yoga poses FIVE
FOR YOU THIS WINTER By Emily Williams
So you love skiing and snowboarding and want to get more out of it? Here are five Yoga poses that can help improve your performance on the hill and your recovery off it! Emily Ruth Yoga | www.emilyruthyoga.com | www.youtube.com/emilyruthyoga | Instagram & Facebook: @emilyruthyoga
1. Cat and Cow - Pre & Post riding
This warm up and cool down movement awakens the spinal column, increasing blood flow between the vertebrae. If you’ve ever experienced a bad back, you’ll know how important it is to look after your spine! But the additional benefits of these two poses warm up the chest, the shoulders, the hips, the abdomen and the lungs, meaning that even your walk to the lift in the morning will feel a little easier! HOW TO: Come into a table top position (on hands and knees), shoulders over wrists, hips over knees. Take a couple of moments to find your breath and begin to breathe through the nose. With your inhales, begin to drop the belly, open through the chest and lift the chin. With the exhale, tuck through your tailbone, round through the spine and draw your chin towards your chest. Repeat, at your own pace, taking your time. Keep the breath steady and close your eyes down.
2. Table top core flow - Pre riding
Add this in each morning, after Cat and Cow, to get your core stabilising muscles firing, as well as your posterior chain. A few rounds on each side, slow and steady and with the breath. HOW TO: Come back to tabletop position, reach your left arm forwards, your right leg back. Cultivate balance here by really grounding down through your grounded hand, and the top of your grounded foot. Inhale in this fully extended position and exhale to draw your elbow towards your knee/nose, rounding through the spine. Repeat this motion a few times, slowly and with the breath, then switch to the other side. BONUS GLUTES: Get your glutes (Yep, the muscles in your butt!) firing, and wake them up before heading out! HOW TO: At the end of your table top core flow, plant your lifted hand down, bend the knee of your lifted leg, and flex through your ankle. Keep your spine long here (avoid shifting back into cow pose where the belly drops down), and go for 10 pulses pressing the sole of the foot up towards the sky. This movement should stem from the glutes, with the movement coming from the hip joint.
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five yoga poses for winter
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