Dandasana (staff pose)

Dandasana (staff pose)

To do this pose:

Come to a seated position on your mat. Extend both of your legs out in front of you. You can keep your knees bent if you need to or straighten them out, keeping your feet flexed. Reach behind you and move the flesh out from under you so that your sit bones can be directly on the mat. Sit up tall, engage your abs to protect your low back and keep your hands relaxed at your sides. 

How this pose is especially beneficial for nurses: 

• It provides a gentle stretch to your hamstrings. After a long shift, most people have sore muscles and an intense stretch may be more painful than beneficial. So this pose can offer your body a gentle release after it’s worked hard all day. 
• It improves spinal awareness. As we’ve discussed multiple times, our society has cultivated a very hunched spine position. Whether you’re charting at a computer or leaning over a patient, your spine is crunched over. This pose helps you notice where your spine is, where it naturally is going and helps you bring some awareness to your posture later on. 
• It strengthens your spinal muscles. Sitting erect in this way brings a gentle engagement to those muscles, strengthening and lengthening them without overworking them. This protects you from those back injuries in the future!