Gentle Evening Yoga For Stiff Joints

If your joints feel stiff, achy, or tired at the end of the day, this gentle evening yoga flow is designed to help you unwind, release tension, and prepare your body for rest.

This practice is done on the floor, but if getting down isn’t comfortable, you can follow along on your bed instead.
We’ll move slowly and mindfully, focusing on ease rather than intensity. There’s no pushing or forcing, just kind, joint-friendly movement to help you settle before sleep.

Remember to listen to your body, only do what you feel you can, and pause if needed.

Transcript

Hello Flowly friends and welcome to this evening flow. This flow can be done on the floor or on your bed. So whichever one feels the most comfortable for you, I'd rather you be there. You are going to need a cushion or a pillow and I suggest that you get into your comfiest clothes, Maybe even your pyjamas if you want to. So we're actually going to start in a seated position. And if you can get into a cross legged position, Great. But if that's not accessible to you, Maybe sit with your legs extended. Maybe you can support your knees with a cushion or even sit on a cushion. Do what feels the best to you. So I'm going to sit with my legs extended. And we're just going to take a little bit of an upper body stretch so whenever you're ready just take an inhale and sweep the arms up into the air Take a nice big reach out. Just reach and stretch, Maybe have a little wiggle of your fingers. And then as you exhale, Nice and gently just lower the arms down. Fingertips just land by your side. Let's take a couple of those. Inhale, Reach it up. Reach and stretch. And then exhale. Just float it down. Perfect. One more. Inhale. Nice big reach. Float those arms up. Reach reach reach feel that stretch all the way through the torso and then exhale Float the arms down. So we're going to take a few little neck stretches now. So just place your hands on your knees or on your lap. Let your shoulders relax down. Take a nice deep breath. Find some length through your spine. And then as you exhale, We're going to drop right ear to right shoulder. Nice and gently. Feeling that lovely little stretch on the left side of your neck. And take a couple of breaths here. Close your eyes so you can really tune in to. That lovely little release. Stretching, Releasing some of that tension that we tend to build up in the neck. During the day perfect take an inhale slowly bring the head back to center and then drop left ear to left shoulder Same again, Just tuning into that right side. Notice how it feels. Staying here for a couple of breaths. And then inhale slowly slowly head comes back to center and then we're going to drop right ear to right shoulder again And then we're going to just kind of change this stretch a little bit. So once your ear is to shoulder, Bring your awareness right to the tip of your nose and then just gently turn the nose down towards your right shoulder. So just be careful that when you move that you don't hunch up your left shoulder. We sometimes tend to do that when we move. If you did do that, Let it relax down. And then you might just look off your shoulder just notice how this kind of changed that stretch it goes a little bit more behind the back of the ear Perfect. Inhale, Slowly bring the nose back. To centre lovely gazing forward Nice and gently when you're ready take left ear to left shoulder. Feel the stretch, Bring the awareness right to the tip of your nose and then gently, Gently turning the nose down towards. Your left shoulder. Just gazing off the end or you might keep your eyes closed, Staying here for a couple of breaths. And let it go. Perfect. Take an inhale. Slowly, Slowly bring your head back to centre. Now we're going to drop the chin down to the chest. Nice and slow. Just really lower. Gently, Gently. Perfect. And then when you get here, If you can roll your shoulders back just a little bit. This deepens the stretch, Can release a little bit of tension right across the back of your shoulders. Base of the neck, Breathe deeply. And let it go. Inhale. And release. Perfect. Take an inhale, Slowly, Gently bring the head back to centre. OK, We're going to do some little torso circles now. So if you've got your legs extended like me, Maybe just bring your hands to either side, Little fingertips, Just gently resting down and start to circle around. You can kind of use your hands here to kind of stop you going too far. If you've got your legs crossed, You can just place your hands on your knees and nice and gently start. To rotate. So just do what feels good for you here. If you can close your eyes. Starting to release some of that tension, Top of the hip. Maybe a little tension you might be holding through the back if you've been