Yoga For Bone Health

Transcript

- Hello and welcome
to Yoga With Adriene. I'm Adriene and today we
have Yoga For Bone Health. A practice for every body. (snaps) (screams) (suspenseful music) Alright and we have begun. We're gonna begin
standing in Mountain Pose with the feet together. So come on to your mat,
bring the feet together. A little smile is alright
for this practice. If you don't feel like smiling,
that's fine too. Take a look down at your feet and we're gonna
lift the toes here. Let's bring the hands to
the waistline just for a little stability. Just take a look
down at your feet. We're gonna lift the toes
and as you lift the toes, press firmly down through
the ball joint of your big toe, the ball joint of your pinky toe and then the back
two corners of the heels. So starting with the strong
foundation, then you can start to slowly place the toes down. Squeeze the
inner arches together. Draw energy up through
the ankles, the inseam, the inner thigh. And we'll start to lift up
through the chest a bit. You can relax the arms
down gently at your side. Stand up nice and tall. Relax the shoulders down. I didn't know if I had that
in me but apparently I do. Mountain Pose. I'll invite you to close the
eyes here or soften your gaze down gently past your nose. And just notice if
you feel really fidgety or you want to move. See if you can start to anchor
in the sound of your breath as we stand tall here in Tadasana. And then as you start to
slowly deepen your breath, press down firmly
through your feet and re-engage that upward
lift through the inseam. So you can think
about lifting the kneecaps, you can think
about toning the quads, you can think about
drawing the navel in and up and lifting up
through the chest. Thinking about hugging muscle
to bone a lot during this little practice,
this little ditty. Now spread the fingertips wide,
tuck the chin slightly to lengthen through
the back of the neck. And as you lift
through the crown, try to get as tall as you can
lengthening through the spine. Nice, then you can open the
eyes and on your next inhale, reach the fingertips all
the way out to come up for a Volcano Pose. And same thing, when the arms
are reaching you can really tell like, am I kind of just
hanging out Mountain or can I engage creating a feeling of like
an upward current of energy through the front body,
engaging the muscles of the thighs and then a grounding
through the back body. Drawing the
shoulder blades together down towards
the hips or the tail. Good, then on your next inhale,
slowly carve a line with your nose to look up. Reach reach reach. And then slow and steady exhale arms all the way down. Beautiful, we're gonna step the
feet wide now, toes turned out. Good, bring the palms together. You can interlace the
fingertips if you want or keep them in more traditional
prayer position, Anjuli Mudra. Inhale in, exhale you're gonna
bend the knees, try to get as low as you can here. And we're gonna
find a nice deep breath. So starting with the feet again,
press into all four corners, the outer edge,
the inner arch lifts, we're pressing
into the big joint, excuse me,
(chuckles) the ball joint of the big toe mound and the pinky toe mound and the back two
corners of the heels. Now as you sink into this squat
here, think about lifting your femur bones, look at this,
this is great, into your hip sockets, so you feel this lifting of the pelvic
floor as you do so. And then we're just gonna
pulse here, nice and easy, slow and steady for 10. 9 breathe 8 7, lots of awareness
in the foot, 6, navel draws in,
hugging muscle to bone. 5 4 3 2 stay low on 1,
release your hands, bring them to
the tops of the thighs. We're gonna start to send the
hips back as you lean forward, still working to track, to
spread awareness through the feet and track your knees
over the first two toes there. So don't, don't come in even
on this is very skeleton like let's, let's keep
working on our goal. Inhale in here,
lengthen through the crown. Exhale, you're gonna bend
a little bit deeper in the knees, drop your left shoulder
to center and spiral your heart up towards the ceiling,
maybe sending your gaze past your right shoulder. Now think about breathing
deep into all four sides of the torso here. Think about that spiral maybe
happening in the mid-back, the thoracic spine. Then sink back into your
heels to spread weight evenly through all four corners of
the feet and you can just try drawing those thigh bones
in a little bit here for one last breath. Lovely, come back through
center if you need to take a little break,
