Spine and Nervous System

Elimination (Apana) Exercises

This is apana work, the downward, eliminating force that decides whether your body holds its waste or releases it. The old yogis guarded this series because it does something rare: it hands you full command of your digestion and returns youth to the skin from the inside out. Aging is not a count of years. It begins as poor nutrition, a clogged gut, and a stiff spine that chokes the flow of fluid up the back, and this set reverses each of those at the root.

Pose 1

Vatskar Kriya. Sit in easy pose with your hands on your knees. Make a beak of your mouth and drink as much air as you can down into the stomach in short, continuous sips, as though you were swallowing. Pull in and hold. Roll the stomach to the left. When the breath has been held for half its maximum time, reverse and roll the stomach to the right. Keep rolling the stomach as long as you can with neck lock applied. When the breath can be held no longer, straighten the spine and exhale slowly, not powerfully, through the nose. Repeat the complete exercise 2 times. Always do this on an empty stomach, and never more than twice per day.

Pose 2

Sit on your heels and bring your forehead to the ground. Keep your hands down at your sides. Picture a great tail coming off the base of your spine and wag it. Make that tail weigh 100 pounds and try to break the wall with it. Continue for 3 minutes, then rest for 5 minutes.

Time: 3 minutes

Pose 3

Lie down on your back. Press the toes forward. Lift both legs three feet up. Begin long deep breathing. Continue for 2 to 3 minutes. Inhale, hold briefly, and relax. Then, still lying on your back, bring the legs overhead and catch the toes. Roll back and forth from the base of the spine to the neck. Hold onto the toes and keep rocking for 3 minutes.

Breath: long deep breathing
Time: 2 to 3 minutes

Pose 4

Sit up immediately in easy pose. As calmly as you can, make a "U" of the right hand and close the right nostril with the thumb of the right hand. Use the little finger to close the left nostril. Inhale through the left nostril, exhale through the right. Continue for 3 minutes, then inhale and feel the energy radiate through the whole body, giving health and life.

Breath: Inhale through the left nostril, exhale through the right
Time: 3 minutes

Pose 5

Sit in easy pose. Interlace fingers and thumbs in front of the chest at heart level, palms facing the chest. Turn the head left and right. Inhale as the chin goes over the left shoulder, exhale as it turns right. Continue for 3 minutes.

Breath: Inhale as the chin goes over the left shoulder, exhale as it turns right
Time: 3 minutes

Pose 6

Sit in easy pose with the arms out parallel to the ground. Swing the arms backward in a rolling motion as if swimming. Continue for 1 minute.

Time: 1 minute

Pose 7

Inhale and bend the elbows to bring the fingertips onto the shoulders. This remagnetizes the electric current. While the breath is held, the energy starts circulating. Exhale and let the energy flow to all parts, and feel refreshed.