But it shouldn’t come as a surprise; busted shoulder blades are endemic among computer users. When we sit at a desk all day, staring into a computer, we’re basically doing the opposite of everything our strong, erect-spined, solid-hipped ancestors did—our shoulders round forward, our back hunches, our head juts out, and our pelvis tilts under. This modern day position inhibits the shoulder blades’ ability to pull back and down…which is where nature intended them to be, so they can create space for the shoulder joint to move as our arms pull, pull, reach, and stretch. That’s why the position of the shoulder blades can be indicative of other dysfunctions happening in the body. To discover what they are, you just have to tune in.

Why Your Shoulder Blades Matter

Your shoulder blades, or scapulae, are a duo of triangular-shaped bones in the back, bookending your upper spine. Each scapula forms the socket of the ball-and-socket joints that are your shoulders. (The head of the humerus, or upper arm bone, is the ball.) Connected to the body by multiple muscles and ligaments, the blades slide along the upper back as you move throughout your day.

“I can tell so much by looking at someone’s shoulder blades,” says Brian Bradley, fitness director of Elev8d Fitness, the new home workout platform developed by the experts at Sonima. “The position of the shoulder blades tells me what’s happening in the thoracic spine, the lower back, and the hips.” It’s all connected. Dysfunction in the shoulder blades is an indicator of misalignment in the rest of the body, and vice versa.

The shoulder blades are intended to support other smaller muscles in the back and shoulder. When they are imbalanced and weak, the structure of the body collapses and these smaller, secondary muscles end up compensating. This leads to strain, dysfunction, and a host of physical effects. Slumping over at a computer, for example, contracts your back and collapses your abdominal muscles, which weakens the torso and deactivates the hips.

Related: The #1 Most Overlooked Muscle in Your Workout

And it’s all about the hips. “If the upper back, the spine, and the thoracic are out of alignment and creating compensation, it’s because there is a hip problem below,” Bradley says. The hips are like the epicenter of the body. If your pelvis is out of alignment, then your movement is compromised and your upper back tries to take over, which can lead to backaches and overall discomfort. But if you align and activate the hips, you remove limitations from the spine and shoulders, and they can move freely and functionally. Moreover, misalignment can affect lymph drainage, breath, and digestion. All systems are interconnected. “Think about it: You have 32 feet of intestines sitting on your pelvic floor,” Bradley says. “If your hip is out of alignment, so is your digestion.”

What’s more, activating foundational muscle groups increases your metabolic rate. “When you engage the psoas (the deep core muscle connecting the lumbar to the femur), it turns on the rest of the hip flexors, which carries into the spine and up into the neck and shoulders,” Bradley says. “By doing this, you are using your body at full capacity; you are engaging 100 percent of your muscles.” This total-body activation simply asks your body to use more energy, breathe more oxygen, and in turn, burn more calories.

Related: Always Tired? Put Down the Coffee, and Try This Energizing 8-Minute Workout Instead


The Key to Balancing Your Shoulder Blades

This isn’t about sitting up straighter or willing yourself into better shoulder position. “Pulling your shoulder blades together is a waste of your time without the link to rest of the body and activating at the hips,” Bradley explains. Your focus should be on working the deep muscles in the thoracic spine, the core, and the hip flexors—strengthening from the inside out.

The move below can help restore balance and strength to your shoulder blades. Of course, one exercise is not enough to keep everyone’s scalpulae happy and healthy; that can only happen in the context of a full-body plan, such as Elev8d Fitness. This new home workout program from the experts of Sonima keeps your four key sets of load-bearing joints—the shoulders, hips, knees, and ankles—properly aligned. But an exercise like the one below can help you connect the shoulder blades to the hips, activating and strengthening the deep core muscles.

Standing Arm Circles

The foot position in this exercise is crucial: pointing your feet straight forward essentially traps your hips to react to the shoulder position. As your upper body moves, your hips work to stabilize. The movement of the arms fires the abdominal wall and the hip flexors and pinches the shoulder blades back.

