Reclining Twist For Beginners

Try gently wringing out your body to enjoy a deep sense of renewal and rejuvenation.

By Claudia Cummins

In your mind's eye, trace a diagonal line from your right knee to your right hand and then lengthen through the torso along that line. If you feel yourself kinking up in the right waist, place your right thumb in the hip crease and actively draw the right hip away from your shoulder and toward your feet. Then bring the right arm back to its place.

The action of twisting will compress the diaphragm, so you may feel your breathing get more shallow. Bring your attention to the space you have created in the right side of the rib cage and imagine flooding the right lung with your breath. Once you've settled as far into the twist as your body will allow, release any sense of effort and let gravity do the rest of the work. Enjoy the deep spiral of the spine. When you feel the urge to unwind, release out of the posture and lie flat on your back in Savasana.

Explore Asymmetry

Remain here for a few moments and take stock of any new sensations moving through you. After exploring the asymmetry of this twist, it is likely that the two sides of your body—your shoulders, ribs, belly, hips, and legs on the left and right—feel like they belong to different creatures. How does your right shoulder feel compared with your left? Can you detect any new pattern to your breathing after practicing just one side of Reclining Twist? Does your spine feel more fluid and free? (As you think about balancing your physical body from left to right, you may be inspired to balance your energy on a subtle level. To learn how, see "Balance the Energy Around Your Spine".)

When you're ready, repeat the pose on the second side. Remember, the name of the game in this exploration is to anchor the legs while revolving the spine and torso in the opposite direction; on this side, that will maximize the stretch in the left side of the body.

When you've reached your comfortable limit, remember to settle in and breathe. Soften the body, relax the skin, and surrender into the stretch of the twist. Observe how breath by breath, time and gravity allow you to release ever more deeply into the pose, wringing out your spine from bottom to top.

Now sink, stretch, ooze, and release. Relinquish any grasping from your bones all the way out through the skin, so you feel softer, warmer, and stretchier. In your mind, trace the snakelike spiral of the twist from your tailbone to the top of your head. Linger here for a few more breaths, yielding and growing more supple with each exhalation.

When you're ready, unravel yourself, coming onto your back. Draw both knees toward your chest, rocking gently from side to side, then place your arms and legs on the floor and settle into Savasana. Let your breathing be full and deep, with each inhalation bringing you renewal and vitality, and each exhalation offering a sweet sigh of relief. Note the effects of the twist—you might feel an evenness in your body from left to right, an increased ability to breathe deeply, or a sense of stillness and equanimity—and bring this increased awareness with you the next time you come to your mat.

Claudia Cummins teaches yoga in central Ohio. Visit www.claudiacummins.com to read a selection of her essays.

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