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Yoga Stretches to Start Your Day

Linde in Pinetop wants to stretch her way into Yoga.

"Hi Chris,
Will you have the stretches that you showed on 3TV on this site soon? They were wonderful and re-enforced my need to get into yoga. Thanks."

You Betcha!
Thanks for reminding me. I got a lot of feedback from that segment from viewers who wanted to know some more dynamic stretches as well, so here you go!

The roots of dynamic stretching reach way back beyond 5000 years ago with the practice of yoga. In yoga, the ‘Sun Salutation’ is a series of flowing movements that you perform first thing in the morning. Each position is held just for a brief moment, and then moves on to the next movement in the series. Thousands of years later, science is now finding that performing a similar series of movements (stretches) that take the body thru its full range of motion, actually excites and awakens the muscle spindles (the tiny contractile elements of the muscles) and literally ‘turns the muscles on’ for a faster and stronger contraction. Those yoga masters really knew what they were talking about!

This is a wonderful dynamic stretching circuit that you can do first thing in the morning to wake your body up, or perform before beginning any exercise:

Move thru 10-12 repetitions of each exercise before moving on to the next in the series. Hold each stretch at the beginning and end of the motion for two to three seconds. With each repetition, try to sink further and further into each stretch.

Hip Twisters
Muscles Stimulated: Obliques/Core Muscles


Focus:

• Keep shoulder on the ground as you rotate from side-to-side

• Keep your knees together holding a 90 degree angle, without letting the heels move in toward your body – keep them at a distance.

Scorpions
Muscles Stimulated: Chest/Hip Flexors


Focus:

• Keep your elbows on the ground and pay attention to the stretch in the chest
  
  
• As you reach over with the foot, point your knee toward the ceiling and touch your toe to the ground

Swoops
Muscles Stimulated: Shoulders/Core Muscles /Calves /Hamstrings


Focus:

• At the push back, tuck your head between your shoulders and push your heels into the ground

• As you shift forward into the abdominal stretch, keep your elbows locked out and pull your shoulders away from your ears (you will have a tendency to shrug)

Deep Lunge
Muscles Stimulated: Hip Flexors/Quads


Focus:

• From the push back position of the Swoops, you can lunge your right foot up and place it to the outside of your right hand

• Keep your weight on the HEEL of the front foot and push the left hip into the ground for the stretch

• To increase the stretch, try to touch the ground with your right elbow, then switch sides

Gorilla Squat
Muscles Stimulated: Hamstrings/Spinal Erectors

Focus:

• Keep the arms between the legs and your weight on the heels

• In the bottom position with the hands under the toes, pull your shoulder away from your ears (you will have a tendency to shrug)
  

• Pushing thru the heels, extend the legs as far as you can until you feel a stretch thru the hamstring (back of the leg), then return to the squatting position

~ Chris

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