Yoga learning Yoga For When You're Sore (with special guest) > Yoga

 

Hey, everyone welcome to "Yoga With Adriene."
I'm Adriene and today we have a quick sequence
for when you're feeling sore.
So this isn't a big yoga practice that targets
every major muscle group.
This is just a little dedee that I think would
be great if you're like 24 or 48 hours after
your run, or workout or maybe you went into
a high yoga class, or maybe you went to a
zumba class, or you did something that you
are really proud of and your body is definitely
feeling it and you are not necessarily ready
to repeat whatever it is you did, but you
want to kind of stretch, and release, and
do a little something, something.
Okay, this is a request, so hop on the mat.
Actually, you don't need a mat today.
Hop on your feet and we're not even going
to get on hands and knees today, so it's just
a standing practice.
So let's hop to it.
Okay, my friends, today we are going to stand
anywhere on your mat.
You don't even need a mat for today's practice.
How about that?
But wherever you are, we are just going to
bring the feet together, and we are going
to stand up nice and tall and take a big old
breathe in and squeeze the shoulders up to
the ears.
Benji's relaxing.
And then on an exhale, draw the fingertips
down, allow the shoulder blades to really
anchor down towards the earth and recreate
space here in the neck and shoulder.
Let's do that two more times.
Inhale, really scooping the shoulders, sorry,
forward up, and back and then using the exhale
to tag a little weight on the fingertips and
recreate space.
One more time, big circles here.
Awesome.
Draw your chin to your chest here, reach the
finger tips, let them interlace behind the
tail, so no need to lock the legs out here.
We can keep kind of a soft buoyancy here.
We are going to draw the knuckles down and
then maybe away, but no need to push it here.
So I'm really sore today in my arms, my forearms
and in the biceps, so already I'm getting
a nice stretch here opening up through the
pectorals.
Maybe you're sore from pushups or being at
the gym.
And we open up through the chest.
Last breathe here, I invite you to tuck the
pelvis just a little bit, while the tailbone
to grow heavy.
And then we'll lift the chin up just slightly,
stretching through the neck.
Big breathe in, use your exhale to break free,
shake it up.
Awesome.
Now, we are going to bring the feet here with
the part toes pointing forward.
And we are going to inhale.
It's kind of a tai chi move here but not as
slow.
I'm going to really press through the base
of the wrist here and reach the fingertips
up kind of coming to the zombie arm.
Stretch, stretch, stretch forward, then repeat
the loop of the shoulders as you loop forward
up and back.
Two more times because I'm really stretching
through the forearms, stretching through the
wrists, great for carpal tunnel.
One more time, awesome.
And then pressing forward, stop!
In the name of...
Take your right hand to your left fingers,
and maybe again, to pull back gently.
Shoulders relaxed down and then we switch.
Awesome, big breath in, big breath out and
shake it off.
Awesome.
Sweep the fingertips all the way up, full
body stretch.
Again, tuck the pelvis and tailbone grows
heavy.
We inhale reach, reach, reach, long puppy
belly here and then side body stretch, taking
the right hand to the left wrist and think
up with the heart up and over.
Nice side body stretch.
Oh yeah, good for me here.
Right shoulder girdle, right shoulder comes
up towards the sky.
So it might be here, so thing about lifting
your heart.
One more big breath in here and big breath
out.
Awesome.
Back to center, go ahead and relax the arms
down and a couple of neck circles here.
I like to imagine drawing circles with the
nose, one way and then the other.
Awesome, sweep your put your arms all the
way here, big stretch here, volcano pose,
draw the shoulders down, tuck the pelvis,
and then we'll take this side body stretch
to the other side.
Careful not to come in already collapsed.
Think up, lift your heart up and over as we
grab the right wrist now and stretch.
Find your breath, big old breath, big breath
out and we'll come back to center and shake
it off.
Awesome.
Inhale sweep the arms all the way up and this
time, exhale.
We're going to bend the knees generously and
come into a forward fold.
So I'm going to turn to my side here.
And the feet are still hip wide apart, so
I'm stretching into the hamstrings.
I'm beginning to stretch into the hips.
I'm beginning to stretch the lower back body
by allowing the knee joints to bend generously.
Grab the elbows.
You know what to do here.
Rock a little side to side, find what feels
good.
You can take your eyes off the video here
and you can breathe more deeply.
Extend your inhale here, make it longer and
see if you can lengthen your exhale as well.
