Welcome yogi to this chair yoga practice for stability.
In this practice,
We'll stretch and move the entire body,
But in our standing postures,
We're going to add a little bit of movement to help build up strength and stability when we're standing.
You don't need any props for this practice other than a sturdy chair.
If you have a yoga mat,
You can use that too.
But we're going to start sitting.
Upright away from the back of your chair.
Just give your shoulders a little lift up towards your ears,
Perhaps close your eyes.
Breathe in.
And then just drop your shoulders down.
Give him a little wiggle.
Adjust your posture so that you feel balanced front and back.
And side to side.
And let's just arrive here on our chairs today.
With three slow steady breaths.
Breathe in through your nose if you can.
Fill up the belly,
Then the ribs,
And then the chest.
And exhale through your nose,
From your chest,
From your ribs and from your belly.
Two more of those please,
Yogi.
Slow and steady breath in,
Feeling yourself expand out to the front and the sides.
And slowly out.
Feel your shoulders soften.
One more.
Take your time.
And out.
So we'll try to breathe through the nose as much as possible as we practice.
We'll start by looking to the right side.
Just turning your head straight to the right and linger here for a moment.
Keep breathing slowly and steadily.
Turn your head forwards,
Breathe in deeply,
And try looking to the left.
We're just taking our time,
So if it takes you a few moments to ease into it,
That's okay.
If you feel yourself tense up when you encounter some stiffness or pain,
Keep softening your shoulders.
And relaxing towards it,
Turn your head forwards.
Let's just have another go looking to the right,
Nice and easy.
We're going to begin by moving the torso in our seated poses.
Checking in with everything before we stand up.
And turn your head towards the center.
Still with good posture through your neck and shoulders,
You'll look to the left one more time.
Wonderful.
Turn your head forward.
We'll bring the chin down towards the chest.
And roll your head around to the right side,
So moving your turn around to the collarbone and eventually.
.
.
Right ear towards right shoulder.
And back down towards the centre.
And then around to the left around.
Turn towards the collarbone a bit and then left ear eventually to the shoulder so you have a lateral stretch.
For the right side of your neck.
And then back down towards the middle.
And go around to the right another time.
And back down to the centre.
Just being really kind to your neck and shoulders.
And around to the left Not trying to force anything.
Or judge anything the two encounter.
Just gently moving.
We'll inhale,
A little bit more movement now into the spine.
Continue to inhale,
Lift your chest,
Pull your elbows back like your goalpost shape or cactus shape.
As you exhale,
Bring your elbows to your knees.
Your hands can come to prayer position.
You might want to widen your feet a tiny bit if they were close.
We're going to go between those two positions.
Inhale,
Pull the elbows back.
If your shoulders have any tightness in them,
You might want to be lower in your elbows.
Open up.
And prayer position,
Lean forwards,
Elbows to knees.
Exhale all the breath.
Inhale,
Open this cactus.
And exhale,
Elbows to knees.
Another big breath in and out to open.
And exhale.
Elbows to knees.
So you feel,
If you've done seated cat cows before,
Some of that cat count coming to the spine here.
Last one for now.
Opening up,
Finding a bit of an arch,
Chin and chest lift.
Strengthening your upper back and then a soft round as you lean forward to elbows to knees.
This is a really lovely place to hold if you have some low back tightness or restriction,
If you feel like this is okay.
You can remain here.
And if you want to go a little bit deeper,
You can walk your hands down to the floor.
Or on two feet.
If reaching down towards the floor there.
Is a step too far,
Either pop your elbows back on your knees or press pause and grab a book or yoga block to put your hands on.
Or just take a couple of deep breaths here down towards your lower back area.
Filling your back body with your inhales.
And seeing if your exhales could almost carry away.
Some of the tightness and tension you might sometimes experience in your back.
Now if you did bring your hands down to the floor.
Climb your elbows back up onto your knees.
And all the way up,
Hands to knees.
Help yourself up to sitting.
Wiggle your feet back in to about your hips distance apart.
Please cross your right leg over your left.
Now you can cross at your ankle height,
Or if possible,
Cross at the knees you choose.
Sit up tall,
Roll your shoulders down away from your ears.
And we're going to take a twist to the left today.
So you often will twist into the knee today.
We're twisting.
Away from it.
So right hand inside of the right knee,
Left hand to the chair behind you and start to rotate.
Especially as you exhale,
It's a little easier to twist and look back past your left shoulder.
