This is excellent for getting the body ready to stretch and really energises the spine. Remember stretching your toes? Curl your toes under in tabletop. Knees are under hips and hands under shoulders. Make sure that you look down at your hands and observe that the fingers are spread at an equal distance from one another. Breathing is of course an intrical part of this pose. You can really understand the breath more as you use it to move with these poses. Keep you hands and knees planted firmly on the earth. The only area moving in this pose is your spine and hips! Take a big deep belly breath then on the exhale suck in your belly in. Press your back as high as you can and allow the head to sink toward the ground. You should feel the pelvis and tailbone tuck. Then take your next inhale slowly look up and allow your belly to sink toward the ground. Your butt wants to stick out so let it! Continue to practice controlling the breath with the movement as you go from cat (exhale) to cow (inhale) and on and on. Do it at least 10x. From this pose you can also try and move into your downward dog.

PHOTO by @amyelizabethbruce

People always want to hate on this pose but once you get it it’s awesome! The foundation of this pose is your hands. I know you don’t want to be, but it is. Specifically the bridge of your hands where your fingers and palm meet. This is where the pressure should be greatest. Yes, It’s going to suck and it may hurt your wrist. (FYI if your wrists are weak you’ll really have to work up to this.) It took me months of daily practice and wrist pain until I finally got past it. I also was massaging my arms and wrists. In the perfect down dog those wrists shouldn’t have one bit of pressure on them. If you stick with it I promise one day you’ll see! You should also notice that your nails turn white from pressing them into the ground. Imagine you have little suction cups on your finger tips holding them down. Also be aware that the index fingers are parallel with one another, then spread all the other fingers an equal distance apart just like a fan. Now move to the next area of awareness. The shoulders or scapulas, your focal point. As you press your fingers and the bridge of you hand into the ground squish your shoulders up into your ears and then roll them back. Hold those shoulders back! This will create space between your arms and your ears.  You can then begin to feel the opening of your heart space as you press the head closer to the floor. Believe it or not this pose is a backbend. It’s also the first step to a hand stand. Ohh yeah I almost forgot what about those legs? Personally one of the things I love best about this pose is stretching my calf muscles (gastrocnemius and soleus). I just peddle my feet pressing one heal toward the floor then the other. I do this every time I do my dog. Try it, if you haven’t.  There are plenty of other alignment points to talk about but I’ll leave you with these to try.

PHOTOs By amyelizabethbruce

This is a great pose to do everyday. Even if you can’t fold forward just hold your hands together and feel the stretch in your chest (pectoralis muscles), biceps and maybe even your forearms or wrist depending on how tight you are. Hold the pose for as long as you can tolerate and do it multiple times a day! Don’t forget to also change finger position for your grip. This will enhance your overall posture and help remind your body that slouching is LAME!!

PHOTO By amyelizabethbruce

The true key to this pose is the foundation, your feet! The simplest way to explain… Stand on your feet. There are 4 key points in your feet for stability. Two in the ball and two in the heal. Those points should actively be pressed into the ground as you create muscular strength in your legs to lift your arch up. Who hasn’t heard rooting down to rise up? This should actively lift your arch! Once you get that stability interlace your fingers over your head, palms facing the sky and as you stretch from one side to the other actively press those 4 foot points into the ground. The opposite leg may need a little more push as you move your arms. Remember don’t over do this stretch. Only move comfortably. Don’t dump out your side body. Be gentile with your spine. Standing in this pose move slowly from one side to the other with your breath. Stand strong like a mountain! 🙂 Photo By AmyElizabeth

You know you should stretch your forearms and hands. If you saw how much I do these stretches and massaged my own hands and arms you’d probably wonder why they haven’t fallen off. Lol. I’m obsessed with stretching and massage! Besides exercise it really helps create awareness and control over your body. You’re shaping it! You’re making the decision to put yourself though a possible uncomfortable stretching experience to gain flexibility and actually help to eliminate pain in the future. These stretches can truly be done at anytime, anywhere! Even waiting at a red light in your car you could be doing these simple wrist stretches. When you do these you’re stretching the flexor and extender muscles for your forearms, hands and your thumb.

PHOTO by amyelizabethbruce

Start in table top curl your toes under starting from the big toe. Press them down into the mat, then try to spread each toe as best you can creating space between. When you’re ready start to move your pelvis/butt toward your heals. Hold this for as much time as you can. You may go back to table top then sit back again. Do this a few times. This is part of my daily yoga routine. It may make your foot or toes cramp and that’s ok! Cramping aches and some level of pain comes with telling your body what to do. If something hurts or aches there certainly something going on with the soft tissue. Believe me you want happy feet!!

PHOTO by amyelizabethbruce