Lotus

Lotus

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Yoga for a Hangover.

We’ve all been there. Last minute decision to go out and grab ‘a drink or two’ which translates to several bottles. Birthday parties to prove that you can still ‘roll’ like you did in college (let’s face it, that was a special time in our kidney’s history). Wedding receptions, tailgates, heck, monday night. Point is, you drink too much and then the following morning ensues: throbbing, pounding, can’t see straight, i’d-rather-never-see-the-light-of-day-again kind of hangover. The sad truth is that there is no getting around it. Must deal. Your options are as follows:

1. grab your handy bag of frozen peas, place over face. Burrow under covers. Breath from straw. Spend day there.

2. ‘greasy food and coffee’ cure. Honestly, do we still really believe in that?

3। yes, you guessed। Get your tushy in a yoga class and DETOX. Sweat the night (tequila) out and purify. The first 20 minutes will be heck, but hang in there, you’ll be a brand new person by the end of the class. If this option of leaving your home makes you quiver in your dress that you still haven’t taken off from last night, here are some short and simple options to encourage those hangover blues right out of your body.

Here is a sequence that I found to help squeeze all of those toxins right out of your poor aching insides.



Detox Sequence:

Twists are extremely therapeutic and detoxifying. It massages our internal organs, clears the spine, aids in digestion, and most importantly, encourages release of toxins we hold deep within. These gentle twists will help leave last night in the dust.

Mellow: Start seated in a comfortable cross-legged position. Root your hips down into the floor and sit tall through your spine. Take your right hand to the outside of you left knee. Place your left fingertips onto the ground behind your lower back. Put gentle pressure onto the outside of your left knee as you lift your chest and twist to your left. Hold 8-15 deep breaths and switch sides.

Medium: Straighten your left leg and bend your right knee so that the sole of your foot is flat on the ground in front of your right sitz bone. Ground your hips, lengthen the spine and wrap your left arm around the front of your shin bone so you can rest your palm on your outer right thigh. Place the right hand on it’s fingertips behind you. Lift the chest and pull the belly and back shoulder to the right to twist. 8-15 breaths, repeat on second side.

Spicy: If you can bare to sweat a bit, stand up, otherwise skip this step. Standing with your feet and legs together, bend both of your knees and sink your hips. Keep the shins pressing back so that you can look down and still see your toes. Join the hands into prayer (namaste) at your chest. Hold 10-20 breaths. Take your left elbow and place it to the outside of your right thigh. Press into the leg and press the bottom palm into the top to revolve chest open. 10 more breaths. Come back to center and repeat on second side. If you can handle even more heat, do 5-10 Sun Salutations before this twist. Click HERE to learn how to perform a Sun Salutation.

Soothe: Sit down sideways against a wall. Lie down and take both legs together up the wall. Shift until your bottom can rest next to where the wall and floor meet. Take arms overhead, cover eyes with a cloth or eye pillow and rest here for 5 minutes.

*this sequence was first featured on www.quarterlife.com







www.kathrynbudig.com
www.yogaworks.com

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