Taking a couple of breaths here,
Noticing where your breath can or perhaps can't go.
While you are in this rotated position.
And we'll unwind,
Turn towards the knees,
And let's just lean out over them.
Hold on to the knee or down the shins a little bit and bring a little bit of compression into the front body,
Letting the abdomen and the thighs get really close.
And we'll sit back up again.
Right hand to the inner knee another time.
Back the way we just were.
Twisting to the left,
Looking back over the left shoulder.
And turning forwards.
Hands to the knees or the shins.
Inhale to sit tall.
Exhale to lean forward.
You can slide your hands down a bit if that feels interesting.
Now we'll sit up.
And undo your leg.
Same thing coming up on the other side.
Take your left foot.
And either cross your left ankle over your right one or cross your left knee over your right.
We'll sit up,
Left hand to the inner knee,
Right hand to the chair.
And on your exhale,
Start to rotate and look past your right shoulder.
Notice if you're tensing your shoulders up towards your ears and if you are,
Use your next exhale to try and soften that,
Even if it's just like 2% more relaxed.
And turn forwards,
Inhale.
Holding onto the knees or lower,
Start to lean forward.
This is.
.
.
A lovely way to help loosen up.
Into low back again.
And to send the breath into the back of your body,
Which can really help to move some of that tightness and tension.
Come up.
Back into rotation to the right.
You can use your left hand on the inner knee.
And your right hand on the chair to stabilize.
And look back.
And turn forwards.
And lean forward.
Maybe your hands go a little lower if that feels good.
Come up in house.
Under the legs.
And this time.
.
.
The right leg's going to go over the left again.
Now you can choose how we just did with either the ankle,
Right ankle over left.
The right knee over the left or if you can and if you like to,
Right ankle onto left knee.
So the main thing is to avoid any pain in the hip or the knee and to not be forcing anything.
So if you just feel like this is too tense,
Too tight,
Please do enjoy exploring the other options too,
So that you can breathe and enjoy your practice.
We can sit up again and do the same movement.
So depending on where your leg is,
Depends on where your hands go.
If you've got ankle to knee,
Right hand to right foot this time.
Just do your best with this,
It's a little awkward.
Turn to the left.
Use the chair behind you as well.
Turning to the left and looking back.
Now if you've got your knees crossed,
Your hand is on your knee just like it was a moment ago.
And we'll turn forwards and lean forwards again,
Keeping a feeling of lift up through the chest rather than rounding down.
Lead with your sternum past your shin,
Almost straight towards the front of the space.
And really focus on stretching the hip rather than your back,
So you're keeping your back really neutral.
Another deep breath.
And out.
I'll come up again into that slightly awkward figure four twist.
Right hand to right foot,
Turn to the left as best you can.
And look back as far as you can.
Check in with the quality of your breathing here.
If you discover that you're tensing your shoulders up,
Can you give it a little bit of softness,
At least down?
The left shoulder is pulling back towards the spine,
So the muscles are there.
But we're not hiking the shoulders up towards the ears if we can help it.
And turn forward.
Well done,
Yogi.
Deep breath in,
Sit you tall.
Exhale,
Lean forth.
If you have your ankle on your knee,
You can add a little foot stretch in here for the last couple of breaths where you weave your fingers in between all of your toes.
So the little finger goes in between the little toe and the next one and it just works their way up.
And you can give your foot a little bit of a stretch here.
If your legs are crossed,
You might be able to do a couple by reaching one hand down.
You might be able to do all of them.
I can never figure it out from above.
It's a little more tricky.
Just an option.
All right,
Release your toes if you did stretch them out a bit.
Release the ankle or the leg.
Come back to neutral.
Second side,
Final round of twist here.
Left ankle,
If you can,
Onto your right knee.
If this feels a little bit too tense for the hip or the knee,
You can always cross at the knee or at the ankle.
Sit up,
Breathe in.
Exhale,
Left hand to left foot.
Right hand to the chair behind you.
And start to turn.
Looking back,
And we're always,
If we can,
Trying to use our strength to turn strength of the torso rather than really pulling aggressively on the arms.
We're not trying to sort of really crank on the spine.
It's generally twisting.
Turn forward.
Maintaining length in the spine,
Lean forward.
Lead with the centre of the chest past your shin or past your knees if you've got your legs crossed.
Let's twist again.
Sit up,
Left hand,
Left foot,
Or to the knee if you've got your legs crossed lower.
Turn to the right.
Look back.
Undo,
Into your hip stretch,
Lean forwards.
