20 min Morning Yoga Workout - Strength & Energy Yoga Flow

Transcript

hi everyone good morning my name is Cassandra and I'm going to take you through this short morning yoga practice this is a strength building flow so really going to be activating and engaging our muscles if you're looking for something that's a little bit more of a workout that's definitely a great way to get a boost of energy in the morning of course I will add some stretchier slower moving poses just to make sure that you're all warmed up and feeling really good for the day ahead but really our main primary focus is on building strength full body so more of an intermediate practice and no props are required we're going to start in velasana the way I start probably in I don't know 90 of my classes big toes together knees apart and before we really start to build up that heat just stretch out through your hips pushing your hips back towards your heels reach your arms out and melt on down and you still want to have your shoulders pressing away from your ears so you're not shortening through your neck and just take a few deep breaths in and out through your nose making this first connection with yourself a morning yoga practice can help you set the tone for the day ahead it can help you set an intention so that even when we're doing these practices that are really physical we can still find some mindful connection we can make these practices intentional and meaningful so that the work we do on the mat can also carry on throughout our day going Beyond just our morning yoga practice so take three more deep breaths here maybe just starting to ask yourself what your intention is today it might just be one word and staying in this child's pose just come up onto your fingertips so your elbows and your arms are lifting off of the mat crawl the fingers out even further get a big stretch here and planting through your palms let's come up tabletop pose but keep your hands past your shoulders so instead of having them directly underneath stay a little bit further out and we're going to inhale forward into this modified Plank and as you exhale you can lower down push yourself back up inhale and exhale stretch back really lengthen through your arms let's do that four more times so inhale modified plank pose exhale tap down inhale push up exhale press it back three more with your own breath building up that heat through our shoulders through the upper body starting to engage through the core as well one more here inhale modified plank and lower push back up and press it back let's tuck the toes under keep your hands where they are shoulder width distance apart find your downward facing dog so if you're like me and this is your first practice of the day hamstrings might be really tight so you can just bend one knee alternating here as you straighten the opposite leg trying to get your heel down to the floor and just really stretching out in any way that feels good here we're going to reach our right leg up towards the sky bend your right knee open up your hip so big thigh stretch in here and you're going to tap your knee to your nose come all the way forward into your plank pose try to keep your hips down low inhale three like a dog lift it up exhale squeeze your knee to your nose same thing last one like this inhale up exhale squeeze it in look past your hands and step the right foot through in between your palms to the top of the mat we're going to come up into our high lunge so you want your feet to be hip width distance apart here ashta chandrasana and now strengthening through our quads and through our glutes you're going to inhale in this High lunge and as you exhale reach the arms back and tap your back knee to the floor so inhale lift exhale tap three more twice more inhale exhale tap the left knee down last one inhale and exhale come back up to neutral keep your hands at your heart from here all you're going to do you might want to look at what I'm doing first we're going to tap our left knee to our right keeping both knees bent and then step the foot back let's do that four times together knees in step the left foot back knees touch step it back twice more you'll feel the burn it's like a one-legged chair pose and let's find utkatasana our chair pose this time big toes together reach your arms up bring your weight back into your heels one more deep belly breath exhale fold and release so you can bend your knees as much as you'd like here for me the hamstrings are still tight so I'm not straightening my legs completely find a halfway lift flat back lift and lengthen plant your palms step the feet back plank pose and you can lower down gasana Cobra pose and let's find child's pose balasana give yourself a moment here and before we go and repeat the sequence over on the other side we're going to do something a little bit different so breaking up the sequence with our form plank so you're going to bring your forearms flat to the floor Palms facing down to the mat take up some space walk your feet back lift your hips up and all we're going to do is Rock forward a few times and think of tapping your nose between your thumbs so try to do somewhere between five and ten rounds doesn't take long to really feel this through your shoulders I'm going to do two more here and sphinx pose release open through your chest roll your shoulders back slowing down your heart rate and we'll be making our way back into downward facing dog so we can find our standing sequence on the other side and again just stretch out through your legs think of reaching your chest back towards your thighs curling your tailbone up towards the sky and wrapping through your shoulders as if you're trying to get your armpits to face one another relax your neck and your head let's extend our left leg up to the sky open up your hip get a nice thigh stretch here and then you can bring your knee to your nose come forward into your plank pose shoulders over your wrists inhale three legged dog exhale need a nose squeeze it in inhale reach last one squeeze it in look past your hands to help step that foot through in between your palms we're coming up into our high lunge so my shoulders are