Health Benefits of Ardha Padmasana

Yoga is beneficial for different lifestyle disorders as it helps to boost your body’s natural healing process. You can do different yoga postures for different parts of your body. However, the most important aspect of yoga is retaining the body’s flexibility.

In this regard, Ardha Padmasana is a notable posture. It is highly beneficial for the flexibility of lower body parts along with the spine and muscles. Scroll down to know more about the benefits of Ardha Padmasana.

In Sanskrit, ‘Ardha’ means half, ‘Padma’ means lotus, and ‘asana’ means posture. So therefore, the posture is like a half lotus. In this yoga pose, you will have to sit straight by folding your legs, keeping your hands on your knees. Ensure that your ankles touch the inner corner of your thighs during the posture. The pose is mainly for meditation but has several other benefits. Read on to know about the benefits of Ardha Padmasana.

The benefits of Ardha Padmasana are as follows:

1. Great to Start Your Meditation Journey

Ardha Padmasana is the traditional yoga pose for meditation. The posture relaxes your body and helps you to focus on your inner mind. Therefore, the pose will help freshen up your mind and boost positivity.

2. Boosts Cognitive Power

Ardha Padmasana is helpful for boosting cognitive power. This is because this posture increases memory capability and helps to connect your body and mind. Therefore, people who suffer from concentration problems surely practice this posture for compelling results.

3. Helpful for Losing Weight

Ardha Padmasana is well-known for boosting metabolism, which is beneficial for weight loss. Therefore, if you are on the journey of losing weight, you can add Ardha Padmasana to your daily exercise routine and get effective results.

4. Relieves Stress and Anxiety

Ardha Padmasana is an effective posture for calming your body. It helps mood-boosting hormone secretion in your brain; therefore, you can get rid of anxiety and depression. However, you need to practice it daily to get effective results.

5. Improves Body Flexibility

Ardha Padmasana helps enhance flexibility of the spine and neck. In addition, it can naturally treat faulty neck and shoulder posture. Furthermore, it helps to make your lower body muscles flexible and toned by reducing excess fat from these areas.

Other Benefits:

• Helpful for the digestive system
• Strengthens gluteal muscle
• Stretches hip muscles and improves tone
• Reduces sciatica by stretching the piriformis
• Helpful for reducing type II diabetes and cardiac issues

Ardha Padmasana is quite an easy yet effective pose for every yoga practitioner. The step-by-step guide on how to do this yoga is as follows:

Step 1: Sit on a yoga mat or flat surface with ease

Step 2: Bring your right foot on the top of your left calf by using your hands

Step 3: Take your right foot on the top of your left thigh as much as you can and try to touch your left hip joint

Step 4: Bend your left leg and put it under the right one

Step 5: Keep your head and spine straight and rest your hands on your knees

Step 6: Close your eyes and try to concentrate

Step 7: Stay in this pose for 1 minute

Step 8: Release both your legs and repeat the same with the other leg

Step 9: After completing the steps, lie down and rest your body in the pose of Shavasana

If you are a beginner, you may lack proper knowledge of performing Ardha Padmasana correctly and make mistakes. However, to avoid these mistakes, you can follow these below-mentioned tips:

1. Breathe Normally: You need to perform this posture for 1 minute, so do not try to hold your breath during the process. Instead, you should breathe deeply through your nose throughout the process to attain meditation’s benefits.
2. Do not Force Yourself: The main aim of Ardha Padmasana is to calm your body and mind. Therefore, you need to relax while practising. Wait until you get complete expertise on the pose, and do not force your body to fit into the pose.
3. Switch your Legs: Switching your legs is important to complete this yoga posture. You should bend both legs for an equal amount of time to get the maximum health benefits. Further, if you do not switch your legs, it will disrupt body parity.

You should consider these precautions and contraindications for practising Ardha Padmasana safely and benefit from it.

• Do not perform if you have chronic knee pain
• Avoid this posture if you have any hip injury
• Stop practising if you feel any pain during the process
• If you have sciatica, do not perform it
• Surgical patients should avoid this yoga posture
• Avoid if you have disc disorders

If you are a beginner and finding it difficult to perform Ardha Padmasana at the beginning, you should try the following modifications.

• Sit by a Wall:  if you can not keep your body straight during the posture, you can easily sit beside a wall and keep your back straight. Initially, this will help you to attain perfection.
• Use a Blanket: If you find it difficult to touch your legs to your hip crease, you can place 2 folded blankets under your hip to heighten your body. Further, you can also place soft blankets under your knees if you feel pain during the process.