15 min Morning Yoga Flow - All Levels, No Props

Transcript

hi everyone thank you for joining me my name is Cassandra and I'm going to take you through this full body morning yoga flow this is an all levels practice with a good mix of stretch and strength it's not going to be too strenuous this isn't meant to be like a super sweaty powerful practice but it's just enough strength because that can be a really great way to energize you in the morning so just a little bit of heat building to wake you up and of course some nice stretches so that you can feel really good in your body again all levels no props are required and we're going to begin in wide leg a child's pose in balasa so your big toes can come together and you choose how wide you would like your knees to be the wider they are the more intensely you will feel this and you can walk your hands out in front of you and bring your forehead down to the mat and settle in here finding a breath Rhythm that you'll be able to maintain trying to breathe in and out through your nose and this is an opportunity to set the tone for the the day ahead to really put yourself first to focus on you and what you need just staying in this child's pose see if you can crawl your hands further forward coming up onto the fingertips really lengthening and stretching out your arms and we'll come into Sphinx pose so you can just slide onto your belly straightening your legs keep your feet about hip withth distance apart or so open up through your chest find a little back bend here roll your shoulders back and right away we'll add a little bit of strength in this practice so we're going to flow in and out from Sphinx pose to a bit of a forearm plank you can do this either on or off your knees so I'll show you we're going to inhale into sphin for a back bend and as you exhale you're going to push into the tops of your feet turn your gaze inward and lift up into a little forearm plank again your knees can be down to make this a little bit more accessible we're going to do it five times so inhale back bend exhale squeeze and lift on up four more inhale and exhale I'll demonstrate with the knees down inhale Sphinx exhale squeeze and lift push into your palms two more here inhale and exhale last one and exhale come back down and let's just press back tabletop on hands and knees Palms underneath your shoulders knees underneath your hips cat and cow inhale drop your belly lift your gaze curl tailbone up and as you exhale round and contract reverse this motion a few more times just flow with your breath really spread the fingertips wide and push into your fingertips and Knuckles so you're taking some of your body weight out of your wrists at the same time you can push into the tops of the feet to take some of the weight out of your knees so really good to work on and focus on on if you have sensitive joints take one more cycle here inhale and exhale Now find a flat back so a neutral spine let's blow through a little sequence from here you can tuck your toes under so we're going to lift the knees to hover them off the mat bring the knees back down and then kick that right heel up towards the sky as you drop the belly and lift the Gaze and we're going to alternate from side to side so tabletop squeeze lift and hover bring your knees down and then lift that left leg up let's do one more on each side tabletop hover the knees bring them back down kick that right heel up variation of tiger pose last time tabletop squeeze to hover bre bring it back down left leg Rises and release let's find our first downward-facing dog walk your hands further past your shoulders tuck the toes under and lift your hips up and back and you can absolutely bend your knees I like to alternate like what I'm doing now bending one knee and straightening the opposite leg and just kind of paddling through this motion so that I'm stretching through my hand hamstrings and through my calves breathing deeply Here and Now find a little bit of Stillness in your downward dog don't worry about whether your heels are touching or not and we're just going to step our feet to the top of the mat for a ragd doll fold taking as many little steps as you need to get there you can widen your feet towards the edges of the mat hold on to the elbows and just let your upper body dangle maybe as you s way side to side release your hands down to the mat bend your knees even more and push into your heels to roll all the way up inch by inch until you're all the way up to stand we're going to find Warrior two legs so my right foot is going to stay forward at the top of the mat I'm going to step my left foot all the way back and my left foot is parallel to the shorter edge of my mat my right toes are pointing forward I'm going to bend deeply into that right knee and squeeze my right knee and thigh open as I expand and reach out through my arms so really sinking the hips down low let's reverse left hand down right arm up get a big side body stretch here coming back to verasa 2 your Warrior 2 straighten that front leg and move into triangle pose tonasa so a big hamstring stretch you're going to reach that right arm all the way forward and down left arm up to the sky and if you'd like a deeper side body stretch you can reach your left arm up overhead and right fingertips can either be on your shin or down on the mat push down into your feet to lift all the way back up and we're just going to do the exact same thing by pivoting to the second side so I'm going to turn my right toes in point your left toes towards