Uddiyana Bandha

Uddiyana Bandha energizes and tones you, building core awareness and a lifted sense of vitality. Known as the upward abdominal lock, you exhale fully, then draw the belly in and up under the ribs while holding the breath out. It's an advanced practice, do it only on an empty stomach, skip it if you're pregnant, or have heart, blood-pressure, ulcer, or hernia conditions, and release anytime.

Drawing the belly up under the ribcage on an empty exhale creates a gentle internal pressure that stimulates the core, and the breath-out hold adds an activating challenge that is traditionally said to lift energy upward. You may feel a strong pull in the abdomen and a clear urge to breathe, which is your cue to release and breathe normally. As an advanced yogic technique it is less studied and rests mostly on traditional practice. It comes from classical Hatha yoga, where uddiyana means flying up, for the way energy is drawn upward. It's completely normal to find this demanding at first, the capacity for it builds gradually over weeks of practice, so start gentle and let it grow.