Yoga Seated Twist for Energy

Video Transcript

"So once you've done a few cat cows and woken up the spine a little bit we're going to come into the seated twist. This is another one you can do right in your bed if you're feeling particularly sluggish and you can't seem to get going. Another thing to know about this one is if your hips are particularly tight and your knees are coming up above the level of your waist, you want to sit on something, a pillow, a blanket, a block, anything. Wait, I have a block right here. You put it right underneath your sits bones and let the crown of your head arise while dropping the weight through the sits bones into the floor. All we're going to do is inhale, the arms up. Raise the heart but don't crunch the neck back. Inhale as the arms lift and exhale, we're going to place the hand on the knee. Reach for the floor with the finger tips in back and exhale as you press into the twist. Inhale to float up, exhale, press into the twist. Now the important thing about this twist and about any twist is that it needs to come from the bottom up. You don't want to twist like this because really I'm not twisting, all I'm doing is looking over my shoulder. You want to build the twist from the bottom up. Think of your spine as the stairs up a lighthouse. You want to turn first the lower part of the spine and then the rib cage, then the shoulders and the last thing that happens is that the head turns to look over. Inhaling and exhaling, inhaling and exhaling. Just let those arms float pressing into the twist gently on each side. Take about twenty of these or about one minute. And when you're ready just come back to center and we'll get ready for our next pose."