Settle in and then decide if you would like to keep your hands as they are,
Just resting lightly.
On the legs and the foot or the leg and the foot,
Or if you want to weave.
Your right hand into your left house,
You can do.
Release your toes.
Release your foot.
And if you want to just switch the legs for a moment,
Side to side.
Before we continue,
Shimmy your bum.
About the middle of a chair,
Feet a little bit wider than your hips,
Breathe in,
Lean forward to elbows to knees.
This side if you'd like to stay here.
Feel free,
If you want to,
To bring the hands to the floor.
Three deep breaths here,
Please,
Yogi.
Rise with intention,
A little lift of navel,
Strong core,
Elbows to knees.
Hamster knees.
Help yourself up.
Wiggle your feet back in.
Sit back a little on the chair so that the chair is very much underneath you.
If you end up coming back down here,
We're going to stand up nice and strong.
So think about the position of your feet.
Look ahead,
Perhaps just at the floor,
Six to ten feet in front of you,
Hands at breath.
Drive down through the feet.
Inhale,
Stand up.
Strong legs.
Circle your arms out.
Turn your palms out.
Reach out a big stretch to the ceiling.
As you exhale,
Right into your side,
Left hand over the top of you into a side body stretch.
Inhale,
Take your right hand back up.
Exhale your left hand down and right one over the top.
Inhale,
Both hands up.
Next,
I'll bring the hands down in front of you.
I recommend just a quick glance down,
Make sure your chair is right behind your knees where you think it will be.
You can always reach down with a hand if you need to.
And we're going to sit with control back into the chair.
Breathe in.
And begin to sit down,
We're going to land on one.
So five,
Slowly descending.
Four,
Doing your best.
If you have to come down sooner,
That's fine.
Three.
2.
One,
Land really nice and light,
Really strong legs.
Shimmy back on your chair so that your back actually reaches the back.
Take your hands to cradle the head if you can.
And lean back onto your chair.
And get a bit of a front body stretch here.
Be really cautious.
There should be no pain.
Holding for five.
Now,
If you're holding your breath,
It's likely you've gone too fast,
So back out a bit.
Four.
Three.
Head supported by your hands,
Two.
One,
Chin tucks the chest,
Come up.
Bring the arms out away from your chair.
Squeeze your forearms together.
Stretch between the shoulder blades.
Bring your hands into prayer.
Sit up tall,
And this is a little bit of a neck release.
You can send your chin straight forward.
And pull it back,
Straight back.
So you're trying to keep your chin sort of parallel to the floor.
Go forward.
Um bye One more time.
Chin forward.
Pull it back,
Back,
Back,
Back,
Back,
Whole five.
4,
Breathe,
3,
2,
1.
Relax neutral,
Prepare to stand.
On your in-breath,
As strong,
Stand forward.
Fix your gaze.
Think about stability when you're standing.
Come up,
Stabilize.
Arms down,
Turn your palms out.
Circle up.
Right hand down,
Left over the top again.
Side stretch.
Moving fluidly,
Yogi.
Inhale,
Right hand up.
Left hand down,
Right over.
Inhale,
Back up.
Hands down to breath.
Just check again your chair is exactly where you think it is.
Slow it down,
If you can,
To five.
So working on that stability and strength,
Start to lower for five.
Four.
Three,
Two.
Land nice and light if you can.
One.
Sit back,
Back,
Back,
Back,
Back onto the chair,
Hands cradle ahead,
Just so that we don't give the neck anything to worry about here.
If it feels safe,
Lean back a little onto your chair,
Stretching out your front,
A hint of a back bend.
Keep your breath even.
If it starts to stutter,
Back out.
If this doesn't feel safe,
Sit up just for a moment.
We won't be here long.
And back up to neutral.
Make sure you feel good.
Get away from the back of your chair and squeeze your forearms together,
Chin towards your chest.
Hands to your prayer position in front of your heart.
Again,
The chin goes forwards,
Slide it out there,
Then pull it straight back as far as you can comfortably.
And fold.
And back,
Focusing on that backwards pull more than the forwards push.
One more time.
Forwards.
Draw it back and linger there for five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One.
One neutral.
One more round of that,
Please,
Yogi.
Prepare to stand.
On you in breath.
Confident,
Purposeful standing.
Come on up and stabilize.
Squeeze the glutes,
Squeeze the quads,
A little bit of core.
Circling your arms out and up.
Right hand down,
Left over.
Inhale up.
