My inability to touch my ankles (let alone my toes) has always been a source of mild frustration. So, about eight years ago, I armed myself with some Rodney Yee yoga DVDs and embarked on a noble flexibility quest.

But my enthusiasm didn’t last very long. All that stretching felt like a chore and, while my flexibility did improve, the results were nowhere near as dramatic as I hoped.

In hindsight, doing yoga for the sake of becoming bendier was never a good idea. It was only when I properly integrated yoga into my life via a handcrafted morning routine that it became a daily staple.

Today, after two years of consistent yoga practice every morning and most evenings, I finally feel qualified to share some of my favorite yoga poses with others who are not blessed with the flexibility of a ragdoll.

Standing Forward Bend

Let’s start with the arch-nemesis of all of us “inflexibles” — that classic touch-your-toes pose.

If you have some annoyingly short hamstrings, the key to this pose is letting go of that innate need to reach your toes with straight legs. Instead, commit to just enough of a knee-bend to comfortably touch the floor.

While bending forward, focus on lengthening your lower back as much as possible. Ideally, your back would be straight, but that’s just not realistic for most of us. A mild bend in your back is fine, as long as it feels comfortable.

Once you have found the minimum knee bend required to comfortably touch the floor, slowly straighten the legs. Cross your arms and draw them into their sockets, giving yourself a little more play in your hamstrings.

Keep your focus on your lower back and hamstrings. The bend in your lower back should never feel uncomfortable, and you should feel the stretch along the entire length of your hamstrings. If you lose either of these feelings, add a little more bend to your knees.

When done correctly, this post is deeply relaxing. So, next time you feel a bit anxious or stressed, try it out! Start by standing straight with your arms above your head and then do a swan-dive over your (slightly bent) legs, while keeping as much length in your lower back as possible. Then just relax and observe what happens to your emotional state 🙂

Other Standing Poses

While we’re standing up, let’s go through three other deeply satisfying standing poses that require minimal flexibility and create a lovely flow.

Start with your feet wide apart and turn your front foot out by 90 degrees. The distance between your feet should be just right so that you can bend your front leg to almost 90 degrees by the time your knee arrives directly over your heel, creating the classic Warrior 2 pose:

While taking a deep breath, elongate your lower back, put a very slight backbend in your upper back, and open your chest. Then, on the out-breath, make sure the angle in your front leg is close enough to 90 degrees so that you feel a nice burn in your quadriceps.

When the burn starts getting uncomfortable, it’s time to transition into Standing Side Angle pose. To do this, bend your front arm to 90 degrees and rest your elbow on your front knee. Then bring your top arm parallel to your torso and look up to the ceiling.

This transition takes a lot of weight off your upper leg, creating a lovely relaxed sensation after the burn from Warrior 2. Elongate your lower back and stretch your torso towards your upper arm.

Next, we can transition into Triangle pose. Slowly straighten your front leg, keeping the contact with your bottom arm to support the weight of your torso. Your bottom hand should end up in a position on your shin that results in a good leg stretch without creating discomfort.

The key here is to tilt your hips further towards your back leg so that you feel a nice and even stretch throughout the entire length of your front leg. Again, elongate your lower back and keep your torso reasonably straight.

After a few seconds in this position, bring your torso to an upright position with your arms horizontal to the sides, turn your feet in the opposite direction, and repeat this 3-pose series to the other side.

This quick series of standing poses is great for when you have been sitting a little bit too long, and your legs are feeling stiff. It only needs 30 seconds to restore blood flow and full mobility to your legs.

Hip Openers

My favorite type of hip stretch is the Cross-Legged Forward Bend. In fact, this is my second-favorite yoga pose of all!

Start by sitting in a simple cross-legged position. Then press your fists into the floor so that your behind lifts slightly off the mat, allowing for a natural elongation of your lower back. Take a deep breath and look slightly upwards with a relaxed expression on your face.

While maintaining the length in your lower back, breathe out and slowly fold forward over your crossed legs. Rest your forearms on the floor in front of you and let your head relax downwards.

Don’t push. Only go to the point where you feel a satisfying opening in your hips and no strain in your lower back. Then just enjoy the deep relaxation.

After a while, use your arms to help you sit up again, cross your legs the other way, and repeat the process.

The Cross-Legged Forward Bend is an excellent pose for relaxation and winding down after a hectic day. As an inflexible person, you should also be able to bend forward further in this pose than most others, which is quite rewarding in itself.

Interestingly, you can also get a reasonable assessment of your general health by evaluating how much help you need from your arms to transition from standing to a cross-legged position and back to standing.

Groin Stretch

There’s no better way to get a good groin stretch than the classic Cobbler’s pose. Let’s start with the Lying Cobbler, using the floor for natural spine alignment.