the back of the mat and find Warrior 2 left knee is bending squeeze that left thigh open sink your hips as low as they'll go here keep your hands at the same height as your shoulders and let's reverse right hand down left arm up big side body stretch nothing changes in the legs back to Warrior Two straighten your front leg triangle pose so my hips are going back I'm reaching my left arm forward and down right arm stretches up to the sky and maybe you extend so that you have your right bicep along the ear maybe the left fingertips come down to the mat they don't need to you can fully support Yourself by grabbing a hold onto your shin and pushing yourself up one more big breath here push into the feet let that lift you up you need to engage your abdominals for this and now let's turn so that we have both feet parallel to the shorter edges of the mat hands onto your hips we'll come into our wide leg it fold inhale lift and lengthen and then hinge forward from the hips and fold on down any amount and choose any arm variation that you'd like here so whatever feels good to you and kind of like in our downward dog you can play with bending one knee and straightening the opposite leg just seeing how your hips and hamstrings are feeling this morning what would feel good you can bend and stretch both knees and legs at the same time try to relax your head and your neck so there's no tension and then find some Stillness in this wide-legged fold you can walk your hands out in front of you so you're lifting your chest and then just toe heel your feet in towards one another and come to take a seat we're going to bring our right leg out to the side and your left foot to the inner thigh so I'm really widening my legs one away from the other moving into a side Bend first I'm going to reach my left arm up and over rolling that left shoulder back so I'm not trying to reach and fold towards my leg I'm really just trying to open up through the side of my body here and lifting all the way back up through to Center from here Bend into your right knee and just bring that right shin slightly staggered in front of the left and we're going to fold straight forward so looking to stretch into that right hip and right glute maybe you're staying up higher here or you can fold on down if that feels comfortable not here for too too long breathing in and out through your [Music] nose and let's lift up and we'll do the same thing to the second side so this time your left leg goes out bring that right foot to the inside of that thigh open the knees out away from one another and find your side body stretch right arm extends up overhead side bends are a great way to energize ourselves in the morning relax your head and your neck here and coming all the way back up Bend into your left knee so this time you have your left shin staggered slightly in front of your right one and we're going to fold on down again you don't need to go all the way you can stay up nice and Tall really working on lifting and stretching out of your lower back when we're thinking and working with flexibility it's important to remember that the benefit of the pose is the same no matter how deep you're going into it so as long as you feel some kind of sensation some stretch never pain then it's really all good just breathe into it and we'll lift all the way up and let's release the lie down on our backs one last little bit of strength here we'll come into our bridge pose so strengthening through the glutes and through the back of the legs so feed our hip withd distance apart knees bent relax Your Arms by your sides you can kind of push into your shoulders and try triceps a little as you push into your heels squeeze your glutes and lift your seat up pressing your hips up as high as they'll go hug through your inner thighs and exhale release nice and slow just let both knees drop down over to the left you can extend your right arm out to the side just a little twist twist we're not here very long and twist to the other side so float your knees and thighs up and then drop them over to the right you can stretch your left arm out coming back through just Center let's find shavasana we're not going to be very long in shavasana for morning classes I don't like to leave you lying down on your back with your eyes closed too long because I don't want you to fall back asleep so let's just take about 10 breaths right here take up some space get comfortable really breathe deeply in and out through your nose noticing the effects that even a short yoga practice can have on how you feel in your body on your mental state on your emotions letting [Music] go three more breaths here and you can stretch your arms up overhead lengthen fingertips and toes and we turn to one side come up to take a seat sitting anyway feels comfortable to you bring your palms together at the front of your heart onim mudra closing your eyes keeping the focus inward taking a moment to really thank yourself and showing yourself gratitude for carving out this time it's not always easy sometimes the hardest part of yoga is just making the time for yoga let's chant together chanting m one time inhale breathe in oh thank you so much everyone for doing this morning yoga flow with me I would love to know what you thought about this sequence how it felt for you please do and if you feel good practicing in the morning I have many others right here on my channel so I'll leave a link to those maybe we will meet again tomorrow morning for some more morning yoga thanks again have a great day