And the other side.
In hello.
Hands to breath.
You've got controlled descent coming.
Check your chairs ready for you.
Feet about hips distance.
Begin to descend for five.
Four.
3.
3.
Three.
Hang with me,
Three.
Okay,
We can carry on,
Two,
Three.
And one That's Jeff.
Sit back onto it.
Clasp your hands.
Hold your head.
Don't,
Sorry,
Clasp your hands.
Take your fingertips to the back of the head,
Sorry,
Or sides.
Lean back.
Only if it feels safe.
This can be tricky for some and feels wonderful for others.
So really listen to yourself in your practice.
You are always in control,
Yogi.
You choose what works for you and skip those movements that don't feel beneficial to you.
Bring the torso upright away from the chair,
Squeeze your forearms together.
Bring your hands to prayer.
Relax your shoulders.
Forwards a little with the chin.
Next time you do this when you're driving,
Do this reset.
Pull your chin back a little bit.
Maybe not as far when you're driving,
But definitely resetting forwards.
Pull it back.
One more time.
Forward.
And pull the chain back.
Holding with the chin back for four.
3 Relax.
Before we get up and take some more standing poses,
Let's just take a little pause.
And another side body stretch.
This actually is really nice for the low back if you have any stiffness or discomfort around your low back area.
Sit forwards a little on your chair so you're not all the way back.
Shimmy forwards and set your feet a little wider so they're turned out.
Turn towards your left knee here.
Left hand goes up to the ceiling while you're facing the left knee.
Lift your shoulder blade up,
So it's reducing any tightness there and bring your right elbow to your right knee.
Lean over the top with the left hand,
So your left hand is trying to point somewhat in the direction your right toes are going in.
And also a little light pressure of right forearm into the inner knee.
To help us keep orientated,
The chest open rather than turned to the floor.
If this feels like it's trapping your shoulder,
You can always put your hand on your heart on your chest instead of reaching it over the top of you.
Bend your elbow to help yourself up first,
Come all the way up,
Turn towards the right knee.
And we'll let the hands rest on the right knee as we lean forward.
You can stay with your hands resting here on the knee.
You might like to put your hands.
Onto the floor.
If your hands don't reach the floor and you're hovering,
Bring them back onto the knee.
So we're looking for a sense of stability and safety in the body again.
And we'll sit up,
Continue to face the right knee here.
Send your right hand forwards and up,
Elevate the shoulder blade,
Lift it up as the hand lifts up.
And left elbow comes onto the left thigh.
Reach your right hand the way that your left foot is pointing or somewhere in that direction.
It's like you're almost trying to turn both of your collarbones up to the ceiling rather than to the floor.
And a reminder,
If your shoulder feels like it doesn't want to do this,
It can't reach up,
It's sort of out or feels like it wants to trap,
Put your hand onto your chest.
And lean with the hand there.
To come out,
Bend your elbow,
Bring it down.
Help yourself up.
Turn towards the left knee.
Take a breath.
And hands on the knee,
We start to lean directly towards that left knee.
If it's a comfortable reach for you,
You can put your hands on the floor.
A reminder,
If reaching down creates A dangling position for the arms.
Please do bring the hands back onto the knee and enjoy the support there.
And we'll sit up using the hands to help us.
Climb your hands up,
Sit yourself up,
Wiggle your feet back in.
Check in,
See how you're feeling,
Yogi.
If there's a lot of fatigue in your body,
You're just ready to rest.
You're welcome to sit back.
If you're ready for some standing poses,
Let's come on up again to standing.
And we're going to put the chair in front of us with the chair back within reach.
So pop your chair near the front of your mat.
I'm going to pop sideways here so you can see me easier.
So the chair is in front of you,
Chair top within reach.
Let's start by warming up the feet and ankles.
With the fingertips on the chair,
Rise up your heels.
And lower down.
You can do this perhaps with your breath.
Inhale,
Lift your heels.
Squeeze the calf muscles.
And exhale,
Lower down.
Lift up the heels.
And lower down.
Let's just go for two more.
Heels up.
And down.
Heels up.
Heels down.
All right,
Step your right foot back.
Told you a lie.
Step both feet back.
That was my left foot for a start.
We'll come with both feet back.
That's better.
And into downward facing dog.
If your shoulders don't like the lift here when you've got your hands on the top of a chair,
You can pop your hands on the seat of a chair and have a bit more of a bend at the shoulder.
Which can feel better for some people,
Especially if your shoulders have pain.
