by Yogiwhale
Join me in a 1 hour yoga class focused on movement, flow and stretch of the body to prepare for your meditation. Practice is suitable for all levels, please use appropriate props where needed to make your yoga comfortable and accessible! Thanks for practising with me!
Transcript
Good morning yogis. Welcome to this beautiful forest spot on a bright summer's day in England. We're going to start today's practice in dandasana which is always a little bit of an awkward one to remain in with your body because our bodies are not quite built to sit like this. So legs can be locked out here because we're not putting any weight on them. Back is nice and upright. Force your back and shoulders up to be really straight with the spine. Bring your toes towards your body so you're flexing them towards you and you'll soon see what I mean about the awkwardness of this pose but just remain here for a moment quite stiff and ritted a right angle shape with your body eyes can be closed or just a soft gaze down as you arrive with some breaths Staying rigid and stiff. If you find this a little bit too awkward to remain in, You can always just place your hands at the side, Use that for a little bit of support, A bit of scaffolding on the side of your body. We're going to take three rounds of breath. Using the breast technique and our body. To come from this rigidness to relaxation so it'll go a little bit like this we're going to take a deep breath in We're gonna inflate a little bit more and then on our exhale just completely flop down. And when we're ready take a breath in take a little bit more, Stay rigid and hold 4, 3, 2, 1 slowly exhale through your mouth and just soften the body and again Inhale. Get stiff. Inhale a bit more. And hold. Four three two one exhale just feel that weight lift from your body and again inhale get rigid Inhale a bit more. And a hole. And relax. Let's go for two more times. Inhale. Inhale a bit more. Relax. And last time inhale Inhale. Relax. Now relieve your legs that have been holding you. Against the floor there and just bring them in. For a bent. Leg, Hold the back of the legs and we'll take cat cow movement with the spine, So folding chin to chest and then inhale push your chest forward towards the knees exhale out contract and squeeze everything in Inhale forward. Exhale back Rock back and forth with your own breath. Last round. Arch it in and push it forward and relax to neutral. Place your left leg out long, Bring your right foot into the thigh just by the side. And then we're going to open the shoulder blade, Sweep the right arm shoulder blade opens, Find the ground and then this hand can just hug the knee and just use both to twist or if you want to go a little bit deeper bring the elbow just behind the knee and use that to twist. Release the front arm first, Take it round and then close the shoulder blade. Sweep round. With your leg still in this position, Just place that right foot against your left thigh. Look towards that extended leg. Inhale, Reach tall. Exhale fold towards it grabbing towards your calf, Shin or maybe toes. Inhale come out of the fold hands by the side of your body we're going to switch legs take that right leg out long bring left in first of all stacked by the side of the leg let's go in the same way open the left shoulder blades sweep the arm around Once you've found something to keep you supported there, Then decide if you're going to hook the knee or bring elbow behind and twist. Release the front arm sweep that arm forward now and with the leg still where it is, Take it out to the side, The foot braced against the thigh, Inhale and reach up tall first to set up and then exhale fold forward Nice start. In he'll come out. Let both. Legs come together now, Keep those toes flexed towards your body, Come back into dandasana, Staff pose, This time arms raised, Get tall and rigid, Inhale and then exhale, Soften forward, Forward fold, Reach towards your toes, Doesn't matter if you're not able to reach them, Just grab something even if that's just the mat to bring the body forward. In your forward fold just the last thing to fold is or to relax is gently your neck chin to chest might feel. A strange sensation when you do that. Almost like the last little tug of your spine being fully lengthened. So if you can take long exhales is to move through that sensation. If you feel any tweaking or real discomfort that you don't want to remain in that's all right just lift the neck but if you can relax fully. And with an inhale Reach out. Relax the hands down. We're going to take three forward folds if you like, That was the first. Now take wide-legged forward fold, Just take your legs out. If you want to do the whole splits and take your legs out a little bit wider that's all right but I'm just going to find again another right angle with my thighs if I look down and then inhale reach tall exhale fold into that empty space in front. Observe where you now feel that the difference between the forward fold when your legs are together and the fold now when your legs are apart Once you've settled in you can just use your fingertips to pull yourself in a little bit further maybe. And ever