10 minute easy yoga flow to start your day
If you aren’t currently incorporating yoga poses into your day — START NOW! You don’t have to go to a class or do a full sequence to reap all the benefits. Begin with this quick and easy flow that will only take 10 minutes to jumpstart your morning!
Throughout the day, stop what you are doing and practice a pose or two for just a few minutes. You will be amazed at how quickly your body starts to change and how great you feel from the added movement. In this short flow will be focussing on the following movements.
Standing Side Stretch Pose
Standing Side Stretch Pose Legs Crossed is variation of Mountain Pose (Tadasana), (which is the foundation for most standing poses), with the upper body in a side bend (lateral bend). Some of the benefits of this pose are:
Better stability in the hips when one hip is in internal rotation. The overlapping of the thighs ensures better hip stability.
Equal efforts with both the lower and upper body.
Holding the hands at the wrist creates deeper lengthening of the arm from the armpits.
Crossing the feet ensures the complete stretch of the psoas muscles. Wondering how? Think about it, when you bend towards your right side, the entire left side chest, abdomen, back, hips, and upper leg stretches. By crossing the left thigh over the right thigh, you ensure that the left psoas muscles are pulled down giving you the deep lateral stretch. In that moment awareness is brought to those micro muscles and the involvement they play in this posture.
Seated Shoulder Rolls
Seated shoulder rolls is a great warm up pose and extremely beneficial for those with a more sedentary lifestyle. Lots of people hold tension in their shoulders and neck, leading to stiffness, bad postures, and headaches. Including these as part of your daily routine can help improve mobility and strength of the shoulders and neck, and decrease pain.
Seated Neck Rolls
Just like the shoulder rolls, the seated neck rolls is considered a warm up movement. The great thing about these is you can literally stop several times throughout the day and work on these. Set your timer for one to two minutes and feel the benefits below.
- Improves flexibility
- Increases range of motion
- Reduces stiffness
- Keeps the mind calms and fresh.
Half Forward Bend
The half forward bend is a great way to wake up the spine making it the perfect pose for morning. Your mind and body will thank you for adding this to your day. This pose gently stretches the body and relieves any stress or tension you may be feeling. It also can be helpful to calm the mind after a long day a work. This pose is extremely safe and is recommended to practice throughout pregnancy. It can help relax the body and prepare it for easy delivery as the pelvic floor muscles stretch.
Table Top
The Table Top Pose is the foundation of so many others and the benefits are astonishing. It helps bring balance in the body with all muscles in the body being stretched. Tension is relieved throughout the arms, shoulders, wrists, hips, core, thighs, knees and spine. When practicing notice the awareness you feel as you move to find alignment and balance.
Downward Facing Dog
This is my all time favorite pose! I seriously practice it just about every single day. It provides a full-body stretch and strengthens the core muscles. It’s important to keep the shoulders, hamstrings, and hips active and open when working on this pose. Work to lengthen your pose and no worries if your heels are touching the ground yet - some day they will.
Childs Pose
Probably my second favorite pose! It helps bring the heart rate back to normal when done after other sequences. It can be used to help re-establish your breath, relax your back, and settle the mind.
There are two common variations of the Childs Pose:
arms extended in front which is considered a transition pose
arms at side with hands resting towards feet which is more for relaxation
I love this pose at the end of every yoga sequence to relax my mind, body, and soul.
Play the music and start the video below to give this a try when you wake up tomorrow and comment below to let me know how it went!