Any injury in them previously,
Any tightness,
Any catching.
Sometimes it's the neck that prefers it.
So hands on the chair,
Seat or chair top,
Hips pulling back,
Our version of downward facing dog for chair yoga.
Now we'll lift the chest enough.
Walk your hands up to the top of a chair if you had it on the seat of a chair.
We'll step the right foot forward.
That's better.
That's where I intended to be.
Step your left foot into warrior one position.
So that's left foot turned to about 11 on a clock and the right foot going straight ahead of you.
I'm going to bend the right knee.
Now if you feel some instability,
We're looking first and foremost for safety in our practice.
So you can keep your hands on your chair or a hand on the chair and work with just the left arm movements.
So you would keep your right hand on the chair in this round.
If you're like,
Okay,
I feel good about the legs,
Really firm through all four corners of both feet.
Think about a little pull up through the pelvic floor,
Front of the belly up.
And we can bring the hands to preposition.
So like I say,
You can keep your right hand on the chair if you want to.
We're going to do a little bit of breath and movement here.
So when you inhale,
Straighten out your front knee.
Front leg,
Right leg straight.
Exhale,
Bend the knee.
So this is working for stability.
Inhale,
Pull the elbows back like a cactus tree or like a goalpost.
Exhale,
Lean forwards and if you can,
Reach your hands forwards.
You can always hold onto the chair if you need to.
Linger here.
Inhale,
Pull the elbows back again.
Exhale,
Hands to heart.
Two more rounds of that.
Inhale,
Straighten the right leg out.
Exhale,
Bend.
Strengthening your shoulder blades and working your balance,
Pull the elbows back,
Inhale.
Lean forwards and reach,
Exhale.
Pull the elbows back and upright,
Looking forwards if you can.
Hands to breath.
It's really important to keep your eyes open while you're moving in your balance,
Yogis.
Inhale,
Straighten out your right leg.
Exhale,
Bend.
Strengthen your upper back and posture.
Squeeze your elbows back.
Lean forwards and reach.
Elbows pull back,
Upright in the torso,
Maintaining balance.
Hands to press.
Straighten out the right leg.
I know I said one more round,
But this one we're going to give a little extra time to,
A little extra hold.
If your right foot's getting tired,
Put your right hand on the chair and just give your right foot a little wiggle.
Alright,
Now we're going to pop the toes back down,
Bend the knee,
Just like we did.
Open the elbows.
Now choices,
Yogis,
We're going for a five count hold in that lean.
So if you're starting to feel some fatigue,
That's okay.
You could try bringing your hands to prayer and lean forwards.
You could hang onto the chair and lean forwards.
If you feel like it,
You could stretch your hands forwards and we'll count for five.
Check in with your breath.
Let that be your strength.
Inhale and exhale forth.
Really strong legs here,
Yogis.
If you need to come out sooner,
That's fine.
Three.
Same.
Oh my goodness.
And one,
Push through that front foot,
Help yourself up,
Pull the elbows back.
And hands.
To heart.
Well done.
I'm going to stretch out the right leg and bring both hands to the top of the chair.
Just a pyramid pose for a moment.
A few lovely welcome breaths.
Lean forwards and tilt from your pelvis.
So the whole pelvis tilts.
So rather than keeping your pelvis static and rounding your back,
Tilt from your pelvis,
Either hands on the chair Forearms on the chair top.
Perhaps hands on the chest seat.
Maybe lower,
But prioritize keeping a lift of the tailbone.
And Resisting over rounding the back,
It can be tempting to round to feel like we're going lower.
But rather than rounding.
You can use this pose as we're stretching the back of a right leg or the left calf.
You could also use this as a chance to strengthen your posture.
So instead of rounding forwards,
You gently pull the back of your head almost up to the ceiling or depending if you're a little higher maybe to where the ceiling and the wall meet behind you so you're really lifting through the the back of the skull.
Strengthening your neck.
Bend the front knee a little bit.
Bring the hands to the top of the chair.
Help yourself up.
We're going to turn sideways,
So turn to your left,
All 10 toes facing the long side of your mat.
We'll step the left foot up to the right.
And for a moment,
Just give your right foot a twirl around.
Circle.
Standing on your left foot,
You've got the chair under your right hand for balance.
Circle your right foot around.
And go the other way too.
Okay,
We're going to pop right foot down.
Really feel into the four corners of your right foot.
Again,
Now working stability and now into your balance on one foot.
