A great spine warm up sequence

Warming up the spine

Spine is made out of 33 individual bones and is the biggest support for your body. It is very important to warm up the muscles, joints and ligaments around the spine before you try to do any advance yoga postures. A great way to warm up is practicing the Sun Salutations, as it really does get your heart rate up and warms up all the muscles. However, I prefer, even before the Sun Salutations, to do a few warm up exercises on the floor as our spines have to be really pampered and taken care of. Although our spines are designed to carry weight, bend, twist and support us, it takes one wrong move to injure the spine, especially if practicing advance yoga postures without supervision. 

Here is a short video of my favourite spine warm up. 

1. Start on all fours and do a few (5-10) Cat Cow stretches. (Flexion and Extension)
2. Then continue with a circle motion movement (as demonstrated in the video) of the spine. Make 5 circles to the right and 5 circles to the left. (Adding Lateral Flexion and Reduction)
3. Then we continue with some gentle spinal twists and shoulder stretch as demonstrated in the video. 5 breaths each side. (Rotation)
4. Then relax in child's pose for a few breaths. 
5. If preparing for some backbends: From all fours keep your hips up towards the ceiling and lower your chest down with arms extended in front of you. (Hyper Extension)
6. And the last one, if your spine is extra flexible, you can try straightening your legs, for an even deeper Hyper extension.
7. Finish off with a child's pose and you are ready for some yoga fun :) 

A short time lapsed insight of a yoga class with Anna Makarova.

A short time lapsed insight of a yoga class with Anna Makarova.

"Anyone can practice. Young man can practice. Old man can practice. Very old man can practice. Man who is sick, he can practice. Man who doesn't have strength can practice. Except lazy people; lazy people can't practice Ashtanga yoga"
-K Pattabhi Jois- 

My favourite way of starting a day

My mornings

As I am a morning person I like to wake up bright and early around 7am. I usually give myself at least 2 hours before I need to be somewhere.

First of all my alarm should be nice and soothing melody so I can wake up slowly with no stress. Of course I love snoozing my alarm… I do it at least twice before I get out of bed.

First thing I do when I get out of bed is oil pulling – (rinsing mouth with coconut oil). You can choose any oil of your preference, but in my opinion coconut oil is the best. I rinse my mouth for about 5-7 minutes, spit it out and brush my teeth. (Oil pulling is good for getting rid of all the toxins in your mouth, natural teeth whitening, better breath and healthier gums)

Get dressed, have a large glass of room temperature water. It should always be first thing in the morning you put in your stomach (It purifies and wakes up your body’s internal system). 

Yoga class at home or in a near by studio (Ashtanga yoga, preferably self practice as then you can do what you want and in your own pace) At the end of class I like to do at least 10 minutes of meditation.

I feel so energised and at the same time calm after this routine.

Nice warm shower and after I apply coconut oil,  (I do it on wet body as it is much easier to apply than on dry body). Next I lightly dry my body with a towel.

After drink some more water and I am ready for my breakfast, cold pressed juice and a small cup of coffee (shouldn’t get too carried away with the coffee, but its okay to have it once in a while) Coffee is okay to drink, but its better not to have it in order to wake yourself up as it gives a shock to your body. It is much healthier to wake up in a natural way.

My breakfast

Poached egg on a slice of seeded toast, topped with steamed spinach with some chilli flakes and coriander and avocado and asparagus on the side.

Ingredients

1 Seeded slice of bread (toasted)
1 Poached egg
2 handful spinach leaves (steamed)
Chilli flakes
Fresh coriander
Half an avocado (sliced)
3 large green asparagus (grilled)

A freshly made cold pressed juice

Ingredients

1 Pomegranate
10-15 Strawberries
Fresh ginger (size of the piece by your choice)
200ml Coconut water

Now I'm ready to conquer the world :)