Stay Healthy This Winter With This Yoga Sequence

These Poses Help Prime Your Body For Winter

Winter can be a tough time on your health. Shifts in temperatures from cold to extreme cold, snow and rainy weather outside, and dry conditions inside, combine to create the perfect colds and flus. During this time of year, building your immune system is essential and this starts with your lymphatic system.

Lymphs are clear watery fluid that assist in filtering bacteria and viruses out of our body through the lymph nodes. Increasing the circulation of the lymph is critical to keeping your immune system strong.

The following article shares some simple poses that will help your immune system stay strong throughout the winter.

Check out these exercises below and keep your body strong this winter.

If you’d just as soon skip winter’s colds and flu this year, you may want to spend more time on your mat. Tias Little, director of Prajna Yoga, believes a practice that includes supported and inverted poses increases circulation of lymph—a clear, watery fluid that moves through the body picking up bacteria and viruses and filtering them out via the lymph nodes.

In each pose, Little recommends resting your head on a support to allow your neck, throat, and tongue 
to relax fully, thereby encouraging the lymph to flow freely through the nose and throat. Hold each pose 
for two to five minutes, breathing deeply from your diaphragm the entire time.

Child’s Pose, supported

Balasana

Begin by sitting on your feet, with your knees separated and your big toes touching. With your eyes closed, fold your torso forward,
letting your forehead rest on the floor or on
a support like a bolster, blanket, or block so your head and neck can rest more fully. Place your arms on the floor in front of you, allowing the elbows to bend out to the sides.

 

Wide-Legged Standing 
Forward Bend

Prasarita Padottanasana

From Down Dog, walk your feet up until they are in line with your hands and come up to standing. Bring your feet about 4 feet apart 
and fold your torso forward, resting your head on the floor or on a support. Place your hands on the floor inside your feet.

 

Supported Shoulderstand

Salamba Sirsasana

Lie on your back with your shoulders on the folded edge of one or more blankets. The shoulders are supported by the blanket, and your head, but not your neck, rests on the ground. Lift your legs to vertical, supporting your midback with your hands and keeping your upper arms and elbows parallel to each other.

Plow Pose, supported

Halasana

From Supported Shoulderstand, lower your legs over your head until your tucked toes touch the ground. Interlock your hands behind your back, straighten your arms, and powerfully press them into the floor. Engage your quadriceps 
to press your femur bones up and away from your face. To come out, separate your hands and slowly roll down out of the pose while maintaining full extension in the arms.

Bridge Pose, supported

Setu Bandha Sarvangasana

Lie on your back with your knees bent and 
feet flat on the floor. Lift your hips and place 
a block (standing on its tall end) underneath your sacrum. Ground the outer border of your shoulders into the floor and lift the sides of your torso, keeping your front ribs, sternum, and collarbones broad.

For more immune-building poses, check out the full article from yogajournal.