Yoga and Travel: Try These 6 Yoga Poses to Counteract the Negative Effects of Traveling

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Yoga and travel are like peanut butter and jelly – they go well together! Because as fun as travel is, it can also take a major toll on your body.

Sitting for extended periods of time with the inability to stretch can take its toll on your body and make all the other circumstances – like new environments and an irregular eating and exercise schedule – feel even more detrimental. But when it comes to yoga and travel, a little movement can go a long way.

Long Flight? Practice These 9 Yoga Poses in Your Plane Seat to Soothe Your Sore Body

Read on for six yoga poses for travelers that will help you build strength, increase flexibility, and release tension in your body so you can feel refreshed, renewed and ready for all the adventure!

Enjoy This Grounding Meditation While You’re In Flight

Yoga and Travel Are Good Together! Try These 6 Yoga Poses to Counteract the Negative Effects of Traveling:

1. Tree Pose (Vrksasana)

Long commutes make way for stiffness, especially the back and side of your legs. Tree Pose stretches and strengthens these areas. You’ll also work on your balance, open your hips, improve ankle stability and foot arch strength, and even strengthen your core.

Lifting your arms above your head and shifting your gaze to meet your hands will add an extra balance challenge.

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2. Headstand (Sirshasana)

Headstand is perfect for hitting the reset button after a draining travel day. This yoga pose reverses the flow of gravity, providing you with an instant facelift, as your skin hangs in the opposite direction.

Fresh nutrients and oxygen are flushed to the face, giving you an effervescent glow, while also bathing the brain in fresh new oxygenated blood. Inversions require a lot of core stability, so this inversion will help you strengthen while you refresh. That’s why they are great yoga poses for travelers!

3. Forward Bend (Uttanasana)

Uncomfortable seating positions can cause serious back pain. Forward bending lengthens and alleviates stress from the spine by stretching out the lower back and hamstrings. You’ll enjoy an added bonus of stimulating blood flow to the brain since it’s a gentle inversion.

Check out 4 Ways Travel Can Deepen Your Yoga Practice (As If You Needed an Excuse)

With each deep breath in, elongate the spine, and with each deep breath out, let it all go as you fold your forehead towards your legs. For an added shoulder stretch (always great after long travels), interlace your fingers and allow your arms to hang up and overhead. Simple enough that you can do anywhere, Uttanasana is the perfect yoga pose for travelers!

4. Half Moon Pose (Ardha Chandrasana)

To wake up your sleepy legs and activate your brain, try Half Moon Pose. You’ll stimulate your leg muscles, tone your core, and improve your balance.

This balancing yoga pose is very active, creating some heat within, as you engage your muscles to maintain balance. Focus on engaging the glute of your lifted leg in order to find optimum strength.

5. Extended Side Angle (Parsvakonasana)

This yoga pose opens up the inner thighs and torso, stretches out the hips flexors and lats, strengthens the quads, and improves core stability.

Extended Side Angle is great for travel, because it relieves low back stiffness from sitting, and it also alleviates stiffness in the legs. Hovering your bottom arm just above the ground will add extra strength and challenge to keep you in the zone.

6. Warrior II (Virabhadrasana II)

Whether you’ve been stuck in between people for hours on a plane, or you’ve been in a car for way too long, this is the ultimate yoga pose for taking back your freedom. When it comes to yoga and travel, Warrior II is a powerful choice to help you reset your mindstate and feel empowered.

Warrior II opens the inner thighs, strengthens the quads and calves, improves ankle and core stability and even stimulates slow-twitch fibers in the shoulders and torso. Gaze over your front fingertips, and with each breath out, sink deeper into the hips. Your focus will take your mind off of negative feelings as you stretch and strengthen.

Enjoy Your Yoga and Travel! Try These Yoga Poses During Your Next Trip

The best thing you can do to counteract all the uncomfortable downtime that comes with traveling is to stretch and strengthen, get your blood flowing, and reset your body by doing yoga.

This will not only set a positive tone for your vacation or work trip; it will also keep you from feeling stiff and sore for the remainder of your trip. Furthermore, testing your balance and working on your strength will keep your mind clear and your body strong.

It’s easy to lose sight of your fitness regimen and other health commitments when you’re traveling, which is why it’s so important to sneak yoga in every chance you get! These six yoga poses are ideal for travel – and are also excellent after a long day at work, in the car, or any time your body needs a little extra TLC.

Need a mat for yoga on-the-go? We Review the Folding Travel Yoga Mat From Wai Lana (Product Review Video)