This pose is one of the easy poses of the back-bed type asanas. You are to lie down on your yoga mat, flat on your back. There after try t lift the entire spinal cord. Ensure that the hips and the back side of the head remain touching the ground. This would result in a body posture known as Fish Pose of Matyasana.

This pose helps in opening the abdomen muscles. As you can see from the image, the hip part of our body is touching the ground, but the entire portion of the spinal cord is fully lifted upward. It helps in reducing the mid back spinal pain, too.

The pectoral muscles are stretched in full while we do fish pose. This would provide good exercises to the neck, breasts, and the chest. By http://theholisticcare.com [CC-BY-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Dwapada Urdhwa Ardh Matyasana

This asana can be done with one variation. After positioning the whole body as epshown above, you should lift your legs upward. Keep both the legs straight and the paws straight in the direction of the wall, and not to the sky. As our body is requred to use both the legs and keep it upward, this pose is named as Dwapada (two legs) Urdhwa (Up) Ardh Matsyasana. [Image courtesy By Marcocarvalho (Own work) [CC-BY-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons]

Precautions

While doing this posture, or postures similar to this one, a yoga exercise doer should keep some important factors in mind. These factors are relating to the health. If you are suffering from low pressure or high pressure of blood, you should take doctor’s advice before doing such poses. In any other physical difficulties, it should be done in the presence and guidance of a trained yoga teacher.

This postures can be done in half also. It is called Ardh-Matsyasana

Theme: Learn doing Yoga Exercises, How to do Yoga Postures

Ardha Matsyendrasana

This asana was devised by a Yogi whose name was Matsyendra. So the Yoga Posture is named after him. But the Purn Matsyendra is difficult for the beginners to do easily. Thus the Half Spinal Twist Posture is devised. It is called the Ardh Matsyendrasana.

How to Do Half Spinal Twist Posture

It is one of the easiest poses; it involves the movements of only hands and legs.
After putting your yoga net, sit in kneeling position. You shout be sitting on your feet and both the heels should be pointing outward. You can sit in Thunderbolt Pose (Vajrasana), too.
Now put your right hand on mat and lift the left leg putting it over right leg with the help of left hand. Here the foot should be placed outside of the right knee.
Keep your spine in straight posture, placing right side heel touching the buttocks.
Now feel free and widen your both the hands so that they become straight at the level of your shoulders. Thereafter twist both the hands leftward. Here keep in mind that there you should not feel pain in your back muscle. If you feel so, tell your yoga teacher about it.
Finally you are to take hold of your right foot with your left hand and twist the whole torso rightward. The right hand would be on the floor in right side of your body. Here the Half spinal Twist Pose is complete. You can repeat the same pose by changing the side. In that case you would start by putting your left foot on the right side. This would provide exercise to the whole body in general and to the spinal cord in particular.

Benefits of Doing Half Spinal Twist Posture

· Regular practice of this asana increase flexibility of our spine.

· Shoulders and chest would see a noticeable expansion after a time.

· If you have some spinal tension in mid-back, you would be benefitted.

· By doing Final Twist Pose, the abdominal muscles and all the whole structure of bones in the hip area are involved and they get benefit.

· In general, this asana stimulate the digestive fire.

Ardha Matsyendrasana (Half Spinal Twist) (Image courtesy Photobucket)

Those who are practicing yoga since few days would also find that this yoga posture of the exercise is only easy to do but it would help stimulating the interest into the yoga asana. It is like massaging the internal organs of our body. Practicing the yoga postures regularly, you would be keeping those parts of body activating which are not used in ordinary activities of your life. [Image at top courtesy By Joseph RENGER [GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0 or CC-BY-SA-2.5-2.0-1.0], from Wikimedia Commons]