Hi,
I just want to learn some warm up exercises to do prior to my yoga routine. I cant do Surya Namskara’s becoz my my body (back & legs) is not flexible without warm ups. Right now I do some spinal warm ups & then start my asana routine. And would like to learn more.
Kindly please share your advise & favourite warm up exercises!!
Namasthe.
Dear aven,
Surya namaskar series are one of the best way to warm up. You may wanna try it without over forcing, keep going until you are all warmed up.
Try gentle supine pose supta padangusthasana using belt. For beginners its better to warm up legs first as you will feel more grounded throughout your sequence.
if you are a beginner try sequencing poses from active to passive and in the end relaxation.
Peace love
Dear Singh Ji,
Thanks for ur advice, I find it a bit hard to forward bend in the Surya Namskar, But As u said will go gently. Since at morning I’m not very flexible I do my yoga routines around 11 am, where I do some spinal warm ups to begin with, I follow Anmol Mehta’s Spinal warm ups & they r pretty good to get me going.
Yes I’m a bginner, have been doing yoga regularly since 4 months now.
Just was curious how others warmed up so I could learn a bit from the yogis here.
Thanks!
Dear Aven,
If your practices are for your self-growth not for ego growth then you don’t really have to far beyond your limits. In classical hatha yoga there are many movements to warm up, check out youtube.
Please buy a book “Light on Yoga by BKS Iyengar” to learn correct alignment-sequence-timing.
To observe the weather of your brain give 7-10 minutes to these 3 poses:
-Start with tadasana, find an upright position, not leaning forward or back, equally balanced on center of your both feet.
-Come to downward dog with the imprint on legs of previous pose, arms extended and pushing the weight of torso up& behind on legs.
You can warm up with repetition of upward dog to downward dog.
Cat-cow, squating up-down, kati chakrasana, ardha katichakrasana or rapidly up down in handstand, abdominal exercise or any other monkey jumping:)
Its nice that you are taking some time out for your practice, but just a piece of advice if the stiffness is in the morning then kill it in the morning and blossom through out the day.
love and peace
Dear Singh Ji,
I dont have that book of BKS, But have recently acquired the “Yoga The path to Holistic health”. I started yoga for health benefits, but it seems to be growing on me in every path of life.
Again, Thanks for the excellant advice on the poses u provided, I do most of those in my spinal warm ups & they really wake up the spine!
Namasthe!
is there any spinal warm up in that book by Guruji BKS Iyengar?
In your practices its better if you work on the frame, exterior of the body first then pick a particular area of your interest in a particular day to work on.
There are other tough muscle on the body which may require your attention more than your spine. Name a few Legs,hamstrings, hip muscles shoulders, sides of trunk etc.
In last i would say do whatever is suitable for you, since you are doing it for your own growth, but carefully.
Thanks:)
[QUOTE=aven;76022]Dear Singh Ji,
I dont have that book of BKS, But have recently acquired the “Yoga The path to Holistic health”. I started yoga for health benefits, but it seems to be growing on me in every path of life.
Again, Thanks for the excellant advice on the poses u provided, I do most of those in my spinal warm ups & they really wake up the spine!
Namasthe![/QUOTE]
No, Not the book, I was just mentioning the poses u said abv “Cat-cow, squating up-down, kati chakrasana” which I do in my warm up.
Have been learning a few other stretches from Youtube, which have been very helpful, in my asana practice.
Thanks!
Just was checking ur website & FB…very nice…somehow I had imagined a bit older person 
U seem to have been doing yoga for a very long time… The Down Dog is awesome…