10 Minutes of Yoga

to Jump start your Work day

 10 Minutes of Yoga to Jump start your Work day

1. Child’s Pose
1 of 30
Kneel, then take your knees wide and big toes
to touch.
Walk your hands forward until your forehand
rests gently on the ground.
Practice deep, steady inhales and exhales for
about 3-5 breaths as you let go of distraction
and focus on your yoga practice.

2. Tabletop
2 of 30
Rise from child’s pose to tabletop, with your
shoulders stacked over wrists and your hips
stacked over knees.
Place equal weight through your hands and
knees, relax your feet, engage your abdominal
muscles and lengthen your spine.
Gaze is down in between your hands.

3. Cat Pose
3 of 30
Press into your hands to round your upper
back, as if a string were pulling the middle of
your back to the ceiling.
Drop your head and tuck your chin to chest,
hugging your belly toward spine.
4. Cow Pose
4 of 30
Lower your belly and lift your chest.
Stay grounded through your hands as you broaden
your shoulders. Lift your gaze to look forward or
up, and hollow out your lower back.
Drop your shoulders away from ears.
Alternate between cat and cow two or three more
times.

5. Downward Facing Dog

5 of 30
Walk your hands forward an inch or two, curl your
toes underneath and lift your hips up into
downward facing dog.
Your legs can keep a slight bend, but reach your
heels toward the floor.
Ground down through all your fingers, especially
the space between your thumb and first finger, and
press through your arms while lifting your hips up
and back. Stay for 3-5 breaths.

6. Forward Fold
6 of 30
Slowly walk your feet toward your hands, and step
shoulder-width apart.
With a slight bend through your knees, lower the top
of your head toward the ground, belly reaching to
thighs, and let your hands dangle down to your toes.
Relax your upper body. Try moving your neck around
here, exploring how it feels to bend or straighten your
knees, acknowledging stiffness or tension in any part
of your body. Stay for a few breaths.
7. Halfway Lift
7 of 30
On an inhale, place hands on your shins and lift your
shoulders to be in line with your hips.
Breathe here, as your body forms a right angle.
Engage your core and open your chest forward. Look
down to lengthen the back of your neck, and keep
your neck safe.
Exhale to forward fold, and repeat.

8. Tadasana
8 of 30
Swoop your arms up to the sky, standing tall.
Keep equal weight through both of your feet, with strong legs
and an active core.
Soften your shoulders away from your ears and extend your
fingertips up as your palms face one another.
Your body is one long line of energy: head over shoulders over
hips over heels. Breath for 3-5 counts, close your eyes and set
an intention for your day.

9. Side Stretch
9 of 30
Exhale to stretch to one side of your body, keeping weight
equal through both feet.
Return to center, then stretch to the other side. Engage your
abs to protect your low back.
Only go far enough to keep your breath easy, and avoiding
crunching through either side of your body.
Repeat two more times, for a total of three stretches on each
side of your body.
 10. Mini Backbend
10 of 30
Come back to tadasana for a mini-backbend: bend your elbows
to either side of your body at shoulder-height, like a goalpost,
and lift your chest and chin up.
Keep the front side of your body, quadriceps and core strong.
Draw your shoulders down your back as you open your heart
toward the ceiling.
Stay for a breath, then rise back up to standing.

11. Plank
11 of 30
From tadasana, fold forward and step back into plank
pose. Your hands are shoulder-width wide with feet
together. Stack your shoulders over your elbows
over your wrists, and align your hips to your
shoulders and heels. Look down in between your
hands and activate your entire body, engaging all
your muscles. Drop to your knees for less sensation,
and hold for 3-5 breaths.

