Core Strength Yoga For Beginners

This video will focus on the entire core: abdominals, shoulders, triceps, back, and chest. The focus is on balance between muscle groups, strengthening followed by stretching. This yoga session is accessible for beginners.

Transcript

Welcome. Today we're going to focus on having a strong core. So that's not just the abdominals. It's also chest, Shoulders, Triceps, Back. We're going to try to get the whole facet of the experience. And let's start from the beginning in a restorative chest opening pose. Grab two blocks. Your first block would lay down flat on the mat and the second block on the long edge. So you see they make kind of a slope. It's hard to tell how far apart to put them until we lay down. So let's just discover how it feels. We'll lay our shoulders and our rib cage kind of area across the first block and then the the head just is caught by the second one You want it to feel comfortable. Although it is a block, So it may not be the most comfortable thing, But you want it to feel bearable. Something you can hold for a moment. So we're going to let our shoulders just roll down and take our arms by our sides. So there's this natural opening up of the chest. Then the feet, What are they doing? Feet together, Knees open to the side. So there's a gradual opening up of the inner thigh. I like my palms to the sky so that I can feel just free and open and loose through the front. We're just gonna breathe. Course feel free to adjust the blocks till they feel like they are holding your chest open. Expanding it without too much pressure When we do poses like this, It's a passive experience in that the block is holding our body. Holding us in position and we can just relax. Here we're trying to open up this space. We're going to be heavily focused. On this space today. So we're stretching it out. In a really relaxed way And we're starting to establish our breath. So begin to breathe in and out just through the nose. Interesting sensation to breathe with the block underneath the rib cage. You might be able to feel a different sensation as the air comes in and out. You might notice that rise and fall of the belly a little bit more. Or even the front of the ribs. We need our whole breathing apparatus. Feel it. Let's take one more breath here. Inhale. Exhale. Now gently just press onto your elbows so that you can remove the block. That rib one is a little harder to get out of the way. Remove the blocks. Lay down and pull your knees into your chest. So here we are pushing the curve of the spine to the floor. In our last pose, We were arched and here we're pressing it down. Pushing it in. Let's take our hands underneath our hips. And extend the legs up to the sky. The hands are here just to support our back so that we don't put pressure on our low back as we start to work on our lower abdominals and the psoas. So inhale, Lower the legs down to the floor just at a hover. If you want extra, You can look at your feet. Exhale lower it back i mean lift it back up to the top and lower your head down if you lifted your head let's try that again inhale lower to a hover if you want extra look at your feet exhale release the head bring the legs back up to the top Inhale. Lower and lift. Exhale. Lift and bring it back or lower and bring it back. Inhale. Feel those abdominals beginning to engage. Exhale. Last one, Inhale. Exhale. Nice job. Bend your knees. Put your feet on the floor. Take your hands and wrap them around your rib cage. This is to hold the ribs in place and to not strain the neck. So we wanna really feel like we're breathing as we're doing these abdominal crunches that we're gonna do now. So just take an inhale right here on the floor. Exhale, Lift. And feel the squeeze of the ribcage pulling in. Inhale. Ribcage expands a little. Exhale. Squeeze. Pull it in. Inhale. Exhale shouldn't feel straining on our neck at all inhale Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Once more, Inhale. Exhale. Nicely done lower down release your hands bring them by your sides now to stretch out the front of the body and squeeze the back body bridge pose lift and lower so we're going to move this bridge pose just keep the palms planted on the ground Inhale, Lift up. Really press through those hips so you can stretch that whole front. Exhale, Lower down. Inhale, Lift up. Feel the squeeze, Squeeze, Squeeze of the glutes and the hamstrings. Exhale lower down. Inhale lift up Exhale lower down. Two more. Inhale, Lift up. Squeeze squeeze squeeze exhale lower down Last one, Inhale, Lift up. Oh yeah! Exhale, Lower it down. Nicely done. Bring your knees into your chest and just roll over to one side. So that you can sit up onto all fours or come up we're not sitting come up onto all fours let's just gently stimulate the back with cat and cow then we'll add a little element for our abdominals So drop the belly down, Shoulders roll back. Inhale, Send your gaze up. Here we stretch the abdominals out. Exhale round. Now we squeeze them. Feel them squeeze and lift up as you press through the hips and the shoulders. Inhale, Arch. Belly drops down. Gaze up. Exhale, Round, Pull and lift. Inhale, Arch. Exhale round. Inhale, Arch. Exhale round. Once more inhale. Exhale. Good. Come back to neutral. Extend your right leg out. Inhale. Exhale, Bend your knee, Round it in. Inhale, Extend