5 SOLID reasons to put your legs against the wall every day

While many of us may unknowingly put our legs up on the wall sometimes, it is a yoga pose that has ultimate health benefits! The Sanskrit name for the pose where you hold your legs up is known as Padottanasana. If you are overweight and want to lose weight, or suffer from any thyroid-related issue, PCOD, PCOS, depression, and stress, this asana is perfect for you. Padottanasana is a very simple pose that can be done by anybody but has very powerful health benefits.

To know more about the awesome benefits of this pose, HealthShots spoke to Grand Master Akshar, a yoga master and spiritual guru.

Here are 5 benefits of the legs up the wall pose:

1. It impacts your blood pressure

As we go about our everyday life, most of us are very busy on our feet. When we are constantly in motion walking around, we are unaware of the pressure building in the lower body. If we practice this pose of holding the legs up with or without a wall support you can instantly feel its benefits. For this, you may lie down and have your legs up at 90 degree angle. This causes an increase in the blood circulation and removes any tiredness or fatigue from your lower body and feet.

This can have an instantaneously refreshing effect on you and can even be done in between the day during your work. Whenever you feel extremely tired, simply lie down and extend both legs upwards either with the support of a wall or without and hold for 1 or 2 minutes and feel the relief that you get from doing this asana.

2. Helps you achieve weight loss

If you are overweight, you may not be able to perform any high intensity workout or cardiovascular exercises. To help those who are obese and overweight to lose weight, this pose can be extremely effective. When you lie down and put your legs up on the wall, you’re essentially reversing blood flow and there is pressure on your stomach area. This impacts your blood circulation and also your metabolism.

“Practicing Padottanasana will enhance blood circulation improving gut health and also increase your metabolism helping you to burn calories faster. This also has an influence on your appetite as it works to reduce the appetite and that will help you to keep the weight away,” says Grand Master Akshar.

3. To relieve stress and depression

One of the biggest reasons for stress is the inability to pause and hold still. For those who are stressed, Padottanasana can act as an immediate and effective stress buster. When you lie down on your back and hold your legs up it immediately has a very calming and relaxing effect on the mind and the body. It helps you to pause and thereby, give some rest to your mind to relax.

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4. Padottanasana improves your general health

This yoga pose is also done to improve your overall well being. In yoga, there are many poses for the upper body like Hastha Uthanasana, Samakonasana et cetera and Padottanasana is an asana for the lower body.

“The ideal timing to practice this pose is early in the morning and it needs to be done preferably on an empty stomach. You can also practice this in the evening but make sure that there is a 2 hour gap between consuming a meal and performing this pose. Padottanasana is not recommended for patients who have just undergone any hernia operation or surgeries related to the stomach and lower body. Women in their menstruation are also advised to avoid this pose completely during the duration of the cycle,” says Grand Master Akshar.

5. Benefits for thyroid related issues

The advantage of practicing Padottanasana is that it can be valuable for both hyper and hypothyroidism. Padottanasana is a pose that helps to improve the circulation of blood, which in turn regulates hormone secretion. When you do this pose, it strengthens the neck and focuses more on stimulating the throat where the thyroid gland is situated.