7-Minute Yoga Workout for Older Adults

Transcript

[Music] today we're gonna do a short yoga practice that anyone can do to help manage stress and navigate our busy lives we're gonna start with focusing on the breath it's the very first thing that we do rolling the shoulders up back and down if you'd like you can take one hand to your low belly and the other hand to your heart and just notice the movement of your hands it's that simple breathing in and out notice that you're here and that you have feet on the floor now you have strength to stand continue to breathe naturally and just see if you can take a fuller deeper breath lower the palms down by your side we're gonna find Mountain Pose it's the foundation of everything we do in yoga so rooting down through the left foot and the right foot soft bend in your knees and a lift through the crown of the head shining the palms towards the front of you so that you can find your strength take a big breath in keep that lengthen exhale adding movement with breath is like a moving meditation it's magic take a big breath in reaching the arms up and overhead exhale hands will come together at heart center that's it you're doing yoga three more inhale reach up breathe in exhale hands come to heart center two more breathe in get tall exhaling hands come to heart center one more time big breath in reach up exhaling hands come to heart center if you only had one minute that would be a complete yoga practice we're gonna continue big breath in reaches up keep the arms lifted keep the chest lifted exhale cactus the arms to a 90 degrees inhale reach back up towards the sky exhale hands will come to your heart inhale sit back into an imaginary chair and bring your arms forward like you're holding on to a special gift take a big breath in and an exhale out keep the arms forward inhale all the way up to standing big breath in exhaling hands we'll come to the heart now take a nice big wide step out to the left hands on the hips stand up tall feet facing the same direction take a big breath in keep the belly engaged and exhale hinge at the hips root down through your feet inhale to come back up and then take the left toes out towards the left bending into the left knee 90 degrees making sure that the knee is tracking right over the heel we're coming into warrior two so you can start with hands on hips rooting down through the back foot so that the knife edge of the back foot is also rooting down and then finding a little engagement of the belly in and up you can stay right here with hands on hips or take the arms out by your side like you just completed your mission you just won your battle good take a peak over the left fingertips the middle finger on that left hand and breathe commit to the front knee bend breathe we're gonna reverse this warrior keeping the lower body exactly the same taking the right hand to the hip flipping the front palm up inhale reverse reach up towards the sky exhale we'll bring you back through warrior to both arms out by your side straightening the front leg now hinging forward up the hips and coming into triangle pose so the gaze can look down towards the left foot or across the room or up towards the sky as long as you're breathing you're doing good good take two more breaths there strong in your triangle pose stretching the side waist working the legs rooting down when you are ready to come out of that pose take the right hand to your hip straighten that front leg other hand can come to your hip and you're coming right back into the feet parallel wide stance this time let's raise our arms up take a big breath like you're a giant X exhale hands to the hips and we'll come half way down inhale we'll come back up we'll take the left foot and bring it towards the right and land right back in your Mountain Pose take a big breath in reach up exhale cactus lift the chest inhale reaches back up exhale hands come to your heart let's sit down into our chair squat good big breath in big breath out keep rooting through the feet inhale reaching up towards the sky exhaling lowering the hands down by your side inhales gonna bring the right leg out we'll come into that wide legged stance with the feet in the same direction take a big breath in exhale hinge at the hips inhale brings you back up like you could float towards the sky taking the right toes out can stay on the hips Bend into that front knee bump the back heel as far as you feel comfortable doing and then root down through both of your feet finding mountain here good warrior two you just completed your battle reaching the arms out by your side peeking over the front middle finger if that feels comfortable for you commit to the front knee bend nice keep breathing keep reaching move the knee back over the ankle just a little bit there you go and then take the left hip to the left hand to the hip flip the front palm up commit to that lower knee bend breathe in reach up reverse your warrior exhale comes back through your warrior two arms out straighten the front leg reach forward with the right fingertips like a million bucks is over there and then come down into your triangle pose the gaze can be down towards the floor across the room and try taking the left hand to the hip just for a little bit more support there you go awesome good breathe feeling your strength feeling your balance when you're ready taking both hands to the hips straightening into the front leg taking the feet back into a parallel base will reach up with our breath take a big breath in exhale hinge forward at the hips coming back up use your breath right foot will step back to Center and then we'll just return back to Mountain Mountain Pose is something you can do when you only have one minute breathe feel free to close down the eyes if you're comfortable here and just acknowledge your strength when you're ready lower the hands down by your sides roll your shoulders and you just did yoga [Music]