Yoga Basics

This class begins with a breath balancing pose and full complete breathing in vinyasa followed by a basic yoga class which explores the classic yoga poses in vinyasa in lying down, standing, seated and prone positions. Join Rachel for this energising and balancing class.

Transcript

Hi,

My name is Rachel.

Today you'll be doing a Basics class.

Before we start the poses,

We'll do a simple,

Brief meditation.

So find a comfortable cross-legged seat.

Place one heel in front of the other so that you can see the mounds of your heels lined up with each other.

And have something underneath you,

Like a blanket or a block.

And feel free to sit against the wall if you need.

Now that you're comfortable,

Take your four fingers on either hand and place them underneath your armpits so that your thumbs are still on the outside but your four fingers are hidden.

And as your arms are crossed,

Close your eyes and become aware of your breath.

See if you can feel that as you inhale,

You're drawing the breath into your left and right palms evenly.

And then as you exhale,

Feel the breath leaving your palms.

Really draw your mind to your breath so you're not thinking about anything else right now.

As you inhale,

See if you can feel the breath pressure even in left and right sides of the chest.

So fill your hands up with breath.

And as you exhale again,

Feel that breath leaving.

Now if you're finding that your breath is moving more into the left side or more into the right side,

In other words it's not even,

Then look at your hand that's on top.

You can open your eyes a little bit.

And take that hand and place it underneath the other hand,

Coming back with the four fingers underneath the armpits.

And again,

Breathe here.

And you'll start to feel that other side of your chest filling up with breath.

Stay here a few moments,

Just inhaling,

Breathing into your hands.

And exhaling,

Feeling that breath releasing.

Inhaling into your hands.

And exhaling,

Feeling that breath releasing.

And once you feel like you've got the breath even into the other side of your chest,

Then take the hand from underneath and place it back on top.

Take a couple more breaths here.

Inhaling and exhaling.

Just go in your own timing.

Start to feel how your energy just naturally moves inwards.

In yoga we call this pratyahara,

Sense withdrawal.

So at first when you meditate or begin meditation,

Your mind is restless,

It's active.

But now,

Hopefully you're feeling just a little more focused.

So gently release your hands and bring your thumb and forefinger together and place them on top of your thighs.

You can bend at the elbows just a little bit.

Keep your eyes closed and sit here just for a few more moments.

Let the breath go and see if you can just feel a silence,

A stillness,

And a spaciousness.

Be aware of your breath,

But don't try and do anything.

Just be.

Okay.

And then just gently let your eyes crack open.

Look at a point in front on the floor.

And then just relax out of the pose.

So now we're ready to start our postures.

In a basics class,

You really want to become aware of your breath.

So to find our breath and to feel our breath,

We're going to lie down on the floor and I'd like you to have your knees bent and your feet flat.

And as you lie down,

Let your arms rest alongside your body and feel your shoulder blades drawing down your back.

Feel the back of your neck long.

Now,

If the back of your neck doesn't feel relaxed or comfortable on the floor,

You can take a blanket,

Just fold it a little bit,

Just in half,

And place that underneath your head.

And then just reposition your feet,

Making sure that your heels are directly underneath your knees.

And then start to become aware of the feeling of your breath behind your body.

So you're just going to inhale,

You're just going to exhale,

And feel how your breath expands the back of your body on the inhale and how the breath softens your body on the end of the exhale.

And don't try and change your breath,

Don't try and do anything special with your breath.

Just feel it.

Inhaling and exhaling.

Now you might start to notice that maybe it's not so easy for you to take a deep breath or maybe you feel like your breath is a little bit shallow.

So that's okay,

All those things are fine.

You just want to become aware of what your breath is like.

The more you can learn to observe your breath at the very start of class,

The more breath awareness you'll have throughout the class.

So bring your hands to your belly now.

And become aware of the feeling of your breath expanding into your hands.

We're going to take a full complete breath now.

In a full complete breath,

You want to feel your belly expanding on the inhale,

Your ribs expanding,

And your top chest lifting.

And on the exhale,

You want to feel your abdomen drawing back,

Your ribs softening,

And your upper chest relaxing.

So as you inhale,

Feel your belly expanding into your hands,

Your ribs expand,

And your top chest lifts.

And on your exhale,

Feel your abdomen drawing back,

Your ribs softening,

And your upper chest relaxing.

Think of your diaphragm.

It's a smooth sheet of muscle underneath your rib cage.

So when you inhale,

That diaphragm draws down and pushes the belly out and expands the ribs and raises the upper chest.

And then when you exhale,

The diaphragm lifts back up and the ribs soften and the upper chest relaxes.

So keep taking a few more full complete breaths now.

See if you can feel that as you're breathing,

You're really following or bringing your mind to your breath.

And that'll help your mind to focus.

Okay,

So we'll take it a little further now.

So reach your arms up over your head and make sure that the palms are facing towards the ceiling and the backs of the palms are touching the floor.

And if you find that your shoulders are kind of crunching up around your ears,

Then separate your hands a little bit.

So take them a little bit wider and you can feel your shoulder blades drawing down your back.

And then take a deep breath.

And as you do this,

You'll feel that your rib cage lifts just that little bit more.

You'll feel like you have a slight back bend in your upper chest.

Again,

See if you can do your full complete breathing.

Inhale,

Belly expands,

Ribs expand,

Upper chest lifts.

And as you exhale,

Abdomen draws back,

Ribs soften,

Upper chest relaxes.

Again,

Belly expands,

Ribs expand,

Upper chest lifts.

Exhale,

Belly draws back,

Ribs soften,

Upper chest relaxes.

So the next thing we're going to do is called vinyasa and it's movement with breath.

And the whole idea here is that you coordinate your movement and your breath together so that you really,

Again,

Bring your mind to your breath and keep your mind from wandering.

So lower your arms alongside your body.

As you inhale,

Raise your arms up over your head and again let the backs of your palms touch the floor.

