Slim Calm Sexy Yoga: 210 Proven Yoga Moves for Mind/Body Bliss by Tara Stiles Read Free Book Online

your arms overhead. Lengthen through your sides and relax your shoulders. Look up toward your hands.

Drop your tailbone and lift your chest.

  Standing Side Opener
    Raise your arms over your head and grab your right wrist with your left hand. Bend sideways from your waist to the left side.

Lift up and over to lengthen your ribs.

  Standing Palm Press
    Lace your fingers together and press your palms up toward the ceiling, lengthening your arms.

Look up at your fingers and relax your shoulders.
Take a nice, big inhale, breathing into your ribs.

  Standing Arch
    Press your thumbs to your lower back. Bring your shoulder blades together, arch your back, and press your chest straight up.

Make sure you keep pressing on your lower back with your thumbs; this supports your lower back and helps keep the arch in the harder-to-reach middle and upper back.
If your back feels open and you’d like to go a little deeper in this pose, bend your knees slightly, keep breathing, and slowly arch a little farther back.

Standing Forward Bend
    Stand with your feet parallel and hip-width apart. Bend your knees deeply, and carefully fold your torso over your legs, beginning with your belly and then your middle ribs. Let your hands hang straight down.

    Just hang. Don’t try to touch the floor. Let your legs and back release with each inhale and exhale.
Bend your knees as much as necessary to rest your torso on your legs. This will take some pressure off your back to prevent overstretching and injury, and will also make the forward bend more efficient. Working this way will eventually bring your legs and torso flush together in correct alignment.
Placing your feet hip-width apart usually leaves about the width of two fists between them. You can check this by making fists and placing them side by side between your feet. When your feet are under your hip bones, you are balanced and able to build strength, release tension, and move efficiently.

  Standing Forward Bend, Elbow Hold
    Grab your elbows and let your head hang heavy.

Let your torso rise slightly with each inhale and release farther over your legs with each exhale.
Make sure your weight is evenly distributed on your feet. Doing so helps to strengthen and release your muscles correctly. When standing, we often favor one leg, or rock to our heels or toes instead of standing equally centered on both feet. You can check this in your forward bend. If your hips are behind you and you feel as if you are locking your knees, you probably have too much weight on your heels. Bring your hips forward over your feet and your weight will be evenly distributed.

  Standing Forward Bend, Neck Release
    Lace your fingers together at the base of your neck and gently guide the top of your head toward the floor.

Exhale and release your torso closer to your legs.
Inhale and expand your sides.
Bend your knees slightly if it’s more comfortable for you.

  Standing Forward Bend, Calf Hold
    Release your hands and grab your calves, bending your elbows slightly out to the sides.

Release your torso toward your legs on each exhale.

  Back Lengthener with Easy Twist
    Plant the fingers of your left hand on the floor a few inches in front of your feet. Bend your left knee slightly, open your chest to the right, and extend your right arm upward. Look up at your right hand.

Lengthen your spine from your lower back out through the top of your head.

  Standing Hand Step
    Bend your knees, then gently step on both of your hands so that the tops of your hands are on the floor, fingers pointing behind you, and your toes are resting on the insides of your wrists. Keep your knees bent and breathe here for a few breaths. Let your head hang down.

If your wrists feel good and the muscles in the backs of your thighs don’t feel tight, try straightening your legs.

Squat
    Lower your body as far as you can by bending your knees and pushing your hips back. Point your toes out slightly and separate your feet as much as