It’s hard to jump straight out of bed and conquer the day when your joints feel creaky and your muscles feel stiff. They say that stretching in the morning helps to wake up the body, improve blood circulation, and turns on our body’s ‘rest-and-digest’ system.
But after hitting the snooze button three times too many, who has the energy to dust off the yoga mat and change into tights? Well, these morning stretches can all be done while you’re still lying down…and half asleep.
Take your time, do something good for your body and remember to breathe.
Here are five stretches you can do to loosen you up for the day, before your feet even touch the floor:
Knee to Chest
- Lie on your back with your legs extended
- Bend both knees into the chest, wrapping your arms around the shins and hugging them tightly. Or grasp the back of your thighs
- Relax your head on your pillow
- Hold this ‘self-hug’ for ten deep breaths or 30 seconds
Laying Spinal Twist
- From Knees to Chest stretch, release your grip and let your bent legs fall to the side
- Extend your arms into a T-position and turn your head to the opposite side of your bent knee.
- Keep your knees bent and shoulders planted down into your mattress.
- You can increase the stretch by crossing the right knee over the left thigh.
- If it’s easy on your neck, gaze toward the opposite side
- Hold here for ten breaths or 30 seconds, feeling your spine lengthen and twist. You may even hear some “cracks.”
- Use your abs to lift your knees back to the center and twist to the other side.
Happy Baby
- Lying flat on your back, extend your legs towards the ceiling.
- Bend your knees towards your chest and grab for the arches of your feet with both hands.
- Your hands will wrap around the outer edge of your feet and your knees will be a little wider than your torso
- Relax the torso and gently pull your knee toward the bed, keeping the shoulders and head relaxed.
- Hold this pose for ten breaths or 30 seconds.
- For an extra stretch you can rock back and forth or side to side to gently massage your lower back while opening up your hips.
Seated Side Stretches
Once you start to feel more awake, gently move to a sitting position
- cross your legs if you can and straighten your spine
- lift your hands and join them in the air, pulling yourself toward the ceiling
- slowly bend to one side from your waist
- hold for five breaths or ten to 15 seconds, feeling a deep stretch along the side of your body before returning upright to your centre.
- repeat on the other side.
Child Pose
- Position yourself on all fours or into a kneeling position, keeping your knees hip-width apart, big toes touching, and head and neck in neutral alignment.
- Slowly drop your buttocks back toward your heels as you extend your hands in front of you until it touches the bed along with your chest
- Rest your forehead on the bed.
- Feel the stretch down your arms, shoulders, and back.
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