14 yoga poses you should never try at home without supervision, according to yoga experts

• Business Insider India spoke to yoga experts — Dr. Hansaji Yogendra, Bharat Thakur, Paloma Gangopadhyay, and Vasuda Giri — to understand which yoga asanas can injure a person if performed incorrectly.
  
• Thakur suggests using correct technique, researching about posture as per your health and taking injury history into account before performing any yoga asana.
  
• Giri says postures involving advanced balancing, deep back bending and hip opening should not be done without supervision.
  
• According to Gangopadhyay, a yoga asana — if not performed accurately — can also cause serious head and spinal injuries and ultimately lead to brain casualty.
  

International Yoga Day is around the corner — and thousands of people are preparing to celebrate the day this Sunday at home. And, there are a number of online sessions available where people can get a basic understanding of how to do an asana.

While yoga is good for both mind and body there are several yoga asanas one should do only under the supervision of a trained yoga teacher. Each yoga asana, if done correctly, benefits a specific muscle group, vital organs, brain etc. However, if it’s done incorrectly, it can end up doing more harm than good.

We reached out to yoga experts — Dr. Hansaji Yogendra,Bharat Thakur, Paloma Gangopadhyay, and Vasuda Giri — to understand which yoga asanas can injure a person if performed incorrectly.

"For a person who has never done Yoga before, whose body isn’t open and flexible enough to do the advanced asanas, he must be careful. Just because someone challenged you on Social Media to upload a picture in a particular Yoga asana, that doesn’t mean you don’t consider your bodily limitations and directly jump on to the opportunity. Always remember, Yoga isn’t about twisting and turning your body into complicated or advanced looking asana. Simply sitting in a cross-legged position is also an asana - Sukhasana," Dr. Hansaji Yogendra, who heads the world's oldest organized center of Yoga , the Yoga Institute said.

When people begin doing yoga they will experience changes in their body and if they do the asanas correctly people can meditate and relieve themselves from all the tension they have.

“When you practise yoga and experience the effects, sensations and changes in your body, it basically makes you happy, you are going to love it — and there is the danger that you might want to do too much, too soon. But just as yoga postures can have powerful effects on your metabolism and your body structure in a positive way, if not practised in a disciplined way, they can also cause you harm,” Thakur said.

He suggests using the correct technique, researching about posture as per your health and considering injury history before performing any yoga asana. According to Gangopadhyay, some yoga asanas can also cause serious head and spinal injuries and ultimately lead to brain casualty if you don’t have enough knowledge about what you’re doing.

“Human strength, balancing ability, strength, stamina and concentration level varies from one person to the other. So certain postures like a headstand or a handstand shouldn’t be taught unless there is a proper physical presence of the yoga teacher for a beginner,” Gangopadhyay, told Business Insider.

In short, postures involving advanced balancing, deep back bending and hip opening should not be done without supervision according to Vasuda Giri, the founder of Yoga Bhoomi.

Here are a few tricky postures which might tempt you but should not try at home before you have learnt it from a qualified yoga teacher and know about their do’s and don'ts —