Is the heat wearing you out? This summer yoga practise is excellent for mornings in the garden, before the heat and bustle kick in, or during a lazy summer afternoon when you need a second wind.
Warm-Up: Apanasana (Knees to Chest), Supine Twists, and Butterfly
Lay a blanket down in the grass and relax. Begin with pulling in your knees to your chest to stretch your lower back. For a gentle twist, bring your feet flat (and shoulder-width apart), and allow your legs to fall side to side, resting on each side for about ten seconds (or whatever feels right for you). Bring the bottoms of your feet together and allow the knees to fall open for a reclined butterfly pose; you may rest your hands on your stomach or allow the arms to fall open at your sides. Now, you’ve stretched your lower back, activated your internal organs, and opened up your hips in only three postures.
Pick Up the Pace: Cat & Cow to Downward Dog
Come to hands and knees and flow through cat and cow, looking up and dropping your stomach on your inhale and looking down and arching your back on your exhale. This helps you connect your movement to your breath and stretches the spine. When you’re ready, come into downward dog by lifting the hips. Remain here a moment, allowing the neck to relax and feeling a stretch in the shoulders.
Heat Up (But Not Too Much): Runner’s to Low to High Crescent Lunge & Sun Salutations
Bring your right forward into a runner’s lunge. Then relax the back knee to the floor to come into a low lunge. Lean forward over the knee to feel a deep stretch in the hip, then come back onto your heel, straightening the front leg in order to feel a deep stretch in the hamstring. Come back forward into your low lunge and then push back up into your runner’s lunge. Use your core to come up into a high crescent lunge. Use your breath to keep your muscles engaged and remain here for a moment. Step the back foot forward coming to a standing position when it feels right.
One thing yoga teaches us is how to listen to ourselves and know what the next right thing is.
Reach the arms overhead, put a bend in the knees and fall forward, coming into a forward fold. Walk your feet back, coming into a plank, and use your breathing to hold your plank for a moment. Then shift your weight forward, bending at the elbows (chaturanga), and drop the knees, flattening the feet, coming into an upward dog. (If you’d rather skip chaturanga and upward dog, then you may shift from plank to downward dog instead by simply lifting your hips.) Shift from your upward dog into your downward dog, and you’ve just completed a sun salutation! Bring the left foot forward and repeat the low lunge hip and hamstring stretches and come into your high crescent lunge on the left side.
Everything in yoga is about balance and making sure that what we do on one side of the body, we do on the other; another humble reminder to remain balanced in all that we do.
Flow through another sun salutation and come into a downward dog. From downward dog, shift to hands and knees, then sit back on the heels. You have now brought heat into the muscles in your arms, core, and legs and activated the natural processes of your body: a beautiful way to wake up or refresh during the day.
End on a Stretch and a Prayer: Heart Opener, Eagle Arms, and Intention
End your practice by clasping the hands behind you, opening up the chest (and heart). Look up, stretching out the front of the neck and thyroid, then look down for a deep stretch in the neck and shoulders. Release the arms and bring them out in front of you to make Eagle arms on both the right and left sides, working into your shoulders one last time. Reach the arms overhead (deep breath), and bring the hands in front of the heart in prayer. Take a moment to thank yourself for taking care of you and set an intention for the rest of your day.
Photography by Ivana Cajina
