3 simple asanas for building and boosting your immunity
While our previous blog post focussed upon the holistic approach to strengthening and boosting immunity, try these 3 simple asanas that our team of Yoga experts suggest for anyone looking to strengthen their immunity. And don’t forget to checkout Prayoga to stay tuned for updates that help you practice and perfect all these asanas!
Janushirasana (Head to Knee pose)
Janu means knee and Sira means head. This is a single leg forward bend where in the final position the head will rest on the knee, hence the name Head to Knee Pose.
Physical Benefits
Increases digestive power by stimulating the liver, spleen and other internal organs
Increases flexibility of the hamstrings and the spine
Increased blood supply and nourishment to the spinal column
Helpful for menstrual problems
Reduction of excess fat in the abdominal region
Mental Benefits
Calming effect on the mind
Relieves mild depression, anxiety, fatigue, etc
Caution
Those suffering from hernia, sciatica, back pain problems or slip disk must consult a medical practitioner/ yoga professional before attempting this pose
Ladies during pregnancy/menstruation must consult a medical practitioner/ yoga professional before attempting this pose
Tiryaka Tadasana (Swaying Palm Tree Pose)
Tiryaka means to sway and Tada means palm tree (sometimes Tadasana is also referred to as Mountain Pose. In this pose the movements of the body resemble that of a swaying tree, hence the name Swaying Palm Tree Pose.
Physical Benefits
Good stretch to the arms, spine and trunk
Lateral movement of the spine keeps it healthy and ensure good blood supply
Stimulates the internal organs through contracting and stretching
Relieves constipation and flatulence
Improves blood circulation in the trunk region
Reduction of excess fat from the sides of the abdominal region
Caution
Those suffering from high blood pressure, or chronic heart problems must consult a medical practitioner/ yoga professional before attempting this pose
Those suffering from vertigo, neck pain, back pain problems or slip disk must consult a medical practitioner/ yoga professional before attempting this pose
Utkata Konasana (Goddess Pose)
Utkata means fierce and Kona means angle. This is a standing squat pose which forms an angle between the legs by keeping them apart. This pose is called Goddess Pose.
Physical Benefits
Strengthens the muscles of the calves, thighs and hips
Stretches the groin muscles and opens the hips
Engages and strengthens the core muscles
Beneficial to strengthen the pelvic floor during pregnancy, which reduces pain during childbirth
Develops proper posture for the upper body
Improves overall stability and endurance of the body
Mental Benefits
Increases confidence and awareness
Relieves stress and anxiety
Caution
Those suffering from high or low blood pressure, or chronic heart problems must consult a medical practitioner/ yoga professional before attempting this pose
Those suffering from neck pain, back pain problems or slip disk must consult a medical practitioner/ yoga professional before attempting this pose
Those suffering from injury to the ankles, knees or hips must consult a medical practitioner/ yoga professional before attempting this pose
Yoga and Immunity
Health and immunity go hand in hand but health is not merely the absence of disease, it is much more than that, and includes aspects of physical, mental and social well being.
When we talk about “boosting immunity” and immediately jump on the bandwagon with anything that would help us to do so, we need to look at it from a different perspective; what would improve our health, all aspects of it, and hence support a strong immune system?
COVID-19 has shaken the entire world from a deep slumber and made us introspect, about our inner selves and our health. It has forcefully brought our hard working, shy immune system into a much deserved spotlight. Think of the immune system as the soldiers who protect our body; they need good fuel to help them do their work, and they need less distractions from their immediate job- which is, protecting your body!
Where does yoga come into this picture? Yoga is a science, designed to improve all aspects of health. Asanas are the most popular aspect of yoga, which do not just mean bending our bodies in different angles, but doing so, methodically, with proper breathing techniques.
Imagine yourself doing an asana, you start with the basic pose, and build it onwards, incorporating breathing into it, and holding the body in the final position. This is repeated even when you come back from the final pose to the basic pose. All this while, the muscles in your body are in harmony with your bones and joints, helping you reach the final pose. Your mind is focussed on your breath and your body, and you are, even if it is for an instant, not focussing on the bills you need to pay, or the next series you plan on watching! With this one asana, you are putting your physical body at work, optimising your breathing, and calming your ever active mind. Different asanas focus on different aspects of your body and over a period of time, you begin to see the results for yourself!
Another important aspect of Yoga is Pranayama, which is again, a series of specific breathing techniques, with immediate benefits such as freeing up the respiratory tract, and on a longer term, improving respiratory function.
The most, and probably the least outwardly visible effect of yoga, is its effect on stress. Stress, not necessarily visible outside, can wreak bigger havocs compared to everything else. The pandemic and its associated fear of unknown, has affected all of us in different ways, and the body and mind tend to get stressed. When stressed, the body focusses all the energy on coping with the stress, and in this race, our immunity gets left behind. Several asanas and yogic techniques help the body destress. The most effective of those being meditation. Several studies conducted on the impact of meditation have shown it to reduce the level of cortisol (the hormone released by the body when it's stressed), increase endorphins and better the mood. Techniques like yoga nidra and yogic relaxation techniques help you to sleep better, and give your body ample rest.
So, before rushing to buy everything to “boost immunity”, think about this, if your health is good, if what you are eating is getting assimilated well, if the way you work or function isn't stressing you, you immunity will support you and in return, you can do a few things which will act like perks for your immunity, encouraging it better to support you.
