Warrior III - Foundations of Yoga

Transcript

Hey everyone. Welcome to Yoga With Adriene. I am Adriene, and today on the
Foundations of Yoga, we are learning Virabhadrasana Three or Warrior Three. This is a balancing posture, it is a full-body
strengthener, a ton of benefits, but really I love this posture because
it's about being fierce while also being graceful, gracefully and
grandfully. Oh, my God! If you
know it, maybe that's from, leave it in the comment box below, and I will
love you forever. Let's learn Warrior Three. All right, so we're going to learn this in
three parts today. We're going
to come to a runner's lunge to begin. So, no fancy swan dive or anything. Again, we're just kind of breaking down the
basics to learn the foundations of this posture, and I like getting into it
from kind of the earth up, from the ground up. Gives us a chance to really connect to our
center, and of course build a strong foundation. So, let's take the right leg forward, left
leg back, and lift that back knee up, just stretch it out. Take a deep breath in here. We do have a
runner's lunge foundation video. I think you should check it out,
obviously, but I'm partial, no. And then we're going to plant that back
foot whenever you're ready. Keep a deep bend in the front knee, so nice
stacking of ankle and knee. And then we'll slowly roll it up. So, I want you just to roll it up today to
feel this connection to center. So, tailbone lengthens down, navel draws in,
and we roll it up. Back leg is
nice and strong. All right, so I'm engaging from the ground
up. Now, bring
your awareness to that front foot here, strong back legs still, but bring
your awareness to the front foot. We're going to really press into all four
corners of the feet. So, the back two corners of the heels, and
then the ball joint of the big toe, and the ball joint
of the pinkie toe. So, it
kind of comes to these Yogi toesies here. Four-part equal standing, we have a video
for that too, which I think is really helpful for standing postures. So, check that out. Okay. Now I can
reach my hands up in Warrior if I want to just kind of shine and feel good,
or I can keep my hands on the waistline. Take a deep breath in here, spread
awareness, press into that, front foot strong. Navel draws in slightly, we
inhale, think up with the crown of the head, up with the heart. Keep this
upward movement, and there's this kind of energetic lift as you peel the
back heel up and step halfway in. Woo! So, I'm finding that opposition, which is
truly what my hatha yoga's all about. Right? Finding places to ground as I find places
to lift. So,
pressing into that front for now, I'm going to have a soft bend in this
front knee, and I'm just going to play with a little buoyancy. So, this
might seem weird at first, especially if you're new to the practice. You're
like, what are we doing Adriene? Freak! And that's okay, you can think
that, but I highly recommend you find this is kind of buoyancy. Feel strong front foot as we kind of find
this lift and lengthen up through the front body. Now, inhale in and on a swift exhale, bend
both knees, lift that back leg. We're not here yet, okay guys, chill, chill. In fact, I'm
going to step back just a little bit, just chill, nice, focus on the
foundation. So, a soft bend in the front knee, and now
I'm just checking in again with that front foot again. So, before we even get to here, guys, spread
awareness to all four corners of that front foot, draw the navel in towards
the spine, shoulders away from the ears, find places where you can lift
and lengthen, and then of course places where we can ground. I'm not locking that standing leg here,
but rather keeping a soft bend in the knee. So, soft awareness as my
muscles wrap around the support. Okay. Belly's going to come out here and we're going
to start to get crazy. Draw the navel in. You might even spiral the lower rib cage,
draw the lower rib cage in just as support with your center. Hands come to the waistline
here, and now we bring our awareness to this back thigh. We might just lift
the toes up here for now and slowly begin to work from here to here. Okay? So, you might just be here. You might be at a wall. Rather than coming into
the full posture right away, work on creating a full-body experience. I
just can't say that enough. It's so important. And then one day, you'll be
so in that full-body experience that you'll soar in this insane Warrior
Three. You're going to be like, "Ah, working from
the inside out, right on." Ways to play. Bring your awareness to this back thigh. Rather than
imagining hoisting your foot up, keep the hips level, and see if you can
kind of bring awareness to this back thigh, lifting from the back thigh. So, we hoist our body up. We throw our body around all day long. In Yoga,
we get a chance to really work with integrity. So, consider that here in
this balancing posture, so don't rush it. Charging that back thigh or bring awareness
there, so we're not just lifting from the foot, but we're keeping the
hips level. So, maybe dropping
that left hip here. Chest is open, supportive in the center. We can stay
here, gaze is strong, or we can reach the fingertips forward. Take a deep
breath in, feel it out, then slowly we'll bring the back foot down, come
back to Warrior One, and release the arms. Rock on. Okay. We're going to
try one more time, this time with a little variation. And this is my
favorite way to teach Warrior Three. I just think it's really great in
terms of finding that opposition that's essentially going to support. So here we go again. Hands come to the waistline, soft bend in
the knee, awareness in that front foot. Step the foot in if you haven't already; find
a nice little bounce here. It's like, what's that, sissy bounce? Lord! We
can't have that on the show, not today anyway, but I'm a fan. I wish I
could move like those sissy bouncers, man, maybe someday. Okay. Warrior Three, soft bend in the knee, inhale
in, on a swift exhale take that buoyant energy, that buoyant quality,
and press away. Now, press
is actually the perfect word for this next variation. I'm going to level
the hips, draw my navel in, keep that extension through the crown. Again,
don't worry about being in the perfect shape for now, just worry . . . In
fact, I can impress you with my Warrior Three, but I don't want to. I want
us to kind of find that integrity as we slowly build up to a nice, strong,