And as you exhale,

Let your arms relax down alongside your body.

As you inhale,

Raise your arms up over your head,

Feel your shoulder blades drawing down your back.

And as you exhale,

Feel your arms relaxing alongside your body.

As you inhale,

Raise your arms up over your head,

Feel your shoulder blades down your back as the backs of your palms touch the floor.

And as you exhale,

Lower your arms alongside your body.

As you inhale,

Raise your arms up over your head,

Feeling the backs of your palms touching the floor.

And as you exhale,

Feel your arms drawing down alongside your body.

Now as you're following your breath,

See if you can also be aware of what's happening in the back of your body.

So inhale,

Raise your arms up over your head and feel the whole back of your body expanding.

And as you exhale,

Lower your arms and feel the whole front of your body softening.

Inhale,

Feel the whole back of your body expanding as you extend your arms up over your head.

And as you exhale,

Feel the whole front of your body softening.

So you can think of your body as having these two qualities,

An expansion and lift as you raise your arms up over your head,

Just keep going.

And as you exhale,

This very soft,

Surrendered quality.

Just keep going on your own.

Take three more rounds.

And as you're doing this,

Really be aware that that expansion and that opening,

It's a radiance that you're experiencing.

And that softening and that quietening,

It's a surrender,

It's a grounding.

So just do two more in your own timing.

Inhale all the way up.

And exhale all the way back down.

And inhale all the way up.

And exhale all the way back down.

So you're probably feeling pretty relaxed right now,

So we're going to pick up the pace a little bit.

Inhale,

Raise your arms up over your head.

And as you exhale,

Bend your knees,

Draw your shins in towards you,

Hug your shins.

Feel your belly relaxing against your thighs.

Inhale,

Feet to the floor,

Keep your knees bent and your feet flat.

And raise your arms up over your head.

And as you exhale,

Bend your knees and hug your shins towards you.

Again,

Inhale,

Feet to the floor,

Arms up over the head.

And as you exhale,

Bend your knees and hug your shins in towards you.

Inhale,

Feet to the floor,

Arms up over the head.

And as you exhale,

Bend your knees and hug your shins in towards you.

So now let's take the feet to the ceiling,

Raise your arms up over your head.

Keep your knees a little bit bent and flex through your feet and roll your thighs in.

Now as you do this,

Keep your arms over your head,

Just feel your breath here.

You'll notice that holding the feet up here,

It can be a little challenging,

Especially if it's hard for you to straighten your legs.

So you can just bend your knees a little bit if that's too much.

And then what we're doing here is we're engaging the lower abdomen.

The lower abdomen is really important in our yoga practice.

The more we can learn to lift the pelvic floor and the lower abdomen,

The more breath we'll get in our upper chest.

So let's move on here.

Inhale,

Expand,

Keep your arms up over your head.

And exhale,

Bend your knees,

Hug your shins in towards you.

Inhale,

Feet to the ceiling,

Arms up over the head.

And exhale,

Bend your knees,

Hug your shins in towards you.

Inhale,

Feet to the ceiling,

Arms up over the head.

And exhale,

Bend your knees,

Hug your shins in towards you.

Inhale,

Feet to the ceiling,

Arms up over the head.

Hope you're having fun.

Exhale,

Bend your knees and hug your shins in towards you.

Okay,

Lower your feet to the floor again,

But keep your knees bent and let your arms go alongside your body.

So what we'll do now is we'll combine all those things together.

I like to think of this as a little combination of breathing and moving and just continuing to warm ourselves up and to just feel really free here.

So inhale,

Raise your arms up over your head.

And exhale,

Bend your knees,

Hug your shins in towards you.

Inhale,

Press your feet to the ceiling,

Raise your arms up over the head.

And exhale,

Bend your knees,

Hug your shins in towards you.

Inhale,

Take your feet to the floor and raise your arms up over your head.

Exhale,

Bend your knees,

Hug your shins in towards you.

Inhale,

Feet to the ceiling,

Arms up over the head,

Press through the feet.

Exhale,

Bend the knees,

Hug the the shins in towards you.

Inhale,

Feet to the floor,

Arms up over the head.

And exhale,

Leave your feet where they are and lower your arms down alongside your body.

Okay,

So now you can either roll to your right side and come up to sitting,

Or you can rock yourself up to sitting.

It's up to you.

So rocking means holding on to your shins and rocking back and forth and coming all the way upright.

From here,

Let's come on to our hands and knees straight away.

You want your hands underneath your shoulders and your knees underneath your hips.

Now be careful you don't draw your knees too close in towards your wrists.

You want to have a nice long distance here.

And if you tend to hyperextend through your arms,

Just bend your elbows a little bit so you have a micro bend in your elbows.

Look at your wrists.

You want the crease line of your wrist in line with the end of your mat,

Which means that sometimes your hands might splay outward slightly.

Your toes are tucked under.

You try and feel all four toes at least pressed into the floor,

And sometimes a little toe can touch the floor as well.

Now keep your spine really long and lengthened.

We're actually going to start this next part in cat pose on an exhale.

So as you exhale,

Relax the tops of your feet.

Round through your lower spine and just let your head hang.

As you inhale,

Tuck your toes under,

Open through your chest,

Draw your shoulder blades onto your back,

But keep your abdomen engaged.

Exhale,

Round through your lower spine,

Let your head go.

And inhale,

Tuck your toes under,

Open through your chest,

Draw your shoulder blades onto your back.

Exhale,

Round through your lower spine and let your head go.

Inhale,

Tuck your toes under,

And open through your chest.

Exhale,

Round through your lower spine and let your head go.

And inhale,

Tuck your toes under,

And open through your chest.

Now keep going,

Three more on your own.

Feeling that exhale as you round,

And that inhale as you open.

So the cat pose is wonderful because it really warms up your spine,

And our upper spine naturally rounds,

Our lower spine naturally expands or drops inwards.

