Hi, I'm Ashley Borden, and welcome to Perfect Form.
This Full Body Warm-Up is fantastic, because you can do it at home, or you can do it at
the gym, and all you need is the space of of a yoga mat.
The first one I wanna start with is called a Mula Bandha Breath, and what's great about
this is it helps you find your pelvic floor.
And for those of you who don't what your pelvic floor is: It's like when you're trying to
squeeze your pee flow muscle to stop the pee, and that's your pelvic floor.
So you wanna feel like that's like lifting all the way up.
So, I wanna help you find that first, and then I'm gonna go through the cueing for it
that you can use for the rest of your workout.
So you're gonna take a deep, deep inhale.
You're gonna expand your ribcage real wide.
And then I want you to exhale all of your air out until you have nothing left, and then
squeeze that pee flow muscle or what I was just talking about earlier.
So you're gonna take a deep breath, big exhale, no air left, and squeeze, and hold that for--
5, 4, 3, 2 and release.
So the feeling is gonna feel like a little bit crampy when you're doing it, and there's
no tush.
I don't want you to tuck and squeeze, okay.
So it's almost like you're body's cut in half, and it's just the top half that's lifting
up.
So let's do two more of those.
You're gonna take a deep inhale, expand your ribcage, and then exhale all of your air out
until you have nothing left.
And then squeeze the pee flow muscle, hold it-- 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
And one more, okay.
Deep inhale, expand those ribs real wide, and then exhale all of your air out until
you have nothing.
And hold-- 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
And release.
And you know what you can also do: Put your hand on your pelvic floor, and then you can
really feel when it contracts.
And some people can't feel it right away, so that's why I want you on the hard floor
when you're doing it, so then you'll really connect to that pelvic floor-- and use the
cue I told you earlier.
Okay, so next thing I wanna go through is a Hip Stretch.
And while you're here, extend your legs out long.
You're gonna grab top of the knee, and you're gonna grab your ankle.
And I want you to pull the leg back, kinda like you're making like a 7.
And you're gonna do a big circle, keeping the bellybutton pulled in, elbows out.
And I want you to circle fives time one way, and then you're gonna circle fives times the
other way.
And you should feel that deep in your hip.
4, 5-- let's go one more.
And again, when you're doing this, I want you to make sure that you're pulling your
ankle towards your chest and keeping that hand on the knee and the elbows are out wide,
so you're not pulling with your shoulders.
And both ways, you're gonna circle five times.
Okay, so now I wanna go through an Active Hamstring Stretch.
So a lot of people will say: Well, you know, my hamstrings are so tight-- I can't really
get that extension.
So what I want you to do is interlace your hands behind the back of your thigh, okay.
And you're gonna pull your shoulders down away from your ears, your foot's gonna start
relaxed-- you're gonna extend your leg as far as your hamstring will let you go.
Then, I want you to pull your toes back and hold for 5 seconds-- 4, 3, 2, 1.
And then release it and bring it down.
Then, you're gonna bring the knee a little bit closer.
And again, you're gonna extend the leg out as far as it will go, pull those toes back
and hold --it's a little painful-- pull the belly in: 3, 2, 1.
And bring it down.
Good.
And then one more.
And you should feel each time, your leg can get a little bit closer.
Extend all the way up, push, push, push.
Keep those shoulders down-- 3, 2, 1.
And bring it down.
So the great thing is that you can get your hamstring-- you don't have to have the full
extension of your leg, and that will really warm-up the hamstring.
And of course, you're gonna do both sides.
Next thing I wanna do is a Quad Stretch, and it also kinda gets the psoas.
I want you to start with your feet --if you're on a yoga mat-- about yoga, the width of the
of the yoga mat.
And you're gonna lie all the way down.
You're gonna drop both knees down to the side.
My leg that's behind me-- I'm pushing off the outside edge of my heel.
So my knee's not up-- it's reaching toward the wall.
I'm gonna take my opposite hand, reach it out-- and the key is you're squeezing your
back glute and tucking that tailbone underneath you --really, really deep-- you're gonna feel
a deep stretch through your quad.
Reach your opposite arm out, and you're gonna look away to the opposite direction.
Squeeze and hold for 10 seconds, and then bring it back to center, okay.
And then you'd do the other side.
So again, I'm gonna drop both of the knees down-- I'm pushing away with my foot, squeezing
my bum, getting a deep stretch all the way up, reaching my arm, and you're gonna squeeze,
squeeze that tush and hold: 5, 4 -- really tucking-- 3, 2, 1.
