A reader of this blog introduced me to the idea of Yin Yoga and recommended the Yoga Ranger as a great YouTube Yogi. I did some research on Yin Yoga and visited the Yoga Ranger site on YouTube. I really liked what I saw. The Yogi is Aprille Walker and she has a lot of Yin Yoga and meditation practices of different lengths. I especially liked the playlist filled with what she calls “Yoga Snacks.” These are 10-15 minute yoga workouts or meditations. They are the perfect length to add on to the end of a workout during the week, and on the weekends (or holidays when I don’t have to work), I can do one of the longer sessions.
This morning I did my first Yoga Snack titled Shoulder, Side Body, Chest, Back & Neck. It seemed like it would go well with Barlates: Warm & Stretch/Upper. And it did. This was a wonderful upper body stretch. Now, I will say, for my first sampling of Yin Yoga, I made a bad choice. I am pretty sure this was not Yin Yoga, just a wonderful stretch. But I am not sorry! I loved it and it is one I will return to again. Especially after an upper body workout. I am pretty sure the next yoga snack I plan to try is actually a short Yin Yoga practice. Thank you very much Amy for introducing me to Yin Yoga and the Yoga Ranger!
The only negative to this was the sound was very low. I had to jack the volume of my TV up as far as it would go to hear her. I hope the rest of them don’t have the same sound problem. I also hope I remembered to turn the volume down again for tomorrow’s workout so it doesn’t scare the #$&%* out of me when my workout starts!
Yoga Snack for Shoulder, Side Body, Chest, Back & Neck is 8 minutes long, but the actual stretch is only about 7 minutes. It starts sitting cross-leg and doing side stretches, reaching one arm overhead and to the other side. Interlace fingers and stretch both arms overhead. Finger still interlaced, press arms in front of you, rounding the upper back. Interlace fingers behind you, lift your arms to stretch your chest. Wrap one arm around behind you so hand is at opposite hip and press that hand into the hip with the other hand and lower head toward shoulder (this stretch felt so good!). Roll shoulders. Bring one arm across body to stretch shoulder. More neck stretches. Interlace hands behind head and let elbows pull head forward (another neck stretch). Thread the needle pose. Child’s pose reaching arms to side. Sit on knees and do a tricep stretch. Wrist circles. Open and close hands.
For more info on Yoga Ranger and other (free) streaming workouts I’ve sampled and reviewed, check out my Streaming page.
