Our 10-Minute Yoga Routine will Energize Your Mornings
Jenny Fant, certified yoga instructor and Sun Basket’s marketing copywriter, shares a quick wake-up yoga flow routine to jump-start your morning.
Start in:
Child’s Pose
- Begin on your hands and knees.
- Spread your knees wide apart while keeping your big toes touching.
- Lay your torso between your thighs.
- Take note of your breath and its cadence.
- Sink your hips into your heels.
- Stretch your arms our in front of you and press your palms into the floor.
- Rest your forehead on the floor.
- Ground here for as many breaths as you need.
Press down into:
Downward-Facing Dog
- Starting in child’s pose with your hands shoulder-width apart, press firmly with spread fingers into your mat.
- Curl your toes under and lift your hips up and back, keeping your knees bent and heels elevated.
- Push up and press back from the tops of your thighs.
- Root your hands into the mat and walk out your dog, generously bending one knee and then the other.
- Keep a microbend in both knees at all times.
- Press your heels toward the floor (don’t worry if they don’t touch).
- Send your tailbone up to the sky.
Walk your feet to meet your hands for:
Rag Doll
- Microbend (or lots of bend!) both knees.
- Grab your elbows with opposite hands.
- Hinge at the hips.
- Relax your neck.
- Sway left and right, if you’d like.
Sun Salutation and a quick flow:
- Mountain pose
- Forward fold
- Halfway lift
- Forward fold
- Chaturanga
- Upward dog
- Downward dog
Start on the right side, follow with the above sun salutation and flow, and then repeat on the left:
- Low lunge
- Warrior 2
- Extended side angle
- Reverse warrior
- Chaturanga, upward dog, and downward dog
Now, get your heart rate up and your blood pumping for the day ahead:
In plank position
10 Mountain Climbers
From plank position, bring your left knee to your left elbow, repeat on the right, and continue on alternating sides at as fast a pace as you can maintain while keeping your hips level.
10 Plank Jacks
From plank position, jump your feet out wider than your shoulders, then back together (like the motion of a jumping jack but horizontal); repeat at whatever pace is accessible to you.
Left side plank 10 seconds
Ground your right hand on the floor, stack your feet, and extend your left arm and left side body up in space, facing left and holding your core tight.
Right side plank hold 10 seconds
Same as above.
Play around with your handstand
Note: Attempting a handstand could be hopping just two inches off the ground or moving up into a full-on handstand if that’s what is accessible to you. Otherwise, try another inversion, such as legs up the wall or plow position. Inversions are great in the morning because their energizing effects are a great way to walk into your day.
Return to Child’s Pose for:
Thread the Needle right side (hold for 5 breaths)
From child’s pose, extend your right arm up in space toward the sky and then down and under your chest, perpendicular to your torso to rest on your mat and reaching toward the left side of the mat for a gentle twist.
Thread the Needle on the left side
Same as above.
Come onto your back for:
Butterfly Savasana for 1 to 3 minutes
Lie on your back, bring the soles of your feet together, and open your knees toward either edge of the mat. Let your arms lie flat and rested at your sides. This is a great opportunity to wake up (again) for the day feeling refreshed, energized, and in a meditative frame of mind.