and supportive Virabhadrasana Three. So, this time I'm going to send my fingertips
back. It's funny; I'm on a
creaky wood now, creaky plank. Soft bend in the knee, now think about that
back inner thigh. All right? Now this time, imagine you're pressing the
palms into the earth. So, in fact, imagine that the earth came up
here, and in class I would come and maybe give you a
little resistance. So, imagine
that you're pressing away, so just like we do in our twist when we find
kind of a little resistance there. See if you can find a little resistance
here, and again, you can do this without even lifting that back toe. So, if you're a super beginner, then you want
to give it a try anyway, so I go from here to pressing away, really finding
that lift and lengthen, that marriage of strength, but also length and
grace. Might be here, might be
here. Again, I'm pressing into imaginary floor here
kind of like Superman. Once you have your resistance here, you might
begin to slowly come to here and we breathe. Breathe. I can't believe I'm on this crickety piece
of wood. Perfect. One more breath, and then we softly bend that
front knee, step it back to Warrior One, take a deep breath
in, and exhale. Tadasana. All right. Let's try the other side. Same thing. We're going to break it on
down, starting with our runner's lunge. This time, the left foot's forward,
of course. Right foot back; take a second to just get
into it. Breathe. Breathe with me now. Okay. Plant the back foot. Again, for today, rather
than . . . Well, for today, I encourage you, I invite you, to tuck the
tailbone and roll it up. This one reminds me that I'm kind of anchoring
through the feet, drawing energy up through the arches, and connecting to
my center of gravity, which is obviously so necessary for this Warrior
Three, and just so good for the back and the whole body. So take a second here to just check in. Again, if you want to reach the
fingertips up to your Warrior One, shine on, babes, shine on. And then
we'll bring the fingertips to the waistline, soft bend in the knees here, I
lift the back heel up, and step it in halfway. I'm going to come to the
center of my mat again. Soft bend here, bring your awareness around
to that front foot just like we did before. So we're going to have this woo thing. See if you can spread awareness through all
four corners of the feet, press down, and then find places to lift up. Now here we go again, the sissy bounce. Just kidding, not that. Everyone's
going to be Googling sissy bounce if they don't know already, and they'll
be like, "Oh, my God!" It's pretty cool. Okay. Soft bend, we find a
buoyancy. Let's grab a Drishti, a little focus, something
to set our gaze on in front, and then we might lift that back
leg up. Notice I'm not
locking this front leg. It might be like big Tony on the ground, you
guys. There's no right or wrong. Let's really do this. It's like, have integrity
and be in our bodies. That's called self-love, too, it's a great
practice. So, navel draw in, woo, take it nice and slow,
draw the shoulders away from the ears. Now we might begin to lift the back leg and,
again, I encourage you rather than just considering lifting this
back foot, consider everything from your center, from your foundation. So, I'm leveling that
right hip. I'm bring my awareness to that right inner
thigh. As I drop the
hips, spiral it up towards the sky. Now, hands can stay on the waistline here. Maybe you can take this
variation of sternum to thumb, which is nice. Neck is nice and long, not
crunching, and then maybe we just experiment with reaching the fingertips
out, maybe we're at the wall here too. Check in with the shoulders, the
hips, breathe, breathe, breathe, then softly bending back to Warrior One we
go. Take a deep breath in and exhale, float it
down. Okay. Let's try the second variation with the palms
pressing away from the early. Ready? Take a deep breath in, exhale, let it go,
and let's give it a try. So again, we can be on that big toe, we could
just practice balance here, baby steps. This is about practice, right? My favorite Pattabhi Jois
quote, "We'll practice and all is coming." It's just so simple, so true,
and really beautiful. Good reminder. Okay. We'll send the fingertips back. Again, find that imaginary piece. So,
just imagine like a piece of Plexiglas or something here, pressing up. So,
you're literally pressing into that imaginary piece of glass or imagine my
palm coming in, sneaking in there to press against. Creating full-body
experience, nice, strong awareness from the crown of the head to the tip of
the tailbone. It's hard to do this and talk, sorry. In time, we can get to
where, you know we start to level things out and really play, and even
twist, but just honor where you're at today. That's what the foundations of
yoga are all about, too, getting somewhere by honoring where you're at now. We might drop the hips. Again, pressing, finding that resistance,
and then we might just check it out. Might even interlace the fingertips here. We
breathe, we breathe, we breathe, wherever we're at, we breathe. And then we
release. Reaching the fingertips up, take a deep breath
in and exhale. Float the fingertips and let's down, and let's
slide that back foot up. We
did it! All righty. So that was Warrior Three. Awesome job, everyone. So, if you're
feeling a little discouraged after that or maybe you're feeling awesome,
and that's great. But if you're feeling a little like, "Hmm,"
I just want to remind you that it's all about the practice
baby. That's why we're doing
this. This is a fierce pose. If you're wanting to take your practice to
the next level, this will be a great thing to
tackle. Try to do it once
everyday, just give this video a go, or maybe three or four times a week. In fact, you can click the Add To tab below,
favorite the video so it's easier to find. Make sure you like it, and then return to
it. So, it's
about the return on home. And I really think that if you experiment
with that and practice with that, you will be surprised
how fast the body changes and how you will fly like a fierce
warrior in no time. Sorry, my
arm just probably went out of frame there. Bad actor. Not that I'm acting
here, but okay T.M.I. Love you guys. Leave questions, comments below please. Appreciate all your
feedback thus far. And if you have any requests, send them in. We'll see
you next time. Namaste.