Lower Body Strength | 30 Minute Yoga Practice

Transcript

- What's up everyone?
Welcome to Yoga With Adriene. I'm Adriene. That's Benji
chilling in the background. And today we have a practice
for lower body strength. This isn't a
super long practice, but it's all about
quality of movement so that you can get
strong slowly but surely in a really manageable way and be
happy and strong and have that sustainability that you crave
as you grow older each year. Let's get started. (upbeat music) Alright, let's begin lying down. So come on down to the ground. Take your time getting there. Trust that you chose the
right practice, the right video. And let's land here in the
moment in a little constructive rest pose. So you're gonna
bring your feet wide, knees come together like so. And then you're
gonna rest your head, your neck,
your shoulders down, elbows bent,
hands resting on your belly. We're not gonna be here long, but we're just gonna take
a couple moments to land. What makes this
different than just a lower body workout is the way we focus on our breath and the way we allow our breath to fuel the movement and the consideration or the awareness that we
bring to the practice, the way we relate to our body. And truly it's about honesty, the willingness to look and see and notice how
am I feeling today, where am I at
these days in my body? And then
sometimes when we do that, some judgment can come up,
so the last bit is just remembering to
bring some love to it. Some grace if you need it. Start to gently
deepen your breath, whatever that means to you. So it can be really, really slow and controlled
breathing or it can just be taking the first deep
breath you have all day. Maybe it's in through the nose,
out through the nose, or maybe it's in
through the nose and a couple of
exhales out through the mouth. And on your next breath cycle, take the biggest
breath you've taken all day. And use your exhale to
kind of wake up the body. So you're gonna bat
the eyelashes open. You're gonna walk
the feet together. So knees are still bent,
walk the feet together. And then you're just
gonna open and close the hands, rotate the wrists one way.
(chuckles) And then the other. And then we're gonna send just
the right foot all the way up towards the sky and we're
gonna rotate that ankle one way. And then the other. Then point your right toes. It's okay if this
right knee doesn't straighten. You can keep it
as bent as you need. Point and flex,
point and flex, point and flex,
then stay flexed. You're gonna reach to interlace the fingertips behind the
thigh or maybe behind the calf. Breathing deep for
a hamstring stretch. This is where using a strap or a tie or a dish towel can
also become really handy. Just getting a
nice hamstring stretch, letting the blood
flow opposite direction, letting that hip socket,
excuse me, that femur drop
down into the hip socket. Breathe. And then check it out. Bring your hands to your belly,
point your toes and slowly, slowly slowly,
slowly slowly slowly lower your right foot
all the way down to extended. And see if you can kind of just feel what's going
on in that right hip. Nice, and then
draw that right knee up and we'll send the
left foot up towards the sky. Take a second to
rotate the ankle one way. And then the other. Point and flex, point and flex. Support the low back
with your abs, point and flex. And when you're ready,
find that hamstring stretch, one that works
for you on this side. Continue to gently
deepen your breath. And then hands can
slide to the low belly. We're gonna point the
toes and slow and steady, lower it down,
nice and slow. We're reminding,
training the brain, ah, yes, all connected. Notice what's
happening in that left hip. Ooh, and then we'll
slide the knees up. You're gonna lift the
knees up to the chest. Give yourself a big ol' hug. You can rock a little side
to side if that feels good. Maybe draw the knees in a circle
one way and then the other. Continue to deepen your breath as you give yourself a
little low back massage here. And we'll slide the hands
to the backs of the thighs. You're gonna rock
and roll up and down the length of your
spine just a couple times. And after a few times, we'll rock all the way
up to a cross-legged seat. Gentle twist to the left,
lift your chest. Breathe in, exhale,
gentle twist to the right. Lift your chest. Breathe in. Exhale,
come back to center. We're gonna come
forward now on to all fours. And you're gonna actually widen
your knees as wide as your mat. And then send your hips back and your fingertips forward
for Extended Child's Pose. Opening up through the hips. Think about,
for today especially, think about really lengthening
your tailbone down towards the soles of your feet to find
that length in the low back. So always playing with
different little nuances and different shapes to
explore difference sensations. Then carve a line
with your nose, look forward. We're gonna come all the way up. Keep the knees wide. You're gonna move
the heart forward. And then take it
around and down through a little version
of that Extended Child's Pose. So we're stirring now. Leading with the heart. Stretching through the hips. And then reverse it. Take the circle in
the opposite direction. Getting into those hip
flexors as you come forward. Getting into the
outer hips as you come back. Lovely. Then we're gonna bring the
knees all the way to center, Tabletop Position. Take a deep breath in. As you exhale, you're gonna just
send the left leg out, sorry, left leg out. And then the
right leg out to a Plank. We're not here long.
