Hey, everyone!
Welcome to Yoga With Adriene.
I'm Adriene and today on the Foundations of Yoga, we have Lizard Pose.
Really juicy hip opener, great for the whole body.
This is a request, so I wanted to get down low with you today and learn Lizard Pose.
Let's hop on the mat.
All right, my friends.
So, today we're going to begin in Downward-Facing Dog.
Get on into your Dog and just take a second to stretch it out.
Why not?
Oh yeah.
Then, from your Down Dog, we're going to step the right foot up into our lunge.
Go ahead and lower the left knee.
Let's just take a second here to explore the body.
So, the thing about the Foundations is we're breaking the pose down, but I also want to
be mindful of the fact that this might be the first thing you've done all day and you
might be a little tight or a little sore.
And so, we're not trying to cram our foot into the shoe.
We want to kind of ease into it, stretch into it.
That's a good note for teachers, too.
You know?
If you're demonstrating things.
You want to make sure you're stretched out and warm as you demo things, okay?
So that you don't hurt yourself.
Okay, so then we're going to come into this nice low lunge.
Back knee is lowered, front knee is stacked over front ankle.
Then, go ahead and bring your right fingertips over to meet your left, and then we're going
to walk our right toes out toward the outer edge of that right side of the mat here.
Then, I'll come onto my palms and I'm still connected through my foundation here.
So, knee on the ground and toes really mindful on the earth.
So now, right toes are out, I press away from the earth, and I'm just going to hang here.
So, I might be on the fingertips.
A lot going on here.
Or I might be on the palms.
Or I might be on a block.
Since I have a bolster right here I'm just going to use a bolster, but you might be on
a block.
Or you can take some books and lift the earth up to you.
And, I think, a common thing in this Lizard Pose and Lizard variations, which is what
we're learning a couple of different ways today, is to get caught up in getting into
this thing too fast.
Prepping for some sort of Eka Pada Koundinyasana or something like that, and really we want
to slow it down so that we're taking every little muscle along for the ride.
Lots of integrity still on the spine.
So, if you're not able to find a little extension in the spine, maybe open your chest towards
the front of your mat here.
Then, stay up nice and tall and work on that.
If you are able to find a little integrity in the spine, a little connect with the next
and shoulders, then maybe you do slowly lower down, coming to the palms, or maybe even to
the forearms here.
So, we're working at all different levels.
If you're like, "Not in a million years," you'd be surprised.
With a little bit of practice, you could probably lower these forearms down safely and feel
good.
So, we're here, we're here, we're here.
We're on a prop, if we need to.
And then, we find our breath.
We pull the right hip crease back here, my friends.
Just gently pulling back, so we're not just mindlessly sinking into the posture here,
but we're really integrated.
If the forearms are on the earth, spread the palms wide.
Really press into the base of the palm, draw the shoulders away from the ears.
If you're feeling like you want a little more heat and you're ready to explore, you might
lift the back knee up.
Or you can keep it lowered and we can do that in any variation here.
Breathing into the tight spots.
And if you're like, "What does that mean?"
Breathe into your hips, baby.
Send breath.
That means take fuller, deeper breaths.
And this is great place to hang out as we open up the front of the hip crease, of course,
open up the right hip crease.
Really great for connecting the spine for when we want to maybe head into some other
more interesting looking maybe poses.
Or balancing postures, of course.
Take one more breath, wherever you are.
And then the dismount, the release is really important here.
More important than, I think, you might think.
We don't want to just topple out or rush out.
We're going to come out of it with the same mindfulness.
So, walking the palms back up, inching the right foot in back to center, as we bring
the right fingertips around.
And then, from here, I'll lower the back knee, if I haven't already.
And I'm going to think "up and over", as I send my right hip crease back once again.
This time, coming on to the right foot, really flexing the right toes up towards the sky,
and I inhale.
Find that extension, just like I had in my Lizard variation.
And end on an exhale, rounding forward.
So, just a little counter pose here, to keep it real.
One more breath here.
Not sinking all the way back here, but I'm keeping the hip pretty stacked over the front
knee, or the left knee, excuse me.
Deep breath in, and then on an exhale, we'll roll through the right foot, come back to
that low lunge, plant the palms, and send it to Downward-Facing Dog.
Deep breath in, and long breath out.
If you're like, "Whoa-nelly!
New to the practice, need to chill!"
Lower the knees and take a rest in Child's Pose.
Otherwise, we'll stay in Downward Dog for two more breaths.
Great.
If you're in Child's Pose, come on back to Downward-facing Dog.
And then, nothing fancy here.
We step the left foot up, into our low lunge.
Lower the back knee, right knee comes down.
We find our foundation here.
Just nice and strong, connecting to the toes of the back foot.
But also really letting that awareness travel to my center, my core, my shoulders.
Right?
So, I'm not isolating any part here, I'm moving as one part.
Moving as one moving part.
That was redundant, but at least I got my point across.
Okay, here we go.
Walking the left toes out now.
And then, bring that left palm and those left fingertips, to each his own, around to meet
the right.
So, take your time getting into this.
Try and just allow you a little bit of time to play.
Again, we're not trying to just kind of shove into the shape here, but really give ourselves
the time and space to experiment and explore.
That's the beauty of this Foundations of Yoga series.
So, maybe eventually you come onto the palms.
And again, I just invite all of you to open your heart forward and really pay attention
to the extension of the spine here first.
And then, once you feel like you've integrated that, even just the awareness may not look
exactly like mine, but the awareness, then we can start to play here.
Maybe lifting up on a prop or coming down.
I encourage you to find your breath again.
And then, wherever you are, see if you can really lift away from the earth.
So, although we're sinking the hips down low, we're not just mindlessly dumping all the
weight.
There's a little bit of press into the palms, a little bit of press into the elbows.
Maybe you lift that back knee up, and maybe not.
Left hip crease gently pulls back and the lower belly is engaged.
Wherever you are, take one more full breath cycle.
In and out.
And then, we'll slowly unravel.
Nice and slow.
Coming out of the posture with a smile, with maybe a sense of relief.
We walk the left toes back in, left fingertips come around, and counter pose.
Lower the back knee, if it isn't already, and we'll send it up and back.
Really tugging the mat gently, perhaps with the left heel.
And really, really pulling that left hip crease back.
Find your breath.
Maybe you play a little bit on the side with this wave of the spine, finding that extension.
Noticing how your neck and shoulders feel today.
One more breath.
Then, we'll slowly roll through the left foot, plant the palms, and slide the left toes back,
Downward-Facing Dog.
Deep cleansing breath in here, my friends.
In through the nose and exhale out through the mouth.
Good job.
Alright, my friends, awesome work!
That was Lizard Pose.
Make sure you comb through the Foundations of Yoga and learn other poses from the ground
up.
This is a great place to play, especially if you're new to the practice.
But also, if you're wanting to eventually venture out into public classes, this is a
nice series for you.
Let me know how it goes.
Questions, comments welcome below, as always.
I appreciate all of the positivity and all the questions.
And this, like I said earlier, this video is a request.
So, send in your requests, too.
Things you that want to work on or you have questions about, let me know.
I'll see you next week.
Free yoga videos, every Wednesday.
Until next time.
Namaste.