You might be sore some mornings because of how you slept, what you ate, how hydrated you are (or arenāt) and a myriad of other reasons. Most often, some simple movements can make a huge difference in how alert, supple, and ready you feel at the start of your day.
Three areas of the body that are extremely helpful to work with are the feet, hips, and shoulders. Everything we do starts with the feet as they are made up of massive numbers of nerves, bones and muscles. Feet provide balance and our ability to react to the ground, so our every step and action depend on them. Our hips and shoulders are like the Panama Canal of our body, regulating through their stiffness or openness just how much fluid, nutrition and energy flow through our torso to our limbs.dong fang qi mo
By waking up your feet, hips and shoulders in every conceivable direction through self-care massage and multi-directional movements, you can arouse your entire nervous system and increase blood circulation and nutrition flow through your whole body.
Isnāt that what waking up is supposed to do? I think so too. By the way, open feet, hips and shoulder also means youāll feel less fatigue all day and less pain as your body experiences less internal resistance. Sign me up!
You can also use your breath as a means to wake up your body and start your day right. The video posted below shows the Yoga Tune UpĀ® 3 Step Breath (and you can also see it and more in the 10 Minute Quick Fix Yoga for Stress Relief video here) that will help start your day with a clear and refreshed mind.
Watch our stress relief videos instantly.
Read how to breath away stress.
Learn about Yoga Tune Up at home.
What a great way to get things circulating in the morning! Thanks for the share!
This post informs me on how to get up on the “right” side of the bed! Mindful movement, therapy ball rolling and breath are the ways to unstick the fuzzy fascia and to feel awake and energized.
I think it is very important that yoga, YTU, and other exercises help charge your body up for the day, a good breathing regimen is another good way to wake your body.
I always knew that it is good to get range of motion going in the morning as part of your routine, but never thought about it as an aid to wake up your nervous system.
Used this breathing technique during our YTU training. I will need to try this again in my personal practice in the morning. Thanks for the post.
I do wake up achy in the morning. I plan to be mindful of bringing awareness to and opening up my feet, hips and shoulders to start the day right.
Morning times were some of the worst times for me. Stiff as a board and grumpy. I fiqured I just had to deal with it and eventually it would disapate throughout the day after exercise. Now I have some simple tools to awaken and enliven the body that dosnt have to be hours at the gym. I like the idea of nourishing and energizing the body this way. Better then a cup of coffee in so many ways!
First thing I do in the morining when I feel stiff is ball rolling and doing some exercises for my shoulders and at the end I do breathe techniques. Doing this is a great start in the new day
Ah, finally someone talks about the importance of massaging the feet first thing in the morning. If the feet are happy, then a lot of other things up the body chain find a way to work themselves out. Ask anyone who’s ever suffered from plantar fasciitis. Also, talking about the breath is important for a lot of reasons, but one of them is that after you’ve loosened up your feet, hips, and shoulders, the breath is what can help us peacefully elongate and naturally stack one on top of the other for great stability with minimal effort.
I agree that rolling in the am is most satisfying! I have done it several times when m body has felt stiff from waking up. It is a relief to know that I have something to help me out that makes me feel that my body will be okay and I will have a great day! Love rolling the feet!
Really enjoyed your post. I’ve added rolling to my morning routine BEFORE sitting on the cushion and the difference in how I feel when I stand up is quite remarkable now. Gone are the stiff leg muscles, tingling in the feet and sore gluts…just a freshness and lightness of BEing.
Good to know morning stiffness not just something that I can expect with my increasing age – but something that can be eradicated. Liked the Panama Canal analogy- makes me wonder if sleeping position creates ‘dams’ in those canals?
Great timing for me to read your article, I totally agree as I woke up this morning and the soles of my feet hurt, rolling them out with the yoga tune-up balls made a huge difference.
The simplicity of your blog carries a great message and reminder for me. A daily am. dose of YTU for the of feet , hips and shoulders, is a great way to start the day. In my experience, I know the body loves and functions best with consistency. Why wait till something major happens to react and take care of oneself?? Jill’s video on the3 step breathing technique was a timely review for me. Just coming back home from Level 1 Training, it was one of the breathing technique I remembered. I taught it at the Cancer Centre yesterday, so the video confirmed I’m on the right track. Thanks. See ya, I’m off to roll my feet.
