Now that the Spring Equinox is here, it's time to embrace the sunshine and get outside to soak up the vitamin D. Of course, I love to explore in the winter, but winter activities are so much different than activities in the warmer months. And, if you are like me, after a long winter hike or snowshoe through the forest, I enjoy returning home, making hot tea, and curling up on the couch to a good book or movie. This act of curling up on the couch, surrounded by blankets, compresses our vertebrae, and lessens our natural curvature in our lumbar spine. So, I have created a mini-series of five yoga postures to help release those stuck areas, warm the body, and release toxins, so you can get out in the sunshine, and enjoy freer movement.
"To appreciate the beauty of a snowflake, it is necessary to stand out in the cold". ~ Aristotle
Five Yoga Postures to Recover from the Winter Blues:
Uttanasana, Forward Fold - Whenever your head is below your heart, you release stress, tension and anxiety. This is a beautiful posture to recenter yourself, and let go.
Benefits:
Lengthens and strengthens the posterior chain.
Opens the hips
Releases tension in the head and neck.
Stimulates the liver and kidneys, aiding in digestion.
How to Get into the Pose:
Start in Tadasana, Mountain pose, with your hands by your side, palms facing forward.
Inhale: Take your arms overhead, and meet it prayer.
Exhale: Bend forward at the hips, lengthening the front of your torso towards the front of your mat.
Let the crown of your head hang down, releasing the back of your neck by bringing your forehead towards your shins. Press your heels into the floor as you lift your sit bones toward the ceiling. Turn the tops of your thighs slightly inward.
In order to allow the hamstrings to release, you can engage your quadriceps and draw them up toward the ceiling. The more you engage your quadriceps, the more your hamstrings will release.
Hold the pose for up to one minute. Follow your breath as you hold the posture, with every inhale find length between the feet and tail bone, and exhale draws you closer to the floor or your shins.
Remember to use a block or bend your knees, if you need to lessen the intensity of the hamstring stretch.
Trikonasana, Triangle Pose - This is a great pose to continue to open the hamstrings, but also to begin to open the heart and chest.
Benefits:
Lengthens and strengthens the legs.
Opens the hips, groin, and hamstrings.
Releases tension in chest and shoulders.
Challenges balance and stability.
How to Get into the Pose:
The begin, start in Warrior II and straighten the front leg.
Exhale: Engage your right thigh muscles and draw your right femur towards your hip.
Inhale: Extend your right hand toward the front of the room.
Exhale: Lower your right hand down onto your shin, ankle (as always, avoid your knee), or if you are more open, bring your right hand to the floor on the inside or on the right foot.
Stack shoulder on shoulder, and begin to open your chest, reaching your left fingertips toward the ceiling while keeping your left shoulder in line with your bottom shoulder.
Turn your head to take your gaze up toward your dristhi, your focal point (left fingertips).
Continue to draw your right thigh muscles upward, deepening the crease in your right hip.
Soften your right knee slightly to prevent hyperextension (this is called a microbend).
Stay for at least five breaths.
Repeat the pose with your left leg forward.
Parivrtta Anjaneyasana, Revolved Crescent - This pose is a great detoxifier to release built up winter toxins in the body, and the organs.
Benefits:
Helps detoxify the organs with the twist - gives a gentle massage to the internal organs.
Challenges your balance.
Improves your posture by awakening the spine.
Releases tension in the back, neck, and shoulders.
How to Get into the Pose:
Start in downward facing dog.
Inhale: Lift your right leg.
Exhale: Step your right foot between your hands, and stay on your back left toe (ensure that your ankle stacks directly over your heel).
Inhale: Rise up to Crescent - keep right knee directly over the right ankle for a 90-degree band, hips square to the front of your mat, and hands reach above to gain length in the spine.
Exhale: Hands to heart center, and engage the core.
Inhale: Find length between the vertebrae.
Exhale: Begin your twist by bringing the left elbow towards the outside of your right thigh. Option to fan open the arms, or find a bind to open the shoulders even further.
Gaze toward to sky. With every inhale, lengthen the crown of the head towards the front of the room. Exhale, and twist a little deeper. Repeat this step at least three times. And, reverse the pose the way you entered, and return to downward facing dog to visit the left side.
