Many of us work for long hours every day and we may be sitting for many hours. This affects our back and hips, we need to loosen up our joints and muscles. Here are 3 yoga poses to help you. For this exercise, you would need just a mat to accompany you, you would perform the exercise on the mat.
1. Pigeon
Begin in a downward facing dog position, reach your right leg in the air, then bring your right shin forward as close to parallel to the front edge of the mat as it can get. Keep your right knee towards your right wrist and your right ankle towards your left wrist.
With your back leg extended long behind you and your toes tucked. Lower your hips to the ground, crawl your hands forward until your head is on the ground and un-tuck your toes. Deep breathe for five to ten times and then repeat on the other side.
2. Bound angle
Begin in a seated position, bend your knees wide out to the sides and take the soles of your feet together, about one or two feet in front of you. Take a hold of your ankles with your hands. Take deep breathe to lengthen the spine and then hinge your torso forward. Drop your head and relax your shoulders, also take five to ten deep breaths.
3. Half chair
Begin by standing with your big toes together, outer edges of your feet parallel, arms on either side of you. Bend your knees, sink your hips back like you are sitting down in a chair and reach your arms high to frame your face.
Transfer your weight into your right leg, cross your left ankle over your right knee and flex your foot to protect your knee. Take at least three deep breaths and then repeat the exercise on the other side.
This steps could be taken either at the beginning or end of your day, as it would help a lot in loosening you up. Some of these steps may take time to perfect, they may not be easy at the beginning.
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