So what we're doing in this pose is we're reversing the natural curves of the spine,

And it gets a little bit more fluid into our spine and warms up our joints and gets us more prepared for the rest of the practice.

So completing your next inhalation,

And exhale,

Send your seat back to your heels,

Rounding out through your lower back,

And coming into cat seal.

So from here,

Come onto your hands and knees,

Open through your chest,

Tuck your toes under,

And as you exhale,

Round through your lower spine,

Letting your head go,

And coming back into cat seal.

Inhale,

Come onto your hands and knees,

And open through your chest,

Coming into up cat,

And exhale,

Send your seat back to your heels,

Coming into cat seal.

Inhale,

Come onto your hands and knees,

And opening through your chest,

And as you exhale,

Send your seat back to your heels,

Coming into cat seal.

Inhale,

Coming onto your hands and knees,

Opening through your chest,

And exhale,

Send your seat back to your heels coming into cat seal.

So rest in cat seal for a moment.

Let's bring our hands to our lower back,

Bring your palms to touch behind you,

Interlace your fingers,

Extend your arms up over your head,

Straighten your elbows as much as you can.

Watch that you're not squeezing your shoulder blades together here,

Draw them away a little bit.

So as you're holding here and breathing,

You can feel a little bit of a stretch coming into the front of your shoulders.

Our shoulders can get really tight,

Especially if we sit at desks a lot or we just tend to be rounding a lot because it's our natural tendency and our posture.

So doing this stretch,

Reaching the arms up over the head,

Is really great for releasing any tension behind the neck and the shoulders.

Okay,

So from here,

Release your hands back down to your lower back,

Lengthen your arms out in front of you as far as you can,

Really walk your fingertips out,

Inch them out,

And then draw your shoulder blades onto your back.

So come up onto your hands and knees now.

As you come up onto your hands and knees,

You'll notice that your wrists now are forward of your shoulders,

But keep them here.

And even walk your hands a little wider apart,

Almost as if the little fingers were going to touch the edge of the mat.

Tuck your toes under,

We're going to come into down dog now,

And lift your knees up off the floor and send your tailbone high to the ceiling,

Keep your knees bent.

So the tendency will be for you to want to straighten your legs,

But I'd like you to do this first one with your knees bent so that you're really drawing your belly towards your thighs and lengthening through your spine as much as you can.

For a moment,

Draw your shoulder blades around your ears,

Really hunch your shoulders,

And it doesn't feel good,

Does it?

So lengthen the shoulder blades away from your ears,

And that's what we're working towards.

We're trying to find that we've got space between the shoulders and the ears.

The better to hear you with,

Or to hear me with.

Okay,

So come down,

Come onto your hands and knees,

That's a little bit of time in down dog,

And exhale,

Send your seat back to your heels and just let your head go.

Okay,

Inhale,

Come back up onto your hands and knees,

And let's go into down dog again.

Raise your tailbone high,

Lengthen it towards the ceiling,

Let your knees bend,

Spread your fingers wide,

And just take some breaths here.

So as you're breathing here,

You want to feel the breath in the back of your body as you inhale,

And feel the breath softening the front of your body as you exhale.

You also want to feel that there's even pressure between your thumb and your forefinger.

You maybe even want to lift up your middle finger,

Your fourth finger,

And your pinky finger,

And see if you can balance there.

It might be too hard,

But see if you can give it a go,

And then lower those fingers back down.

Okay,

Come back onto your hands and knees,

And again,

Send your seat back to your heels and come into child's pose.

If you have difficulty with child's pose,

In other words,

It's hard for you to get your seat back to your heels,

There's a couple of things you can do.

One is you can place a block underneath your forehead,

Or if you're at home,

You can use a book.

And the other thing you can do is place a towel or a blanket behind your knees,

Which will create a little bit of space behind the knees so it's easier to sit back on your heels.

Okay,

Last down dog.

Come up onto your hands and knees,

Raise your tailbone high,

And come into down dog.

So from here,

We're going to walk our feet back a little bit further.

Just inch your feet back along the mat.

So your heels are still pointing towards the back of the wall.

You want to make sure that your heels are almost hidden behind your toes.

And then in one breath,

We're going to shift our weight so that our shoulders are in line with our wrists.

Great.

Lifting through your abdomen,

And this is plank position.

So if it's hard to come into plank,

You can drop onto your knees.

So do that now.

Just drop onto your knees,

And then extend your right leg back behind you and press the right ball of your foot into the floor.

Make sure your foot is on the floor,

And then press your left foot back behind you,

Pressing the left ball of your foot into the floor.

And feel your body in one long line.

And then on your next exhale,

Press back again into down dog.

So remember,

If it's too hard to hold plank,

Don't do plank,

Just do down dog.

Let's come into plank again.

Inhale,

Body in one long line,

And exhale,

Press back into down dog.

So now we're doing vinyasa again,

Movement with breath.

Inhale,

Body in one long line,

And exhale,

Press back into down dog.

Inhale,

Body in one long line,

And exhale,

Press back into down dog.

Inhale back onto your hands and knees.

Okay,

So the next thing we're going to do is a modified chaturanga,

Or a modified crocodile pose.

So some of you will find this really easy.

Some of you will find this a little bit more challenging.

If it's too hard,

Just do plank and down dog.

So shift your weight forward over your middle finger and bend your elbows slightly,

Just a little bit,

So that your elbows point towards the back wall and your upper arms are alongside your body.

Now just holding this for a few moments is hard.

So press back up again onto your hands and knees and press straight up into down dog.

It's a little bit of an arm strengthener here.

You'll get really nice muscles in your arms if you work on this.

Inhale,

Come back onto your hands and knees,

And exhale,

Shift your weight over your middle finger so you feel a little pressure in your wrists and bend through your elbows.

Good,

And then come back up again,

Raise your tailbone high,

And come into down dog.

Now remember,

You can just come into plank and down dog if it's too much to do the other version.

