3 Quick & Effective Yoga Workouts

It's Day 3 of the 2013 30-Day Challenges and so far I've been successful at getting into bed by 10 p.m. (although I can't actually fall asleep for awhile) and doing at least 30 minutes of yoga a day.  The yoga is the part I'm most excited about right now...Maybe that'll change once I can actually start falling asleep at 10:00!  But the yoga has been very invigorating and yet, calming...and it's only day 3!

I've been breaking up the yoga into 2-a-day segments of 15 minutes or more each.  That way I can do a.m. and p.m. segments.  So I thought I'd pass along the yoga routines that I've found.  If I can do them, so can you because I'm about as far from a yogi as a park ranger (bad joke)...

The a.m. sequence I've been doing when I first get out of bed is courtesy of MindBodyGreen, which by the way, is one of the most informative and useful websites I've found for everything from recipes to workouts to spirituality.  It's a 10-15 minute yoga sequence that is perfect for waking up your body first thing in the morning.  My dog Addie likes to do her downward dog and cobra poses while I'm doing my morning yoga...

Opening bend for MindBodyGreen's Good Morning Yoga Sequence...this feels soooo good... 

I also found another yoga sequence from MindBodyGreen called a Pick Me Up Sequence that I did the other nite...And pick me up it did!  This sequence is a bit more challenging than the Good Morning sequence, but it gives me a goal to work toward! There's one pose in this that I didn't even attempt because I'm not that advanced:

Someday I'll get there...

My final recommendation is a DVD that I recommended in my 2012 A-Z Holiday Gift Guide:  Yoga for Athletes.  I've owned this for several years and love it because it breaks the yoga workouts into different sports:  from golf, to swimming, to running, to cycling.  In addition, within each sport there are several workouts to choose from in varying lengths that focus on different body parts or experience levels.  So you can really mix and match your yoga workout.

On day 3 of my 30-day challenges, I'm realizing the "fluff" that's usually in my life.  To get everything done during the day - do a 15-minute yoga workout in the morning, a regular workout, another 15-minute yoga workout, walk the dog 3 times a day, go to work, do everything in between, and get to bed by 10:00 - all makes me cut to the chase and be more focused on what I need to accomplish for the day.  Instead of watching t.v. while I eat dinner, I'm writing this blog...multi-tasking.  So it's making me more efficient.  Who knew by trying to cram more into my day I'd actually become more efficient at everything?

Do you have any yoga recommendations? 
If you're doing a 30-day challenge, how's it going?