Begin by standing with your feet hip-width apart, your toes pointed straight ahead. Extend your arms out to your sides at shoulder level, palms down with your fingers gripped flat onto the pads of your hands. Squeeze your shoulder blades together and down, pretending you are tucking them into some imaginary back jeans pockets. Keeping them squeezed and down, rotate both arms forward in small circles (about six inches in circumference). Complete 40 circles. Next, face your palms up and complete 40 backward rotations. If your shoulders begin to shrug or roll forward at any time, take a break, then recommit your shoulder blades to the down-and-back position.

Experience how Elev8d Fitness can keep your entire body healthy and balanced in little time. Check out the 8-Minute Strength Series and the 8-Minute Weight-Loss Series.

The post What Your Shoulder Blades Can Tell You About Your Health appeared first on Sonima.

But this traditional understanding of stretching is flawed. Flexibility doesn’t come from stretching the muscles to a more impressive length—flexibility is actually the absence of tension in the muscles. And to get to the root of this tension, you have to address why your body is tight in the first place.

“People always come to me and tell me that they are genetically tight, that their body just isn’t flexible,” says Brian Bradley, fitness director of Elev8d Fitness, the new 8-minute home workout program from Sonima. “But this is a misunderstanding.” You’re not inflexible because your muscles are short. You’re inflexible because your body is out of alignment, and that impinges your full range of motion.

How Does Alignment Improve Flexibility?

Proper alignment starts with the pelvis. “The hips are the epicenter of the body, so when you have function in the hips, all the muscles that originate in that area are no longer under tension or restricted,” Bradley explains. The better the position of your hips, the better its relationship with the upper back, mid-back, shoulder blades, and all connected areas of the body.

“When you align the body, the bones where the tendons connect move into a more aligned position, which loosens the tension in the muscle. It’s freeing up your muscles to their full and natural length,” Bradley explains. In other words, you are changing the position of the skeleton where the tendons attach. When you put these attachment points into alignment, the muscles can relax into their full range of motion. As you slowly loosen tension in this or that muscle, the body comes into concert with itself, unifying as one system rather than a collection of disjointed parts. And that, Bradley says, is where real strength and wellness happens.

Related: Move Better, Look Better, and Feel Better with This Workout Series

Elev8d Fitness is designed around this fundamental principle: Align the body so that it can move through its full range of motion, thus balancing and unifying the musculature as a functional, efficient system. “You’ll actually get your body to the point where you don’t feel like you need to stretch,” Bradley says.

A Workout to Improve Flexibility

In this 8-minute workout, Elev8d Fitness co-founder and world-renowned physiologist Pete Egoscue will coach you through a sequence of one-minute movements. As you fire the hip flexors and core, notice a subtle release of tightness is the upper back and knees. Remember, form is critical. In order to align and balance the body, you have to pay close attention to the position of your spine, shoulders, and hips. For example, be sure to pinch the shoulder blades in the Da Vincis and maintain a slight arch in your back when you squat down for the Elev8d Side Unders.

Related: Can’t Touch Your Toes? These Three Exercises Will Change That

“You’re going to feel some work in these exercises,” Bradley says. “What we’re doing is training your muscles at their full length.” Strengthening your muscles in this state of zero tension or tightness is key—that’s the way to train your body back into its natural and functional alignment.

“This eight-minute sequence is literally changing how each section of your spine relates to your hips and shoulders,” Bradley says. As you work your way through the exercises, your range of motion is increasing exponentially. So much so that if you started the whole thing over again from the top, you would notice a dramatic difference in your flexibility. That’s because you’ve freed up your shoulders, mid-back, and hips, thus loosening the tension in the muscles.

You’re not necessarily going to feel a stretch with this workout, though. “It’ll feel like work and you may start breathing a little heavy. But then all of the sudden, you’ll be able to reach down and touch your toes,” Bradley says.

Transform your body in a little as eight minutes! Try the revolutionary Elev8d Fitness Flat Belly Workout Series!

The post A Quick Workout to Fix Tight Muscles appeared first on Sonima.

