Yoga warm-up: 3 basic fuzz-busting poses | Hugger Mugger Yoga

What are your favorite poses right after you step on your mat? I like to warm up with a “sticky” Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward Facing Dog Pose). By sticky I mean I warm up with a lot of exercise. I mobilize all my joints, including those in my arms and legs and all my vertebral joints. I stretch both sides of my body, but I don’t worry about stretching symmetrically from one side to the other. It’s about checking in with my body and listening to what it needs on any given day. Because it’s so easy to stretch almost anything in Dog Pose, it’s my favorite yoga warm-up pose.

Especially if you practice early in the morning, your body needs to do yoga gently. A warm-up is essential and it feels good too. After a night of relative immobility, the fascia (the connective tissue surrounding the muscles) forms a layer of what anatomist Gil Hedley calls “down.” (Here’s his great video on the fuzz.)

Fuzz, small fibers that connect muscles, form on the sliding surfaces between your muscles. This is a natural process that happens when we don’t move for a while. However, the down prevents the muscles’ ability to slide against each other, instead causing them to stick together.

By stretching and moving, the fluff melts away, allowing our muscles to slide over each other again. That is why we are usually more flexible in the afternoon than in the morning. Our bodies have had a chance to move and melt at least some of the down. If we don’t feel like moving and stretching on a given day, the fuzz starts to thicken, making it harder to dissolve when we decide to exercise.

For this reason, even if you can’t do a full yoga practice, it’s a good idea to practice a yoga warm-up pose (or two or three). This keeps the fluff at bay, so that when you make time for formal exercise, your muscles will be more receptive to it.

Fuzz Busting with a peanut

Before I even get to the fluffy poses, I like to start practicing by rolling a Massage Peanut under my feet and legs. Here’s how:

From a sitting position on your yoga mat, roll the Massage Peanut under the sole of the foot 7 to 10 times. Then work upwards, 7 to 10 passes under (or over) the following body parts:

• Outer foot
• Inner foot
• Calf
• Outer calf
• Shin (You will need to do this from your hands and knees, or roll the peanut over the shin from a sitting position.)
• Hamstrings
• Quadriceps (The best way to do this is to sit down and roll the peanut over the quads.)
• Glutes
• Outer glutes

Repeat on the other side.

Of course you are very welcome to improvise. There are plenty of other body parts that could use your attention. The Massage Peanuts have become an essential part of all my yoga classes and my students use them at home, take them on vacation, etc.

3 yoga warm-up poses to break the fuzz

Besides Dog Pose, there are a few other poses that make great yoga warm-up poses if you don’t have time for a full practice. You may want to have a yoga mat and yoga strap on hand. Here are three of my favorites:

1. Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward Facing Dog Pose): As I mentioned, dog pose is a great all-over stretch. When you practice it as a poof pose, move through all your joints and keep moving. Don’t worry about the shape. Think about when your dog or cat does this pose. They do what feels good, not what they think looks good. I like to practice a Half-Dog Pose with my hands on the counter while I wait for my tea water to boil in the morning.
2. Talasana (Palm Tree Pose): Talasana focuses on the sides of the body. While you can stretch your sides to some extent in Downward Facing Dog Pose, Talasana stretches the entire sideline of the body, from the outside of the feet to the hands. Feel free to move around in this pose as well. Discover twisting in Talasana. Using a yoga strap between your hands in this pose can help your chest expand more easily.
3. Urdhva Hastasana (Upward Hands Pose): Urdva Hastasana focuses on axial extension, but you can also add a backbending element to it. Experiment with different hand positions: palms together, yoga strap between hands, fingers clasped with palms facing up.

This is a fun, well-rounded fluff exercise for first thing in the morning. You can also easily practice Talasana and Urdhva Hastasana during the afternoon, as a short yoga break from your desk. This short practice can stand alone or be a warm-up for the rest of your regular yoga practice.

About Charlotte Bell

Charlotte Bell discovered yoga in 1982 and began teaching in 1986. Charlotte is the author of Mindful Yoga, Mindful Life: A Guide for Everyday Practice and Yoga for Meditators, both published by Rodmell Press. Her third book is titled Hip-Healthy Asana: The Yoga Practitioner’s Guide to Protecting the Hips and Avoiding SI Joint Pain (Shambhala Publications). She writes a monthly column for CATALYST Magazine and is an editor for Yoga U Online. Charlotte is a founding member of GreenTREE Yoga, a nonprofit organization that brings yoga to underserved populations. A lifelong musician, Charlotte plays oboe and English horn in the Salt Lake Symphony and folk sextet Red Rock Rondo, whose DVD won two Emmy Awards.