Summertime…and the living is easy.

Yoga offers the perfect antidote to muscle soreness resulting from vigorous activity, repetitive movements or just plain overdoing it. GateWay Yoga instructor Sherry Evans suggests a series of five gentle poses to compliment a regular studio class.

Take deep inhales and exhales to enhance each stretch and move only to your ‘gentle edge.’ Each pose starts and ends in a relaxed ‘at ease’ Standing Mountain, aligning shoulders over hips, hips over knees and knees over feet. Between each pose pause to take a deep inhale and exhale. This series feels especially wonderful when done outside.

1. Greet the sun #1. Inhale as you extend arms overhead, lift your head and look up, and widen arms to greet the sun. Exhale, float arms down to your side in a wide arc, palms down.   Repeat 5 times.
2. Moving Chair. With your knees lined up right over your feet, bend them gently moving up and down in small bounces; feel the stretch in your Achilles tendon. Repeat several times. Deepen the knee bend and swing your arms forward pausing at shoulder height. As the knees straighten swing the arms back down allowing them to float slight behind the body. Inhale with the bend; exhale when you straighten. Repeat five times.
3. Greet the sun #2. Raise the arms up overhead to greet the sun (palms up), look up, perhaps adding a slight backbend, then move palms towards each other until they touch. Lower arms down in prayer, bow head. Repeat five times.
4. Side Bends. Widen stance slightly, bringing your feet almost to the edge of the mat. Left arm on hip, right at your side. Inhale, raise the right arm overhead and extend it towards the left as your right hip gently moves slightly to the right. Exhale. Pause on this side for three inhales and exhales. Inhale, lift right arm overhead, exhale it down to your right side. Repeat on the other side, extending the left arm overhead and moving the left hip to the left slightly. You may also move back and forth between sides in a continuous motion.
5. Floppy Coat Sleeves. Widen your stance to bring your feet to the edge of your mat. Bend at the knees. Begin to twist side to side allowing your arms to swing freely with the movement. Allow the arms to gently tap your upper back, mid back, lower back and buttocks. As you twist to the right, lift the left heel; as you twist to the left, lift the right heel. Go wild, be free and do this until your inner child has been sated! Slowly come to stillness, return to mountain and take several deep inhales and exhales.

Don’t forget to drink plenty of fluids in the summer heat.

One recommendation: drink half your weight in ounces. For instance if you weigh 150 pounds, then drink 75 ounces of fluid each day.