Hello
This morning I woke up two hours earlier and eagerly started yoga. I have two issues so far. First I was very cold and did not feel good until near the end. Now I assume this will change in a few days. The second though is back pain which again I imagine will change with the adjustment to waking up earlier. However does anybody have any suggestion on how I could avoid injury. I think in that state if I just “take it easy” I would fall back asleep.
Thanks
Without a thorough description of what you are currently doing it is not possible to provide a sound answer as to what you should/should not do.
I start each session by balancing the breath in both nostrils mentally. This is followed by a “spinal warm up” as at anmolmehta.com. Briefly: lower spine rotations, followed by ‘yoga camel ride’ and finally - cat cow.
All subsequent exercises are done with ujjayi pranayam
Then my session keeps going with downward dog upward dog cycles until about 15 cycles are done. I always rest to slow the breath when necessary.
I proceed with a star pose and warrior pose.
This is followed by locust pose - cobra pose - boat pose - bridge pose - shoulder stand and finally half fish pose. I then lie in corpse pose.
I suspect it was doing shoulder stand while slightly cold that cause the difficulty. My question is what is recommended in the morning when one first wakes up to get some heat going other than just a good routine. Thanks
Andrew
My question is what is recommended in the morning when one first wakes up to get some heat going other than just a good routine.
In my practice the Morning Series is what I do after I center and do a brief 4 minute opening. The opening is designed to prepare the body from head to toe for the asana practice to follow. The Morning Series is designed to awaken the connective tissue in the back body in order to prepare the body for the day.
Classical Surya Namaskar follows. Then if I am doing a standard practice, standing poses, inversions, twists, and backbends. If I am doing a more specialized practice obviously a different sequence would be substituted here.
There are two other things that jump out at me in your post.
The first is that it appears you are taking things from here and from there and perhaps doing so without contact hours with a teacher. While variety is very important in order to discern what is suitable for you and your living it can also make the practice muddled and confusing. Ergo it has to be watched (by you) quite carefully.
The second is that you’ve mentioned back pain (a grossly general term) BUT there’s very little work in what you’ve shared that opens the hamstrings or balances the hip complex. True there are several poses which REQUIRE open hip flexors. But when such poses are done AND there is no opening in the aforementioned muscle group back pain and damage are completely expected as the body is not appropriately prepared for the doing.
Please have your teacher assess your back pain, align your postures, and provide you some things you can take away with you in order to prevent back pain.
warmly,
gordon
Dear Andrew,
In the mornings its best to take a quick bath/shower to wake the body up.
Our legs, hamstrings, hip muscles, shoulders are the stiff muscles in our body, so you should take care of them first by doing some Surya namaskar, standing poses for greater foundation in your practice then sitting poses, twists, inversions all are important.
Before you start with any intense breathing exercise or other mudras or kiryas kindly let your basic postures become mature.
While you are doing yoga postures or yogic movements keep your attention more on things happening to you rather than you doing the things. it will help you to avoid injuries.
As one of our fellow friend have advised you, stop taking things from here and there.
Love & peace
Just to clarify, I did not say stop taking from here and there. I merely suggested that there is a time and place for sampling and a time and place for focusing. I leave it to the student to determine those times and continue to pray they will do so with sound guidance.