Introducing Prayoga
It all started when Apple announced Body Tracking as a part of ARKit 3.0 at WWDC 2019. It was such an amazing demo and for someone who was used to Body Tracking using Mo Caps ( Remember seeing the stunt actors with a lot of dots on their body ? ), the ability to recreate that using just the Mobile camera was mind blowing.
GIF courtesy : https://vfxblog.com/jurassicmocap/
I had an iPhone X at that time and had to come home to use Raksha’s iPhone XR that supported it. The API and the demo that come with that was as fascinating as the technology.
We had just started Parjanya Creative Solutions at that point and were looking to create a portfolio product for the company. Having several years of experience working in the Interactive Media space ( NextVR, StudioGPU ), we wanted our first product to showcase this technology. We decided to go for an app that uses Body Tracking, is written entirely in SwiftUI and uses some of the latest technology available. You go all in with the new and unproven technology when you start a new company right? :) The plan was to release this when iOS 13 ships. We had about 4 months of development time to get an app designed and running.
While we were pondering on what would be the best application to showcase the technology, thanks to our in house iOT engineer, Chandana Deshpande, who is also an expert in Yoga and whose entire family is dedicated and devoted to Yoga, suggested that we use this technology to understand the Yoga postures better. We did some PoCs and voila, ‘PRAYOGA’ was born. Prayoga means an ‘experiment’ in our native language Kannada. This was very apt since we wanted to showcase and experiment with the technology and wanted to work on Yoga.
Everything about Yoga is in holding the final posture. It is also about how you get to that state but the essence is in the practitioner being able to hold on to the final pose. This worked brilliantly for us since the body tracking and evaluation of that pose works best when the subject is still. We used this to our advantage and created a POC that we could show around and get feedback. The concept was simple
Pick an asana ( Pose ) to get better at.
Place the camera on a horizontal surface and walk away facing the back camera.
Follow the audio instructions and perform the asana
When you are done with the asana, hold onto the final pose while the app performs an evaluation based on the tracked body parts to compare against the “master pose” and give you a score.
We can tell you exactly and at what joint you went wrong and you can try it again to get better.
This process seemed simple enough for us to proceed developing the app further.
Being based in Bangalore, helped us with a lot of things. The access to Yoga instructors to be able to talk to them about each asana, go to yoga studios, learn how they teach and design this app according to that was immensely helpful. Thanks to Dr. Sudheer Deshpande ( Ex-SVYASA Director ) & Mr. Jagadeesh (Our advisor on all things with Yoga ) we were able to design a very efficient program based approach to Prayoga.
Another thing that really worked for us was having access to Apple App accelerator program. I had met Ashok Prabhu, Evangelist in the Bangalore App Accelerator, at WWDC and had explained him the concept. He was intrigued and had asked me to meet him at the accelerator when I had a working demo. I met all the evangelists there and when I presented my idea and the app to them, they wanted to learn more and offered to help in whatever way they can. They have been immensely helpful in designing all parts of the app. We even had private and one on one meetings with their lead UX Evangelist, Aniket, who has been such a great help in designing this app. I also met with Anuj Desai who helped us from the business perspective, making sure that we are connected with the right people at Apple and otherwise. This program really helped a small company like Parjanya by giving us a platform to reach out for help when needed. We had access to engineers when we had technical issues and were able to get feedback very quickly on some of the features we planned to develop. Very grateful for this association and hope more devs use this facility.
Months went by and we got busy in between working on a client project which I will discuss in the next blog and we pushed the release date for Prayoga. We kept experimenting, added new features, tried various designs and finally with the help of two amazing developers and WWDC Scholars, Rudrank Riyam and Pawanpreet Singh ( who worked on the UI for the app ) we pulled it off. We had a lot of help from our intern Ananya Desai on designing all the beautiful illustrations. We had an app that we felt good about and were in a place to ship the product.
We had a lot of fun working on the app along the way. We not only used the body tracking for evaluation, we built our own rig using Structure sensor scanners to create a 3D model of the instructor and used it within Reality Convertor and Reality Composer to be able to see the instructor in an AR environment. We used Native Puppets to help us with cleaning the produced models. I will talk about this technology in a separate blog.
We had extensive production shoots that I always wanted to be a part of for the 2D instructional videos. We hired a very able Yoga practitioner and a model Ms.Anushree Padmanabha for the shoots. We had a very creative team from Girnar Studios do the lighting and camera work for us.
March 2020, we had the product ready to be launched. We had a fair amount of internal testing done, had a roadmap ahead of us for the product and then COVID 19 hit. We had to move our launch plans to make sure all of our team were not stressed out and made sure they all were OK before the app launch. In the meanwhile we decided to add subscriptions to the app and get it future proof.
We know this app isn’t fool proof. There are times when Body Tracking fails, there are cases where we cannot evaluate the pose correctly. We knew these limitations when we started the app but we wanted to use the technology and keep getting better at it. We have a lot of things planned for the app and the solution that comes out of this. Prayoga v 1.0 is just the start for a long journey for the company in using this technology.
I will write more detailed blogs about each component in the app but wanted to share the journey so far. This has been so exciting for that we cannot wait for each one of you to try and play with the app. Please give us your feedback. We will strive to make this better. We will keep adding more asanas as soon as we can go out and shoot. We will make the evaluation a lot better. But for now, its time to showcase the product we have been working for the last 8 months.
Introducing “PRAYOGA” : App Store LINK
One page summary : PDF
Thanks,
Krishnaprasad Jagadish
Head of Mobile Engineering
Parjanya Creative Solutions.