- Hey, everyone! And welcome to Yoga with Adriene.
I am Adriene and today, on The Foundations of Yoga Series,
we are learning side plank pose.
♫ Dun..dun...dunnnn...♫
It is an arm balance, it is a full body strengthener
and its great if you're wanting
to sass up your yoga practice,
if you're a beginner and also,
I think yummy to just kind of check in
if you're goin' to public classes and you wanna
make sure you're in the right alignment
for this side balance, then this is the video for you.
(guitar music) Why am I selling you on this video?
You're already watching it. Let's check it out.
(guitar folk country music)
Alright, so to get into the posture today,
we're going to come to downward facing dog.
There's a Foundations of Yoga video
for down dog if you wanna check that out, too.
Take a second here to pedal off the feet.
Then take your gaze, draw it forward,
and slowly come into plank.
Two big toes are gonna come together.
I'm going to energetically send
my sitting bones down towards my heels
and spike the heels towards the back of my mat.
Now, lift your right palm.
Walk it to the center line just slightly in front
of your shoulder point.
And from here I'm gonna press up
and out of the palm and turn over
onto the right outer edge of my foot.
Now, from here, I'm gonna stack the feet,
tuck my pelvis and on an inhale,
gently open up through my chest
and either bring the hand, left hand to the left waist,
or I'm going to continue the journey
all the way up towards the heavens.
Now I'm extending through the crown
of the head here.
I'm not dropping my right ear to my right shoulder,
but I'm pressing up and out of the palm,
finding stability in the shoulder that way
and extending through the crown.
Soften the lower rib cage. Tuck your pelvis.
Head is in line with the pelvis and the heart.
And I take one more breath in here,
and then on an exhale, I plant the palms,
send it back, downward facing dog.
Great! Now, a couple of variations.
So, that's kind of like side plank
on the right side in its full effect.
Or actually, that's not even true.
But there's, there's, who knows what the full effect is?
I guess the full effect's like iyengar style,
would be with the fingertips laced
around the big toe and lifted up.
So, but we'll do a whole other video
on plank variations on another day
but for this foundational posture
I wanna give beginners a good place
to start where they feel happy.
We come into it just the same, down dog to plank.
But then, this time, I'm gonna walk my right palm
into center and I'm gonna come
onto the outer edge of that right foot.
But I'm gonna lift my left knee
and come on to the sole of my left foot.
I'm gonna practice tucking my pelvis
in here and then lifting up, sending that,
finding that sit bone-to-heel connection, here.
The tendency is gonna kinda hang low here.
♫ Do your hips hang low? ♫
Just kidding.
And then, I'm gonna counter that tendency
by pressing into my right heel
and finding that sit bone-to-heel connection.
Ha! So I can practice here and open up here.
Great! Come out.
I come back to plank or down dog,
and then slowly lower to the knees.
Okay, one more little beginner's variation
on the right side and then we'll try it all
more fluidly on the left side.
Okay, so, here we go.
Palms. Down dog.
Plank. This time I'm gonna lower my knees.
Half plank.
I'm gonna walk my right palm just underneath,
maybe slightly in front of that right.
Now, this time I'm gonna sw-
Right hip. Right shoulder, sorry.
Now, this time I'm gonna swing the right toes
towards the right side of the mat
and open up now pressing into my
right knee in the top of my right foot.
Open up now with the left leg extended.
So before I had the right leg extended
and the left leg bent, now, I'm switching it around.
Finding, don't do what I just did.
(laughs) Hopping on your right arm.
Just had to find, find a little self-adjustment.
But finding it this way. I have one here.
One here.
And then the full posture at least for today, here.
Okay! So, now that we've had a visual on all that.
Let's swing it around and try it all,
all three variations on the other side.
So, I'm gonna come to down dog.
Take it to my plank. Walk the left palm underneath.
Coming out onto the outer edge of my left foot,
I'm gonna stack the feet, sit bone-to-heel
connection here as I tuck my pelvis.
Inhale. Press up and out of the palm.
No collapsing as I open up through the right wing.
Full body strengthener.
Softening, knitting the lower rib cage in,
navel to the spine,
drawing my shoulder blades in together and down.
I can stay here. I can bend that right knee.
Sole of the right foot comes up
as I practice lifting the pelvis.
Sit bone-to-heel connection.
Or I have the option of coming onto the left knee,
extending through the right leg and opening up here.
(breathes out heavily)
If you're a complete beginner,
this might be where you start.
If you're a beginner but you're still wanting to practice
in the more strengthening plank,
then go ahead and extend through that left leg,
bend that top leg and open up.
And then if you're wanting to just be adventurous
and try it out, stack the feet.
Tuck your pelvis and lengthen through the lower back.
Breathe in.
Make sure after you practice plank
come through downward facing dog.
Make sure you take a breath or two
in child's pose, balasana. (breathes out heavily)
Okie doke. So that was a look at side plank.
It can be challenging if you're a beginner,
so, if that was like crazy difficult for you, no sweat!
Return to it.
Maybe give yourself a goal
of doing this once everyday for seven days
and see if it gets a little bit easier
and your body gets a little stronger.
Really focus on this line from the crown
of the head to the tip of the tailbone.
Its not just about arm strength.
Its about getting that pelvis in line
and finding integrity in the body.
Letting all the muscles go along for the ride.
Full body experience.
Well this pose is great to strengthen the wrist
but if you're feeling any wrist pressure
and you have sensitive wrists already,
you might try our Yoga for Healthy Wrists sequence.
And you might also try our Foundations of Yoga plank pose.
Just as kind of like two sister, or brother...
We're very fair here on Yoga with Adriene channel.
Almost mispronounced my own name. Jeez!
Those are two good videos to kind of marry with this one.
Plank and Yoga for Healthy Wrists.
I wish you all the best!
I wish you a happy yoga practice
and a good rest of the day or evening
and I'll see you next time.
Namaste. (guitar music)
(guitar music)