Morning Yoga Stretches

Even with the best intentions and habits, we can wake up from a night’s sleep feeling sore & stiff.  Perhaps, it’s an old pillow we need to say goodbye to, or sleep positions that if we were awake, we would never hold for 8 hours. Whatever the case, here are 5 stretches that you can do in the morning to shake off those morning aches and embrace the day.

• Knees to Chest – Upon waking, come on to your back and draw your knees in toward your chest.  You can hold on gently behind your thighs. Gently rock side to side and allow the back to sink into the bed.  Take a few full breaths. 
• Pelvic Tilt – Let the soles of your feet rest on the bed with your legs bent.  Inhale through your nose, and as you exhale, gently draw your belly button toward your spine, tilting the pelvis under.  This will also feel like the low back is coming in contact with the bed.  Repeat with your breath 6-10 times. Gently roll to one side and press yourself up to a seated position.
• Cat & Cow – come down to the floor on hands and knees, making a table with your body (shoulders over your wrists, and hips over your knees).  Inhale and gently arch the back and extend your sternum forward, exhale and round the back, drawing the belly toward the spine.  Continue with your breath 6-10 times.
• Spinal Balance – From hands & knees position, inhale and extend your right arm and left left away from your center. As you exhale, bring your arm & leg back to the floor. Repeat, switching sides. Try to keep your gaze toward the floor, keeping the neck in a neutral position. Repeat 6 times on each side and rest back to Child’s Pose.
• Sunflowers – Come to a standing position with your feet wider than shoulder width apart. Inhale and lift your arms overhead, exhale as you bend your knees and hinge the upper body forward, bringing the arms down with you.  Continue with your breath for 6-8 times. If you’re used to a more active yoga practice, instead of Sunflowers, you might try Sun Salutations (we call them Full Flows in my classes) where you’re moving through a series of poses at a comfortable pace.

Before you get going on your day, finish with at least a few minutes of stillness – either seated or lying down. Try to let your thoughts and plans for the day just set aside for this time.  Focus on your breath and let the mind & body rest. 

YogaXoga Demystified Yoga DVD

I’m starting a new category to keep everyone updated on my exciting journey creating, producing and distributing YogaXoga’s first yoga DVD, Demystified Yoga. In what felt like a whirlwind that began last spring as just an idea, became 10 boxes of DVDs delivered to my house in July and is today becoming a growing part of YogaXoga.

Today was a very exciting day as the DVD will be available (at the end of this week!) at all of  the Borders and Barnes & Noble stores in the Kansas City metro! This is very exciting — the DVDs will be in the stores for the holidays and for new year resolution shopping.   [For those of you just learning about the DVD, you can learn more at www.yogaxoga.com/dvd  or search for Demystified Yoga on www.amazon.com to see all of our customer reviews! ]

I’m not sure if it was all the rest & sunshine in Hawaii (we had a great time!) or just the time away, but I came home with a new surge of energy and focus to share with more people that yoga doesn’t have to be just for the very fit & flexible!   It doesn’t require that you become a human pretzel or a highly enlightened pretzel. 

I’m very excited and humbled at the amazing feedback through customer reviews and personal emails & notes regarding this DVD.  It’s truly meant for REAL people. It’s for people who want to relieve stress and chronic pain, feel better and move more easily. It’s for people who just need 30 minutes or an hour of movement, breathing and relaxation so that they can look at the busyness and stress of their life with new eyes, with a new perspective.   Those of you who are YogaXoga students know this – but the DVD enables many more people than I could ever reach in llive class to experience the many benefits of yoga.

Stay tuned for more…

Enjoy & be well,

 Heidi 

Yoga at Home: Beginning a Home Practice

You feel so calm and relaxed after your favorite yoga class you begin to wonder, how can I do yoga more than once/twice a week? For many of us, committing to yoga classes 3+ times a week isn’t very practical balancing work, home and everything else. So that brings us to a home practice. Common responses I hear from clients when discussing a home yoga practice include “I’m not sure what to do”, “There are too many distractions at home” or “With so much to do, yoga gets pushed to the bottom of the list”. With those in mind, here are a few ideas about beginning a home yoga practice, along with tips to get you started.

• Start Small - Your yoga practice at home doesn’t have to be an hour long. Start with 5, 10 or 15 minute sessions and build up. As your yoga practice becomes part of your routine, there may be opportunities where a longer practice will work.  If not, remember even small doses of yoga does the body good.  

• Listen to Your Body - The beauty of a home practice is that you decide what to do! Your practice may vary depending on the day you had, your energy level, as well as your body’s tightness or tension. If you’re feeling stressed, you may want a more gentle practice with ample time for breathing and relaxation. If you want a more active practice, incorporating more standing poses and full flows will complement your energy level.  Just make sure you’ve warmed the body with active movements such as Sunflowers or Full Flows before deep stretches or twists. If you’re not sure what to do, check with me (or another trusted yoga teacher) for ideas.  Yoga DVDs and books can also be very helpful in guiding your practice. 

• Work with the Distractions - We can minimize some distractions during our yoga time by setting the expectation with kids, turning off the TV and muting the phone.   However, life doesn’t usually stop for yoga time. That’s when yoga should be worked into the mix.  Try stretching with Cat & Cow and Spinal Balance while watching TV with the kids.  If you practice Dolphin Plank, try holding the pose during a commercial break. Practice balancing with Tree while getting dinner ready. Whenever you can, find your Mountain Pose to improve your posture, lengthen the spine and breathe more fully.

Just like our YogaXoga classes, you can adjust your home practice to what you need that day and to what your time allows. Some days you may need a long run or a good book & a cup of tea instead of yoga – and that’s ok too. Remember when we take a little bit of time for us regardless of the activity, we’re better able to give to others.

Learning to Breathe…

A common question that I hear from new yoga students is about the breath. When/how should we be breathing, etc…So, here a few tips to improve our breathing whether you’re in a yoga class or just going about your day.

We typically breathe moving the upper part of our chests.  In gym or music class when the teacher said to take a deep breath, everyone’s chest lifted at least 3 inches…That’s not actually the most healthy way to breathe.  Chest breathing is a very shallow breath, only using about 1/3 of our lung capacity, and it can cause increased tension or anxiety. Instead, we want to breathe a fuller breath – using our belly, diaphragm, and chest.  A fuller breath or 3-part breath as I’ll describe here not only uses more lung capacity, but is an excellent tool that we all can use to relax and calm the mind & body.

 Try these steps to deepen your breath:

• Lie on your back and rest one hand on your stomach. Begin by breathing normally in and out through your nose.  Notice that your stomach rises as you inhale or breathe in, and how it falls back towards you as you exhale.  Continue just to observe your breath a few more times.
• To build on your breath, inhale through the nose and feel the stomach rise, and let the breath continue into the lower ribcage. You can move your other hand to one side of your lower ribs. Feel the lower ribs expand outward, and then exhale and let the breath release. Your diaphragm is the key player as the breath expands to the lower ribs.
• We’ll build on the breath one more time, letting it begin in the stomach, move to the lower ribs, and finally the chest. Feel your breath filling the chest and then as you exhale, let the breath release.  This is called a 3-Part Breath (Stomach – Diaphragm – Chest)
• Repeat 6-8 times or as long as you have the luxury to, and enjoy your calm, stress-free self.