From my experience the tempo of our live grows on and on. Wery often I go to bed after mindnight and wake up at around 6 or 7. When alarm rings I jump out of the bed and run to the bathroom. To be true that is what I used to do . But now, since last year, I have a dog named Mila who leeps on the floor next to my bed. And I started to observ Mila. After waking up she starts to alongate her limbs, to rich forword with it, to flex and extend her spin. What a genius. So now I start to change my morning time. I stay few minutes in bed in different poses lik embrion, string, child pose, cobra. Than I go for the floor and continue with down dog, triangle, lunges, and rooling up. Ohhh that is great filling to have so flexible and invigorated body. When I have an extra time I add foot masage with YTU Balls. That feels great!
Recently, I’ve been increasingly realizing how important morning routines are, in the broadest sense. Having a well-structured, low-stress, robot-like first hour of the day makes a huge different for the rest of my day.
In terms of opening muscles and facilitating breathing, as you mentioned, I think this not only wakes up the body, but sets a precedent for you to pay attention to these things throughout the day, which translates to better posture, deeper breathing, and overall better mind/body relations.
Hi Alex, thanks for sharing. I’ve tried waking up to some tune-up a few times it and loved it. Your post reminded me how much it started my day on the right foot and hopefully, it’ll be the push I needed to integrate it in my morning routine.
Keep at it
Nikola
This brought to mind a discussion I had with a participant in one of my senior chair yoga classes. She told me of the stiffness she experiences in her hips as she gets up in the morning and asked what to do throughout the day to alleviate it. My response was to start earlier – before you get out of bed and before those feet hit the floor. I love your explanation that it will help “arouse your entire nervous system and increase blood circulation and nutrition flow through your whole body” – great information! Also reminded of 3 part breath as a great wake up call. I now know what the focus of my next seniors class will be!
Thanks for these great ideas, Alex. I used to teach a similar energizing pranayama to my clients but I found they would get lost trying to remember the steps, especially early in the AM. I love how simple and effective this breathing practice is. I’m going to try it this week and offer it to my clients as a way of centering and energizing before stepping out into their day.
I feel such a huge difference in my days when I use YTU techniques and when i don’t. I feel sluggish in my arms and legs and it takes me a lot of caffeine to wake up my brain. I wonder why I ever skip out on rolling out my feet, hips, shoulders and back with YTU ballsā¦ā¦.I think I’ll make that my New Year’s resolution! thanks.
This makes a lot of sense. Often when we wake up in the morning, it’s not about waking up (literally) the body and more of, “ugh, I have to get up and get the day started, making kids breakfast, packing lunches, going to work, etc.” This 3 step breath can easily be done while still in bed to slowly awaken instead of starting the nervous system and as you get out of bed, grounding the feet, everting, inverting and then making the way up towards the hips with a few easy flexions and extensions, then shoulder rolls or even pranic bath would set the tone for the rest of the day.
Steve, movement matters! Stay awake š Let us know how your experiments go.
Alex,
In your article, you touch an interesting topic which until today, I never really paid any real close attention to.
One’s ability to arouse our entire nervous system and increase blood circulation and nutrition flow through the body.
Feet, shoulders and hips are a major focus in my life. Learning and implementing YTU techniques in those regions have, at least for me, proven to be quite beneficial to my everyday.
That said, I’ve never really attempted on using YTU tools as my morning cup of Java. However, anything that will allow me to develop a deeper relationship on how I arouse my nervous system andor increase my blood circulation and nutrition flow sounds like a cool thing to try.
Thanks for the insight.
Waking up with attention to feet first then hips and shoulders is sound advice, since we start our walk from the ground up. Breath is another critical point to focus and and get right with. The video here is a simple exercise to engage. I like working the exercise of a 3 part breath by inhaling for 4 sec. hold (kumbhaka) 8sec. exhale 8sec, Do this and you work a 20 second breath count-3 of those cycles and you can count a minute. A super good thing to do when on break at work making it a practice on a ten minute break-count on your fingers every time you cycle through a minute, once you got a 2 hands worth of digits counted go back to work ready to take on the world!. Exhaling a little longer helps to expel little more toxin than you take in on inhale, since through the breath is one of our main channels to clear toxin out our body(breath, skin, colon). You may not want to hold the kumbhaka for so long or exhale for so much longer, but try just a couple of seconds longer on the exhale at least. yo… š
Old saying true today and forever more-you can go without food for month, water for days, but breath for only minutes.
