Yoga Basics - Gentle Hip and Back Openers
Plow Pose
Sanskrit Name: Halasana
Benefits:
- Strengthens your abdominal muscles
- Stimulates your abdominal organs and thyroid
- Stretches your shoulders and spine
- Reduces stress and maybe even fatigue
- Calms your brain
Happy Baby
Sanskrit Name: Ananda Balasana
Benefits:
- Releases your lower back and sacrum
- Opens your outer hips, inner thighs, and groin
- Stretches your hamstrings and the soles of your feet
- Lengthens your spine
- Helps rejuvenate your soul
Garland Pose
Sanskrit Name: Malasana
Benefits:
- Stretches your ankles, thighs, groin and opens your hips
- Strengthens your core
- Helps with digestive functions
- Improves your balance, focus and posture
- Helps with grounding your heart, soul and thoughts
Pro Tip: A lot of our emotions are stored inside our hips. This pose stretches deep into your hips and has the tendency to bring up stuff we’ve buried. So proceed with caution, but remember, as important as emotions are, they are still just emotions... nothing more, nothing less. They are feedback as to how we’re living our lives. Acknowledge it, learn from it, embrace it and let it go.
Child’s Pose
Sanskrit Name: Balasana
Benefits:
- Releases tension in your upper back, shoulders and neck
- Lengthens your spine
- Helps alleviate stress, anxiety and sleep
- Gently massages your abdominal organs, including your digestive organs
- Boosts blood circulation
Pro Tip: In my variation here I keep my knees and feet together. I’ve been struggling with a tight lower back recently and this variation promotes a nice and easy opening right at the sweet spot! You may also widen your knees, while still keeping your toes touching, to target your hips more.
Standing Forward Fold
Sanskrit Name: Uttanasana
Benefits:
- Lengthens your entire posterior chain, feet through to the crown of your head
- Strengthens your thighs and knees
- Reduces stress, anxiety, and fatigue
- Rushes fresh, oxygenated blood to your brain and face
- Reversing gravity’s natural pull on your face for lengths and can aid in reversing some wrinkles!
Pro Tip: Every morning, the moment my feet hit the floor, I immediately do a standing forward fold. Every morning it feels a bit different - sometimes it stretches my back, sometimes it stretches my hamstrings. Sometimes I feel light headed and see stars when I come up, sometimes I feel nothing but energy. And so on. Everyday is different, everyday starts as new. It’s my way of checking in with myself daily, before anyone else has anything to say about it...
**Remember to completely relax your face, jaw and head while in this pose!