asana: savasana

yogabuch / asanas / savasana

savasana
„corpse position“

  instructions and details with working links as PDF for download/print


Feedback: We would love to hear what you think about this description, give us feedback at:
postmeister@yogabook.org
last update: 12/30/2018
Name: savasana
Trivial name: dead man pose / corpse pose
Level: A

Classification

classic: lying posture
psychomental: deep relaxation and introversion, calms the nervous system, also after asanas
physiological: maximum passive resting posture

Contraindication

effects

  • (211) Neck: rotation stretching
    when the head is rotated

Preparation

Follow-up

derived asanas:

similar asanas:

Diagnostics (No.)

Variants:

with block on the forehead

with roll under the knees

Instructions

  1. Place your back and legs on the floor.
  2. Release all tension that existed before the pose or was necessary when assuming the pose.
  3. Let the legs fall into exorotation as far as they want, the feet probably want to assume an inversion (slight supination with plantar flexion and adduction), i.e. the legs are not in standard anatomical position, even apart from their exorotation. The knee joints may have a very slight flexion, which is greater the less mobile the hip flexors are.
  4. Place the arms at a comfortable 10°-20° to the side of the upper body. The upper arms are largely extended so that the shoulder and chest muscles(pectoralis major) can relax, the forearms are largely supinated with minimal tension, i.e. the palms tend to point towards the ceiling. The wrists are largely extended, with minimal tension in the corresponding forearm muscles. The fingers will want to assume a more or less clearly flexed position.
  5. If there is a slightly overly hollow feeling in the neck, the head can be raised slightly and the back of the head can be subtly pushed backwards (away from the back). It is also possible to lift the pelvis with tension in the pomus muscles, tilt the hips into extension and then lower the buttocks again and then release the tension in the pomus muscles.
  6. Also release the tension in the gluteal muscles. If you feel that your bottom is not lying evenly and relaxed on the floor, correct its position so that the sacrum is centered between the relaxed buttocks.
  7. If you feel like you have a hollow back, you can subtly push your bottom away from your back with your pelvis lifted for a short time or tilt your hips slightly out of flexion with the gluteus maximus under tension and then lower your pelvis again.
  8. Release the abdominal muscles (especially the rectus abdominis and transversus abdominis); the abdominal muscles should be able to move freely with the breath.
  9. Keep the shoulder blades in depression (moving towards the pelvis) and retraction (moving towards the spine ). To do this, pull them towards each other and in the direction of the pelvis once with the thoracic spine slightly relieved of weight and then lower the upper body again.
  10. Allow your breathing to flow unregulated. At first, it may be useful to consciously regulate your breathing for a short time by inhaling a little more deeply, but without any obvious effort, and exhaling with a slight delay and longer. Since inhalation activates the sympathetic nervous system and exhalation activates the parasympathetic nervous system, and the average Western civilized person on average has too high a sympathetic nervous system tone and too low a parasympathetic nervous system tone, prolonged exhalation is helpful in regulating the tone. Breathing is closely linked to the processes of consciousness. Restless breathing is very often the result of restless thought activity or agitated emotional states. Even if increased breathing activity, as in pranayama, does not necessarily lead to restless thoughts, the degree of calmness, internalization and, in particular, abstraction from the physical body that can be achieved is much greater if the breathing is left to its own devices. Any deliberate intervention in the breathing leads the consciousness at least partially back into the body and triggers physiological processes that are not conducive to abstraction from the body. A trivial example is the increase in pulse rate during prolonged deep inhalation. If savasana is practiced after strenuous physical activity, whether yoga, running, strenuous professional or hobby work or sport in general, the resting pulse rate is usually not reached, which can impair inner peace to a certain extent. Even hours after strenuous physical activity, the body’s oxygen requirement can still be significantly increased. After a long, strenuous run or other hard workout in the evening, the resting heart rate may still be elevated the morning after. However, the parameters of the nervous system and endocrine system should then have normalized as far as possible, so that maximum mental calmness should be achievable, even if the pulse is still slightly elevated.
  11. Once the physical details of the posture have been implemented, the actual inner work begins. Even if many performers carelessly think that savasana is the easiest posture, the opposite is actually the case – depending on your mental disposition. You can briefly observe the whole body to see whether each part is resting on the floor with minimal tension and, if necessary, send appropriate impulses to the areas that still have noticeable tension. Close your eyes. Turn your senses and attention inwards. Inner attention should be maintained at a high level. Savasana is mentally the opposite of sleep, namely wide awake but internalized without object. Similar to most forms of meditation, thoughts that arise are not pursued.
  12. Also allow the eyes and their lids to soften, as well as the jaw and all facial muscles including the forehead.

