Standing Morning Yoga Stretch & Flow

An 8-minute standing yoga practice with gentle movement and stretching to start your morning! No special props are needed and a yoga mat is optional. Includes some light balancing, so please have a wall or sturdy chair available if you'd like extra support while balancing. This track contains no background music. A bell signals the start and end of the practice.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to this standing yoga practice.

This is a great way to start your day with some gentle movement and stretching.

Today we'll start out standing in Tadasana.

So starting with your feet about hip width apart,

Maybe find a little bend in your knees,

Taking your hands by your side and standing nice and tall.

Inhale in,

Filling up your belly with air and exhale out,

Maybe out through your mouth.

And next inhale,

Reach your arms down,

Around and up overhead and exhale.

Press the air away as you lower your arms back to your side.

And inhale,

Reach your arms up,

Extending through your fingertips and exhale,

Press the air away.

You might feel a gentle stretch in your arms as you do this.

Take a few more with your own breath.

Inhale and exhale.

And one more.

And meet back in Tadasana and taking a deep breath in and out through your mouth.

Next breath in,

Reach your arms up overhead and this time as you exhale,

Twist your torso towards the right and let your arms lower into a T.

So just a gentle standing twist here.

Hold for another breath.

And then meet back in center and lower your arms back down.

Inhale,

Reach your arms up overhead,

Exhale,

Twist to the left,

Taking your arms out in a T and hold,

Taking a breath or two.

And then back to center and release your arms back down.

Coming into Tadasana for a breath in and out.

And now moving with your own breath,

Inhale,

Reach your arms up and exhale,

Twist to the right,

Inhale up through center and exhale,

Twist to the left.

And inhale through center and exhale,

Twist.

And inhale through center and exhale,

Twist.

And take one or two more rounds on each side.

And then meet back in Tadasana,

Taking a breath in and out.

For our next pose,

We'll take a little balancing so feel free to move over to the wall for some extra support.

Shift your weight over to your right foot and start to draw your left knee up.

You can hold on the outside of your shin.

You can hold underneath your knee.

You can also keep your foot closer to the ground.

And circle your ankle one way.

Switch directions.

And point and flex through your foot.

Maybe you stretch your leg out long.

And draw your knee back in and lower,

Coming back to Tadasana.

And same thing on the other side.

Shifting over to your left foot,

Draw your right knee up.

You can hold on the outside of your shin.

You can hold underneath your knee.

You can also keep your foot lower to the ground.

And circle your ankle in both directions.

And point and flex through your foot.

Maybe stretch your leg out long here.

And draw your knee back in.

And release back down to Tadasana.

And take a breath in and out.

Inhale.

Reach your arms down,

Around,

And up overhead.

And as you exhale,

Sit back in a chair pose.

So bending your knees,

Sitting your hips down lower.

Your arms can come up by your shoulders.

Or maybe they come in front of you or into a cactus shape.

Whatever's more comfortable on your shoulders.

And hold for a couple more breaths.

Inhale.

And exhale.

And one more.

Inhale.

And exhale.

Release.

Coming back up to standing.

Take a breath or two here.

Next inhale.

Reach your arms up overhead.

And as you exhale,

Cactus your arms.

Opening up through the chest slightly.

Coming into a little back bend here.

And then release.

Coming back to Tadasana.

Inhale.

Reach your arms up overhead.

And exhale.

Press the air away.

Inhale.

Reach your arms up.

And exhale.

Lower.

And last one.

Inhale.

Reach your arms up.

And this time,

Exhale.

Draw your hands to heart center.

And come back to your breath.

Take a few more nice deep breaths here.

Inhale.

Taking the deepest breath you've taken all day.

And exhale out through your mouth.

And a couple more just like that.

Inhale.

And exhale.

And we'll take a few moments here at the end.

Finding some silence and stillness.

When you're ready to continue on with your day,

Inhale in.

Exhale out.

Lower your arms back down.

Thank you so much for joining me.

I hope you enjoyed this quick standing stretch.

I hope you have a great rest of your day.

Reviews

Really simple, yet gets the energy flowing. Enjoyable practice!

Really lovely. The pacing was just right for me. I chose to add a couple of standing forward folds (and holding opposite elbows) with halfway lifts at the end before returning to tadasana. Thank you! 😊

Many thanks Sam for lovely standing flow to start my day well. Namaste🙏

Hello beautiful 🪻🌷🪻🌷🪻Thank you so much for the wonderful practice 🌞I’m smiling and feeling sunny 🗺️ much love 🕉️Namaste

Thank you for this stretch ! I like that it’s one that I don’t have to get down on the floor to do👍🙏

A pleasant stretch to get the morning started, gentle and dynamic. Well guided with clear cues

I really enjoyed the feel of the stretches in the morning. Thank you

This is exactly what I need to start my day with some gentle movement. Thank you!

Energizing, simple, good directions. I added warrior 3 before chair pose and tree pose at the en and some wrist circles.

I loved this so much, thank you!

Due to an old shoulder injury, I had to limit the movements a bit, but this felt really good.

Perfectly simple and energizing. So glad it was labeled as standing as that was what I was looking for today. Thanks.