Duration Of A Particular Asana

by Sanjay Agrawal
(Nagpur, India)

I would like to know if duration of asana has any effect on benefits of that particular asana. For instance would the benefits of holding Halasana pose for twenty minutes be greater than if same halasan pose is held for five minutes ? Please clarify.

Answer

Hello Sanjay

Duration of an asana has a direct bearing on the effectiveness of an asana. However please consider the following:

~ The duration of holding of an asana must be comfortable.
~ Duration of as asana must be according to strength of the body, do not let your ego to do more and more
~ Do not try to hold the asanas when muscles start shaking
~ Duration of holding of asanas must be increased gradually over a period of time

Benefits of holding Halasana pose for twenty minutes will be definitely be greater than if same halasana pose is held for five minutes. For a person doing yoga for health, holding a pose for one to two minutes is considered satisfactory. However, holding of poses for more duration should be done under supervision so as to ensure that the technique is correct and no harm comes to the body. Only people with advanced yoga practice should attempt yoga asanas for a longer duration say more than 5 minutes.

Hope this helps.

Namaste
Daljit