Childs Pose

STEPS

1. Begin on your hands and knees. Center your breath, and begin to let your thoughts slow down. Turn your awareness inward.
2. Spread your knees wide apart while keeping your big toes touching. Rest your buttocks on your heels.
   • Those with very tight hips can keep their knees and thighs together.
3. Sit up straight and lengthen your spine up through the crown of your head.
4. On an exhalation, bow forward, draping your torso between your thighs. Your heart and chest should rest between or on top of your thighs. Allow your forehead to come to the floor.
5. Keep your arms long and extended, palms facing down. Press back slightly with your hands to keep your buttocks in contact with your heels. Lengthen from your hips to your armpits, and then extend even further through your fingertips.
   • For deeper relaxation, bring your arms back to rest alongside your thighs with your palms facing up. Completely relax your elbows.
6. Let your upper back broaden. Soften and relax your lower back. Allow all tension in your shoulders, arms, and neck to drain away.
7. Keep your gaze drawn inward with your eyes closed.
8. Hold for up to a minute or longer, breathing softly.
9. To release the pose, gently use your hands to walk your torso upright to sit back on your heels

Benefits of Child’s Pose

Child's Pose helps to stretch the hips, thighs, and ankles while reducing stress and fatigue. It gently relaxes the muscles on the front of the body while softly and passively stretching the muscles of the back torso. This resting pose centers, calms, and soothes the brain, making it a therapeutic posture for relieving stress. When performed with the head and torso supported, it can also help relieve back and neck pain. Sometimes used as a counter-pose to backbends, Child's Pose restores balance and equanimity to the body.

Regular practice of Child's Pose also teaches conscious exploration of the breath. As the front of the body releases onto the thighs, the frontal ribs and abdominal muscles become slightly compressed. This restriction allows for a deeper opening of the back of the torso as the lungs expand behind the body. As this happens, keeping the breath slow, long, and steady allows for a new awareness of the breath's path through the front and back of the body.

Cautions

Do not practice Child's Pose if you have a current or recent knee injury. Always work within your own range of limits and abilities. If you have any medical concerns, talk with your doctor before practicing yoga.

Upward Dog Pose

Instructions

1. Begin by lying face-down on the floor with your legs extended behind you, spread a few inches apart. The tops of your feet should rest on the mat — do not tuck your toes, as this can crunch your spine.
2. Place your hands on the floor alongside your body, next to your lower ribs. Point your fingers to the top of the mat and hug your elbows in close to your ribcage.
3. Inhale as you press through your hands firmly into the floor. Straighten your arms, lifting your torso and your legs a few inches off the floor.
4. Press down firmly through the tops of your feet. Strongly engage your leg muscles to keep your thighs lifted off the floor.
5. Keep your elbows pressed alongside your body. Drop your shoulders away from your ears and lift your chest toward the ceiling.
6. Draw your shoulders back and your heart forward, but do not crunch your neck. If your neck is flexible, tilt your head to gaze toward the sky. Otherwise, keep your head neutral and your gaze directly forward.
7. Your thighs should be firm and turned slightly inward. Your arms should also be firm, slightly turned so that each elbow crease faces forward.
8. Only straighten your arms as much as your body allows. Deepen the stretch as your practice advances, but avoid straining to achieve a deeper backbend.
9. Actively press your shoulder blades into your upper back. Keep your elbows hugged in to your sides. Broaden across your collarbones and lift your heart. Glide the tops of your shoulders away from your ears. Distribute the length of the backbend evenly through your entire spine.
10. Hold the pose for up to 30 seconds. To release, exhale as you slowly lower your torso and forehead to the mat. Turn your head to the right, resting your left ear on the mat. Relax your arms alongside your body. Repeat the pose up to five times. 

Benefits of Upward-Facing Dog

Upward-Facing Dog stretches the chest and spine, while strengthening the wrists, arms, and shoulders. By strengthening and opening the upper body and chest, it improves posture and can be therapeutic for asthma. Upward Dog creates suppleness in the back torso and abdomen, which stimulates the abdominal organs and improves digestion. It also firms the buttocks and thighs, helping to relieve sciatica. The backbend energizes and rejuvenates the body, providing relief from fatigue and mild depression.