Just gettin' our core turned on. Gettin' ready
for our lunge work. Breathe deep. Extend the crown
of the head forward. You're here for three. You're here for two. And on the one,
send it up high, Downward Facing Dog. I have a great view of another
type of downward facing dog. Take a deep breath in here. Pedal it out. Stretch through
the backs of the legs. Stretch through the feet,
the ankles, Achilles, the calves, the hamstrings. Think about lifting up from
your hip creases and sending the majority of your weight
into the lower half of the body. Press away from your yoga mat. Take a deep breath in. On your exhale, stay here, but hug the belly in
to lengthen the low back. Just a little bit. It's hard work, I know. Alright, slow and steady. We're gonna cross one foot in
front of the other to walk all the way up to
the top of the mat. So you're getting a
little IT band stretch as you journey to the top. Feet hip width apart. Allow the weight of your
head to hang in the Forward Fold. Breathe in. And breathe out. Bend your knees generously and slowly begin to
roll up to stand. Head over heart,
heart over pelvis. Just take a second to loop
the shoulders a little forward, up and back,
a couple of shoulder circles. And then without looking down,
we're gonna bring the palms together and walk
the feet together, really together so
they're arch to arch. Feel this zipping
up through the legs. Feel your quads turn on,
your glutes turn on. And if you're like,
"Uh-oh, what's happening next?" Just get this zip up tight
through the legs first. We're not going
anywhere right away. Just feeling that connection, turning on the muscles,
the legs. Imagine trying to tear your yoga mat in half with
your feet so much so that it's engaging the muscles all
the way up through the midline. And around the hips. Good, now lift your sternum a little bit
taller to your thumbs. Inhale in. Exhale, keep the sternum reaching towards the thumbs
as you send the hips back, Utkatasana, Chair Pose. Breathe deep here. Squeeze the legs. Now send the fingertips forward,
sink back a little more. The reaching of
your hands forward allows your
sits bones to reach back. Think about getting your knees over your ankles instead
of your knees over your toes. And use this reaching of the
hands to really counter that. You got it. Good, then rise up to standing. Palms come
together at the heart. Lift the sternum to the thumbs. We go again. Reach the fingertips forward. Squeeze the legs. Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze
as you send the hips back. And we rise. Now we're gonna repeat
slow and controlled movement. Reaching forward. As you sink back, think about
digging weight into your heels. As you come up, think about
tearing your yoga mat in half. So super active
legs is the too long, didn't read version of that. Super active legs
the whole time. From the soles of
the feet all the way up to the outer hips,
to the glutes. Now we're gonna do
three more with your breath. Focus on the
quality of your movement, your alignment,
and that connection. Hug your abs in just like
we did in Downward Dog to take that pressure out
of your low back. On your last one,
on your third one, hold. Send the fingertips back and
press them down as if you were pressing them into
some thick air here. Imaginary thick air. Inhale in, exhale, Hummingbird. You're gonna lift
the heels up, maybe. Maybe you skip this today. Keep lifting the
sternum up and out. Maybe you sink a
little bit lower. Breathe. With control,
slowly lower the heels. Come all the way up back to
standing hands at the heart. Great job. Alright, from here
we're gonna inhale in, exhale, step the right foot back so you're in
a split stance here. The feet are not super wide,
just wider than the hips, and we're finding this lift through the front body
and this grounding through the back body that
I often talk about in Hatha Yoga practice. Alright, from here, inhale in. You're not gonna move your feet. You're gonna keep them where you are and think
about dropping your center, just your center
down like an elevator. Bending your back knee,
bending your front knee. If you need to widen your
stance a little bit, you can. And then we come back up. Back heel lifts
and stays lifted here. Sorry if I didn't
say that before. Bending the knees,
dropping the center down. I was too concerned with making sure you're thinking
about dropping your center. So the knees are bending because
your center is coming down. Nice and slow and with control. When we work this way,
you actually don't have to do as many reps 'cause we're
really turning on all the muscles and
working super efficiently. The next time you go down,
bend your right knee. Try to think about bending
at two 90 degree angles. It's okay if
you're not there yet. I'm actually really
sore today so I'm like, (laughs) "Oh gosh, I don't know
if I can even demo this," but work towards
your comfortable edge. Breathe, squeeze the
