Women's yoga during menstruation - yoga asana complex during menstruation

Dean of the Faculty of Sports Industry at Synergy University, international hatha yoga instructor

How can yoga help to cope with period pain? What exercises can be done?

For many women, critical days can be a real ordeal: cramps, abdominal bloating, excruciating pain. Often women live with menstrual irregularities, endure severe pain during the days themselves and in the days leading up to them.

Practicing yoga is great for calming and strengthening both body and mind. You may not even want to move on “those days”, let alone exercise. But trust me, practicing yoga during menstruation can benefit you immensely – balancing your mood and easing cramps. Don’t believe me?

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How yoga can help with menstrual pain

The practice releases endorphins, which are the body’s natural painkillers, they help ease cramps and greatly improve your mood.

Some poses are particularly good for targeting the areas where cramps are most likely to occur. Stretching in the back, abdomen, hips and thighs will relax the muscles around the uterus and can even revolutionize the way you feel during your critical days.

When menstruating, you should avoid inverted and standing poses. We have selected asanas for you that are not too tedious and are accessible even to beginners. They will help you relax, and are ideal even for those who don’t have time for a full-blown workout.

Bound Angle Pose

Przeciwwskazania: knee injuries.

Benefits: improves blood circulation in the pelvic organs, improves the elasticity of the muscles and ligaments of the groin area, stimulates the ovaries, reduces tension in the mind and body.

Technika

Lie on your back, bring your feet together, bring them as close to your pelvis as possible and spread your knees apart. If the stretch in your hips is too intense, place pillows under each knee.
Place your hands with palms up along your body and close your eyes.

Stay in this position for 10 breathing cycles, then bring your knees up, relaxing the groin area.

Butterfly pose

Przeciwwskazania: with caution in case of knee injuries.

Benefit: improves blood circulation in the pelvic organs, normalizes the hormonal background, relieves menstrual pain.

Technika

Sit on the floor with a straight back and straight legs, bend your knees, bring your feet together.
Holding the feet with your hands, make movements of the hips up and down with a small amplitude for 30 seconds.
With an exhale, bring your knees apart, go into a bend with a straight back, help yourself with your elbows. Strive to put your knees on the floor, with your belly reaching for your feet.

Hold for 5-10 breathing cycles. On an inhalation, rise up and return to the starting position.

Angle pose from a sitting position

Przeciwwskazania: injuries and chronic pain in the knees, hips.

Benefit: improves the elasticity of the thigh drive muscles, hamstrings and hip joints, promotes blood circulation in the pelvic area, providing health to the pelvic organs, has a calming and refreshing effect on the brain.

Technika

Sit on the floor, alternately spread your legs apart, maximizing the distance between them. Make sure that the entire back surface of the legs pressed against the floor, toes looking straight up.
Grasp the big toe of each foot with the index and middle fingers of the corresponding hand, straighten the spine and lengthen the rib area, point the chest upwards.
Hold in this position for a few breaths, breathing deeply.
As you exhale, lean forward as far as your body allows, if possible, lower your head to the floor, then lengthen your neck and lower your chin to the floor. If your head is not yet on the floor, try to lower your chest to the floor with each exhalation.

Fix the pose for 5-10 breathing cycles, try to breathe evenly and deeply. As you inhale, lift the body up, release the grip of the feet, bring the legs together and relax.

Head to knee

Przeciwwskazania: knee injuries, asthma.

Benefit: stretches the muscles of the legs and back, helps to open the pelvis, improves digestion and normalizes the excretory system, calms the nervous system.

Technika

Sit on the floor with a straight back and straight legs. Bend the left leg in the knee and take it to the left, lowering the outer side of the left thigh and shin to the floor. Press the left foot against the inside of the right thigh at the crotch.
With an inhalation, extend your arms upward, lengthening the body, with an exhalation reach your hands to the right foot, grasp it with the palms of your hands. If the straight leg grip is not yet available, bend the knee of the right leg.
Remain in this position for five breathing cycles. Breathe deeply.
As you inhale, lift your head and body, straighten your arms at the elbows and point your gaze upward, straighten your leg at the knee and return to the starting position.

Repeat the asana on the other side.

Intense back stretch

Przeciwwskazania: back injuries, lumbar hernia, inflammation of internal organs in the acute stage, full stomach.

Benefit: improves blood circulation and elasticity of the spine, calms the nervous system and restores it, reduces high blood pressure, helps with depression, irritability, insomnia.

Technika

In a sitting position, stretch your legs out in front of you so that they touch, take your gluteal muscles back with your hands to feel the sciatic tubercles.
As you inhale, stretch your spine upward, and as you exhale, lean forward, trying to reach your belly to your thighs. Don’t try to touch your toes, it’s more important to keep your back straight and stretch your spine. Place your hands where they will lie.

Stay in this position for 10 breathing cycles.

Downward-facing dog pose

Przeciwwskazania: hand and shoulder injuries, severe headaches.

Benefits: makes the spine more mobile between the shoulder blades, tones the whole body, helps to remove mental noise, improves cerebral circulation, which helps to rejuvenate brain cells, relieves menstrual pain, reduces stress and mental tension, increases concentration.

Technika

Stand on all fours, palms under the shoulders, the distance between the palms and between the feet is the same, the fingers of the hands are widely spread, the middle finger is directed clearly forward.
Push the pelvis up, push off the floor strongly with the hands, move the torso towards the feet, relax the neck completely. The kneecaps are tucked in, the heels tend to the floor.
When mastering the pose, it is better to keep the knees tucked, emphasize the opening of the shoulder department and working out the spine.

Fix the pose for 5-10 breathing cycles, try to breathe evenly and deeply.

Intense forward stretching

Przeciwwskazania: spinal injuries.

Benefits: helps with anxiety, rejuvenates spinal nerves and brain cells, tones the liver and spleen.

Technika

Stand up straight, body weight distributed evenly on both legs, legs completely straight.
Raise your arms up, palms forward, stretch your whole body. Take several inhalations and exhalations.
As you exhale, bend forward from the waist, place your palms on the floor in front of your feet, if necessary, bend your knees or lean on a yoga cube. Keep your neck relaxed. If you lose balance, you can move your feet away from each other by 5-7 cm.

Fix the pose for 5-10 breathing cycles, breathe evenly. As you exhale, raise your head and torso, back straight.

Dead man’s pose

Przeciwwskazania: none.

Benefit: relaxation of the whole body, relieve nervous tension, eliminate headaches, prevention of insomnia.

Technika

Lie on your back on a mat, cover yourself with a plaid or blanket, spread your legs apart, allow your legs to relax completely.
Spread your arms out to the sides so that your armpits are open, palms facing upwards, close your eyes.
Take a deep breath in through your nose and with the exhale relax your entire body down to the tips of your fingers and toes.
Mentally walk your attention over the body, relaxing it: legs, arms, abdomen, chest, face, shoulders, back.
Then turn your attention to your breathing, keep it even and calm. Lie like this for a while.
Gently wiggle your toes and hands, turn your head to the right-left, bend your legs alternately and turn over to the right side, put your elbow under your head, stay in this position for a few breathing cycles.
Push your hands off the floor, slowly sit with a straight back, palms placed on your knees, slowly open your eyes.

The duration of this practice is at least two minutes.

About the benefits of yoga during critical days, we have already told you. But not every sport will be safe for the female body during this period. About how to exercise properly during menstruation, read in this article.