Stand with your feet slightly apart, eyes open. Different teachers have different ideas about the proper way to perform this bandha. Here are four possibilities:
a) Practice with your torso rounded forward, knees bent, hands resting on your knees.
b) Learn the bandha first with your torso rounded forward and then, after getting some experience, practice the bandha standing upright, hands on hips.
c) Practice throughout with your torso upright.
d) Start the practice with your torso rounded forward, perform Uddiyana Bandha, and then stand upright, with your hands on your hips (Iyengar).
Step 2:
Inhale deeply through your nose, then exhale quickly and forcibly, also through your nose (or pursed lips). Contract your abdominal muscles fully to push as much air as possible out of your lungs. Then relax your abdominals.
Step 3:
Perform what's called a "mock inhalation"; that is, expand your rib cage (thorax) as if you were inhaling, but don't actually inhale. The expansion of the rib cage (without the inhalation) sucks the abdominal muscles and viscera up into the thorax and hollows the belly (some teachers say to actively but slowly lift abdominals, or navel, toward the spine). Because you should always perform Jalandhara Bandha along with Uddiyana Bandha, come into Jalandhara Bandha at this point.
Step 4:
Hold the bandhas for five to 15 seconds. Then slowly release the abdominal grip and inhale normally. Perform three to 10 rounds, depending on your capacity, with one or more normal breaths between each round.
Step 5:
With every inhalation lift a little more through the sternum, using the push of the fingers on the floor to help; with every exhalation twist a little more. Stay for 30 seconds to 1 minute, then release with an exhalation, return to the starting position, and repeat to the left for the same length of time.
Beginner's Tip:
If you tilt onto the twisting-side buttock (which compresses the lower back), raise it up on a thickly folded blanket. Consciously sink both sitting bones toward the floor.
Modifications and props:
For an easier variation of this pose, sit sideways on a chair with the chair back to your right. Bring your knees together and your heels directly below your knees. Exhale and twist toward the chair back. Hold onto the sides of the chair back and lift your elbows up and out to the sides, as if you were pulling the chair back apart. Use the arms to help widen the upper back and move the twist into the space between the shoulder blades.
Deepen the pose:
You can increase the challenge in this pose by slightly varying the position of the arms and hands. First, exhale and swing your right arm around behind your back as you twist to the right. If you can, grip the left arm just at the elbow with the right hand; if you can't, hold a strap looped around the left elbow. Then turn your left arm outward (so the palm faces away from the knees) and slip the hand under the right knee, palm on the floor.
Partnering:
A partner can help you learn to ground the opposite-side buttock. If you are twisting to the right, have your partner stand to your left side and place his/her left foot on the very top of your left thigh, with the inner edge of the foot in the groin. Apply gentle pressure at first, then increase the pressure as seems appropriate. Exhale into your twist but keep the top left thigh releasing away from your partner's foot.
Info
bandha = binding, tying a bond, fetter; putting together, uniting, contracting, combining; mundane bondage, attachment to this world (as opposed to emancipation, mukti or moksha).
There are a few important points to remember when beginning the practice of Uddiyana Bandha: perform it only on an empty stomach, and only after an exhalation, never before an inhalation. During the time you hold the bandha, also perform Jalandhara Bandha. Most teachers recommend that you learn this bandha in a standing position, and only move to sitting after you've gained some experience. Similarly, wait until you've been sitting for a while before using this bandha during pranayama. T.K.V. Desikachar suggests that Uddiyana can also be learned in a supine reclining position (see the Variation section below).
Benefits:
Strengthens the abdominal muscles and diaphragm
Massages abdominal viscera, the solar plexus, and the heart and lungs
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Increases gastric fire; improves digestion, assimilation, and elimination; and purifies the digestive tract of toxins
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Stimulates blood circulation in the abdomen and blood flow to the brain
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Stimulates and lifts the energy of the lower belly (apana vayu), to unite it with the energies localized in the navel (samana vayu) and heart (prana vayu)