totally understand. If not, let's go right
to the other side. Dropping the right
shoulder down through center. So what really matters here is
working from the ground up so keep paying
attention to those feet. Finding your twist. Hugging muscle to bone,
pressing into all four corners of the foot, keep dropping
down through the hips. And that kind of traction
you create when you draw the femurs in, lifts up through
the pelvic floor and you might even find a little
more on your twist. Good, then
we'll slowly release. Come back up,
straighten the legs, beautiful. Send the fingertips all the way
out to come up, big breath in. Long breath out to float the
fingertips all the way down. We're gonna walk the feet
now into hip width apart, so hip distance. Inhale, reach
the arms out and up. Exhale, you're gonna
take the left wrist up and over to the right. So a nice side body stretch
here, get nice and long. Good, dig into both heels
evenly, lift up through the kneecaps, lengthen your
tailbone down just a bit as you hug the low ribs
in towards your body. Beautiful, come back to center,
take it to the other side, big stretch. And back up through center. Rain it down, nice and easy. We're gonna walk
the feet out wide again. This time toes turned in,
toes turned in. Good, bring the
hands to the waistline. Oh Benji. Inhale, lift up, really drawing
energy up from the feet. Arches of the feet,
pressing into all four corners. When you're ready, hug the
low ribs in, send your heart forward. Try to keep your
elbows pulling back as you come just halfway as if
you were looking down into a spooky pond. Soft bend in the knees here, draw the shoulder
blades together. Think about hugging
those low ribs back up and in. Good, then ground
through the feet to come all the way back up. Now turn the right toes out and
the left toes in a little bit more so you feel that rotation
coming from the left hip. Right hip's rotating
out, of course. And then we'll send
the fingertips out wide on an inhale. Exhale, you're gonna bend
the front knee, Warrior II. Stay here for a beat,
pull the pinkies back, hug those low ribs in, and imagine you're
trying to draw the front of your yoga mat and the back
of your yoga mat into center. So we're lifting up here.
You're creating some traction, you're, again, drawing the
thigh bones in towards center. Excellent, now we're
gonna inhale, reach the arms up towards the sky,
straighten the front leg. Exhale, go right back
into your Warrior II and practice that pull,
that traction, that strong connection
through the feet. Inhale, arms lift,
legs straighten. Exhale, Warrior II. One more time, inhale,
arms lift, legs straighten. Exhale, Warrior II. Now bring the
hands to the waistline, turn the right toes in. So now both toes are in. Inhale in, exhale,
halfway again coming into a wide-legged
standing Forward Fold. Elbows draw back,
hug the low ribs in, crown of the head
is nice and long. So we're kind of putting
ourselves in a stressful position here,
building that bone density. We're not putting the arms down,
holding it up here today. Drawing the navel
in to support the low back. Lovely and then
ground through the feet to come all the way back up. (chuckles) Exploring
my lower range today. Left toes turn out, right
toes are already in but you can give them a little more of
a hug, again, to consider that movement coming from the hip,
the ball in socket. Alright, send
the fingertips out. Inhale in, exhale,
bend the front knee, Warrior II. Think about dragging the
front foot and the back foot in towards center
without moving them. Engage your right inner thigh. Peace out, Benji. And let's move,
nice and slow with control. Inhale to reach up,
straighten the front leg. Exhale bend. Inhale reach. Exhale bend. Inhale reach. Exhale bend. Inhale reach. And exhale, bend, Warrior II. Beautiful hands
come to the waistline, straighten both legs,
turn both toes in. Last time, inhale, we lift up,
option to interlace the fingertips behind
the back this time. And exhale halfway,
halfway into the fold. Shoulder blades draw together. We kind of fight gravity here,
slight micro-bend in the knee. Think about drawing
energy up from the arches. And then slowly rising all the way back up. Great, bring the palms together,
bend your knees, inhale in, exhale,
jump the feet together. Beautiful, from here, hands
come to the waistline for more stability or arms
reach all the way up. We're gonna come up
onto the tippy-tip toes, and then drop on to the heels, creating a little
vibration in thy bones. (chuckles) Inhale to lift,
exhale to drop. Inhale, lift.