so slowly you can use your hands here to walk your body up and out of the fold hopefully you didn't get stuck there and then bring feet together we're going to take baddha konasana bound angle bringing half of the forest floor with my legs. We had a lot of rain yesterday but it's dry today, Thank goodness. So your feet are going to be together, You'll have this diamond shape now. And those two folds that we did were a bit of a lengthener for the back this one we're going to purposely arch the back Just like the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Do your best impression now. Put on the feet first. And then arch your back get really hunched over bring the head towards your feet they don't need to touch either but that's the direction you want to be pulling the body in Settle down here. Long exhales and relax. Yeah. And release yourself. Come out and they'll put it on. Take the legs out Log. And then. . . Finally, Just lay down into Shavasana. Only joking, We're not there yet, But do lay your body down. Let's work a little bit more for that chevach, Shall we? So take feet together. Here you can point your toes rather than flexing them, Take your arms up overhead and just make yourself really tall like a pencil. And from pencil to banana walk your feet out to the left Walk your shoulders and hands out to the left and curve your body. Into this banana shape. With the side body opened and stretched send a breath there, Big breath in and out. Big breath in to the right side buddy and out. Last one, Breathing and exhale. Now just walk your feet and your shoulders through centre curve your banana to the other side find that full range of the curve of the banana and then settle in. With the left side body opened, Send a breath there, Breathing. Excel. Breath in. And out. And. . . And out. Good work. Heels in, Straighten out your banana. Take your hands up overhead like you're reaching for the sky or the ceiling wherever you're practicing take a breath in here and we're going to lift our body all the way up on the exhale if you need to use your elbows just to push your body up a little bit that's all right but take a breath in and then begin to lift like a zombie on your exhale all the way up. Lift, Lift, Lift, Lift. Little core strength to get past that part and then reach for the toes and down. Nicely done. Sweep your legs underneath and then come into a tabletop. No fancy way to get there. Just set yourself up. Fingertips always spread to help with the weight of your hands that have to band their hand lock as it's known. Hips directly underneath your knees and start with some big circles just push the bum out Hips forward. Lean into that wrist stretch as you come over the wrists and then change the direction of that. Pushing the bum out the other way, Rolling through. Back to neutral. Take your wrists out to the side. No, Rather your fingers out to the side. Wrists remain where they are and now just gently sway side to side so you feel that stretch up and down the forearm wow sorry i don't know if you heard that little scurry on the microphone a pack of hairs i don't know what you'd call them a trio and put it in the comments I'm not sure every group of animals has its name anyway we'll call it a little pack of three hairs just darted across huge things And then. Just relax. Those wrists We're going to take some core activations with this. In this tabletop so just tuck your toes so you've got them for support and the only thing we're going to do is lift our knees an inch off the ground so take a breath in and using core, Tense the core and push knees up for 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 too. One and lower relax take a breath Inhale, Prepare. Exhale push from the wrists activate five 4, 3, 2, 1 and lower Breath in. And again power up, Lift the knees, Exhale 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 too. One and relax if you need to take any wrist rolls throughout remember they are £3. 99 don't wait for me we always need to look after our wrists in these yoga practices but the more you do it. The easier it does get, I promise. So holding a bird dog so you're going to take your left leg out long take your right arm out long Try and imagine a straight and parallel line. Line from your hand all the way down to the foot if you were to film yourself doing it often you realise how much you're sagging in one part so actively reach with the hand and the foot pulling from either side. Hold. Let's add a little bit of movement. Inhale to prepare. And then exhale bring the elbow to the knee and squeeze in. Inhale, Reach. Exhale in Three more. Last time. Inhale one more hold five four three two one nicely done place that hand down switching to the other side right foot out to set up left arm remember find that straight strong line from hand to foot. Being pulled from either side. Keep the hold strong, But keep breathing too. Let's add some movement, Inhale prepare Five. Bear dogs in and out and then find a hold, Breathe and relax, Well done, Take a little hip circle just to take that out slightly And then let's set up for our downward dog. Take your hands. Out a little bit further in your