Morning Practice From Bed For Arthritic Joints

A gentle stretch to wake up and warm up arthritic joints. Join me in this 20-minute practice from the bed where we find a slow breath, followed by some gentle stretches for all the tight areas. Start your day feeling centered + stretched in just a few short minutes.

Transcript

Welcome to your morning practice for arthritic joints.

We'll start this practice laying in bed,

Keep the sheets over you to keep you warm.

This is gonna be a gentle practice that takes us from laying down to seated to standing.

This isn't meant to be at all intense.

If anything doesn't feel good,

Skip it or change it so that it serves you.

Take your time.

Find a comfortable position laying on your back.

Take a full breath in through the nose and a long breath out through the mouth.

Breathe through the nose from here on out.

Keep it slow and mindful.

Use your next exhale to drop your chin to the left side.

Inhale to bring your head to center.

Exhale over to the right.

Inhale to find center,

Looking at the ceiling.

Exhale,

Look to the left.

Exhale,

Look to the left.

Inhale,

Center.

You've got the swing of it over to the right.

And do one more either side.

And do one more side.

Nice.

And keep your head at center once you're there.

Without moving anything,

Just keep your hands and feet.

And then start to wiggle the fingers of the right hand.

And then the left hand.

And wiggle the toes on the right side.

Really small movement.

And then try it on the left.

And come back to your hands.

Move just your thumbs,

Maybe make some little circles.

And then give all your fingers some little wiggles,

Maybe circles that get bigger.

And then just like you're playing a piano here,

Lift your index finger on both sides,

Middle fingers,

Ring fingers,

And pinky fingers.

And then plant your index finger,

Middle,

Ring,

And pinky.

And then just give them some wave-like wiggles.

Make a fist really gently.

Then let it go.

Make a fist again.

And let it go.

Last one,

Really soft.

Nice.

Make some circles in the wrists now.

Maybe you wanna try holding a really soft fist and make some circles there.

And then let that go,

Hands are soft.

Bend your elbows a few times.

And then let that go.

An option to pull your hands towards your shoulders like you're doing the sweetest,

Laziest bicep curl.

Let that go.

Try a few shoulder circles.

Maybe open,

Close the jaw.

And then rest in stillness.

Notice if you can feel the energy circulating a little differently in the arms than in the legs,

A little bit more alive in the upper body.

Then wiggle the toes.

See if you could even think about spreading them wide.

And this is the last time I'll remind us,

But keep it super gentle,

We're just waking up.

Make some nice little circles in the ankles.

Maybe hear some cracks.

We call these the rice crispy sounds.

And then take a bend into the knees.

So the soles of the feet are resting on your bed and the knees are bent.

And just like you did with your head before,

Take an inhale and drop your knees over to the left with your exhale.

Inhale to center.

Exhale,

Let the knees fall to the opposite side.

Go for one more either side,

These windshield wiper like movements.

Maybe reach your arms wide to a T.

Take up all that space in the bed.

And you could keep going with these knees side to side.

You could even bring your gaze to look behind you.

So as the knees would fall to the right,

Your head would turn to the left.

Really gentle twist,

Waking up the hips,

The spine.

Once you've had enough rest and stillness,

Keep your knees bent.

Pull your knees in,

Maybe hold onto the thighs,

Nice and loose.

What happens when you're in a deep breath?

You're in a deep breath.

You're in a deep breath.

You're in a deep breath.

What happens if you bring your knees over your hips and your soles of the feet up towards the ceiling?

So you're kind of making this L shape.

The legs don't need to be straight,

Can be quite a big hamstring stretch in the morning.

Just really lazy.

And then you could reach your hands up like zombie arms.

So you've got your arms and legs up in the air.

This is called dead bug pose.

You could start to point and flex the feet,

Reaching the toes up to the ceiling.

And then reaching the heels up.

And maybe you mirror that in your hands.

As you reach up through the heels and flex the feet,

You could bring your fingertips in towards you.

And as you point the toes,

Start to reach your fingers up to the ceiling,

And then point your fingertips down to your toes.

Nice forward and backwards movement.

And you could start to do some circles in the ankles,

And again,

Mirror that in the hands.

And then maybe reach your arms overhead,

Stretch your legs long,

That big classic morning stretch.

Slowly start to bring your feet down to the ground.

Maybe walk yourself to seated.

And just sitting on the edge of the bed here.

And drop your right ear to the right shoulder.

Inhale to center.

And exhale over to the other side.

Inhale to center.

Then bring your right fingertips down to the right side.

You could even reach your left arm up overhead,

Nice side bend.

Inhale to center.

Exhale,

Side bend to the left.

Left fingertips down.

When you're ready,

Come back to seated.

You don't need to have perfect posture first thing in the morning.

