Waking Energy 7 Timeless Practices Designed to Reboot Your Body and Unleash Your Potential

Saw
The Saw is a breathing exercise above and beyond its other benefits! It strengthens the lungs and
increases overall lung capacity, which aids in healing breathing challenges, like asthma, even as it
reinforces the postural muscles of the back and powerhouse and makes the spine more fluid and
flexible. It specifically increases the range of motion in the twisting plane.
1. Sitting up tall, extend your legs in front of you, slightly wider than hip-width apart, and flex your
feet strongly.
2. Extend your arms out to the sides of your body at shoulder height, and feel the crown of your head
reaching up to the ceiling as you draw the navel to the spine, coming into perfect posture.
Squeeze your buttocks to give you an extra boost up.
3. Inhale as deeply as you can, puffing out your chest—you should feel almost barrel-chested from
the prodigious intake of air. Hold the breath as you twist your torso to face your right leg,
bringing your left arm across your body, in front of you, over the right leg, and the right arm
behind you.
4. As you exhale, drop your chin to your chest and bend forward over the right leg, pulling your
abdominals up and in, and rounding the spine slightly into a deep C shape, using the back of your
left hand as if to saw off the pinky toe on the right foot—push your left hand past your right foot,
as the right arm reaches up behind you in the air, palm facing your body.
5. In the forward bend, as you are “sawing off” the right pinky toe, stay in the position long enough
to empty your lungs completely. Feel as though you are twisting and exhaling so deeply that you
become the physical incarnation of wringing out a wet towel, expelling any stagnant chi and
detoxing your lungs right there and then.
6. Inhale as you rise up, bringing your torso back to the center starting position, and lifting tall
through the spine, accompanied by the arms in the same swift motion, which will once again
reach out from the shoulders to the sides of the body, where they will be ready to repeat the same
sequence on the left side.
7. Repeat for a total six sets (right and left make one set).
Single-Leg Kick
The Single-Leg Kick strengthens the muscles of the back and the glutes, inner thighs, and abdominals
and teaches you more than most exercises about how to defy gravity. It gives the abdominals and the
spine a chance to stretch in extension (as opposed to the flexion, which is what you’ve been doing a
great deal of in all the exercises preceding this one).
1. Lying on your stomach, legs lengthening down behind you, press your body up so that you come
into a sphinx position, with your fists extended, forearms flat on the floor in front of you, and the
elbow points directly under your shoulders.
2. Draw your shoulders down and back away from your ears, and almost feel as though you are