Dr. Sohail Ebady, M.D.
In Sanskrit Ardha means half, kati means waist and Chakra means wheel. This Yoga pose brings balance to your entire body. This is one of the very few poses, which lengthen the muscles between the ribs and pelvis, including parts of the low back, and open the sides of your rib cage.
1. Stand up straight while your legs are together and press your heels and feet on the floor. Keep your body well balanced on both your legs. This position is called Tadasana.
2. While inhaling, slowly raise your right hand vertically above your head.
3. At the horizontal level turn the palm to face upwards.
4. Slowly raise your right arm above your head with deep inhalation, until the biceps touch the right ear. Don’t forget to keep your palm facing the left side.
5. Stretch the right arm upwards.
6. Exhale and bend to your right. Slide your right hand down, alongside your right leg. Bend laterally. Do not bend either backwards or forwards.
7. The left palm slides down along the left thigh as far as possible.
8. Give a full side stretch but don’t bend the right elbow or the knees.
9. Remain in that position at least for 30 seconds. Keep your breathing normal.
10. Inhale, while slowly moving the torso and arm in order to come back to the normal posture. Feel the pull along a straight line from the waist up to the fingers.
11. Exhale, slowly bring the right arm sideways down. Bring the hand down to Sthiti position.
13. Come back to Mountain Pose, the starting position for most of the standing poses.
14. Repeat on the left arm, by bending towards the right side.
Description: Ardha Kati Chakrasana – in the hills of northern Thailand
Benefits:
• One of the most important benefits of this popular yoga pose is that it provides a enough lateral bending to the spine and helps in keeping it flexible and healthy.
• Reduce the fat in abdomen region
• Not only stretches but also relaxes the sides of the body, which most of the time get neglected in our busy and hectic life
• Tones the muscles around your abdomen, hips, and waistline
• Improves function of liver
• Lengthen the hips, abdominal muscles and thigh muscles, while improving the flexibility in your spine
Please be careful with this pose if you have a problem with your knees, hips or shoulders.
About the Author
Dr. Sohail Ebady, M.D. has been a yoga teacher for 21 years and hypnotherapist for 20 years. As he recognized the need for these seemingly separate sciences to be intertwined he created the Patanjali Institute to impart Yoga Teacher Training in combination with Hypnotherapy training to students who wish to become effective healers. Intensive courses are held near Chiang Mai/Thailand and in Candidasa Beach near Ubud/Bali. More infos you can find here: yoga-ttc-hypnotherapy-training.com. This combination of yoga teacher training and hypnotherapy in a single course is one-of-a-kind.
The Lateral Arc Position not only stretches but also relaxes the sides of the body, which most of the time get neglected in our busy and hectic life. Thank you Dr. Sohail Ebady for this valuable article.