How to Do an Energizing Full-Body Morning Stretch

Hi everyone. My name is Elaine. I'm going to take you through a morning stretch routine. We're going to get started and it come to standing on the mat if that feels good for you. Feet can go about hip width distance. You reach both of your arms up. Interlace your fingers, press your palms up towards the ceiling and then plug the shoulders back down into the body. Make it really long through the arm bones, through the sides of the waist. As you plug the shoulders back in. Take another inhale and then exhale. Reach the hands up and over to the right. Stretch out through the left side of the body. And then use the strength of the core. Come all the way back up through center. Pause here and breathe. Take another inhale. Exhale. Reach the hands up and over to the left. Stretch through the right side of the body. Good. And use the strength of the core again. Come back up through center. You can interlace your fingers behind your skull. Draw the elbows in to protect the neck. Start to lift through the chest. Engage a little bit through the legs to open up through the sternum through the collarbones. And then inhale. Come back up. Release the arms down to the sides. Increase your send your right arm across the body. You can hug your right forearm with your left forearm and your left bicep. Gently drawing the right shoulder down to stretch through the back of the shoulder blade. And then change sides. Cross the left arm in front of the body, gently pulling it in through the right forearm. Drop the left shoulder down. And then release. Now we're going to take it down to a sitting position. Come all the way down. We're going to start with a. Let's do a separate leg stretch. You can bring the sole of your right foot inside of your left thigh. Reach both of your arms up. Square your shoulders so it's over your right leg and then gently fold down. Hinge through the hips and release. And gently come back up. Take it to a side body stretch. You can take your right forearm on top of your right thigh. Reach your left arm up and over towards the right foot. Get really long through the left side. Stretch out of the left hip crease. You'll come back up to change sides. So bringing the sole of the right foot inside of the left leg, sitting up nice and tall, ground through the sits bones. Reach both of your arms up square off over the left leg and then fold down. Hinge right through the hips. Make your way back up side body. Stretch out through the right side so left arm will go on top of the left thigh. Reach the right Arm up and over. And then gently come back up. Take a seated spinal twist. So you can bring that right foot outside of the left knee option to keep the left leg really long or to hug it in. So the left heel is outside of the right hip. Right hand will go outside of your right hip again directly in line with the shoulders. Reach the left arm up first, gently start to twist and then maybe you hook your left tricep outside of your right thigh. You twist to the right. And then gently coming back around, change sides. This time it'll be the. It'll be the right leg that could go long. Left foot outside of the right thigh and maybe the right heel comes in outside of the left hip, left hand outside of the left shoulder, just directly out so there's still an alignment. Reach the right arm up, start to twist here first. And then maybe you hook the right tricep outside of the left thigh. You twist to the left. And then use the breath to come back around and extend both legs long. So option two, we always want to opt for a longer spine or straight spine, rather over straight legs. So maybe you'll keep the knees bent just a little bit. It'll be chest to thighs or belly to thighs. Maybe you grip around outside of the feet and you can slowly start to press the heels forward. As you straighten through the legs, keeping the integrity of the spine nice and long. Try to relax the jaw. And then maybe you press the leg straight all the way, get a little bit more into the back through the spine. And then really coming back up, come into a figure four. So you're going to place the sole of the left foot down onto the floor. Right ankle is going to come top of the left thigh so you can scoot yourself in as much as you need. You're gently going to flex your right toes towards your knee. Think about pressing out through the heel and chest forward to get outside of the right hip. And then just continue to breathe into the tightness that you feel. And then you gently can extend the left leg out to switch sides. Be the sole of the right foot down left ankle to the top of the right thigh. You can scoot in as much as you need without causing too much tension to stretch through the left hip. And you gently can extend the right leg, come back around, come into a butterfly stretch your bring the soles of the feet together, knees will go wide. So two options here. You can keep the heels in really close for more of an inner thigh stretch, inner hip stretch, or moving the heels a little further away. This is a little more passive and can maybe help you stretch through your spine and through your back. Gently start to fold through your hips. Try not to round through the spine, but rather shoulder blades down the back. Make your way all the way back up. One final stretch I'll take you through as a reverse tabletop. This helps open through the front line of the body. Feet go about hip width distance, Knees stay hip width distance. Fingers in towards the hips. And then as you inhale, you're going to lift your hips up, press into your arms and then stretch a lot. Keep lifting the hips up, Draw the knees in close. And keep the neck nice and long. Try not to let the head go back, but rather gazing up towards the sky. So you gently lower the hips down. Maybe just a few other shoulder stretches. You can start to bend the elbows back. This will stretch you through the tops of the shoulders. If you have tightness there, That would be a nice morning stretch for you. You can do it in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening, whatever you prefer. Thank you so much for joining me and I hope you have a great day.