Gentle Restorative Yoga for Fatigue

Gentle Restorative Yoga for Fatigue is a restorative yoga practice by the Yoga Ranger. It is similar to yin yoga, in that you hold the poses for a long time, but different because these poses are relaxing and yin yoga frequently is not relaxing. At least not for me. The purpose of restorative yoga is to help you heal and recover through a sort of meditative relaxation. I have been feeling really drained today and kind of blah so I decided to give this a try and see if I felt restored afterward. I actually do feel a little better! It is not easy for me to relax. Even at the end of my day, when I am sitting on the couch with my husband watching TV, I am also multitasking and doing several other things. And since my shoulder surgery I don’t sleep well either and last night was particularly unpleasant. So I felt I needed something. This was very relaxing. I forced myself to clear my head and sink into the poses. The only one I had any issue with is the side lying one where I was only holding my left arm over my head. I was able to reach it over, but after about 30 seconds it started hurting. So I just lay there with my arm along my side. Its too early yet to say if it was rejuvenating but I do feel better–not dragging as much as I was before the doing the practice.

Gentle Restorative Yoga for Fatigue is 29:30 minutes; 1:20 minute intro and the last 2:30 minutes is Aprille talking. Equipment: bolster and several folded blankets or beach towels.

1. Wide leg child’s pose with head turned to side and cheek resting on bolster (knees are wide because bolster is between legs, one blanket across tops of thighs and end of bolster, and the other blanket is under bottom/on top of calves), hold this pose for 6 minutes; halfway through turn head so other cheek is resting on bolster
2. Lay bolster length-wise, roll up both blankets and set them both in front of the the bolster, lay on your side across the bolster with arm between two rolled up blankets and head laying on one of the blankets, top arm is extended over head so hand is on the floor above the head, hold this pose for 3 minutes; repeat for 2:30 minutes on the other side of the body
3. Supported bridge (keep bolster lengthwise and push one rolled up blanket against long side of bolster, come into bridge pose with glutes on bolster and low back on rolled up blanket), hold this pose 4 minutes (she gives you various options for your legs; I felt the most stretching when my legs were straight but after about a minute it started to get uncomfortable so I bent my knees, placed the soles of my feet together and opened my knees to the side, this was the most comfortable, plus I still felt the stretch)
4. Corpse pose (bolster is under knees, heels are resting on one rolled up blanket, other blanket is partially unrolled to support neck), hold this pose for 5:30 minutes; start wiggling fingers and toes and roll to right side, take a few deep breaths
5. Sit cross leg with hands on knees, palms facing ceiling

For more info on Yoga Ranger and other (free) streaming workouts I’ve sampled and reviewed, check out my Streaming page.