What Is Reverse Prayer Pose?
The Reverse Prayer Pose or Penguin Pose or Pashchima Namaskarasana or Viparita Namaskarasana has many names. It is a variation of the Tadasana yoga. This standing yoga asana literally means pashchima or ‘being behind’ and namaskara or ‘offering respect’, while the asana or ‘posture’ denotes the position. The position and name loosely translate to the reverse prayer pose. The pose is an upper body posture that helps strengthen your arms, shoulders and targets your arms and abdomen (1).
Benefits Of Reverse Prayer Yoga:
The reverse prayer pose has many health benefits, some of which include:
Performing The Reverse Prayer Pose (Paschim Namaskarasana):
Now that you know what the pose is all about and how it helps your body, let’s take a look at the steps involved: The other variation of the reverse prayer pose is a seated pose, and it features sitting down in Sukhasana and performing the same set of motions. The pose is known as the lotus and reverse prayer pose. It has its own set of health benefits, which include:
It helps lessen stagnation in the feet. When you fold your legs on top of each other, it helps open and stretch the acupuncture points in your feet. Sitting down also helps promote better functioning of the stomach and other organs.
A yoga and fitness blogger shared that she had issues doing this pose because of her tight shoulders. She said, “I also lack wrist mobility to turn my hands to point up without putting a lot of pressure to my pinky fingers (i).” However, she thinks practice will help her get better at it. Which muscle is stretched when performing reversed prayer hands (pushing together) exercise? Reversed prayer hands exercise stretches your pectoral muscles. Who should avoid reversed prayer hands? Reversed prayer hands must be avoided if you have hand, wrist, shoulder, or hip injuries. Is it safe to put your palms together behind your back? Putting your palms together behind your back is safe if you have no shoulder, hand, wrist, hand, or hip injuries. Check out the tutorial video that provides simple and quick steps to perform the reverse prayer yoga. Learn how to control your breath, movement, and mindfulness to benefit from this yoga flow.
