Warm Your Toes

By Felicia Tomasko

Yoga to Increase Your Circulation

Poor circulation can lead to numb or cold hands and feet, stiff fingers and joints, and off-kilter balance as sleepy toes fail to grip the floor. While one of the benefits of yoga is increased circulation, a practice that focuses on awakening your fingers, toes, spine, and face can be a welcome addition to a wintertime routine.

Living, practicing, and teaching in New York City, Om Yoga founder Cyndi Lee is no stranger to cold hands and feet and the need to slide fingers in gloves and encase feet with boots. New Yorkers have particularly cold hands, since the fashion is for fingerless gloves so yogis on the go can fish for cab fare and subway tokens. To keep Jack Frost at bay, Lee’s winter classes include sequences to restore feeling and boost circulation in the hands and feet. Lee brings play into the practice as well. For example, lion’s pose is a humorous asana for the face; it unwinds tension that creeps in after reading a day’s worth of horrifying emails. In class, Lee also pairs students up to trade hand massages and instructs them to massage their own faces and feet.

Focusing on the feet is a vital part of the practice, since not only do winter shoes lessen circulation in the toes and feet, but Lee finds that walking on icy sidewalks and streets leads to gingerly steps and tense feet. Additionally, our entire bodies stiffen to brace against the cold, necessitating the inclusion of poses to stretch out the spine in a circulation-improving practice.

Lee describes the following sequence as a fantastic warm-up to get the blood flowing, which you can do as a stand-alone practice or a work-day break to avoid a stiff, desk-bound body. The entire series can be repeated three to five times. By linking movement and breath, practitioners can even break a sweat with this simple but powerful string of poses. Even if you live in a balmy climate, our modern lifestyle of cars and computers leaves our bodies begging for movement to increase blood flow and loosen up tight joints.

Sequence for Circulation

1. Begin by sitting on your heels in vajrasana, or hero pose. Put a blanket underneath your shins (but not your ankles) for padding and to stretch your ankle joints. If this is uncomfortable, place a blanket or two between your calves and thighs, or sit on a block or cushion. While in the pose, inhale and extend both arms overhead, interlace your fingers and stretch the palms of your hands up to the ceiling.

2. With your fingers still interlaced, exhale and extend your arms forward with the palms of your hands facing away from your chest. At the same time, arch your spine, pushing your hands and chest away from each other and rounding your entire back.

3. Inhale with a huge breath like a yawn, as you arch your spine and chest forward, while simultaneously releasing your clasped hands. Open your arms widely to a backstroke and then reach your fingertips to the floor, stretching your hands.

4. Exhale into an exuberant lion’s pose by sticking out your tongue, stretching your face, and opening your eyes wide with your gaze turned up. Lion’s pose increases circulation in the face, throat, and thyroid.

5. Shift yourself into tabletop with your hands beneath your shoulders and your knees beneath your hips. Make sure your weight is equally balanced front to back and side to side. Use a blanket or padding beneath your knees as needed for comfort.

6. Take time here to stretch your spine, moving with your breath. Inhale in this neutral position. While exhaling, curve your hips, low back, and head all to the right, curving your spine. Inhale to center, and while exhaling, curve to the left.

7. Threading the needle stretches and increases circulation in the neck and shoulders. From tabletop, inhale and raise your right arm up to the sky. On an exhalation, thread your right hand beneath your left shoulder and rest your right shoulder on the floor or on a blanket. Pause for a few breaths, then unwind your right arm on an inhalation, and stretch it back up to the sky before setting it back underneath your shoulder. Repeat on the other side.

8. Pressing gently into your hands, exhale into downward facing dog, lifting your hips and engaging your abdominal muscles. While in downward facing dog, tread your feet in place like riding a slow bicycle. Focus on stretching your feet, ankles, and calves by pressing into your toes.

8. Transition from downward facing dog to child’s pose by setting your knees on your mat. Again, place a blanket underneath your knees, or between your calves and thighs as needed for comfort. If possible, keep your toes tucked under to continue to stretch your feet. If this is uncomfortable, untuck your toes. In child’s pose, stretch your shoulders by reaching your hands forward. In order to stretch your hands and fingers, press your fingertips into the floor and lift your hands, wrists, and forearms for a gesture resembling a piano player, what Lee refers to as Liberace hands.

9. End in the beginning seated position, but keep your toes tucked under if you’re feeling brave. Reach your arms overhead, at least shoulder width apart. With your arms in the air, use rolling motions in all directions to stretch the hands, fingers, and wrists.

The sequence can end here or can be repeated as desired. Enjoy the warmth and feeling in your hands, face, spine, and feet.