over my hips I'm lengthening the tailbone down I'm reaching my arms up we're going to inhale into our high lunge and as we exhale arms go back we tap the right knee down to the floor inhale lift and lower three more twice more last one inhale exhale tap come back through to Center bring your hands at your heart we're going to find that one-legged chair pose where you just tap your knees together and then step the right foot back tap it in and step it back three more try to keep your gaze steady to help with balance last one chair pose rock your weight back into your heels hug in through the midline sink a little deeper Let's Fold forward release halfway lift flat back lift and lengthen here plant your palms step the feet back chaturanga so lower halfway inhale upward facing dog roll your shoulders back downward facing dog and from here let's just find pigeon pose we'll stretch everything out reach your right leg up to the sky and you can bring your right knee behind your right wrist stretch that left leg out further back even out your pelvis so you're not leaning completely onto that right hip keep some of the weight here on the left and maybe you're working up here or you can start to fall down we have five full deep breaths here so even with all this Heats that we're building in a short amount of time try to bring your focus back to your internal experience so how is this feeling in your body what's your internal dialogue sounding like what are you telling yourself about this practice are you distracted are you present trying to come back to this intention you want to set for the day ahead two more breaths here instead of going back to downward facing dog you can just walk your hands in and lift yourself up we're gonna find deer pose from here so you can let yourself roll onto that right hip and bend into your left knee so I have two 90 degree angles with my knees here and I'm just going to push my left hip back and start walking my hands back until I get a nice stretch through my inner left thigh and you really don't need to go back so far here just taking a few moments here and we'll come forward once more into your downward facing dog stepping the right foot back to meet the left you're welcome to take an extra flow if you'd like going through your Vinyasa otherwise just create some space here in this downward facing dog really stretching out and we'll be setting ourselves up for Pigeon pose on the second side so left leg stretches up create space through that hip joint before bringing your left knee behind your left wrist squaring off the hips again here so just notice where you tend to distribute your body weight through your hips we don't want it all the way over to the left we still want some over on the right and maybe you're staying up nice and Tall or you're folding down slow steady five breaths right here try to relax your shoulders your upper back your neck your head really let gravity pull you into this pose rather than struggling against it noticing where you might still be carrying tension and we'll start to lift ourselves back up we're coming into our deer pose so you can lean and just rock your way over onto that left hip and bend your right knee so you have a 90 degree angle with this right knee 90 degree angle with the left as well and we're going to roll and kind of push that right hip down and back as you also walk your hands back so I'm kind of in a diagonal here facing towards the top corner of my mat as opposed to the top of the mat hmm we don't get a lot of opportunity for internal hip rotation in yoga there aren't many poses that activate and use this so deer pose is really one of the few that we have so if you're really tight here just know you're not alone the more you do it the more comfortable this will become with time and we'll find our last downward facing dog stretch everything out make any little final movements and adjustments maybe take a last flow going from plank to chaturanga to your back bend we all meet back in this down dog as we stretch it out and now let's find our puppy pose bring your knees to the floor keep your hips where they are directly over the top of your knees and just walk your hands out in front of you I like to actually grab my mat I find it's a little bit easier for me to do this pose and I also have been working on this pose Lately by bringing my chin to the floor please don't do this if you feel it in your neck or in your upper back it should not be painful this is not appropriate for everyone you can instead just bring your forehead down to the floor so it's really just going to depend on your range of motion what works best for your shoulders hunt for your spine not here for too long you want more deep breath let's come forward onto our bellies we're just going to take a line quad stretch before we close our practice so you can bend into your right knee grab a hold of your foot and just pull it in I like to keep a back bend here so I'm keeping my chest lifted you could always just keep your forehead down sides who you really want to think of pushing your left hip pushing your pubic bone and pushing your left knee into the floor and releasing let's come to take a seat so pretty much with all of my morning yoga classes I don't usually do shavasana in case you fall back asleep so I like to end just by sitting closing the eyes very short grounding mmm sit up tall chin parallel to the floor relax your shoulders close your eyes and take a moment to really observe how you feel now what affects this short practice has had on your mind on your body on your emotions and see if you can choose one word as your intention for the day and we'll bring our hands together at the front of the heart closing together by chanting om one time let's inhale to chant breathe in [Music] [Music] thank you so much everyone for doing this short strength based practice with me I hope you enjoyed it let me know what your one word intention is today mine today is going to be relaxation that's what I'm calling in thank you for practicing with me please do if you don't already and hopefully I will be practicing again with you very soon maybe even tomorrow morning thanks again