Hey everyone!
Welcome to Yoga With Adriene.
I'm Adriene, and today we have a sequence for runners, or wannabe runners
like me.
This is a nice warm-up sequence if you're about to head out for a
run, or if you just want to slowly stretch your muscles or gain body awareness
to begin a running program.
So, you can do this in your running shoes if you want, or you can be
barefoot.
Let's hop on the mat, or a nice, clean solid space, and stretch
it out.
All righty.
So we're going to begin with an extended child's pose here.
As you can see, I'm wearing my tenny shoes- my
tenny shoes - my tennis shoes.
Something we can do right before we head out the door.
So get on the blanket or towel or mat, and we're just going
to widen the knees super wide and bring the two big toes together and then
send the fingertips out front, relaxing down.
And I was noticing running the other days that sometimes if
I just kind of stretch up a run without stretching my full body, not just
the kind of targeted muscle groups, I tend to seize up.
My back, my lower left backside was getting tight, so I just thought I'd
offer a friendly reminder that this is about kind of connecting to the
body, full body experience, so that when we hop on the pavement or the
track or whatever we're running on, you've already set the tone of your
run.
You're going to be aware and alive and running, full body experience.
Okay, a couple more breaths here, just stretching, inch the fingertips
towards the front-edge of the mat, stretching the side body, melting the
heart.
Take a deep, deep breath, and on an exhale, we shall release.
Come back up, and lock the knees in towards the
centerline.
So, if this is too much for your knees, then we have an option
to come up on the toes here, stretch the feet, which wouldn't be a bad
idea.
You can stay in kind of a hero pose, too.
Just a gentle twist here for the spine.
Again, you're creating a full body experience for the run.
So we'll inhale, reach all the way up--reach, reach, reach--and exhale.
Turn to one side, I'm turning to the right here first, and I'm just going
to breath.
Sit up nice and tall, open the chest, long, beautiful neck.
And then take it to the other side, inhale, reach
all the way up to your center, and then exhale, twisting to the other
side.
Oh, yeah!
Deep breath in, exhale out, and then we'll bring it back to center.
All right.
Next we're going to check with the legs, but also, again, full-
body experience.
So come to all fours.
Toes are curled under.
I'm going to press the Earth away from me, send the right
leg out long.
So I'm just going to rock a little bit here.
Don't worry about what Yoga pose we're doing.
In fact, this is an opportunity to just remember full body
experience.
So check in with the neck here, you might check in with your
center, check in with the pinkie toe, the big toe, stretch the foot,
stretch the calf and consider a simple [end to heel] connection here, so
nice and long.
Often, we go to a run and we'll either stretch really fast, really strong
and then go and we don't have supportive lean muscles, or we don't stress
up at all and the muscles seize up and we go super tight and there's an
injury.
So there's a balance, and for me it's all about ease.
I mean, it's truly...his is what I mean by find what feels
good.
Okay, so let's switch legs now.
Send the left leg back.
Notice if you're kind of collapsing, start the awareness of full body.
So when you're out running, you're considering drawing the shoulders away from
the ears, supportive posture, arms, length through the crown of the head.
We're rocking back and forth, stretching the calf, again, [sit] bone to
heel connection.
Stretching the foot.
Long, beautiful neck here, so neck is attached to the spine here.
Breathe.
And then we'll come back to center.
Awesome.
Take a second to just maybe roll up through the spine and rotate
the wrist just to kind of counteract there.
Open the chest, open the heart, and I mean, if you just want to be the average
bear here, you can just do these moves.
But, if you want to be better than the average bear, why not?
Why not?
Why not be bigger, better shining?
Start to consider your breath, like really, truly in your warm-up.
Nice, long deep breaths.
Just remember my voice: breath.
So before we pop in our ear buds, we're really connecting to the sound
of our breath.
Okay.
Inhale, reach it all the way up, stretch the side
body, and exhale back to all fours.
Cool.
Now we'll curl the toes under, send the sit-bones high up for a
downward dog.
