Need an excuse to sit/lie down for 15 mins? Find my free guided meditation/savasana using the link below! No previous meditation experience required :)

Sometimes it is the poses we do often, or “easy” poses that we have grown comfortable with, that we need to focus on the most. Let’s take a moment to really connect with our bodies (in every pose, not just this one) and check in with our alignment, how deep you go into the pose is almost irrelevant and can change with each side and also from day to day, how safe you are in the pose is much more important.

Why should I do this pose?

Stretches hip flexors and opens chest, strengthens ankles and legs, can be harder to stay balanced than it looks like!

This is a delightful stretch for our hamstrings aka the back of our upper legs. Tight hamstrings are often associated with lower back pain, as the hamstring muscles run from your hip all the way down to your knee. Increased tension in these muscles can be putting increased stress on your hips and lumbar spine, resulting in lower back pain. While there are many different causes of lower back pain, creating flexibility in the back of our legs is a good start at relieving that tension, and bringing balance back into our legs, hips, and lower back.

Another very common pose that you will find in most yoga classes is the plank position. You will often flow through this pose as a part of a sun salutation, and often as a standalone pose for the always important core strengthening. Apart from being an amazing boost to our core muscles and important stabilising muscles which helps to protect our lower back from strain and overuse, practising this pose regularly also strengthens our shoulders, arms and wrists.

It's the most common pose in the Yoga world, even people who don't do Yoga have probably heard of it! You will be hard pressed to find a Yoga Class that doesn't have at least instance of this pose, and for good reasons! It seems quite straight forward, yet there are a few tricks to nailing this "resting" pose. Yes I do promise, with practice and consistency, this can actually be a resting pose!

Benefits

• It stretches back of the legs, feet and ankles.

• Strengthens the hands, arms, shoulders, and legs.

• Gives you similar benefits to inversions, such as lengthening and decompressing your spine - without the scariness of being fully upside down!

Do you struggle to get out of bed in the morning due to tension or pain in your lower back? Feeling stiff after a long day of sitting? Try these two poses on for size!