10 Yoga Poses For Hot Baths

Yoga teaches us many things, especially how to breathe off the mat. It teaches us about ourselves, the world around us and in many ways how to be mindful on and off the mat. I like to experiment with where I practice yoga and for the past year I have been practicing some yoga poses in a hot bath and they have become an important part of my hot baths. Note: I also very much love hot yoga, hot baths and float tanks. In this weeks blog I wanted to share with you some gentle yoga poses that you can do in a hot bath, especially for when you are unable to get to a hot yoga studio or are stuck home sick.

This is a long post, so I'll cut to the yummy stuff but before we do there are a few important notes:

1- Yoga in a hot and humid place of any kind requires you to not push yourself. Listen to your body and find what feels good to you. Muscles relax in the heat and sometimes we can over do it...so don't over do it!
2- Be hydrated before yoga in a hot bath. It's good to stay hydrated all day long no matter what. Water is a life force!

Read on dear friends and comment below if you have any other yoga poses that you practice in a bath! Pro-tip: If you have long hair, I recommend clipping it back for these postures, otherwise you'll be getting steamy bubbly water all up in your eyes and this should be stress free. <3

          SEATED & STANDING POSES

• Sitting Self Hug:
  1- When you first get in your hot, steamy and possibly salty or bubble bath, take some deep breaths and sit on your seat with your feet flat on the bottom of the tub.
  2- Ground through your seat and breathe deeply into your lower back and hips to ground in the water.
  3- Carefully and slowly reach your arms up and gently fold over your hinged knees.
  4- Keep your shoulders relaxed and away from your ears. Here you can gently rest your palms on the tops of your feet, or clasp your elbows and hug your knees.
  5- Inhale through your nose deeply into your lower and mid back and ground down through your seat.
  6- Exhale slowly and gently and feel your back stretch and relax. Give yourself a big hug and remain here for several breaths.
  
  
• Seated Angel Wings:
  1- Find yourself in a comfortable seated position. Sometimes when the water is swaying from our movement, we might want to take just a minute to let it settle and breathe deeply to ground through the seat. 
  2- If you have enough space come to a cross legged seat if not, keeping the bottoms of your feet on the bottom of the tub will do just fine.
  3- Engage your core here and sit up straight and tall.
  4- Raise your arms up high on a big inhale and then lower your arms into a cactus pose in the air.
  5- Elbows should be bent and on a deep inhale gently pull your elbows back with your fingertips pointed to the sky.
  6- Slowly exhale and keep your shoulders relaxed. Stay here for a few breaths and feel your chest and heart open. Let those lungs breathe in that heat!
  
  
• Seated Boat Pose:
  After opening up through the back and the chest, move onto a fun wee boat pose in the tub! Remember to take a moment to let the water settle after moving around. This is a great pose to do in a hot bath. It's great for the core and a fun little challenge. Also, you're a boat in water! How great is that?!
  1- To start, ground down through your seat again with deep inhales and exhales.
  2- Breathing into your hips and thighs will help to keep you grounded in moving water.
  3- On an inhale, engage your core by inhaling your belly button up and tightly towards your spine and raise your knees (at the same time) up and just above the water.
  4- If you can only get your knees and some of your shins up, that's OK too. Remember to find what feels good. This is a fun challenge for your core in the water.
  5- At the same time, keeping your shoulders relaxed, reach your hands out to beside your knees as if you were reaching for your toes.
  6- Keep your back straight and inhale deeply into your core sitting up tall and exhale slowly while grounding down into your seat. Stay here for several breaths.. 
  Pro-tip: You can also reach your hands to the back of your thighs behind your knees to better support yourself while you engage in your core.
  
  
• Eagle Arms:
  This is an excellent stretch for the shoulders, upper back, jaw and face and can also be done standing. If you suffer from any tension in the jaw or shoulders, I recommend doing this pose first thing in the morning and right before bed. It will change your life!
  1- Once the water has settled from the movement, ground back down into your seat and come to a cross legged position (if space allows) or sit with your legs straight out or feet on the bottom with knees bent.
  2- Sit up tall and straight and reach your arms up high into the air on a deep inhale.
  3- On an exhale, swing your arms down and wrap the right arm under the left arm bringing the palms face to face in a twist, or palm to wrist, remember to listen to your body.
  4- On a deep inhale press your palms together (wherever they are touching) and sit up tall.
  5- On a slow exhale pull your shoulders down and your elbows out and up (but don't bring them above your shoulders).
  6- Stay here and breathe deeply into your scapulas and engage your core to keep your back tall and straight.
  7- Enjoy the stretch here with the heat and humidity of your hot bath and repeat on the other side.
  