out, Add your arm. Exhale, Rounded in, Elbow to knee. Once more, Inhale, Extend it out. Exhale, Bring it in. Place your hand down lift that right leg up once again and just squeeze flex the foot You can feel this in the low back, Plus you're going to get your glute. And a little bit of the hamstring as well Just an isometric hold. Squeeze, Squeeze. Inhale. Exhale, Bring your leg, Right leg, In through the middle. And step it forward in between your hands. Now let's just keep the hands to the ground. We want to stretch everything out, But we've just tightened. So you may use your blocks, Hands on the blocks, As you press down into that hip. You can always not use the blocks. If you're able to reach the floor, Great. Then do that, Right? We do what we can, Pressing down. Good let's add a little twist to this keep your left hand on the floor or on the block whatever you have chosen and extend that right arm up to the sky Feel the chest expand. And lift. Open that heart center. Inhale. Exhale place your right hand down lift up onto the left foot and drop that left heel to the floor. Inhale reach up we're coming through warrior one but let's open up to a goal post position so a little bit different situation here more for the opening of the chest and let's do a little stimulation for the upper body inhale look up to the sky slight back bend there exhale bring your arms together it's like a chest press press those shoulder blades away from each other Inhale, Lift up and open. Exhale, Squeeze. Inhale lift up and open heart center really expanded there exhale squeeze Once more, Inhale. Exhale. Nicely done. Now lift up and just place your hands on your hips for a little bit of balance. I'll warn you, This side is not my strong side, So if I wobble, Just forget my inability. This is going to focus on our psoas right in the front. Let's lift that left leg up. Hover it And exhale, Place the foot back down. Nicely done. Inhale right here. Let's get our breath. Exhale, Lift and hover. Inhale extend exhale squeeze well there's my wobble once more inhale Exhale. Good job. Place that right foot down or left foot down, Sorry. Reach your arms up. Inhale. And exhale, Open it up to warrior two. Virabandrasana B. We're just going to sit here in our hips for a moment. Feel that strong position through the hips. Through your legs inner thigh opening up nice expanse of the chest if you need to you can always turn your palms to the sky and that will open up that heart center space even more and stretch out the shoulders Inhale. Exhale, Windmill the hands down to the mat. Step your right foot back. And let's come to our first downward facing doc. We haven't even done one of these yet. We're taking things a little differently today. Press your heels down toward the floor. It's okay if they don't touch all the way. And feel yourself lifted through those hips and stretched out through your shoulders. Now bend the knees to the mat. Let's change our arms. Move toward dolphin pose. So drop your elbows to the floor. You can clasp your hands as you see me doing. You can press your hands to the ground. I usually like to press, But either way, It's all good. And then you can decide. You can stay here and just push the ground away. See, If I let my body slump, There's no energy there. But if I lift up through my shoulders, I can feel more of the sensation through the upper back. If you want a greater challenge, Lift up onto your toes, Walk forward, And you're feeling that intense stimulation through the upper back. In this dolphin pose. Nicely done. Beautiful stretch. Beautiful strengthening, More like really, Right? Let's take one more breath here. Inhale. Exhale. Nice job. Bend your knees. Great work come up to all fours so we can repeat that entire combination for the left side let's start with cat and cow Drop your belly down, Shoulders roll back. Inhale, Send your gaze up. Exhale round through the spine pull and lift Inhale, Arch. A little stretching of those abdominals. Exhale round. Inhale, Arch. Exhale, Round. Great work now we're going to add another element starting with our left leg extend it out inhale Exhale, Bend your knee, Knee to nose, Everything rounds. Add your arm, Right arm. Inhale, Extend. Exhale, Elbow toward the knee. Inhale, Extend. Exhale, Elbow to the knee. Inhale place the right hand down lift that left foot up Flex your foot. Feel that isometric hold. Glute, Low back, Hamstring. Just keep breathing. Inhale exhale good job stick with it bring that left leg through and forward so we can stretch into anjanyasana sorry my hair came out driving me crazy so we can have our hands on the ground Or we can have our hands on the block. Blocks here or on the ground whatever you did last time the idea is just to stretch everything out stretch out the psoas stretch out the hip Open the space between the hips and the low back right at the sacrum. That's our intention here now. Good, Let's twist. Keep your right hand on the ground or on your block and extend that left arm up to the sky. So we're feeling that strong reach. Beautiful lift. Inhale. Exhale hand back down to the mat lift up onto your back right toe place the heel on the ground reach up inhale exhale open up variation of warrior one fear bendrasana a let's do our chest press look up inhale Exhale, Bend your body. Bring your elbows toward each other. Everything