Dhanurasan (bow pose)

Dhanurasana (bow pose)

To do this pose:

Come to lay on your stomach on your mat. Once comfortable, bend each leg at the knee, swinging your arms around behind you to grab onto your toes, ankle, or any part of your foot you can reach. You can stay here, or move your hands to wrap around your ankles and start to pull on them as you lift your legs up, keeping your arms straight. Hug your knees into the midline while you open up through your collarbone, heart, and chest. Hold here and breath, engaging your abs to protect your low back and open through your front body. 

How this pose is especially beneficial for nurses: 

• It opens the hip flexors! The front of the hips are often ignored in traditional “hip opener” poses. Bow pose helps lengthen and stretch them which helps strengthen them over time. These muscles are often weak from underuse and at risk for injury in physically demanding jobs like being a nurse, so opening them up and lengthening them so they can get stronger is so important to prevent those injuries! 
• It stimulates digestion. This pose is also one of the few that directly massages the abdominal muscles and organs, stimulating blood flow to those areas. This can help with pain in the abdominal muscles or help promote digestion and release of toxins. 
• It strengthens your upper back. Holding your body in this position engages those muscles and strengthens them, helping prevent injury when lifting those patients and lugging heavy equipment through the halls.