If you are one of those Yoga aficionados who has had to give up those body twisting poses because of a body that refuses to twist, do not despair. Now you can happily abandon your Power Yoga and adopt a new form of Shower Yoga.

I discovered this new form of yoga purely by accident.

Waking up these days is pure hell  because by 6 am my body has frozen stiff.  A few months ago I countered this problem by waking up earlier at 4 , doing  a few yogasanas and  even going back to sleep to wake up fresh and completely supple by 6 am .  Of course a leopard can never change its spots and after my spine became supple and the back ache went away, I slowly but surely went back to my regular habit of waking up at 6.

So now when I wake up I have to uncurl every finger phalange by phalange and then gently unfold each joint like a  slow moving arachnid till I finally stretch out my spinal column one vertebra at a time. It is only then when every joint is completely “open” as it were do I even attempt to get out of bed.

No amount of gentle stretches after the 4 am deadline is over, help to lubricate the joints and I found that instead of popping pills or rubbing liniments, a good hot shower does the trick. And what is even better is doing Yogasana in the shower. So while you are scrubbing your back you can go for a good Gomukhasan and clasp your hands at the back. A Namaskarasan at the back opens up the shoulders  while, a good Uttanasan or a Tadasana helps in stretching out the spine to its fullest.

Of course I haven’t tried any other asanas and am a bit skeptical of attempting any balancing poses like Vrukshasan or Natarajasan but definitely these two three standing asansas in the shower are better than an hour of power yoga in the studio.

A word of advice though – I am not a trained yoga teacher so please try shower yoga at your own risk.