Yoga Warm-Up Sequence for Beginners, Gentle Floor Practice

One thing I hear a lot from clients is that they just want to go straight into standing yoga poses, or flows. However, without a warm-up injury can happen. Or you may not be able to fully explore the standing asana practice. So, here I am to help you out with a 15-minute floor class that can be used as-is or as a yoga warm-up sequence for beginners. You get to choose!

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Yoga Warm-Up Sequence for Beginners

Warm-ups are something many yoga practitioners skimp on. But ensuring you are mobile and supple in joints and muscles is essential to avoid pulling muscles as you come into the deep stretching. This yoga warm-up sequence for beginners ticks a couple of boxes for our generic and specific warm-up.

• Mobilizes the hips, spine and shoulders
• Works muscles of the core, legs, arms and shoulders
• Explores range of movement in the hips
• Helps release hamstrings for standing poses
• Provides somatic awareness of how your body feels TODAY

This class would be great before externally rotates poses at the hip including warrior 2, triangle, and side angle. At the end of this post, I’ll leave links to other classes to pair with this warm-up for a longer practice.

Gentle floor practice or Warm-Up Exercises

As with most classes, I add a body scan at the beginning and end. So choose a position to come to rest laying on your mat. For this practice I chose knees bent and feet on the floor. Take the opportunity to notice your body. How does it feel? And how does it connect to the floor?

Afterward, to begin mobilizing the spine and hips we do arch and flatten and windshield wipers before bringing one knee to the chest. Lightly hold the knee with the hand and guide the knee around in the circle. Notice any crunchiness in your hip or spots when there is less range of motion. Remember to go in BOTH directions.

Once you’ve explored that movement place the foot of the lifted leg onto the opposite knee creating a figure 4. From here we’ll begin warming up the core, chest, arms, and shoulders with some crunches.

After a few repetitions, leave the upper body on the floor but draw the bundle of legs towards your chest. You can hold onto the thigh for this, use a strap if needed. If you’re looking for more of a stretch then perhaps extend the leg into a full figure four stretch. You choose.

Repeat everything from the knee/hip circles on the other side. Then, you decide. Are you done? If so just rest for a few minutes in the same position you started at the beginning. Noticing any change in your body. Or if you’re looking for more then maybe try out these standing classes:

• 15-minute external rotation flow
• 15-minute half moon flow
• 5-minute standing flow
• 15-minute power yoga sequence

However, if you’re looking for a longer practice to pair with this warm-up then come join my community on Patreon. In my latest 30-minute video we explored standing poses that complement this warm-up. The winter warmer class also features a little challenge to it to build heat in the cold winter months. Are you ready to rise to the challenge? Then head over the Patreon and discover more videos and content!

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If you’re looking for real yoga for real bodies, consider joining my Patreon. Each month I release two yoga classes exclusively for my Patreon community. On the other hand, other ways to find more yoga with me are signing up for my 7-day yoga challenge, or subscribing to my YouTube channel.

Questions

• Do you make sure to warm-up before yoga?
• What’s your favorite exercise to warm-up?
• Have you injured yourself doing yoga poses?