Mornings just aren’t my thing. Mess with me before 10 a.m., and you’ll be sorry.

Maybe it’s that I’m not getting enough sleep or my refusal to start drinking coffee. Whatever the cause, waking up is quite the struggle, and I’ve been searching for a morning pick-me-up that works.

Last month, I noticed that I had more energy after doing a set of morning stretches.

"When you’ve been lying down over the evening … your blood pressure is very low because you’ve been sleeping and lying flat," said Ashley Jenkins, a Columbia yoga instructor. "Everything’s kind of been resting, and you’ve got … stagnant air or toxins in the tissue." By moving and stretching your body, you release all that and get the blood flowing.

Sun salutations, a series of 12 poses that warm the body, are a good set to do in the morning, said Dayna Macy, communications director for Yoga Journal magazine. The poses involve bends and stretches that strengthen the spine and warm up the body.

"If you do this repeatedly, it’s very energizing. It’s heat-producing. It’s moving," Macy said.

Generally, exercising in the morning helps wake up the body, but yoga poses can be catered to give us more energy than a morning walk or run.

"If you were to do yoga instead of running or walking, you’re keeping that heat internal by doing yoga breathing," Jenkins said. "Then you’re picking whatever poses that you personally respond to get your optimum results."

No matter the time of day, stretching - with yoga poses or classic stretches - is always a good idea. The body tightens as it ages, and stretching helps counteract that.

"Based upon whatever our daily impact is on the body, we can cause our muscles to shorten or fall out of strength, so by doing a regular practice of yoga, you’re going to" counteract that, Jenkins said.

Before you start practicing yoga or doing morning stretches, ask your doctor about any existing conditions that could be irritated by certain poses.

Some Web sites to check out:

● Www.abc-of-yoga.com has a good animation of how to do the sun salutation sequence. Type "sun salutation" into the search box.

● Www.yogajournal.com offers explanations of poses and a tool to help you create your own yoga sequence.

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