home > health-fitness
April 21, 2016
A Perfect 10-Minute Yoga Ritual
10-Minute Bedside Yoga Flows
A gentle yoga flow is great for helping to wake up in the morning or to relax when readying for sleep. Conveniently enough, these flows, put together by yoga teacher and wellness expert Sophie Jaffe of Philosophie, can be done bedside.
The morning and night flows take about 10 minutes, but listen to your body and extend or shorten the asanas as needed. Try to match each breath to each movement, and feel free to add more breath cycles as needed.
Gentle Yoga Flows for Morning
As mornings can be hectic, you can shorten your practice by focusing solely on the sun salutations. On the flip side, you can extend it by adding more sun salutations—always adjusting accordingly. After all, this is all about you.
Begin with sun salutations:
From downward dog (hands on the floor about shoulder distance apart, fingers facing forward and spread wide, feet back and hips lifted, moving your shoulders down the back and lengthening the spine), move your right leg up in the air and pull the right knee toward your nose.
Take your right leg up and back and then bring your knee to your right elbow, and then move the leg back and up.
Take your knee to your left elbow, and then bring it back. From there, pull your leg forward into a low lunge position, dropping the back knee. Inhale and come up with your arms extending straight up in the air and hips reaching forward.
Return your hands to either side of your foot, bring your back foot forward to meet the front, then exhale and fold forward.
Inhale for a halfway lift, bringing your upper body up and forward, then exhale and release. Repeat again. Then inhale, reaching your body all the way up to the sun, stacking hips over knees over ankles, and then relax your head and arms down. Inhale and exhale. Reach all the way up, inhale, and then swan dive down.
From there, step or hop back into plank position. You can take child’s pose or go through a full vinyasa—flowing into chaturanga (low plank) and upward dog or cobra, and then returning to downward facing dog. Inhale and open your mouth to exhale fully.
Optional add-on to the sun salutation that would challenge your balance: Tree pose. Bring your right leg up to your ankle to the inside of your thigh. Inhale the arms up to the sky and then bring your hands to your heart center when you’re ready and drop your leg back down. Repeat on the other leg.
Optional add-on to stimulate the core and strengthen and stretch the legs: Triangle pose or revolved triangle. In both poses, take a slight bend in the knees and keep all four corners of the feet grounded.
Gentle Yoga Flows at Night
While lying on your back, try gently breathing in for three counts and exhaling for six. As you relax further, try extending the breath longer.
Take tabletop on all fours on your hands and knees—with your wrists-elbows-shoulders in line and hips and knees in line. Inhale and extend the spine down, gently drawing the chest through the upper arms and the tailbone back, creating the tiniest of backbends (cow). Then begin to exhale as you round the spine up. Complete the exhalation as you lower into an easy child’s pose with the hips on the heels and the belly on the thighs. As you inhale, rise back up to tabletop and extend the spine, moving fluidly between the three phases of the pose. Repeat 10 times.
For downward facing dog, bring your hands on the floor about shoulder distance apart, fingers facing forward and spread wide, feet back and hips lifted, moving your shoulders down the back and lengthening the spine.
For sphinx pose, lie on your belly with your legs extended behind you and place your elbows to the side of the chest, forearms parallel to one another. Gently lift the chest, dropping the weight into the elbows.
For legs up the wall, sit with one side of your body next to a wall with your hips as close to it as possible or with a cushion nearby. Roll onto your back so that your hips come onto the cushion and your legs rotate directly over the hips and up the wall. Your feet can be together or hips’ distance apart. Keep your arms and hands by your sides with your palms turned up. Inhale and exhale slowly for a few breath cycles (or as long as you want).
Move into savasana and breathe deeply or ease into bed and allow your breath to return to its natural rhythm.