Yoga is a great way to get in shape, firm up and stay flexible. It’s also a great at-home workout and a wonderful remedy for stress and anxiety.
It’s also responsible for considerable improvement in my own personal health over the years since I began my practice in 2007. And it’s responsible for the 10″ overall that went packing in January 2010.
Yoga is something I’m going to be writing about more frequently here on Simplicity Embellished. The photo in this post is of yours truly last weekend on the shore of Lake Erie. ;)
I want to share with you a simple yoga routine I do at times when I need to realign and reground. When I do this routine–I breathe! In deeply, out deeply. In deeply, out deeply. I focus only on my breath. Breathing in and breathing out. No lists, no appointments. No ‘what am I going to make for dinner.’ No ‘I need to switch the laundry over.’ These few minutes are just about you and your breath.
- Sun Salutation A
- Sun Salutation B
- Forward Fold (4-6 minutes)
- Slowly enter Yogi Squat (3-4 minutes)
- Crow
- Plank {modify: lift left arm, right leg – hold lift right arm, left leg-hold Keep abs tight!} Repeat 2-4 times.
- Chataranga Dandasana (hold!)
- Lay on your belly and do bumble bee breath on the left, then the right.
- Roll over onto your back, hug knees into chest
- Sometimes I’ll do a shoulder stand here, but you can leave it out.
- Boat Pose (hold!)
- Return to sitting, spread your legs out in a ‘v’. Fold forward into a stretch over the right leg, then the center, then the left, then back to center. Hold each stretch 30 seconds to 1 minute or so. Slowly switch between each of the stretches.
- Seated spinal twist on left side, right side
- savasana
And sometimes, I just pop up from my desk chair and do a standing forward fold for a few minutes. Refreshing!
Need to look up yoga poses? Yoga Journal has a great dictionary with photos here.
Hello! My name is Cole. Simplicity Embellished is my special place. I talk a lot about writing letters, etegami, gardening and yoga. Please sign up for Sunday Tea (comes to you via email), subscribe using your feed reader of choice and don't hesitate to say hello on Twitter or Facebook either.
I love yoga and I, too, have been known to get up from my chair and do a few standing forward folds. My co-workers just roll their eyes but it feels too good for me to care what they think.
Oh, and I am very jealous of you doing yoga on the beach. And your flexibility – I am still trying to master warrior3 without falling over or relying heavily on the blocks.
But I’ll get there – one day :-)
thank you for sharing!
Hi Annette!
Oh- don’t you just love to forward folds? I know i do.
Warrior III took me ages and I’m still not where I’d like to be with it. I found that standing leg splits helped me get there a little quicker-
namaste!
Cole
One of my favorite podcasts in the world is Yogamazing. Chaz does podcasts for a specific ailment (Yoga for Neck Pain, Yoga for Runners, etc.). But what I’d really love to see are simple podcasts of routines like this that. Just a thought if you’re ever looking for a yoga teaching outlet :P.
T- I need to look into this. You are the third person to tell me about yogamazing recently.
Thanks for the tip-c