Sethubandasana

The Bridge Pose

By lifting the hips, Sethubandasana resembles to us a small bridge over a stream.

This exercise is excellent for toning up muscles of the lumbar and thoracic area – lower and middle back, shoulders, upper and lower thigh muscles.

Though is beneficial for lower back pain as it tones and strengthens all the muscles in the lumbar region, we must be careful if we have lower back problems and keep legs active to protect it.

Sethubandasana stretches the chest, neck, and spine. Also improves and tones all the sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves, simulates abdominal organs, lungs, and thyroid gland; helping reduce symptoms of anxiety, fatigue, backache and headache as well as relieve menstrual, menopausal and digestive discomforts.

The throat is the energy center where creativity and expression of our soul emanates. When we do not express our emotions but we keep our opinions and needs saved or repressed, this area goes into imbalance and we tend to suffer from throat, thyroid, jaw and neck tension, or shoulder stiffness.

Sarvangasana, and all its variants, work directly on the thyroid glands when we leave the long neck and press the chin lightly on the throat. In addition this inverted postures promote blood flow, allowing it to reach to places that are difficult to reach when we are standing.