rounds. That space between the shoulders just opens up. Inhale, Lift. Exhale, Round. Inhale, Lift. Exhale, Round. Good inhale lift up out of it let's take our hands to our hips for balance exhale ready for our lift you're going to swing the right leg forward and hover it inhale here catch that balance exhale squeeze Inhale, Extend. Exhale, Squeeze. Squeeze the air out. Inhale. Exhale. Once more inhale Exhale. Inhale lower it down reach up come through warrior one exhale let's open up to warrior two i'll switch sides so you can see so i can see you Good, And we're just feeling strong and steady. Warrior poses are great for our core. We have to hold all this in. We have to lift. We have to engage. Becomes a very powerful sensation and feeling through our body remember you can turn your palms to the sky if you feel like you need to adjust there Please do. One more breath. Inhale. Exhale, Windmill your hands down to the mat. Step that left foot back. Return to Atta Mukha Svanasana. Downward Facing Dog. Very nice. Let's bend our knees and come to our dolphin pose. You can drop the elbows to the floor, Clasp or just press whatever. Once again you can just lift into the shoulders so instead of being all saggy and loose Lift up. Engage. Option A. Option B, Come up onto your toes, Walk forward. That's definitely going to engage a little bit more. It's going to force you to use your shoulders, Use your triceps. Both are fine. We always just do what we can. We listen to our breath. Listen to our body. Let's take one more breath here. Inhale. Exhale. Bend your knees, Nicely done. Sit back to a child's pose, Reach your arms forward, Or if your arms feel especially tired, You can bring them around your sides. And just let them rest right by the legs, Whatever feels good. Inhale lift up nice job exhale. Just roll yourself around to sit Very good. We want to simultaneously, So at the same time, Stretch out our hips, Our back, But also engage our obliques next. That'll be our next goal. So take your left leg straight forward and the right leg bent up to the side here. This is Janusir Sasana A. You might find a strap to be handy. Place it around your left foot. If you don't need the strap because you can grab your toes, That's fine. Sit tall, Inhale, Exhale, Walk forward along that strap if you can. Press your shoulders down. So guide them down your back. Take a deep breath. Inhale. Look up. Pull in through the middle of the body. Udayana bandha engagement is using the abdominals. Exhale lower back down As long as we can use Uddiyana Bandha, We're really utilizing our core strength. So keep pulling up and in. It's like there's an imaginary. . . String attached to your belly button and you're pulling up. Lifting in. Nice job. Inhale lift up. Exhale, Release. Very nice. Take your left leg open to the side. I'm going to move my blocks out of the way there. And just adjust the right leg according however you need to you can grab onto your strap and bend your elbow so you're leaning toward that left leg or if you can grab your foot just go ahead and grab your foot either way is fine extend that right arm up And let your gaze follow. Good. So we are feeling that strong reach through the side body down into that hip. That outer back, Lower back area of our hips. And stretching out that oblique there. Good but we also want to strengthen our oblique too we'll do this fun little exercise almost like a little dance let's bring our We probably don't need our straps. So I'm going to set it off to the side. Bring our right hand down to the floor. We're going to lift up and press. So squeeze, Squeeze, Squeeze those hips forward. And you're squeezing that right oblique. Exhale, Lower it down. Try that again. Inhale, It helps if you swoop your arm. A little dancey like I said. Squeeze, Squeeze, Squeeze. Exhale, Lower it down. Two more times inhale lift up onto that right leg squeeze squeeze squeeze exhale bring it down we're getting a stretch in the left side body at the same time aren't we inhale lift up Exhale, Lower it down. Nice job good job come back to our center Let's switch sides with Janusir Sasana A. So bend. Oh, Nope, We just did that side. Bend the left leg and take your strap around your right foot. Maybe you don't need the strap. It's all good. Sit tall. Inhale. Exhale. Walk forward along that strap. Draw your shoulder blades down. Tuck your chin a little bit. We can feel that hamstring oh utilize uddhyana uddhyana bandha inhale Exhale, Fold deeper. Just keep pulling up and in right through the center of our body. Beautiful stretching. Beautiful opening up of the back. Every time we stimulate our muscles, Squeeze them, We want to then lengthen them. Helps the muscles to feel really great. Lift up. Nice job. Exhale open up to the side you can use the strap or you can just hold your foot either way lean toward that right side press your left side down and lift up and over So we're stretching out that left side of the body. A little bit of a squeeze into the right side. It feels so nice to lengthen the torso. We spend a lot of time seated or, You know, In cars or at computers and traveling. So we feel like we need that link. We need to bring it back into our bodies good lift up very nice remove the strap we don't need it take your left hand to the floor down back behind you a little bit and let's swoop that