Warm Ups

Warm ups are how we prepare our body for practice and mind for concentration. A complete warm up for a physical practice should move all the joints and core muscles of the body, usually starting with less weight bearing exercises. For example, moving your fingers and wrists in the air before you place your hands on the ground. Dynamic, full range movements invigorate the muscles with blood which will slightly "pump them up", creating greater joint stabilisation, minimise excessive strain and injury, as well as make balancing easier. Moving your joints this way also enhances proprioceptive awareness so you are actually more aware of the position and sensations of your body even without looking.

Key to warming up for Hatha yoga practice is moving the spine in flexion and extension, as in surya namaskar, or sun salutations. This pumps the spinal cord fluid and balances hormonal functions. Just as many cultural and religious rituals have repetitions of bowing, kneeling, and full prostrations, this action is also used in yoga for it's effect on your state of consciousness, inducing a trance like flow of concentration that follows the movement of the body. All these practices are also good preparation for meditation practice, as they greatly improve your ability to sit still comfortably, concentrate, and observe your inner experience.
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 Table Dance

These are all movements performed from the Table pose, on hands and knees. This kind of floor practice is a great way to "ground" your energy and very useful for people suffering from vertigo, dizziness, and other balance or blood pressure related issues. 

Wrist Warm Ups

This dynamic and strengthening warm up for your wrists and hands can prevent and heal injuries and will make practices with hands on the floor much more comfortable, which can be crucial in the typical modern hatha yoga classes. 





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Breath Opening Side Bends











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Chaturanga Warm Up

Chaturanga is the low pushup position and can greatly strengthen the upper body. Many practitioners come to hatha yoga with insufficient upper body strength to perform the pose to their benefit and many yoga classes flow through it without attention to technique. This warm up will teach you the technique and make your shoulders enjoy the ride. Especially useful for development towards arm balances.


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Prana Apana Shoulder Rotations

This exercise helps to mobilise the upper body while opening up your breathing. It is corrective to poor posture by strengthening and integrating the muscles on the front and back sides of the torso as well as the arms.






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Ankles, Knees, and Hips Warm Up

These are very safe and effective movements to warm up these joints and tone their respective muscles, all performed laying down on the back. 




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Back Warm Up

​This warm up uses Locust pose as the root pose and various movements of the arms and legs to awaken our back muscles.  This is a very good exercise to alleviate and cute most common back pains and is excellent preparation for deeper back bending poses such as cobra and bow.