Yoga learning Day 27 | Flexible, Fearless & FUN YOGA | 30 Days of Yoga > Yoga

 

Hey, everyone.
Welcome to 30 Days of Yoga with Adriene.
I'm Adriene, and it's day 27.
Let's hop on the mat and get started.
Today, we're going to begin with a little
cat cow.
So get situated on your mat, find your alignment,
press into your foundation, and a little spinal
flex with the breath to check in, to drop
in, and define what feels good.
You're only as young and as happy as your
spine, so take these moments, relish them.
And then when you feel satisfied, we're going
to actually walk the knees in, curl the toes
under, and come up to a little squat here.
Go ahead and keep the knees nice and wide
and the heels up, the legs kind of turned
out here.
So we're in a froggy position.
And you can just find a little yoga for the
feet moment, even taking a gaze down at your
feet.
Sometimes, our feet can feel like two stiff
bricks, right?
And so, we're working on a little bit of malleability
in the muscles and tissues of the feet and
the ankles here.
So good!
Also, breathing into the legs, of course,
breathing into the hips, and then slowly,
we can maybe bring the gaze up, opening up
through the front body.
And if this like a major balancing act for
you, then hold on to a focal point.
Hold on to something to help you just stay
hugging in towards center.
Cool!
Now, I'm going to press my fingertips into
the mat, tuck my chin to the chest, and slowly
turn my toes forward as I come into a nice
wide-legged forward fold, or not wide-legged,
but at least hip-width apart.
So no need to zip up tight here.
Bend the knees, one and then the other.
Find a stretch.
Eventually, relax the weight of the head over.
You might even figure-eight with the hips
a little here.
Yeah, getting a little sassy!
Day 27, and getting sassy.
No, but seriously, having a little fun today
is what it's all about, remembering to not
take it so seriously and to just enjoy the
moment.
Here we go.
Inhale.
Whenever you're ready, slide up to that flat
back position, pull the elbows back, create
length in the spine.
And then we're going to continue this journey
up.
So soften through the knees, press in your
feet.
And slowly, we'll come up to a nice, tall,
beautiful tadasana.
You might walk the feet underneath the hips
if that feels better.
You can even bring the feet flushed together
if you're ready.
And we'll begin to loop the shoulders forward,
up and back.
Find lift through the front body.
Ground down through the back body.
So the shoulder blades, together and down;
the sit bones, tucking in, lengthening that
tailbone down.
Find your breath, nice, long, smooth, maybe
audible breaths here in mountain to just get
the juices flowing.
Reverse the movement of your shoulders.
Find a little movement in the neck.
Great!
Now, we'll draw the palms together, lift the
sternum up to the thumbs, take a deep breath
in.
Again, finding lift in the front body, grounding
in the back body, lots of space between the
ears and shoulders as you exhale out.
Then interlace the fingertips, press the palms
forward, up and back.
Soft knees here so we're not locking.
Again, lifting up through the front, grounding
through the back.
And we're just going to teeter-totter.
So sending the wrists to the right, draw your
right shoulder underneath you, open your heart
up towards the sky, breathe into that beautiful
side body, press into both feet evenly.
Try.
Inhale in, exhale to center, deep breath in.
Long breath out, and to the left.
Drawing that left shoulder underneath, pressing
into both feet.
You can maybe find that four-part equal standing
here in the soles of the feet if your feet
are together, just play.
Inhale in and exhale back to center.
Inhale in, this time carve a line with the
nose, look up, and exhale.
Break on free, fingertips rain down.
We come into a forward fold.
Take a breath or two here.
Let the weight of the head go.
And then if you're at the front of your mat,
you can step the feet back, come into a plank.
Or I'm in the center of my mat, so I'm going
to walk my palms out, walk my toes out, come
into a plank.
Inhale in, exhale slowly, lower down.
Inhale to cobra, deep breath in, smile.
Exhale to downward facing dog.
Inhale, walk it in up towards your front of
your mat to forward fold or the center, just
again little proof that we can break out of
the box.