seated all day. Maybe there's just a little bit of stiffness there. Know sometimes when we haven't been doing much We get a little stiff, So sometimes a little bit of movement before bed is definitely what we need to help us then relax that little bit more. Perfect, Come to a little stop and then take your circles in the opposite direction. Remember to just breathe naturally here. Notice how your spine feels. Notice how the back of your hips feels. By tuning into these areas, You're just kind of noticing if you are holding tension here. Sometimes we don't know we're holding tension in areas until we really focus on them. So it's a good thing to do. Nice and gently just bring yourself back to center. We're going to do some seated cat cow. So if your legs were extended, Take a little bend into the knees, Bringing the feet flat. To the floor If your legs are crossed, That's fine. You can keep them crossed and just place your hands on your knees. So if your knees are bent, Same as well. Hands just around the fronts of the knees. Keep the feet nice and flat to the floor. And then we're all going to do the same thing. We're going to take a cat cow. So we're going to take an inhale. We're going to lift the chest. Up towards the sky dropping the shoulders And then exhale, We're rounding the spine. Chin towards the chest, Feeling that lovely rounding, You feel that stretch through the shoulders. Inhale slowly. We come back, Lifting the chest, Lift the gaze. As you lift up, Sometimes those shoulders hunch, So we try and just lower them down. And then exhale. Round it out. So just continue like this into cat, Into cow. Inhale to lift the chest for cow pose. Exhale. Rounding that spine for your Perfect. So really nice little movement. Stretch out the spine. It's a way to connect to the rhythm of your breath as well. Gives that sense of calm, That sense of grounding. Just let those stresses of the day melt away. Perfect, Let's do one more round here. So lifting the chest into cow, Exhale. Rounding. And to Kat. Perfect. Bring yourself back into an upright position and then we're going to make our way down on to our back. So just nice and gently. Bring yourself down. Wonderful. Now, If you want to here, You can pop your pillow maybe underneath your head just so you add a little bit of comfort here. If you've got any type of kind of back issue or low back issue, You might pop a little pillow underneath your back as well. So entirely up to you. Make yourself comfortable. Okay, We're going to do some little twists here. We're going to take the arms out into a T shape. And then we're just going to draw the knees in towards the chest. So bringing the knees together. Draw them in and then take an inhale. And as you exhale, Nice and gently rotate the knees over to the right. Lovely let them land maybe they don't quite touch the floor and that's fine But just bring them across the body. Feel that twist, That stretch. Staying here for a moment. One big breath in. Let it go. And then draw your navel towards your spine, Nice big breath. Rotate the knees back to centre. And then gently take them over to the left. So same again, Just let them land. Kind of feel that midsection twist. And then take a nice big breath in Exhale. Perfect. You're unable to spine. Inhale. Rotate the knees. And exhale, Take it over to the right. And then same again, We stay here for one breath. Make it a nice deep one. Sigh out if you want to just release The stresses of the day, Sometimes it feels good to just, Ugh. We need that. I say this a lot. You'll probably notice this if you do more of my sessions. I say this a lot. That sigh out. It's yeah, It's really good for the soul. Take a nice big breath. Bring yourself back to centre. Take it to the other side. Nice and gently. Let everything land. Let everything get heavy. Then take your big breath. Perfect. Inhale slowly, Slowly back to centre. I'm going to go one more time each side. Over to the right let everything get heavy let your belly be soft as well when you get here breathe deeply Let it go. Perfect. Inhale, Back to centre. And take it to the other side. Wonderful. Last big breath here. Exhale. Excellent. And then nice and gently just bring the knees back to center and then just allow your feet just to land back on the floor. Now, Sometimes with that moving from side to side, You start to shift down your mat a little, Which I've done here. So, You know, Kind of center yourself again if you need to. This probably doesn't happen. Quite as easily if you're on your bed, But definitely happens if you're on a mat. And now we're gonna do a nice little gentle hip opener. And this pose is really lovely. It's really relaxing. So we're gonna do reclined tree pose. So you're gonna extend your left leg out along the mat or on your