Published May 4, 2026 11:17AM
This entirely hands-free 10-minute morning yoga practice is a full-body class with no weight bearing poses. So if you have any kind of wrist sensitivities, this is ideal for you as there’s no Tabletop, no Down Dog, no Planks, no Chaturangas, no Up Dogs, and no weight bearing in your hands of any sort. It’s designed to deliver as much stamina, endurance, strengthening, and balancing that you would get from a regular vinyasa-style class but without any actual vinyasas.
A lot of hands-free practices are seated and reclined stretches that you move through slowly so that there’s no pressure on the hands, the arms, the wrists. There’s a little more dynamic movement and definitely a challenge in this practice. It’s designed for those times when you want to take it easy on your wrists but you still want to practice a full-body flow with standing poses, seated poses, reclined poses, the whole thing.
10-Minute Morning Yoga Hands-Free (No Plank, Down Dog, or Chaturanga)
The entire focus of this 10-minute morning yoga practice is to avoid placing pressure on your wrists and hands.
Seated Cat and Cow
Start kneeling and then sit back so you’re resting on your heels. Bring your arms in front of you, bend your elbows, and press your shoulders down and away from your ears. As you inhale, lift your chest, arch your back, and squeeze your shoulder blades behind you in a little backbend during Seated Cow Pose. Keep your elbows lifted.
As you exhale, round your back, bring your forearms together, and draw your chin toward your chest in Cat Pose.
Keep going in and out of those two poses, trying to bring movement to the upper back, mid back, lower back, and also emphasizing a stretch through the biceps and chest.
Dynamic Camel Pose
Come back to center and rest your arms by your sides. Inhale as you press yourself up to kneeling, lifting your hips off your heels and coming into a little backbend as you look up in Camel Pose. Press your hips forward.
Exhale as you hinge forward, sending your hips back and sweeping your arms behind you.
Repeat this a few more times, inhaling to lift and exhaling to reach behind you, warming up through your quads. Think of pressing your hips forward whenever you lift up.
Low Lunge Side Bend
Place your hands on your hips to help with your balance and then step your left foot forward toward the top of the mat. Align your knee over your ankle, lengthen the tailbone down, and keep your lower belly engaged in Low Lunge. Reach your right arm alongside your head. Then reach your right arm over toward the left in a side body stretch.
Low Lunge Twist
Reach your right arm toward the front of the mat and your left arm toward the back of the mat in a twist. Keep your chest lifted so you’re stacking your shoulders over your hips.
Face forward again and reach both arms upward this time. Let your hips sink down and forward, maybe adding a little backbend as you press your palms together and shift your gaze upward.
Half Split
Bring your hands to your hips and straighten your left leg any amount. Flex your front foot, hinge at your hips, and lean forward with your chest in Half Splits. I like to almost push down into the mat with my left heel to help with balance.
Warrior 2
Then bend into your front knee, tuck your back toes under, and lift your back knee off the mat. Spin your right foot parallel to the shorter edge of the mat and reach your arms straight out, palms facing down, in Warrior 2. Think of pressing your left knee toward the left a little more. This is another pose where we tend to lean forward, but keep your shoulders over your hips.
Reverse Warrior
Bring your right hand down to your back thigh and reach your left arm alongside your head as you lean back in a side body stretch during Reverse Warrior.
Triangle Pose
Stay in this side bend, even as you straighten your left leg. Then come into Triangle Pose by reaching your left arm all the way forward and then all the way down toward your front shin. Your right arm extends toward the sky. You can instead do this with your hands on your hips, if you prefer. Breathe here.
High Lunge
Inhale as you use your core strength to lift yourself upright. Then lift your back heel off the mat and pivot to face forward in High Lunge.
Exhale as you hinge forward and tilt toward the front of the mat.
Repeat your dynamic High Lunge twice more. So inhale rise, exhale lean forward.
The last time you lean forward, hold here and lower your right knee to the mat, then come back to your starting position of both knees on the mat. Repeat Dynamic Camel Pose and, as you lift up the last time, step your right foot forward to the top of the mat and repeat these poses on the other side. Hold here so that you can bring that left knee down, step the right foot back, and le
Child’s Pose
Let’s come into Child’s Pose from here, bringing your big toes together and your knees as wide as you would like. As you press your hips back and walk your hands out in front of you, release your forehead toward the mat.
This is an opportunity to ask yourself, what your intention is for the day ahead, what it is that you want to focus on, maybe by choosing one word as your focus.
Seated Twist
Lift yourself back up, swing your legs straight in front of you, and come to take a seat. Bend your right knee, cross your right foot over your left thigh and place your foot on the mat, and think of lifting a little taller. Then turn toward the right and wrap your left arm around your right leg in a seated twist. Look toward the back of the mat. Release and then switch sides.
Boat Pose
Come back to center, lift your legs with your knees bent, and reach your arms forward in Boat Pose.
You’re welcome to hold onto the backs of your thighs for extra support or maybe you straighten your legs for increased intensity. Stay here for just a few breaths.
Butterfly or Bound Angle Pose
Bring your feet to the mat, bend your knees out to the side, and bring the soles of your feet together. Make this a really passive forward bend by allowing your back to naturally round as you fold forward in Butterfly or Bound Angle Pose, letting gravity do the work for you. You want to feel a stretch along the spine and through the inner thighs.
So as we practice in the morning and cultivate this feeling of calm and presence, it’s something that can carry with us throughout our day, even when things get busy or don’t go as planned. We use these practices to stay anchored, to remind ourselves we can always come back to our breath, and to learn to be in the moment. Before you make your way out of this pose, remind yourself of your intention.
Closing
Take your time as you slowly roll yourself up and come to sit any way that’s comfortable for your hips and lower back. Sit nice and tall, roll your shoulders back, and think of that one-word intention, whatever it might be to you. You can repeat it internally a few times, something that you can remind yourself of throughout the day.
Thank you for trying this hands-free, 10-minute morning yoga flow with me. I hope it helps you feel ready to begin your day.
