Everyday Yoga Excerpt: 5 Pre-Workout Warmup Poses

My friends at Yoga Journal will be running a nice series of Everyday Yoga excerpts over the next few weeks. While the book is for not just athletes but everyone, the excerpts are keyed to pre- and postworkout routines, and you can string them together to do a full home practice.

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We’re starting with a dynamic preworkout yoga—what my students know as Parking Lot Yoga.

This sequence highlights good form in Mountain Pose, the basis of good alignment in virtually every yoga pose and virtually every sport. It also challenges the glutes, wakes up the lower legs, and builds breath awareness, focus, and balance—all of which you need as you begin your workout. Bonus: All of these standing poses are done without bringing your hands to the floor, making it perfect for a mat-free practice in a parking lot, say, before a workout—or almost anywhere else.

Visit the Yoga Journal website to follow along! And, if you haven’t already, preorder your copy today!