Uddiyana Bandha (The Abdominal Lock) – How To Do And Benefits

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• Start by standing upright on your yoga mat, spine straight and neck aligned to the spine as your arms rest on your side. If you are sitting down, you should maintain the Padmasana with your legs crossed. Prior to the abdominal lock, you should opt for the chin lock or the Jalandhara Bandha.
• Now slowly inhale deeply and as you exhale, curve your shoulders inwards, your arms resting on your thigh as you tilt forward a bit.
• Rest your palms on your thighs or knees in case you are sitting.
• The exhale should be deep and simultaneously you should contract your abdominal muscles and push them upward by tensing the lower muscles. Hold and lock the position for a minute before retracing your steps back to square one.

A word of caution should go out to the practitioners who are starting out new. Soon after the yoga you might feel a soft muscle pain in your stomach area, which is nothing but the muscles relaxing itself after the contraction. With practice your muscles will ease on to it as well. Often if you are weak bodied, you might feel light headed as you unlock your chin. At this time a back support, maybe a wall behind you might help you break your fall.

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How Does it Help Us?

• The first and foremost benefit of this yoga is stronger abdominal muscles. As you pressurize your abdomen and push the organs upwards, the muscles including the organs feel a good massage which would go on to give you a healthy better functioning abdomen.
• This brings us to the menstrual cycle irregularities which can be coped well with this yoga posture.
• This yoga improves blood circulation throughout the body. This starts from the pressure area, where the brain now in a chin lock gets the signal and sends a blood flow down the body, washing out your heart, lungs and stomach organs as well. This is why it is god for your lungs and heart as well.
• It improves digestion, assimilation, and elimination; and purifies the digestive tract of toxins
• This stimulates and lifts the energy of the lower belly (apanavayu) and unites with the energies localized in the navel (samanavayu) and heart (pranavayu)
• It helps distress and take away tensions
• It improves the function of the pancreas and the liver
• Uddiyana Bandha massages all the organs in the abdomen region.
• This yogic pose can lead to liberation. Uddiyana Bandha pushes the pranic flow towards the Sushumnanadi. Sushumna is associated with the central nervous system and thereby enhances the awareness that aids in higher practices of Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi.

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