your chest area
- Works on your heart chakra and improves blood circulation in the body
- Develop balance in the body and open up the pelvic region and stimulates muscles associated with the region.
2. Upward facing dog pose
How to do: an upward facing dog is just opposite to the downward-facing dog in terms of opening of the chest region. Lie on the floor and uplift your body from the front with your arms straight and perpendicular to the ground. Make sure your arms are wide open and aligned with your shoulders. Keep your head straight and look forward. You can also try to focus at some point in front of you.
Benefits of the pose
- Promote flexibility in the spine
- Open up chest region and provide space to the lungs to expand completely with each inhalation.
- Strengthen the arms
3. Bow pose
How to do: lie down on the mat with your chest facing downwards. Bend your knees and stretch your feet to bring them towards your hips. Hold your feet with your hands and lift your head and neck upwards. Push yourself upwards such that the whole body rests on your belly. Take a deep inhalation and feel your heart pumping; and then release and come back to the starting position.
Benefits of the pose
- Strengthens your back and tones your thighs
- Stretches your neck, chest, arms, legs, and back muscles.
- Opens up the heart and chest region
- Tone your abs
4. Wheel pose
How to do: lie down with your chest facing upwards and start to back your feet and uplifts your knees. Similarly, bring your hands near to the ears and lift your elbows making a structure of wheel in the body. Make sure to rest your legs on your toes and pull your body towards the sky. Inhale and expand when move into the pose, then exhale, and slowly lower down your body starting from the feet.
Benefits of the pose
- Promotes mobility of the body
- Tone the core, thighs, arms neck and back muscles
- Promotes blood flow in the head and opens the heart
5. Half camel pose
How to do: half camel pose is a variation in the camel pose, specially designed to open up the heart chakra. Start the pose by kneeling on your knees and take your hands back such that the hands hold your ankles. The hips and knees should be aligned and the calf muscles and thighs should be perpendicular to each other. Now bring your left hand to your chest such that you place the thumb in between your chest with your palm open, finger touching, and facing the right side.
Benefits of the pose
- This deep backbend literally opens up the heart and provide a deep stretch in the upper region of the body.
- Tone your thigh and neck muscles
- Removes stiffness in the shoulders
6. Bridge pose
How to do: lie on the ground with your chest facing upwards and bend the knees. Move your knees near to your hips and lift the hips upwards. Place your arms on the mat locked with each other and uplift your hip, and the upper body portion. Keep your neck on the mat and see towards the sky. Hold the posture starting from thirty seconds to one minute.
Benefits of the pose
- Promotes strength in the spine and improve flexibility
- Tone the upper thigh region
- Opens up the chest region
- Promote blood circulation in the head
7. Yoga Nidra
How to do: lie on the ground with chest facing upwards and body relaxed. Open your feet hip-distance apart and hands gently on the sides. Close your eyes and slowly inhale and exhale. Feel your body, start from your feet, and observe your body getting relaxed in each microsecond. Focus inwardly on your thighs, hip, waist, and lungs getting relaxed. Focus on your heartbeat for a while and listen to your heartbeat. Tell yourself to relax and with every inhalation take the positive life into you. With every exhalation removes the negative energy from the body. Focus on your face and head and feel them relaxing. Slowly open your eyes and turn towards your left and taking the help of your left arm get up.
Benefits of Yoga Nidra
- Relax the body and calms the mind
- Lowers the blood pressure and balance the blood flow in the body
- Let your emotional blocks released and set you free.
So, here we conclude our discussion of some beautiful yoga poses for a healthy heart. Make sure you keep your visits to your cardiologist to check your heart health. Also, it is recommended to start the poses under the guidance of a verified yoga teacher. Show some love by generating yoga awareness if you are benefited by any of the poses listed above. Also, share your experiences in the comments if you have been through any heart problem and how yoga helped you in your treatment.