Beginners Warrior Tutorial (virabhadrasana 1 2 3)

Transcript

hi everyone and welcome back to my youtube channel my name is victoria and you can find me at floyd victoria on instagram today i'm going to be guiding you through a beginner sequence where i'll be teaching you the different types of warriors there's warrior one two and three if you're a beginner you might need some blocks so grab something with some height so you can even use books anything with a little bit of height and we're gonna get started at the top of our mat we're just gonna start to warm up the body so on your inhale you're gonna reach the arms up you can have a slight bite into the knees open the chest look up to the sky and then exhale you're going to fold all the way over the legs you can bend the knees if you need inhale you're going to reach the arms all the way up open the chest up to the side exhale you're gonna fold all the way over let the head rest down you can bend the knees as much as you need one more time inhale let's reach the arms all the way up open the chest and then exhale bring your hands into prayer and heart center on your inhale we're going to reach the arms all the way up catch on to your left wrist with your right hand lengthen and reach over towards your right side soften your shoulders down your back maybe look up towards the left arm take a deep breath here [Music] inhale come back to center release catch onto your right wrist with your left hand lengthen and reach towards the left side soften your shoulders down your back please make stretch throughout your [Music] right inhale come back to center reach both arms up and open the chest [Music] exhale bring your hands into prayer and hearts and soften your shoulders down your back inhale reach the arms up open the chest exhale hold over our legs you can bend the knees as much as you need and place your hands down to the mat you're going to step your feet towards the back of your mat coming into your downward dog so if you're a beginner you can keep the knees deeply bent this will just release some tension from the back of the legs the hamstrings and caps try to lengthen the spine push into your hands and look towards the feet to make sure you have the right distance for downward dog you can just come forwards into a plank you might need to walk the feet a little further back or forwards and then come back into the downward dog so you can do this a couple more times just to ensure you have the right distance one more time if you've been practicing for a little longer and you feel comfortable you can extend the legs out straight and the hips a little further back keep pushing into the hands inhale look towards your hands and walk your way towards the top of your mat inhale come up halfway hands on your shins flap up and exhale fold all the way over [Music] inhale let's reach the arms all the way up open up the chest exhale the hands come into your prayer and heart center soften your shoulders down your back let's place our hands onto our waist and we're going to get started right away with our warriors so you're going to ground your right foot down to the mat and step your left foot towards the back of your mat so the left heel grounds down you're going to square off your hips towards the front of your mat so pull the right hip back left or forwards if this is too wide of a stance you can always walk the back foot in a little closer that's a modification right there you want to keep that deep bend into your right knee and make sure that back edge of your left foot is rounded down to the mat you want to try to get the knee over the ankle okay so this is called warrior one with the legs and then to add the arms you can either extend the arms out up to the sky but this is strenuous for your neck and shoulders in any way you can bend the elbows and come into cactus arms sink down into the right knee if you'd like to get a little bit more of a stretching to your back you can open up the chest and look up to the sky [Music] breathe into it [Music] soften the shoulders down your back really engaging the legs strengthening the back the thighs even the lower leg and calves and then from here you're going to make your way into warrior two so bring the hands onto the waist to get started you're going to step that left foot a little further back and you want your toes to face towards the left side of your mat you want to keep that deep bend into your right knee so you want it to stop over the ankle make sure your feet are in line that back leg is straight see down to the front knee and then arms open up into a seat position so for a modification you can walk that left foot a little closer you don't have to have as wide as it stands [Music] tuck in the tailbone breathe into it you want to keep the arms lifted at shoulder height soften the shoulders down the back no tension in the neck and then i'm going to guide you into exalted warrior so place your left hand onto the back leg right arm reaches back so i like to sequence this pose just to get a little bit more of a full body stretch and then inhale come back to center you're going to place your right elbow onto your right thigh left arm reaches up and over so this is another great variation of your tube it's called extended side angle pose as a beginner you're more than welcome to stay here this is a great pose for you if you feel like you can come a little deeper you have a bit more flexibility in the hips you can grab a block place it on whichever level feels most comfortable so first place the right foot onto the inside and place the right hand on the inside of the right foot continue to open the chest and reach the left arm forwards [Music] block make your way back into your warrior two then we're slowly gonna release out of our pose bring your hands onto your waist take as many steps as you need towards the top of your mat and then just shake out