Do you want to lengthen and tone your legs so that they look nice and sexy? Of course you do!
Are you to prepared to do a little stretching to attain this? Yes, of course you are!
Then yoga may be the answer for you. But, not just any yoga. You need to practice exercises that stretch your glutes, quads, calves, hamstrings and Achilles tendons.
Get started now and you will tone up and slim down your legs in a few weeks and you will soon get back into those skinny jeans, leggings or those sexy stockings with thigh-high boots.
See below for 4 yoga poses for long sexy legs.
Triangle Pose (Trikonasana)
Triangle Pose stretches the adductors of front and back legs.
Stand with your legs about three to three-and-a-half feet apart.
Pivot your right foot out 90 degrees and your left foot inward at about 35 degrees.
Place your hands on your hips and shift your hips toward your back heel while your right shoulder begins to descend toward your right leg.
Imagine that your back is touching a wall so that your torso is in line with your legs. Open your arms by placing your right hand onto your shin, a block, your ankle or your toe, while you extend the left arm above the right to form a straight line. Open across your chest.
Try to get the top and bottom of your torso to be parallel (no curves). This requires softening the top ribs down and in.
Hold for 10 deep breaths. Come back to a stand. Switch sides.
Side Stretch Pose (Parsvottanasana)
This intense pose stretches and lengthens the shin, calves, hamstrings and glutes.
From Mountain Pose, step your left foot behind you about two-and-a-half feet, turning the foot out to 45 degrees.
Take your arms into prayer behind your back if possible. If prayer is not available, keep your arms along the side your body.
Hinge at your right hip until you assume a long spine parallel to the ground. Your hands will be in prayer behind your back, or you can place them onto your shins to modify.
Stay here or if you can, and fold deeper to bring your abdomen to touch your thigh and your face toward your shin.
Hold for 10 deep breaths. Switch sides.
Forward Fold (Uttanasana)
Uttanasana stretches the Achilles, calves, hamstrings and glutes.
Stand with your feet hips-width apart. Fold forward, hinging at your hips and placing your palms on the ground beside your pinky toes.
If you’re hamstrings are tight and you can’t touch the ground, bend your knees to modify this posture and just let your hands hang evenly along side your shins.
Hold for 10 deep breaths as you keep the head and neck soft and released.
Dancer’s Pose (Natarajasana)
Dancer’s Pose stretches the hamstrings of the front leg and the quads and hip flexors of back leg.
From Mountain Pose, bend your right knee so that you can grab your inner ankle with your hand, palm facing open. Make sure your arm doesn’t twist; this is an external rotation of the shoulder.
If you have trouble with standing balances, to modify, go to a wall and begin in Mountain Pose facing the wall, so that you can support yourself with your extended palm once you enter the pose.
Draw your core inward and up, keeping it engaged for the duration of the pose. Focus your gaze on a single point, keeping it soft.
As you inhale, raise your left arm straight out and up along your ear, raising your right leg up and back behind you allowing your spine to back bend into a half moon shape.
If you are using the wall, the left hand supports you on the wall.
Keep your chest lifted as your leg elevates. Hold for 5 breaths. Switch sides
For a further 6 poses go over to mindbodygreen.com
Source: mindbodygreen.com
Images: Julie Wilcox
