Love it or hate it, winter changes things. Less light and short days take a toll on your body and mind, robbing you of energy and that can-do spirit, and pointing you toward the fridge where momentary lack of resolve can come back to haunt you next spring.

It’s the kapha season, says yogi raj Alan Finger, founder of ISHTA yoga, referring to one of the three doshas, or metabolic influences, in Ayurvedic medicine. “In winter, our kapha rises, which means an increase in mucous and internal fluids, so we feel sluggish, gain weight, and are more susceptible to colds,” he says. Science backs him up: A University of Texas study finds the average American gains 8 pounds between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, and keeps a whopping 5 of them. 

Fortunately, the right yoga practice can do for your mind and body what snow tires and four-wheel drive do for your car. YogaLife asked three yoga teachers for poses to combat the biggest seasonal complaints: fatigue, weight gain, and lack of motivation. Sara Ivanhoe, a yoga instructor at Yoga Works in Santa Monica, recommends practicing “winter yoga” in the morning. “You’ll energize your day and enjoy the sunlight, which you’ll miss if you save it for after work,” she says. Do the sequences alone or before your regular session, or combine them for a bracing winter survival workout.

Fight Fatigue

“In winter the tendency on the mat is to take short shallow breaths when you’re stressed or cold—and that will exhaust you even more,” Finger says. The following poses are intentionally effortless, allowing you to focus on deep breathing, which combats stress and sluggishness.

Child’s pose to Bali Seal
Stimulates the abdominal area, revving the digestive system and releasing stored fuel

Move into Child's pose and place forehead on floor, clasping hands behind back. Next, stack your hands on your lower back and, keeping lower legs on floor, rise to kneeling.  Sit back on heels and unclasp hands. Swing them around and up, placing palms together overhead. Gaze at your thumbs and hold for three breaths. Release hands and repeat.

Burn Fat

Challenging large muscle groups is the key to keeping your sleek physique all season, says Charles Matkin, director of the Satsang Yoga Center in Garrison, New York, and cocreator of the Healing Yoga DVD series: “These asanas will burn more calories than those using small muscle groups.”  Hold this pose for 3 full minutes after you feel the burn, and then rest for a few breaths before moving to next exercise.

Awkward Chair
Challenges and tones your core as well as your whole lower body

Step forward out of lunge and bring feet together so ankles touch. Bend knees about 90 degrees, and rise onto the balls of feet. Extend arms straight in front of shoulders, for balance. Squeeze knees and “sit” toward heels. Hold for as many breaths as possible and release.

Put Mind Over Body

Mastering these inversions and backbends is simultaneously challenging and humbling. “Making progress in these poses is more of a confidence-builder than mastering your run-of-the-mill mat work,” Sara Ivanhoe says. Hold this pose for 10 breaths.

Forearm Balance
Improves technique, strength, and patience

Stand at arm’s length from the wall. Walk hands down wall and move into Downward-Facing Dog position with fingertips 6 inches from wall.
Lower forearms and palms to floor, squeezing elbows in so they are directly in line with wrists. Bring body forward to shift weight onto forearms, engaging biceps. (Press forearms away from floor. Don't collapse in the shoulder joints or bury entire body weight into the wrists. Knuckles should not be white.) Walk feet toward hands until you are in full Dolphin pose. Your neck is relaxed and eyes looking forward, beyond fingertips.

Advanced practitioners: Use your core to draw legs together, joining knees to ankles, raising legs 90 then 180 degrees so the body reaches a complete inversion.
Beginners: Use a donkey kick. On an inhale kick right leg up and overhead until it gently rests on wall. Follow with left leg. When you have achieved full pose, take one heel and then the other off wall to practice balance without support.

For more winter tune-up poses, check out the new issue of YogaLife magazine, on newsstands now.