Yoga at Home for Beginners: Yoga Helps Guitarists with Finger Exercise

I never mentioned this, but I took classical guitar lessons from age 10-18 so I had three years in there which overlapped with my yoga practice! It never occurred to me at that time (of course, I was "just a teenager") that certain yoga exercises could help me as an amateur guitarist. But, if you think about it, it's easy to see how certain yoga poses could benefit a guitar player.

In my teens I practiced 30 minutes to an hour a day. A classical guitarist typically sits leaning forward as they play. And guess what? It's easy to develop a neck cramp and tension in your back after an hour or so. Yoga rolls are a wonderful antidote to the kinks you may develop in your neck after guitar practice.

Also, obviously, when you play guitar, you use your fingers continuously. Well, certain yoga finger exercises could help warm the guitarist to warm up or cool down after playing. For example, I found the following yoga finger exercise from one of my yoga primers, Yoga, Youth, and Reincarnation by Jess Stearn. It just dawned on me last week how this could definitely help increase the flexibility in a guitarist's fingers!

Here are the instructions on how to do The Flower - adapted from Jess Stearn's book with my own input added to the mix.

1. Clench your fists firmly with your thumbs outside your fingers. I find it helpful to visualize that I am grasping a fireman' pole and trying to climb up (something I could not likely do!). Jess Stearn suggests that you imagine that your hands are like the tight buds of a flower in late winter.

2. Imagine you have a circuit of energy emanating from your heart through your arms and up into both hands and fingers Take a few moments to do this. There's no rushing!

3. Take a minimum of one full minute to allow that vibrant energy from your heart to gradually open both hands simultaneously, just as a flower opens its petals to the sun early on a spring morning.

4. After a a minimum of one minute, each finger of each hand should be unfurled with palms wide open and fingers fully stretched.

5. Gently move each finger forward on the both hands, starting with your thumb, toward the middle of your palm and release, allowing each finger to spring back to its original open palm position.

6. Slowly, imagine that it's sunset and your fingers, like the petals of a flower, return to their original, closed position.

Repeat once or twice or as often as you feel guided. Don't dismiss this just because it may sound a little woo-woo. Try it, you guitarists out there! And report back on what you experience...

Yours for playing guitar with flexible fingers through yoga,

Laura Venecia Rodriguez