Boat Pose (Navasana): How To Practice, Benefits And Precautions

Boat pose or Navasana is one of the more complicated yet beneficial asanas that can be practised every day. Know how to do it properly, the benefits and precautions of the yoga pose.

Boat Pose or Navasana/Naukasana has been named after the shape it takes that of a boat. The word constitutes two words 'Nauka' meaning boat and 'asana' meaning pose. It had been around for a long time before the yoga community began talking about core strength and tapping into the Pilates well for new crunches and leg lift variations. It's still one of the finest methods to work on your abdominal strength, which is essential for a variety of other yoga postures, particularly gravity-defying arm balances and inversions.

How To Do The Boat Pose?

1. Sit with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor
2. Slowly, raise your feet from the floor. Keep your knees bent in the beginning. Make sure that your shins are parallel to the ground. This pose should resemble a half-boat
3. Although your torso will naturally fall back, do not allow your spine to round
4. If you can do so without jeopardising your upper body's integrity, straighten your legs to a 45-degree angle. Maintain a V shape with your legs by keeping your torso as erect as possible
5. With your palms turned up, roll your shoulders back and straighten your arms nearly parallel to the floor
6. Try to keep your weight on your sitting bones. To keep the balance, concentrate on elevating your chest
7. Take at least five deep breaths
8. Exhale and release your legs. Then take a deep breath and sit up
9. On an exhalation, bring your feet down and sit with a straight spine, hanging on to your legs for a few breaths to come out of the posture

Benefits

Here are some of the health benefits of boat pose you should know of:

• Helps stretch your hamstrings
• Helps to relieve tension
• Abdominal muscles are toned and strengthened
• Improves digestion and balance
• Enhances self-assurance
• Improves the strength of your spine and hip flexors
• The kidneys, thyroid, and prostate glands, as well as the intestines, are all stimulated

Precautions

Too often, people tend to make mistakes while doing certain yoga poses. Here are some common precautions you should take to avoid injuries or complications:

• Do not attempt this yoga pose if you have low blood pressure, a severe headache, or a migraine
• Avoid this pose if you have recently suffered from any chronic ailments or spinal abnormalities
• This pose should be avoided by asthma and heart patients
• Pregnant women should avoid practising boat pose
• It also recommended that women who should avoid doing this pose during the first two days of their menstrual cycle