Bhujangasana, Sphinx Pose - This pose may seem simple, but there are so many lines of energy at work in this posture to get the maximum benefits, it's a fantastic pose to reverse our winter postures.
Benefits:
Strengthens the spine, and reengages the lumbar spine.
Stretches chest and lungs, shoulders, and abdomen.
Firms the buttocks.
Stimulates abdominal organs.
Helps relieve stress.
How to Get into the Pose:
Lie on your belly with your legs outstretched behind you, squeezed together, and your hands in front of you with parallel forearms (shoulders stacked over your elbows). Rotate your thighs inwardly by rolling your outer thighs toward the floor. This helps broaden and lengthen your lower back and sacrum to protect it in the backbend.
Follow your breath in this posture.
Reach actively through your toes to the wall behind you. As you move into the pose, be sure to continue lengthening your tailbone toward your heels to protect your lower back. Your buttocks should be firm but not clenched. While your legs are active, your tongue, eyes, and brain should be quiet.
Inhale: Actively pull your chest forward using your hands firmly pressed into your mat as leverage. Lift the crown of your head towards the ceiling.
Exhale: Allow your belly to press into the mat to activate and aid digestion. And then, following the inhale, draw in the navel in towards the spine to create a lift above your mat. This curvature of the belly distributes the curve of the backbend evenly to soothe your lower back, and awaken the upper back.
Stay in this posture for at least five breaths.
As a counter posture, press up to your hands and knees and either come into a traditional child's pose, or rabbit pose for a deeper roundness in your spine.
Supta Matsyendrasana, Supine Twist (on blocks) - This is my favorite pose to begin and end the day because it rejuvenates the spine, and helps calm the body and mind after a yoga practice or a busy day. The blocks act as a sort of foam roller on tight areas at the hips, mainly targeting the TFL (the muscle above the IT band, which helps stabilize the pelvis while walking, running, or sitting).
Benefits:
Stretches the glutes, chest, and obliques.
Improves spinal mobility and can aid digestion.
Helps relax the body and mind after a yoga series.
Counters hunching, curling up on the couch, or poor posture at your desk.
How to Get into the Pose:
Lie down on your back.
Exhale: Bend your knees towards your chest, and put the soles of your feet on the floor as close to your sits bones as possible, with your knees pointing up toward the ceiling.
Take two blocks and place them together with the flatter, longer side on the ground. Press into your feet to lift your hips slightly off the floor, take the two blocks, and place them underneath your hips. Try to align the top of the blocks with the top of your hips.
Once on the blocks, lift your hips once more, and shift them about an inch to your right (ensure the leftmost block is flush with your left hip, as well). This movement of your hips slightly to the right is an important step because it sets your hips up to stack one on top of the other when you move into the twist.
Inhale: Lengthen your legs out in front of you, and take your hands back behind your head, if that feels good and stable on the blocks.
Exhale: Draw your right knee into your chest, and wrap your hands around your knee, bringing the knee towards the chest. Keep your left foot actively flexed throughout the pose.
Inhale.
Exhale: Cross your right knee over your midline to the floor on the left side of your body. Your right hip is now stacked on top of your left hip. You can hook your right foot behind your left knee if you like.
Inhale: Open your right arm to the right, keeping it in line with your shoulders. Turn your palms toward the ceiling.
Turn your head to the right, bringing your gaze over your shoulder to your right fingertips, your dristhi or focal point.
Hold this posture for at least 10 breaths. Come out of the pose the same way, following your breath, and switch to the left side.
Before your find a counter pose, remove the blocks and find a supine butterfly in order to allow your body to soak up all the benefits of a twisting posture. Since you just created space between the vertebrae, it is important to honor that space and allow the body to adjust rather than go straight into a counter pose like knees to the chest, and rounding out the spine.
Now, I hope that you found these postures interesting, and I hope that you feel the length, regain your natural posture and posterior strength, and feel detoxified from the winter blues. Enjoy the length and strength from each one of these postures!
All my light. All my love.
Namaste,
Jordan
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