Why do the locks work against apana?

Because apana naturally moves down and out, and the practice is to send it up to meet prana. That meeting is what the texts say generates heat and opens sushumna.

Is apana only physical?

No. Grief that will not move, decisions that cannot be finished and habits that will not end are all read as apana problems in the psychological extension of the scheme.

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Second of the five winds

Apana

Apāna · अपान

The wind of release. Seated below the navel and moving down and out, it governs exhalation, elimination, menstruation and birth, which is to say everything the body does by letting go.

downward release elimination pelvis

Seat: Below the navel, in the pelvis
Direction: Downward and outward
Governs: Exhalation, elimination, menstruation, birth
Its centres: Root and sacral
Its opposite: Prana
Reversed by: Mula bandha, the root lock

What it does

Apana is the wind of subtraction. The exhale, the bowel, the bladder, the menstrual cycle and childbirth are all listed under it, and so, in the psychological extension, is letting go of anything at all.

It is the counterpart of prana in every respect: opposite direction, opposite half of the torso, opposite half of the breath.

Against the grain

Hatha yoga's central manoeuvre is to reverse apana. Mula bandha lifts the pelvic floor and drives the downward wind upward; uddiyana bandha draws prana downward to meet it. Where the two meet, at the navel, the texts say heat is produced and the central channel opens.

This is why the locks are taught as a pair and why they are taught with caution. Reversing a wind that ordinarily runs one way is not a neutral act, and the classical literature says to learn it with a teacher.

Excess and deficiency

Excess apana reads as heaviness and downward drag: sluggishness, low mood, everything sinking. Deficiency reads as retention in every sense, constipation and difficulty completing an exhale among them.

The general practice is a longer exhale, squatting postures and forward folds.

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Its opposite

Prana

The inward wind it is brought to meet.

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Its centre

Root chakra

Muladhara, where the root lock acts.

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Where they meet

Samana

The navel wind, at the meeting point.

Frequently asked questions

: Because apana naturally moves down and out, and the practice is to send it up to meet prana. That meeting is what the texts say generates heat and opens sushumna.
: No. Grief that will not move, decisions that cannot be finished and habits that will not end are all read as apana problems in the psychological extension of the scheme.