5 TIPS TO MAKE YOUR MOUNTAIN POSE MORE EFFECTIVE

It might look like you're just standing upright, but the Mountain Pose or Tadasana is a foundational pose for all standing yoga postures and full inversions, such as the handstand and the headstand. The name is derived from the Sanskrit word for mountain - "tada". The alignment, muscle movements, and mindset you learn in Tadasana are applied every time you do a standing yoga pose. Once you understand the proper form of Mountain Pose, it will be easier to gain and maintain the alignment for all other standing poses and inversions.

Benefits :

A proper Tadasana activates every muscle in your body. It improves posture and balance.  Over time it strengthens the thighs, knees, ankles, abdomen, and buttocks. Variations of Tadasana are also helpful for relieving sciatica pain and sensitising flat feet.

We collaborated with our friend and fellow yogi Sandhya De Angelis to bring you the top 5 tips to help you master this pose. Sandhya is wearing the Chin racer back tank top and Padma shorts.

Stand with feet together, weight distributed evenly between both feet. 

Tip 1 - Roll your shoulder back and down strongly and lift your sternum up. Pull down your arms and extend your fingertips to the ground.

 Long hours in front of the computer and on our phones affects our posture. Our shoulders start to slump forward without our realisation.

The shoulder action addresses this problem.

Tip 2 – Soften the front ribs and abdomen without over-arching your lumber and release your tail bone down.

Our spine tends to take a lot of the load when we stand, this worsens when we arch our lumbar and stick our tailbone out. Over time this can lead to back issues and pain.

The tailbone action helps in posture correction over time.

Tip 3 - Lift your knee caps up and engage the quads and hamstrings.

 If we don’t pay attention to how we stand and walk, we end up with a lot of stress on our joints with our muscles not working as hard as they should.

This action brings attention back to the knee caps, quads and hamstrings.

Tip 4 -  Lift and spread your toes, then lay them softly down on the floor. Root down with the big toe mounds and pull up with the inner arches.

Many of us have flat feet which tends to cause foot pain, particularly in the heel and arch area.

Lifting the arches is a very important action to address this issue.

 Tip 5 – Keep your chin parallel to the ground and find your balance between your left and right side.

Most of us have tiny balance and alignment issues that tend to exaggerate over time. One side of the body feels stronger or more flexible then the other. Bringing attention to this aspect helps create sensitivity and awareness.

If you liked this, you might also like 5 simple tips to relieve shoulder stress while working from home and  4 asansas you can amplify using blocks

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