Sanskrit: भभभभभभभभभ; Bhujanga – Cobra, Asana – Pose; Pronounced As – boo-jang-GAHS-anna

The eighth pose of the 12 poses of the Surya Namaskar, Bhujangasana is also called the Cobra Pose. This
energizing backbend resembles the raised hood of a cobra.

What You Should Know Before You Do This Asana

You must make sure to keep your stomach and bowels empty before you practice this asana. Have your
meals at least four to six hours before you do the asana so that your food gets digested and there is
enough energy for you to expand during the practice.

It is best to practice yoga first thing in the morning. But in the event you cannot work out in the
morning, it is alright to practice it in the evening.

How To Do Bhujangasana

1. Lie flat on your stomach. Place your hands on the side and ensure that your toes touch each
other.

2. Then, move your hands to the front, making sure they are at the shoulder level, and place your
palms on the floor.
 3. Now, placing your body’s weight on your palms, inhale and raise your head and trunk. Note that
your arms should be bent at your elbows at this stage.

4. You need to arch your neck backward in an attempt to replicate the cobra with the raised hood.
But make sure your shoulder blades are firm, and your shoulders are away from your ears.

5. Press your hips, thighs, and feet to the floor.

6. Hold the asana for about 15 to 30 seconds while breathing normally. Feel your stomach pressed
against the floor. With practice, you should be able to hold the asana for up to two minutes.

7. To release the pose, slowly bring your hands back to the sides. Rest your head on the ground by
bringing your forehead in contact with the floor. Place your hands under your head. Then, slowly
rest your head on one side and breathe.

Precautions And Contraindications

This exercise should be avoided if you suffer from the following problems:

1. Hernia
2. Back injuries
3. Carpal tunnel syndrome
4. Headaches
5. Pregnancy
6. Recent abdominal surgeries

Beginner’s Tip

As a beginner, you must not go all into the asana. If you do so, you will end up straining your
back and neck. You must find a height that suits you, and ensure you don’t strain your back and
neck. Once you do, take your hands off the floor for a moment so that you have a thorough
extension.

The Benefits Of The Bhujangasana

These are some amazing benefits of Bhujangasana.

1. It is a deep backbend that makes the spine stronger and more flexible.
2. It also tones the organs that lie in the lower abdomen.
3. It stimulates the digestive, reproductive, and urinary systems.
4. It helps regulate metabolism, thus balancing the weight.
5. It makes the buttocks firm.
6. It gives the lungs, shoulders, chest, and abdomen a good stretch.
7. It works as a great stress release.
8. This asana is known to open up the lungs and the heart.
9. It relieves sciatica and asthma.
Swimming emerged as a competitive recreational activity in the 1830s in England. In 1828, the first
indoor swimming pool, St George's Baths was opened to the public.[4] By 1837, the National Swimming
Society was holding regular swimming competitions in six artificial swimming pools, built around
London. The recreational activity grew in popularity and by 1880, when the first national governing
body, the Amateur Swimming Association was formed, there were already over 300 regional clubs in
operation across the country.[5]

Men's swimming became part of the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 in Athens. In 1902, the
Australian Richmond Cavill introduced freestyle to the Western world. In 1908, the world swimming
association, Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA), was formed. Women's swimming was
introduced into the Olympics in 1912; the first international swim meet for women outside the Olympics
was the 1922 Women's Olympiad. Butterfly was developed in the 1930s and was at first a variant of
breaststroke, until it was accepted as a separate style in 1952.

Competitive swimming
Competitive swimming became popular in the 19th century. The goal of high level competitive
swimming is to break personal or world records while beating competitors in any given event. Swimming
in competition should create the least resistance in order to obtain maximum speed. However, some
professional swimmers who do not hold a national or world ranking are considered the best in regard to
their technical skills. Typically, an athlete goes through a cycle of training in which the body is
overloaded with work in the beginning and middle segments of the cycle, and then the workload is
decreased in the final stage as the swimmer approaches competition.

Swimming is an event at the Summer Olympic Games, where male and female athletes compete
in 16 of the recognized events each. Olympic events are held in a 50-meter pool, called a long
course pool.

There are forty officially recognized individual swimming events in the pool; however the
International Olympic Committee only recognizes 32 of them. The international governing body
for competitive swimming is the Fédération Internationale de Natation ("International
Swimming Federation"), better known as FINA.

Open water

In open water swimming, where the events are swum in a body of open water (lake or sea), there are
also 5 km, 10 km and 25 km events for men and women. However, only the 10 km event is included in
the Olympic schedule, again for both men and women. Open-water competitions are typically separate
to other swimming competitions with the exception of the World Championships and the Olympics.

Swim styles

In competitive swimming, four major styles have been established. These have been relatively
stable over the last 30–40 years with minor improvements. They are:

 Butterfly
  Backstroke
 Breaststroke
 Freestyle

In competition, only one of these styles may be used except in the case of the individual medley,
or IM, which consists of all four. In this latter event, swimmers swim equal distances of
butterfly, then backstroke, breaststroke, and finally, freestyle.[10] In Olympic competition, this
event is swum in two distances – 200 and 400 meters. Some short course competitions also
include the 100-yard or 100-meter IM – particularly, for younger or newer swimmers (typically
under 14 years) involved in club swimming, or masters swimming (over 18).

