Outside yoga for inside happiness: you can prepare for outdoor activities with poses, says Cindy Dollar.

Do you ever feel like your hamstrings are actually steel cables? Or that if your back would just "pop" you could breathe again? If you're like many folks around our area, you're active and interested in keeping your body healthy and happy. Likely, you know that part of keeping the body fit is to stretch it before and after activity. But, do you? Or do you jump into your chosen activity and figure that your body will warm up as you go along?

Many yoga poses (asanas) can be practiced outdoors before you get started with your run or other activity. The poses work together, just as the different parts of your body do--or should! For example, if your hamstrings are tight, they pull on your back and can cause discomfort there. If your back is uncomfortable, you might begin to lean forward to compensate for that, and then your shoulders roll forward and your neck can hurt. Ouch! So if you stretch one part of your body, all parts receive the benefit. Still, though, work lovingly with all parts and resist the urge to focus only on one "problem" area.

Let's begin with the breath and sides. Stand up straight with your feet under your hips and your arms down by your sides: Mountain Pose/Tadasana. Take your weight into your heels, lift your chest up and simultaneously take your buttocks down and forward as you draw your abdomen back toward your spine. Without losing that alignment, take your arms out and up over your head as you inhale. On the exhalation, take your arms outward and back down. Coordinate the lift of your arms with the inhalation and the downward movement of your arms with the exhalation. After a few breaths using these movements, interlace your fingers over your head, turn your hands toward the sky and lift up higher. Release, bring your arms down and interlace your fingers behind your buttocks. Press your knuckles down toward the ground as you lift your chest toward your chin without lifting your chin. Raise your hands up and away from your buttocks as you keep your buttocks down to stabilize your low back. Release the hands and continue to breathe fully and deeply as you move on to other stretches.

To lengthen the hamstrings, step one foot forward three and a half feet in front of the other one: Intense Side Stretch/Parsvottanasana. Place your hands on your hips or take them behind your back and grasp your elbows. Lift your chest up and keep it long and broad as you extend from your hips forward over the front leg. Press your inner front foot firmly on the ground as you draw the hip of that front leg back. Where do you feel the stretch? Pay attention. What's happening? Don't let the chest drop down; rather, pull it forward as you push your hips and rear leg back for maximum results. If your back is willing, bend forward from your hips (not from your waist!) and bring your hands to the ground. After several breaths, lift out of the pose, bring the feet together and do the other side. Or, add another pose here to stretch your thighs and strengthen your back. From the starting position of one leg forward and the other one back, extend your arms up over your head, bend your front leg and lift your torso straight up: Warrior I/ Virabhadrasana I. The rear leg stays straight and the heel down in both poses.

Here's another one for the back of the body and also for the inner legs: Standing straddle/Prasarita Padottanasana. Stand with your legs four to five feet apart, feet parallel, and hands on your hips. Take a deep breath, lift your chest up and relax your shoulders. Exhale, bend from your hips, keep your ribs long, and bring your hands to the ground under your shoulders. Press your thighs back and keep your legs and arms straight. As your hamstrings release, take your hands back in line with your feet, bend your elbows, and bring your head down toward the ground. To come up from the pose, move your buttocks and the backs of your legs down, bring your hands to your hips, and stand up. Bring your feet back together and take a deep breath.

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If you're okay with sitting on the ground (make sure there are no ants around!), start there with your legs extended straight out in front of you. Bend your knees, bring the soles of your feet together, and drop your knees out to the side. Slide your heels toward your pelvis: Bound Angle Pose/Baddha Konasana. If your back rounds, place your hands by your sides for support and lift your chest up as your press your knees away from each other. Take some deep breaths, then release. Repeat several times and notice how your knees come closer to the ground with practice.

One more sitting pose: Half Lord of the Fishes/ Ardha Matsyandrasana. Sit with your legs straight out in front of you. Bend both knees slightly, and bring your left foot underneath your right leg to place your left foot outside of your right hip. Your left knee should land on the ground. (If not, sit up on a support.) Bring your right foot to the ground outside of your left knee. Lift your chest, turn to the right, grasp your right knee with your left forearm and place your right hand on the ground behind you. Lift up and breathe. Let your spine receive the twist. Take several breaths, then turn forward toward your knees and place your right knee on top of your left knee. What a great stretch for the hips and legs! Release and repeat on the other side with the right knee on the ground and your left foot outside of that knee. Notice if one side is easier to do than the other. If so, spend more time on the tighter side to even them up.

Cindy is the owner of and senior teacher at One Center Yoga in Asheville, NC; www.onecenteryoga.com. She is also the co-author of Yoga Your Way and enjoys practicing yoga anywhere.