Inhale,

Come onto your hands and knees.

Now this time you're going to shift your weight forward over your middle finger,

Bend your elbows,

And see if you can lower your belly,

Your chest,

And your hips all to the floor at once,

Keeping your elbows close in.

From here you're just going to lift your upper chest and your shoulders and feel the back of your neck long.

Your thumbs are right beside your waist,

Or not really your waist,

But alongside your torso.

This is called baby cobra,

And we'll come to this later on in the class as well.

Take an inhale here,

Press up onto your hands and knees,

And press all the way back into down dog.

Great.

Okay,

Let's do that one one more time.

Inhale onto your hands and knees,

Open through your chest,

Shift your weight forward over your middle finger,

Bend your elbows,

Lower all the way to the floor,

All on an exhale.

Lift up into baby cobra.

As you inhale,

Raising your upper chest.

As you exhale,

Press back up onto your hands and knees,

And as you exhale,

Raise your tailbone high and come into down dog.

So that was a lot of exhaling there.

All right,

Inhale,

Come onto your hands and knees,

And pull your right foot up in between your hands.

So you want to now have your heel in line with your knee and your left knee in line with your left hip.

So right knee in line with right heel,

And left knee in line with left hip.

And then bring your hands to your hips,

And then raise your arms into the air so that your palms are facing each other,

And you want that heel directly underneath your knee on the right side.

Take an inhale here,

And as you exhale,

Bring your hands either side of your front foot.

Inhale,

Raise your arms back up as you lift your torso,

And exhale,

Lower your arms alongside your body.

Inhale,

Raise your arms up,

Opening through your chest.

Exhale,

Lower your torso,

Feel your belly against your thighs.

You lower your hands alongside you onto the floor,

And inhale,

Raise your arms up,

And again as you exhale,

Lower your arms all the way down to the floor.

Okay,

And then step your right leg back to meet your left leg so your knees are just lined up.

Step your left foot out in front of you,

And inhale,

Sweep your arms all the way up.

Exhale,

Your hands either side of your front foot.

Inhale,

Sweep your arms all the way up.

Exhale,

Your hands either side of your front foot,

And inhale,

Sweep your arms all the way up.

So if you're having trouble balancing here,

Or if your knee is digging into the floor,

Keep going.

Exhale,

You can place a blanket underneath your knee.

Inhale,

Sweep your arms all the way up.

Exhale,

Hands down to the floor.

Good.

Don't worry if you're wobbling a little bit,

That's okay,

Right?

It's just,

It's an exercise in balance.

Inhale,

Raising the arms all the way up,

And exhale,

Lower your arms alongside you.

Okay,

Step your right leg back,

Step your left leg back into plank position.

So you want to have your knees hit the floor first before you do that.

Okay,

And then step back into plank.

Inhale,

Press back into down dog.

Step your feet towards your hands.

Walk your feet up,

Bend your knees.

Maybe you have to walk up very slowly,

It's okay.

Relax your belly against your thighs,

And bend your knees.

If it doesn't feel comfortable for you to stay upside down for very long,

Don't do it.

Just bring yourself upright slowly,

But if you can,

Stay down.

Fold your elbows,

Bring your thumbs into your elbow crease,

Wrap your forefingers around the outsides of your arms,

And let your head hang.

This is called full forward bend,

Or standing forward bend,

And the Sanskrit name for it is Uttanasana.

Sometimes we call it ragdoll as well.

It's got a lot of names.

This is a great pose because it opens the backs of the legs and also lengthens the back of your spine,

So it stretches all the vertebrae in your spine.

From here,

Bring your hands to your hips,

And lengthen your spine out long.

Think of a flat back.

You want to have the ability to balance a cup of tea,

Or a cup of chai,

On your lower back.

Shoulder blades onto the back.

You might want to keep your knees bent here.

Don't straighten your legs because if you straighten your legs,

Sometimes you can round through your lower back,

So keep your knees a little bit bent.

And then on your next inhale,

Bring your shoulders and your hips in line as you stand upright.

Finally,

Upright.

It's always a great feeling when you get there.

So yoga is a little bit like the stages of life.

We lie down,

Then we sit,

Then we crawl,

Then we walk.

So now we're walking.

Lengthen your arms alongside your body as you stand here.

So I always like to think of Tadasana as the most important pose of your practice.

It's standing upright,

But it's a lot more than that.

Look down at your feet,

Spread your toes,

And check to make sure that you've placed your heels right behind the broadest part of your foot,

Which is from big toe to little toe.

And then be aware of the weight in your feet.

You want your feet either not rolling into your inner ankle,

And you don't want them rolling out either.

You want to feel the weight balanced evenly.

If you were to take your fingers between your second and third toe,

You could draw a line from your second and third toe all the way up through the center line of your knee to the inside of your hip.

So if your feet are too wide or too close together,

They might not line up.

So I'd give myself that test right now.

So why don't you lean over,

Place your fingertips between your second and third toe.

Give yourself a good look.

Maybe you need a pedicure,

I'm not sure.

And then from here,

Lift all the way up with those fingers through the center line of your knee and all the way up to the insides of your hips.

Great.

And if you're lined up,

Terrific.

Now let your arms go.

Raise your head.

That's it.

Draw your shoulder blades down your back.

Turn your palms to face outward so your upper arms externally rotate,

And then roll your forearms in so the palms face alongside the body.

Tadasana.

You want to lift a little bit through your lower abdomen,

Even squeeze your inner thighs towards each other,

And then just lengthen your tail.

This is the perfect pose for standing in the elevator,

Standing at the curb,

Standing on the subway.

A little challenging because you got to work with your balance on the subway.

But anytime you have a moment,

Do Tadasana.

Because if we can go upright through life feeling good like this,

We won't end up sore and rounded and in pain in later life.

So it's a great pose.

I try and do it as much as I can.

Okay,

We're going to do some sun breathing now.