Good.
And of course, you're gonna go both sides.
Okay, I wanna go now into your Single Leg Pigeon Stretch.
And, a lot of times people who are really tight in their hips are like: I cannot do
Pigeon, because it hurts my knee.
Or, I'm not flexible enough.
So I wanna show you an active stretch that you're gonna do with your Pigeon Stretch.
So you're gonna start with the leg-- if you're really super tight, you just wanna make sure
that your knee is to the outside of your shoulder.
You're gonna worm that other leg all the way back, okay.
And you're gonna start on your forearms.
If it's too tight, you can start up, okay.
You're gonna curl that back toe underneath you, between your first and second toe.
And then you're gonna push through that back heel, squeeze the bum real tight, pull the
belly in --using that Kegel-- and you're gonna hold for 5 seconds: 4, 3, 2, 1.
And then bring the knee down.
And again, push back through the heel, squeeze that tush, so you'll feel a deep stretch in
this quad and in the hip that's the leg that's bent.
And you're gonna hold that for 5 seconds: 4, 3, 2, 1.
And then bring it back down-- let's go one more time.
Push back through that heel, squeeze the glute.
And also, I want you to make sure that you're not dropping your neck down, so you wanna
keep your head in line with your spine.
Squeeze, hold that tush, push through the heel: 3, 2, 1.
Excellent.
Okay, so now that we kinda warmed up the legs, let's do a little bit of spinal cord warm-up.
And we're gonna do Cat and Dog.
So, Cat and Dog: You're gonna start on all fours.
I think you guys know what this position is.
Okay, so toes underneath you.
Knees are in line with your hips, hands are in line with your shoulders.
You're gonna start first, head in line with your spine.
Take a deep inhale through your nose.
And then you're gonna exhale out, tuck your tailbone, push away from the floor with your
elbows out.
Hold, and then rotate your heart and chest by internally rotating your shoulders and
pushing your chest forward.
Alright, going back.
Again, exhale, tuck chin to throat, push away, hold, pull that bellybutton in.
Rotate the heart and chest.
Push it forward.
So, see how my shoulders are back-- they're not all up in my ears.
Tush is out.
One more time.
Exhale, tuck chin to throat, push away, draw that belly all the way in.
And then rotate the heart and chest.
Very good.
Okay, and I wanna do a Spinal Roll Up.
So, a lot people say: Well, why do I have to do all this full body stuff, if I already
did a Cat and Dog?
I like to do a full body roll up, so that way you're kinda bringing everything back
to center through your spinal cord.
So you're gonna start with your palms down.
Feet are about a little bit wider than shoulder-width apart.
Take a deep inhale, and you're gonna exhale.
Tuck pubic bone to the bellybutton, all the way to the top, hold.
Take a deep inhale from there-- my bum is very tight.
And exhale out.
You wanna draw in one vertebrae at a time.
I'm going all the way down to the ground, and release.
And again, take a deep inhale.
And I start low.
And I tuck and squeeze my glutes and pull my bellybutton in as I go all the way to the
top.
So I'm not dropping-- if you feel your lower back, you're dropping.
Tuck that tush, push all the way up.
Tuck under, one vertebrae at a time, all the way down.
And last one-- deep inhale and exhale.
Draw the bellybutton in, keeping my ribcage open, all the way up to the top.
Inhale and exhale-- draw the belly in, bring it all the way down.
Very good.
And last one I wanna do is a Bird Dog.
So, Bird Dog kinda brings it all back together, so you can feel nice and stable.
You're gonna be, again, in that all four's position.
Shoulders are back, elbows are internally rotated.
You're gonna extend one leg back with your foot flexed-- I don't want your foot turned
out, okay.
Foot flexed, opposite arm reaches out, and you're gonna hold.
You wanna feel like your hip bones are square to the ground.
Reaching that thumb to the ceiling.
And you're gonna hold that for 10 seconds on one side, and then you'll bring it down,
and you'll hold for 10 seconds on the other side.
So, that is your Full Body Warm-up.
I want you guys to make sure: In the link below there's a link to my Full Body Rollout
that's on my Facebook page that you can download that for free.
I want you to do your whole Full Body Rollout before you do the warm-up.
And that way, that combo together: You will feel awake, you're blood will be flowing,
you'll feel sexy and ready to start your day, or your workout.