So we’re heading in to the last few days of March Break. What have you been up to? My family and I spent some time in Florida, which included a 2 day visit to the “happiest place on earth” – Disney World. We had a blast! And now we’re currently on our trek back to Toronto.
A days worth of travel can leave the body feeling a little tight and tired. Sooo, what did this gal do? Yep, I chose to do some yoga while we waited in LeGuardia for our connecting flight. Each pose was held for 5 – 10 full breath cycles. So if you’re spending a whole day traveling by foot, air or wheels, use some (or all) of these poses to ease your travel woes…
Chest Stretch @ Wall: from a standing position, with feet hip distance and stand alongside the wall (with some space between the wall and side body). Extend your arm at the wall straight back behind the body at shoulder height. Gradually rotate the ribcage forward while keeping your shoulder blade down. Alternate sides.
Ear to Shoulder: from standing, bring your arms out to either side and actively draw the right fingertips down and away from the body as you bring the left ear towards the left shoulder. You should feel a nice stretch in through the right side of the neck. Alternate sides.
Seated Forward Bend: sitting on the floor with your legs extended out in front of you, contract the quadriceps to press the hamstrings down towards floor. Hinge forward from the hips and maintain a neutral spine (don’t allow it to round). You may feel this in through the hamstrings and/or low back. If you are feeling pain in the lower back, bend the knees.
Double Pigeon (a fave of mine): starting in the same position as above, bend the right leg and place the right outer ankle above the left knee. Actively flex the right foot and draw the thigh bone towards the floor. Lean back, bend left leg and flex the left foot and align right and left shins as best as you can. If bringing the torso to rest on thighs, hinge forward from the hips and maintain a neutral spine. Alternate sides.
Bound Angle: from a seated position, bring bottoms of your feet together and allow the knees to fall towards the floor. Sit up tall and hinge slightly forward from hip.
As with any yoga program, these poses should not be painful. Bring attention inwards by focusing on your breath and be mindful of when it is time to either ease up or back out of the pose all together.
And just for fun…even Minnie joined in on the action! Here she is seen doing a wide legged seated forward bend 😉 At 85 and still active in show biz, Minnie could use a regular yoga practice to keep her nimble and her zest for life anew.
Besides the yoga, we also enjoyed some movie watching and surfing the web on the iPad (even in flight!!), to get us through the day. Don’t you just love modern day technology?!?! What other things do you do to get you through a long day of travel? Let me know by posting a comment below.
Happy Trails!!
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