- What's up, everyone?
Welcome to Yoga with Adriene, L.A. Edition.
Here I am in Santa Monica,
and I'm wanting to kind of do a little bit of yoga,
but I'm also wanting to do a little relaxation,
so I just decided why not combine the two
and do some yoga for couch potatoes?
So for all you couch potatoes
and couch potatas out there,
this one's for you, some simple stretches
to do on your couch.
Let's get started.
(relaxing guitar music)
Okay, so to begin, you can get comfy on your couch.
Nice, right?
We're going to start nice and reclined.
We'll slowly gain awareness through the spinal column,
but just take a nice chill spot here.
Depending on your couch, you might be here
or wherever feels good, right?
Or maybe you do want to sit up tall right away.
So just take a deep breath in, close your eyes,
(inhales)
and let a long exhale out. (exhales)
Nothing fancy here, just a couple
of nice, deep breaths.
(inhales)
(exhales)
And let's do one more deep breath in
(inhales)
and deep breath out.
(exhales)
Okay, you're done.
No, I'm just kidding.
But sometimes that's all it takes, right?
Just a couple deep breaths in and out.
Okay, so now we are going to sit up nice and tall.
You're going to go ahead
and come to the edge of your couch here,
and of course every couch is different,
and so is every body.
So make it your own.
Have fun here.
If there's a coffee table there,
and you can't do this,
or maybe you need to slide to the edge,
live on the edge, maybe give it a try.
Okay, we're going to extend the legs out long.
Really flexing through the feet here if possible.
Again, you can be watching your show as you're doing this,
or you could be talking to someone,
and this is just kind of connecting to the lower body,
finding that sit bone to heel connection.
Careful not to lock the knees even here.
Why?
No, we keep our mindfulness that
we learned through our yoga practice even here on the couch.
Sit up nice and tall.
Loop the shoulders forward, up, and back
just a couple times here.
So the feet are flexed.
(inhales)
And I'm looping the shoulders,
sitting up nice and tall.
(exhales)
Find a gentle lift in the heart,
just that kind of lift in the sternum
that we often talk about.
And then we'll just take a second here
to check in with the neck.
Whoo!
I wonder if the mic picked up that pop.
Maybe a couple circles.
Again, nothing fancy, not rigid here,
just nice and easy.
And then we're going to take it forward.
So we're going to use the fingertips
or the hands to kind of crawl down the legs again
to also make sure that you're not locking out
through the knees, especially if you have a tendency
to do just that in the joints.
Feet are staying flexed, I'm slowly sliding down.
I can still be looking up at my show. (laughs)
And no just kidding.
Let's take a break to bow the head forward.
So I'm getting a great hamstring stretch here,
this is a nice stretch in the back body.
Another variation to try
would be to come on to the soles of the feet,
keep the knees bent and take your forward fold here,
so it just depends on the height of your couch
and your situation, and of course
the tightness of the hamstrings.
So that looks like this.
Cool, wherever you are,
you can stop looking at the video for a second
and just take a couple deep breaths in and out.
(inhales)
(exhales)
(inhales)
(exhales)
And then we'll slowly roll up
and back onto our couch.
Awesome.
Side body stretch, we just take it easy over to the side.
Reach.
And through center, reach opposite side.
And then back to center.
Okay, now to the hips
and the hip flexors eventually and the quads.
So we're going to bring the soles of the feet to the mat.
Whoa.
Robot!
Not to the mat, to your rug, to your earth,
to the metaphorical mat.
And we're going to cross the right ankle
over the top of the left thigh,
already feeling it in my hip here, so nice.
This couch is nice and low,
so I'm already getting a nice, deep stretch.
I might just stay here and rotate the ankle one way
and then the other.
This is a great one to remember
your yoga tool belt, because you can do it
in a couch setting or in a chair.
So good.
And then of course you want to take it
a little deeper, you can lean forward.
And then gently release and switch to the other side.
Left ankle crosses over the right.
Ahh, so nice here.
This is like the perfect level couch for my hips today.
Rotating that ankle if it feels good,
giving yourself a little massage,
maybe making the person next to you massage your foot.
Yeah right.
(laughs)
And then if you want to take it a little bit deeper,
you just lean the heart forward a little bit.
(inhales)
Take a deep breath in, and then use an exhale to release.
Awesome.
Last thing.
Are you ready?
We're going to take, let's start with
the left knee this time, we're going to
take the left knee down,
and gently walk the right foot forward.
So this also can be done in a chair,
and depending on the height of your couch is the benefit.
So for me this is a low couch,
so I'm going to go into more of the front of the hip crease
like a crescent moon.
If you're on a higher couch,
you can really use gravity to really open up
through the hip flexors and get a nice quad stretch,
and just kind of hold on
to the back of your couch like so.
So this is going to look and feel
a little different for everyone.
Just be careful, be mindful of, of course,
the knee and the ankle stacking.
And we take a couple of breaths here.
Lift your heart if you're feeling fine.
And again, if yours doesn't look like this
because of your couch or your body,
you can still find what feels good there.
I've done this on chairs before,
and it's really nice to let the weight
of the leg just drop and hold on with your upper body.
(inhales)
Cool.
Gently release, and let's check it out on the other side.
This time right knee down.
And again, if you're lifted up higher,
you're not actually even putting any weight in your leg.
You're really letting it just kind of drop down.
It feels really good.
This couch is a little low for me for that,
so I'm going to go ahead and walk my knee back
a little bit so I can feel a nice stretch through the front.
Lift your heart.
(inhales and exhales)
And then we'll come back to center.
Always be mindful when you're coming back, too.
You never know, right?
You want to be really mindful of the knees.
And that's it!
Now you're ready for your show
or you're ready to do something.
Hopefully you feel better
about whatever it is you're going to do next,
because you've just connected with your body.
Another option after this
is to just take a chill pill
in a little cross-legged position,
or you know, my favorite pose, couch corpse.
(laughs)
I'm going to trademark that.
So I'm going to go into some couch corpse here
and wish you a wonderful rest of your night or day,
and I'll see you next time.
Take care, everyone.
Namaste.
(relaxing guitar music)