right arm inhale swoop lifting onto that left leg squeeze that left side exhale lower back down Good. Keep going. Inhale, Lift. Exhale lower. Two more. Inhale. Exhale, Lower. Last one, Inhale, Lift. Exhale lower. Nicely done. Good. Bring both feet together. Baddha Konasana just feels really nice on the low back. Bring your feet as close as you can. Sit nice and tall. Inhale. Exhale. Fold forward. Extend your torso as far forward as you can. Let your gaze just drop down. We can feel that space right in between our hips open up. Even as we press down into those hip flexors, We can really open that space. Ah, It feels nice. Really tight today. I don't know But it feels good to work with you today. Thanks for joining. Good. Inhale lift up nice work Exhale, Release the feet. Let's lower ourselves onto our stomach. We'll do a little bit more with our low back and our triceps. So lower down onto the stomach and take your hands right by your rib cage. This is a variation of cobra pose. We're going to use our hands to press so that we can get a little tricep work along with our back work. Keep your shoulders rolled back, Elbows toward your rib cage. Inhale, Press into the floor. Back and triceps, Little shoulders. Exhale, Lower. Inhale, Press. Exhale lower. Inhale press keep those elbows squeezed that's how we get those triceps Exhale lower. Two more, Inhale, Press. We're going for five. Exhale, Lower. You can feel it in your shoulders. Maybe you can too. Once more. Inhale, Lift. Exhale, Lower. Nicely done. Relax your arms. Just bring them by your sides. Rest your head on the mat for just a moment. A breath or two. And we'll lastly do a variation of Salabhasana. Salabhasana C. Our hands back behind us, Clasp. Let's lift our chest, Lift our legs and hover in place. Inhale karma. You see, I'm just gazing down the bridge of my nose so that we're not straining our neck at all. And we can feel that low back engagement. Glutes low back hamstrings shoulder blades pulling toward each other as we stretch out those arms and really strengthen those arms on the upper body and the chest. Great job. Take one more breath here. Inhale. Exhale, Come on down. Nice job. Press with your hands up and over. Let your knees open and sit back. Stretch out that lower back once more. Good work. We did some great work for the entire spine. Let's do a little low back twist here. Walk your hands over to your right side. And just press. You might feel this in the outer left shoulder. You might feel it right in between your hips and your low back. Walk your hands over to the left side so now we can feel that right side we're pressing down Stretching out. Beautiful stretch. Good. Inhale lift up enough that you can roll over onto your back Exhale. We just want to bring everything back full circle. So we kind of started here. Of our knees toward our chest. Let's take a spinal twist to finish, Just to release everything through the low back. So let your legs drop over to the right. Extend that left arm out and turn your gaze over your left side. So we're feeling that rotation of the back. A little deep, Well, I think it deep. Little or deep, Whatever. A nice stretch along the front of your chest and shoulder. You can feel that outer hip. We can feel the low back. Just letting everything unwind a little bit. But really hopefully doing service to the parts of our body that we intensify. We did some chest, We did some shoulders. Now we can stretch it out. Let it relax and let it release. Good. Inhale, Come back to the center. Exhale drop your legs to the opposite side extend out that right arm and the gaze over the right side We can let everything reverse here. Trying to release. Trying to stretch out. Voilà. Inhale, Come back into the center. If you would like to end exactly the way we started, You would just grab your block once again. Here's a different variation though if you'd like. You can put just one block on the floor. Then you would have I just cracked my back. You'd have your rib cage on that block and the head would come to the floor. So it's a little bit more opening for the throat. If that is too intense on your head, Then you certainly just grab that second block again. And you can prop yourself up. So you are welcome to take your Shavasana. From this position this does not appeal to you then don't do it. Take your blocks out of the way. Lay down one leg to each edge of the mat shoulders rolled under palms up Close your eyes. Traditional Shavasana. Do what you feel is going to support the practice that we've had together today. I'll let you rest in your space. I'll wake you up with the sound of a bell. So have no concerns. Just be here resting, Enjoying, Taking in all of the good work that you've done. Start to wake yourself up. Rotate through your wrists and your ankles point and flex your feet. Stretch your arms overhead to lengthen through your entire body Roll yourself over to one side in fetal pose. Which signifies a new beginning starting over after a reset of Beautiful yoga together. Gently press up to a comfortable seated position. And bring your hands to heart center. We'll finish with this quote by Bukio Dendai Kokai. Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle. And the life of the single candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. Thank you for your practice today everyone. Namaste.