A funny thing happened over the course of the past few weeks.
I started working again with a private client who has been on vacation for a few weeks. He had tried to keep up with some stretching but an old injury, coupled with a hectic travel schedule made it hard and resulted in a a super tight lower back that was causing pain.
He asked me for a simple routine he could do every single day to maintain his flexibility and avoid the serious pain he was suffering from.
The very same week, another long-time client of mine asked for essentially the same thing. She is a devoted student who practices for about 15 minutes every day on her own outside of our sessions together. She likes the way yoga makes her feel and has made it a priority to put it in her daily routine.
But, work has gotten extremely busy for her and she has also had some summer travels take her away from her regular schedule. Even she lost her practice for a couple weeks and felt the difference in a big way.
She asked me for a short routine she could stick to every single day to keep her accountable.
Commit to a short yoga routine in your daily life
Each individual is different in body, mind, and soul and needs different things at different times. But we can all benefit from the consistency of a short yoga routine in our daily lives.
The yoga routine I’m sharing with you today is part of the routine I created for my devoted yoga student. I’ve broken the routine up into 4 parts so that you can practice 1 part, 2 parts, 3 parts, or all 4. You can mix and match different parts together to create your own unique practices and give your body exactly what it needs when you need it. Or you can just stick to one part if that’s all you have time for.
The different parts range anywhere from 15ish minutes to 5ish minutes, and together create what can become a 20-minute practice when you’ve gotten familiar with all the poses.
This first part that I’m sharing with you today is perfect as a morning routine right when you get out of bed. It’s the longest video of the 4, but again, once you get used to the poses, you don’t need to rely on the videos anymore to continue on with it and it can be as short or as long as you need/want it to be.
The wisdom of a set yoga sequence
There are some schools of yoga who believe you should practice the same poses over and over again — the sequence never changes. On the one hand, this builds incredible discipline, but on the other hand, it can get boring. I’m of the opinion that sequences should change frequently, not only to challenge your body and mind in different ways, but also to keep things interesting. I understand the wisdom in a set sequence though, especially when it comes to routine.
If you struggle to keep yoga in your life and feel like every time you do step on the mat the thought “I should do this every day” pops into your head, I encourage you to commit to a set sequence and stick with it for at least a month. This will help you build a routine. Once the routine is built you’ll either like the set sequence and continue on or find ways to change it up without losing the momentum and motivation.
Over the course of the next month or so I’ll be sharing the other 3 parts of the routine for your practicing enjoyment.
Let me know how the routine goes!