This suggested breathing 3 step process along with the awakening of the feet, hips and shoulders with or without the YTU balls is such a nice segway into everyday living!
I will have to check out the stress reduction video because I wake up stiff and sore almost every morning. I sit in meditation every morning but I have never started the morning with 3-part breath. I like the idea of having more energy during the day and also taking care of the feet which we completely and totally abuse all day, every day. I often think my hip issues stem from my “bad” feet. I have a very narrow foot and most of my life have worn shoes that don’t fit properly. That’s one of the many reasons I absolutely fell in LOVE with yoga-no shoes! Great information about waking up the body. Just because we are up and about doesn’t mean we are up and about physically:)
All of yoga and life begins with breath. I love the idea of starting the day with a breath practice like this to mobilize the diaphragm and wake up the rest of the body with a flow of fresh oxygen. It seems like this is something we could all incorporate at different points throughout the day when we need to hit the reset button to be able to meet the challenges we all face as yogis and ordinary people.
yes sign me up too! I sometimes do stretches before I get up since sometimes I am extra stiff. For me it’s not always from not exercising but sometimes I over do it or do things the day before I am not used to. I have gotten in the habit of stretching in bed before I am up so I don’t injure myself from doing simple things. Sometimes it does pay off. Thank you Alex for your article.
I need to figure out how to get this in when I need to wake up before dawn to teach early classes! Can this be practiced, say, in the car? Or is it necessary to be reclining?
On days that I would wake up sore and tight due to yoga and being a massage therapist and had a full day ahead of me, I have used Yoga Tune Up exercises and ball work to open areas like my pecs, shoulders, hips, and feet. It brought tremendous relief to me and allowed to stay grounded and present to what is going on in my students and clients body, rather than my own in the moments I am interacting with them.
I can see what he means by waking up and feeling creaky depending upon hydration and nutrition. When I had less water the day prior, I defintely feel dry when I wake up! I’ll incorporate the breathing in the morning and even after a long day.
The first thing we do when we get out of bed is make contact with the earth through the surface of the foot. It’s our first point of contact and the base of support for our shoulders and hips. Morning is a time when the body feels that overnight fuzz and a great opportunity to buzz the fuzz with a set of TYU balls and asana with breath.
Every morning before I get out of bed I slowly and consciously inhale and exhale deeply about ten times. Then I do Apanasana, Happy Baby (extending my spine, particularly to counteract being in bed), a supine Upavista Konasna (also extending the spine), rolling my ankles in both directions, and then Ardha Apanasana into a twist on both sides. It wakes my body and brain, and helps me start the day connected. I generally wouldn’t recommend doing these things in bed as mattresses tend not to be even, and especially if the mattress is soft. But I have an even and relatively firm mattress and am very conscious and careful about my actions. Unfortunately the video won’t play right now, because I’m sure I’d get some other good things to add to my morning routine!
I love this breath exercise. It really relaxes the nerves and melts tension. I will start practicing it in the morning,
In the last year, I have awakened almost every morning with soreness / stiffness in my lower back, hips, knees, ankles and shoulders. After 10-15 minutes of moving around the house, the soreness and stiffness are gone. I know I don’t drink enough water each day (how DO you drink 8 glasses of water a day when you’re never thirsty??), but I never once imagined that my morning stiff joints could be linked with dehydration! Thanks for the suggestion.
I always wake up with stiffness so this is great advice. I have never put much thought into stretching the feet but it makes sense.
can’t wait to try this- stiffness in the morning can set the tone for a whole day and i would love to change that feeling of immobility. thanks.
i will be trying this as i get up pretty stiff and would love to see a change. do you have any suggestions for preventing severe thigh cramps?
i will be trying this as i get up pretty stiff and would love to see a change. do you have any suggestions for preventing sever thigh cramps?
this breathing pranayama in the morning allows me to be in the present moment and after I can map out what my intention for the day is going to be (Sankalpa) and when I practice it I feel a quality of calm trough out my day as well.
