10 Minute Yoga Warming Up For Yoga
The unique aspect of warming up for yoga is the process of centering oneself, at the same time you wake up your muscles. A yoga physical warm-up is also a mental warm-up that allows you to move away from your other preoccupations and reach a calm mental stance that will assist you in further yoga work.
An ideal yoga warm-up will include poses that involve both your upper and lower body. It should incorporate stretches that attend to your wrists, your neck, and your spine, key parts of your body that receive the most work when you’re doing yoga. In this chapter, you will discover some great poses you can use as part of your personal warm-up routine.
The Mountain
Focus: Legs, Posture
Level: Beginning
Total Time: 60 seconds
Indications: Sciatica, stress Contraindications: Low blood pressure, dizziness, light-headedness, headache
The Mountain The mountain pose is a great starting warm-up. It can prepare your body for many other standing poses. It is also great for your posture and can help you remain calm under pressure as you face your day. It may look like you are just standing, but there is much more going on than meets the eye. Here is how to perform the mountain pose:
Stand with your feet separated enough to feel stable. If you are pregnant, you may need to adjust your feet further apart, but don’t separate them any farther than your shoulders.
Establish a solid connection with the ground by lifting your toes. Shift your weight distribution so that it is divided equally between the base of your big toes, the base of your little toes, and both left and right sides of your heels. Sustain this weight distribution as you return your toes to the ground and continue through the exercise.
Bend your knees slightly and straighten them. This will relax the knee joints. Your legs should be straight, but never locked.
Beginning from your feet up, become aware of each part of your body as you engage the muscles to support a tall, straight torso, topped by the tip of the “mountain”, your head. Imagine a string reaching up from the top of your head and pulling it– along with your neck and the torso it is connected to– upward.
Activate your thigh muscles by turning them ever so slightly inward.
Allow your chest to open up, shifting your shoulders and arms backward. Tip your tailbone slightly under to offset the adjustment you just made to your chest. This will naturally engage muscles around your bellybutton to support your abdomen and keep your back, neck, and head directly above your hips (which should still be directly above your knees and feet).
Stand tall and straight, with your arms relaxed at your sides. Focus your gaze straight ahead. Look at something that is just below eye level. This will increase your mental focus, remove distractions, and ensure that your chin is slightly lowered, if it hasn’t already been adjusted by that string pulling up from the top of your head!
As you stand in this position, breathe in, filling your lungs, allowing your stomach and chest to expand. When your body is full of air, begin to exhale, taking twice as long to breathe out as you did to breathe in.
Take several full breaths, sustaining this posture for 30 to 60 seconds before you release it.
The mountain is easily practiced while you’re standing in line and waiting for, well, anything. It can help you remain calm if other people around you are growing impatient and angry, allowing you to spread kindness in your wake. You can engage this pose any time you’re standing. It serves as a conscious counter-action to all the time we spend hunched over our computers, bent over a book, or focused on a project.
10 MINUTE YOGA BENIFIT OF YOGA
The Forward Fold
Focus: Hamstrings, back
Level: Beginning
Total Time: 60 seconds
Indications: Mild depression, stress, insomnia, headaches; stimulates kidneys, liver, digestive system Contraindications: Back injuries, pregnancy (careful modifications are possible) Forward Fold
To perform the forward fold:
Stand with your feet firmly planted, spread slightly apart for balance. Distribute your weight evenly across your feet, and hold your torso tall and open. Inhale.
Breathe out and bend your body forward at the hips, not the waist. Bend only as far as you can while still breathing easily.
Press your heels into the ground, keeping your hips over the soles of your feet.
If your hamstrings are too tight to straighten your legs completely, keep your knees bent. If you can straighten your legs completely, place your fingers on the ground.
Let your head and neck hang freely.
Breathe in and add more length to your torso, then breathe out to settle more deeply into the pose.
If you were to stop here, you would slowly raise your torso, stacking one vertebra at a time atop the others, until you have returned to an upright position. However, for this warm up you want to transition into the half standing forward fold. This will extend your spine and further strengthen your back and knees.
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