Yoga For Tennis Players

Transcript

Hello, everyone! Welcome to Yoga
with Adriene. I'm Adriene,
and today we have Yoga for Tennis Players. I think I really love Yoga
for Tennis Players because tennis
is not just a physical game. It is very inclusive of the mind,
the heart, the breath, for sure. Our ability to concentrate
and do many things at once. So it is my hope that with this video,
you get to tap into all that good stuff and not just stretch the body. So hop into something
comfy and let's get started. Alrighty. Let's begin in a seated position. Come on down to the ground. Lift the hips up on a towel or a blanket,
if that's helpful. And let's take a second to just tune
into our bodies. And tune into our breath. You can close your
eyes if it feels comfortable. Sit up nice and tall. Just take a second to notice your breath. And as you do this,
I just want to thank you for joining me and taking this time to tend to your body with awareness. Get a good stretch. And tap in to your breath. So let's bring our focus to the breath
to start. Again, just noticing. The quality of your breath. And that's just whatever
that means to you right now. Is it deep? Is it shallow? Is it kind of hard to
to notice anything at all? And then we'll just consciously start to deepen the breath. Relaxing the shoulders. Finding maybe just a little more length
in the spine. In the neck. And on your next inhale, see if you can take
such a deep breath that you sort of feel all sides of your torso. Expand this 360 breath. Maybe even feeling this expansion underneath the collarbones on the inhale. And then we'll just do a couple more
breaths here. But because this is Yoga
for Tennis Players, would like to layer on just a little bit of core activation
in the exhale. So for these next few rounds. Nice and easy you will take a deep breath
in on our own on your own. But on your exhale
see if you can hug your lower ribs in a bit and draw your navel,
your low abs, even in just a bit. So we're keeping the expansive inhale at 360 inhalation. But just for a couple of rounds
we're going to work on an active exhale drawing the muscles of the core
in the lower ribs. Hugging. And I know it takes some focus and concentration
to do this action. So just take another round or two here. And then the next time you do that active exhale and hug the abs in. Hug the low ribs in. Find that core center. See if you can maintain that core center as we do on the core
in this next transition. So see if you can maintain
that core center as we come now into all fours. So we're never really letting the belly
fully go here. We're maintaining that gentle core center connection. All right. Here we are in all fours. We're going to do that
one more time. That same breath. So inhale 360 here in tabletop position. Exhale navel draws in and up. Low abs draw in and up low ribs hug in. Beautiful. Then we're going to let that go. You
and let it all go. Release through the belly. Inhale open the chest. Look forward for cow pose. Tailbone up good. Exhale
round through the spine, chin to chest. Resist the urge to move super fast here. Let's try to slow it down
a bit and really feel our way through this spinal work. Moving with a nice slow, easy breath. And you can even close your eyes here,
depending on how you're feeling today. And just take a couple of rounds
on your own. Moving with the sound of your breath. Take one more round. Find what feels good here. Then we'll come back to center. Walk the hands forward. Spread the fingertips super wide. We're going to do our first downward
dog together. So you'll curl
the toes under lift from the hips, send them up high and back,
and we come into downward dog together. Keep the palms
spreading, fingertips spreading. Excuse me. Soft bend in the elbows. Upper arm bones have an external rotation
here. Inner thighs
have a slight inner rotation here and we breathe. Maybe you close your eyes again. Maybe you imagine
your heels getting heavier. And then slowly lower
the knees to the ground. Come back to tabletop position. Turn your left fingertips
to the left side of your mat. Peek at me if you need a little demo. Turn your right fingertips
to the right side of your mat so the thumbs are now pointing forward. We're just going to move
in some gentle circles to the right here, getting into the hips. And best you can see
if you can keep all of your knuckles grounding down through this movement,
through this gesture. Nice. Reverse the circle. Now walk the fingertips out. Take a deep breath in. Take the knees
a little bit wider than the hip points. And then send the hips on back
for an extended child's pose. So depending on how you're feeling today
in your body, you can decide how
active you want this to be. So we
can really reach the fingertips forward. We can even tempt the palms
by lifting the wrists up high, getting that stretch in the forearm, the shoulder. Or if you're wanting
just a softer release, more recovery. Today we can even soften
through the fingertips all together and just allow the head, the forehead to be heavy. Bring your awareness back to your breath. Feel that expansive inhale. Maybe feeling that stretch in the low back in the hips
as you breathe in. Expand. And then on your next exhale, let's
bring it on back up. Walk the knees underneath the hip points
and take it back up to downward facingdog. So our second down dog today
we're going to add a little movement stretching through the fascia of the feet
all the way up through the backs of the ankles the Achilles
the calves, those hamstrings of course. And then as you pedal it out here, just bring your awareness
back to your shoulders, maybe
finding that slight bend in the elbows. And then if you'd like just one extra layer here,
bringing your awareness to the low ribs, just seeing if you can hug them in
just a little bit to create that stability for the back. Kind of getting out of the habit of just
dumping the ribs here in downward dog. But drawing, you know, that that zip line through the center. Peddle it out here for one more breath cycle. And then slowly lower back down. Bring the two big toes to touch
if you can, and send the heels back. You're to come up to kneeling here won't be here long,
and if this doesn't work for you, you can transition to a cross
legged seat here really easily. I'm sorry Benji, we're going to take a little twist
to the left. Lift up through the chest, lift
up through the crown of the head. This is an easy twist. Use your breath here. And when I say easy twist, I just mean you don't need to add a lot of brute force
or any brute force here. Just keep it soft. Aim to lift the heart, the chest a little more. And then soft and easy. Transition to the other side. Next we'll come back to tabletop position, and we're going to come through