We can do whatever we want.
You can dance anywhere on your mat.
You can turn it around.
Inhale, halfway lift.
Exhale, bow, then inhale, reaching all the
way back up, all the way back up to your mountain.
Deep breath in, and exhale all the way back
down.
Awesome.
Follow your breath.
Inhale, halfway lift, and exhale, bow.
Step or hop it, walk it out to plank, wherever
you are, come into that top of a push-up.
Beautiful!
Then we're going to walk the palms out towards
the edges.
Again, index fingers and thumbs, we did this
once before.
We're going to stay on the mat.
The rest of the three fingers are going to
fan out.
We're going to walk the toes out a little
bit wide or we can lower the knees and lift
the toes up towards each other.
Inhale in, exhale, lower all the way down.
Inhale, press up.
Exhale, elbows left to right, gaze is forward.
Inhale.
Exhale, lower down.
And one more.
Exhale, lower all the way down.
Great!
This time, walk the palms underneath the shoulders.
Zip the legs tight together like a zipper.
And then the inhale, lift up, cobra, maybe
a little bit higher this time.
And exhale, release.
Great.
Curl the toes under, send it up, downward
facing dog.
Deep breath in and long breath out.
Great.
Bend the right knee in towards the center
line, ground down through your left heel,
turn to look underneath your left armpit chest,
breathe in.
Exhale, breathe out.
Switch, left knee comes to center, right heel
down.
This is a little yoga for the brain, too.
So no worries if you don't get it quite yet
first.
It's a little confusing.
And then turn underneath your right armpit
chest.
Breathe into the lower back body, the sacrum,
breathe, breathe, breathe.
And then exhale back to center.
Slowly walking it to forward fold, we take
a deep breath in, grab the elbows, long breath
out.
Awesome.
Inhale, halfway lift now, flat back position,
and exhale, release.
Inhale, reach it all the way up to your mountain
pose, reaching as we breathe in, and exhaling,
hands back to the heart.
Great.
Repeat, interlacing the fingertips, we press
the palms forward up and back.
This time, press in your heels, slight back
bend as we draw a beautiful line or smear
a line with our thumbs from front to back.
So think up as you smear maybe the ceiling
with your thumbs, pressing your thumbprints
into the ceiling.
Slide back in here.
Remember that length in the side body.
Press into your heels, lengthen tail bone
down.
And then exhale, release.
Head over heart, heart over pelvis, we release
the fingertips and then dive on forward.
Inhale, halfway lift.
Exhale, bow.
Step, hop, or walk it out to plank, you got
it.
Repeat the wide arm push-ups here if you want
more strength.
Otherwise, we'll just hold, plank hold.
Other options here just for fun, you can drop
on to the elbows.
Do your plank hold here.
You can practice with a little movement, maybe
lifting the right toes, drawing circles with
the toes, one way and then the other, and
then switching.
You can lower the knees.
So we have lots of options here in this little
plank hold.
There are lots of plank challenges and stuff.
But I just like to insert a little plank into
my home practice whenever I'm feeling it.
And usually, right before I want to give up,
I give myself one more sweet breath in and
smile, or I change it up to a new variation.
So wherever you are, let's do ten more seconds,
a couple more full breaths wherever you are
in your plank.
Enjoy it.
Think of it as plank play time rather than
the plank challenge, unless that's your thing.
Then rock the plank challenge.
I love how I'm talking, and I'm not even in
it.
I'm like, "You're doing it, ha-ha."
When you feel satisfied or when you have totally
met your edge, go ahead and take a little
vinyasa, either coming to cobra all the way
on your belly or to that upward facing dog.
And then together, we'll meet extended child's
pose.
Awesome work, my friends.
Reconnect, forehead to earth, forehead to
the earth, heart melts to the earth, and maybe
a couple of wrist circles.
Find your breath.
Great, slowly release the fingertips back
down.
We'll walk the knees underneath the hips,
send it to downward facing dog.
