Quick Morning Yoga Routine

Rise and shine!

It is time to get up and moving in the morning!

Committing to a daily practice of yoga can be extremely difficult, but do you think you can squeeze about five or ten minutes for movement each morning? That’s all it takes to start your day off right. With yoga practice, you can start the day feeling alive, stretched out, and capable of tackling anything that comes your way. This quick morning yoga routine is easy to add to your morning.

Benefits of a morning practice

Set your mental tone

Mornings are often a blur. Between getting ready, shoveling breakfast and coffee into our mouths, and hurrying kids out of the house, we do not give our minds times to focus in the morning. When we give ourselves five minutes of silence, we have the opportunity to get our mental game on point. This may be a great time to visualize how you would like the day to go. Perhaps, take a moment to repeat a confidence boosting affirmation. When we can start the day with our minds in a peaceful state, we are less likely to get tripped up about the little things that come our way later.

Find your breath

While we practice asana, we practice pranayama – controlling the breath to encourage focus and relaxation. Doing this practice first thing in the morning should help be a reminder to breathe deeply and slowly for the rest of the day. It helps us to feel in control because we are able to fully take charge of our own nervous system through slowing down our standard breath patterns. Plus, it will keep you calm. According to researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine, there are tiny clusters of neurons within the brain that are linked to our respiratory system. This is why slow breathing induces tranquility!

Build flexibility & strength

This doesn’t happen over night! In order to deepen our practice, we must return to the mat as often as we can. Setting a morning routine that focuses on your goals can be a big game changer. I have extremely tight hamstrings, so I make sure to add deep hamstring stretches each morning. I am also working on my balancing, which means I need to work the core muscles daily. Build your practice around your own needs.

Follow my sample at home

This video was filmed at my dear friend Joe’s apartment in downtown Phoenix. He does some fun 5-minute flows every morning with a little yoga, dance moves, and ab work. He makes it his own each day, but he is dedicated to the practice. I hope for this level of commitment one day!

Morning yoga practice does not need to be time consuming or difficult. Why not take some of my sequence and add your own favorite moves? Or check out the rest of my free yoga classes to see if there is something you enjoy even more. You’ve got my full permission to be as creative as you’d like!

Let me know if you have any questions in the comments below!