Make sure you're not holding in the neck.
Shake a little yes, a little no.
Then we'll release the arms and inhale lift
to a flat back position your version.
Careful not to lock the knees here.
Big breathe in and on your exhale back to
that forward fold uttanasana.
A couple of breaths here, just hang out, chill,
pressing on all four corners of the feet.
So this is a great stress buster too here
in uttanasana, and then we'll slowly start
a nice roll up coming all the way back to
your mountain pose.
And when you arrive, taking a big old breathe
in and a big breathe out.
Awesome.
Bring the feet together here, fix your crazy
curly hair and we are going to shift our weight
on to the left foot.
Hands come to the waist line and we find that
lift in the heart just for a little balance
and stability and slowly uphill my right foot
up.
Take your right hand, grab your right ankle
and then squeeze your right knee in towards
the mid line, squeeze everything into the
mid line.
This energy that we've been talking about
lately on the channel of hugging in towards
the mid line.
Now, if you need to practice, if you are working
on balance and stability, you can bring your
hand to a wall here, you can bring your hand
to a chair.
I'm taking a second here to rotate my right
ankle, one way and then the other.
Then I might just stay here, stretching through
that quad.
Maybe I take my left hand around for a deeper
stretch, kind of coming in to the shape here.
Again, remembering this tucking of the pelvis
and this heavy tailbone that we did before.
Cool.
Stay there, stretching the quad, working on
balance, lifting your heart.
Or begin to slide your right hand around and
to the arch of your right foot.
Now, lifting, stretching, opening up to the
armpit chest here.
Lift and lift, lift and lift.
Squeeze the right knee in.
Inhale in and exhale.
Begin to kick the right foot up towards the
sky.
So I will go ahead and turn this way.
Let's bring the left thumb to the sternum,
just to remind the hard space, the hard center
of the sternum to lift.
I'm going to kick off through the right leg,
coming into kind of a standing bow pose here
if you will.
I'm right into my right foot, kick, kick,
kick, stretching through the front body, kicking
through the soul of the right foot.
A left hand can come out here and permission
to go ahead and open up towards the right
side, so often in dancer, you know, we have
at least other poses like this where we keep
the hips squared.
Permission to kind of open it up towards the
right side of your mat or the right side of
the room as you come into this kind of challenging
posture if you're new to the practice, so
just play here, if you fall out, come back
to it.
Use your breathe to inhale, expand and find
lift, lengthen through the spine and use your
exhale to ground down, to open up through
the shoulders, to ground the shoulder blades
together.
Reach, reach, reach, inhale a couple of more
breaths here wherever you are, big breaths
and then we'll use an exhale too, best you
can, reel it all in with control, so resist
the urge to just kind of fall out, and if
you do, no worries.
But squeezing that right knee in towards the
heart, will interlace the fingertips and catch
your breath.
Cool.
Take in the right knee now out towards the
right side of the room, the right side of
your mat.
Bring your left hand to the waist line for
stability, and we breathe here.
Right hip crease pulls back and down, tailbone
still heavy, tuck your pelvis, lift your heart.
Now, you can stay here, working on different
variations.
You might even grab the outer edge of your
right foot, breathing as we kind of compress
and massage the hip crease if you are experienced,
what's that?
If you are adventurous and you want to bring
your middle finger, index finger and thumb
to the big toe for a little hamstring action
here as we open up, you can try that.
So we are just having a little play time here.
If none of these things are appealing to you
then find what it feels good.
So one of the good things about practicing
at home is you can play, you know, mindfully.
And so that's what we are doing here, just
kind of opening the hip up.
You might just stay here working on balance.
You might grab the outer edge of your right
foot again here or you might grab that big
toe and open up.
Just have a little fun, stretch it up.
Great, wherever you are, begin to reel it
back into center with control, with a little
bit of grace, as best as you can.
Inhale lift the heart and exhale slowly lower
the right foot down, same thing on the other
side.
Okay, here we go.
Shifting way to the right foot.
Keep everything lifted though, careful not
to collapse here.
This is kind of more foundations of yoga talk,
but if you're already collapsed in this hip,
it's going to be really hard to grow your
balancing postures with integrity and support
and it's like joy of flying.
You're never going to fly in your poses if
you are kind of collapsing into your joints.
So we've got to hug those muscles to the bone
then we can practice that here.
