(Slow, happy Jazz music)
- Yoga is now a broadly used term that includes
variations of breath control, simple
meditation, and specific poses.
And it's generally designed to help improve your
health and relaxation.
Factors which I'm sure all of us would love to work on.
And specifically for triathletes, it's also great for
working on your flexibility and that's what we're
gonna be focusing on today.
(Whooshing sound effect, and digital beeps)
As triathletes, very few of us do enough mobility work.
It's common to spend the majority of your day sat in a
flexed position at your desk, and then in your free time
you're probably gonna be training,
or sat slouched on the sofa recovering.
While this will result in tight hips,
spine, shoulders, the list goes on.
And in order to counteract this, you are going to need to
include some flexibility and mobility work, and this
is where yoga comes in handy.
Okay, a quick disclosure before we go any further;
I am by no means a yoga instructor, or particularly
flexible myself, which you will soon find out.
But as a regular yogi, I definitely feel the benefits
to myself as a triathlete.
So today, I'm gonna be taking you through the basic
introductory poses that you can then have a play around with
and adapt yourself, and something I find very much in
classes that I'm adapting stretches or poses to really
work in the areas that I need to focus on.
And that's the great thing about yoga, is time for you
to focus on your body and what feels good for you.
(Slow, happy jazz music)
Downward Dog is probably the most common position,
and even if you haven't tried yoga, you
might well have heard of this before.
And it's a pretty simple one, you're gonna start on
all fours, from there you're gonna push up to lifting
your hips up towards the ceiling, so your hands should
end up shoulder width apart, your feet hip width apart,
you're making a triangle type shape and you want to imagine
your hips pulling up to the ceiling, your heels
are pushing down, and you've got a straight line
going from your hands, all the way to your hips
and a straight line going through your hips
all the way down through your heels.
And then in this position, you can actually move your feet
you'll notice a walking action going up onto one tip-toe
and then onto the other so you're making a pumping
type action through your calves which is a
really good calf stretch.
And you can then have both of your feet back
on the ground, and just bending your knees slightly
you'll find that stretch moves from your gastroc
to your soleus and back again, and just play around with
that to work at what feels good for you.
For this one, you need to start at the top of your
mat facing forwards.
You're going to take a large step back with one of your
legs, place that back foot at around a fifty degree angle
with your front foot still facing forwards, and then
from here you're going to drop your hips down,
sinking them towards the ground, keeping your knee
above your ankle at a ninety degree angle at your ankle.
And from here, you need to make sure that
your hips are facing forwards.
Once you've found this position with your arms
by your side, you're gonna bring them up parallel
to each other so that they're reaching
toward the ceiling, and again try and sink into this
hip pose, and you'll really feel the stretch of your
hip flexes of that back leg.
Just play around with that, and find a comfortable
position and try and hold it.
And then if you wanna have a play around with Warrior Two
you need to move your back foot, so that it's now at
ninety degrees, and then opening up your hips
so that they are side on, and then taking both
of your arms so that they're going to be parallel to the
ground, but extended at either side of you.
And this stretch you should really start to feel in the
abductus of the inside of your thighs.
(Slow, happy Jazz music)
To get into triangle pose, if you start with your feet
in the same position as they were for Warrior One
but bring them closer together,
and then straighten your legs.
From here, you're going to fold at the
hips as though you're trying to reach your
hands down towards that front foot.
And this should bring on a nice stretch feeling in that
front hamstring, and maybe a little
bit in that front abductor.
Once you've enjoyed that stretch and you've found
yourself comfortable in that
position, you can add in a twist.
So if it is your right foot that you've got forwards,
keep your right hand on that shin, and then open up
your left hand as though you're trying to reach the sky.
So you're really opening up your chest, and you should
also feel a nice spinal rotation with this.
(Slow, happy Jazz music)
This pose is certainly one that you might well
have seen images of on social media, and it's definitely
Instagram worthy if you can hold it long enough and get
someone to take a picture.
For this, you need to put all of your weight onto one leg,
and then the other leg you need to rotate your knee outwards
And with the sole of your foot start
off by just resting it against your ankle
or onto your calf, and once you've got that balance
and you feel that your flexible and strong enough,
you can try and lift the sole of your
foot up to your inner thigh.
Make sure you avoid the knee area, and once you're there
and in a nice, stable position, carry on trying to push
your knee outwards, you're really opening up the hip area.
And once you've got your balance, bring your hands
together at heart center and if you can, extend them
up to the celing, just to really challenge your
core that much more, so it's a great core
exercise as well as a hip opener.
(Slow, happy Jazz music)
As I mentioned at the start, we spend far too
much of our time with our thoracic spine flexed
and our hips flexed, so this is a great exercise to
counteract this, and it's a quite simple one.
You're just gonna start by laying face down on the mat
with your hands underneath your shoulders, or
a little bit in front of you.
And then from there, you're going to start by activating,
squeezing your glute muscles and your back muscles
and a little bit of pressure down through your hands.
