Hot Girl Health

THE LORE

One of the first things to know about me, is that I’m not a morning person. I’ve always been someone who enjoys being up late into the night. I’ve been like this from childhood well into adulthood, peaking in college where I could easily stay up till 5 in the morning with minimal effort, a trait that was very indicative of my unhealthy mental and physical lifestyle. Now as a working adult, I had transitioned to a new job where I needed to wake up around 7am, be a competent and efficient person early in the morning (I don’t drink coffee or energy drinks), and not spiral into an eventual mental breakdown solely from an early schedule. Thus, this healthy habit was born.

MY SOMETIMES 10 MIN ROUTINE

What to focus on

Firstly, there’s no wrong way to stretch, especially in the morning. There isn’t a set number of reps or structure that’s needed, and actively trying to follow one first thing when your still half way in dreamland will be detrimental and taxing. The goal is to ease into the wake up in a way that will support feeling healthier during the day. Be intuitive. But overtime, I have developed some go-to staples that I like to do.

MY FIRST STRETCH

Normally in the morning if any of my muscles are stiff, it’s usually my neck. As a side sleeper, my neck can get cramped up fast.

The first stretch I like to start with is puppy pose (although I’ve always attributed this stretch to cats), which can be achieved by Child’s Pose with your arms stretched out.

This is a stretch that can be done on the floor or using a wall (put both your palms flat on the wall and bend forward at the waist 90 degrees, chin tucked in). This just instantly relieves shoulder and neck tension as well as a deep upper body stretch. If you’ve ever seen a cat wake up, they usually do this stretch immediately. Do this and breathe deeply into it.

THE IN BETWEEN

Hips

As I said earlier, being intuitive is the best way to approach a morning routine. I like to go through the parts of my body that I think are the most affected by my sleeping habits and my daily routine (whatever muscles you use for school/work/daily life). As someone who sleeps on their side and sits at work, I normally start with hip stretching. Pigeon stretch is my staple stretch.

Aside from being great for hips, you can get a deep back or hamstring stretch from pigeon pose as well. For my girls, this is a great way to stretch your uterus area, especially the week before your moon cycle where it can swell up.

Lunge stretches are great as well. There’s a few variations on how to do to them, but all are great deep hip stretches.

Back

Having good back health is very important and very underrated. It’s neglected in a lot quick routines but your spine connects all other parts of your body. Cat-cow pose is a great full body warm up and active stretch.

Normally I do this sequence three times then rest in Child’s Pose. Inhale and exhale properly (in on the up, out on the release) when doing this move to warm up.

Standing (+ quads and hamstrings)

Sometimes if I’m short on time, I’ll only do standing stretches. Stretching to the sky, very slow shoulder and neck rolls, and touching my toes. It’s also easy to stretch quads and hamstrings when doing standing moves. I do think floor stretching is a bit slower and more concentrated, but just practicing posture stretches has many benefits too.

If I’m really foggy in the morning, I just roll out of bed and go straight into a standing forward bend, otherwise known as touching your toes. But the goal is not to touch them per se, it’s more to release neck, back, and shoulder tensions.

Hinge forward at the waist and just gently hang to help neck stiffness and headaches as well. Leaning your butt against the wall while hanging (an angled forward bend), or sitting and hinging forward (legs straight), are also excellent variations for focusing on alleviating upper neck tensions. And of course, this move can be done on the floor as well. But if I’m only doing standing stretches, I usually do all 3 forward fold variations using the wall and a chair, and it does wonders just with one pose!

For quads, I recommend standing and grabbing one foot with your hand behind your butt, keeping your knee pointed down, which is good for warming up your legs and knees, especially if you like to walk.

MY LAST STRETCH

The last stretch of my routine if I have enough time, is tried and true: Savasana, or corpse pose. When you take a yoga class, they will normally end the class with this. However, instead of using it to wind down from a class or workout (which I do recommend), in the morning I use it to just have a moment of mental relaxation before truly starting the day and to finish the mind-body connection in totality. Focus on taking a few deep belly breaths. It’s a great mental baseline to start your day with, relax and set positive intentions!

SEIZE THE DAY

Ideally, your morning stretching doesn’t need to exceed 10 minutes (but longer is not bad if you have the luxury), there is no one size fits all routine. The most important point is to ease your mind into your body in the morning, waking it up out of healing sleep. You feel your mind slowly coming to, without mental and physical strain of forcing it. Wake up, don’t try to think too fast, move intentionally, and breathe.

Disclaimer: The links included are only for the sole purpose of showing an example of the pose, we are not affiliated with any of the aforementioned/linked websites in any way.