Yoga

My husband told me last night he was feeling very tight in his lower back and hamstrings. Normally if you have tight hamstrings, you will have a tight lower back. Anyways, I asked him if he has stretched lately and told me no. So what did I make him do this morning? YOGA! He started off making fun of it and then we did a 20 minute routine to release the tension. Afterwards, he felt great. So I thought, today is a great day to get a good yoga workout in. (The Yoga we did together was really more for stretching than for working out, although he was sweating.) I am pulling some of my workout from here Bikini Workout and the rest from poses I love.

They always say to focus on your breathing, I have been doing yoga since I was about 14 years old, and I still stink at breathing, so I just focus on the muscles being stretched.

Warm up

Pose One:

Stand shoulder width apart and bring your arms up over your head, palms touching, arms close to your ear, hold for 5 seconds and release.

Repeat this 3 times in a row.

Pose two:

Place your hands on your lower back and from the hips lower down to flat back. Hold for 5 seconds.

Pose Three:

Swan dive all the way down to touch your toes. Hold for 5 seconds, roll back up to Pose two, hold for 5 seconds and then repeat pose three.

Repeat this circuit 3 times in a row.

Pose four:

Roll back up slowly from each vertebrate until you reach high in the sky (ha that made me laugh.) Hold for 5 seconds.

Exercise

Pose one: 

 

Start in down dog position. Lift one leg up, hold for 5 seconds and swing it under, bringing the knee to your chin, hold for 5 seconds and swing back up.

Repeat 10 times on each leg.

Pose two:

 

In down dog position, go on to your forearms. Hold this for 10 seconds. Back into down dog position by lifting one arm at a time.  Hold for 2 seconds and repeat.

Repeat 10 times.

Pose three:

Front down dog position, go into a high plank. Hold for 10 seconds. Bring in one knee towards your chin, (while looking straight at the ground) and hold for 5 seconds. Release and switch legs.

Repeat 5 times on each leg.

Pose four:

From Plank position, put on leg between your hands and sit in a low lunge position for 10 seconds.

Pose five:

(I opted out of taking this picture myself!)
From pose four, go into a middle squat with your heels pointed in, butt tucked in and arms open parallel to your thighs. Hold it for 5 seconds, release and repeat.

Repeat 10-15 times

Repeat Pose Four on other leg

Pose six:

Go back into high plank and do 5 slow push ups.

Cool Down

Repeat warm- up and  end in child's pose!

http://blog.gaiam.com/blog/8-yoga-time-out-poses-for-grownups/

Ps I absolutely hate pictures, this just shows how much I like you guys! Oh also starting your day off with a nice cold glass of water, not only gets your metabolism boosted, but gets your day going too!