Holiday yoga can help you feel sane again, no matter what Thanksgiving stress you're encountering. If travel, turkey basting, family obligations, and nonstop eating during the holiday have taken a toll your body, don't despair. Just try some holiday yoga moves to help you detox from overeating and erase holiday stress. Studies have found that yoga can improve blood sugar levels, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels; lower stress levels; and even relieve back pain—like the sore spine you may have incurred during that Black Friday shopping spree.
Yoga expert Kristen Schultz Dollard, author of The Yoga Body Diet: Your Stress-Free 5-Week Weight-Loss Plan
After eating a huge meal…
• First, walk it off. After you eat a big plate of leftovers or indulge in another piece of holiday pie, go for a 10-minute walk, breathing through your nose.
• Before you go to bed, try the Seated Half Twist pose (just make sure you wait at least 30 minutes after eating), and then lie down and let your body relax with Savasana, also known as the Corpse pose.
In the days following a family feast...
• Perform Cat and Cow tilts to warm your spine and pelvis.
• Perform the Sun Salutation.
• Try a Dolphin to Chair sequence (hold each for 10 breaths).
• Repeat all as a sequence.
To buffer your body against shopping insanity…
Use these balance poses before and/or after you shop.
• Eagle
• Savasana
The best way to unwind on a weekend…
• Take to your mat and do deep hip openers. Then follow with…
• Pigeon pose
• Double-Pigeon pose
• Cow Face pose
• Savasana