Look, we all know that we could have a great start to our day if we jumped straight out of bed, drank a pint of water and did 15 minutes of yoga.
But it’s February, it’s cold, and, frankly, that sounds like hell.
What if you could give yourself a head start before prising yourself from the warmth and comfort of your bed?
With a bed-focused morning yoga flow, you can.
‘The purpose of flow (vinyasa) is to synchronise mind, body and breath,’ says yoga instructor Jayne Nicholls.
‘During sleep, we manifest an essential neurological and behavioural state which avoids any outside stimuli, so a perfect time to practice a flowing yoga sequence is during the transition from sleep to being awake.’
Jayne has shared a spine-loving yoga sequence you can from your bed, no mat – or workout clothes – necessary.
Morning yoga flow to try from your bed
Repeat this flow as many times as you like, using your breath to guide your movement.
After settling into your breathing pattern, change positions on each exhale and inhale.
Corpse pose
Once awake adjust your position so that you are lying on your back.
Keep your eyes closed and focus on a slow inhale through the nose, dragging oxygen towards the pelvis, allowing the lungs to fill and expand.
When your inhale is complete, exhale slowly through your nose.
Repeat this breath sequence until you’re ready, elongating the breath and keeping both inhale and exhale around the same speed.
Bridge pose
Once comfortable with the breath, bend your knees and place your feet flat beneath your knees pushing into your mattress.
On your next inhale push into a bridge position inflating the entire body from the knee to the chin.
Exhale lowering back down and straightening the legs back to corpse pose.
Knees to chest to lying twist
On your next inhale draw your knees to your chest flexing into a ball, clasping your legs and bringing your knees towards your face.
On your exhale let your legs and knees drop to the right as your arms extend out to the side.
Shoulders stay down as you press into your mattress.
Repeat this process coming back to the centre in a curled ball on your inhale and rotating to the left on your exhale.
Then, on your next inhale, come back to your knees to chest pose and stay there as you exhale.
Now we will make a conscious shift to apply more energy, more movement and be more awake.
Backwards roll to fold
On your next inhale roll back lifting your hips off the bed, the mattress makes a perfect base for you to be more energetic in this roll back.
With a strong exhale roll up into a seated position before extending your legs and lifting your arms above your head on an inhale.
Finally, exhale as you lean forward over your legs into a forward fold, making sure to bend your knees as much as you need to.
Do you have a story to share?
Get in touch by emailing [email protected].
Source: Read Full Article