Surfing request that you use a lot your back and shoulders muscles, after a long session it is always good to do a little stretching to relax those muscles and avoid stiffness. With Yoga you can stretch gently, you relax and work on your breathing at the same time ! Here are a few Yoga postures to practice after surf. It can be completed by little sessions apart from your surfing sessions to feel the benefits of Yoga in your everyday life even better.
Wide child’s
Sit on your heels, stretch your arms as far as possible without detaching your butt from the floor while exhaling.
Upward-facing dog
Keep your feet right on the floor, align your wrists and your shoulders, stretch your back by looking at the sky and taking a deep breathe.
Downward-facing dog
Keep your feet right on the floor, push on your arm to make a V with your body, breathe in and exhale deeply. If you’re a beginner like me and that you feel a certain resistance in the back of your legs you can slightly bend your legs, keep your back as flat as possible.
Cat pose
On your hands and knees, wrists and shoulders aligned, knees and hips aligned. Breathe in while rounding your back, head inside your shoulders, abs tightened, then exhale while arching your back and looking to the sky. Repeat several times.
Thread needle
On your hands and knees, your right arm goes under your chest as far as you can to the left, keep your back straight. Your left arm is wide open and along your ear. Then same thing on the other side.
Half bridge
Lying on your back with your knees up on your chest, arms along your body and fingers touching your heels. Then lift up your butt as high as you can, looking at the sky, your feet are flat on the floor and your head and shoulders are anchored in the floor. You can also go further and do a full bridge by putting your hands next to your ears and lifting up your body by pushing strong on your arms and legs.
Sitting eagle
Sit on your heels or cross your legs, cross your arms by putting one elbow inside the other, than put your hands palm to palm and stretch your arms up and forward.
To complete those poses here are two videos, one from Lucy Forster Perkings who is offering a 10min session made especially for surfers. the other one by Ioanna Pop for Innercity Yoga focus on shoulders stretching.
And for your daily stretching here are two others videos, for morning and night, very nice and easy to do.
Thank you to Roxy for the nice Yoga suit !
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