Yoga for Seniors with Props

Transcript

hi my name is kelly and this video is a seniors yoga video for beginners so i've got a couple props with me today you have a blanket a couple blocks and of course a yoga mat so to get started we're going to sit on the blanket so you're going to want to fold it a few different times so it's nice and thick so placing the blanket right underneath the tailbone we're gonna find a cross-legged seated position so the point of the blanket sitting on it we want to get that lumbar curve in our back so we want to feel the pelvis kind of roll forward so imagine yourself sitting up against a wall so you don't want to be smudged but you want to sit up nice and tall let the shoulders drop down away from the ears crown of the head reaches all the way up to the ceiling just like you're sitting up against a wall okay so let's place the palms on top of the knees so the palms face down is grounding flip the palms up and it means receiving and so just find what suits you and we're just going to start to become present so close the eyes imagine a string pulling the crown of the head all the way up to the ceiling and let's just take a couple deep breaths so big inhale and exhale inhale again and exhale big inhale and exhale good open the eyes so you should start to feel a little bit better already so our yoga breath traditionally in yoga we breathe in and out through the nose we call that an ujjayi breath it means oceanic breathing sometimes that's a little bit difficult to do at first so just finding an even flow with the inhales and exhales is all you need so you want the length of the inhales to match the length of the exhales so this is easy pose right here sukasana so if it's not easy which for some it's not so i'd suggest you maybe take the legs out if it's hard on the knees you can even stack the blankets up higher or you can take a block and place it underneath the blanket and find your easy pose up here many different options so i'm going to start with some just basic simple yoga poses so we're going to start in tabletop so if you have knee issues and you're able to get on your knees use a blanket underneath the knees so coming into tabletop we have our shoulders over elbows elbows over wrists hips over knees tops of the feet flat to the floor a straight line from the crown of the head going to the base of the spine so we're just going to do a couple we're going to inhale and drop belly squeeze the shoulders together look all the way up exhale round the back to the chin into the chest pull the navel to the spine good inhale look all the way up exhale cap pose around the back inhale drop the belly look all the way up for cow exhale round the back for cat one more inhale drop the belly look all the way up and exhale round the back good let's come right back to tabletop okay so moving into our heart melting pose from here we're going to extend those arms out in front of us we're going to lower the chest down to the floor and we're going to either come to our chin or our forehead so we want our hips to remain right over the knees tops of the feet flat to the floor shoulder blades roll in hold for a couple breaths feel the opening underneath the arms this is a great preparation pose for our downward facing dog good it will come out of it slowly walking the hands back in and let's counter it with one cat stretch so go ahead and round the spine to the chin into the chest pull the navel up exhale let's bring it right back to tabletop okay so taking the blanket out from under us we're going to come into downward facing dog so i'm sure you've heard of downward facing dog is probably the most common yoga prac yoga pose there is so to go over proper alignment and downward facing dog and i will also show you what to do with blocks okay so our downward facing dog just to show you what the final version looks like our body is an upside down v good so to get into this pose i'm going to start by lifting up the hips let's keep the knees bent a lot of the time people are kind of facing forward so the goal is to get a straight line from the crown of the head going to the base of the spine so we want to be about three or four feet apart let's keep that bend into the knees for right now so imagine yourself pushing the floor away drawing the chest towards the top of the thighs the knees are still bent the heels are still off the floor because we're just finding that's positioning in the spine first and then when we feel ready we want to start to straighten the legs so be careful when you straighten the legs that the back doesn't round we want to keep pulling the chest towards the top of the thighs now this stretch hits everything in the body you've got the arms the chest the legs the back the hamstrings it is one of the yoga's all-stars so a couple deep breaths and downward dog good so if that pose is pretty difficult to get into try it with some blocks so we're going to place our hands on the box and do the exact same thing so we're able to work on the alignment in the spine without being fully in the pose so we may want to bend the knees a little bit but feel the chest pulling towards the top of the thighs good good so that's just a couple different options for downward facing dog all right so let's go ahead and i want to show you just a couple things to do with the blocks before i move into a standing pose so posture such a big deal especially when we get older a lot of times we sit at a computer desk we slump and then what that does it contracts the upper body so the muscles on the back begin to get pulled away from the spine and the muscles in the front tighten up so that's what creates that humpback something that's absolutely amazing to do to reverse that effect is lay on some blocks now the first time you may try it it may seem and feel very uncomfortable but i really suggest you to stick with it because you'll end up loving it so we want to place the first block right in the middle of the back so we want this edge to be in the middle and we start to lay back oh you'll start to feel it right away so you'll take the second block and just depending on where your flexibility is you may want to have the block at all different heights so i