“He showed us everything,” Pete recalls. “I mean, the kitchens, the banquet facilities, even the laundry rooms.” But there was one place that Manuel conspicuously ignored—a big circular building that he didn’t acknowledge as they walked past it toward the outskirts of the grounds then again as they returned to his own office for cool refreshments. Before the tour ended, however, Troi asked delicately, “Manuel, what is this building? Why aren’t we going in?”

“Oh, that’s just a fitness building. Would you like to see it?” he said nonchalantly.

Both obsessed with fitness, Pete and Troi were excited to take a look, so Manuel invited them in. It was a gorgeous, state-of-the art facility. One long stretch of the circular wall was a bank of windows that overlooked the Pacific Ocean and some majestic palisades. In front of those windows was a line of treadmills, all vacant. In fact, the entire gym, beautiful as it was, was a ghost town. Pete asked why, and Manuel explained that it wasn’t peak season, so there weren’t many Americans at the resort.

“They’re the only ones who use this facility,” Manuel confirmed. Then he shook his head, confused and disapproving. “We have incredible places for people to jog and walk. We have pools and beaches and so many ways to have fun and exercise. We just don’t understand why anyone who wants to exercise would choose a treadmill over any of those other options, but Americans always do.” He paused then before he added, “When they’re on the treadmill, they never look like they’re having any fun.”

“Somewhere in the not so distant past, fitness got off on the wrong track,” Pete says in hindsight. How? Accidentally. “It wasn’t malicious,” he says. “It was just an unintended consequence.” Which is partly why he created Patch Fitness back in the 1980’s. Patch Fitness is many things: It’s a great workout for any part of the body. It’s an efficient exercise plan for any busy person. It helps realign the body, improve metabolism and boost energy. It’s a workout that burns calories, enhances cardiovascular capability, and tightens the physique everywhere. But just as important as all of that (and numerous other benefits not mentioned), Patch Fitness is fun. And that’s no accident.

Related: Unlock Your Body’s Fullest Potential with Patch Fitness

There’s a human compulsion to measure outcomes and effects, and in the age of endless data at our fingertips, there’s an epidemic of measuring just about everything we do, all under the auspice of charting progress. Today you may be able to do only 15 pushups, but after a month of working out, you can do 25 push-ups, and that’s progress. And that’s good, right?

“Not necessarily,” Pete says. “At no point are we measuring the joy.” In order to accommodate this focus on measurable progress, much of the fun gets squeezed out of the fitness in America, and the problem with that is that the less fun something is, the less likely people are to do it.

That’s why the fitness of the Patch emphasizes the enjoyment aspect. “Every sport ever invented is the combination of spontaneity and fun. Native Americans didn’t invent lacrosse because it seemed like a great way to stay in shape. Volleyball, tennis, football, soccer—you name it, they weren’t invented from a studied effort to stay in shape. They were invented spontaneously as a way to have fun,” Pete explains.

The Patch abides by similar principles—spontaneity and fun. “When was the last time you got down on the ground and crawled around? The last time you stepped up on a chair or hopped on a bench or squatted to get under a split rail fence? You don’t think of any of that as exercise, but it is,” Pete says. That philosophy is a primary impetus behind the Patch.

Whether you’re a professional athlete or a potato fresh off of the couch, when you bear crawl under a bench or jump over that same bench, you are doing it at your level. “You’re not focused on how many reps you’re doing or how fast you’re moving. There’s no digital readout of how many calories you’re burning or steps you’re taking, all of which removes you from the present enjoyment of an activity,” Pete says. “You’re just doing it to the best of your ability in the same way you used to just swing from a jungle gym when you were a kid or jump over a fence on the way to school. That focus on measurement is about fear. It’s about making you feel inadequate if you don’t do enough reps. If you’re exercising from a position of fear, you can achieve a sense of accomplishment at the end of a workout, but you won’t have any fun.”

Again that matters because a fun workout keeps you coming back. “It’s very unpleasant for people to try to get fit doing something they don’t love doing. If you don’t love running, but every day you’re way to fitness is a run, then at some point you’re just going to stop running.”

