15 min Morning Sun Salutations Yoga Flow - Yoga with Kassandra

Transcript

hey yogis welcome to my channel my name is cassandra and today we're doing a really quick practice that's going to focus on sun salutations so sun salutations are a great way to get your heart rate up and also to stretch the entire body i love to do some sun salutations either before or workout or before going out for a run but honestly it's also a great thing to do first thing in the morning just to get you started for the day ahead you won't need any props for this practice and before we get into it i want to say great big thank you at elevate yoga that is a studio where i am filming in today i teach at elevate so if you're in ottawa and you want to come to my classes definitely come check it out um so big thank you to them for letting me film here i absolutely love this space okay with that being said please make your way into a wide legged child's pose we're just going to take a few breaths here so your big toes come together knees go as wide as you would like them to be and as you press your hips towards your heels you can stretch your arms and your chest out in front of you and lower your forehead down to the ground try and take some deep breaths in and out through your nose letting that breath travel all the way down to your belly into your low back and trying to get your inhale to be just as long as your exhale so we're not favoring one over the other two more very deep breaths here and we'll make our way to a tabletop pose just for a few rounds of cat and cow i like to do cat and cow before sun salutations as a way to warm up your spine so hands under your shoulders knees underneath your hips as you inhale drop your belly curl tailbone up and on the exhale round your spine drop your chin to your chest and really spread your fingertips wide about two or three more times here just flowing with your breath inhaling to your back bend exhaling to contract squeezing your shoulder blades as you lift the heart up exhale shoulder blades move further apart take your last one here inhale and exhale let's find our first downward facing dog so usually from tabletop i like to bring my hands a couple inches past the shoulders before tucking the toes under and lifting the hips up and back so if the hamstrings are tight you can bend your knees maybe sway a little bit side to side do any little movements or adjustments here that feel good notice where there is tension in the body and it's very tempting to let all of your body weight sink and dump into the wrists as much as possible try to push down into your fingertips and knuckles so you're taking some of that weight out of the wrists curl your tailbone up to the sky draw your low belly in and then walk your feet to the top of the mat with bent knees find your ragdoll fold so you can hold on to the elbows here and this is really not about having super straight legs in fact we want our knees bent it's more about decompressing the spine than it is about stretching the hamstrings maybe shake out the head a few times so there's no tension in the jaw no tension in the neck and release your fingertips down to the floor bend your knees even more and push into your heels to roll up inch by inch until you're standing at the top of the mat so we'll start with a few rounds of half sun salutations just to warm up as you inhale reach your arms up overhead hands come together to touch and then exhale hinge forward at the hips maybe bend your knees if you need to here as you fold halfway lift fingertips on your shins lift up to a flat back exhale fold once more maybe the knees bend push into the feet come all the way up lead with your heart so flat back lifts you up exhale hands to the front of the heart two more like this inhale arms rise exhale dive forward and down halfway lift flat back exhale fold push into the feet come up inhale exhale hands at the heart last one with your breath inhale exhale inhale lift up exhale fold inhale rise all the way exhale hands at the heart our full sun salutation a now inhale reach the arms up exhale dive down halfway lift maybe keep your fingertips on the ground here and this time exhale plant your palms and step the feet back to your high plank pose big breath in here strong through your core exhale lower all the way down to your belly point your toes back roll the shoulders back inhale to your cobra exhale to lower downward facing dog take one full deep breath in your down dog stretch it nice and long and at the end of your exhale look forward and step your feet to the top of the mat halfway lift flat back inhale exhale to fold inhale press to stand reach your arms up overhead exhale hands at the hearts twice more like this inhale and exhale halfway lift breathe in exhale plank pose inhale to hold exhale chaturanga maybe hover it halfway this time inhale cobra or upward dog exhale downward facing dog inhale to hold and at the end of your exhale you can step or hop your feet forward in between the palms halfway lift breathe in exhale fold a little deeper come all the way up exhale hands at the heart our last round here inhale reach up exhale dive down halfway lift if you'd like you can hop back chaturanga inhale to your upward facing dog exhale downward facing dog hold for the inhale and on the exhale look forward step or hop make your way to the top of the mat halfway lift exhale fold press the stand reach your arms up exhale hands at the heart okay sun salutations be as you inhale bend your knees reach your arms up chair pose exhale dive and fold forward halfway lift flat back exhale vinyasa so you can step to plank or you can do your hop to chaturanga just find your flow lowering the push up finding a back bend downward facing dog step your right foot between your palms back foot at a 45 degree angle warrior one big breath in here exhale hands down with that same exhale lower chaturanga inhale upward dog exhale downward facing dog left foot steps forward warrior one on the second side palms come together to touch look up exhale chaturanga you should feel the heat building inhale open the heart exhale downward dog take a full breath in your down dog on the exhale step or hop your feet to the top of the mat halfway lift breathe in exhale to fold bend your knees drop your hips chair pose press to stand release your hands down last one here inhale chair pose exhale dive down halfway lift flat back chaturanga take your flow we all meet in our downward facing dog and this time left foot steps forward warrior one back heel is grounded down inhale to lift up exhale vinyasa plank to chaturanga to upward dog to downward dog right footsteps forward back heel grounds down inhale lift up look up exhale your last vinyasa you got this inhale up exhale down dog take one full breath in your down dog stretch into the heels exhale hop forward halfway lift flat back exhale fold chair pose sink down low push into the heels straighten the arms and bring your hands to your heart close your eyes so feel into your breath notice your heart rate it's probably beating a little bit faster it really doesn't take too many sun salutations to start to feel the effects of this powerful form of movement and just to wind things down a little bit you can bring your hands on your hips and open up into a wide-legged stance with both feet parallel to the shorter edges of your mat take an inhale to lift and lengthen and exhale dive forward and down you can bring your hands wherever is comfortable for you here maybe shaking out the head and walking your fingertips out in front of you lift the chin and the chest up halfway and bend your knees a little bit and just toe heel your feet so they're just a tiny bit wider than your hips heels in toes out lower down into malasana your yogi squat you can bring your hands to your heart and use your elbows to push the knees open a little wider lengthen your spine here try to slow down your breath to slow down your heart rate [Music] and set your hips down on the mat take a seat and sitting up nice and tall you can bring your right hand to your left knee left fingertips behind you take a little twist so keep your hips facing forward just rotate through your spine exhale to release switch sides left hand to your right knee right fingertips behind you open up through the heart notice if you're slouching or rounding forward lengthen up instead release back to center up to you if you'd like to lower down into shavasana or if you want to just close your eyes for a few moments in a seated meditation so after any kind of yoga practice no matter how long or short we always want to take a few moments if not a few minutes at the end kind of as a way for our bodies to digest all the work that we've done the same way we digest food after a big meal so with total stillness and fully letting go notice what feels different now what has changed since you first stepped on your mat allow yourself to really receive the gifts of your practice bring your hands together at the front of the heart bowing forward namaste thank you so much yogis for doing this quick sun salutations flow i would love to know how this went for you if you enjoyed it and if you would like more short flows on my channel recently i would say in the last like three to six months i've been getting a lot of requests for really short sequences that people can do either early in the morning or um in the afternoon when they're on break so if you would like more of these please let me know what kind of short flows you would like and if you are new to my channel please do just hitting clicking that red button that says it's a really simple easy free way to support my channel and support that the work that i do for free here on youtube thank you all so very much i hope to practice again with you soon namaste