With the chair there for support,
Left foot into tree pose.
This can be with the toes on the ground or the foot on your calf.
In tree,
Your knee opens out to the side,
So it's a bit of a hip strengthener too.
And this right hip,
Excuse me,
Might want to jut to the side.
You're going to,
If you can,
Pull it back towards center and stand up tall.
Taking a few breaths here,
You can float with the idea of taking.
Maybe just one finger on the chair,
Maybe your fingernail.
If you feel comfortable and safe and stable,
You can have your hands at prayer.
What you need today,
What kind of support.
Keeping your eyes open again is important for your balance,
Really helps,
And stable and on one spot.
Alright,
Staying in this right foot,
Take your hand to the chair.
For this even if you don't usually need it.
This is not a traditional yoga pose.
It's one that I call falling mime because they kind of fall dramatically.
Send your left foot out to the side and left hand up and then start to lean towards your chair.
All right.
So we don't usually balance wonkily sideways.
Perhaps you get lighter in that right hand.
We'll hold for four.
You could feel like a star,
Right?
Serene,
Just getting as big as possible.
Two and one.
Come on out.
Put your left foot on the floor.
Let's give the right foot a rest.
Twirl it around again.
And we'll go the other way.
And let's do that again.
Right foot onto the floor.
Left foot into tree pose.
Again,
Toes can be on the ground.
This is a beautiful tree.
Foot on the calf is also a wonderful tree.
They are all good if they are helping you to find stability and familiarity with your foot.
And remember,
As we stand tall,
Help our posture,
Perhaps imagine a light block on your head.
That we often learn more from the wobbles than we do from absolutely still balance.
So if you do wobble,
Just smile.
And have another go.
And your right foot might start to get tired.
That's also totally normal.
Okay,
So you're going to turn into your falling mime.
Please don't fall,
Just pretend to be a falling mime.
So right hand holds the chair,
Left foot out to the side,
Left arm out in any direction that's good for your shoulder and lean your torso a bit towards your chair.
It could be just a degree or two,
Or it could be a little more than that.
And be light in the hand.
Hang on for the whole chair if you need to perform.
Three,
You have to employ your sense of humor for this one,
Yogis.
Two,
Perhaps.
And one,
Release and wiggle your right foot.
Well done.
You may be questioning my sanity with that pose and that wouldn't necessarily be wrong.
Let's come back to facing the chair,
Back into our downward facing dog.
Walk your feet back.
I'm going to turn my chair the other way while you rest there for a moment so that I can still face you guys as we do the second side.
So you don't need to move your chair,
You're good where you are.
That's all I see.
Feel well-orientated,
It's all good.
Let's come up.
Step your left foot towards the chair.
Spin your right foot to one on a clock,
So just slightly out and bend your left knee.
Stabilize here in the feet.
Start to come up with your torso and hands at your prep position.
I didn't mention before,
If ever you feel a lot of compression in your low back in Warrior 1,
It's totally okay to lean forwards a bit.
You know,
So really do make the poses work for you.
Just taking a breath,
Starting to build a little heat and a little stability in the legs.
You got the added challenge on the side that your right foot already has a little bit of fatigue.
Alright,
So we're going to straighten out the left leg.
Inhale.
Exhale,
Bend your knee.
You can still be holding a chair with one hand as we move if you'd like.
Keep your eyes fixed on one spot.
Elbows pull back.
Cactus,
Strong shoulders.
Exhale,
Lean forwards.
Pull the elbows back.
Hands to breath.
Exhale.
Left leg straightens out.
Inhale.
If your breath doesn't match,
That's okay.
Exhale,
Bend your knee.
You could just be breathing naturally the whole time.
Inhale,
Open the elbows out.
Exhale,
Lean forwards and reach forwards as far as you can.
It could be hands at prayer,
It could be hands in front of your face,
Or it could be hands out.
Come back into your cactus,
Strengthening your upper back.
Hands to press.
Another round.
Left leg straight.
And bends.
Elbows open.
Lean forwards and reach.
Using the eye's fixed points to help you.
Pull the elbows back.
Exhale,
Hands to heart.
So this final round,
We get to hold.
More strength and stability in the legs.
Straighten the leg,
Linger here.
If you need a second to hold the chair and give your left foot,
Left toes a little wiggle.
It's okay to do so and then pop them back down.
You ready?
We'll bend the knee,
Hands to prayer,
Elbows pull back.
All right,
Remember your options,
Yogis.
