This morning I was researching a fast yoga workout when I came across the Five Tibetan Rites. These exercises supposedly came from a retired British Army Colonel who was stationed in Tibet, and written up in the book "The Eye of Revelation" by Peter Kelder in 1939. Apparently the colonel stayed at a monastery populated by extremely long-lived monks who practiced these exercises every day.

Although the origins sound quite dodgy, apparently the exercises have been verified as a form of Tibetan Yoga. The key point for me is that the exercises can be done in 10 minutes a day.

There are 5 exercises:

1. The first is extremely lame and is essentially spinning around with your arms outstretched, turning from left to right. Lame. Ignore.

2. The second exercise is leg raises, while raising the head to the chest at the same time. Good core strength workout.

3. The third exercise seems to be stretching forward from a kneeling position to child's pose, and then back to a seated back bend.

4. The fourth exercise goes from seated staff pose, and then pushing up to bridge pose.

5. The fifth exercise goes from downward dog to cobra pose.

Apart from the first exercise, which seems quite silly and pointless, these sound like a great set of exercises for a quick workout routine.

Here are some links to THT demos on youtube:

• Sarah Kline demoing
• Maryse Moerel demoing