- What's up, everyone? Welcome to Yoga with Adriene.
I am Adriene,
and today we're going to learn a short, little sequence,
a quick, little practice to help prepare your body,
and your mind, for chaturanga.
Chaturanga can be this, sort-of like, panic thing
for a lot of people.
So, here are three things that we're gonna practice today
to just help build strength and integrity in the body,
so that we can perform chaturanga one day,
with ease, and with a happy mind, and body, and heart.
Let's hop on the mat and learn it. (laughs)
(music)
Alright, to begin we're going to come to all fours today.
The first thing we're gonna learn is called hovering cat.
So, you'll come to a table top position
and just check in first with your foundation,
pressing up and out of the palms,
pressing to the tops of the feet,
and we travel up to check in with our alignment, making sure
the wrists are directly underneath the shoulders,
knees directly underneath the hip points.
So we combine those two here in table top position,
Now, what's our action? Drawing the navel up,
making sure that the neck is nice and long.
So the gaze is straight down, perhaps.
We draw the shoulders away from the ears,
so rather than clenching here, we create space.
Now, we take a deep breath in,
and on an exhale, I engage the core,
I wake up my center by lifting the kneecaps.
Now, it doesn't have to be a big lift here.
It can just be a small hover,
and that's all you really need to check in with the body.
Now, things are wanna break down really fast.
See if you can, instead of letting things break down,
you can go through your checklist, finding integrity
by perhaps drawing the navel up towards the lower back,
by maybe letting the tailbone lengthen down,
almost as if you're tucking the pelvis here.
Again, we already talked about drawing the shoulders
away from the ears.
Instead of collapsing into the wrists here,
I'm pressing up and out of the palms.
I take one more breath here, and then exhale, release.
Great! Curl the toes under. Walk it back for a rest.
Yeah!
Take a second to maybe loop the wrists if that feels good.
You can kinda breathe into the feet here,
and get your money's worth.
A little yoga for the feet moment.
Let's take a deep breath in,
and on an exhale, we let it go. (exhales loudly)
And then we dive back onto all fours for more.
Alright, let's try again.
Again, going through our checklist, alignment, action,
drawing that navel up towards the spine.
Couple of things,
since I can't be there in real life with you,
at this moment.
Tendency is for us to kinda forget about the neck.
We're either here (straining)
or we're here (groaning)
and I want us to be considering, again the neck
a nice, long extension of this line of the spine.
So check in with that before you even let the knees hover.
The other thing is, the belly usually,
there's a tendency here, especially in the gals, to drop.
So, see if you can tuck the pelvis,
and draw the navel up towards the lower back.
Then, another tendency is to kind of let the shoulder blades
just kind of collapse in, back body is not awake.
This is more common in men,
but this is a great tip for everyone,
to press up and out of the palms,
draw the shoulders away from the ear lobes,
to open the chest, and then see if you can broaden
through your upper back
so that we're not collapsing into the shoulder joints here.
But rather, lifting up, finding that energetic lift up.
So after all that, and that was a lot. I do realize.
We'll take a deep breath in and exhale.
Try again. Let the knees hover.
Going through our checklist.
Again, everyone's different.
You might notice a shake here,
or a little tremble in the body.
That's prana, the energy moving throughout the body,
waking up those muscles.
Use this as an opportunity to deepen the breath,
even if it sounds like this.
(loudly inhales and exhales)
Alright, and gently release.
Curl the toes under. Walk it back for a rest.
(inhales and exhales)
Alright, let's do one more.
Three of them, we got this!
Here we go. Diving back to all fours.
Finding our table top position,
inhale in, on an exhale, a small hover, a barely lift.
Again, so we're not lifting super-duper high,
but just enough, and that's all it takes.
Imagine you're in a plank pose here.
Visualize. Imagine what this feels like as you hover.
Imagine what it might do to your plank.
I guess I'm trying to say,
visualize what's happening internally.
Inhale in, and on an exhale, release.
Great! Awesome, guys!
Take a second to roll the wrists, and then shake it out.
Alright, the second thing we're gonna do
is a little vinyasa.
So, we're gonna start on all fours,
table top position. Find your integrity.
And then this time, we're gonna walk the knees
towards the midline. So walk your knees into center,
and find yourself in a half plank here.
So the wrists are directly underneath the shoulders,
but I'm able to tuck my pelvis.
I might even lift my toes and my ankles here, for fun.
This is also, sometimes, just kind of helps me
when I lift my toes, helps me remember to tuck my pelvis.
So take a deep breath in here,
and exhale out.
Just kind of finding the half plank here.
This nice, long line from the crown of the head
to the tip of the tailbone.
My shirt's kinda bagging here today,
but I'm drawing my navel in towards my spine.
And then I'm gonna draw my shoulders away from the ears,
and look forward.
Take a deep breath in on an exhale.
Bend the elbows, keep them hugging in towards the side body,
bend them halfway.
Then inhale, press back up.