Dolphin kick

Since the 1990s, the most drastic change in swimming has been the addition of the underwater dolphin
kick. This is used to maximize the speed at the start and after the turns in all styles. The first successful
use of it was by David Berkoff. At the 1988 Olympics, he swam most of the 100 m backstroke race
underwater and broke the world record in the distance during the preliminaries. Another swimmer to
use the technique was Denis Pankratov at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, where he completed almost
half of the 100 m butterfly underwater to win the gold medal.

Competition pools

World Championship pools must be 50 metres (160 ft) (long course) long and 25 metres (82 ft)
wide, with ten lanes labelled zero to nine (or one to ten in some pools; zero and nine (or one and
ten) are usually left empty in semi-finals and finals); the lanes must be at least 2.5 metres (8.2 ft)
wide. They will be equipped with starting blocks at both ends of the pool and most will have
Automatic Officiating Equipment, including touch pads to record times and sensors to ensure the
legality of relay takeovers. The pool must have a minimum depth of two metres.[14]

Other pools which host events under FINA regulations are required to meet some but not all of these
requirements. Many of these pools have eight, or even six, instead of ten lanes and some will be 25
metres (82 ft) long, making them Short course. World records that are set in short course pools are kept
separate from those set in long course pools because it may be an advantage or disadvantage to
swimmers to have more or less turns in a race

best swimmer in the world olympics

Michael Fred Phelps II[5] (born June 30, 1985)[6] is an American retired competitive swimmer and the
most successful and most decorated Olympian of all time,[7] with a total of 28 medals. Phelps also holds
the all-time records for Olympic gold medals (23),[8] Olympic gold medals in individual events (13), and
Olympic medals in individual events (16).[9] When he won eight gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Games,
Phelps broke fellow American swimmer Mark Spitz's 1972 record of seven first-place finishes at any
single Olympic Games. At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Phelps had already tied the record of
eight medals of any color at a single Games by winning six gold and two bronze medals. At the 2012
Summer Olympics in London, Phelps won four gold and two silver medals, and at the 2016 Summer
Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, he won five gold medals and one silver. This made him the most successful
athlete of the Games for the fourth Olympics in a row.
Swachh Bharat: Swachh Vidyalaya is the national campaign driving ‘Clean India: Clean
Schools’. A key feature of the campaign is to ensure that every school in India has a set of
functioning and well maintained water, sanitation and hygiene facilities. Water, sanitation and
hygiene in schools refers to a combination of technical and human development components that
are necessary to produce a healthy school environment and to develop or support appropriate
health and hygiene behaviours. The technical components include drinking water, hand washing,
toilet and soap facilities in the school compound for use by children and teachers. The human
development components are the activities that promote conditions within the school and the
practices of children that help to prevent water, hygiene and sanitation related diseases.

School sanitation and hygiene depend on a process of capacity enhancement of teachers,

community members, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and Community Based
Organisations (CBOs) and education administrators. Water, sanitation and hygiene in school
aims to make a visible impact on the health and hygiene of children through improvement in
their health and hygiene practices, and those of their families and the communities. It also aims
to improve the curriculum and teaching methods while promoting hygiene practices and
community ownership of water and sanitation facilities within schools. it improves children’s
health, school enrolment, attendance and retention and paves the way for new generation of
healthy children. It is the role of policymakers, government representatives, citizens and parents
to make sure that every child attends a school that has access to safe drinking water, proper
sanitation and hygiene facilities. This is every child’s right.

Swachh Vidyalaya – The Essential Elements

Every school in the country must have a set of essential interventions that relate to both technical
and human development aspects of a good Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Programme.

Sanitation

 Separate toilets for boys and girls, with one unit generally having one toilet plus 3
urinals. The ratio to be maintained is preferably one unit for every 40 students.

Daily handwashing with soap before mid day meal

 Sufficient group handwashing facilities allowing groups of 10-12 students to wash hands
at the same time. The handwashing station should be simple, scalable and sustainable,
relying on usage of minimum water. These handwashing facilities can be developed
using local materials.
 Group handwashing with soap sessions are conducted before the mid day meals are
served, and are supervised by teachers, who emphasise good handwashing techniques.

Drinking water
  Daily provision of child-friendly and sustainable safe drinking water and adequate water
for handwashing. In addition water for school cleaning and also food preparation and
cooking. Safe handling and storage of drinking water should be practiced throughout the
school.

Operation and maintenance

All water, sanitation and handwashing facilities need to be clean, functional and well maintained
to ensure that the intended results are achieved and capital investments made in installing these
systems are not lost. Annual Maintenance Contracts can be issued, which will include regular
maintenance of facilities, regular supply of cleaning materials, consumables like soap,
disinfectants, brooms, brushes, buckets etc. The AMC may include identification of repair tasks
and arrangement for repair facilities. Alternatively some local arrangements can be made, which
can include appointment of local sweepers/cleaners, appointed by the school/district, who are
provided with a regular supply of consumables.

Behaviour change activities

 Water, sanitation and hygiene behaviour change communication activities should be part
of the daily routine of all children. Hygiene messages may be integrated into the textbook
curriculum or may be imparted through supplementary reading materials, activity based
learning methodologies or even during the morning assembly sessions.

Enhanced capacities

It is essential that capacities are improved at various levels within the sector, to develop the right
mix of skills, knowledge and experience to facilitate, finance, manage and monitor water,
sanitation and hygiene programmes in schools effectively.