tabletop, Tuck your toes and then click the body into place. Press one heel down at a time. To wake up those legs. And keep those feet still. Move the body towards plank so you're going to place lean forward, Place the chest just over the wrists And if you would like to move through a slow Chaturanga, You can, Or you can always drop your knees and come down that way. Take a breath in to prepare, And then just lower down all the way to the ground. Flatten those feet bring the elbows just underneath your shoulders and set up the sphinx poles. So this really gentle backbend is very good for If you suffer from sciatica it's a real gentle compression for the lumbar. Without forcing a back bend, You're just using your own body. In this sphinx posture. To just click the vertebrae into place and hold it here in a compression. You. And. . . Coming out of this wiggle your elbows out a little bit so you've got that space place your hands underneath your chest and then power up the reverse that we just did to come down push up either through your knees or through a press and move the body to down dog again. Take a breath in. And then exhale, Walk the feet towards your hands. Slowly, Slowly, Slowly. Coming onto your fingertips just to find a bit more space so that your hands and feet can meet inhale halfway, Active back. Exhale fold and find ragdoll You can ragdoll with your hands floppy. You can ragdoll with your elbows braced. Or I really like to clasp my fingers and just place them at the back of my head to add a little bit more weight. And find that lengthening of the spine and gently swing side to side. Just release your hands wherever they were. Climb up to halfway. Let's pause here to regulate. Let the blood go back down. Inhale. Exhale fold and then inhale big movement expand your arms to the side reach all the way up Let your hands meet at prayer. And bring them together. We finally made it to our feet. That early Shavasana tricked us. But let's make our way down. Not quite yet, We'll move through a little bit of a flow. And then find Shavasana at the end. Surya namaskar b so we'll move through chair and a floor When you're ready, Take a breath in. Exhale, Chair. Inhale here exhale fold inhale right foot back Inhale High Lunge. Exhale, Fold. Left foot to meet the right foot, Find plank, Chaturanga Up Dog Cobra exhale downward dog. Step the right foot forward. Inhale lunge, High lunge. Exhale down. Like. Chat Ranga Oop-da down dog. Pause for five breaths in your down dog. Inhale exhale a walk or maybe a hop forward Come to chat. Round of breath and then inhale to dasana. Hands to your heart that was round one, Let's go again, Inhale prepare Exhale, Chair. Come down, Fold. Take the right foot back High lunge. Hello, Lunch. Her lank Shadow Rung. Oh, Doug. Down duck step your right foot forward into a high lunge. Come down to the mat. Plank. Lower. All done. Down dog, Five breaths inhale exhale your choice of how you like to come forward a hop or a shuffle inhale into chair And lift out. Hands to your heart Take some rounds of breath in your Tadasana. Save your fate. Ground it and root it down. Find that strength throughout your practice. Getting ready for some movement Take a breath in. Exhale take the knees bounce down so you can launch up tall step your left foot back High lunge. Exhale into a warrior two Inhale, Bring the hands behind your back. You can take a clasp here either by grabbing your elbows, Your forearms or your hands together and then use that to draw the shoulders down. On our next exhale, We're going to fold forward into a humble warrior. For a modification, If you'd like to, You can bring this knee down. I'll show you in just a moment. If you're ready, You can exhale and come to humble. That's a little bit too deep today, Then just take that knee down and fold here. You modify wherever you want to go. Lift up your humble warrior. If you do have your knee down, Stay there. We're going to come and join you. For those of us standing up, Just bring your knee down. Release your hands. And we're going to. . . Switch into a sugar cane pose, So keep this knee where it is. Bring the hands down. Release that front leg take it out long and now find a little balance I say balance, I'm wobbling. Let's see if I can hold it. No. Take that shin out if you need a bit more of a stabilizer. You're in control of the balance with that leg. There we go. And then reach. If you can grab the foot, You can. If you just want to replicate the movement, You can do that as well. But if you do have hold of your foot, You can use that to push out a little bit further. Sugarcane is also practiced standing on one leg so let's call this half sugar cane today Quite a difficult balance to hold. And release the foot if you grabbed hold. Close the body, Take it round step that right foot forward again into your low lunge. Inhale push up to high lunge exhale open to warrior 2 inhale forward turn the palm reverse the warrior and then a big movement to come all the way down to the ground on your exhale windmill the arms and land the left hand down by the side of your right foot twisted lunge. Sweep that right foot, No that's a hand, Your right hand