This fun factor also has an impact on the actual physical performance. “Over the years, I’ve worked with every kind of person, from hundreds of pro athletes to regular people who wouldn’t remotely refer to themselves as athletes,” he says. What Pete has noticed among all of his clients is that when they’re having fun with their workouts, their performance actually improves. Furthermore, the recovery time from that performance decreases. Even the pro athletes, when engaged in conditioning they don’t enjoy, tire more easily and think they are not in good shape.

“They’re constantly paranoid about what they’re doing because they intuitively sense they should be doing more,” he says. “They’re right, but not in the way they think. What they should be doing more of is trusting themselves, trusting their instincts, and migrating toward fitness that they find more fun.” When they do that, they get in better shape.

To date, there have been no studies measuring how much the enjoyment of exercise impacts the body as opposed to conditioning that’s less exhilarating, but relying on his 40 years of observation, Pete knows it to be true. Joy matters. Which is what Manuel at the resort in Baja intuitively knew and what Pete unfailingly remembers every time he puts together another Patch Fitness routine.

Photo by Hailey Wist

The post The Most Important Element Missing From Your Workout appeared first on Sonima.

The question came as a bit of a revelation to Egoscue. Instinctively, he knew he could improve their conditioning. Years of experience studying all of the body’s joints and muscles and how they’re interconnected had long prepared him to create the exact fitness plan they needed. Yet, it hadn’t occurred to him to devise an exercise program using his extensive knowledge of the anatomy until right then. Without much hesitation, he responded, “I think I could. Follow me.”

They walked about three-quarters of a mile from Egoscue’s first clinic in San Diego (he now has 26 clinics worldwide) to a horse show park, an outdoor space where equestrian and dressage riders practiced hurdling over both permanent and temporary obstacles with their horses. A former Marine, Egoscue was well-versed in how obstacle-course training can make you fit and strong. So to him, this place was perfect for what he had in mind, especially since it was set outside (nothing like fresh air and mother nature to inspire you to move).

Related: 25 Beautiful Places in the World to Find Peace of Mind

“It was very challenging, but it was a hell of a lot of fun. You felt good when you were done. And no matter how tired you felt going through it, you felt energized, too,” Egoscue recalls of his fitness regimen for the military.  Back then, however, Egoscue didn’t see the obstacle course as much more than a means to an end. It took him a few more years to connect the dots—combining his later acquired knowledge of the anatomy and unique insights on the role posture plays in our health—to fully understand why those courses were so effective.

“It’s all about negotiating obstacles in various positions and circumstances. It’s an inclusive, holistic way of conditioning that compels the body to work in the way it was designed to work. Bicycling, jogging—these are beneficial, but they don’t promote balance and strength in a varied array of positions. They don’t promote the health of joints and full range of motion, and therefore, don’t boost the metabolism as much. That’s what makes people feel energized—that metabolism boost,” Egoscue explains. That experience maneuvering obstacle courses as a Marine was exactly what Egoscue aimed to replicate with those high school students at the equestrian show park. And he hit a bullseye.

Watching the boys, Egoscue realized he had stumbled upon an ideal means of exercise: An enjoyable way to produce balance, strength and endurance. Of course, he knew he had discovered nothing new. After all, he was only harking back to fitness techniques he had learned in the military.  But during a time when so much fitness had turned (and continues to turn) to the specialization of skills, isolation of muscles, repetition of routines and reduced range of motion, he had been reawakened to the importance of full functional movement in our conditioning.

“Word spread about what I was teaching these kids,” Egoscue remembers. Soon enough, he started training others in the show park, devising exercises and arranging them in a specified order—and people were loving it. Some even asked him to design and build a unit of obstacles that they could do anywhere, anytime. For those who couldn’t meet in the San Diego park, Egoscue created a structure—a series of bases and beams (pictured above)—that people could go over, under and around anywhere.

Over, under and around make up a key concept for functional movement, which is the element that makes the Patch—as Egoscue’s new exercise program later became called—such an effective workout. The young boys had come up with the name for the stretch of commercial tomato patches dividing Egoscue’s clinic from the show park.

