Yoga doesn’t have to be intimidating with complex poses like headstands or pretzel shapes. It can be simple, accessible, and still deliver effective results.

In her latest book, “Yoga Fix: Functional Movement for a Pain-Free Body” (DK Red, Jan. 21), Erin Motz presents achievable exercises to alleviate the common discomforts of middle age. These movements aim to help individuals carry out daily tasks and favorite pastimes more comfortably.

Erin Motz, known for her popular “Bad Yogi” YouTube channel with over 150,000 followers, emphasizes that flexibility to extreme levels is not necessary. Instead, she advocates for maintaining a healthy range of motion that enables basic movements such as squatting, bending, reaching, rotating, pushing, and pulling.

Here, she shares some exercises.

Help your sciatica

Child’s pose

Let your torso fall between your knees, stretching arms gently forward while keeping your butt down. Let your upper body get heavy. Hold for 1 minute

Z-sits

Start with both knees resting on the floor, making 90-degree angles on the same side of the body. Hold for 30-45 seconds. Then, in a controlled motion with heels resting on the floor, bring both knees to the floor on the other side; hold again. Repeat 4 times.

Untangle your shoulder knots

T-spine tabletop rotations

Start on your hands and knees with your back straight and your head in line with your neck. Leading with the sternum, not the elbow, twist up as far as you can comfortably go. Repeat 10 times on each side.

Supine twists

Lie down and bring your knees over your hips, then let them fall to the side. Keep head and chest facing up and open your opposite arm. Hold for 30 seconds and switch sides.

Locust arm raises

From a prone position, reach arms overhead in a “Y” shape, keeping your lower body on the ground. Exhale and lift the torso, reaching your thumbs upward while legs and feet remain on the ground. Inhale and return to start. Repeat 10 times.

Strengthen your core to increase stability and movement efficiency

Diaphragmatic breath

Lie down on your back with knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Let your belly rise on the inhale, and visualize filling your lungs and sending the breath in all directions. You want to feel the breath fill you from the bottom of your belly up to your ribs and even around the back. As you exhale, your belly falls and the ribs come back into a neutral position. Repeat several times

Dead bugs

Begin in a tabletop position on your back with your knees aligned over your pelvis and hands at your sides. Inhale and extend your right arm and left leg away from you. Exhale and bring them back to your starting position. Repeat on the other side. Do 10 times per side.

Sphinx to plank rollups

Start in a sphinx position with your elbows under your shoulders, your chest and crown of the head gently reaching up, and your eyes looking straight ahead. As you exhale, pull your belly and hips away from the floor so you’re on your knees, as in a modified plank. Then draw your knees up slowly until you’re in a forearm plank. Retrace your steps by dropping the knees first, then the hips, then the belly, and return to sphinx. Repeat 8 times.

Plank

Hold a plank for 30 to 60 seconds, keeping your spine neutral and hips in line with shoulders.

Excerpted and adapted from “The Yoga Fix: Functional Movement for a Pain-Free Body” by Erin Motz. Image Copyright © 2024 by David Cummings. Reproduced by permission of DK Books.