the bust up that we were at before. With the fingertips left to right. You can stay there for this next rep,
or you can bring the fingertips in towards your body. Your body
will tell you which one is right for you. You did. And same thing is before gentle circles. Now, that core center connection
we found at the beginning of this practice is so helpful
here, just like it is in our game, we need to have that full body connection. And if I'm just dumping into my hands
and wrists here, it doesn't feel good. So bringing my core center into the work feels safer, feels more stable. Reverse the circle if you haven't already. And then gently release. We're going to bring the elbows down. Forms are parallel. We're going to walk the knees back. So before we did extended child's pose,
this we're bringing more into the shoulders for heart to Earth
pose or Anahatasana. And this is like a puppy posture. So we've done two downward facing dogs. Here's our puppy posture. Your head may not come
all the way to the ground, but the tailbone is going to lift up. We use our 360 breath here to feel that stretch in the back and the shoulder. Side body. Why not just take a moment here? Moment of calm. Focusing on you. Good. Then find that core center from center. Let's move it all the way back up through all fours
and take it up to downward facing dog. Okay, third time's a charm. Find what feels good here. I'm not going to give you specific cues
like you did. Just feel into this asana with your breath, with the current sensations
you're feeling in your body. And then when you're ready, we're going to slowly lift up through the low belly
and start to roll through the spine very slowly, all the way to a plank. Make any adjustments
you need to here or walking the wrists underneath the shoulders. Excuse me,
and I'd like to invite you to really reach the heels back towards the back edge
of wherever you're practicing the mat. The room outside. Now we wake up the full core so we have navel drawing
up, low abs drawing up, and in we're hugging that low rib cage and engaging the rectus abdominals. Now take your awareness to your neck. Notice if it's hanging here. See if you can lengthen
through the crown of your head. You're here for three. Press into the pinky toes. Two, press away from your yoga mat and then
slowly lower the knees on the one. Next, we're going to take the right foot
all the way up into a lunge. For a little lunge work. Right away. You can gauge how light
or how deep you want. This quad stretch and this hip flexor
stretch to be by either keeping your knee where it is, wherever it landed,
you're sorry, your left knee, or you can walk your left
knee back a bit to get a little bit of a deeper stretch. And we're here for front knee over
front ankle. Keep the back toes curled under for this. Finding your breath. Maybe thinking about your chest
or your heart reaching forward past your yoga mat. Check in with your glutes. See if you can press into your right heel. Find a little length through the crown of the head. Beautiful. From here we're going to lift the heart,
the hips up and back. Find a little runner's stretch. Pull the right hip crease back. Flex your right toes towards your face. Breathe in. Breathe out one more time. Breathe in. And on the exhale, roll it back. Plant the palms
and we'll just switch it out so left foot comes forward. Walk that right knee back. If you want a little bit of a deeper
stretch. Front knee over front ankle. And for this one
you can think about hugging. This is just an awareness right
a sense of body sensibility thing. But we're hugging
everything into the midline here. So we're not just splaying into the asana
but we're finding this connection. You can think of it. I like this idea of hugging muscle to bone
is sometimes really nice. Pressing into your left heel. And then when you're ready, send the hips back. Whoo! Flex your left toes towards your face. Really think about pulling back
from the left hip crease and tugging your heel on the mat. Here for a nice juicy stretch. Deep breath in. Long breath out. Keep breathing. Inhale and exhale. We roll all the way through. Plant
the palms. Step it back. Downward facing dog again. This is our last downward facing dog. Notice if it feels any different
from the first one. And you can continue to pedal it out. You might slow it down. You might play with your stance,
bringing your toes together or bringing them a little bit wide. And then once again into the lunge. Right knee comes forward. Sorry. Right foot comes forward and we'll lower the left
knee to the ground. You going? Bring the palms up to the chest
here, palms together. And when you're ready,
finding a twist, left elbow comes to the outer edge
of the right knee and we'll find that link through the crown, breathing
into all four sides of the torso. That 360 breath. And hugging into the midline for balance, stability. Yes. Love it. Let's come back. Plant the palms, lift the back knee
and send the hips up high. Downward facing dog if you'd like. Take it or leave it. You have an opportunity here for a little cleansing breath,
so inhale in deeply through the nose. And exhale out through the mouth with a little sound. The left knee comes up for the lunge. Just did it again. Left foot. But you are bringing your left knee. And then we lower the right
knee to the ground. Find your core center connection. Palms come together. Anjali Mudra and when you're ready, slowly
rotating into that twist finding, lengthen the spine. Staying focused on your breath. And then slowly releasing. So good. We'll come back to all fours. And just ending with the little thread. The needle here. Right. Fingertips are going to go underneath
the bridge of the left arm, hips up high, using your breath to find a nice juicy stretch here. And then unraveling whenever you're ready
and taking it to the other side, left fingertips reach
underneath the bridge of your right arm. We rest on the left ear. Maybe here feels good. And using your breath,
that expansive breath. As you're ready, slowly unravel. Make your way back to comfortable sink. Gentle twist to the left. Gentle twist to the right. Reach the arms out like a big Texas T. Take a deep breath in. And as you exhale, slowly
bring the palms together. Maybe soften the gaze and gently tuck the chin into the chest
to close this session. Finding a moment of stillness here, if you can. Thank you so much for joining me. Hope to see you again soon. We'll close with one final inhale in together and then exhale
to bow the head to the heart. Thanks everyone. Take good care.