If you are starting the yoga postures for the first time, you begin with simple and easy postures to make your muscles and joints proceed to do the difficult postures.
Rocking exercise:
Rocking exercise is an easy and excellent exercise to overcome the drowsiness and stiffness one feels on waking up in the morning.
As you perform the rocking exercise, you will experience an invigorating sensation due to the fact that your vertebrae are being given a good massage.
Rocking exercise makes your spine muscles flexible and keeps in youthful condition. If your spine is elastic and strong, you don’t have any problems in old age. Rocking helps to get a sound sleep.
Rocking is a simple exercise to do without difficulty regardless of age, stiffness and weight. On first day of the exercise, you may feel clumsy and uncomfortable. Some may feel losing their balance and falling down. But, you can enjoy rocking after few days when you are accustomed to it.
When you are accustomed to it, combine rocking with deep breathing. Inhale while rocking backwards and exhale while returning forward.
Rocking exercise technique:
Sit down at the end of exercise pad. Make sure that your back should not hit the floor. Draw your knees and bend your head down. Place your hands under your knees. Keep your spine rounded, swing back and forth in quick successive movements in the same way as that of a rocking chair.
Don’t straighten your spine as you rock backward or you will find yourself lying flat on your back, unable to swing forward again. Don’t try to do the rocking movement too slowly either, at least not in the beginning.
Straighten your knees just as you swing backward and then immediately bend them again as you swing forward. Don’t pause after you have swung back but simply continue the to-and-fro movement. Otherwise you may get “stuck.”
Perform this rocking exercise five to six times and then lie down to relax to get to normal breathing again. When you are lying on the floor, take few deep breaths.
Benefits of rocking:
Rocking exercise massages all the vertebrae in the spine and neck. It makes your spine more flexible. If you perform this exercise, it overcomes the drowsiness and stiffness in the morning you often feel on waking up.
The massaging action on the spine helps to relax the whole nervous system and set ups a connection between central nervous system and the rest of the body.
Don’t perform rocking exercise during pregnancy as it increases pressure on stomach. Don’t perform this exercise if you have chronic back pain.
