There are times when your workouts look a little more like a meditation. When your body needs downtime, it is perfectly alright to call stretching a workout.
Did you know that you can actually develop a disorder from overly healthy habits? Those are serious conditions that you should also treat in such a way. I’m no medical specialist, but I’m just saying that you should be cautious with how lifestyles and activities make you feel and how much time, effort, and energy you dedicate to them and what kind of relationship you build with them.
My addiction is working out. But as long as I keep it within the time frame of half an hour a day, I think I can justify my behavior as being healthy and not deteriorating to my mental health in any way. I actually love stretching. It makes me more alert and gives my body an instant oomph of energy. I haven’t always been that way. But understanding the science behind it really made me embrace and release all the unpleasant knots in my body.
By doing so, I feel toned and energized every day. I see myself getting stronger not only in a physical sense but moreover, on a mental level. To make you understand what half an hour of working out means to me, I am sharing with you my favorite stretches to do on a slow day. Yes, I count them as working out as well. It is a way of lengthening the muscles.
Lay your mat on the ground. You don’t even need workout shoes for this one. Wearing a comfortable pair of yoga pants will definitely help, but if you’re short on time, you can do these exercises in your jeans also (the stretchy kind of jeans, obviously). If you have a towel nearby, you can simply help deepen your stretches by using it as a prop to some of the moves below. While doing these, focus on your breath and try to deepen your stretch with every pose. It will make you feel rejuvenated.
- Start from the mountain pose and make a big inhale, extending the arms to the side and up into a peak pose. Gaze up, and with an exhale, bring your gaze down as you simultaneously perform a swan dive. Make sure you’re not slouching out with your back but that the whole upper body is freely hanging towards the ground. With your hands, hold the opposite elbow in a ragdoll position. Then, move both of your legs gently to the side, so they are in the broader position than your hips.
- Place one hand to the ground and open with the other one to the side and up. Rotate your hips and chest as well, opening them to the sky. Hold for a good couple of breaths before repeating it on the other side.
- From the basic forward fold, you can bring your arms behind your back, interlace your fingers, and turn the palms out. Bring your arms as far towards the ground as you can. It works as an awesome chest-and-heart opener.
- One of the all-time-best exercises is a simple downward facing dog. It comes in so many variations like standing on open palms, fists, and even elbows, while you can open one leg to the sky, twisting your hips to the side, and from there, going into a runner’s lunge and pigeon poses. The sky is the limit.
Make yourself feel pretty. You deserve it.