  
• Seated Ear-to-Shoulder (Neck and Shoulder Stretch)
  1- While in a comfortable seat of your choice and with what room you have in the tub, take some time to inhale and ground down through your seat, raise up into your spine and exhale while tracing a straight line down with your nose, dropping your chin to your chest.
  2- On a gentle inhale, paint a circle with your nose moving to the right, circling your head and rolling your neck, gently.
  3- When you return to center, chin dropped, move in the opposite direction.
  4- Once you have painted two beautiful and gentle circles with the nose and working out that neck, circle your nose to the right bringing your right ear to your right shoulder.
  5- Breathe into your neck. If you want to use your right arm to enhance the stretch you can place your right palm on your right ear and let the weight of your arm deepen the stretch.
  6- Remember to listen to your body and don't force anything, especially in the heat of a hot bath. When our muscles are relaxed by heat we can feel really good and sometimes stretch too far. So the key is to not over extend any muscles and be very gentle with any deepening of stretches you do in a hot space.
  7- Take several deep breaths here, resting the opposite hand on your lap, or both hands on your lap, thighs or knees.
  8- To switch, gently continue painting the circle with your nose all the way around, rolling your neck. Come back to center, chin to chest and then repeat the ear to shoulder stretch on the other side.
  
  
• Mountain Pose (Tadasana)
  Come to a standing posture and find your feet and balance in the sway of the water. I like to stand facing the long edge of the tub for the standing postures as it provides more room for the arms, and I have little arms.
  1- When you find your balance, feet flat on the bottom of the tub, knees hip width apart, start to breathe deeply through your legs and into all four corners of your feet.
  2- Feel strength rising up through your lower body and balance your heart over pelvis and head over heart.
  3- Relax your arms to their respective sides with fingers pointing out and palms open, too.
  4- Inhale deeply through your feet all the way up your spine, through your solar plexus, into your collar bone, up into your throat, to your third eye and up above the top of your head.
  5- Exhale rolling your breath backwards and ground through your feet, feel your shoulder and back body relax.
  6- Remain here for a few breaths and find your balance.
  
  
• Tree Pose (Vrksasana)
  1- Stand with your feet together, inner ankles and inner feet touching, or stand with feet hip width apart. Whatever is most comfortable and gentle for your body. Inhale and find a straight line of energy through the middle of your body moving up your spine.
  2- Keep your shoulders relaxed and away from your ears.
  3- Bring your palms together at your hearts center in Anjali Mudra.
  4- Exhale and root down through your feet and feel grounded from your Tadasana posture (Mountain Pose).
  5- Shift your weight to your right foot, bend your left knee and bring the bottom of your foot to your right leg (the standing leg) and place it just above your ankle or just above your knee.
  6- Press the bottom of your foot into your standing leg and stand tall from your hips, keeping your pelvis tucked.
  7- Square both hips off keeping your left knee gently pressing out to open the hip and create some balance.
  8- Zip in your lower belly and keep your lower ribs tucked in.
  9- Gently lift your chest and keep the shoulder blades down.
  10- Find length with each inhale and press into your palms and ground down on each exhale pressing the bottom of your foot into your standing leg and the standing foot into the bottom of the tub.
  11- Remain here for a few breaths and then come to a few breaths in Tadasana before switching to the other side.
  Notes:
  - Don't place the bottom of your foot on your standing leg knee, this is not good for the knee. Placing it just above or just below the knee supports the knee and will support this posture.
  - Don't turn the standing leg foot out. Keep your toes pointing forward which supports alignment of the hip and knee.
  
  
• Standing Forward Bend (Uttanasana)
  This is one of my faves to do in a hot bath. It is so relaxing and satisfying. Pro-tip: If you have long hair, you will want to clip it back for this pose especially, otherwise you'll have hot water dripping into your eyes when you come back up, and any oils or bubbles that were added. 
  1- While in standing, take a moment to return to Tadasana (Mountain Pose).
  2- After a deep breath here, reach your fingertips to the sky, take a deep inhale and then gently waterfall your hands down and fold at the hips and lengthen in the front body.
  3- Fold over to where it is comfortable and keep grounded through all four corners of your feet.
  4- Keep your weight balance through your feet and inhale deeply into your lower back.
  5- Exaggerating the inhale into your lower back, with your knees slightly bent, as if you were pulling up through the lower back will help you teach you to breathe into the lower back and allow you to fold deeper in this posture.
  6- On an exhale feel your weight into all four corners of your feet and allow your front body to fold gently while straightening your knees just a wee bit at first.
  7- You can rest the backs of your hands, with fingers gently curved on the bottom of the bath or cradle your elbows with the opposite hand.
  8- Keep your shoulders relaxed but avoid hanging them close to your ears, which help to keep your upper back aligned.
  
  *Remember to not push yourself in this pose. Listen to your body and find what feels good for you at the time. You're going to get a lot of heat and humidity here too, depending on the heat of your bath water so take it easy if you like them super steamy. Uttanasana my seem like a basic pose, but it's very important that you move gently even into a forward fold, especially with the steaminess of a glorious hot bath. Inhale deeply into your lower back, rising it up a wee bit and exhale your body down over your legs. Uttasana is an excellent pose for first thing in the morning or right before bed too. It's a super yummy hamstring stretch and helps to reduce stress, insomnia, anxiety, fatigue, tension and bad headaches as it stretches out your neck, head and back body. Give your head a nod from side to side and up and down in this stretch to shake out any stale energy in the upper back body and throat. This stretch reaches into your Governing Vessel Meridian which is an important one for the brain. Tend to it, but don't rush your progress with this posture. 
  