Inhale,

Sweep the arms all the way up.

Have your arms shoulder-width apart here.

As you exhale,

Lower your arms just all the way back down.

So just take a few moments to connect in with your breath again.

Inhale,

Sweep your arms all the way up,

Shoulder blades down your back.

And as you exhale,

Lower your arms alongside your body.

Try to really feel that you're moving with your breath.

Inhale,

The arms up.

You're thinking of your breath.

And as you exhale,

Lowering your arms down.

And now let's move into some sun breaths.

Inhale,

Sweep the arms all the way up,

Shoulder-width apart.

Exhale,

Bend the knees,

Dive yourself all the way forwards.

Inhale,

Lengthen through your spine.

Walk your hands to your shins.

Bend your knees a little bit.

Nice flat back.

Think of that cup of chai.

Exhale,

Fold yourself all the way forwards.

Inhale,

Sweep the arms,

Eyes,

Fingertips all the way up.

Exhale,

Lower your arms back down beside you.

Just two more.

Inhale,

Sweep the arms all the way up.

Exhale,

Bend the knees and dive yourself all the way forwards.

Inhale,

Rise up onto your shins,

Lengthening through your spine.

And exhale,

Bend the knees and fold all the way forwards.

Inhale,

Sweep the arms all the way up.

Keep your arms shoulder-width apart.

And exhale,

Lower your arms all the way back down.

Let's do a sun salutation with lunge.

Inhale,

Sweep the arms all the way up.

And exhale,

Dive yourself all the way forward.

Inhale,

Open through your chest,

Ride your hands up to your shins,

Bend your knees slightly.

As you exhale,

Plant your hands on the floor and step your left leg back behind you and drop onto your left knee for a moment.

Inhale,

Get your balance as you sweep your arms all the way up.

And exhale,

Lower your hands back down to the floor.

Inhale,

Have your right knee meet your left knee.

And then shift your weight slightly forward over your middle finger,

Bend through the elbows into modified Chaturanga and lower all the way to the floor in one piece.

Inhale up into baby cobra,

Draw the shoulder blades down your back and then press back up onto your hands and knees.

Raise your tailbone high and come into down dog.

Two breaths in down dog.

Feel your inhale here and feel your exhale.

Great.

Now drop onto your knees,

Pull your left foot up in between your hands,

Relax the right knee to the floor and then sweep your arms all the way up.

Inhale,

Exhale your hands back down to the floor.

Step your right foot up to meet your left foot as you lengthen forward.

And exhale,

Fold.

Inhale,

Sweep the arms,

Eyes,

Fingertips all the way up.

And exhale,

Let your arms relax alongside your body.

One more.

Inhale,

Sweep the arms all the way up.

Exhale,

Dive yourself all the way forward.

Inhaling,

Opening through your chest and as you exhale,

Step your left leg back behind you,

Drop onto your left knee and inhale,

Sweep your arms all the way up.

Exhale,

Your hands back down to the floor.

This time,

Tuck your left toe under,

Lift your left knee up off the floor.

Step your right foot back to meet your left foot,

Plank position.

Drop your knees to the floor,

Bend through your elbows,

Lower your upper chest all the way down.

Inhale,

Up into baby cobra.

Exhale,

Press back onto your hands and knees and raise your tailbone high and come into down dog.

Take a breath here.

Inhale and exhale.

And then inhale and again exhale.

Inhale onto your hands and knees.

Pull your left foot up in between your hands.

Inhale,

Sweep your arms up,

Coming into that nice low lunge.

Exhale,

Your hands back down to the floor.

Step your right foot up to meet your left foot as you lengthen forward.

Exhale,

Fold and inhale,

Sweep the arms,

Eyes,

Fingertips all the way up,

Palms to touch.

And exhale,

Let your arms float down.

Okay,

So now we're going to do a more advanced version of the sun salutation.

So this involves a high lunge,

Which means that your knee is going to be up off the floor.

So you want to make sure that if this is too hard for you or too challenging that you just do the version we did previously.

You just keep your knee on the floor.

So here we go.

Inhale,

Sweep the arms down,

Around and up.

Let your palms touch this time.

Exhale,

Dive yourself all the way forward,

Bending at the knees.

Inhale,

Lengthen through your spine and as you exhale,

Step your left leg back behind you.

Keep your knee up off the floor.

As you inhale,

Get your balance and sweep your arms all the way up.

Exhale,

Your hands back down to the floor.

Inhale,

Step your right foot back to meet your left foot,

Body in one long line.

As you exhale,

Lower your knees,

Lower your upper chest as you bend for your elbows,

Baby chaturanga all the way to the floor.

This time come into that nice small cobra,

Baby cobra.

Lift up onto your hands and knees,

Raise your tailbone high and come into down dog.

Take a breath here,

Inhaling and exhaling.

And then inhale and as you exhale,

Step your left foot in between your hands.

If you need to,

Drop onto your knees and pull that leg up.

Inhale,

Sweep your arms all the way up and exhale your hands down to the floor.

Step your right foot up to meet your left foot,

Lengthen through your spine and exhale,

Fold forward.

Inhale,

Sweep the arms,

Eyes,

Fingertips all the way up and exhale,

Let your arms float all the way back down.

Let's do it again.

Inhale,

Sweep the arms all the way up.

Exhale,

Dive yourself all the way forward.

Inhale,

Lengthen through your spine.

Exhale,

Step that left leg back.

Inhale,

Sweep the arms up.

Exhale,

Hands down to the floor.

Step the right foot back to meet the left foot,

Body in one long line.

Drop your knees,

Lower your upper chest all the way to the floor.

Move your hands back,

Roll through into a little bit of a baby cobra.

Press back onto your hands and knees.

Raise your tailbone high,

Down dog.

Inhale,

Exhale here.

Feel your body long,

Lengthening.

On your next exhale,

Drop onto your knees or step your left foot in between your hands.

On your next inhale,

Raise your arms up.

Exhale,

Your hands down to the floor.

Step right foot up to meet left foot.

Lengthen forward.

Exhale,

Fold all the way.

Inhale,

Sweep the arms,

Eyes,

Fingertips all the way up and exhale,

Let your arms float down.

Okay,

Take a big step back now with your right foot.

Take it really wide.

Have the outer edge of your right foot lined up with the end of your mat and face your hips towards the right side of the room.

Have your left heel in line with the middle arch of your right foot.

And when you look at your left foot,

You want to make sure that your left heel is placed behind the broadest part,

Big toe to little toe side,

Of your left foot.

Start to bend your left knee.

Let your left knee line up with your left heel and slightly roll your hips towards your front thigh.

As you roll your hips,

You'll feel your right thigh rolling in a little bit and your left thigh opening out.

Now what tends to happen in this pose,

This is called Warrior II,

Is that our knee rolls in or comes forward of the heel.

We want to roll that left thigh out as much as we can.

So turning your hip structure really helps.

Raise your arms up to shoulder height and look over your middle finger.

So as you turn your head and look over your middle finger,

See if you can bring whatever you're gazing at towards you.

So you're almost breathing in your vision or your view.

Feel your inner thighs now drawing towards each other and really start to breathe here.

Feel the back of your body expanding on the inhale and the front of your body softening on the exhale.

And let's bring a little bit of vinyasa into the practice.

So inhale,

You're going to straighten your left leg,

Raise your arms up beside your ears and look forward.

And as you exhale,

Bend your left knee,

Keep rolling that left thigh out and look over your middle finger.

Inhale,

Straighten your leg,

Raise your arms up,

Look forward.

And as you exhale,

Bend your knee and look over your middle finger.

Inhale,

Straighten your arms and your legs as you look over.

Exhale,

Bend your knee,

Look over your middle finger.

Inhale,

Straighten your leg,

Raise your arms up,

Look straight ahead and exhale,

Bend your knee,

Look over your middle finger.

Great,

Inhale,

Inhale,

Straighten your left leg,

Bring your hands to your hips.

Turn both toes to face forward and turn your right foot out.

Line up your right heel with the middle arch of your left foot.

Have the outer edge of your left foot parallel with the end of the mat.

Bend your right knee and again,

Make sure that knee and that heel are in line.

Roll your right thigh out slightly as you turn your hips towards your front thigh.

Your whole pelvis is turning.

Raise your arms up at shoulder height,

Look over your middle finger.

Remember,

Whatever you're looking at,

Bring it towards you.

Breathe in what you're gazing towards.

Feel the back of your body expanding as you inhale.

And as you exhale,

Feel the front of your body softening.

See if you can feel like you're stretching the skin on the back of your body on that inhale.

And on the exhale,

Feel yourself softening here.

Warrior II is a great pose.

It's all about strength in the legs.

When we hold the pose like this,

We're strengthening the thigh muscles,

But we're also working the inner thighs and learning to lift the pelvic floor and engage the lower abdomen.

As you do this,

You'll feel more breath into your top chest.

So it's good to hold this pose for a while,

But we're going to take it into vinyasa now.

So inhale,

Straighten your right leg and raise your arms up,

Looking forward.

And exhale,

Bend your knee and look over your middle finger.

Inhale,

Straighten your leg,

Look forward.

And exhale,

Bend your knee,

Look over your middle finger.

Inhale,

Straighten your leg,

Look forward.

And exhale,

Bend your knee,

Look over your middle finger.

Inhale,

Straighten your right leg,

Bring your hands to your hips now.

Turn both toes to face forward.

And flip flop your feet the other way again.

So now we're going to do modified right angle.

So bend your left knee and have your left knee,

Your left heel in line.

And raise your arms up,

Shoulder height.

Extend your torso out to the left,

Really isolated here.

Feel a stretch from your right armpit all the way down to your right heel.

And then fold your left arm so that your left forearm rests on your upper left thigh.

Raise your right arm up and look straight ahead.

Feel a stretch from your right little toe all the way up to your right armpit.

And then feel the energy extending out through the crown of your head.

So as you're breathing here,

You're in one long extended line.

And the shoulder blades are drawing onto the back with the front of the body soft.

Feel the inner thighs drawing towards each other.

Breathe,

Inhale and exhale.

Inhale now,

Come all the way upright.

Straighten both legs,

Bring your hands to your hips.

Turn your left toe forwards.

And then turn your right foot out.

So hopefully you've kept your stance nice and long here.

Bend your right knee,

Raise your arms up to shoulder height.

And look over your middle finger.

Lengthen your torso out to the right.

Really isolate your upper chest.

Fold your arm and bring your forearm to your thigh.

Raise your left arm up and have your left wrist in line with your left shoulder.

Your right shoulder blade is also in line with the left shoulder.

And you're feeling the shoulder blades onto your back and remembering to feel the little toe stretching all the way up to the armpit with the energy extending out through your crown.

Back of your body breathing here.

Inhale,

Come all the way back upright.

Straighten both legs.

And turn your toes to face forward.

Bring your hands to your hips.

Now we're going to do fan pose.

In Sanskrit it's called prasarita padottanasana.

So in this pose we're going to be stretching the backs of the legs and also slightly into the insides of the thighs.

And it's really important to keep your spine long here.

If you have a block or a book,

Have it ready right in front of your big toes.

Lift up,

Open through your chest slightly.

Think of expanding the chest to the ceiling and even looking to where the wall meets the ceiling.

I like to call this shining your chest forward.

From here send your tail back as you fold forward at the hips.

Let the crown of your head come in line with your tail.

So again we're in a nice flat back here.

And if your lower back is rounding you might need to bend your knees just a little bit.

Place your hands directly underneath your shoulders onto the floor.

If your hands don't easily touch the floor or you start to round through your back,

Place your hands on the block or the book.

Take some breaths here.