We're going to take just three, nice, long, smooth deep
breaths here.
So stretch it out.
Again, consider that sit-bone to heel connection.
Draw the shoulders away from the ears.
Pedal the feet, bending one knee and then the other.
One more nice, long, smooth, deep breath, and
then we'll slowly lower it back down.
Awesome.
All right.
So now we're going to dive onto all fours again, this
time coming into a plank.
Don't panic, you've got this.
So we've already lifted one leg and then the other.
Now we're going to just try lifting both.
So again, press away from the earth.
Nice, one long piece here.
Hey- o!
Nice, long line from the crown of the head to the tip of the tailbone.
Fine to rock back and forth.
You can do this.
Tap into your breath, my friends.
Then slowly lower knees and take the right leg and send her all up
into your lunge.
Use the fingertips to walk, bring the hands to the
waistline, pad that knee if you need to.
I feel good here.
Okay.
I'm going to curl the back toes under.
Hug the inner thighs in towards the mid-line.
Create a full-body experience here.
Breathe.
And then I'm going to slowly lean.
Actually, I'm going to widen my stance a little bit.
So I'm on two skis here.
I'm going to slowly lean in, and then as we were rocking before, we're going to rock here
or pulse here.
Let's do it a couple of times.
Don't even worry about counting.
It's about stretching.
It's about connecting to the body.
It's about feeling good about yourself for even taking this moment
at all, whether you're going to go on a run after this or even if you're just
prepping for a run on a future day.
Cool.
One more pulse or two here.
Breathing.
Then we'll peel the right hip crease back, fingertips will come to the map
as we rock onto that right heel and straighten the right leg.
So, I'm actively, for this one, peeling the right hip crease back, but keeping my
full-body awesome awareness.
Breathe, breathe, breathe.
So based on your legs and your body, you can stay up tall here.
You might relax the weight of the head down, palms coming
to the earth.
You might curl the back toes under if they aren't already,
and you might sit back.
So check in with your body.
It's just hard to say; everyone has different levels.
Most of you guys who watch this probably run way more than I do, so
just check it out.
Your body will tell you.
You have to have that awareness.
You have to be listening.
Okay.
One more breath, and then we switch it on through.
Let's actually- I wasn't going to do this, but I'm going to
do this to you now.
Let's go back to that plank for two more breaths.
Come on!
We were just going to switch, but we can do this!
So you can skip this if you want.
Two breath cycles, in and out.
What was that?
In and out.
Okay.
Lower the knees, and we take the left foot up.
Same thing as before, there's no rush.
The body needs this moment, needs the awareness.
Craves it, so that you can shine and run longer, better, happier.
Hands come to the waistline, and we do the same thing as before.
We kind of take a moment to find that full body awareness and then we pulse.
If you're super flexy, make sure this knee isn't going way passed the
toesies.
Let's be mindful, keep it stacked.
We wouldn't just want to go out sprinting on our run, right?
We'd start with a walk or jog, so be mindful.
Great.
Peel the left crease back and we rock onto to the left heel.
Same thing here, check it out.
Take it nice and slow.
Be kind to those sweet hammies, man.
They already have the name "hammies."
Which is kind of cute, I guess.
One more breath, and then we'll send it back.
Okay.
From here, fingertips to the mat.
Lift the back foot up, and we're going to send that back foot all the way up
to meet the front.
Forward fold, step in the middle of the mat here,
and then nice and easy, we roll it up.
Tadasana.
Okay.
So we have three more things to do!
We can totally do this!
Okay.
Toes are pointing forward, we're in Tadasana.
We're going to breath a nice, long deep breath in as we roll the shoulders,
and then I'm going to shift my weight over to one leg, and I'm going to
catch the opposite angle.
So, Yoga vocabulary moment.
Find a focus, a Drishti, something that you can set
your gaze on here that's going to help you with your balance and stability.
And then just as we did in our lunge, hug those inner thighs together; keep
the lift, the full-body experience, and then breath into that quad.
So I'm breathing here.
If I'm tight, I might come to a wall.
