5 Yoga Postures for a Detox Diet Plan
While following a detox diet plan, it’s important to incorporate movement in order to boost circulation, improve digestion, and enhance your energy. Yoga not only burns calories, but also melts away stress and negative energy. Deep breathing allows you to take in fresh oxygen and expel carbon dioxide and toxins. The postures bring balance to your mind, body, and spirit and purify your systems. Yoga in itself is a detoxifying practice, however these six postures will further the benefits of your wellness plan. Yoga goes hand in hand with detox diets and maintaining a regular practice is an ideal way to bolster your health and weight loss.
Before practicing the poses, sit on the floor or your mat with your spine straight and the crown of your head lengthening toward the ceiling. Start by shutting your eyes. Inhale deeply through the nose and expand your belly. Exhale completely through the nose contracting your belly. This will be the breath you use throughout your entire practice. Engage in this deep belly breath for about 5 minutes in a quiet space. Warm up by doing some neck rolls and shoulder rolls. To awaken the spine, do several rounds of cat and cow.
In between postures you can do sun salutations, which build heat and provide you with cardiovascular and strength training. Sprinkle the following poses in to your practice between sun salutations to rev up your detox diet plan:
- Wide-Legged Forward Fold: From standing, step your left foot back and pivot to face the side wall. Bring your feet into a wide stance, wider than hip width apart. Turn your toes in slightly, keep a micro bend in the knees, and internally rotate your inner thighs. Inhale your arms to the sky and on the exhale, hinge at the hips and bring your hands to the floor. Drop your head and keep your neck relaxed. You can reach for your ankles or walk the hands behind you between your legs. Make sure the abdomen is engaged, your hips are stacked over your ankles, and your tailbone is tilted up toward the sky. Hold for five breaths. Forward folds bring the brain chemistry into harmony and reverse the effects of gravity. Circulation is improved and blood courses throughout your entire body. This posture also directs fluid to your lymph nodes for filtering. Digestion is encouraged because the organs in the midsection are massaged.
- Prayer Twist: From standing, with your feet about hip width apart, bring your hands to prayer position in front of your heart center. On the exhale, sink down as if you are sitting in a chair. Look down and make sure your knees are not extending past your toes. Roll your inner thighs toward the floor. Tuck your tail bone under slightly, engage your abs, and lift through the rib cage. Keep your shoulders down away from your ears and look straight ahead. On an exhale, keeping your hips squared to the front of the room, twist and bring your right elbow to the outside of your left knee. Look up toward the sky. You may have to pull your right hip back slightly to keep the hips in line. Hold for five breaths. Inhale back to center and come to standing. Exhale and lower and then repeat on the other side. Prayer twist wrings out your internal organs in the mid-body and generates purifying heat in the thighs and butt. It also promotes good digestion and elimination by massaging the kidneys, liver, and spleen.
- Bow Pose: Lie on your stomach with your arms by your side and your palms facing the ceiling. Exhale and bend your knees so that the soles of your feet are facing the ceiling and bring your knees toward your buttocks. Flex the feet and reach back for your ankles with your hands. Your gaze should be directly in front of you. Inhale and kick your feet into your hands toward the back wall lifting your knees and thighs off of the floor. Lift the chest and squeeze your shoulder blades together drawing them away from the ears. Rotate your inner-thighs toward the sky and make sure that your knees are not separating any wider than hip width apart. Keep your abs engaged and tuck your tailbone while relaxing the back. Hold for 5 breaths. Bow puts pressure on the digestive organs to improve digestion and elimination. By opening the heart, you banish stagnation and lift your spirits. The back bending action increases the metabolism.
- Legs up the Wall: Come to a seated position with the left side of your body pressed against a wall. Roll to your right so that your buttocks and feet are now on the wall. Shift onto your back with your sit bones touching the wall, and raise your feet and lengthen the legs up toward the ceiling, allowing them to rest against the surface. Take your arms by your sides with your palms facing the sky and shut your eyes. Hold for 15 breaths or longer. Legs up the wall is a restorative inversion. The lymphatic fluid drains from the feet and legs and the digestive organs are saturated with fresh blood. The posture soothes the nervous system. It’s also a powerful way to stimulate the thyroid, boost metabolism, and strengthen the immune system.
- Supine Spinal Twist: Lie on your back with your feet extended in front of you. Draw your right knee into your chest, lengthen your right arm out to the side, and take your left hand to the outside of the right knee. Lift your left hip up and shift it to the right slightly and on the exhale, bring the right knee across the body and to the ground on the left side. Keeping your right shoulder on the floor, gaze softly over your right hand. Make sure your hips are stacked and twist from the rib cage. Feel free to shut your eyes. Hold for 10 breaths and switch sides.
Twists are the ultimate detoxifying postures. They wring out the internal organs, promote digestion, and aid the body in the elimination of toxins and waste. The kidneys and liver are massaged. The circulation of the digestive organs is temporarily stalled. When you untwist, the organs are bathed in nutrients and fresh blood.
Namaste!
