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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].

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.

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].                          

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.

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].

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.

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].

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.

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