You’ve probably heard it said before that, a little bit goes a long way. But it’s so true, especially when it comes to moving and stretching your body.
Finding 10 minutes first thing in the morning every day, is infinitely better than going weeks without yoga because you can’t find an hour for a class.
Try these 7 poses to help you wake up today. You may want to have 2 blocks handy at the top of your mat.
- Warm Up – Sit comfortably, roll the shoulders down and away from the ears. Close your eyes and take some deep cleansing breaths, sending the inhale down into the belly. Interlace your fingers, flips the palms and reach them up over head. Gently easing from side to side to wake up the side body.
2. Seated Forward Fold – Extend the left leg out, bringing the right foot inside the thigh. Inhale to lift and lengthen, out of the low back, Exhale, folding forward towards the toes. Bend into the knee if the hamstrings are tight this morning. Repeat on the other side.
3. Reverse Table Top – Bend your knees and bring the soles to the mat. Bring the hands back behind you, fingers facing towards you. Squeeze the glutes, push into feet and lift the hips up. Keep head from falling back. Get a big opening through the shoulders.
4. Runner’s Lunge to Pyramid – Come to downward dog. Then step the right foot between the hands at the top of your mat. Grab the blocks on any height to give you some lift here. Bend into the right knee, sinking the hips down as you inhale. On your exhale, straighten the front leg and fold toward the leg. Do 4 or 5 rounds like this.
5. Standing Splits – From runner’s lunge, bring the blocks a bit ahead of you. Push off the back leg and lift it as high as it can go. Try to keep the left hip wrapping down (not opening up). Release the leg down.
6. Tree Pose – Come up to standing. Stand and balance on the left leg. Bring the right foot to the inside of the standing leg. Hug into the midline, pushing the foot into leg and leg back into the foot. Root down. Then maybe extend the arms up overhead like branches.
Take a vinyasa flow if you like, then repeat 4 through 6 on the other side.
7. Child’s Pose – Drop to kneeling. Press the hips back towards the heels. Maybe extending the arms in front of you. Relax your shoulders. Take a few deep cleansing breaths here before getting up and on with your day.
These poses come from a 10 minute Morning Vinyasa Flow class on my YouTube channel. Check it out below.
Namaste,
Kassandra
