Yoga For Everyday

In an ideal world, you can spend thirty to sixty minutes on your yoga mat daily. It’s essential to recognize that not every day will be a “spend 30-60 minutes on your yoga mat” kind of day. When you are short on time and still want to sneak in a quick yoga practice, here are five yoga poses I recommend you do daily. These stretches will satisfy your body and allow you many miles of joy on the trail.

In no particular order:

Child’s Pose. You’ll start on your hands and knees on the floor to get into this pose. Slowly lower your hips to your heels, allowing your arms to extend long in front of you. Depending on the day, you may want to take your knees wide, allowing your belly to fall between your legs, or you may decide to keep your needs close together, allowing your stomach to rest on your thighs. Both are wonderful variations of this stretch.

Thread the Needle. This pose is another stretch that you’ll start on hands and knees on the floor. This time, you’ll inhale one arm out to the side and then thread it behind the arm still connected to the mat, bringing your shoulder (of the arm threading) down to the floor. Switch sides and repeat.

Bridge. Laying on your back, bend your knees, keeping your feet flat on the floor. Feet will be a few inches away from your bottom. Your legs will be hip-width distance apart (visualize a baseball between your knees) while your arms are long by your sides, palms facing down. On an inhalation, gently lift your hips off the ground, pressing through the soles of your feet, allowing your hips to rise toward the sky. Take about five breaths in this position, and slowly release your hips to the floor.

Pigeon. There are LOTS of variations of this pose however, let’s make this as accessible to as many people as possible. And since you’re on the floor, let’s do supine pigeon.

Stay on your back, with your feet on the floor like the setup for the bridge only this time, let’s bring the right ankle onto the top of the left thigh. Your legs will look like a figure four. If you’re feeling a good stretch here, then stay here! However, if you need a little more, lift your left foot off the ground. How does that feel? If you’ve found your edge, please stay here. If you need more, add a little pressure with your right hand against the right leg to deepen the stretch. Or you can even intertwine your hands behind the left thigh to create a deeper stretch. After taking 10-20 breaths, release the position and try it with the other leg.

Standing forward fold. Standing with your feet about a shoulder width apart, inhale and hinge forward at your hips. You may need a slight bend in your knees to allow this position to take shape. As you reach for the earth beneath you, you may find that your hands do not contact the ground. It is okay! Let them lay where they comfortably reach without straining - this may be your knees, shins, ankles, tops of feet, etc. With time and practice, your hands will eventually reach the earth!