“Functional means allowing the human body to fall into its natural groove of movement. If you get on the ground, go over things, under things and around things, you’re eventually going to get more functional. You coax the body to perform natural movement patterns,” says Brian Bradley, postural alignment specialist and vice president of Egoscue. These are the same patterns that may have been lost or neglected due to a sedentary lifestyle.

It all harks back to one of Egoscue’s earliest claims, fully explored in his first book, The Egoscue Method of Health Through Motion: The more we move our bodies in ways that promote full range of motion, the healthier those bodies will be. Even folks who hit the gym regularly are often not as healthy as they could be.

“So much of what we do in the gym is about trying to be perfect in our form,” Bradley says. “First, that’s just not natural. Second, and ironically, by striving to be ‘perfect’ and even symmetrical, people in gyms are losing their natural balance. They’re inadvertently strengthening and working one side harder than the other. With the Patch, people naturally achieve balance through their bodies working as a unit.”

It’s that whole-body aspect that makes the Patch so efficient. Many forms of exercise, especially in the gym (think bench pressing, squats, even lunges or rowing) utilize just parts or peripheries of the body.

“Every single exercise we use in the Patch tires every muscle,” Bradley says. “That’s why a 15- or 20-minute routine from the Patch is worth two days of normal training. It’s also a great warm-up for any type of training you might do afterward. It centers your balance and makes you a hip-driven mover. By using your hips, your body gets twice the result with half the effort.”

And it doesn’t stop there.  “As your day unfolds and you do the activities of normal daily living, your body continues to get more functionally strong and balanced because of the changes that occurred in the Patch workout that you did earlier that day or a couple days prior. Every step you take after the Patch enhances the effects of the Patch.”

While there is an actual Patch apparatus, a series of plastic, portable bases and beams that Egoscue designed and that can be moved inside or out if you happen to own one, the fact is, a Patch routine can be done anywhere. It does not require a specific space or a specific setting. “It just requires you, your imagination and your surroundings,” says Egoscue. “Any outdoor setting with a bench or stairs or playground becomes a Patch. Any indoor setting for that matter, with tables or benches or chairs.”

The cherry on top: Doing the Patch is actually fun—though you won’t catch Bradley using that word to describe it. Making the program sound too playful has its disadvantages. People might be less inclined to take it seriously. But Egoscue is often quick to point out that originally, all forms of what we have come to call exercise were predicated on the notion of play and fun. It’s only in recent decades, and largely in America, fitness has become an obligation more than a joy—for adults, that is, not kids.

“Watch a group of kids running around a playground. They’re exercising like crazy, but they don’t know it. They just think they’re playing and having fun,” notes Egoscue. “Same with the Patch. It’s a hell of a workout, but it’s all disguised as pure, unadulterated, childlike fun.”

Photo by Hailey Wist

The post Unlock Your Body’s Fullest Potential with Patch Fitness appeared first on Sonima.

By the third trimester of pregnancy, typically the stomach will be quite large, and the sickness of first trimester feels like a distant memory. The goal of all activity in this trimester is to prepare the body for an easy and uneventful delivery. In this video, follow along as alignment expert Pete Egoscue walks you through a very simple yet highly effective workout, that is both low-impact and restorative. The activation of the inner thighs, the contraction of the gluteal and scapular muscles, along with the articulation of the spine, will help with posture, easeful sleep, and a strong, healthy body for the delivery process.

Related: A Pregnancy Workout for the Second Trimester

Photo by Lacy Kiernan

The post A Strength-Building Workout for the Third Trimester appeared first on Sonima.

“When you’re hypermobile, you can’t control your joints the way that you need to,” says certified strength and conditioning specialist Mike Robertson, co-owner of Indianapolis Fitness and Sports Training. “Your wiring just isn’t the same as other people’s, your joints are less stable, and that can cause you to have injuries.”

