By Christine Tanaka, MA, Certified Yoga Instructor

Spring is finally here. There is more daylight and we naturally have more energy to cleanse. With a simple twisting pose, you can literally wring out the tension in your body that has built up over the winter.

Benefits:
•    Energize the kidneys
•    Strengthen the spine 
•    Increase range of motion in the shoulders
•    Relieve minor back aches

Actions:
1. Sit down and bend the knees. Place the feet beside the right hip with the right ankle resting on top of the left arch. Make the right toes point back and the left toes 90 degrees to the side. (It is okay to use a pad under your right buttock if it is off the floor and your hips are not level).

2. Press both hands behind the back, press on the floor and lift from your waist. Keep rooting through your sitting bones and lift from the waist and pit of the abdomen. Release the shoulders down.

3. Twist the spine to the left keeping the hips and knees square. Take the left arm back and hold the bicep of the right arm, and hold the left knee with the right hand.

4. Exhaling press the sitting bones down and root. Inhaling, lift.  Exhaling twist. Stay in the pose for 5 breaths. Inhale come out of pose and change sides.