Tuesday, July 22, 2014

My current yoga poses that help

I have a current rotation of yoga poses that really seems to help. On my spunky days I do the more active ones; other days, just the stretchy ones.

Start out in child's pose.
 
 
Come up onto your hands and knees and do a few cat/cow poses.
 
Then this little baby for some reason helps my low back feel better:
 
While you're there, thread the needle for your arms- again, makes my hips and low back feel better.
 
Then maybe do a few sun salutations to warm up.
 
For my more spunky days, I add in a warrior series, half moon pose, three legged dog, and other such poses.
 
Intersperse some of these babies in:
Standing forward fold
 
Add in a twist to each side (make sure to keep your hips even).

 
A forward lunge, a low lunge, or one of my favorites- lizard lunge.

 
Twists seem to be helpful to me as do quad stretches so this one pulls double duty:

 
Another good quad stretch

 
Side stretch


After a warrior 2, this is nice:
 

 
Tree pose also seems to help me a lot too. I do it while I'm brushing my teeth, stirring the pots while making supper, wherever I can fit it in.

 
This twist also feels good on my outer hips and releases a lot of the tightness I tend to hold there:

 
Cobbler's pose helps quite a bit as well. I will sit like this in the recliner with my laptop, using the arm rests to hold my legs.
 
 


 
*********One of the best ones to help my hips- thread the needle pose*************

 
***************Head to knee pose is another essential for me:*****************

 
Reclining is good for the hamstring- it releases it's pull on my pelvic floor.

 
Going out to the side and then to the other side is another good release
 
 
Comforting- do this in bed a lot:



Another good twist- and reclining too!

 
This side stretch is good:

 
Or doing a spinal rotation:
 
 
Another one that I do in bed a lot to help release tension:


 And another happy child's pose:
 
 
Or garland pose throughout the day is good for some release (can do it sans pillows):

 
And remember:

 
How I feel at the end of a good yoga session: