Round Out Your Practice: Flexibility

Try this series for a practice that promises to increase flexibility.

By Cyndi Lee

OM: Chant three times.

BREATHING EXERCISE: Sit in Easy Pose and slowly deepen your breathing. Then touch your bottom ribs. Notice how they move when you are breathing. Feel the space in between the bottom rib and the one above it. Then touch the next rib up. Keep going all the way up. Notice the solid feeling of your ribs, the texture between them, and the delicate power of your breath.

WARM-UP VINYASA: Repeat this sequence slowly four times:

Mountain Pose

Upward Salute

Standing Forward Bend

Half Standing Forward Bend (with flat back)

Standing Forward Bend

Upward Salute

Mountain

SUN SALUTATION: Do the following sequences four times, twice on each side:

Mountain

Upward Salute

Standing Forward Bend

Step the right foot back into a lunge

Down Dog

Plank

Knees-chest-chin

Low Cobra

Down Dog

Step forward with right leg into a lunge

Standing Forward Bend

Upward Salute

Mountain

On the third Sun Salutation, add warriors I and II to the right side after Down Dog. On the fourth add Warriors I and II to the left side.

MINI STANDING VINYASA: Hold Eagle Pose for five breaths with the right leg wrapped around the left, hooking the toes around the calf, and the right arm under the left. Then unwind the right leg and lift it directly into Tree Pose for eight breaths. Slowly lift the arms overhead, then lower them and repeat to the other side.

FEATURED SEQUENCE: Perform the flexibility sequence twice—once leading with the right leg, then leading with the left.

Virasana (Hero Pose)

Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward-Facing Dog Pose)

Virabhadrasana I with Gomukhasana Arms (Warrior Pose I with Cow Face Pose Arms)

Parsvottanasana (Intense Side Stretch Pose with Reverse Prayer Position)

Virabhadrasana II (Warrior Pose II)

Low Lunge

Runner's Lunge

Hanumanasana (Pose Dedicated to the Monkey God, Hanuman)

Ardha Dhanurasana (Half Bow Pose)

Windshield Wipers

Tarasana

Finish the second side with Star Pose.

FORWARD BEND: Wide-Angle Seated Forward Bend

BACKBEND: Come up into Bridge Pose and down again five times with the breath, lifting on the inhalations and lowering on the exhalations. On the fifth time, stay up and lift one leg up for three breaths, then put it down. Repeat with the other leg.

TWIST: Repeat Windshield Wipers or do Revolved Abdomen Pose with the legs bent.

INVERSION: Supported Shoulderstand

CLOSING POSE: Do Savasana for 10 minutes.

MEDITATION: Sit for five to 10 minutes.

OM: Chant three times.

Cyndi Lee is the founder of OM yoga studios in Manhattan and East Hampton, New York. She is the author and artist of OM Yoga: A Guide to Daily Practice; OM at Home: A Yoga Journal; the OM Yoga in a Box series; the book Yoga Body, Buddha Mind; the OM Yoga Mix CD series; and the OM Yoga DVDs.