Details

  1. Depending on the flexibility of the hip flexors, a hollow back sensation or even a more or less pronounced hollow back is possible. This disposition can be determined with the help of the hip flexor flexibility test (tests the flexibility of the rectus femoris) and even better the 1st hip opening (tests the flexibility of the more important iliopsoas). Depending on the case, severity and any previous damage to the spine, different approaches can then be taken: viparita karani can be performed instead of savasana, which, thanks to wide flexion in the hip joints, does not place any demands on the flexibility of the hip flexors and relieves the lumbar spine in a similar way to a medical stepped bed position. Another option is to elevate the lower legs slightly so that the resulting flexion in the hip joints relieves the hip flexors. For example, shoulder slabs or several blankets are suitable for elevation. This relief can also be created by means of an isolated support for the knees, such as a small roller. This should not be too thick or too hard, so that it does not create too much and uncomfortable pressure that can be felt in the thigh and lower leg. In all cases, it is important to make room for the tendency of the legs to slightly exorotate. Long-term support of the legs or knees, for example during sleep (healthy back sleep is very similar to savasana), is only tolerable in severe cases and the resulting progressive shortening of the hip flexors must be monitored and compensated for, just as the flexibility of the hip flexors must be worked on and progress monitored in all these cases, regardless of their severity.
  2. A less mobile or hyperkyphotic spine in the extension direction can make savasana uncomfortable because too much pressure is placed on a small area of the spine. In this case, blankets are helpful to create better pressure distribution. The hyperkyphosis may also need to be taken into account by raising the head slightly so that the head does not lie in a clearly hollow neck. Appropriate pre-exercises to promote flexibility of the thoracic spine should improve the situation in the long term, but the current situation must also be managed appropriately.
  3. Depending on the situation in the cervical spine, it may also be necessary to adjust the posture there.
  4. For the sense of sight, the eyes have flaps called eyelids, the other sensory organs have no analogy – the mouth as a closure of the sense of taste does not really close off the taste, the tasting of the contents of the oral cavity continues after the mouth is closed. But even when the eyes are closed, differences in brightness and movements are still well perceived, and this closure is not complete either. It is therefore important to withdraw attention from the physical senses and focus it inwards.
  5. Your own physical and external conditions for savasana should be chosen appropriately. For example, a restless environment, music playing, audible conversations in the vicinity, traffic noise, vibrations in the floor caused by bass-heavy music or earthworks, noises from electrical appliances or other devices and installations, an environment that is too cool or the sensation of excessive heat are detrimental. Individual temperature perception must also be taken into account. In particular, people with thyroid abnormalities are particularly sensitive to temperature in one way or another: those with hyperthyroidism are more sensitive to heat and need a cool, airy environment, while those with hypothyroidism tend to freeze and need warmth, which is why a blanket over the body is recommended to prevent the subjective sensation of coolness or real cooling. A blanket would probably be uncomfortable for people with hyperthyroidism. It should generally be noted that the body loses a lot of heat after intensive physical work, even after an intensive yoga practice. This is all the more true if the body has activated the „sweating“ function intended for this purpose in order to dissipate heat. If the natural diffusion of heat into the environment is no longer sufficient, which of course depends very much on the clothing and the ambient temperature, the body initiates sweating in order to dissipate additional heat through evaporative cooling. This function adapts physiologically (pathological warm or cold sweat will not be discussed here) with a certain time lag to the current body activity or the heat energy generated by the muscles, whereby global activity is not necessarily required for global sweating, but strong activity in one region of the body can be sufficient for global sweating, especially with a high subjective feeling of exertion and the will to perform, resulting in a correspondingly adrenergic state. The two most important sources of heat in the human body are the liver and, with a significantly larger total volume, the muscles. The liver generates heat through a variety of exothermic chemical processes, especially when metabolizing food. However, this also means that if the last meal was a long time ago, liver activity decreases. More important as a source of heat, however, is the musculature with its exothermic reactions. Their activity warms – as a systemic effect – the blood, through which the heat generated is distributed more or less evenly throughout the body. On the other hand, there is a strong local effect of active or active muscles on all neighboring body structures, be it other muscles or non-muscular structures such as skin, bones, joint structures or internal organs. Another factor that can affect the body in savasana is draughts. This can be perceived as extremely pleasant by some people, but does not necessarily contribute to abstraction from the body. For others, it can even become an immunological problem due to the significantly increased local and global heat loss associated with it. The risk of catching a cold, i.e. the susceptibility to germs in the environment, is significantly increased by impaired blood circulation due to the wind chill effect. This is the result of a physiological reaction with which the body attempts to protect itself locally or globally against heat loss in the event of draughts and cold by constricting the corresponding arterial vessels, i.e. the arterioles and capillaries in particular. If cold or draught affects the head, for example, the vessels of the mucous membranes of the mouth, nose and throat area are less well supplied, which results in reduced immune performance and predisposes to corresponding infections.
  6. It is beneficial for savasana and for yoga practice in general if the last major meal was sufficiently long ago, preferably more than three hours, or even longer if the diet is heavy on meat or protein. The digestive processes require certain amounts of energy and blood (e.g. for a muscular organ called the „stomach“), which are then no longer available to the brain or muscles. If the body is forced into intensive activity, it naturally adapts and dampens the digestive processes for the time being in order to resume them more intensively later. Depending on your constitution and the food you have eaten, even a healthy body can experience heartburn up to two hours after eating as a result of intense physical activity. If digestive processes are still taking place very actively in the body, possibly with corresponding gas development in the intestines, this is detrimental to the development of the necessary calm and abstraction from the body, as should be achieved in savasana. The corresponding nerve plexus then impair the overall situation. If a tendency to heartburn is known or occurs during savasana, you should try to elevate the upper body slightly and, if possible, position it at an angle if this brings improvement. Heartburn is not tolerable due to the possibility of various degrees of damage to the oesophagus. In these cases, a different posture with an elevated or at least inclined upper body is recommended. If amounts of gas are felt in the digestive tract near its exit, the anus, during savasana, they should be released from the body so that the pressure sensors there do not permanently affect the overall position via the nerve plexus. As always, it is important to consider the person systemically as far as possible. In this case, the pressure sensors of the digestive tract influence the nerve plexus and the relevant chakras, which can also influence the endocrine situation and have an effect on the processes of consciousness. Similarly, a full bladder and especially a noticeable urge to urinate is detrimental to savasana. Just like a full digestive tract, from a purely physiological point of view this can lead to an increase in pulse and blood pressure, and a full bladder can even make you feel cold! It is therefore important to prepare the savasana accordingly.
  7. Some teachers favor a guided savasana with instructions of various kinds. In our opinion, this runs counter to the actual meaning of savasana, the withdrawal of the senses from the outside world (pratyahara) and maximum introversion as well as abstraction from everything objective in and around oneself.

