10 min Morning Yoga Stretch for an ENERGY BOOST

Transcript

good morning everyone welcome to my channel my name is cassandra and i'm going to take you through this short energizing stretchy morning yoga flow i'm not using any props i don't think you're going to need any but as always if you have a block or two at home might as well have them close by just in case the poses are more comfortable with you by using them so let's begin lying down on our backs we're gonna take a variation of reclined pigeon pose so lay all the way down and we're going to start by just crossing the right angle over the top of your left knee and really feel that thigh move away and start by flexing your right foot you can reach through with your arms in order to pull that knee in towards you so we're pulling and drawing that left thigh in relax your shoulders and now from here all i want you to do is flex the right foot and then work on pointing the right foot and we're just going to articulate this a few times flex and point flex and point keep doing that on your own really trying to engage and activate through all parts of the feet and then go ahead and flex your right foot hold it this way you're going to now straighten your left leg up to the sky any amount and you might want to switch where you're holding onto that left leg we're going to do the same thing here flex the left foot and now go ahead and point the left foot odds are you're feeling that a lot more intensely especially in the morning when our hamstrings can be really tight and stiff it's morning for me as well this is my first movement of the day i'm definitely feeling it too flex and point and let's bend into that left knee release so that you're just pulling both knees in towards you and maybe coming into ananda balasana your happy baby pose you can use your elbows to push your knees open a little bit more relax your shoulders try to keep the entire length of your spine grounded before we go and do the sequence on the other side you're going to stack your knees directly over your hips with your shins parallel to the floor close the gap between your mat and the lower back bring your hands behind the back of your head as you inhale lift head and shoulders up and on the exhale just straighten the right leg inhale bring that right leg in exhale extend the left we'll just do that a few more times inhale both knees bent exhale right leg extends stay lifted inhale in exhale reach inhale in squeeze and curl up a little more and release both feet on the floor relax the arms reclined pigeon cross your left ankle over the top of your right knee and start to pull it in and we're just going to do that same thing flex and point through your left foot this time you can kind of just keep that right foot relaxed we're focusing on this one first slow steady breaths and begin to ask yourself what kind of day you'd like to have maybe choosing a one word intention that really captures this and that can help to anchor how you want this day to go and let's now stretch into our hamstrings reach your right leg up towards the sky you might need to readjust with your hands and we're going to flex and point point through your right toes and then flex as you reach through your heel you can absolutely keep your knees a little bit bent here [Music] one more and let's release back into our happy baby pose open the knees wide maybe holding on to the big toes or the soles of your feet you can rock a little bit side to side and instead of doing our little abs we're going to switch things up you're going to hold on to the back of your thighs and go ahead and rock on up cross at the ankles right away into your downward facing dog hands are shoulder width distance apart feet are hip width distance apart you can paddle the feet here any movements that you need to do just to get as settled as possible really let your head be heavy and we'll take a cleansing breath here in through the nose and out through the mouth big inhale [Music] [Applause] and exhale walk your feet forward to the top of the mat and you're ragged all fold bend your knees maybe as you hold on to the elbows and sway a little side to side and release your hands down to the floor bend your knees even more so that you can push into your heels to roll all the way up to stand we're going to open up the legs so that we have both feet parallel to the top edges of the mat and you almost want to think of like turning your toes in slightly pull up through your quads lift and lengthen up through your spine and from here tilt and hinge from your hips and see for this first variation if you can lean your hips back and stretch and extend your arms forward so as if someone was pulling back on your hips and someone else was pulling forward on your hands so like a big traction for your spine here lengthen out through the sides of your waist and now bring some weight more into the balls of your feet walk your hands back and find the more traditional variation of this forward fold i always find that that stretchy fold can be really nice for the spine especially in the morning and stay in this fold just bend your left knee generously get deeper into that right thigh and right leg straighten the left leg switch bend into your right knee straighten the right leg walk your hands over to the left big side body stretch here trying to bring your head to your knee and second side walk your hands over to the right come all the way back through to center inhale to lift up halfway hands on your hips push your feet into the floor to come all the way up to sand step up at the top of your mat mountain pose taking a little flow inhale arms rise exhale swan dive fold it down halfway lift flat back plant your palms and step the feet back into your plank pose lower with control all the way down point through your toes bujangasana cobra exhale to release child's pose any variation balasana slowing it down taking longer deeper breaths here as you settle notice how even just a short flow can really get your heart rate going can help to activate and engage through your muscles and can also really help you set the tone for the day coming back to a one-word intention let's walk our hands in and come to take a seat anyway that you enjoy and that works for your hips and your lower back let's bring our hands together at the front of the heart close your eyes and really focus on that one word intention we'll close by the chant of ohm one time inhale to chant big breath in [Music] [Music] namaste thank you so very much for doing this short morning yoga practice with me i hope you feel energized and ready to take on the day ahead if you would like to stay a little longer you could do this five minute morning meditation otherwise i hope to see you again tomorrow morning we can get on our mats together and start the day with mindful movement and breath thank you again namaste