Five yoga asanas to practice at workplace

International yoga day is celebrated on 21 June, every year and it is the best occasion to include Yoga in our day-to-day life. Yoga helps to maintain a healthy and fit life, but in order to achieve that, one needs to perform it with consistency, at least 1 hour of deep meditation per day can create a lot of change in the body.

Yoga plays a very important role in the physical and mental growth of the body, but due to irregular sleeping schedules and misbalanced Work-life, individuals don't get much time to practice yoga or to focus on their body and doing regular desk jobs for more than 8 hours per day can result to backaches, shoulder and neck pains and a stiff body which can lead to serious health issues in future. So here are the Top 5 Asanas that an individual can perform at their workplace to relieve their stress, reduce body aches and energise their body for a fit and a healthy lifestyle:

The traditional tadasana, which anyone can perform while sitting on a chair. Raise your hands above your head, make sure your elbows are near to your ears and stretch your hands as much as possible, drawing your thumbs towards the back of your head. Keep your legs under your hips, with your back straight, and in this position, take deep breaths 3-5 times. This asana relaxes the muscles of the arms and shoulders which get stiffed by working for a long hour in front of a computer.

After long working hours in front of the computer, some stretches can help ease up the stiffness, this is by far, the easiest and most relaxing exercise. One simply needs to stretch his arms in front and make a fist of it, revolve the fist in a clockwise and anti-clockwise direction. You can also move the arms out and move your palms in an upward and downward direction to ease up the tension on your hands, fingers and wrist. This exercise can be performed after every 2-3 hours.

Sitting on a chair for a long duration can create back aches and neck pains, to get relief from that stress the 'seated cat-cow' position can help. Simply put your hands on your thighs, with your chin up to the ceiling (if possible) or one can look parallel to the ground level, with your back straight, ensure you must not take support of the chair. As you exhale, round your back, pull your abdominals into your spine and tuck your chin under your stomach and be as round as your upper back can be. Try to touch your toes while extending your hands towards the ground. This is called the cat pose.

As you inhale, go back to the position where you started, with your back straight and chin up to the ceiling and allow your belly to move forward. This is called the cow pose. Inhale and exhale 10-12 times after every 3-5 hours to relax your back and neck.

Sitting for a long duration causes an imbalance in your hip and the lower spine area, to get rid of that 'chair pigeon' pose can help. Simply put your left ankle on your right knee, with your back straight and sit tall, make sure your ankle and the knee, are in a straight line. Take deep breaths 7-10 times. To intensify the exercise (if you can) just bend forward a bit while you inhale and exhale in the chair pigeon position.

Savasana, helps the body to get relax and the mind to get fresh after a long working day, just sit with your back straight, put your hands on your thighs, close your eyes and take deep breaths and let your body absorb all the positivity of this asana.

Performing these asanas at your workplace with consistency can help you relieve all the stress and to achieve a physically and mentally fit body.