5 Yoga Poses To Practice First Thing In The Morning
What you do in the morning can set the tone for the rest of your day. That is why creating an easily accessible daily ritual can help set you up for success no matter what state you wake up in or what the day ahead holds for you.
In addition, more and more studies are showing how practicing yoga can be the key to optimizing your mind, mood, and health. The best part? A yoga sequence can take less than 15 minutes per day and be done in the comfort of your own home!
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Here are my top five poses to help you start your day off on the right path. This should only take five to 15 minutes depending on how long you would like to repeat each movement. Most are designed to follow breath to movement, and it's best take your time with each pose.
Diaphragmatic breath
First, we will start with pranayama. The word “prana” translates to life force or breath, and “yama” means to reign in or control. The basis of starting to tune into your body is using the vehicle of breath.
An easy one to start with is dirgha breathing or diaphragmatic breath.
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How To:
- Place one hand on the heart and one had on the belly. This can be done sitting up, lying down, or any position that can afford you some stillness.
- Begin by inhaling through the nose and exhaling through the mouth.
- As you continue, try to make your exhales just a bit longer than your inhales. Start with inhaling for a 3-count and exhaling for a 4-count.
- The mind will wander—this is normal! Just gently guide your focus back to the breath.
Next, we will focus on pratapana, which translates to “stoking the fire” and is indicative of a warm-up using gentle, easy movements. The focus of the following poses is to warm up the spine after being still overnight. Here we will focus on the six movements of the spine. If any of these do not serve your body or feel good, please modify as needed or skip altogether. Remember, your morning practice should be gentle and nourishing as your body transitions from sleep to wake!
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Cat and cow
This can be performed on all-fours, seated in a cross-legged position, or if you have tighter hips can be performed in a low kneel as pictured. This movement stretches and extends the spine.
How To:
- Use the hands anchored to the fronts of knees or ground.
- Inhale and pull the heart and chest through the arms lifting the chin gently.
- Even though the belly is moving forward, keep the lower navel pulled in slightly to protect the low back.
- Exhale and round the back, dropping chin to chest; really feel the shoulder blades move apart here.
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Side bend
How To:
- Inhale to reach both arms up.
- Exhale to side bend to one side using the hand on the ground to push you even further away toward the opposite side.
- To further the pose: Reach up and over while looking up. This will create space in the side body and rib area.
- Also, rounding slightly down while looking down will create more sensation in the back near your lats and shoulders (pictured below).
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Twist
Think of this as gentle twisting. This often is the most difficult of these five poses, so allow the body to let you know when to stop and think of twisting from your core instead of using the shoulders to pull you through.
How To:
- Inhale to reach both arms up.
- Exhale using the front hand to anchor to the opposite knee and back hand to place behind you.
- With each inhale elongate through the crown of the head and use the exhale to deepen the twist.
Figure Four
This last one is great for stretching the hips, which we often hold so much tension in. It can be held statically or can also be used to rock gently side to side matching your own breathing pattern.
How To:
- Start by crossing the ankle over the top of the thigh.
- Use your arms to sit up fully and elongate your spine. If this causes discomfort or compression in the low back and take this posture lying on your back.
- Try to keep equal pressure on the sits bones to ensure you haven’t swayed too much to the side that is currently bent.
If you're sitting there thinking, “Well I don’t have enough space to do yoga” or “I’m not flexible enough to do yoga,” please know that these are common misconceptions that many people have. Yoga is more than just the asanas or poses. Yoga is the use of the body’s physical state to gain further understanding of ourselves spiritually and mentally. In understanding how our more subtle energies present in the body, we can make better use of the tools provided in yoga, such as the movements, to act upon and shift our state into a more harmonious mind-body connection. I hope you'll give these poses a try, and in doing so, reap the benefits that yoga has to offer.
Jessica Moy, DPT, is a physical therapist turned mind-body wellness coach and yoga instructor. After graduating from the University of Maryland with her Doctorate in physical therapy, she found there was a missing component to the physical healing her clients were looking for. As a prior athlete herself, her experiences with rehabilitation also left out the emotional and mental demand that came with it. From there she developed her holistic approach to well-being through certifications in yoga (E-RYT) and mind-body therapy based in somatic and experiential teachings with eastern philosophy weaved throughout.
Now Jessica helps people reverse engineer the process of accessing fuller living by tapping back into their bodies to better understand their own emotional, mental, and spiritual health. Her hope is to revolutionize the perspective of well-being by helping people discover how the body can tell us so much more than just its physical state. Jessica continues to share her knowledge and virtual services on her website and through Instagram @drjessmoy_wellness and Facebook @drjessmoywellness.