The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association reports that general joint laxity naturally occurs in about 4 to 13 percent of people. The condition can be caused by one’s collagen structure, bone shape, muscle tone, or a function of one’s nervous system that relays information about the body’s movement in space called proprioception. Women and children are more likely to have hypermobile joints, as are people of African, Asian, or Middle Eastern descent. For people who are born with a wider range of motion than normal, the extra flexibility is just a way of life.

“Most people who are hypermobile don’t know that they’re hypermobile,” says Nikki Villella, co-director of Kula Yoga in New York City. “If you ask them if they’re aware that they’re hyperextending, they’ll usually say, ‘No, what are you talking about?’”

The wider range of motion comes at a price. “If you have excessive function or laxity at a joint, it can express motion that you don’t have naturally,” Robertson says. “You won’t have the same perception of where your joints are in space, which can cause issues. For instance, if a female athlete is hypermobile and has to make a jump, the knee joint itself isn’t relaying any warning that she’s getting into a problem area, and before you know it she has an ACL tear.”

That’s a risk we can wind up sharing if we manage to achieve hypermobility through, well, bad stretching, which Robertson says happens more often than you’d think. “What I see the most often when we start talking about joint laxity or hypermobility is people who stretch themselves into it,” he says. “They’ve basically blown out the front side of their hip capsules because they’ve stretched their hip flexors for so long. These people have stretched to the point where their ligaments are not doing the job that they should be.”

Related: A Yoga Sequence for Inflexible People

The best thing you can do to avoid hypermobility is to not stretch yourself into it in the first place. “The whole point [of yoga], in my opinion, is balance,” Vilella says. “So rather than hanging out in their joints, I would want someone to learn to stabilize those joints and do a lot of what I call ‘hugging in,’ or engaging the muscles. How well they can do that is going to depend on what kind of class they’re going to do and what kind of moves they’re doing.”

Vilella says that Iyengar practice can be especially helpful, since it typically moves more slowly and asks practitioners to spend more time in poses, but adds that a student can bring the “hugging in” mindset to any practice, even a more flowy one. Robertson agrees that learning to engage the muscles, rather than just stretching them, is key. In fact, if you’ve stretched yourself into hypermobility, it’s especially important.

“If you overstretch a ligament, the bad news is that you’re not going to get that back,” Robertson says. “But you can turn on the muscles surrounding the joint that do things similar to the ligament.” Robertson also recommends having your range of motion analyzed regularly. One to two times a year is ideal.

“If you’re serious about training and taking care of your body, I always say you should find somebody who’s qualified to assess you,” Robertson says. A physical therapist or someone who holds a certification from Functional Movements Systems or the Postural Restoration Institute is a great point of contact. Another good point of contact are any of the Egoscue clinics across the nation, listed here. These clinics specialize in postural therapy and have worked with numerous clients over the years who have suffered from the negative effects of hyperflexibility. “Even if you’re really good at coaching yourself, it’s helpful to have a second set of eyes giving you constructive feedback,” he explains.

Lastly, remember that being bendy isn’t always better. There are other aspects of your practice you can work on in class besides flexibility. “You don’t have to go to the end range of your motion [in every stretch],” Robertson says. “Stay somewhere that’s comfortable, then work on your breathing patterns instead.”

The post Can You Be Too Flexible? Hypermobility, Explained appeared first on Sonima.

For many of us, our imbalances elude us. We think we’re healthy, we think we’re aligned, but in fact, everything we do, all day, every day, contributes to our habitual patterns, which in turn affect our state of balance. So, for most of us, we’re perpetuating our misalignments simply by walking down the street. The way we walk, sit, and stand—key elements of daily life—can either hinder us or help us. When we learn to release tension, and distribute weight evenly in our feet and across sides, we are closer to finding center. As such, our walking, standing, and sitting can just as easily be our medicine as our poison.

This 20-minute cool-down, designed by alignment expert Pete Egoscue, will put your body in a neutral position by targeting common areas of weakness and tightness that lead to asymmetrical movement. Spending just a few minutes soothing tension in key areas such as the shoulders, neck, back and hips will allow the healing properties of walking to solidify their effects on the body. For best results, try this 15-minute warm-up sequence before you walk or exercise.

