How To Include Morning Yoga in Your Daily Routine
Yoga is one of the most beneficial exercises you could incorporate into your daily routine. It helps support muscle strength, promotes balance, stretches muscles, and helps you connect with your body.
Its benefits aren’t limited to physical health, either. Practicing just a few minutes of yoga each day can support mental and emotional health and help reduce feelings of stress.
Yoga is an easy form of exercise, and you don’t have to pay for an expensive class to do it. If you have a carpeted floor or yoga mat, you can perform yoga poses from the comfort of your own home!
Practicing yoga in the morning is a fantastic way to start your day and add balance to your daily routine.
If you’re not sure where to begin, that’s okay. This guide contains some easy poses to get you started, how to do them, and tips and tricks to help you along the way.
Sun Salutations
What’s a more soothing way to start your day than with a few Sun Salutations? They’re a simple, comforting flow to begin your morning yoga routine with.
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Start in position number one. Stand up straight with your feet together and flat on the ground. Your arms will hang by your sides.
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Inhale deeply and slowly swing your arms outward and up, like you’re reaching toward the ceiling.
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Before you bring your hands together in this pose, move your head behind your shoulders so you’re looking toward the sun. As you do this, you can bring your palms together.
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Exhale slowly, bringing your arms through the same swinging motion back down to your sides until they lay flat by your sides.
Keep in mind that when you do Sun Salutations, you perform them to the rhythm of your breathing. As you inhale, move your arms upward. As you exhale, move them back down.
Cobra Pose
The Cobra Pose is an excellent pose for beginners. It engages the triceps, core muscles, shoulders, hamstrings, and glutes while helping you stretch and breathe. Here are the steps for the Cobra Pose.
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Lie face down on your mat so your stomach is flat against the floor and the tops of your feet are lying on the mat.
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Move your arms so they’re tucked close to your body under your shoulders. Your elbows should be flat on the mat.
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Breathe inward and push your body up with your arms. Your pelvis and legs should remain on the mat, but your upper body should be lifted. Keep your pelvis on the mat, even if it means that your arms aren’t completely straight.
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Move your shoulders back and hold this pose for around 30 seconds. Regulate your breathing so it’s slow and intentional.
Child’s Pose
Child’s Pose is thought of as one of the most comforting yoga poses. It helps stretch the lower back and hips, supporting movement and posture. It offers a gentle stretch for the body while helping you regulate your breathing when you wake up. Here’s how to perform the Child’s Pose.
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Position yourself on all fours on your yoga mat, with your hands shoulder-width apart, your knees spread wide, and your toes together.
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Lay down on the mat so your stomach drops between your thighs and your forehead resting close to the floor or on the floor, depending on how far you can comfortably stretch.
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Stretch your arms out in front of your head like you’re reaching out. You can lay your palms on the floor and walk them outward to help you get a deeper stretch.
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Hold this pose for a few seconds, lifting your hips upward to rest and lowering yourself back down into the pose. Make sure you’re breathing deeply in and out throughout the pose.
Cat-Cow Pose
The Cat-Cow Pose helps release tension that we hold in the spine, stretch your back, and activate your core muscles. Below are the steps to perform this pose.
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Place your hands and knees shoulder-width apart on your yoga mat so you are on all fours.
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Using your core muscles, pull your spine toward the ceiling, so your back is humped on the outside. Your head should curve in toward your chest.
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Hold this pose for 10 seconds, breathing deeply throughout.
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Slowly move your body into the opposite position, pulling your spine down toward the ground, so your back makes a “U” shape. Your head will naturally curve upwards.
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Hold this pose for 10 seconds, breathing regularly.
The Happy Baby Pose
Embrace your inner child with this pose and stretch out your lower back and hips as well as your inner thighs. The happy baby pose is a wonderful pose to do in the morning as it gets your body moving and stretching.
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Lay on your yoga mat so your body is flat on your back.
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Bring your knees to your stomach, bending them so you can hold your feet.
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Use your feet to push against your hands. This should cause your hips to move side to side on the mat, stretching your thighs, hips, and lower back.
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Breathe deeply and exhale while performing this pose.
Benefits of Morning Yoga
Just like incorporating a nourishing skincare routine or finding balance for your evening routine, yoga is an excellent way to start your morning.
Physical Benefits of Yoga
Yoga benefits physical health by helping support flexibility, balance, strength, breathing, circulation, and mobility. It’s a low-impact exercise. It can also help alleviate certain kinds of pains and aches.
Mental Benefits of Yoga
Morning yoga may also work to help reduce feelings of stress and overwhelm when incorporated into your daily routine. Yoga helps relax our minds, meditate on positivity, support mood, and helps bring focus before beginning our day.
With the onset of the pandemic and the isolation it brings, focusing on mental health and wellbeing is critical. Having a morning routine that includes yoga can help boost mental health.
The team here at Journ includes parents, and we don’t have much time for a long morning routine. We understand that you may not either. These stretches are easy to do and only take a few minutes of your morning. Make your cup of coffee, do your morning skincare routine, and practice a few of these poses to get your day started on the right foot.
Make the Most of Your Morning
As you’re incorporating a few of these poses into your morning routine, remember to focus on your breathing and relaxation. Listen to the rise and fall of your chest and focus on the stretch of your muscles. Our bodies are amazing and Yoga is a way to stop and honor that.
Yoga is a delightful way to soothe stress, relax, and start your day with a positive mindset. And remember, you don’t have to start with all of these poses at once.
Try a few poses at a time and master those before moving on to the next pose. Even five minutes of yoga in the morning can get your day on the right foot, so grab a mat and stretch!
Sources:
The Sun Salutation | Sivananda International