Then we're gonna send it back, curling the toes under,
into kind of pranam here, or a child's pose variation.
Then we come back to half plank.
Inhale in. Look forward, gaze is forward, chin is lifting.
Exhale. Hugging the elbows in to the side body,
we slowly lower down, halfway. Inhale.
Press back up. All 10 fingerprints, pressing down strong.
And exhale, we send it back. Pranam.
Forehead might release to the mat here.
(inhales and exhales)
And now we continue on, moving with the breath.
Inhale to half plank.
Exhale, looking forward, chin slightly lifted.
We bend the elbows, hug them into the side body halfway.
Inhale, press in to the palms to lift it back up.
And exhale, send 'er back.
Inhale up through...
exhale. Hug the elbows in, lower halfway.
Inhale, Press back up, keeping the extension
as long as you can in the crown of the head.
And then exhale, we release.
Inhale to half plank. Draw the navel up towards the spine.
Tuck your pelvis.
Notice that the elbows are wanting to go out,
like a military push-up.
Keep them hugging in, lots of integrity.
Inhale in, exhale halfway.
Pressing back up.
Then sending it back. Pranam.
Inhale, half plank.
Looking forward, exhale, halfway.
Inhale, press back up.
And exhale. Pranam.
Let's do one more. We got this.
Inhale, navel draws up towards the spine.
We shift forward.
Gaze is forward. This is gonna help us in chaturanga later.
We hug the elbows in, and lower halfway.
Inhale back to half plank.
And exhale, relax.
This time, you can take the palms together,
and draw them up and over the back of the neck,
walking the elbows forward.
We just take a moment here to breathe and rest.
Alright, the final thing we're gonna learn today
is a pose called knees, chest and chin.
And we actually recently did a Foundations video
for this pose, so if you like, you can check that out too.
Alright, we just go a little bit deeper into it.
So, again, I'm gonna start on all fours.
And then, I'm gonna curl the toes under,
draw the navel to the spine,
and send it up to downward dog for this one.
Ok, so find your downward dog here.
This might be your first downward dog of the day,
so make sure you don't rush yourself.
Again, don't let anyone rush you.
Pedal your feet.
Now, knees, chest, chin is the order we're gonna move in.
I'm gonna draw my navel up towards my spine,
come up onto my tippy-tip toes,
draw the navel in as you shift forward.
I slowly lower to the knees first.
I take my gaze forward, just as I did in the vinyasa before,
keeping the chin lifted.
Moving nice and slow here, just for demonstration.
I hug the elbows in. I keep the pelvis rocking,
the hips high as I slowly lower the chest,
and the chin.
Pause here, breathe.
Slightly awkward to talk to you from here, sorry.
And then I'm gonna slowly release by sliding the toes out,
coming on to the pelvic bone,
and then you might loop the shoulders and lift up,
to a baby cobra, here.
On an exhale, we release, curl the toes under,
come back to all fours.
Nice. Let's try that again.
Here we go, sending those hip bones up to down dog.
Deep breath in, and long exhale out.
(loudly exhales)
Great. Inhale, draw the navel up towards the spine,
shifting forward, we come up onto the toes.
Slowly, we lower the knees. Keep the hips lifted.
Then comes the chest, and the chin.
Hip points stay high.
Inhale in, and then exhale, sliding through.
Inhale, lift up, and exhale back to all fours.
Ok, so we're gonna do it one more time, but quick note,
when you start to sink down, knees, chest, especially chin,
there is this tendency that once the chest hits,
you're like, "Whoa! I made it!"
Spill all your guts everywhere.
So, on this next one,
see if you can keep the integrity that you have here
in that lowering down.
so rather than just spilling everything into the earth,
rather than letting all your weight go,
see if you can keep an aliveness,
particularly in the back body,
and as we squeeze those elbows in.
So, let's try it one more time. Here we go.
Coming to downward facing dog.
Deep breath in, and long exhale out.
(loudly exhales)
Great. Inhale, coming up on the tippy-tip toes,
navel draws up.
We begin to shift forward, knees, chest, and chin.
Deep breath in, and then exhale, sliding through.
Deep breath in as you come up to your cobra,
or maybe your up dog, and then, exhale, release.
Awesome! Bring your hands in front of you,
and maybe use your forearms as a pillow.
Okey-dokey Smokey, so that was a short sequence
that you can either practice on its own,
or you can maybe implement it
with other practice in your day.
I do believe that it's important to work
from the inside out,
so hopefully these things are helping you kind of connect
to your insides. (laughs)
That sounds weird,
but I think you know what I'm talking about
after what we just did.
But hopefully, this'll just help you grow awareness
from the inside out.
So, it's not just about these guys all the time, right?
It's about core strength and working from the inside out.
If that makes sense.
If it doesn't, hop on over to my blog,
and I'll try to make it make sense for ya.
Leave questions and comments below.
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we'd love to have ya, if ya wanna be.
And, we'll see ya next time. Have a beautiful day!
Namaste.
(music)