Feel your spine really long here.

Inhaling and exhaling.

Enjoy that stretch through the back of your legs.

Keep breathing.

Feel the back of the body expanding.

Feel the front of the body softening.

Great.

Okay,

Bring your hands to your hips.

Lengthen through your spine and come all the way upright.

Nice.

And then step your right foot back to meet your left foot and we'll come back into Tadasana.

So feel Tadasana here.

The nice thing about yoga is it gives you an expanded view.

So the more that you can bring your mind to your breath,

That you're moving through the poses,

It's not just about getting fit.

It's really about expanding your horizons.

So when you're in Mountain Pose,

You really do have that expanded view.

Your toes are way down below you.

You're right up,

Expanding through your upper chest,

Feeling your inner thighs lifting.

And you're just coming back.

You're grounding yourself after everything you've just done.

So from this place,

We're going to come into Chair Pose.

I love chair.

I teach chair all the time.

In fact,

If I could do one pose,

It would be chair because it strengthens your thighs.

It's a little bit of a back bend and it's challenging and it builds heat.

Sometimes it can bring up a little bit of aggression,

But sometimes it's good to feel that heat burning through you because it burns away not only physical toxins,

But also emotional stuff that you've been carrying.

So bend your knees,

Sit low and send your tail back.

Imagine someone's giving you a beautiful,

Comfy chair to sit on,

Although they're never really going to give it to you.

So you'll always be waiting.

Have your hands on your thighs and make sure that your big toes are touching and your heels are a little bit apart.

Feel the inner thighs really drawing towards each other and let your shoulder blades be resting on your back.

If you like,

Raise your arms to shoulder height with the palms facing down.

Feel the back of your neck long.

So sometimes the chin can project forward here.

So try and draw your chin back so that really your crown and your tail are in one line.

Sit a little bit lower here.

Keep breathing.

We're going to hold this for a little while.

Remember,

I want to stir things up a little bit.

It's been pretty smooth up until now.

So life as we know it is not always smooth and it's good to face ourselves and to face those challenges.

So sit a little bit lower again.

This is also a great pose to do at the wall.

Sit a little bit lower.

Okay,

Come all the way upright.

Inhale and exhale.

Lower your arms alongside your body.

So from here we're going to go all the way down to the floor and we're going to do some very simple back bends.

Inhale,

Raise your arms down,

Around and up.

Let your arms be shoulder width apart and exhale.

Dive yourself all the way forward,

Bending at the knees.

Lengthen through your spine and as you exhale,

Step your left leg back.

Step your right leg back.

Bringing your body in one long line.

Bend through the elbows and lower yourself all the way to the floor.

Turn your head to the side and just take some deep breaths here.

Really feel the back of your body expanding with breath.

This is a great pose.

It's really relaxing and it massages your abdomen.

It also gives you a feeling of the breath moving into the back of your body.

Sometimes we call this pose asana because it's so relaxing.

So in a basics class we're becoming aware of the breath,

We're becoming aware of our body and the most valuable thing you can do in observing your breath and observing your body is to just find that moment where you're starting to wander in your mind.

You can think of your mind like a really great pet dog.

That whenever the dog goes away you have to pull on its leash to pull it back and it always comes back.

So the mind's like that.

Wherever you put your attention,

The mind will follow.

So if you bring your attention to your breath,

Your mind will be there.

And if you bring your attention to something else,

Your mind will be there.

And the mind doesn't discern between positive and negative.

So if you think good thoughts while you're doing yoga,

Great.

If you're thinking negative thoughts while you're doing yoga,

It's going to go there as well.

So it's not so much about getting positive or happy or being sad.

It's really just about creating this neutral space in the mind.

No matter what you're thinking,

You're bringing yourself back to your breath.

And you can kind of let those thoughts go.

Eventually when you find that really calm,

Neutral space,

You drop into something a little deeper,

Something beyond the mind.

And that for me is the mystery and magic of a yoga practice.

So let's move on now because that was a really long ah asana.

So bring your fingertips beside your chest and let your thumbs line right up with your nipples.

Draw your upper arms alongside your body and point your elbows back.

Press your forehead into the floor.

Separate your feet a little bit and roll your thighs in towards each other so you almost pigeon-toe your feet.

Lift your upper chest,

Drawing your shoulder blades down your back.

Keep the back of your neck long.

So carefully don't lift with your chin.

Feel the upper arms squeezing alongside either side of the torso.

Take some breaths here,

Inhaling and exhaling.

Beautiful.

Keep breathing.

All right,

And lower yourself back down.

Let your arms relax alongside your body here.

Turn your head to the side and take a really deep breath,

Inhaling and exhaling.

Bring your fingertips beside your chest again,

Bending at the elbows,

Thumbs in line with the nipples.

Draw your inner arms towards each other.

This time,

Tuck your toes under and lift your knees up off the floor,

But keep your feet pressed into the floor.

Lift your upper chest,

Feel the back of your neck long,

Draw your shoulder blades down your back.

Great.

Lift your hands up off the floor.

Now,

Reach your arms back behind you and grab hold of the backs of your thighs with your hands.

Turn your thighs in towards each other.

In other words,

You're going to separate your buttocks or let your buttocks expand outwards.

Then take your fingers and place them on your buttocks and just feel them for a moment.

So in yoga,

As my teacher,

Alan Finger,

Says,

It's good manners to feel your buttocks because you want to make sure that your buttocks are soft.

Release your hands now and lengthen them alongside your body with the palms facing down.

And lift your thighs up off the floor and lift your feet up off the floor,

Pointing your toes back.

Make sure your hands are up off the floor as well.

Back of the neck long.

This is called locust pose.

So you're breathing here,

You might even like to imagine yourself flying down the street.

Good.

Keep breathing.

You're a super person.

And then slowly lower yourself all the way back down.

Turn your head to the side and take some breaths here.

Inhaling and exhaling.

Great.