through, Land it on the mat move to blank and then exhale, Chaturanga. Up Doggo Cobra! Exhale, Downward dog. Inhale, Prepare. Exhale walk or hop forward halfway lift Fold. Inhale rise all the way up to standing Tadasana Hans. To your heart. Now we have two sides of our body. So let's even that out. Inhale. . . Exhale bounce and lift step your right foot back Open to Warrior 2 on this side. Take the hands behind take a clasp and draw the shoulders down remember you can modify with that knee down or if you want to challenge the balance stay on your feet and bow down humble warrior rise up from the humble warrior, Remember if knees down stay there, We're going to come down take that Right knee down. Place both hands down on the mat. Take that front foot back, Keep it in the air if you like while we transition to that half sugar cane. Remember that bottom shin is your stabilizer. If you want to keep it straight on the mat, That's going to be more of a balance. If you want to take it out to an angle, Then you've got that to fall back on. Let's see what happens on this side. Once you've found that stability reach up and back towards that foot remember there's no end goal to reach the foot if you do that's great use it to push and open the back. OK, The twist a little bit more. And once you've settled in, Find focus. And remain. Good, Safely come out close the body that floating foot, Keep it there and step it forward set up for a high lunge push up Exhale, Warrior II. Inhale lean forward pull it back reverse and bring that big movement to windmill the arms right hand lands by the left foot lunge twist sweep the left hand, Not a foot, Hand forward, Land both of them down and option to take a chaturanga once you're in plank lowering. Pushing to an up dog. And then exhale, Land your knees down We're just going to take a little modified child pose here. So. Have your hands just a little bit wider than the shoulders take your left knee and place it just behind the right then exhale as if you were coming into child's pose but your knees are all twisted up just lean back push into the glutes feel that stretch and lengthen of the glute muscles nice work come out untangle the legs and then tangle them up the other way, Bring the right knee behind the left. And then push the body back and lengthen the glutes. And forward Reset tabletop So we're going to find pigeon pose. You can shuffle the body straight into pigeon from here, But I just like to come to downward dog first. Find a bit more space and use the momentum of the swinging leg to set up for pigeon. So if you want to join me here, Down dog. Inhale lift the right leg up, Three-legged dog and now that momentum can swing the right knee towards the right wrist shin lands first and now you can make adjustments. Wiggle that back foot. Take the shin a little bit further in. And settle down. In pigeon pose. Stay lifted. Or take a sleepy pigeon and come all the way down. Maybe even your head down to the mat with your arms out extended if your pigeon laid down and went to sleep. Just wake it up. And push up. With your hands. From pigeon to deer paws, How the hell do we get there? I'll show you. So walk your hands out a little bit to the side so that you can roll onto that right glute. Which frees up this hip a little bit, But there's still no room to move the leg. So come down like a ninja. And then. Bring that knee in slightly. So you've already got this leg set up and now you can just adjust this one to find a deer pose. You want to have your legs kind of at this 90 degree angle with the knee facing forward here, The knee facing out there. And if this feels awkward enough stay there or you can then walk to face away from your knees and fold into that space You decide. Pigeon to deer, What animal? Is coming next. Two more rounds of breath. If you took your deer to sleep wake that up as well push up return the body I come with a whole forest floor as my face was in the mud I love nature. I promise I do. I promise. I promise. I love nature. And now we need to reset. Just release that leg we're going to bring it forward the ninja style, Release the other leg let's take a forward fold, Inhale reach up Exhale, Fold forward. And lift out. Let's go to downward dog to set up the pigeon on the other side. Matt definitely needs a little hoover. So set up so we've got that space when we lift the left leg up three-legged dog and momentum swing left knee through find the wrist and now make adjustments for your pigeon Kappa Janasana. So by taking the shin a little bit more parallel with the top of the mat. Dad. Lengthens into the glute a little bit more a little bit more intense adjust where needed if you want to stay where you are stay where you are if you want to come and bury your face in the forest like me then just come down Till then bye. . . Sleepy pigeon. You and if your pigeon has gone to sleep just gently wake it up lift your hands, Your body with your hands and let's maneuver the body into a deer pose. So remember, Hands first to support, Roll onto the glute, Then come nice and low to bring that knee in a little bit further. Now you can adjust the front leg. Check in with that angle. 