Physical Meditation

When I wake up, my body feels stiff. What I've recently enjoyed doing in the mornings is spending 20 minutes stretching out my body. It's a simple habit that allows me to identify and ease tension from my body before my day begins.

The morning ritual starts with cat curls, where I start working on my upper back and neck, which are almost always tight after waking up. I will then spend time in the downward dog pose to begin mobilizing the ankle and hamstrings. These two movements are general enough that I often do them before all my routines.

From there, I focus on my lats with some sitting side and forward bends. I use my obliques to help stabilize the spine during bends so I can strengthen and lengthen that area simultaneously. These muscles are the most satisfying to stretch because I can hear the stretch happening along my ribs and shoulders.

Finally, I focus on my problem area, hips, and below. I've been doing kneeling hip flexor stretches but honestly can't tell if it's helping. My hips have always been ridiculously tight, and I have yet to find anything very effective for them. Hopefully, it's one of those things which will suddenly get better after some time. Then I will sit back into a kneeling hamstring stretch and tortuously work the hamstrings and glutes at different angles.