12. Low Cobra

12 of 30
Lower slowly to your belly. Bring your hands to your
sides, near your low ribs, and hug your elbows in
tightly.
Strongly press the tops of your feet to the floor to lift
your knees off of the ground.
On an inhale, raise your chest up a couple of inches
and lighten the weight through your hands.
Gaze is down, neck is long, and shoulders relax away
from your ears. Exhale to release your forehead to the ground, inhale press back up to
plank (on your knees or toes), and exhale to return to downward facing dog.
 13. Downward Facing Dog with Leg Lift
13 of 30
From downward facing dog, lift one leg up with
intention, flexing your foot toward the ground to
keep your hips level.
Send the heel of your other foot a little closer to the
ground, and press through hands and arms evenly.
Stay for a few breaths, and on an exhale, release
your lifted foot to the ground.
Repeat with the other leg.

14. Low Lunge

14 of 30
Inhale to lift your left leg high, then exhale to step
forward as you bring your left foot in between your
hands. Breathe.
Your fingers frame your left foot, and your belly
lifts up and away from your left thigh.
Squeeze your right leg and stack your right heel
over your right toes.

15. Warrior II
15 of 30
Exhale to spin your right heel down. On an inhale,
lift your torso up as arms reach out wide.
Your left knee is directly atop your left ankle. Pull
your belly in, stack your shoulders over your hips
and keep equal weight in both of your feet.

Draw your left knee toward your left pinkie toe.

Look past your left hand, and ignite the muscles
throughout your arms as your pelvis sinks down.
Hold here for 3-5 breaths.
 16. Extended Side Angle
16 of 30
On your next exhale, bring your left elbow to the inside of
your left leg. Keep your bottom half exactly the same as
warrior II. Press firmly through the outer edge of your
back foot. Lift your right arm to open your chest toward the
right and stack your shoulders on top of each other.
Continue to bend through your left knee as you create
length through the left side of your body, and pull right hip
back slightly. Your gaze can be down, to the side or up.
Stay for 3-5 breaths.

17. Reverse Warrior

17 of 30
On an inhale, lift your left arm up and back. Again, lower half
stays the same.
Your right hand can rest softly on your back thigh, or reach
around your lower back for a bind.
Think about evenly distributing weight through your legs
and feet, as you find length in your spine and create space
between shoulders and ears.
Keep your chest open toward the right, and gaze down to
your back foot or up to your lifted hand.
Hold for 3-5 breaths, remembering to sustain the bend
through your left knee.

18. Side Plank

18 of 30
Windmill your arms down to the ground, and
transition to high plank.
Shift weight to the left side of your body, and
slowly peel your right hand and foot away from the
ground as your hips lift up.
You can stack your ankles on top of each other, as
your right arm raises, or bring your left knee to the
ground for a less intense variation.
Either way, use your core to lift your hips. Gaze can
be down, neutral or up. Breathe as you build strength.
 19. Chaturanga
19 of 30
From side plank, return to high plank on your
toes or knees.
Shift your shoulders forward slightly, and
exhale to lower your body until your elbows
reach 90 degrees.
Avoid going lower to protect your shoulder,
elbow and wrist joints. Keep your core
engaged. (Tip: this is the same pose as high plank, only your elbows are bent this time!)

20. Upward Facing Dog

20 of 30
On your next inhale, press through your hands to
lift your shoulders up, stacking them over your
elbows and wrists.
Draw your chest forward as your belly, upper
thighs and knees move away from the ground.
The only body parts touching the floor are your
palms and the tops of your feet.
Drop your shoulders away from your ears and look
forward (not back) to find openness through the
chest, shoulders and abs. Exhale to downward facing dog, then repeat the entire sequence
(from low lunge to upward facing dog) on the other side.
Repeat one more full round on both your right and left sides.

21. Chair Pose

21 of 30
After you return to downward facing dog, look forward and
step both of your feet to your hands.
Inhale to halfway lift, and exhale to fold forward. Inhale to
find chair pose: sit your hips down and back with your feet
about hip width distance apart.
Your toes and knees point forward in the same direction.
Keep your spine long and your abs engaged.
Relax your shoulders away from your ears, lift your arms
high.
Palms face one another. Breathe here.
 22. Prayer Twist
22 of 30
Bring your hands to heart center and press your
palms together at your sternum.
Keep your lower half as it is in chair pose. Now, twist
to the right by connecting your left elbow to the
outside of your right knee.
Hips stay lower than shoulders and elbows stack over
one another. Pull your left knee and hip slightly back,
so they stay in line with your right knee and hip.
Firmly press your palms together to deepen the twist. Stay for a few breaths, then return to
center. Repeat on the other side, with right elbow moving toward the outer left knee.