You can lean forwards with your hands at prayer.
You can lean forwards with your hands halfway out.
You could stretch them all the way out.
You might not be leaning forwards at all,
And that's good too.
You're still building strength in the ankles.
I count.
I'm counting.
I promise.
Five.
It's a slow count for strength 4.
Lift the corners of your mouth a tiny bit,
That might help.
Three.
Use the lift in the navel for the low back too.
And one.
Come on up.
Drive through the leg.
Straighten out the left leg.
You can pull the elbows back if you want to.
And bring the hands down to the top of the chair.
We'll take our pyramid pose.
To stretch the leg.
Hinge forwards from your hips,
Tailbone lift.
Pelvis tilts forwards,
Hands can rest on the chair or you can put your forearms there.
You can put your hands on the chair seat if you want.
Again,
Just a reminder that we're looking to maintain a pretty neutral feeling spine.
So if you feel yourself really rounding forward so that you look like a bridge in your back,
Let's back out a bit so you can be straighter and then use the opportunity to pull the back of your skull either up to the ceiling,
If you're quite parallel to the floor with your chest,
Or if you're kind of at an angle upwards,
Pull it back to where the ceiling and wall meet behind you.
So you're really,
When we did those seated head pullbacks,
It's that same sort of feeling.
Strengthening the neck without tensing your jaw.
Now you start to climb back up your chair if your hands are low down on it.
You can bend the front knee to disengage the stretch.
Climb your hands up and turn all 10 toes to the right.
Step your right foot to your left.
Stand on your right foot and pick up the left one.
Just give it a little twirl around for a moment.
Both ways.
Okay,
Plant your left foot.
Think about the four corners of your foot.
Your toes are active when you stretch sometimes,
And they're not necessarily totally relaxed either,
But resist the urge to cling on with your toes if you can help it.
Okay pick up your right foot and you can put your toes on the ground or foot on your calf.
Left hand can be in a prayer,
Right hand.
Hmm,
That's not right.
Right hand in a prayer.
Left hand on the chair.
Put back to front wheel.
And be lighter and lighter in this left hander over time.
And even when you start to feel like you are feeling more and more confident in your balance,
You might still have days where it feels all over the place.
And on those days,
Use your chair,
Use your stability.
All right,
So we're coming into this slightly funky version of balance,
Just to challenge your brain and your body a little differently.
Stretch the right leg out to the side,
The right arm up,
And actually tilt your torso towards the chair.
Hang on to the chair as you get into this,
Please,
Yogi.
And holding here,
You're strengthening your outer right hip.
You can get as light in your left hand as you want to be.
Use your eyes fixed on one spot to help you.
I've got mine down on the floor about.
Five or six foot away from me.
Three,
Two,
One.
Two,
One,
Come up to standing,
Put your right foot back down on the floor,
Swirl your left foot around,
Give it a rest.
Wonderful.
Pop your foot down.
We did two rounds,
So we're going to do so on this side too.
Right foot into your tree position.
Improve your posture a little standing taller,
Shoulders down,
A light squeeze of glutes and quads and belly.
We're not tense and rigid.
But also not totally loosey-goosey,
Right?
Somewhere in the middle.
Just like we did on the second round,
You think about having perhaps a block or a glass of water on the top of your head.
That sounds treacherous,
Doesn't it?
And find him.
A few deep breaths here,
Trying your best to balance,
Smiling into the wobbles if they come in.
It's just yoga.
I know Milo's starting to feel some fatigue.
So if yours is also doing so,
You're not alone.
All right,
This kind of falling star,
Falling mime,
Right foot out,
Right arm out.
Tilt your torso to the left.
Challenge yourself to be balanced off center.
Left hand can be holding onto the chair very firmly,
Or you can hover it for four.
Three,
Two,
And one.
Coming out and release.
Wiggle your left foot around.
Well done.
So you can turn towards your chair.
Step back.
Hands on the chair seat or the chair top,
Depending on your shoulders.
If you're not sure,
You can try both.
And decide over time which one you like the most.
You're looking to be able to pull the hips almost up and back.
Feel like you're stretching out your torso.
Some people feel it more in the legs,
Some in the hips and some in the torso.
One more deep breath here please.
We'll lift the torso up enough to walk forward so you can use the chair the whole way up.
All the way to standing and roll your shoulders back a couple of times.
And please turn your chair seat.
To face you.
We'll do one more standing stretch for the outer legs now.
So,
Chest seat facing us.
We're going to fold forwards.