Related: An Alignment Sequence for Before and After Yoga

Follow along in the video above or download a PDF of these exercises below so you do this routine anywhere you go.

An Alignment Cool-DownFor After Walking

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Photo by Hailey Wist

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When you engage in any form of exercise you want your body to be as balanced as possible. When your body is in balance it can move evenly and symmetrically. Symmetrical movement ensures that your weight is distributed evenly and makes it less likely that you’ll become injured or plagued by pain. Balanced movement also makes you more efficient when you walk, meaning your energy is used optimally to get you from point A to point B, and you’ll reap the most physical benefits from your efforts.

While you may think your body is already in balance, the truth is that anyone who spends most of their time sitting at a desk or in a car is going to have some physical imbalances. This 15-minute warm-up is designed to put your body in a neutral position by targeting common areas of weakness and tightness that lead to asymmetrical movement. Spending just a few minutes creating openness and mobility in key areas such as the ankles, feet, and hips will allow you to make the most of your walk and enjoy yourself even more while you’re out there.

Related: An Alignment Sequence for Before and After Yoga

Follow along in the video above or download a PDF of these exercises below, with step-by-step directions so you do this routine anywhere you go.

An Active Alignment Warm-Upfor Before Walking

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When we practice yoga, we bring all of our habitual patterns with us. The practice has inherent neutralizing effects, but sometimes, whether because of extreme tightness, hyper-mobility, stress, or otherwise—our practice gets muddled by our current state. There are many ways to center the body and mind before practice including meditation, breathing practices, as well as moderate exercises to prepare the body. In this video, alignment expert Pete Egoscue, with the help of Sonima founder and long time Ashtanga Yoga practitioner, Sonia Jones, offers a pre- and post-yoga workout routine to help solidify the powerful effects of the practice.

Related: A Workout Meditation to Do Before Exercising

The pre-yoga active alignment sequence consists of stretches for the muscles in the arms, feet, and legs to help the body loosen up and get grounded for practice. Additionally, you’ll work through spinal undulations which will help prepare the body for back bending. Think of the post-yoga sequence as a cool-down that will feel great on the hips, work out any left over kinks in the back, and leave your hamstrings and legs feeling sturdy but soft.

Follow along in the video above or download a PDF of these exercises below, with step-by-step directions so you can take these sequences on the go.

Pre- and Post-YogaActive Alignment Sequence

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Photos by Hailey Wist

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Anyone who drives several hours a day knows what all that time in the car does to the body. Nothing about driving promotes balance—your left foot is doing one thing, right’s doing another, you’re stuck sitting in a fixed position, and you may be stressed out from dealing with traffic. When your body is in balance, you’ll find that you’re more alert, responsive, relaxed, and better able to react in stressful situations. This sequence is designed to improve alignment before or after hours spent in the car.

The simple movements demonstrated in the video above, such as pillow squeezes, shoulder rolls, elbow curls, forward bend, arm circles, spinal twists, cats and dogs, and air bench, gently release tension in the body and improve posture. These exercises for drivers help open up the shoulders and hips and stretch the back, hamstrings, and upper body. Take 12 minutes before your next drive to do these posture exercises so you can retain a sense of balance while on the road and avoid pain after spending time spent driving.

The post A Body-Balancing Exercise Routine for Drivers appeared first on Sonima.

Eating out most, if not all, meals is one of the lures of travel whether you’re roaming the planet for business or pleasure. A 2012 survey from TripAdvisor of more than 1,400 U.S. travelers found that 65 percent were more likely to overindulge in food while on vacation, and another 49 percent are likely to binge-drink. Nearly a third claimed to always or often pack on pounds during a trip. Here’s where frequent fliers may have a leg-up on vacationers. Having most likely learned the hard way, they know how crucial is is to do some exercise while on the road to burn off extra calories before they end up with excess baggage (not kind that fits in the overhead bin).