Inhale in deeply, and exhale completely.
Walk the toes up, find your forward fold.
Keep it easy.
And then we'll inhale.
Lift that flat back and exhale, soften, and
release.
Send the fingertips left to right.
As you inhale, reach it all the way up, full
body stretch, high, high, high up towards
the heavens.
Stretch, stretch, and then exhale, reeling
it back in.
Vrksasana tree pose, we zip the legs together.
We draw energy up.
If you have a tree practice, you can go into
this right away.
Otherwise, I'll walk us through it, peeling
the right heel up, finding that sternum to
thumb connection, so really energetic, lift
up.
So we're keeping this energy hugging into
the midline rather than just dumping it all
on to the left side.
So, interlace the fingertips, catch the right
knee.
Find that upward current as we press into
the sole of the left foot firmly.
You might just stay here working on balance,
or we'll slide the right fingertips down,
the left thumb comes back to the heart.
And we'll lift this guy up towards the center
line.
Press back with your left thigh so we have
this meeting in the middle going on here.
You can also keep this foot down by the calf
or even toes on the earth.
We can walk to a wall at this point or use
a chair for balance.
So find what tree pose is for you here today,
whatever variation feels best.
Top of that right thigh rolling out as we
press away from the earth.
Find that lift up through the center channel.
Take a variation that feels rocking to you,
hands out, in, any which way.
And then we're going to take a couple of solid
breaths here.
So if you fall, don't worry.
We'll catch you.
Right through every fingertip, right through
every toe.
A little balance practice.
Going through your check list.
Take one more breath wherever you are, and
use your exhale to cascade, now to back down.
Feet come together, palms open wide.
And we're just going to close the eyes here
and stand nice and tall, observe the breath.
Notice how you feel.
Notice what's going on in the limbs, what
your energy feels like.
Then we'll draw the palms together and repeat
on the other side.
So tree pose, here we go.
Peeling up through the left heel, interlace
the fingertips, catch your left knee.
And before you go into the shape what you
think a tree pose is, find that action of
pressing into that right foot, that hugging
into the mid-line.
We grow up nice and tall.
So yoga is about energy, yes, union, clearing
out those blocked passages, those energy meridians,
the knotties.
And so these balancing postures are great
moments because you can't really hide.
You can really notice when things are blocked
and things feel unbalanced and almost impossible.
And so you just stick with it, practice, modify
as needed.
Take whatever tree pose shape feels best for
you today and rock it out wherever you are.
Find your breath.
Find that resistance and go through your check
list.
Cultivate good juju here and tree pose, no
hanging on for dear life.
That's too stressful.
That's the opposite of yoga.
And if you are frustrated today, go to that
foundations of tree pose.
And remember, it's all about enjoying the
ride.
Take one more breath wherever you are and
use your exhale to melt it down.
Follow this energy and release into a forward
fold, uttanasana.
Last time, we inhale, lift halfway, and exhale,
soften, and release back down.
Walk the palms out, walk the toes out, come
into your last plank.
Then we'll lower the knees, swing the legs
to one side, and come to seated.
Awesome, my friends.
Come all the way on to flat back, take a full
body stretch here.
Inhale in through the nose, and go ahead and
let it out through the mouth.
Bend the elbows, cactus arms here.
We're going to let the armpit chest really
breathe here as we move into the final stage
of our yoga ritual today, either with soft,
restorative movement or taking this time to
fulfill meeting a pose that we've been working
on, whether it's an inversion, a back bend,
an arm balance, or again, a restorative posture.
Find what feels good.
Listen to your body.
This is the yoga.
This is what it's all about, asking yourself,
"What do I need, and how am I going to do
it?" in a nice, mindful, active, conscious
way.
Maybe dissolve right into a savasana here,
bringing the arms gently down at your sides,
softening your breath, letting it return to
its natural rhythm, its natural ebb and flow.
Connect to your intentions.
Connect to your current mantra or create a
new one here.
Nice work, my friends.
Much love.
Namaste.