Let your hands rest on your thighs or knees.

And move your ribs around in a circle.

So maybe reach your rib cage to the right,

And then forward,

Over to the left,

And back behind you.

Almost like you're stirring something.

Pretend like you're a spoon in your cup of coffee.

You're stirring the ribs around the spine.

Change direction.

And land in center,

Seated.

And let your arms rest on your thighs or knees.

And let your arms rest on your thighs or knees.

And let your arms rest on your thighs or knees.

Jim,

Do it for me.

Yeah,

Of course I'm going to bend over a little bit.

With your next breath in.

Think of reaching the crown of your head towards the ceiling.

Feel how the spine gets a little taller,

Everything falls into place.

Exhale,

Soften your shoulders down.

Exhale,

Soften the shoulders,

The jaw.

Press your feet into the floor.

Hands on the thighs.

Come up to standing.

You could have a wider stance than usual.

Nice stable base.

Once you're comfortable standing,

Take a big inhale.

Reach your arms wide and up.

Bring your palms to touch overhead.

Exhale to bring your hands down through center.

Two more just like that.

Inhale,

Reach the arms wide all the way up.

Exhale,

Hands together and down through center.

One more.

You've got it.

Take a nice bend into your knees and start to fold forward.

So,

Hinging at the hips.

You could walk your hands down your legs.

Let your head hang.

Still keeping that bend in the knees.

With an inhale,

Bring your palms somewhere along your legs.

And lift your spine up halfway.

So,

It's kind of parallel with the floor.

With your breath out,

Let it go head heavy.

And walk your hands up your legs.

Making your way to standing.

We'll do that once more.

Inhale,

Reach the arms wide and up.

Exhale,

Hands together.

Fold forward,

Heavy the head.

Inhale,

Lift up halfway.

Reach the crown of the head in front of you.

Exhale to fold.

And inhale,

Walk the hands up your legs or reach the arms wide.

To come all the way up to standing.

Exhale,

Hands come together at the heart.

Feel your heartbeat in your hands.

And send a thank you to your body.

And to yourself for treating your body with kindness and gentleness this morning.

I hope you have a great rest of your day.

Take care.

If you're interested in more practices with me,

Feel free to check out Hanna Brown Yoga on Insight or over on YouTube.

I've got plenty of gentle classes,

Energizing classes,

And chair yoga classes.

I hope to see you again soon.

Thank you so much.

Peace.

Reviews

Thank you for getting my body prepared for the day! I did not want to get out of bed even after sleeping 11 hours, so I looked in my saved library and found this class again. Thank you, Hannah, for your easy to follow practices. It made all the difference in my attitude today!💜

Or maybe I do need this every morning.
Trying for second morning. Being gentle to my body, before I spring to full motion.
Thank you

Also it's not easy to do these exercises with a cat 🐈 on the chest or nearby, I enjoyed it very much. It was just what I needed this morning. Thank you 🫂🤍🙏😻

This is such a supportive way to wake up and get out of bed. I love your encouraging, "nice", "you've got this" and warm chuckles. I looked up your YouTube chair yoga and look forward to doing that with my sister on our weekly Zoom. Thank you for this Hannah!

So glad to finally have someone who understands the needs of people with osteoporosis.

Very gentle yet efficient with a kind empathetic voice

So slow & soothing. Hope you make more morning stretch mediations as they are lovely 🙏

Great way to loosen up and start my day…I’m usually stiff and sore in the morning. Thank you! 🥰🙏

Thank you.

Totally delicious morning stretch thank you Hannah 😊 🙏

This has now become part of my morning rituals and is so beneficial for a great start to the day in mind , body and soul 🙏💚

Thank you

Wonderful! Thanks

Sweet simple self loving practice to help me be with - not against - the pain in my body today. As always thank you Hannah for helping me heal. 🧘🏻‍♀️🧘‍♀️🙏🏾🌈

Thank you Hannah, makes it easier to get up and start the day!

Beautiful start to my day. Thank you.

Hello beautiful 🌺🌺🌺Thank you so much for this wonderful soft and sweet practice 🎈 by the moment I have a broken leg and it was so nourishing and sweet for my body 🌺 my day begins with smiling 🗺 stay safe and happy 🙏 Namaste

Thank you Hannah, this makes getting up in the morning so much easier. 🦋

Excellent Gentle Awakening of the Body🌟 Hannah Brown is My Primary Yoga Teacher 🌟
She is "The Best" for Me🙏😍❤💞🙏

This is the perfect morning stretch for me, your other was getting a wee bit difficult as I await knee surgery 😱
Well done

That was nice, thx ✨🙏🏻. I don’t have arthritis but love a gentle morning movement practice to wake up body and mind.