Great, we're going to catch the left ankle
with the left hand and then squeeze that left
knee into the mid line.
If you're sore, like if you did a run or something,
this is golden, right?
This is good.
So really press up out of your standing leg,
lift your heart, breathe into the thick muscles
of the quad and stretch her out.
If you want, you can reach your right fingertips
to catch the left foot as well.
We can play with opening up through the chest.
This video is going out to how many people?
The idea is that we all come together and
inspire each other to stretch our muscles
or at least some of that lactic acid and whatever
is going on in your body but we have to realize
and understand that everyone's coming off
a different work hour or coming off a different
day dealing with different injuries or things
in healing.
So I guess I'm trying to say make it your
own, just use this video as an opportunity
to stretch, to release.
Your body will be so happy that you did.
Okay, this time let's talk about this drawing
the navel in towards the spine a little bit
and up, so you can find the length before
you head in to this standing posture.
Maybe you just stay here, no problem, or maybe
you bring that left hand around to the arch
of the left foot.
Sorry, I'm kind of losing my voice today,
sexy.
I was going to squeeze the left knee in and
we begin to kick up and out.
Move nice and slow, we can hold on to a focal
point or just here, we talk about that in
the "Foundations of Yoga," maybe holding on
to one place to just kind of put your gaze
on help you focus.
Maybe the right hand comes to the sternum,
maybe it goes out and we play here on your
own.
Kicking the left foot up, opening up through
the left armpit chest, lengthening through
the crown of the head.
Notice the soft little bend in the standing
leg here, play with that, find your breath,
breathe, breathe, breathe, breathe.
Notice if you are clenching, kind of in the
sensory organs, your jaw, your neck, your
eyebrows.
If you can soften and release.
And again, if you fall out, no worries.
Shake it off as we did before and then come
back maybe to try again.
Use your breath to stretch and lengthen and
then whenever you are ready, whenever you
are satisfied, as best you can with strength,
with control, with graceful squeeze that left
knee up towards into the heart.
You might even lower the leg there for a little
break depending on how sore you are.
I'm going to kind of just open it up through
the hip here.
So opening up, right hand comes to the waist
line.
Oh, this is nice.
Get a little two for one.
Definitely working on balance today.
Rotate the left ankle if it feels good.
I can't believe this dog is a six month old
puppy.
It's been so good.
So we normally lock him away.
Just kidding.
But we normally say shade him, but he's been
so good today, so we decided to let him stay.
Maybe you grab the outer edge of your left
foot here, keep the heart lifted, my friends,
don't collapse, stay pressing up and out of
your standing leg.
And then maybe you grab the big toe and you
begin to stretch it out and maybe not.
So work at your level and just kind of smile,
have fun.
I want to make sure that we are not just stretching.
But you know our yoga is a playful dance that
we enjoy, that's why we're adding this today,
even though it seems kind of ridiculous, right?
Yoga is more than just stretching.
There's a certain amount of you that you get
to bring to it.
There's a certain amount of joy that really
makes it yoga for me anyway.
So wherever you are just smile, take a big
breath in and then we'll come back to this
squeezing of the left knee in towards the
heart for one more breath as you loop the
shoulders, lift your heart up, big breath
and then use the exhale to release.
Awesome.
Inhale, sweep the arms all the way up and
over head, hook the thumbs, slide back in
here as you tuck the pelvis one last time,
tailbone grows heavy.
Open up through the front body, stretch, stretch,
stretch.
Big breathe in as you reach the fingertips
towards the back of your room and then exhale
cactus arms as you come back to stack head
over heart, heart over the pelvis.
And then, this is fun today.
We are going to end by bringing the palms
together shushing them.
If you're doing this in your home right now,
this, I love you.
This energy will bring them together and then
we bow, forward to one another, Namaste.
And you're done.
Awesome work, my friends.
Thank you so much for sharing your time and
your energy in your practice with me.
If you feel like you want to do more today,
I suggest the gentle morning sequence as a
great supplemental video to this one.
A really nice stretchy stretch restorative
stuff.
Also, if you realize that you have more energy
than you thought after this and you want to
do more, try the energizing morning sequence.
Those are two good videos that you might try
with this one.
If you are good to go, I thank you so much
for joining me.
Make sure to sign up for the weekly letter
over at YogaWithAdriene.com and I will see
you next week with free yoga videos every
Wednesday.
Bye from me and Benji, peace.
Namaste.