मत्स्यासन
Matsyasana — Fish Pose
matsya = fish — Vishnu's first avatar gives the pose its name
Chest arched to the sky, crown resting light — the throat and heart wide open.
In the simplest words
Lie on your back, push up your chest like a proud little bridge, and let the very top of your head touch the floor gently behind you. You look like a happy fish jumping — and your chest gets a big stretch of fresh air.
What it is
Lying back, the chest lifts into an arch while the crown of the head rests lightly behind — the body curved like a fish mid-leap. Named for Matsya, the fish avatar who saved the Vedas from the flood, it is the classical counter-pose to shoulderstand and to every hour spent curled over a phone: the throat opens, the front ribs spread, and breath reaches places the day's posture had closed. The neck bears almost nothing — the forearms and elbows carry the arch.
Before you practise — health first
Skip with neck injury, uncontrolled blood pressure, migraine or vertigo; in pregnancy keep the arch tiny and shoulders on a cushion. The crown TOUCHES the floor — it never bears the head's weight.
Getting into it
Lie on the back, legs together; slide the hands, palms down, under the hips.
Press the forearms and elbows down and lift the chest high on an inhale.
Let the head drop back until the crown rests LIGHTLY — elbows keep carrying the weight.
Open the throat, spread the ribs, breathe wide.
To exit: press the elbows, lift the head, then lower the back — never roll off the crown.
The breath
The pose exists for the inhale — let each one fill the opened chest completely.
What it is kept for
Opening chest and throat, countering phone-hunch, deeper breathing; the classical partner of inversions.