Rise & Shine

Get your prana moving with this playful morning vinyasa sequence.

By Andrea Ferretti, sequence by Kira Ryder

Some days you step on your mat and need a neatly prescribed yoga routine. Other days you just want to let your body and breath move you on a journey from pose to pose, as you morph into and out of different shapes.

Kira Ryder, a vinyasa yoga teacher in Ojai, California, prefers this second type of practice—one that moves into forms, investigates them, and then plays with them to find the best fit for each moment. Her aim is not to minimize the importance of alignment but to help students move intelligently, according to what their bodies need in any given moment. "The poses are designed to meet you where you are, not for you to conform to each pose," says Ryder. In the sequence that begins on page 78, Ryder shares a morning routine that wakes you up slowly and pumps prana, or life force, into all the nooks and crannies of the body, especially the hips and sacrum, which often get stiff and stagnant. The poses look familiar—Baddha Konasana (Bound Angle Pose), Plank Pose, Cat-Cow Pose—but each has its own unique expression.

The final pose is a twist with a slightly rounded spine to encourage softness in the lower back. "The twist is investigative," Ryder says. "You'll know it's working if you come out and your lower back feels big and broad and warm. It's real subtle stuff. It's not always sexy and pretty."

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