I spend a lot of time in warm ups for all my Yoga and Pilates classes. I try to get everything stretched out and ready for the practice. To me warm ups are the most important part of the practice.

Every time I do my practice alone I come to the test: should I change (shorten) or skip warming up. Before I taught Yoga I would just go to the “good stuff” and do that. Now I find myself doing the warm ups for every practice. Its the most important part of the practice.

People will ask me: What should I do on off days on my own? My answer is: Do the warm ups and what you remember.

As I get older the warm ups become more important as does all of the yoga practice.

When I first started teaching Yoga about 4 years ago, I started doing a lot more yoga and my wrists were always very sore. So I began the wrist program which eventually grew into the present warm up routine. An older version of it is posted on my web site for your reference.

Yoga is warm ups and everything else. Try not to look forward to the “good stuff”. Understand it is all “good stuff”. Join the perfection of your practice by coming fully into the now whenever you look at the clock, look forward or get bored. Just go deeper into your bodily awareness.