The 21-Day Yoga Challenge: Pose a Day brings you today’s pose:
Navasana or Boat Pose
I like to row the old boat pose into classes quite frequently. It is a great pose all on its own and you can use to transition from sitting poses to supine poses. This pose carries inspiration from a previous Guinness Book of World Record’s Oldest Living Yoga Teacher. Her name was Ida and the feature article they did on then 96-year-old yogini pictured her in full navasana with legs straight and lifted high and her smile broad. The kicker was, Ida said she could hold navasana for FIVE Minutes! Another piece of Ida inspiration is that she didn’t start practicing yoga until she was 50. Now, there are some that say I make Ida’s story up, but you can check out Ida here.
Cues: Sit with knees bent, feet on the floor and spine long. Engage the belly by drawing the lower abdominal muscles in and up towards 
the back side of your body. Keep this stabilizing factor and lift the feet off the floor. Knees may remain bent or move back and forth from straight to bent knees to help strengthen the core. Arms are straight and strong, and parallel to the floor. Relax the shoulders and broaden the collar bones. Breathe! I don’t remind you too often of this cue, but it is shocking how often we’ll hold our breath as soon as the legs come off the floor. Not breathing makes it harder and less beneficial.
Benefits: Mr. Iyengar said of navasana: …”this asana brings life and vigour to the back and enables us to grow old gracefully and comfortably.” That may well be enough for you to incorporate into your practice! There is more, including toning the abdominal muscles and contributing to liver, gall bladder and spleen health.
Modifications: As mentioned, working with bent knees is fine, especially if you are just getting started or have low back pain. There is a tendency to lean back too far which can cause weight to come to the tailbone and a collapsing in the chest to occur. Be mindful to stay lifted in the torso. Imagine your ribs drawing up and off your pelvis.