Take a breath in.
And lean forwards down towards the chair,
Just like you were doing in that pyramid earlier,
Maintaining a pretty neutral feeling spine.
Rather than rounding.
You can hold on to the chair.
To the chair edges for stability.
And bring your right foot through.
Take it around if you're able to to the outside of the left foot so you've crossed your legs.
Now I know this doesn't work for absolutely everybody,
So if this doesn't feel good to you,
Or you can't get your foot around for any reason,
You can do the stretch by bending your right knee and not your left.
So they have very similar effects.
Whether you do cross-legged or a single knee bend.
Tailbone up,
Start to fold forwards.
You might not need to go very far before you feel the outside of leg stretch.
And you can check in with your breath here again.
We got moving a little bit in our standing postures and your breath might have got a little short hair.
A little quicker.
So now's a chance to reclaim control of your breathing.
To come back to breathing in and out of your nose.
And we'll undo the legs if you had them crossed and simply switch to the other side.
Bowing forwards,
Remember if the cross leg doesn't work,
You will now bend your left knee and keep your right leg straight.
Both of them working into the outside of the leg.
Maintaining a good grip on the chair.
We'll send signals to the body that you feel safe here to stretch.
Your long exhales,
Your calm breath will do the same.
And we'll carefully come up and do the cross if you had your legs crossed.
Look forwards and bend your knees a bit,
Get your head up,
Make sure that you're upright enough,
You're not feeling any dizziness.
And stand up,
Strong press through the legs,
Feet about hips distance.
Move your chair to where you can sit down again.
And we'll take one more leg stretch.
So sitting close,
Close-ish to the edge of your chair,
Right foot extends all the way out in front of you,
Left knee bent.
So right leg straight,
Left bent.
If you sit too far back,
Your leg can't straighten.
So we have to sit relatively far forward.
Puff up the chest.
Lean forwards,
Resting your hands on your left knee.
Oh really?
Generous pull back of top of your foot towards your chest.
Might give you a bit more of a calf stretch.
We did Quite a lot there standing for the lower leg.
Giving it a chance to stretch out.
And sit up.
You can keep your legs as they are.
Take care.
Right hand to your left knee and turn to the left.
Turn forwards,
Bring your right leg in,
Left leg out.
Take a breath in,
Sit tall.
Hands on to the right knee and lean out.
Drawing the top of the foot towards you if that feels good.
Slowing down your exhales.
Sit up,
Rotate to your right.
And turn forwards,
Bring your foot in.
Roll your shoulders a couple of times,
Make sure there's no accumulated tension lingering there from our standing practice.
Take your hands forwards up,
Big stretch out.
Reach as far as you can through your fingertips.
Bring your elbows down to your knees,
Widen your knees a tiny bit.
Deep breath in here in this middle point.
All the way to a fold or maintain that height if that's been working best for you.
Exhale.
Inhale slowly.
And exhale.
Feeling everything calming down.
Climb your way up your knees,
Take all the time you need,
And shimmy back on your chair to sit against your chair back.
If you're comfortable here,
Remain in your chair for Shavasana for relaxation.
If there is somewhere more comfortable close to you that you would like to get,
Whether that's lying down,
Or remaining seated.
Your priority here is being comfortable for a few minutes and just allowing yourself to still allowing all of that energy from your practice to settle and allowing for your practice to be integrated in your body.
So close your eyes.
If you feel okay with that.
Relax back into your chair.
Allow your legs to relax.
Letting go of tension.
The legs can relax.
Let go of any gripping in the belly.
Give your shoulders permission to soften.
Let your hands rest comfortably in your lap.
Let there be a little bit of space between your teeth,
The jaw relaxing.
Your eyes become soft and still.
If you'd like a little longer to rest,
That's okay.
Stay as long as you like.
And if you're ready to continue with your day or your evening.
Give your hands and your feet a little scrunch and open.
Start to deepen your breath too.
Just a sense of bringing in fresh,
Vibrant energy on your inhales.
Letting go of any sleepiness and fatigue on your exhales.
Perhaps you take a bit like a morning-like stretch.
Out,
Up with your arms,
Inhale.
When you exhale,
Bring your hands into prayer and sit away from your chair.
If you are lying down,
You can gradually make your way back up to sitting.
Take a moment to appreciate all of your efforts on your mat,
On your chair today.
Thank yourself for your practice.
And let's breathe in together.
And out together.
Thank you for joining me,
Yogi.
Namaste.
