How to Warm Up for Power Yoga
As with any daily exercise, be it walking, jogging, lifting or swimming, a proper warm up can significantly benefit your workout. Yoga is no different. To truly feel the advantages of your training and easily flow into the postures of power yoga, a simple sequence of poses can ready both the body and the mind for your practice. You’ll need to understand how the three basic postures within the sequence work—cat pose, child’s pose (modified) and upward-facing dog. Then you’ll need to put them together in a fluid movement from pose to pose. Once you’ve done this, you can launch into your practice of power yoga. Read on to learn how to warm up for power yoga.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
Cat Pose
-
1
Start in tabletop with your hands on the mat directly below your shoulders and your knees grounded to the floor in line with your hips, making sure the tops of your feet are flat against the ground. Your head will be up and forward with your gaze soft on spot in front of you.
-
2
Exhale and draw your bellybutton up into your spine while tucking your tailbone toward the floor. These actions should naturally pull your back up into an arched or rolled position towards the ceiling.
-
-
3
As you feel curve moving through your spine, let your head slowly and effortlessly fall down, shifting your gaze to the floor.
-
4
On the inhale, relax the abdomen and let your body slowly move back into the neutral position of tabletop. Your head will rise up, your spine will unroll and your tailbone will become untucked.
-
5
Exhale again and continue moving in and out of the pose. Do this four to five times before moving into a modified child’s pose.
Modified Child's Pose
-
6
From a neutral position, or tabletop, sit back on your heels. Instead of drawing your arms back to your sides, as you would in child’s pose, modify the posture by keeping your hands planted on the floor in front of you.
-
7
Exhale and draw your chest to the ground, allowing your midsection to fall between your legs.
-
8
Your head will naturally follow, dropping to the ground until your forehead touches the mat.
-
9
Lengthen the spine, keeping your hands extended out in front of you. You should feel a nice stretch through the back, shoulders, obliques and arms.
-
10
Remain in this position for a few seconds before moving back into tabletop.
Upward-facing Dog
-
11
From your neutral position, or tabletop, draw your chest forward and bring your hips to the floor, keeping your palms grounded to the mat. Your legs should now be extended all the way back behind you.
-
12
Inhale and press your palms into the floor, straightening your arms and raising your chest up to the sky. Your legs should be lifted slightly of the floor with the tops of your feet planted in the ground.
-
13
Press your hips toward the floor while still keeping the lift in your legs, slightly increasing the arch of the back. You should feel a slight stretch running from your lower abdomen and up.
-
14
Let your shoulders roll back slightly, opening your chest a bit more, while your head falls back so your gaze shifts toward the sun.
-
15
Hold this position for a few seconds before slowly flowing back into tabletop.
Warm Up Sequence
-
16
Now it’s time to put the poses together in a warm up sequence for your power yoga practice. Start in tabletop and inhale.
-
17
On the exhale, let your body flow into cat, rolling your spine, drawing up your bellybutton, tucking your tailbone and letting your head fall forward.
-
18
From this rolled position, inhale and move into upward-facing dog, pressing your palms into the mat, lifting your chest and head, pushing your hips to floor and rolling back your shoulders.
-
19
From this arched position, exhale and flow into a modified child’s pose, keeping your hands planted as you sit back on your heels. Feel the stretch and relax.
-
20
Inhale and move back into your neutral position, or tabletop, and start the sequence again. Continue to do this sequence 10 to 12 times, always paying attention to your breathing, alignment and body. When you feel ready to move from your warm up into your power yoga practice, simply flow into it from whichever posture seems most logical.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
When performing upward-facing dog, make sure to pay attention to your shoulders. People have a tendency to let them move up to the ears. To combat this, think length. If your spine is kept long, your neck will remain up and your ears away from your shoulders.
This warm up sequence for power yoga should not be performed by people with back, wrist, knee or neck injury unless under the supervision of a certified yoga instructor.
For women who are pregnant, modification would need to be made for the warm up sequence so never perform this practice. Consult a certified yoga instructor for personal modifications.