bed. And then with the right knee bent, You're just going to let that knee gently fall out to the side. Now, If you wanted to, You could maybe fold your pillow up, Maybe support your knee here if you needed. So that can feel quite nice. But if you're quite happy to just let the knee. Be held by gravity, Then go for it. And then nice and gently, We're going to take a nice big reach up of the arms, Just taking them alongside the ears. Maybe we take a little stretch here. So reaching, Reaching, Reaching. Take a nice big breath. And then as you exhale, You just take a little softness in the arms. Let them relax down. Let your elbows soften and then just let your body fully let go. So you feel the upper body just. . . Getting a little heavier Those muscles start to relax. Belly softens. But then we're also getting that nice gentle opening front of that right hip. A little stretch into the groin, Into the inner thigh. Stay here for a few breaths, Really trying to enjoy this pose. Perfect. We're going to slowly transition to the other side now. So nice and gently just release your right arm down by your side and just gently lift up that right knee. And then extend the leg out slowly out along the mat, Along your bed. Take a little bend into the left knee. Let the foot just land on the floor first. And then take that knee out to the side. And if you supported your knee on the opposite side with that pillow. And you can do that again. Take in the arms. Back alongside the ears. Maybe you take that little stretch again. Sometimes it's nice to just. Reach and stretch. And then as you exhale, Find that softness. Find that softness through the arms and shoulders. Let it flow down into your torso, Belly soften. Hips soften but are gently open. That left hip is gently open. Relaxing the right leg. Again, Just letting your whole body surrender, Surrender to the mat, Surrender to your bed. Trying our best to get out of our heads. Getting into the body. If you notice any areas of tension within the body. Trying to let them go, Trying to let them soften with each exhale. Maybe you breathe deeply into that area. And then taking that long, Slow, Conscious exhale out of your mouth. And then just noticing how that muscle, That joint, That area. Gently start to melt that tension away. Stay here for a few more breaths. Perfect. Whenever you're ready, Take a little wiggle of your fingers. And then nice and gently just release your arms down by your side. We're gently lifting up the left knee. And then take a little bend into the right knee as well. We're going to draw the knees in towards the chest. For a nice little hug. Keep yourself. Little squeeze here and then maybe you take a little rock from side to side Take a nice deep breath in. Tire out. And then give yourself one last little squeeze, Squeeze, Squeeze, Squeeze the knees in. And then just gently release yourself out, Maybe full shavasana, Taking up space with arms and legs. Or you could opt for a little constructive rest with knees bent. Your feet flat. To the surface you're laying on and just letting the knees rest against each other. So it really doesn't matter which option you go for. And then just let the whole body go here. Let yourself fully let go, Fully relax. Again, Maybe you breathe deeply here. Maybe that's going to feel good. Or maybe just keeping the breath as natural as possible. Right or wrong, Just do. What feels good? Do take a moment though to notice how you feel in your body right now. Hopefully you've been able to release the stresses of the day. With simple, Gentle movements. And then whenever you're ready, Maybe you just turn onto your side. Maybe you take yourself straight into sleep. Or maybe you want to get up for a little while. And if that's the case then just nice and gently take a little roll onto your side body when you're ready. Staying here for a few moments. And then when you're ready just slowly pressing yourself. Into a comfortable seated position. Maybe you go back to cross legs or maybe extending those legs out. Keeping your eyes closed, Let your shoulders relax down. And then just taking a moment just to thank yourself for just honouring your body in the evening, Taking those few moments for yourself to really release some tension. Let go of the day, Especially if it's been busy, Especially if it's been stressful. And then take one last cleansing breath, The biggest breath you've taken so far today. Deep inhale in through your nose. And a nice big noisy sigh out. Pop a little smile on your face. And then when you're ready, Gently blinking open the eyes. That brings us to the end of this gentle evening flow. I hope that you enjoyed it and I hope to see you in the next video. Take good care.

Reviews

Lovely flow. Very calming and relaxing. Thank you, Rachel!