Next time you’re away, try to sneak in a quick workout each morning or evening when you’re winding down from a long day. This is especially important if you’re enjoying feasts daily and not doing any form of activity, like hiking, biking, swimming, etc. Don’t worry, it doesn’t need to be an intense sweat-fest. This 20-minute workout video designed by Pete Egoscue, Sonima.com’s alignment expert and author of multiple books including Pain Free, features a series of easy and effective exercises you can do right in your hotel room—no gym equipment, workout clothes, or sneakers needed.

Related: Simple Airplane Stretches for a Long Flight

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In the past 30 years the number of births by c-section has skyrocketed. One reason for this, posits Pete Egoscue, the founder of the Egoscue Method, the world leader of nonmedical pain relief, is the skeletal misalignment that results from our modern, sedentary lifestyle.

Through the course of pregnancy, Egoscue explains, the unborn child develops with the head up and it eventually must turn upside-down into position in the birth canal. This requires the pelvis to flare, tip itself forward, and open up to create enough space in the birth canal for natural childbirth. With optimal anatomical alignment this is an easy process, but when the pelvis is not in a neutral position—and for anyone who spends the majority of their day sitting, it probably is not—the body can’t find the muscles to rotate the pelvis into birthing position, leading to a need for c-section or problems with childbirth.

This exercise program is designed to help the body return itself to a neutral position early in pregnancy, so it can prepare for the process of having a baby. For best results, set aside 20 minutes every day to do this program. The targeted exercises will gently and effectively build strength in the subtle supporting musculature essential for good posture and natural childbirth.

Related: Taking the First Steps Toward Pain-Free Living

The post 7 Essential Exercises for Pregnant Women appeared first on Sonima.

Shoulder Bridge Sequence 

This sequence strengthens the gluteal muscles and hamstrings, while opening the entire front body.

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Challenge Series

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Side-Lying Series

This series targets the glutes, inner and outer thighs, hip flexors, and hamstrings. Focus on keeping the upper body stable.

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The Bicycle

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Repeat bicycle10 times.

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Repeat this exercise 10 times, and then complete the entire sequence on the other side.

Figure Four Hip Stretch

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Cross ankle over thigh, hold onto the back of opposite leg. Hold a few breaths as the hip opens up. Switch sides, and breathe well.

Photos by Hailey Wist

The post A Toning Pilates Sequence to Stabilize the Lower Body appeared first on Sonima.

Want to burn calories fast? Jump rope for 10 minutes and torch more than 100 calories, which is equivalent to running an eight-minute-mile, according to the Compendium of Physical Studies. Best part: This aerobic exercise is totally portable (you can do it anywhere from your living room to hotel to the park), a time-saver (takes no time to get a great workout) and easier on your joints than going for a run, reports the Jump Rope Institute.

Because jumping rope for 10 minutes straight is actually much harder than it sounds, Sonima’s pain and anatomy advisor, Pete Egoscue, devised this sweet seven-minute workout plan that incorporates the rope in a realistic way that people of all fitness levels can do. Start by jumping rope for 100 reps to get your heart rate up. From there, use the rope as a prop to do fat-blasting jump rope exercises, including quick overs (lateral lifts over a bench), v-ups, step-ups, squats, and crunches. Cool down with Egoscue’s favorite stretches, like cats-and-dogs and Downward Dog.

Related: What Are the Best Fitness Plans for Weight Loss?

The post A Quick Jump Rope Workout appeared first on Sonima.

Follow this fast-moving 14-minute workout that engages both your small and big muscles groups, from your calves and hip flexors to your glutes and back, to get that strong and lean body that you want. Start with a series of step ups, which you can do on a park bench or your house steps. Be sure to go at your own pace here. Speed means nothing if you break good form. From there, do 30 seconds of running in place to spike your heart rate. Without taking a break, move onto 10 up-downs (aka burpees). Repeat running in place and up downs. Wrap up the workout with floor work, including mountain climbers, roller coasters, donkey kicks, and flutter kicks.

Related: A Simple Solution to Heal Plantar Fasciitis

The post The Strong and Lean Workout appeared first on Sonima.