And we'll do one more.

So bend your knees.

Reach back.

And then you're going to take a belt and you're going to take a belt and you're going to hold on to the belt.

Keep your inner thighs drawing towards each other.

Press your forehead into the floor.

As you inhale,

Raise your upper chest,

Lengthen through your spine,

And then softly draw your heels away from your buttocks.

If your knees bother,

You separate your knees a little bit and keep thinking of internally rotating the thighs.

So think of spreading the buttocks away from each other.

Good.

This is called dhanurasana or bow pose.

Take a couple of breaths here.

Just lift up.

Try not to let your head or your chin lift.

Draw your neck in or draw your neck long.

All right.

And release from the pose.

Let your legs go.

Take a breath.

Turn your head to the side.

Breathing and exhaling here.

All right.

And then from here,

Roll over onto your back.

Have your knees bent and your feet flat.

And we'll come into bridge pose.

So if you have a block or a book,

You can place it in between your thighs.

You want your arms alongside your body with your feet directly underneath your knees and your feet hip width apart.

Slowly start to tuck your tailbone under and raise your pelvis towards the ceiling.

And as you exhale,

Slowly lower your pelvis back down.

This is called moving bridge.

Inhale,

Raise your pelvis to the ceiling.

And exhale,

Lower your pelvis back down.

Inhale,

Raise your pelvis to the ceiling.

And exhale,

Lower your pelvis back down.

And inhale,

Raise your pelvis to the ceiling.

And exhale,

Lower your pelvis back down.

And inhale,

Raise your pelvis to the ceiling.

And exhale,

Lower your pelvis back down.

Great.

Hug your thighs in towards you.

So lower your left foot to the floor and keep your left knee bent with your left foot flat.

Hug your right thigh in towards you.

Flex through your right foot.

Bring your right hand behind your right thigh and extend your right foot to the ceiling.

Feel the stretch through the back of your right leg.

And just breathe here,

Inhaling and exhaling.

Make sure your shoulders stay relaxed down your back and that you're not lifting your head up off the floor.

So if your head comes up off the floor naturally when you're doing this,

Place a blanket underneath your head.

Take a couple of breaths here.

We're stretching into our hamstring muscles.

And then bend your knee and lower your foot to the floor.

Draw your left thigh in towards you and hug your left shin in.

And extend your left foot to the ceiling.

Hold on behind your left thigh.

Feel the inner thighs drawing towards each other.

And just breathe here,

Inhaling and exhaling.

Good.

See if you can really bring your mind to your breath.

So in the more relaxed poses on the floor,

It's much harder to stay focused on what you're doing.

Now is the time when you maybe start to think a little bit.

What's happening next?

You know,

When's this going to be over?

I'm going to do this,

I'm going to do that.

So you really want to use extra,

Extra work here to bring your mind to your breath.

Great.

And then lower that foot down.

Hug both knees in towards you and take your arms out to the side at shoulder height.

All over onto your right side and stack your left hand on top of your right hand.

Let your knees stack on top of each other as well.

Don't get too comfortable here because we're going to open out that left hand.

And as you open out that left hand,

Feel that you're keeping the knees stacked so your left shoulder might not touch the floor.

That's okay.

You can even bend at the elbow and place your left hand on your left rib cage.

This is a twisting pose.

So take some breaths here.

Okay.

And then from here roll over onto your back.

Bring your knees back to your chest.

And then roll over onto your other side.

So you're going to roll onto your left side now with your right hand on top of your left.

Great.

Stack your knees and then open out your right arm.

Moving here,

Inhaling and exhaling and if your shoulder doesn't easily touch the floor,

Bring your hand to your rib cage.

So in terms of rotation in our spine,

We have a lot of movement in our neck.

We can turn our neck all the way around practically.

Well,

Not quite.

We have less rotation in the torso but we have quite a bit.

Our lower back has the least amount of rotation,

About 5 degrees.

So you really want to try and keep that right knee stacked on top of the left so that you keep the hip bones in line with each other.

And then you're twisting through the upper spine which stretches into the abdominal area.

And then draw your thighs to your belly and lower your feet back down to the floor.

Let's bring the soles of the feet together and the knees wide into supta baddha konasana or reclining goddess pose.

Let your arms relax alongside your body.

If it's hard for you to get your knees towards the floor or your inner thighs bother you,

Then place blocks or books underneath the outsides of your thighs.

And just relax.

In a moment we'll be doing shavasana.

So just keep breathing here.

Just keep relaxing.

And then when you feel ready,

Slowly lengthen your legs out so that you're extending your legs along the floor.

So shavasana is a really powerful pose.

It allows you to receive everything that you've just done.

When you start your practice,

It's like you're an empty vessel.

And as you practice,

You fill yourself with energy.

And then once you're full of energy,

That energy needs to disperse or leave the body.

And as the energy leaves your body,

It takes with it anything it doesn't need.

So anything that you've been hanging onto or feeling stuck on,

It's leaving you.

And so at the end of shavasana,

You'll feel really refreshed and really relaxed.

So spend about five minutes here,

Ten minutes if you can,

Just lying still.

So gently bring your awareness back to your body.

Gently moving your fingers and your toes.

Roll to your right side,

Just resting there for a few moments.

Press your left hand into the floor as you press up to sitting.

Come to a comfortable cross-legged seat for a moment.

Have one heel in front of the other.

Let your palms come to touch and have your head bow.

Letting your head surrender to the wisdom of your heart.

And as you're here for a moment,

Take this empty feeling and this stillness and let that openness,

That lightness,

That freedom in your body,

Perhaps the joy in your heart,

Let that spread out into each moment of your day.

Hari Om Om Tat Sat.

Namaste.

Namaste.

Namaste.

Namaste.

Namaste.

Namaste.

Namaste.

Namaste.

Namaste.

Reviews

So great to go back to the basics with you Rachel! Thoroughly enjoyed hearing you. Namastè