  
• Half Moon (Ardha Chadrasana) 
  Standing side stretch pose is another one of those quick wonderful postures we can do first thing in the morning and right before bed to get out any kinks and breathe deeply to start or end the day.
  1- Bring your inner ankles and inner feet together, really together, as in totally touching. If you're like me and you've got knobby hips and knees, take a moment to make sure your knees are totally square and touching, this will help you remain aligned.
  2- Zip up on an inhale and engage your core bringing your belly button in and up.
  3- Feel your back up tall and reach your hands up above your head and bring your palms to touching, interlacing the fingertips and pointing your two index fingers creating a little steeple.
  4- On the exhale ground through your feet and keep your pelvis tucked to stand tall.
  5- On the inhale, breathe up and reach up through your spine and arms and fingers and exhale stretch with your left side body over to the right as your fingertips point out.
  6- Let your fingertips be the guiding point but stretch and breathe deeply into your left side body for this stretch.
  7- Keep your hips squared and ground down through all four corners of the feet.
  8- Aim to keep your balance as you bump your hips to the left and stretch to the right.
  9- Inhale to grow the spine long while keeping the shoulders away from the ears and exhale to stretch through the side body and out to that wee steeple.
  10- Remain here for a few breaths and then come back to center on an inhale and exhale your arms down into Tadasana (Mountain Pose). 11- Repeat on the other side stretching through the side right body and you reach for the left with your fingers. 
  
  
• Camel Pose (Ustrasana)
  Now that we've stretched out from a comfortable seat and standing postures absorbing the heat and humidity that's risen, let's come back to relaxing and enjoying the simplicity of a hot bath with Camel Pose.
  1- Kneel on the bottom of your tub, tucking the pelvis and engaging your core. Keep your knees hip width apart and keep your seat firm, but not hard. Engaging your hips will help you to stay tall and keep yourself aligned.
  2- Keep your shins and tops of the feet firm on the bottom of the tub.
  3- Bring your hands to rest on the back of your pelvis with the base of your palms on the top of your buttocks with fingers pointing down.
  4- Keep your shoulders relaxed and away from the ears. Gently firm the tail toward the pelvis, grounding through the knees and tops of the feet. Imagine a straight line of energy from your tail to your crown.
  5- Inhale deeply and on an exhale bring the shoulder blades back, chin close to sternum and lift your chest up while keeping your core engaged and your legs grounded.
  This might feel weird at first, especially if you are not used to it, but it's an excellent heart opener and it's a super yummy stretch to do in a hot bath or hot shower when your chest is congested.
  6- Stay in this pose for about 25 seconds to a minute and release on an exhale.
  7- Come to a kneeling mountain pose to rest and then melt into your hot bath, babe and Savasana with your legs straight out in front, knees bent, or crossed legged and let your upper body float and rest.
  
  BONUS FOR A BIG BATHTUB (Or if you're short)!
• Paschimottanasana (Seated Forward Bend)
  If you have a big enough bath tub or if you're short legged, taking some time to do a seated forward bend in a hot bath feels soooo good. It's another yummy hamstring stretch and can relieve tension and a busy mind. Sit down in the bath with your seat grounded into the bottom of the tub and remember to allow the water to settle from any prior movement.
  1- Stretch your legs out long and press into the heels firmly, pointing the toes straight up. Feelin' that stretch already!
  2- Rock slightly onto your right buttock and gently pull the sitting bone away from your heel and then repeat on the other side. Get a long distance from your heel to your seat.
  3- Turn the tops of your thighs in slightly, bringing more grounding in and press them down into the bottom of the tub as best you can.
  4-Draw the lower belly in and inhale the belly button up and in towards the spine, engaging your core. Sit up tall and lengthen the spine, keeping your core engaged.
  5- Reach your arms up and overhead and exhale while stretching them out over your legs, as far as it feels good. Some might touch their toes, others might reach their shins or tops of thighs, and that's OK. Wherever it feels good for your to reach, reach there and reach with ease and self love.
  6- Keep your elbows as straight as you can and breathe deeply into your lower back.
  7- Your back can be gently curved but focus on keeping the front body lengthened and gently folding over your legs.
  8- If your hands come to your feet, palm the bottoms of your feet or ankles and deepen your stretch from here making sure to breathe deeply into the lower back and seat and lengthening the front body. 9- The lower belly should touch the thighs first, then the upper belly, then the ribs and the head last.
  10- With each inhale, lift and lengthen the torso and with each exhale release yourself a little more into the fold.

Namasté <3