My low back can be pretty sensitive and I often find the bolster under my knees doesn’t quite get me out of the discomfort. I recently discovered that placing the bolster on top of two bricks does the trick.
Alex,
This is almost like the sequence that Jill did in class today during Shavasana with a block under our sacrum. She did it today with one extra inhalation!
This is a great way to awaken the diaphragm to increase your breathing throughout the rest of the day.
It is also a way to bring you into focus at the beginning of a class, or to calm you down at the end of class!
How you wake up the next day depends on so many things the day before: your nutrition, hydration levels, the exercise you did, the non-movement stuff you did (driving, sitting, computer posture!), body mechanics with your daily life, etc. Overnight, stiffness can occur in the joints and the muscles because they have been immobile most of the night (unless you are a wild sleeper!). Its a wonderful idea to move the body before you wake up and especially the diaphragm with the 3 part breath to set yourself up for another day with your body. You only have one body – you have to take care of it – DAILY!
I recently concluded a Mommy and me class with a 5 minute foot massage on a Yoga Tune Up ball and even with several toddlers creating all kinds of havoc in the room the parents were surprised by how fluffy and relaxed their feet felt. Priceless.
Good advice, especially since I am usually extra inflexible in the morning!
Alex, I added the 3 part breath to my toes, feet, hips, shoulder goodmorning time and love this 3 part breath! It’s addictive I used to use as previously posted to fall into myself. But!!! I am using it now in place of mantra at times! If I am trying to stay away from salt, or thinking wrong thoughts I start this breath and it’s like a reset. I started doing this warm up with the breath last week before my morning walk the dog with my husband and I felt incredible plus it’s like my body maped this feeling tone so if I do it in a tranquile quiet time when ever I call on it again it takes me to that feeling tone again. A few moments in the morning alone creating this ‘mantra of breath’ with the great feeling of moving your body can help people flex their willpower muscles. Thank you!!! to putting this out their for people to try it’s so simple it’s for everybody.
Wow Morning definetly a good time to realize what you did to yourself the day before. Some times when I get up my feet feel like loaves of bread ha. I love starting to warm up with feet movement, then hips then a few forward bends before surye namaskar a. I couldn’t imagine making my body move with out starting at the extremities espeically in the am. This 3 part breath was always somthing I did at the begining of my classes so the yogi’s could fall into themselfs before we started Asana. I find the long exhale allows everyone at the same time to fall a bit deeper into themselfs and the collective exhale changes the class like ok we came in seperate but we are all in this together – I have never tried this breat in the morning I will try tomorrow. I usually try a kalabatti (spelling is likely wrong) as the short in/out bursts of breath are energizing and fun like child fun š yea feet people! so often over looked in any excersize practise!
I think it also feels really good to do a little spinal flexion and extension (like cat cow) in the morning as it feels like it prepares me for the day.
This is cute, no one wants to feel stiff at the best of times, thanks for highlighting this and making some good recommendations.
I use a very simplistic stretch each morning that Indra Davis encouraged….Lying on your back arms by your side, stretch one leg towards the bottom of the bed, hold for 5-10 breaths, release then repeat on the other side. Do the same with the arms, then instead of leaping out of bed, rise SLOWLY. Stand on your feet in tadasana even just for a minute. Then your day can commence.
Three Part Breathing takes great concentration and coordination at first. But over time – even within a ten minute session, we become more comfortable with splitting the breath in three parts, I call it “Budgeting the Breath”. As we retain the breath at the top, we become more familiar with those moments of stillness within ourselves and eventually, those pauses grow longer and more easeful. It becomes an interesting game, to play with controlling the breath in Three Part Breathing and we become more familiar with our own limitations – both of mind and body are. Eventually, we build familiarity with how long the pauses can be, how deep the inhales can go. If we push our breathing too hard or hold the retentions to long, it may have the unwanted backlash of ruining the flow and may even cause some anxiety. When practiced correctly, three part breathing is relaxing and has a grounding, centering effect on the central nervous system.
