3 Best Yoga Poses for a Hangover

June 4th, 2015 • BY

cow pose yoga for hangiver
Get your blood flowing again with a gentle Cat-Cow pose.

When you’re feeling the pain from a bacchanalian evening on the town physical movement might be the last thing that comes to mind for relief from that hangover. But rolling out your yoga mat just might do you more good than that Advil or a nip of the hair of the dog.

Here are three simple, relaxing yoga poses that will assist in the recovery process and speed healing, from Child’s Pose to Cow Pose.

Oh, and you could also heed this tough love hangover healing advice from Outlaw Yoga founder Justin Kaliszewskirink, who will be headlining the Steamboat Movement Festival next month. “Drink two raw eggs blended with a half cup orange juice and two heaping tablespoons of honey,” says Kaliszewskirink, whose brand of yoga focuses on accessibility to all types of people. “When you can manage it, go take a hot yoga class…suffer through most of it and afterwards drink as many coconut waters as you can keep down.”

Cat + Cow Pose

When you’ve got a hangover, moving may seem truly unappealing, but it will ultimately activate your cardiovascular system and blood flow, a process that helps your body heal and restore itself. Start with an easy Cat-Cow pose—a simple and gentle movement that will flush out your system and activate your system again.

Child’s Pose (Balasana)

Keep things simple and relaxing with this yoga pose that allows you to close your eyes and delivers gentle compressions that stimulates the lymph, one of the body’s main methods for removing metabolic waste, such as alcohol. Be kind to yourself and relax in this healing pose with your head resting on stacked hands, a block, or a blanket.

Corpse Pose (Savasana)

Give your body the rest and focus it needs with a healing round of Savasana. For added relief from that headache and/or stiff neck you’re likely feeling, place a block under your head. Close your eyes and sink into the floor. Roll your head from side to side on the block for a gentle massage.

Erinn Morgan

About

After a 10-year career as an award-winning New York City-based editor launching and redesigning urban, style-driven magazines, Erinn Morgan left her downtown Manhattan digs after September 11th, 2001, in search of a less encumbered, freelance lifestyle. A life-changing, two-year-long trek around the country in a motorhome eventually landed her in Durango, Colo., which she now calls home. Her writing has appeared in numerous— More about this author →