On days when dragging yourself out of bed feels like a monumental feat, these gentle yoga moves can coax your body into movement. They’ll help you feel more relaxed, and may even help you get a better night’s sleep.
Stand tall over the long side of your mat, taking up space with both feet. Raise your arms so they’re parallel to the floor and keep them in line with your back foot.
Downward-Facing Dog Modified
Downward-Facing Dog Modified is a simple yoga pose that helps to relieve tension in the shoulders and back while promoting relaxation and a sense of calm. This variation of the pose is particularly beneficial for beginners or individuals with limited upper body strength. This is a great pose to practice regularly as it provides the opportunity to build strength and familiarity with the classic downward-facing dog pose.
In this version of the Downward Facing Dog pose, students place a rolled blanket or mat underneath their heels, which helps to bring the floor closer to the feet and helps create more stability. This allows the feet to engage the floor, which in turn supports the knees and hips, helping the student maintain balance and integrity.
The Modified Downward-Facing Dog is an excellent way to open the heart, strengthen the arms and legs, and create flexibility in the thighs and calves. It is also an excellent pose to practice when you are feeling stressed or anxious.
Janu Sirsasana
Janu Sirsasana, also known as Head-to-Knee Forward Bend Pose or Half-Seated Forward Bend Pose, stretches muscles in your abdomen, spine, neck, shoulders, and hamstrings. It improves your posture and can relieve lower back tightness and pain, and reduce anxiety and stress levels. The compression on your abdominal region stimulates the organs and improves digestion, alleviates constipation, and helps with bloating.
The pose also releases the sciatic nerve, reducing symptoms of sciatica. It also increases the flexibility of your lower back and spine, improving the ability to perform other poses.
You may need to modify the pose if it causes discomfort or pain around your knee joint, if you have a chronic condition that affects the joints of your legs, if you are pregnant, or if you have a rotator cuff injury. In this case, it is best to avoid flexing your knee past the point of pain. Instead, you can practice the asana with your foot flat on the floor or use a block for support.
Child’s Pose
A restful posture that relaxes the entire body, Child’s Pose or Balasana offers numerous health benefits and stretches many tight muscles. This forward fold helps with back, shoulder and neck tension as well as reducing anxiety and stress.
This simple pose is an excellent cool down and can also be a great warm up to activate the core, upper back, shoulders and arms. Practicing this pose as part of your yoga routine can help relieve stiffness in the spine after sitting for long periods of time.
To perform a lateral child’s pose, sit on your heels with your knees spread wider than hip-width apart and touch the big toes together. Move your hands forward so that they are beside the torso and relax the shoulders. For a more challenging pose, try stretching your left arm to the right to line up with the right knee and bring the right leg down to the heel. This stretches the lumbar spine and can help with lower-back pain caused by disc problems such as herniated discs.
Warrior II
Warrior II is a powerful, grounding pose that builds strength in the legs, hips and core. It also strengthens the shoulders and arms, creating a strong foundation for one-legged balancing poses like Triangle Pose.
While the pose stretches and strengthens many muscles, some students have trouble with the front knee, which can fall inward toward the floor. It is important to keep the knee aligned directly above and not in front of the ankle. This activates the psoas and pectineus muscles that are responsible for keeping the leg stable in this position.
Warrior 2 embodies the spirit of a warrior with its stability and courage. It stretches the chest and opens the pelvis while strengthening the front leg quadriceps and inner thigh, as well as the back leg hamstrings and calf muscles. This creates a balance of strength and flexibility that can help prevent injury. It also improves balance and focus.