Do you fall into the mindset that you need to be bendy and experienced in order to experience the benefits of yoga? Finding joy and gratitude on the mat doesn’t require doing pretzel like shapes. Give these 7 poses a try in the morning and let me know if you feel better!
- Reclined Butterfly Pose – Lower down onto your back. Shrug the shoulders away from the ears. Bring the soles together to touch, letting the knees fall apart. If too much for your hips, take feet to edges of mat, and drop your knees together.
2. Boat Pose – Lift up to a seat. Hold the back of your thighs, and roll back on to the sit bones. Roll shoulders down and away from the ears. Point the toes. See if you can lift the right shin parallel to the ground. Alternate legs, switching 5 times. Focus on opening and lifting the chest. To advance, try extending the arms out.
3. Cat/Cow with Butterfly Legs – Bring the soles together on the mat and drop knees out to the side. Grab the big toes with the pinky fingers. Choose how far away your feet are. Inhale, open the chest and squeeze the shoulders back. Exhale, round and contract the chin to the chest. Take several rounds with your breath.
4. Forward Fold – Straighten the left leg out in front of you, with the right foot inside the thigh. Bend the knee as needed. Inhale, stretch the arms up overhead. Find length in the spine, lifting out of the low back. Maintain the length as you hinge forward at hips. Push into the fingertips and the heels.
5. Baby Wild Thing – Lift back up. Bring the left hand back behind you, Swing the right arm up and over. Push into left hand and left heel, lift hips up to the sky. Focus on stretching in the side body.
Repeat 4 and 5 on other side.
6. Low Lunge – Come to hands and knees. Step right leg to the top of the mat, right knee over right ankle. Push to lift up to low lunge. Reach the tail down and pull the belly in. Extend arms up to the sky, turning palms in. Maybe looking up to the sky.
7. Warrior 2 – Bring hands down to floor. Tuck the toes under, lift the back knee up. Spin the left foot parallel to the shorter edge of the mat. Front heel lining up with back arch. Push into the feet and lift up. Extend arms front to back, with palms facing down. Shoulders over the hips. Squeezing right thigh open. Right knee over right ankle.
These poses come from a 25 minute morning class for beginners on my YouTube channel. If you want more step by step instructions and additional poses, check it out below.
Namaste,
Kassandra