inner thighs in the midline. You got this,
maybe get a little bit lower. And then straighten. And bend one last time, this time we're gonna
send the heart forward, fingertips back,
airplane arms, straighten the right leg. You're in a lunge here. Back knee can be lifted. Excuse me, back heel
can be lifted just a bit. Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in,
step into that standing leg. Bring everything
back up to Mountain Pose. Palms together,
Anjuli Mudra at the heart. Great work. Slide the left foot back. Lift the sternum to
the thumbs, breathe in. Breathe out. Go ahead and
lift that left heel. And let's take our center down. As you bend your knees,
slow and steady. And we lift and bend. Lift. Slow bend. Digging into that right heel, pulling that
right hip crease back. Slow and steady
wins the race here. Next time your
knees are bent, stay there. Get a little bit lower. Think about creating a
90 degree angle in both knees. Just do your best. Breathing deep. Starting to get a little warm,
I'm right there with you. Shoulders are relaxed,
heart is lifted. And then slowly release. Awesome, bend one more time. This time we'll send the
fingertips all the way back, crown of the head forward. You can straighten
through that front leg. Draw the
shoulder blades together. Lengthen through
the crown of the head. Active in the legs. Active active active. Reach reach reach. Inhale, exhale,
gather it all back in. Dig into your right heel. And we come to stand
at the top of the mat. Palms together once again. Inhale in deeply
and exhale completely. Release your hands
gently to your sides. Now we're gonna come
to the center of the mat. So you'll turn to
come long ways on the mat. We're gonna step
the feet out wide. To start, toes are
gonna point forward and we can bring
the palms back together. Each time we come to this Mudra,
it's nice because we can create a little leverage here to
relax the shoulders but also to lift the heart
up to the thumbs, the sternum up to the thumbs. 'Cause this tends to collapse a lot when we're doing
this type of physical work. Alright, inhale,
lift the heart up. Exhale, we're gonna bend both
knees just like you're headed into a squat but just
like we did in Chair Pose, think about sending
your weight back instead of knees over the toes. You wanna be able
to see your toes here. Then we're gonna shift
the weight to the left foot, straighten the right leg. You can widen your stance a
little bit here if you need. Dig deep into that left heel. Then inhale to come up
through center and exhale, take it to the right. Repeat. So for now we're creating
a little rainbow shape as we come through center. Activate from the
soles of the feet. So imagine tearing
your yoga mat in half here. Digging into the heels. Maybe you get a little lower. If you wanna take any sort of variation with the hands here that's different than
Anjuli Mudra, you can. And now we're
gonna bend both knees, go back to that squat,
wide-legged squat. Lift the chest,
lower down just a little bit. Lower down just
a little bit more. One more time, lower. And this time
we bring the palms, fingertips in towards
the tops of the thighs. You're gonna stay in this squat as you spiral your
heart towards the left. Drop your right
shoulder towards center. Pull your left shoulder back. Legs are still active. Feel those inner thighs
come back through center. Keep the knees bent if you can and take it to
the opposite side. Nice, then slowly
come back up to center. Bring the palms together. You're gonna stay knees bent
if you can and walk the heels in so soles of the
feet are turned out now. And then we're
gonna slowly rise up. Keep the knees
bent to a Goddess Pose. If you need to
take a little break and straighten
the legs, you can, otherwise keep it low. So now we're here
externally rotating the hips. We're pressing into all
four corners of the feet. Find your breath, calm
through the skin of the face. Sink a little lower
and welcome that heat. Nice, and then if you want,
take the fingertips, open them wide, open the arms
to goal post arms. Think about
aligning head over the heart, heart over the pelvis here. So hug your abs in to
support your low back. Then maybe we
lift the right heel, just the
right heel and lower it. Maybe we lift the
left heel and lower it. And maybe last bit, we lift both heels and we
sink down even lower for five. Breathe deep. Four, three, two, and one. Straighten the legs. Bring the
fingertips down to come up. Palms come to the heart
space and you can hop your feet together or you
can inch the toes in. And just take a second to
squeeze the legs together here, Mountain Pose. Breathe. Release the fingertips down,
walk to the front of your mat. Inhale, reach towards the sky. Exhale, Forward Fold
all the way down. Inhale, halfway lift. Exhale to soften and fold. Now in this fold,
we're gonna walk the feet as wide as the yoga mat and
