Five Poses to Wake Up With
As a lot of us are working from home at the moment, or just generally stuck in the house without the normalities of our usual routine to keep us on the right track, I thought it would be a good time to bring you five simple poses, to get you onto your mat on a morning, for some added movement and to allow us to face the day feeling a little more energised, grounded & just generally better!
Rolling out your mat to try these might result in you getting yourself into the groove of moving, and lead to a longer practise, which is great! However if you just roll out of bed, do these poses in your pyjamas, and get straight back into bed, I swear I won't tell anyone, it's cool.
Either way, in my experience, even just ten to fifteen minutes of tuning into my body and focusing on my breathing, I know will positively impact my mindset, therefore my day, so I would recommend giving these a go, either first thing, or as a break from your desk, or even as you wind down on an evening, just to give yourself that mental & physical check in, that is sometimes all to easy to avoid with phone scrolling or Netflix.
As always, work within a pain free range, and listen to your body. Feel free to sync these movements together, adding in some gentle vinyasa's or just try the poses as they are.
- Possibly the most well known of yoga poses, this is a rejuvenating full body stretch.
- Beginning on all fours, stack your knees under the hips, hands slightly ahead of the shoulders, fingers spread, and index fingers either parallel, or slightly turned out. Take a full breath in, lengthening the spine.
- As you exhale, curl your toes under, beginning to lengthen the legs, lifting your sitting bones towards the ceiling. Reach the tailbone up and back, and engage the inner lines of the legs from the ankles up to the inner thighs.
- Keeping the knees bent at first, press the mat away from you, allowing the head to be heavy, relaxing the neck. Keep the ears in-line with your arms and gaze soft. Press the index finger and thumb knuckle down, turning the inner eyes of the elbows forwards to wrap your shoulders down and around your ribcage.
- Drawing your bottom ribs towards your thighs, navel to spine, breathe to broaden your back.
- I like to hang out here, and pedal out through the feet, bending one knee at a time, whilst nodding and shaking my head, before settling into stillness. Take 5 to 10 deep breaths here.
- A great way to lengthen the spine, and begin to work towards backbends, whilst also stretching out the abdomen, thighs and chest.
- Beginning on all fours, hands under the shoulders, knees under the hips, fingers spread as you root the hands down into the mat.
- I would recommend beginning with alternating between Cat and Cow pose for a few rounds of breath first to warm up through the spine.
- From there, reach your right arm forward, and your left leg back with your foot flexed, and your toes rolled down towards the mat, keeping the hips in line. Aim for length not height here, drawing the navel in towards the spine as you inhale reaching the finger tips and foot away from each other.
- Turn the right palm to the right, with your thumb pointing down towards the ground, and bend your left knee to a 90 degree angle, engaging the glutes as you actively press through the sole of your foot.
- Keeping the foot flexed take your right hand to grab your foot or ankle (option to use a strap, tie or dressing gown tie here if grabbing the foot is not within a comfortable reach for you). Press your foot into your hand to help open through the chest, broadening your collarbones, and maintaining a long spine.
- Try and keep the shoulders and hips in line with one another here, and breath fully but softly. Stay here for five full breaths, then release the pose the way you came into it. Repeat with opposite hand and foot.
- This is my favourite variation of Childs pose, and I especially love doing it first thing on a morning. It's like a cross between Puppy Pose and Childs pose, is great for calming and grounding the mind, as well as being a great stretch to open up through the upper body, the pectorals, the lats, as well as all of the usual benefits of a regular Childs pose, such as stretching the hips thighs and ankles.
- Beginning on all fours, take the knees out towards the edges of the mat, bringing the big toes together. Sitting your bum back onto your feels, begin to walk the hands forward, lowering the head, chest and belly towards the mat.
- Inch your finger tips slightly further forward, lengthening your arms. From there, keeping the head and chest low, bend at the elbows bringing the hands together into a prayer position, and lower the hands to rest behind your head.
- Breathe to broaden your back, whilst simultaneously activating the arms by imagining you are drawing the elbows back without actually moving them, and allowing the belly to soften over the thighs.
- Stay here for up to ten full breaths (or maybe longer if you need it).
- Bridge Pose is a great way to open the front line of the body, and is a really energising pose, however, if you fancy something a little more restorative feel free to place a block under your sacrum to chill out here.
- Beginning on your back, bend your knees taking the feet slightly wider than hip width apart, and walking the heels in towards the bum. Allow your arms to rest by your sides, palms open towards the ceiling.
- Pressing through the feet, begin to lift the hips up, peeling the spine away from the mat. Lengthen the knees over the toes, and roll one shoulder blade under at a time. You can either allow the palms to remain rolling open or you can take the hands together beneath you and clasp the hands, firming the outer arms into the mat.
- Root all four corners of your feet down, simultaneously lift through the arches of the feet to engage the inner lines of the legs, as you roll your outer thighs towards each other.
- Inhale right up to the collarbones, and with each exhale, allow the navel to draw in towards the spine. Remain here for up to five to ten breaths, and to release, unclasp your hands, and slowly roll your spine back towards the mat one vertebrae at a time.
- This is one of my favourite poses, is a great hip opener, and I love doing it at the end of my practise just before I head into the all so glorious Savasana.
- Once again, beginning supine, draw your knees in towards your chest, and begin to lift the soles of your feet towards the ceiling.
- As you draw your knees into your armpits, and your thighs to the outer ribs, bring the hands up to hold the inside edges of the feet. If this is really intense, either loop a strap over your feet or hold onto the backs of your thighs instead, but keep the feet active. Allow the feet to be a little wider than your chest, and gently flex through the heels.
- Lengthen the back of your neck into the mat and reach the tailbone to the top of the mat, connecting as much of your spine to the mat as you can. You can either remain still in this pose, or gently rock from side to side, massaging along the spine and into the lower back. Stay here for five to ten breaths.
Breathe, move, check in with how you're feeling today and enjoy these simple, energising yet grounding poses. Let me know your favourite poses to wake you up!
Have a great day, and thanks for reading. xo