Exhale, drop. Keep it going. And release,
slowly float the fingertips all the way down, nice work. Last bit here, palms come
together, press them together, really together as you shift
your weight to your left foot. Inhale, lift the right heel. Exhale you're gonna
open from the right hip to come into a low Tree. Press up out of your standing
leg so we're not collapsing in, press up out of the
standing leg to find length. If you find from here
you want to slide the foot up below the knee,
we can do that. Or we can take the right foot
and bring it to the left inner thigh pressing firmly into the right foot
with the left inner thigh. Of course you can take
your fingertips up, take any variation here,
hugging a muscle to bone, really feeling that
outer right hip connected. Inhale, exhale to slowly
come out of the pose, and we'll take it
to the other side. Press the palms together, shift
your weight to your right foot. Lift up the left heel
as you breathe in. From your hips, so not from
your knee or your foot, open it out, low Tree, everyone. No matter what stage of
the yoga journey start with the low Tree and just feel that
connection in the hips, draw your navel in and up. And then from here, we'll press
away from the standing leg, find that leverage as you
resist and then slowly slide the leg, maybe below the knee, or above finding your version of Tree Pose today. And then inhale in, use your
exhale to release, and we're gonna walk on over to the
front of our mat, but the way I would like you to walk,
the way I invite you to walk, is by rolling through
your feet very slowly. Nice, when you get there,
inhale, reach for the sky. Exhale, send the hips back,
Utkatasan, Chair Pose. Hug the low ribs in. Sink back into
your imaginary chair. Tuck the chin slightly,
maybe get a little lower. Inhale, and now exhale,
straighten the legs and come into a Forward Fold. Stretch it out, take a break. Now we're gonna come
to a position on the mat, so how you get there
is really up to you, kind of taking your time, I'm gonna guide a way but
you can find any way there. So bend your knees generously,
bring one hand to the earth, then the other, step one
foot back, and then the other. Now you totally skip this and
just come right to seated, but if you are with me,
let's come into a Plank. And the reason I'm inviting
us here is to really practice hugging the muscles of the
front body up to meet the back body, so supporting
the spine in this position. Press away from your yoga mat. So come up
out of your shoulders, reach your heels back, you can also do this
on your knees, get the same conditioning out of it. Tuck the chin slightly,
breathe deep. And then slowly lower to the
knees, and we'll join together in a seated position. Excellent, from here
bring your feet to your mat. Send your fingertips forward. Little core engagement here. Inhale in, exhale, drawl the
navel into, I said drawl, draw the navel in towards the spine. Try to keep your chest lifted
as you slowly lower down. If the feet come flying up,
that's okay, we're just checking in, building strength around the spine slowly, or maybe quickly, we come
all the way to the ground. Alright, place the hands
on the earth, bend the knees, soles of the feet
come to the mat. Preparing for Bridge, so good. Snuggle with the
shoulder blades underneath your heart space, inhale in. Exhale, slow and steady
start to tilt the pelvis, tailbone goes up,
navel draws down. We'll continue
the journey, so slow, nice and easy up the spine,
pressing into the feet. Think about sending
your shins forward. Lifting the chest to the chin,
and then eventually the chin to the sky. And when you get here, see
if you can imagine squeezing an imaginary ball
between your inner thighs. Press into all
four corners of the feet. Shins forward. And then slowly
when you're ready, soften through the sternum, and melt it down very slowly. Again, press into the palms,
press into the feet, we'll rock on the pelvis,
navel draws down. This is the last one.
Slow and steady lifting up. Shins forward. This time, think about
drawing your heels back towards your hips. Oh yeah, and then chest to chin,
and chin to sky. You might start to feel the
glutes turn on a bit more as you tug back through the heels. Nice and then slowly, again,
softening through your heart. Bring it back down,
one vertebrae at a time. Really trying to
articulate through the spine. Nice and then we'll slowly
hug one knee into the chest. And then the other. Just take a second here to
rock a little side to side, and massage your lower back. Great, from here, inhale in.
Exhale, you're just gonna allow your hands to come rest
gently on your low ribs, and we're just gonna nice
and easy keep the feet soft. Peek at me if your need to. You're gonna dip just one
toe down and lift, and then the other,
down and lift. Maybe sliding the hands down to
the low abs to check in, down and lift
alternating between the right toes and the left toes. Trying not to engage the
muscles in front of the hips, but really
keeping this in the core. I mean it's all tied together
but really trying to activate the core, and allow that to be what brings the knee back up. Great, now hug both knees in. The last bit is we're
gonna inhale in deeply, and on the exhale,
you're gonna let your feet fall to the mat with a thud. So here we go,
inhale in, exhale. (thuds on floor) Again, inhale in,
squeeze and lift, exhale. (thuds on floor) Inhale in, squeeze and lift. Last one. (thuds on floor) Beautiful, extend one
leg out, then the other. Open one arm out,
and then the other. Tuck the chin slightly,
lengthen through the neck, take the deepest breath you've
taken all day, maybe all year. And as you exhale, relax the weight of your bones, and your body completely
and fully into the earth. As always, it's a true honor
and a pleasure to share a practice with you. Thanks for sharing this little
Halloween tradition with me, and if you're practicing
this another time, thank you so much for caring about your body and taking this time for yourself. Take one final inhale in
through the nose. And out through
the nose or mouth. I'll see you next time. (suspenseful music)