actually maybe off the yoga mat. So it just depends. You're gonna come
to a nice wide stance. And then you're gonna find
soft bend in the knees as you sway to the right. Fingertips come to the
right side of your mat, stretching the left low back. And then we come through center. Take the hands to the left. Feeling that length
in the right low back. And now bend the
knees a little bit more, clasp onto opposite elbow
and you're gonna just do like a little Gorilla Pose
variation here. So you're gonna sway a little side to side but
you wanna get low, as low as you can
go with your center. Swaying, breathing, keeping
soft in the forehead, face. Little primal move here, finding softness, sweetness through the
strength and the stability. Now stay grounded through
all four corners of the feet. Protect those knees. Take one more
breath wherever you are. And then you're
gonna straighten the legs, release the arms. You're gonna walk the feet
in just a little bit and then allow the weight of the
head to hang once again. So you're in a Forward Fold
with the feet hip width apart. Or around there. Alright, now we're gonna
step the right foot back. We're coming into a lunge. So step the right foot back,
front knee over front ankle. Inhale in, exhale, draw your
abs back to support the low back as you rise up,
hands Anjuli Mudra. You can be with the
knee on the ground here too. So we have options. Breathe in deep. Inhale in. Exhale, send the
fingertips back, open the chest. Lengthen through
the crown of the head. Good, inhale in. Come back to center, head over heart,
heart over pelvis, palms together. And exhale, abs back, lengthen the crown
of the head forward, fingertips reach. One more time,
palms come together, we stack the spine. And then lean it
forward and reach. Good, plant the palms. You're gonna step
the back foot to meet, the left foot to
meet the right, excuse me, and you're just gonna step the
right foot up, nice and easy. Here we go.
Front knee over front ankle. When you're ready,
on an exhale, draw the abs in and lift up. Inhale in again here and then exhale,
send it forward, reach. Inhale, hands together, lift. Exhale, stay low, reach. Right hip crease
is pulling back. And one more time, you got it. Reach. Palms come down, right foot
steps back to meet the left. Breathe in, lower the
belly all the way, breathe out. Inhale, lift up Cobra or
Upward Facing Dog, breathe in. And exhale, slow and
steady, release, breathe out. From here, you're just gonna turn onto your back, so you
can just flip over from here. Voila. And we're gonna
hug the knees into the chest and bring the
palms to the knees. Then send the palms out so
you're finding your neutral spine where there's a little
bit of space between your low back and the mat and
the tailbone's reaching forward. And you're just gonna
hang here for a breath or two. So soften through the feet. You can even part the lips a
bit and start to cool it down. Then slide your hands to the inner arches or the
outer edges of the feet, you choose,
for Happy Baby. You're gonna lift the soles
of the feet up towards the sky. Continue to reach
your tailbone down just like we had
in that neutral spine. And breathe. And you can find any soft, easy
movement here that feels good. And then slowly release, soles of the feet
come to the mat. If there's anything
else you're craving, maybe a figure four stretch or a little straddle. Shoulder stand, Bridge Pose. Go ahead and do it now. Listen to your body if you're ready to just send the
legs out for relaxation, that's where we'll meet. Arms resting gently at our side. And close your eyes and just see how fast you can
surrender to this moment. Drop everything. Just completely let the weight of the body
relax into the earth. Don't wait 'til the very
last minute of this practice. How about now?
Take a deep breath in. And as you exhale,
relax the weight of your body completely and
fully into the earth. Close your eyes. Let go. And you can stay
calm and relaxed here. Just slowly walk
the heels together, as close as they can come
here in this supine position. Breathe. Good, and then you can keep the left leg heavy as you hug the
right knee up into the chest. Good, and then
slide the right knee over to the right
for a little Supine Twist. If any sounds come out,
I say let them. If any emotions come up, I say listen, sweetly. Come back to center, extend the right leg
out back long. Left knee hugs in. And same thing,
taking it into a twist. Finding some release. And then you can melt it back. Extend both legs
out long once again. Breathe in. Breathe out. Slowly bring the palms together. You can bring the thumbs up to the forehead in
between the brows. Give a little massage there. Start to wiggle the toes. Just wanna thank you so
much for putting in the time, sharing your energy with me. I send you lots of love. We'll close by
taking a deep breath in. And exhaling lots of love out. Hope to see you again soon. Namaste. (upbeat music)