Yes, You Can Do Yoga in a Dress!
You know the feeling - you've been sitting all day, working away, and you just need to stretch your stiff "cubical crunched" muscles. But alas, you wore a dress to work so, no yoga in your office today. Not so fast! You can do yoga in a dress and here's how.
Seated Cat/Cows
These two poses (done as quickly or as slowly as you like) offer a ton of relief to a tight low back.
Find your sit bones and room them into your chair.
Image in your pelvis is a bowl of water. Rock your hips forward to the water spills out in front of you. Then rock them backward, allowing the water to spill behind you.
When your hips are forward, find the arch in your back, shoulders roll back, chin parallel to the floor. This is like a traditional cow pose. When your hips are back, find the rounding of the spin, shoulders rounding forward, shoulder blades pull away from one another, and chin comes to the chest. This is like a traditional cat pose.
Seated Forward Fold
Sitting poses in general are dress friendly - tush to the floor rather than up in the air. They allow for gentle stretching without exposing your assets. Folding in half allows the spine and upper back muscles to decompress - not to mention reduces feelings of stress and anxiety by closing in on the self. I've found this to be particularly restorative and rejuvenating on days when I haven't gotten enough sleep and have a to-do list a mile long.
Sit on the floor with your legs outstretched.
Bend your knees, tracking them toward your armpits.
Grab the outsides of your feet and with a straight back walk your heels away from you. Only go so far as to maintain a straight back and the connection between low ribs and thighs.
Hold for 10 breaths
Release your head and neck, rounding the spine (think arched back like in cat pose). Hold for an additional 10 breaths.
Pro Tip: You can change up the arms in this pose to experience release in the neck by interlocking fingers and bringing them to the base of your head. Allow the additional weight to traction out the neck.
Desk Chair Twist
This pose can really help to ring tension out of the spine. And, can even be done while you are listening to a conference call (multitasking at its finest).
Sit with your feet firmly planted on the floor.
If your chair has arms, grab one arm of the chair with both hands and twist your torso toward your hands. Be careful to keep the knees facing forward so the twist comes from the torso.
If your chair is armless, grab the front of the seat with one hand and the back of the seat with the other, then twist the torso.
Hold for 5-10 breaths per side.
Square Back Bend
I love the side and underarm stretch achieved by creating a square with your arms above your head. This one is a great one for long calls over speaker phone.
Sit tall in your chair with your chin parallel with the floor.
Reach your arms above your head and grab opposite elbows creating a frame around your head. Pro tip – the best “fit” is if you can get the elbow squarely in the middle of your palm. If you aren’t there yet, just get as close to that ideal as possible – you’ll get there with practice!
Remember – a back bend is to be shared with the entire spine, so don't make your low back take the brunt of this stretch. I like to think about lengthening first by finding the stretch in my side body and THEN leaning into the back bend. Trust me, this practice will protect the low back and open up the chest safely.
See, like I said – yoga in a dress is totally possible. Now when you are sitting at your desk thinking, “uhh, yoga would be AMAZING right now!” you can bring some of that love into your day, regardless of what you have on.