I went to a Bikram class one time and the teacher yelled at a young 20-ish guy that his backbend pose sucked because of video games. “You can’t do too many backbends,” she said. You gotta love the sargeant approach to teaching yoga hey? But regardless of her delivery, her message was bang-on. Our culture is designed to keep us sitting for as long as possible, whether it’s in the car, on the couch, at a desk working or playing we need a good backbend as often as possible.

But sometimes you don’t have the time to warm up for, or the energy to do, a Bow or Camel pose, you need some easy options too. Here are three:

- Kneel down into Hero pose. Put your hands on the floor behind your hips, fingers pointing toward your hips. Let you head relax back as you lift your chest toward the ceiling and your hips away from your ankles. My arms are a little short so I feel this mostly in my shoulders, if this is true for you too, try making fists or tent your fingers if they’re strong enough so that you can get more height in your hips. This will move more of the stretch into the front of your body. Stay for 3-5 breaths.

- Here’s a variation on the first - sit with legs straight, place your hands on floor behind your hips, fingers pointing toward your hips. Let your head relax back, puff your chest up. Lift your lower ribs away from your hip bones. If you feel more energetic, bend your knees them over your ankles for Reverse Tabletop. Keep working the lift in your hips, keep head relaxed.

- When you’re ready to relax try this one, it’s kind of a gentle supported Fish pose for your back - lie back with legs straight or in Reclined Bound Angle. Grab the cushion from your couch, because it’s usually the shape that will fit perfectly under your upper torso. For this one your shoulders and head are not supported so that they can relax toward the floor. Arms are away from your body, you might want to try a palms-up T-pose resting on the floor. The cushion supports your upper back to open your chest and stretch the front of your shoulders. Make any adjustments needed to make it more comfortable. Stay here for 5-10 minutes.

Even if you’re doing a few minute of morning yoga to get warmed up for your day, try to work in some easy backbending poses. These poses help work against the sitting ’slump-asanas’ that we find ourselves in the rest of the day, and make you feel more energized and positive.