Daily Yoga Routine For Yoga Teachers

Yoga Teachers- you spend so much time teaching others. How do you keep up your strength, feel rejuvenated, and do self care for yourself? I have a quick yoga routine that you can run through before you start teaching to warm you up, get you breathing, and get your focus. Practice with me!

Transcript

Hello. When you're a yoga teacher, You often don't spend enough time taking care of your own body as you do taking care of others. We give all our time away to our clients and our classes, And we need to make sure we care for ourselves. So this is a daily, Just go-to yoga practice that you can do. One, To warm up your body. Two, To get rid of that feeling of guilt that you're not doing yoga for yourself. And three, To stay strong so that you can help your clients. So just follow along. It's a simple sequence, Mostly based on Ashtanga yoga, But you can do it at any pace that you want. So we're going to start, I'll turn to my side, With Sira Namaskara A. We'll take three Sira Namaskara A right in a row using our breath. Here we go. Inhale, Lift your arms up to the sky. Exhale swan dive forward. Take any modifications you need here, Bending your knees if you'd like. Inhale look up halfway lift. Maybe your hands come all the way to your shins Exhale hands down step back hop back if you want Chaturanga you can drop to your knees here, Too Inhale, Urava Mukha Svanasana, Upward Facing Dog. Exhale, Roll back to Adha Mukha Svanasana, Downward Facing Dog. Now don't rush through this part. Let's stay here for five full breaths. It's almost like giving our mind a rest too. You know how when you teach yoga, You're thinking the whole time. So this is a spot where we can just breathe and not think. Nice bend your knees look forward inhale step or hop up to the hands however you get there is fine exhale fold down into your legs Inhale reverse swan dive reach all the way up to the sky Exhale, Samastiti. Good. Second one. Inhale, Lift up. Exhale float forward Inhale, Look up halfway, Lift. Exhale, Hands down. Stepper hop back. Chaturanga. Any modifications here that you need is fine. Inhale, Urva Mukha Svanasana, Or maybe you're on your belly doing Cobra. Exhale, Atamukha Svanasana. I figure you're a yoga teacher, You know what modifications you need. This is really just a personal practice. So do what you know you can do. And of course here, We're breathing. We're letting our body relax. Wow. Bend your knees. Look forward. Inhale. Step or hop to the hands. Exhale. Fold down into your legs. Uchanasana. Inhale reverse swan dive erva hastasana up to the sky exhale samasthiti good one more sira namaskara a inhale lift up Exhale floats down all the way down inhale look up halfway lift Exhale, Hands down. Stepper hop back. Chaturanga. Inhale, Urva Mukha Svanasana. Exhale, Atamukha Svanasana. I like doing this sequence before I start a class because one, It warms up my body, And two, It just kind of connects a rhythm. Can start feeling that rhythm with how my body and my breath are linked together. I find that to be very valuable before I start teaching. Feel it in my own body first. Bend your knees. Look forward. Inhale. Step or hop up to the hands. Exhale fold down into your legs Inhale reverse swan dive reach up to the sky Exhale samasthiti good now to Sarah namaskara be Inhale, Bend your knees. Utkatasana chair pose. Exhale, Fold forward Uttanasana Inhale, Look up. Ardha Uttanasana. Exhale, Hands down. Step or hop back. Chaturanga Dandasana. Inhale, Uravamukha Svanasana. Exhale, Adhemukha Svanasana. Right foot steps forward inhale drop that left heel raise up to virabhadrasana a exhale hands down step back chaturanga Inhale, Urva Mukha Svanasana. Exhale, Atamukha Svanasana. Left foot, Inhale. Drop that right heel down. Virabhadrasana A. Exhale hands down step back chaturanga Inhale, Uravamukhasvanasana. Exhale, Atamukha Svanasana. Do you sometimes feel like when you teach class it's like a marathon? This is how you're going to build up your stamina. Sierra Namaskara B. But here we get to break. Always take that five breath break in down dog. Child's pose too if you need one. Bend your knees. Look forward. Inhale. Stepper hop up to the hands. Exhale