7 Quick Morning Yoga Routines to Wake Up and Energize You for the Day

Before building morning rituals into my life, I seemed to always be rushing for time – waking up as late as I possibly can, rolling out of bed, taking record-speed showers and scrambling to catch the bus before a large cup of coffee. By mid-day, after the caffeine wore off, I usually felt drained and low on energy.

Those days are long over (thank God) once I found the power of morning routines. There are many options for morning routines, but the best ones for those just starting out are activities that ease you into waking up rather than jolting your heart and mind awake abruptly.

The best way I know how to create extra energy and motivation is by getting on the mat and stretching my stiff body out. Whenever I am in a hurry, my morning yoga can be as quick as 10-15 minutes. To save time, I usually have YouTube videos or yoga PDFs at hand that I can follow quickly without any downtime trying to create my own routine.

It may seem ironic to sacrifice sleep and expecting to get more energy. But trust me, if you focus on having the right morning routines, your mind is primed for the day and your energy follows suit because you have the motivation to go conquer the day.

For those of you who are just building your morning routines, or are simply pressed for time, the following 7 quick morning yoga routines are my favourites from YouTube. These are all short videos between 10-25 minutes, but will undeniably allow you to gain mental clarity and energy to seize the day.

10 Minute Morning Yoga Full Body Stretch | Yoga with Kassandra

Yoga with Kassandra is fast becoming my go-to channel for any Yin and Vinyasa practice. I love the library of yoga classes categorised for different needs and bodies. My personal favourites are the intermediate yoga and the Yin yoga series.

One thing differentiates Yoga with Kassandra from most online yoga teachers – she has her own studio in a mobile app format. I think this is brilliant because most of us are always on the go and it is great to access videos and tools at any time through her app.

If you can’t already tell, I am a fan of this channel.

This morning yoga routine from Kassandra is a beginner friendly class. I particularly enjoy creative stretches and variations.

The practice starts off with gentle neck stretches and cat-cow poses. This is followed by Thread the Needle variation – one of my favourite upper back stretches, so important for those with back injuries like me!

Kassandra then takes us through Lizard, low lunge and more back stretches including sphinx pose. It then ends off in child’s pose.

By the end of the practice, I feel so much more awake and my lower back is no longer complaining as much.

Give it a go below.

25 Minute Energizing Morning Sequence | Yoga with Adriene

Whenever people talk about YouTube yoga videos, Yoga with Adriene will always rank on top. It’s no wonder why – Adriene conducts her classes in a very supportive way. She focuses on helping you to “Find what feels good” rather than focusing on how you look when practising, or pressuring yourself into doing yoga poses your body is not ready to.

Adriene also has a 30-day yoga challenge for beginners, in case you are just starting your yoga journey.

This particular Yoga with Adriene morning yoga class may be old, but I still love following it. Adriene reminds us in this video that “if it’s not working we find ways to fix it… We stay curious, we stay listening, we stay involved”

Within 25 minutes of practice, Adriene covers an easy warm-up of seated twists, cat cows and standing flow stretches to wake up the spine. The first flow comprises of a variation of Sun Salutations with easy lunges, plank/half plank and heart opening gentle backbends. This is followed by more intense flow before relaxing into child’s pose.

Love this timeless morning flow practice; And from all the comments made, so do many thousands of others!

10 Minute Morning Ritual Yoga) | Fightmaster Yoga

Those of you who have read the “9 completely free resources” post would know that I am a huge fan of Lesley Fightmaster’s yoga classes and have been practising to various videos from the channel.

Besides her Ashtanga yoga videos, which I follow for many of my at home yoga practice, she has recently posted a 10 minute morning ritual yoga video in line with our theme today!

This is a stronger flow class where Lesley Fightmaster takes us through a not-so-easy but fast warm-up consisting of seated twists, downward dog, plank variation and back strengtheners facing down. 

It may feel a little tough to get through the first minutes especially when your core and hips are fast asleep, but after this the sequence you are ready for the sun salutations, side planks and standing poses.

The video ends with an inspirational quote, priming you to start your day with clear intentions and motivation.

If you are up for a stronger sequence, do give this a try. I love what it does to my mindset – that I can do anything and everything as long as I put my heart to it.

20 Minute Gentle Hip Opening Yoga | Heart Alchemy Yoga

If you don’t already know, I do dig Michelle Goldstein’s power vinyasa flows. Most of these are full-length classes, but we selected one that is shorter and gentler for this morning routine.

Our hips tend to hold our old emotions such as fear, anxiety and sadness. This is much like the concept of us clenching our jaws when tensed, or our fists when angry. On days when I need to settle or release some emotions, I go for hip opening flows.

The video below lasts 20 minutes and was supposedly designed for runners and cyclists. But I found the flow very effective for my morning routines whether or not I had run/cycled. 

Michelle starts with a gentle sun salutation variation before going into half splits, seated twists and standing forward fold. This is followed by supine (or lying) hip stretches before ending with Shavasana variation (reclined butterfly).

If you’re into restorative poses, you can also try this 5-minute chillout video as well.

20 Minute Everyday Vinyasa Flow Yoga | Lululemon

There’s no need for further introduction for the next channel – renowned Lululemon gives us a 20-minute vinyasa flow yoga class that helps set us up for the day.

This video can be used for any time of the day, but I usually practice it early in the morning. It’s awesome for beginners who need more alignment cues and technical explanation, which the video does very well in.

15 Minute Quick Fix Vinyasa Flow | Yoga Dose

I have been a loyal follower of Tim Senesi since his Yoga with Tim days which is now called Yoga Dose. Yoga with Tim is now moved to another channel.

One of the main reasons why Tim’s classes are so appealing is his alignment cues. These cues have helped me to grow from an almost clueless beginner to someone who knows how each pose should feel, and whether I am over-pushing myself.

The video below is not particularly designed for mornings and can be done at any time of day. During these 15 minutes, you’ll not only stretch to gain flexibility but more importantly build strength in your lower body and core. Tim Senesi talks about the importance of standing poses in his blog and these have been translated to his sequences here.

15 Minute Intermediate Morning Yoga Flow | Boho Beautiful

Last but not least, we have a wake-up morning flow by Boho Beautiful. This is a rather strong class that’s more suitable for intermediate yogis.

Boho Beautiful has more than 1 million followers, and you can tell why – the story of Juliana and Mark (founders of Boho Beautiful) is nothing less than inspiring. Their content goes beyond yoga into living with fullness and vitality off the mat. As a traveller and yogi, I find myself anticipating new content that I know never fail to inspire and motivate.

This particular video from YouTube is paired with meditative music to get you in the right mental mode and physical state on and off the mat.

Have you started a morning yoga routine? Let me know which habits you are working on and where this blog can help you with your journey.

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