Paschimottanasana - Seated Forward Bend

Paschimottanasana

Posture

The name comes from the Sanskrit words paschima (पश्चिम, paścima) meaning "west" or "back" or "back of body", and uttana (उत्तान, uttāna) meaning "intense stretch" or "straight" or "extended", and asana (आसन) meaning "posture" or "seat" .

Procedure

1. Sit on the ground and stretch the legs stiff like a stick. 
2. Catch the toes with the thumb, index and middle fingers. While catching, you will have to bend the trunk forwards. Fatty persons will find it rather difficult to bend. 
3. Exhale and slowly bend without jerks till your forehead touches your knees. You can keep the face between the knees also. 
4. When you bend down draw the belly back. This facilitates the bending forwards. Bend slowly by gradual degrees. Take your own time. There is no hurry. 
5. When you bend down, bend the head between the hands. Retain it on a level with them. 
6. Young persons with elastic spine can touch the knees with the forehead even in their very first attempt. In the case of grown-up persons with rigid spinal column, it will take a fortnight or a month for complete success in the posture. 
7. Retain the breath till you take the forehead back to its original position, till you sit straight again. Then breathe.

Duration

Retain the pose for 5 seconds. Then gradually increase the period to 10 minutes.

Benefits

1. This is an excellent Asana. It makes the breath flow through the Brahma Nadi, Sushumna, and rouses the gastric fire. 
2. It reduces fat in the abdomen. This Asana is a specific for corpulence or obesity and for the enlargement of spleen and liver .
3. It reduces fat in the abdomen. This Asana is a specific for corpulence or obesity and for the enlargement of spleen and liver .
4. It increases the peristalsis of the bowels. Peristalsis is the vermicular movement of the bowels or intestines by which food and faecal matter are pushed from one portion of the bowels to another. 
5. This Asana relieves constipation, removes sluggishness of liver, dyspepsia, belching and gastritis. Lumbago or stiff back and all sorts of myalgia and other diseases of the back muscles are cured.
6.  This Asana cures piles and diabetes also. The hip muscles of the abdomen, the solar plexus of nerves, the epigastric plexus of nerves, bladder prostrate, lumbar nerves, sympathetic cord, are all toned up and kept in a healthy, sound condition .

Video