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| I’ve been trying to move my practice from the evening after work to the morning for the sake of consistency. I get up around 5:30 and I usually start my practice with about 15 minutes of getting up. The problem is that I am extremely stiff in the morning. Is there anything I can do to prepare so that I will not be as stiff? I’ve tried heating the room and a few minutes of light exercises but it doesn’t seem to make a difference.
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| I find doing a few sun salutations more than usual, and easing into ite slowly helps. |
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| I think your idea about practicing ashtanga yoga in the morning is great beacause you ARE stiff then. It's much like a pet (cat or dog) when they wake up. Notice the stretching immediately involved (the pets do interesting, entertaining, great versions of upward and downward dog!!). If you aren't already doing this, maybe a few cups of hot tea while you check your e-mail in the morning would help to get your blood flowing. If you practice meditation it is sometimes good to do it before the physical yoga (to also relax your mind and body a bit). This will also keep your mind and body engaged and in proper posture for the rest of your ashtanga work AND for the rest of your day.
Namaste |
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| OMG, I was on vacation and did some classes at 7am so I wouldn't interrupt our family's togetherness... I really learned that I have a 9am body  and thank god everyday for being a SAHM |
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| duh...what the heck is a SAHM? |
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| I agree with redtail. That is precicely why we do 10 sun salutations!
Unlike other methods of yoga, Ashtanga believes in building heat from within, bathing the joints with sonovial (sp?) fluid, causing lymph to flow, the blood to move and the body to awaken. Heating yourself from the outside will just raise your skin temperature and not do you much good.
Start slowly. Stretch long before you even get out of bed. Sit up. Do a couple of low, straight legged leg lifts. Brushing your teeth, lean forward and do a few wall Chaturangas or put your leg up on the sink and with good integration and rotation, a few chin to shins. Reach up in the kitchen for your cup, stretch back in Ardha Uttanasana against the sink.
When you come to the mat, just know and honor the fact that the body has been asleep for several hours! Walk back to chaturanga the first couple times. Use this to really feel your expansion. Compare your hamstrings from your first forward bend to your 3rd and 5th, etc. Revel in your body's awakening, vs worrying about the fact that you're stiff. Last time you checked you were a human being in a human body, right? Why put strange expectations on your body such as believing it should spring from the bed ready to go like some rubberband? 
Just honor it, work through it, and love every moment of peace you have in the morning to yourself.
By the time you're done, I'll bet you're wonderfully fluid and ready to go. Aren't you?
C. |
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| what the heck is a SAHM?<<
I'm a Stay At Home Mom. A Housewife. All I do all day long is take care of my poopsie and my DH and my house... ok, I do more than that.... but that's the "gist" of it.
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| [whisper]
Didn't you leave out the bon-bon part?
[GD&R]
Anony-mouse |
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| I'm so dumb. My mother was a SAHM but refused to be called that--she always put down "Home maker" on any forms or surveys. She didn't do the bon-bons either--she's 72, thin, looks good and drives a new Mercedes--living large she is. |
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| COming back to the question, my instructor recommends a hot shower in the morning as one way of helping to loosen the body up before yoga. Worth a try? |
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| kittikat, a warm shower definitely helps warm your body up for morning yoga. I do Bikram at 6:30am, and my body is sooooo stiff (compared to when I take the 4:30pm class). One morning I took a shower to wash off some lotion I put on the night before, and wow! I felt so much more limber. I don't shower before class everyday though, that would mean I would have to get up even earlier  |
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AM Ashtanga