90 degrees And if that's enough, Stay here, Let your hands support you. If you want to. Turn the body away from your knees. And let's see what. This part of the forest has in store for my face. Lower down. You nice work, Wake up your deer, Push up Push out. Stay low and sweep that back leg through and forward left leg released and take one last forward fold Excel Notice the difference between the forward fold now and the ones that we were taking at the beginning of the practice. If you feel a little bit more limber if you can go a bit deeper The body feels a bit softer. And all those things and that's good. If not. . . Doesn't matter. All we're doing is observing throughout the practice if anything has changed. And lift out lovely work excuse me while i brush everything off me now lower their body down that shavasana is nearly there i promise but oh I had a couple more treats for his plant. Bring the body down, Feet towards your hips and then push up lifted to a bridge here squeeze the glutes together at the top Don't forget to breathe here, This is another one where the breath sometimes likes to be held without realizing so just breathe and hold your bridge so if you would like another option you can add on here either stay in your bridge or if you have a shoulder stand in your practice and you'd like to do it you can start to feed the body up through your hands, Keep the elbows to support you and then begin lifting, Feeding the back in and up into shoulder stand. But if that's not something you want to do today, Just stay in your bridge, Same same but different. It's an inversion where your heart is above your head Blood is running down. Against gravity. The other way. Sometimes you feel that gentle pressure in your head. Which is safe in short bursts. Inversions and shoulder stands are known to be good for migraines, Headaches, Even just hanging your head off the edge of your bed if you do suffer from a migraine. Has been shown to help. If you came to shoulder stand. Option to take a plow bring your feet behind your head remember to always take your neck still don't look at me feet just find the ground behind hands can be holding the body or clasped together out long on the mat Excuse my voice while my voice box is all squeezed up. Sound like I've taken a helium balloon. Wherever you got to if you're in your bridge lower down from plow just lift out Take the legs down slowly, Let your feet land on the mat. Spinal twist to finish it off. Our body has had a full MOT today. Either just flip your knees to the left side or cross your right leg over the left first and then take your knees left by crossing the legs, The twist is a little bit more intense and just take your eyes to the right eyes. Up knees back. Uncross if they were crossed. Take your knees to the right or cross left leg over first and then let your knees fall. Eyes left. Head rolled Fuck off. Knees to the center, Uncross and then finally if there's anything that you would like to take to finish off this practice if there's anything that your body is crying out for now's your chance Yogi's Choice Maybe a little child's pose or just. . . Another twist. Rolling the legs Happy baby. But if you're ready. Begin to lay your beautiful body out on the mat for your rest. Heels just a bit wider than the hips harms. Facing upwards on the side, Tuck your shoulder blades in together, Brace yourself on your scapula. Chest open and proud. Three big breaths in, Inhale. Exhale, Side out. Inhale. And out. Last time let go of whatever you need to let go of. Settle down now. Take as long as you need. If you're there. Has gifted or offered you a little bit more time after your practice. Maybe invite yourself into a meditation. 10, 20 minutes. Process your thoughts your feelings. Emotions. Memories. You've done the part for your body. Now let's work out the mind. Sitting in stillness. Without distraction. Without the need to do anything. And just see what comes up. When you turn everything off. Permit yourself. To set and be still. If you want to take that time. Hit pause. But if you're ready. . . Just gently come back to your body. By moving toes and fingers. Rock your head side to side Walk your feet in. Towards the hips and turn your knees to one side, Turn the body to one side. Bring your knees in further to the chest and just pause there, Curled up take in this moment. For the most important part of your practice. To be grateful for your health. To be grateful for your safety. And your freedom. And if there's anything else that you are grateful for. Find it and in your mind's voice or just a little whisper out loud just say thank you. Whenever you're ready. Just begin to push the body up from the ground. Come into a seat with your hands at prayer at your heart. Eyes closed or just a soft gaze down to the ground. Let's close our practice, Lifting hands to the forehead to go forward with kind and loving thoughts. Hands to the mouth, To go forward with kind and loving words. And then back to the heart to go forward with kind and loving actions. Blinking the eyes open. Lifting them up Big smile. Thank you for choosing to spend some time with me in your practice today. I'll see you soon.