fold down into your legs inhale bend your knees lift to utkatasana Exhale, Samasthiti. Feeling warm yet? Here's our last Sura Namaskara B. Inhale, Lift. Exhale float forward Inhale, Look up halfway, Lift. Exhale hands down stepper hop back chaturanga Inhale, Uravamukha Svanasana. Exhale, Atamukha Svanasana. Inhale right foot forward left heel down the verabhadrasana a Exhale, Hands down. Step back. Chaturanga. Inhale, Urva Mukha Svanasana. Exhale, Atamakasvanasana. Inhale left foot forward right heel down Virabhadrasana A Exhale, Hands down, Step back, Chaturanga. Inhale, Urva Mukha Svanasana. Exhale. Atta Mukha Svanasana. Breathe out your mouth if you need to. Child's pose if you need to. Relax. From here, We're going to hop, Step, Or walk forward to sit. So bend your knees, Look forward, Step, Hop, Or walk through. However you get there is fine. Let's swing our legs in front. Unextended for Paschimottanasana. So hopefully we've warmed up our body nicely. Take a breath. Inhale. Exhale reach forward Grab onto your legs. You know if you need a strap because you're a yoga teacher. Pull up through your center, Inhale. Exhale, Relax. Relax your shoulders. Relax your neck and your jaw. Folding down. Feels nice to lengthen out the spine extending those hips low back Good. Inhale lift up Exhale release the legs. Let's roll down onto our backs Knees bent, Feet hip-width distance apart. Ready to begin. Settabandha Sarvangasana, Or Bridge Pose. From the base of the spine, Start to roll up. Bring your hands underneath. Clap them together. Feel that opening up of the chest and the heart center and the building up of the strength in the low back. Good, We're gonna do two of these. So this is our first one. Each pose is held for about five breaths. Take one more breath. Inhale. Exhale, Release your hands and lower back down. Now if you feel warm enough, If your practice allows you to do a wheel pose, I'll demonstrate that next. Or you can just clasp your hands underneath and do a second bridge. So if you're following me into wheel, I just have to move my hair. Take your hands right by your low back. I mean your shoulders, Not your low back. Your shoulders. And press up using the muscles in the low back to get ourselves up. Good so this is wheel pose if you can't hold it for five breaths just make sure that you tuck your chin on the way down Remember you can do a bridge pose again. Honor your own body. Honor your practice. We're just trying to warm ourselves up and be connected so that we can be better teachers. We're not trying to strain ourselves past our limits. One more breath, Inhale. Exhale, Come on down. Good, Good. Bring your knees into your chest. Apanasana. Just relax. Relax the back. And the hips. And that stimulating breath. Good. Now either roll to one side or rock yourself up to sit once more. We're going to do one more forward bend. This time to lengthen out all those back muscles that we just engaged and squeezed. Sit tall. Inhale. Exhale. Reach forward. Pull those shoulder blades down and back. Take a breath. Inhale. Look at those feet. Engage Uddiyana Bandha. Exhale. Fold back down even deeper. Let everything relax. You you Good. Inhale lift up exhale release your feet come to sit i like to end my little personal practice with a moment of meditation just in sukhasana or you could take lotus pose here baddha padmasana You could also take a Shavasana if you wanted. I just tend to get sleepy and really relaxed. Instead, I'm trying to be energized for class. So I like to take this moment to just close my eyes. Think about the way that the this just this simple practice felt in my own body both energizing and relaxing as we strengthened and moved and stretched And I like to find an intention, A focus. For my quality of teaching. As I move forward without, You know, Through my teaching day. I always. . . I always try to focus on helping those who walk through the door. The class is not for me. It's for them. So I will leave you here in meditation for as long as you'd like. Thank you so much for joining me, For focusing on your body, Just 10 minutes of your time to get everything in line so that you can become a greater teacher than you even are now. Namaste.