Cautions

Do not practice Upward-Facing Dog if you have carpal tunnel syndrome, or a recent back or wrist injury. Always work within your own range of limits and abilities. If you have any medical concerns, talk with your doctor before practicing yoga.

Scissor Twist

How to Do the Oblique Scissor Kick

Step 1: Starting Position

Lie on your back on an exercise mat with your legs side by side and extended. Place your fingertips on your head just behind your ears to provide a little support for your head. Lift your head and shoulder blades off the mat. Hover your heels a couple inches off the mat.

Step 2: Contract Your Core Muscles

Press your lower back firmly into the mat and slightly tuck your pelvis. Draw your belly button in toward your spine. Maintain this position throughout the exercise.

Step 3: Initiate the Movement

Move your legs in a vertical plane to create the scissoring action. As your right leg lifts up, your left leg lowers to hover above the mat. Keep your legs as straight as possible.

Step 4: Add the Twist

As your right leg rises, rotate your torso to the right, bringing your left elbow toward your right thigh. Your left shoulder blade will come higher off the ground, and your right shoulder blade may touch the mat. Return to center as your legs pas each other, then rotate your torso to the left as your left leg rises.

Mountain Climbers

How to Do Mountain Climbers

1. Start in a plank position with arms and legs long. Beginning in a solid plank is the key to proper form and good results in the Mountain Climber. At its heart, the Mountain Climber is a form of plank. Keep your abs pulled in and your body straight. Squeeze your glutes and pull your shoulders away from your ears
2. Pull your right knee into your chest.  As the knee draws to the chest, pull your abs in even tighter to be sure your body doesn’t sag or come out of its plank position.
3. Quickly switch and pull the left knee in. At the same time you push your right leg back, pull your left knee in to the chest using the same form.
4. Continue to switch knees. Pull the knees in right, left, right, left—always switching simultaneously so that you are using a “running” motion. As you begin to move more quickly be in constant awareness of your body position and be sure to keep a straight line in your spine and don’t let your head droop. Core body stability is crucial.

The Benefits of Mountain Climbers

You’ll Build Upper Body Strength

Mountain Climbers build strength in the upper body muscles of the shoulders, arms, chest and back because they hold your bodyweight up for a long period of time. Not only that, but by adding the movement of the legs, the upper body muscles need to stabilize and keep you grounded. Not to mention the fact that you’ll feel this in your legs for sure!

The Cardio Workout is Good for Your Heart

The fast repetition of the knees coming in and out of the chest will get your heart pumping and force you to breathe through your mouth. This move mimics running in a plank position and you know how good running is for your heart! Obviously the faster you perform your Mountain Climbers, the harder you’ll breathe and the greater the cardiovascular benefits will be.

You’ll Increase Your Core Strength

At the heart of these Mountain Climbers is that awesome plank position that you are working in. By holding the plank position throughout the Mountain Climbers you are increasing core strength better than crunches or sit-ups ever could. But that’s just the beginning. In addition to holding the plank you incorporate the fast motion of the legs, which shakes up the muscles of the abdominals and lower back. They are forced to pull in and stabilize, which teaches your body to increase its core strength and stability.

Do Mountain Climbers as a Warm-Up for Any Workout

Mountain Climbers are often incorporated into a trainer or fitness instructor’s warm-ups because they cover all the bases needed for a solid warm-up. You should use them too because they are extremely effective.

• First, they are a multi-joint movement so they take care of several body parts at one time making Mountain Climbers a very efficient warm-up move
• Second, they are dynamic, meaning they get you moving and increase your heart rate, which is a better and safer way to warm-up compared to static stretching.
• Third, they fire your core and activate the muscles of the abdominals and lower back.
• Finally, they take your hips and legs through a big range of motion, preparing the connective tissue for anything that is to come.

Knee Plank

Isolated Crunches

Hollow Hold

• Begin on your back with your legs straight and your arms extended overhead.
• Actively press your lower back into the floor and draw your belly button into your spine.
• Inhale to slowly lift your shoulders, arms, and legs off the floor. Keep your hands and heels as low to the ground as possible, while still pressing your lower back into the floor. Maintain tight abs and glutes. It's OK to bend your knees if straight legs are too challenging.
• Hold like this for five to 30 seconds to complete one rep.