suggest starting it with the height the tallest height but this is easy peasy take it down a level trying to figure out which level it is and you can go all the way down to the third level so arms down by the sides palms face up go ahead and just take some deep breaths and relax right here like i mentioned this pose is amazing to help open up the front part of the body and it takes some pressure off the muscles in the back so if you don't have blocks i would suggest that you go out and get some and start laying on some blocks tonight and to come out of this just make sure you take your time push yourself up and we're gonna do another stretch in the back and this is really good for restoring the lumbar curve so we're going to come on to our bellies so onto the forearms palms flattened to the ground tops the feet in the ground so our natural way we get into this is we just kind of hang out here and we're dumping everything and um yeah not good so what we want to do is pull the crown of the head out from the body shoulders drop down away from the ears good so a couple key things to remember here so the belly needs to be soft so just relax almost like you're pushing it out a little bit and don't tense in the glute so we automatically want to squeeze so we just need to let go so hang out here couple minutes so if this pose feels too intense start to take the legs further out the more intense it becomes when you bring the feet together so just find your level of comfort so one thing that i want to guide you in when holding these poses any pose that you do is to stick with it so go about 70 of what you think you can do in a stretch and then stop there so use your breath use gravity use time to slowly pull you deeper into a pose so when you force yourself into a position your body's going to tense it's going to tighten and it's not going to be able to go any further so when you ease into it you start to stretch the connective tissue in your body the joints the ligaments the tendons the things that you don't normally stretch but those have to be lubricated and those are what prevent you from getting injured um they keep you healthy and they make you more flexible all right so just a couple more breaths so the counter pose to this one would be child's pose so just take the knees out to the edges of the mat sit back to the heels let the forehead rest on the floor and take a couple deep breaths let's come all the way back up and so one other pose i'm gonna do i'm actually gonna do it up against the wall so it's to get into our hips so we'll see if i can do it here with the windows so taking the legs up the wall is a great pose uh for getting rid of headaches um and it's a great pose to help you relax so we're going to do a variation of pigeon pose which most people have trouble doing because it can affect the knees so this way it takes all the pressure off the knees so to sit up against the wall this is the trickiest part right here you want to sit about a foot away let's come down onto our back and we're going to kind of rotate the hips up to the wall so i'm about six inches away so to stretch into the hips i'm going to bend into that right knee cross it over the top of the thigh and create you know an upside down four so you may feel this right here and want to stay here and that is perfectly fine if you want to go a little bit deeper you're going to bend into the knee put the sole of the foot on the wall and start inching the leg and towards the torso so remember to keep those hips on the ground if it starts to lift up you've gone too far good so kind of wiggle the head out from the body you want a long neck then this is a good pose to just close your eyes and breathe so like i mentioned earlier go 70 of what you think you can do and then once you hit that point of resistance start to move into it a little bit deeper a little slow take your time there's no rush slowly start bringing that foot down the wall so also notice when you're stretching into that hip that you automatically want to clench the jaw or scrunch in between the eyes so relax the face a couple more breaths so let's take that left leg all the way back up release the right to meet the left and shake those hips out doesn't that right leg feel taller than the left and the opposite sides let's cross that left ankle over the top of the knee and then bend into that right knee oh this side's a lot tighter than the other that's another thing that you'll notice when you start doing stretches with your hips one side is always a lot tighter than the other so the discrepancies in the body all start in the hips so also notice what you're thinking about when you're lying here where's your mind going where are your thoughts are you able to acknowledge your thoughts without attaching to them noticing them for what they are they're just thoughts then seeing if you can let them go as quickly as they came in then maybe move a little bit deeper so i learned in my yoga training that we carry a lot of negative emotion in our hips so when we stretch them it can bring up feelings of anger anger or frustration and so learn how to sit with that learn how to sit with the feeling and acknowledging it as just a feeling and then taking a big inhale and then exhale pushing that feeling out and just allowing the body to soften with every breath feel like you're melting into the floor good slowly make our way out start to straighten that right leg extend the left shake it out and let's come back to face the front so coming back into that sukhasana easy pose that we started out with go ahead and sit onto your blanket again so whatever leg you had in front the first time let's switch it so sitting up nice and tall imagining ourselves up against that flat wall let's close the eyes again i'm gonna do three cleansing breaths together so it's a big inhale through the nose and then a loud exhale through the mouth so big inhale exhale again inhale last one make it count inhale and exhale so thank you for taking just a little bit out of your day to do some basic yoga with me these stretches are great to do every day trust me if you do them on a continuous basis i promise you will feel better so thank you for sharing your time and namaste