Moving your body first thing in the morning is a great way to jumpstart your metabolism and prepare you for the day—and yoga is an easy, healthy, low-stress way to do that.
Yoga utilizes all muscle groups, and that makes it an excellent workout. It’s perfect for everyone—from beginners to advanced practitioners. Here are five beginner yoga poses you can do to start your day right!
Downward-Facing Dog (Ado Mukha Svanasana)
Downward-facing Dog (sometimes called the ‘inverted V shape’) is one of the best spine stretches you can start your day with. When you press your palms firmly to the ground and push yourself up from the floor, it creates space between your vertebrae and decompresses your entire spine.
Do not firmly press your heels into the floor. Rather, they should be reaching toward the floor, so your leg muscles are always working for more flexibility and mobility.
When you simultaneously move your hips diagonally into the air and reach your heels toward the floor, you work your hamstrings, quads, calves, glutes, and Achilles tendons—the whole nine yards!
Inhale deeply to “grow taller;” as you exhale, get deeper into the stretch.
Upward-Facing Dog (Urdva Mukha Svanasana)
Upward-facing Dog stretches the spine in the opposite way. It creates a great opening in the front of your body and allows your chest to expand. When you pull your shoulders away from your ears and toward each other, it improves shoulder and neck mobility, while stretching the collarbone and pectoral muscles. Firmly press your palms and the tops of your feet into the floor for leverage and go deeper into the backbend as you inhale and exhale.
Activate your quads and relax your glutes as much as you can to release tension in your lower back.
Also, try to roll your inner thighs toward one another—this protects your lower back even more and really stretches those hip flexors.
Runner’s Lunge (Anjaneyasana)
