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Starting your morning off on the right foot is essential to feeling your best throughout the day. For many of us, this just means eating a healthy breakfast and drinking a hot, caffeinated beverage. But a healthy morning routine can involve so much more.
If you make it a point to stretch when you wake up, you can help prepare your muscles for the day ahead. This will make you feel more active, energized, and may even help reduce inflammation throughout the body.
“Your muscles typically feel stiff and tight in the morning from lack of movement,” Lucas Travis, founder of Inboard Skate, told SheFinds. “That’s because many people lie in the same position for much of the night. Stretching loosens and realigns your muscles, letting your brain know that it’s time to get
things moving again.”
So if you’re ready to start stretching, here are our favorite gentle stretches to wake your body up each morning:
1. Downward Facing Dog
This pose stretches your back, ankles, calves and hamstrings, helping to strengthen your whole body. It is also great for improving circulation, which will help wake you up.
To do the downward facing dog stretch, place your hands on the ground and press your stomach towards your thighs.
2. Forward Fold
It might seem like a simple stretch, but the forward fold is excellent for waking up your muscles and joints. This pose helps to strenthen the thighs and knees, while giving a gentle stretch to the back, neck, hamstrings and hips.
To the forward fold, bend forward at your hips and let your head, neck and shoulders relax. You can either let your arms dangle or hold onto the back of your legs.
3. Cat-Cow
This two-part stretch is beneficial to your back. It can help improve posture and balance, and prevent or alleviate back pain.
To do the cat-cow stretch, start in a tabletop position on your hands and knees. As you inhale, tilt your hips forward, letting your belly sink and chest reach forward. Then while exhaling, round your spine outward and tuck in your tailbone.
4. Child's Pose
Child's pose is excellent for the lower back, hips and thighs. It is also great for calming the brain and alleviating stress.
Try this stretch by kneeling with your toes together and knees hip-width apart. As you exhale, press your hips back towards your feet and belly towards the floor. Stretch your arms out in front of you.
5. Supine Twist
A wonderful stretch to the lower back, shoulders and spine, the supine twist also helps to reduce inflammation in the body. This stretch can also help improve digestion.
To do this stretch, lay on your back with your arms outstretched in a "T" position and pull your knees in towards your chest. On an exhale, drop your knees to your right side and rest your right hand on your knees to further the stretch, turning your head to your left. Then do the same on the other side.