You're gonna lift your shoulders up off the mat,
trying to squeeze your shoulder blades down your back.
Now, you don't need to extend your head, you want to
keep that in a fairly neutral position, we're
just trying to open up your shoulders, and then
lower it back down gently, and repeat this.
(Slow, happy Jazz music)
This one is a fundamental yoga pose, and again
quite straight forward so start by standing at
the top of your mat, and you're going to
reach your arms up towards the ceiling.
If you're feeling comfortable, of you want to
then add in a little bit of a backbend,
and then from there you're going to fold
from your hips, dropping your hands down towards the floor.
If it's more comfortable for you, feel free to have
a little bit of a bend in your knees, just
keeping them soft but you should really start to feel
a nice stretch in your hamstrings.
Once you've gotten into a comfortable position here,
you can hold onto your alternate elbows, just add in
a very little bit of rotation, so a little bit
of movement side to side which will just give you
a bit of spinal rotation but also move
that stretch within your hamstrings.
And then, from there you're going to take in an in breath
and you're going to bring your spine up so that it's
parallel to the ground, supporting it with your
hands on your shins, and think of really trying
to lengthen your spine, keeping your
head in a neutral position, and then you're going to
exhale and relax back down to the floor, and you should
hope to feel a little bit more length coming
into your hamstrings, and just find that relaxed position
and let it go, and then once you're complete bring
yourself back up to full extension and finish
with your hands at the top.
(slow, happy Jazz music)
This is one of my favorite poses and it's great to
counter-act that thoracic stiffness you might
get from lots of cycling or lots of sitting.
So start by lying on your back, pull in your tummy,
and then bring your thighs up towards you, so that
they're at ninety degrees to your hips and then your
shins are parallel to the floor.
And then with your arms, put them either out to
either side fully extended, or into goal post position.
And then from there, you're going to drop your
knees down to one side and you'll start
to feel that really nice stretch across your spine,
if you want to increase that stretch once you've
gone into that position and your legs are resting
on the ground, you can turn your head away, and if
you want to increase it a little bit further, you
can take your top arm and just add a little bit of pressure
to your legs to increase that stretch a little bit more
but make sure you do that on both sides.
(slow, happy Jazz music)
The hip bridge pose really covers quite a lot of aspects
both stretching and conditioning.
So start by lying on your back with your knees bent
try to bring your heels towards your bottom.
You should almost be able to touch them with your hands
when they're out stretched beside you.
And then from there, you're gonna start off
by thinking of squeezing your glutes.
This is where the whole movement is activated,
and then imagine peeling your vertebrae off one by one
as you lift your hips up towards the ceiling,
and then you should end up with a nice, straight line
going from your knees to your shoulders.
If you want to really increase that a little bit more,
you can interlace your hands underneath
your bottom and just pull your shoulders back even more
so you're getting more of a stretch across the
front of your chest, but also extend your hips a
little bit more, so you need to really squeeze
your glutes in this position, and remember to squeeze your
knees together, checking that they're not falling out.
And then once you've held this pose, I want you to
come down in just the same controlled manner
in which you went up, so imagining your lowering
one vertebrae at a time and then the last part
to reach the ground will be your tailbone.
Relax there, and then once you're ready, repeat it again.
(slow, happy Jazz music)
This is the pose you need to know if it
all gets a little bit too much.
Whether you're in a yoga class, or you're just
practicing at home and want to find a nice,
comfortable, relaxing position.
Start on your knees with your feet, tops of your
feet flat on the mat.
And then from here, you're going to
lower your bottom down towards your heels.
There's lots of options in this, but start with
if you've just got your knees facing forwards,
or your legs facing forwards and you're going to
lower your torso down towards that ground,
so that your forehead is resting on the mat in front of you.
Now you can have your arms out stretched in front
in a prayer type position, or you can opt for them down
by your side with your palms facing up.
And there's also an alternative for your legs,
you can actually have your knees out to either side,
you might find that more comfortable on your hips
but again, play around with what's comfortable for you
and this is a pose that you should be able to hold
for quite a length of time and just a great place
to relax, but also help with a bit of mobility
around the hip area.
The best thing about this pose, it's totally accepted
in any yoga class, and it's really nice
on the hips and the spine.
Well, I have now covered most of the basic
yoga poses, if there's any other basic poses you really
like, do let us know in the comments section below,
but the main thing is, it's about finding what works for you
so hold the pose for as long as you feel comfortable
and adapt to suit you as well.
And hopefully after this, you'll at least have an idea
of what to expect if you do decide you're gonna
go sign up to your local yoga class.
If you've enjoyed this, give us a thumb up, like, and
if you want to make sure you get all of our videos here
at GTN, then just hit the globe to subscribe.
And if you want some tips on how to avoid runners knee
we've got a video on that just here.
And if you want to go and do some strength and conditioning
exercises that will improve your running,
we've got a video for that just here.