5 yoga poses to re-energise

If your run up to Christmas is as as hectic as ours was, you’ll need these 5 yoga poses to re-energise.

1. Down Dog – Adho Mukha Savasana 

The pose helps reawaken the spine after all that couch sitting!

Step 1

Starting on the floor on your hands and knees, placing your knees below your hips and your hands slightly forward of your shoulders. Spreading your hands, index fingers parallel, tuck your toes under. On a exhale breath lift your knees away from the floor.

Step 2

Try at first to keep the knees slightly bent and the heels lifted away from the floor. This allows the spine to fully lengthen. From here think about lifting your sitting bones up towards the ceiling.Then with your next exhale breath, push your thighs back and allow your heals to stretch toward the floor as the knees start to straighten. Think about pulling up the quadriceps to protect the knee joint a take your emphasis of the pose into the back or your body, away from the shoulders and the wrists.

Step 3

Engaging through the upper outer arms, allow your shoulders to draw away from your ears creating space for the neck. Position your head between your upper arms to avoid it hanging, this allows the full length of the spine to stay aligned. Breath steady inhales and exhales for 30 seconds to a minute.