5 Yoga Poses for Salon Professionals

The life of a salon professional is straining on your body. You spend the majority of your day on your feet holding up beauty tools, crouching over clients, and tensing muscles to work with a steady hand. At the end of the day, give your body the love it deserves by unwinding with these relaxing yoga poses. The more you practice, the more receptive your body will be to opening up and releasing tension over time. Remember to breathe deeply.

1. Child’s Pose:

It is always good to begin in child’s pose after a busy day. It calms your body and mind, stretches your lower back, hips, knees, and ankles, and relaxes your spine and shoulders. - Begin on all fours in a tabletop position with your hands directly underneath your shoulders and knees directly underneath your hips. - Stretch your arms out in front of you as far as you can moving them a little bit more than shoulder’s width distance apart. - Bring your big toes to touch, allowing your hips to remain parted. - Sit back with your bum resting on your ankles. - Bring your forehead to the mat. - Breathe deep and feel your body and mind tension melt away.

2. Arms Bound Forward Fold:

This pose releases your head, neck, upper and lower back while giving your shoulders the deep stretch they are aching to feel. - Begin standing with your feet hips width distance apart and parallel to one another. - Interlace your fingers behind your back, arching through your back, opening your chest and pushing your heart forward. - Bend your knees slightly and slowly bend forward at your hips, easing forward until you are in a full forward fold over your legs. - Release your neck forward. - Pull your interlaced hands up toward the sky, stretching deeply through your shoulders. - Hang in this position until you feel your back, neck and shoulders release.

3. Side angle pose:

This pose is a bit more strengthening in the legs, but releases shoulder and neck tension while stretching the hips. - Bring you right leg forward, and lunge right knee into a 90 degree angle - Turn your left foot adjacent to your right, lining up the heel of your right foot with the arch of your left. - Bring your right elbow to your right knee. - Open your body to your left and reach your left arm over your head, stretching through your left side body and hip. - Turn your gaze and heart to the sky, stretching as long as you can through your left arm. - Breathe and hold. - Repeat on the other side, lunging with your left leg in front and right arm toward the sky.

4. Downward Facing Dog:

The most basic and widely-known yoga pose is downward facing dog. This pose elongates and releases tension from your spine, stretches your hamstrings, calves and hands, and strengthens your arms, shoulders and back. - Begin on all fours with your knees hip-width apart and your hands shoulder-width apart. - Your hips should be over your knees and your shoulders directly over your wrists. - Position your hands a few inches in front of your shoulders. - Curl your toes under, lift your hips, and straighten your legs. - Keep your arms straight and have your body form an upside-down V.

5. Pigeon Pose:

This pose is the ideal hip opener. It can also be helpful in finding relief from sciatic and back pain and releasing built up stress and anxiety. - Come into a downward dog with tailbone pointing toward the ceiling and hands pressing into the floor. - Lift one leg up to hip height, then gently swing it forward. - Bend your knee and lower leg onto the mat. - Position your shin so that it’s close to parallel with the front of your mat, with your front foot flexed and your back leg straight. - Lean forward over your shin and rest your hands or forehead on the mat.