your legs let's give our legs a little rest our warriors can be very challenging on the legs and hips let's take a little stretch inhale reach the arms up open up exhale fold all the way over you can bend the knees as much as you need [Music] inhale let's reach the arms up open the chest [Music] exhale bend your knees as much as you need and fold [Music] inhale let's reach the arms all the way up exhale handsome down into prayer and then onto your waist we're gonna come into our warriors on the other side so step your feet towards the top of your mat and then step your right foot towards the back of your mat ground that right heel down you need to bring that foot in a little closer that's fine wherever it feels comfortable for you you want to bend into the front knee pull your left hip back right forwards so you want to keep your hips square towards the front of the mat i often see a lot of students keeping that left hip forward and that's kind of more of a warrior too so for warrior one you want to keep the hips square towards the front of the back [Music] so do whatever you did on the other side continue to sink down that front knee and you always have that variation to open up the chest and then the gaze up to the sky keep sinking down into your left knee breathing into it when you're ready you're gonna bring your hands onto your waist then we're gonna make our way into warrior two on the left side so you're gonna step that right foot a little further back make sure your right toes are facing the right side of your mat arms open up into a c position soften your shoulders down on your back palms face down look towards your left fingertips you want to sink down into your left knee tuck in your tailbone keep the core strong and engaged you want to keep the energy running down your arms and going down to your fingertips to keep the arms energized and strong and then we're going to move into our exalted warrior so place your right hand onto your back leg left arm reaches back open up throughout your left side [Music] just getting a nice full body stretch [Music] inhale come back to your warrior two and then exhale place your left elbow onto your left knee right arm reaches up and over open up the chest again you're more than welcome to stay here if you feel like you have a bit more flexibility and you want to come deeper you can grab your block and place it onto the inside of the left foot so this side might be different maybe you're not able to come as deep or maybe you can come even deeper so just listen to your body and do what feels good for you [Music] we'll take one more deep breath here keep reaching inhale let's slowly come back to your warrior tube exhale let's bring our hands onto our waist holding the little break step your right foot towards the top of your mat make sure you move the blocks off to the side let's just stay in mountain pose for a second so arms come down beside you palms face forwards roll your shoulders up and down your back stand up nice and tall and you can just close your eyes so we practice for your one or your two and now what's left of practice is warrior three so i would say this is probably the most challenging one out of the three just because it's more of a balancing and strengthening pose so it has the two components in there the other two are mostly a stretch and strengthen this is balancing stretch strengthen so it's a bit more complicated so for this we're going to grab our blocks and we're going to place them at the top of our mat on the third levels on the highest level let's place our hands down onto them you're going to ground your right foot down into the middle of your mat let's start by pointing our left toes back and you can keep a bend into that right knee [Music] good so our left toes are pointed back from here you're going to begin to lift that left leg you can start by just lifting it like one inch off but as you gain more flexibility and strength let's see if we can lift that light up you want to flex that left foot so you're engaging that leg and ideally you want both legs to be straight as you begin to gain your balance you can bring one hand into prayer at a time remember to listen to your body do what feels good for you as you get more advanced in your practice other arm variations would be to reach your arms back and that's okay if you lose your balance it's all part of the process it's all part of growth and learning [Music] i'm gonna hold here for about one more deep breath let's step the left foot back down beside the right you can take a bend into the knees [Music] and then you're gonna begin to lift the right foot off of the mat so you can start by just lifting it one inch off the mat and then maybe if you can lift that height maybe flex that right foot keeping the leg engaged see if you can extend both legs straight and then maybe testing the balance or one head at a time into prayer do what you can listen to the body keep that point of focus in front of you something that's not moving let's bring the hands back down to the mat then back into that left knee and step your right foot down beside the left take a fold just let the head press down release the tension send the block off towards the side step back into it down the dog push into the hands and then bend the knees lower the knees down as wide as the mat unfold the toes and sit back onto the heels releasing the back of the hips and child's pose take three slow deep breaths here breathe in through your nose breathe up through your mouth breathe in through your nose breathe out through your mouth breathe in through your nose release and breathe out through your mouth let's walk our hands inside the knees slowly begin to lift the upper body bring the knees together and that concludes today's beginner sequence i hope you enjoyed it if you have any questions feel free to let me know and i'll see you in my next video namaste