It might provide myself a good amount of space here.
Otherwise, if I can, then I might even grab the toes.
Hug that knee towards the centerline and then take the opposite arm to the back.
So we're all going to be at different levels here.
The tailbone's going to want to come out, so that you can keep
head over heart, heart over pelvis, to the coccyx here.
Breathe, again, all at different levels.
Breathe, breathe, breathe!
And then, on an exhale, release, and then switch-a-roo.
Here we go.
Holding onto that focus, that gaze, pressing into all four corners of the
standing foot.
And, hello, do you just want to be the average bear?
Remember your yoga practice, remember your principles of grounding where
you can, all four corners of the feet, and lifting where you can.
That opposition.
One more breath, and then, on an exhale, gently release.
Okay.
Hold onto that focus, we're going to switch now, again.
This time, we're going to lift our leg forward, bring the right ankle
or whatever leg you're lifting, that ankle to the top of the opposite thigh.
Hold onto your abs.
No, hold onto the wall if you need to, or just hug
those inner thighs together.
Remember that opposition.
Take a deep breath in.
As you exhale, reach the fingertips forward and begin to bend that
standing leg.
Rotate this ankle one way and then the other, if you like.
Again, we can have one hand at the wall here, absolutely,
or railing.
We can stay here.
To go a little deeper, we'll continue the fingertips all the way down,
breathing into the outer-edge of that hip.
Notice I'm not just collapsing, but I'm still pressing into all four corners
of the feet.
Lots of awareness.
Inhale in as you exhale.
Slowly roll up if you are down, and then shake it out.
Same thing on the other side.
Deep breath in.
Long, beautiful neck, and we check it out.
Crossing the opposite ankle over.
Checking in with the hips, tailbone down.
Spine nice and long.
You can rotate that ankle here, and again, you might
just stay here.
Or, we'll send the fingertips forward and bend that
standing leg to go a little deeper.
Breathe, and we might stay here, or we might be at the wall.
Or, you might be in a mudra.
Or we might go a little deeper by bending forward, again, nice, deep
bend in that standing leg.
We breathe here, lots of awareness.
Cool.
Then we press into the standing leg, slowly come up, and then we shake it out.
Cool.
Last thing I'm calling the twizzler!
Just made that up.
We're going to cross the ankles; most of us have done
this before.
Toes pointing forward or they can cross a little bit, too.
But just keep nice mindfulness over what feels good in terms of toe placement.
Now, press the back two corners of the heels as well.
Inhale; reach it all the way up like you're...this is where I think I got the twizzler
thing, like in figure skating.
Like you're about to do a twizzle.
Shut up, Adriene.
Pull the thumbs back, and then exhale.
Soft bend in knees.
This might be different than what you've done in gym class.
Melt it down, go a long avant-garde for me her.
Here we go.
So soft-bend the knees.
Knees are not locked, but soft-bend the knees and
then find that organic movement.
Finding what feels good.
Let the weight of the head go.
Breathe.
Keep a focus on your feetsies.
Then to come out, press into the heels, draw the navel, connect
to your center, draw the navel to the spine, and slowly release!
That was a combination of roll up and release.
Okay.
And we switch.
Last thing, then we're on our way to freedom.
Just kidding, the freedom is here, right guys, with me?
Okay.
Crossing the legs, inhale, tuck the pelvis, reach up.
Find a soft bed in the knees.
Again, soft bend here, not locked.
And here's a Wayne's World moment.
Not even going to do it.
You'll know.
If you know, you know.
Release it down.
Don't feel stuck.
Work it out.
Awesome.
Press into the heels, draw the navel up towards the spine,
and slowly we reach it up, reaching up towards the sky.
Towards the stars!
Unravel the feet.
Sit up nice and tall, take a deep breath in, look
up.
And exhale, palms together at the heart.
Namaste.
Awesome!
Now you're ready for your run!
Mix and max these together, listen to your body, and let me know how your
run goes.
All right.
I'm going to run right now, too.
I am not kidding.
All right.
Let's go.