While keeping your back straight, pull your feet gently towards your chest up to the point where you feel a satisfying stretch in your groin. Draw your arms into their sockets and breathe in deeply.

Then make the transition to the conventional Cobbler’s pose. Try rolling up to a sitting position, while keeping hold of your feet. This move is good fun, and you should be able to do it quite elegantly after a bit of practice 🙂

Once in a seated position, start by sitting up straight with a similar alignment as in the lying position above. Then breathe out while slowly bending forward. Don’t go too far. It’s better to establish the groin stretch by letting your knees fall open instead of bending forward too much.

Cobbler’s pose is great for winding down in the evening, especially the lying down variant. It also offers a great stretch before or after any vigorous exercise.

Core Workout

Want to get a solid six-pack without resorting to back-breaking sit-ups? Try making Boat pose a permanent feature of your daily morning routine.

Boat pose is pretty much a full-body workout, but the abdominal region works the hardest. Start with the Half-Boat variety where your torso and legs are lifted just a comfortable distance from the ground. Make sure you balance yourself on your sacrum and not your lower back while actively using your arms to maintain that balance.

After spending a while in this position, lift your legs and torso as far as they can comfortably go. This lift brings you into Full Boat pose, which offers a real abdominal workout. Maintain this position until you feel a good burn in your core.

I spend about one minute in Boat pose every morning. In each of my morning yoga routines, I drop my least favorite pose and replace it with the Boat, alternating between the Half and Full varieties at 10-second intervals. This minute is all I need to maintain a solid set of abs.

Back Stretches

If you have tight hamstrings, you’ve likely developed the bad habit of bending more in your lower back than your hips. In this case, it becomes even more crucial to look after your back. This little series can help.

We start with Cobra pose. Begin by lying flat on your stomach and placing your hands next to your chest so that your elbows approach a 90-degree angle. When you lift your torso into Cobra pose, your arms should be perpendicular to the floor.

This hand positioning is crucial. If your hands are too far forward, you can easily bend your back too much, doing more harm than good. Be very mindful of your lower back, and make sure you never bend to the point of discomfort.

If your hips lift a little bit off the floor, that’s fine. In fact, this creates a lovely natural elongation of your lower back. Take a big breath, lift your chest, lower your shoulders, and look mystically upwards.

After spending a few seconds in Cobra pose, we can transition into Child’s pose. Keep your hands and knees fixed in place, and slowly swing your body backward to end up in this position:

Elongate your back into the stretch of your arms, gently rest your head on the ground, and simply enjoy this deeply relaxing position. After a good Cobra, Child’s pose feels fantastic 🙂

You might find yourself spending quite a while in Child’s pose. But when you feel it’s time to move on, end off with a Thunderbolt pose (which is nowhere near as dramatic as it sounds). Simply push yourself up with your hands to sit on your heels.

The great thing about this pose is how it naturally creates the perfect back posture. Lift your chest with a big inhalation, and feel your spine align.

This series is perfect for when you’ve been sitting for a long time and feel a little discomfort in your back. I prefer to start in Thunderbolt, transition through Child to Cobra, and then reverse the sequence to return to Thunderbolt (as illustrated above).

The Child-to-Cobra transition is a fun one. Keep your head and chest close to the floor as you sweep your body forward, and only start lifting your chest when it passes between your hands. It’s a delightful motion 🙂

As an extra little fitness test, try transitioning from standing to Thunderbolt and back to standing without using your arms. I reckon this motion should be a similarly good predictor of general health as the sitting-rising-test mentioned earlier.

Twist

Last but not least, we get to my favorite yoga pose of all: Half Fish pose. Strange name aside, this delightful pose will improve your day whenever you need it.

Start building your Half Fish pose from a simple cross-legged position. Take hold of your bottom foot and pull it a little backward to the opposite sitting bone. Then lift your top foot over your bottom knee.

Twist your upper body slightly towards your bottom foot, while elongating your torso with the help of a big inhalation. Then complete the twist on your exhalation without compromising the length in your back. Only twist as far as you feel comfortable.

The position of your front elbow is a good twist adjustor. For a mild twist, simply wrap your arm around your knee so that your elbow is slightly on the inside of the knee. For the intermediate version shown above, place your elbow on the outside of your knee. Then there’s also the advanced version where you straighten your top arm to grab your front toe while keeping your elbow on the outside of your knee. That one’s a bit much for me, I must admit.

Being my favorite yoga pose, I employ the Half Fish pose whenever I get an irrational craving. Often a good Half Fish can convince my mind to drop its unreasonable demands for a Whole Chocolate 🙂

So, there you have it. These poses add great value to my life day after day. I hope they can do the same for you!

All photos were taken and processed by Janet Cloete.