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Recovery Yoga Excerpts
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A Practical Guide for Chronically Ill, Injured,
Post-Operative and Aging Yoga Students
 

Sample Excerpts


The following excerpts are from Chapter 7:

Exercise 41: The Standing Shoulder Stretch (With Knees Bent)

Face the kitchen counter placing your hands flat on the counter top near the edge. Your hands should be shoulder's width apart with your index fingers parallel. Then bend your knees about one-quarter of the way and with short little steps, walk your feet away from your hands making sure your hands remain “glued” to the counter top. As you are walking away from your hands, begin bending at the waist making sure that your knees remain bent [Fig.98].

Recovery Yoga by Sam Dworkis full torso stretch

As you fold at the waist, keep your back straight. Never drop your head below the level of your shoulders. Instead, keep your ears slightly higher than your shoulders. It might be helpful if you visualize:

  • Your throat lifting your neck and head upward
  • Your shoulders moving down and away from your ears
  • Your entire spine and neck lengthening

These are the same details you learned in Active Pose of the Child on page 92. Take a deep inhalation. As you slowly exhale, lengthen your spine a little bit further by subtly moving your hips away from your (very well grounded) hands. This should enhance the overall stretch in your arms, shoulders, and/or sides of your body. However, if it moves you into pain, do not move your hips as far. As you inhale, lessen the stretch by allowing your hips to move just the slightest amount toward your hands. Exhale and stretch; inhale and release. Repeat three to six times. Then slowly walk your feet toward your hands and stand upright. Rest for a while and repeat the entire sequence a few more times.

 

WARNING AND PRACTICE TIPS

  • To protect your back and neck:

  • Keep your knees bent.

  • Do not fold your body too far downward.

  • Keep your hands “glued” to the counter top.

  • Do not shrug your shoulders.

  • Keep your head from dropping down. Instead, think of lifting your throat upward.



Exercise 42: The Full Torso Stretch
aka The Wiggle and Waggle

This is one of my all time favorite yoga exercises. After sitting for prolonged periods, it helps to release leg and torso body tension. It is also a great warm up for any other exercises you do.

Start from Exercise 41: The Full Torso Stretch (With Knees Bent). Making sure that your hands are firmly “glued” to the counter top, slowly and subtly move only your right hip away from your hands. At the same time<: 1) move your left hip subtly toward your hands by increasing the bend in your left  knee, and  2) slowly and subtly straighten your right knee. This causes your entire right side to stretch. [Fig. 99].                          

Recovery Yoga by Sam Dworkis the wiggle and the waggle

Once you start to feel a gentle stretch on your right side, stop and take a long deep inhalation. As you exhale, subtly move your hips a little bit more into the stretch (but never into pain). Gently relax the stretch as you inhale. Exhale and stretch again. Inhale and relax. Repeat three to six times. Then release to the other side and repeat.

PRACTICE TIP

You can enhance the stretching action during The Wiggle and Waggle by pressing your hands downward and “pushing” them slightly forward (not really allowing them to actually move) while at the same time, subtly moving your hips away from your hands.


PRACTICE REMINDERS

  • Keep your knees bent.

  • Do not fold your body too far downward.

  • Keep your hands “glued” to the counter top.

  • Keep your shoulders moving away from your ears. Visualize lengthening your neck.

  • Increase the action only during exhalation. Release the action during inhalation.

     

 

Exercise 43: One Leg Hamstring Stretch

This is another exercise designed to isolate and stretch your hamstring muscles. Face the kitchen counter and place your hands firmly on top near the edge. Just as you did in the pervious exercise, fold at the waist, However, instead of walking both feet the same distance away from the counter, walk your left leg about 18 to 24 inches further away than your right leg. Then bend your right knee just a little and be sure that both feet press solidly into the floor [Fig. 100].

Recovery Yoga by Sam Dworkis hamstring stretch

As you slowly exhale, subtly move both hips away from your hands and you will feel a stretch (action) in the hamstrings of your forward leg. (If you feel a stretch in the sides of your body or in your shoulders, lift your entire torso a little bit higher. You want to isolate the stretch only in the hamstrings of your forward leg.) If you can not isolate a distinct stretch in your hamstrings, you need to refer to the Lying Down Hamstring Stretch on page 56.

Inhale and relax the stretch. Exhale and enhance the stretch. Repeat breathing and stretching three to six times. Then slowly release and change to the opposite leg doing a few sets per leg.


PRACTICE TIP

You can enhance the action in your hamstrings by:

  • Gently rotating your sitting bones upward.

  • Moving your hips away from your hands.

This is the same hip action you learned in Exercise 36, The Cat-Cow on page 9.

 

CAUTION FOR ONE AND TWO LEG HAMSTRING STRETCHES

If you feel a stretch (action) directly behind your knees or in your sitting bones but not in or near the center of your hamstrings, immediately stop. You are stretching the tendon attachment of your hamstrings rather than the muscle itself. This is not correct and can create an irritation of the tendon. You can avoid tendon stretching by bending your knees just a little bit more which should isolate the action more into the center (the belly) of the muscle.

 


Exercise 44: Two Leg Hamstring Stretch

This exercise begins as Exercise 47: The Full Torso Stretch (With Knees Bent) on page 103 However, instead of feeling the action in your shoulders, arms or the sides of your body, you want to isolate the stretch (action) in both hamstrings.

Place your hands firmly down near the edge of the counter top. With bent knees, slowly walk away from your hands while folding at the waist. Now slowly begin straightening your legs (but not all the way) and similar to the One Leg Hamstring Stretch, begin to lift your sitting bones as you subtly move your hips further away from your hands [Fig. 101].

Recovery Yoga by Sam Dworkis leg stretches

Once you isolate the stretch (action) in your hamstrings, relax the stretch and take a deep inhalation. As you slowly exhale, again increase the action by gently lifting your sitting bones while at the same time moving your hips away from your hands. Inhale and relax the action. Exhale and increase the action. Repeat breathing and stretching three to six times. Then walk forward, stand upright and rest. Do as many sets as you wish.


PRACTICE TIP

If you can not isolate your hamstrings or you can not feel the stretch equally in both legs, stop and go back to the One Leg Hamstring Stretch on page 106. Take your time. After you can isolate a clearly defined hamstring stretch in one leg, then return to the Two Leg Hamstring Stretch.

Click here for a short video showing the complete Wiggle and Waggle.

 

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