Known problems that can occur even when practiced correctly

Hollow back
As described above, shortened hip flexors lead to a hollow back in savasana.

Heartburn
Heartburn can occur if there are obstructions in the stomach or oesophagus or if the stomach is hyperacidic. This is not tolerable. In these cases, a different posture with a raised or at least slightly sloping upper body is recommended.

Hyperkyphosis of the thoracic spine
Hyperkyphosis of the thoracic spine (hunchback) can make it uncomfortable or even painful to lie with your back on the floor. For some people with hyperkyphosis, lying on their back in bed may still be tolerable due to the compressibility of the mattress, but not on the floor. In order not to have to do without savasana, you can try appropriate blankets under the upper thoracic spine, the cervical spine, the head and the lower back. However, this must be considered on a case-by-case basis and depending on other factors, in particular hyperlordosis of the lumbar spine, shortening of the hip flexors, hyperlordosis of the cervical spine resulting in excessive reclination of the head,

Variants

with a block on the forehead

Instructions

  1. Do savasana as described above and place a block on the forehead so that one long side rests relatively far down on the nasal bone and the other on the forehead so that the eyes are well covered.

Details

  1. The block over the eyes gives a clear additional rest. This is probably partly due to the darkening effect and probably also to the fact that it lies on the 6th chakra, although no explanation for its effectiveness can be given here. In any case, it facilitates calmness of thought.
  2. The block must be well balanced so that it does not tip to one side. The point on which it rests on the nose must therefore be quite exactly in the middle.

with a roll under the knees

Instructions

  1. Perform savasana as described above and place a not too large roll under the knees to reduce or, if possible, eliminate the hollow back resulting from shortened hip flexors.

Details

  1. The roller should not be higher than necessary to minimize excessive pressure on the tissues of the overlying lower and upper thighs. For this reason, the elevation used should not be made of material that is too hard. It should lead to a very clear subjective improvement, if possible even to the fact that a hollow back is no longer perceived. In addition, the condition of the lower back should be checked after savasana.