Tempted to try yoga...? Why not start with Child's Pose
Start by preparing your body to move into Child’s Pose by just relaxing your hips backwards with your head resting on your hands or a prop.
· Try and lengthen the spine as you sit your hips backwards and stretch your arms forward resting your fingers on the mat.
· To open your shoulders, try and sink your chest down towards the floor. You may even be able to touch your chin to the mat.
· To open your hips, bring your knees to the outside edge of the mat and touch your big toes together.
· To add a side stretch, bring your knees back together and move both arms to one side and then the other.
· To add a twist, bring one arm under and across to the opposite side, keeping the arm in line with the shoulder. You can lift the other hand onto fingertips.
Move slowly through each variation. Maybe you could try 5 long breaths in each position, keeping your inhale and exhale even. Always take equal time and effort on each side. The trick is to try and find that balance (in yoga they call it your edge) between pushing yourself as far as is comfortable to still keep those long, even breaths. If you can’t quite make it to the floor or it really just is too uncomfortable, just bring some pillows in front of you until you can comfortably stay there for 5 long breaths. Instead of shocking your body into a position that it finds scary, gently ease it in to the position in a way that it can slowly adapt to.
Congratulations, you just did yoga!