23. Tree Pose

23 of 30
From chair pose, stand straight up with both of your feet on
the ground. Shift your weight into your right foot.
Lift your left leg and bend through your left knee.
Bring your left foot to the inside of your right calf or inner
right thigh—you can put the bottom of your foot anywhere on
your standing leg, just avoid putting pressure on your right
knee!
Stand tall to engage your standing leg, and press your left knee
slightly outward. Arms can come together at heart center, or
lift up like tadasana. Keep your balance steady by focusing one
thing in front of you that is not moving. Balance for a couple of
breaths, then do the other side.

24. Horse Pose

24 of 30
Step your feet wide, and turn your toes out. Bend your
knees, lowering your pelvis toward the ground.
Send your knees in the direction of your pinkie toes to find
an external rotation.
Options for your arms are: hands on hips, arms extended
wide, or bending through each elbow as shown. Stack your
shoulders over your hips as you continue to sink your hips
down and turn your knees out. Stay for a couple breaths.
 25. Wide Legged Forward Fold
25 of 30
Rise from horse pose, and turn your feet and knees forward
in the same direction as your hip points.
With a long spine, lower your torso over your thighs to
wide-legged forward fold.
Your arms can grab opposite elbows, or dangle toward the
ground. Keep a gentle bend through each knee, and equal
out the weight between the heel and ball of each foot.
Breathe deeply through this stretch.

26. Camel Pose

26 of 30
Stand on your knees, about hip distance apart. Release the
tops of your feet to the ground, with your heels directly
behind your knees. Bring your palms to your lower
back/sacrum for support, and relax your shoulders down
and back as elbows squeeze together.
With a strong belly, slowly press your hips forward an inch
as your chest lifts an inch toward the ceiling.
On every inhale, lift your chest upward, and on every
exhale, press your hips forward in the same direction as
your knees. Keep your neck gentle; your gaze can be forward or up, but if you start to feel
tension through your neck, release out of the pose, breathe and try again.
After a few breaths, carefully use your hands to guide your spine and low back up out of the
posture. Sit your hips on your heels to allow your spine to recalibrate.

27. Seated Forward Fold

27 of 30
Swing both of your legs out in front of you.
Flex your feet toward your face, and sit up tall. Inhale
both arms high above your head, then fold forward
over your legs. Hands can rest on your thighs, shins or
feet. Draw a straight line from your head to your
tailbone, and keep your abs active. Inhale to lengthen
your spine, and exhale to fold forward a bit deeper.
Breathe here until you’re ready to move on.
28. Boat Pose
28 of 30
Hug your knees into your chest, and roll your
bodyweight to your tailbone until you feel your
abdominal muscles activate.
Bend your knees so that your heels touch the
ground in a right angle. You can stay here, or lift
your heels to line up with your knees. Reach your
fingertips toward your heels, as you continue to lift
through your chest and soften your shoulders away
from your ears. Stay for three breaths.

29. Seated Twist

29 of 30
Send your legs out long one more time, and cross
your left foot over your right knee. Your right leg
remains extended.
Sit up tall, and bring your left hand behind you like a
second spine, with left hand resting behind your
tailbone. Inhale for length, then exhale to slowly
twist toward the left. Bring your right elbow or palm
to the outside of your left bent knee. Breathe in this
twist, and then release and repeat on the other side.

30. Easy Pose

30 of 30
Find a comfortable cross-legged position. Your spine
is long, and your shoulders relax away from your
ears.
Rest the backs of your hands on your thighs, palms
up.
Or, bring your first finger and thumb together on
each hand for “gyana mudra,” which symbolizes
unity and consciousness.
Soften your gaze or close your eyes.
Cultivate a sense of gratitude for your body’s ability
to move with power, grace and health.