This morning yoga for flexibility practice is designed for all experience levels. No props are required although of course you’re welcome to use them if you’d like. At the close of the 15-minute morning yoga practice, you’ll set your intention by choosing one word that you’d like to be the focus of your day.
Cat-Cow
Let’s start right away on hands and knees with your knees underneath your hips, your hands underneath your shoulders, and your fingers spread wide. Practice placing a little more of your body weight in your fingertips and knuckles and less in your wrists. Then inhale, lower your belly, and lift your gaze and your tailbone as you arch your back in Cow Pose. Really stretch across your front body here.
Exhale and reverse this motion, rounding your back and contracting your abs in Cat Pose. Feel your shoulder blades broadening. Keep going in between these two poses, trying to stretch all parts of the spine. As you go through these poses, keep thinking, can I push a little more into my fingertips and my knuckles to take some of the weight out of my wrists?
Puppy Pose
Come back to neutral hands and knees and walk your hands in front of you, keeping your hips where they are. Take a stretch in Puppy Pose, also known as Melting Heart Pose, by bringing your forehead down to the mat. I like to keep my arms straight and active so my elbows are lifted off of the mat. You’re trying to imagine pressing or melting your chest and heart down toward the floor, so you’re really expanding and reaching through the arms and experiencing a slight backbend. Take one more big belly breath here.
Sphinx Pose
Slide onto your belly and brings your forearms onto the mat, bending at the elbows and stacking them underneath or somewhat in front of your shoulders. Straighten your legs with your hips at least hip distance apart in Sphinx Pose.
Think of lifting through your chest and, at the same time, almost pulling your heart forward. You’re also pushing through the tops of your feet, anchoring down through the pubic bone, and lifting the abdominals so you’re not compressing your lower back.
Quad Stretch
You can stay in Sphinx Pose or you can add a quad stretch to your yoga for flexibility practice by bending one knee and bringing your foot toward your glutes. If this feels painful in your lower back, which is quite common, lower your chest to the mat and bring your forehead onto your forearm, down onto the mat. So you can do the quad stretch with or without the backbend. You’re trying to make this a gentle morning full-body stretch, so you don’t feel like pushing yourself beyond your limits.