For foot stretches, what do you recommend beyond rising onto toes and sitting back on feet with toes to the mat?
I will definitely try this out in the morning. I know using my Yoga Tune p balls at night, especially on my feet, not only feel good at the end of the day, but has helped me have a longer uninterrupted sleep.
I actually am a morning person, but I have been having trouble starting sun salutations first thing in the morning. I feel like I need to take a walk to get my blood flowing before I can dive into my sun salutationsā¦but since I do not have enough time to take a walk, salute the sun and make it to my job all before 8 am I need to try something different! This article highlights quick and easy ways to wake up my feet and get my body prepared for my morning practice and my day ahead. Your advice offers an easy solution for a time constraint issue I was having. Thanks for all of the tips!
What a great reminder in this world of dynamic motion that simply tuning in to our breath is a total stimulating exercise. Most everyone can take notice and add more breath to each and every movement and moment of our day.
Sadly, as we we get older we seem to loose so much fluid from our jjoints. Waking up in the morning is not so much fun anymore.
Having a routine to prepare your body and breath sounds like a great way, Thank you for sharing Alex!
For me having a bolster or pillow under my knees makes all the difference. So relaxing!
Thanks for the article. I appreciate having 3 areas to focus on in the morning. Seems much more manageable,
good demo. this helps with my hip pain and also warms up my body in the morning.
For me there’s no better way to start the day than yoga…makes everything feel better…body, mind and soul!
I love the morning but I notice if I use Yoga Tune Up balls or do any sort of yoga in the morning, it always makes it a better day. I love that yoga can help arouse your entire nervous system and increase blood circulation, I can’t imagine a better way to start the morning!
Alex – I have been stretching my hips and shoulders since I took Jill Miller’s Anatomy Tune Up class and it has made a difference in how I feel sitting mos tof the day, but I never thought to stretch out my feet. what specific stretches do you recommend? – Thanks
I can’t wait to try this one tomorrow morning!
And thank you Alex, for mentioning many factors that can result in soreness. (More hydration for me tonight).
This is a great routine to start the day! I, too, have stretched every morning since learning about the “fuzz”!
Sounds like a great idea to add to the morning routine.
The 3 Step Breath is very calming. I will be adding it to my list of pranayama.
So simple. A morning routine can sometimes seem daunting and I end up skipping it altogether. Focusing on just three areas (feet, hips, shoulders) makes it much more doable!
I have stretched every morning since taking Jill’s anatomy class and learning about the “fuzz”. It is a great way to start the day!
I find it so fascinating that focusing on the breath can be used to either down-regulate or wake up. I guess your intention and need has as much to do with the result as the practice.
Thanks for posting your comments everyone.
I’m curious – how is it going for you?
Thanks for the tips. I need all the help I can get waking up in the morning! I will start the morning tomorrow with opening my feet, hips and shoulders.
Makes sense to wake up your pelvic girdle and shoulders in the morning – parts of your body that are “used” while sleeping and so important to be alert, supple, and ready start of your day.
To me, the feet and shoulders have always seemed to be the most obvious focal points in the morning for relieving stiffness. I honestly had not thought of adding hip movements to my morning wake-up routine, which after reading your blog entry seems basic for improving digestion and circulation. Thanks, Jill!
I often wake up with stiff hips, so it’s an obvious area to bring movement to upon waking. It hasn’t occurred to me, though, to stimulate the feet and shoulders. But of course I should nurture my feet every day – they’re my foundation!
I have knew that tight joints could affect the flow of nutriion in my body. I need to stretch & move!
This sounds like a great way to awaken and energize the body in the morning. I’m not a morning person so I should definitely try this!
I start the day with some pranayama, Balasana and Apanasana. I should add some shoulders and hips!
I’m always looking for reasons to prolong my morning wake-up routine, and this is a great one.
I agree with Liz! This seems like a logical way to ease into the day that not only allows a moment of meditation and pranayama awakening, but also will open the hips and prepare our hearts for being open to all that the day will bring. Great video!
I have that outfit in the video. I love Lululemon.
Good advice to think about every morning. thanks!