- What's up everyone, welcome to Yoga With Adriene.
I'm Adriene, howdy do?
Today we have a yoga for beginners video.
I'm calling this Foundational Flow, or Foundations of Flow.
So this is great for people who are wanting to, you know,
eventually graduate to vinyasa style classes,
or maybe you're trying out vinyasa or flow classes now
and you're feeling like "I can't keep up," or like,
"How do I breathe?" or "What the heck am I doing?"
So this sequence will be great for you to just kind of
get the foundations of flow, really connect
to what matters, which is synchronizing the breath
with the movement and the movement with the breath
so that you can find what feels good.
Let's get started.
(upbeat guitar music)
Alrighty, my friends, we're going to begin
in an extended child's pose, so get on down.
Knees as wide as your mat, two big toes touching.
Now if this is not a comfortable posture for you then
you can keep the hips lifted, and in time
baby, we'll get them down there.
So just be where you are at today,
if you need to curl the toes under and stretch the feet
and just kind of rest on the elbows, this is an option.
So just know that your extended child's pose may not
look like the magazine today,
but it will evolve and change, so you just kind of
have to get into it.
So that's where we're starting today, just kind of
nice and easy in an extended child's pose.
If the forehead can come to the mat you might
experiment with that.
Melting your heart down.
And just take a second to close your eyes and
draw your attention to your breath.
(deep inhale)
A little invitation to notice the breath is super important
here as we begin today and talk about vinyasa,
or introduction to flow style yoga.
And just the synchronicity that comes when you start to
really play with your breath and move with your breath
and let your movement be fueled by the breath
is so rewarding, especially in the physical practice,
it's totally the manifestation of joy.
And if you don't know what I'm talking about yet,
you soon will, and if you do, you know I'm not crazy.
Notice your breath, take it nice and slow.
We're going to move in a circle here, so
the goal today is to not do it perfect but to just
enjoy the ride, stick with the practice, so
we're going to start by inhaling, coming forward,
and exhaling around and back.
See if you can move with your breath,
inhaling coming forward, and exhaling around and back
through that extended child's pose.
Keep it going: inhale coming forward,
moving in a big circle, exhale around and back,
and then reverse your circle, again inhaling as you
come forward, exhale through extended child's pose.
Now we want to take long, deep, smooth breaths,
so rushing your movement isn't really great for that.
Slow it down so you can focus and begin to control
the breath and the movement.
(deep breathing)
Let's do one more.
Back to extended child's pose,
or your version of extended child's pose.
Awesome, then we'll gently draw the palms underneath
the shoulders and press up.
Walk the knees in line with the hips and press up.
Come to all fours, tabletop position.
Just a little side body stretch since we're going to kind of
hop into a flow today, kind of quickly.
I'm going to press into the tops of my feet,
but you're going to be okay.
I'm going to extend my right leg out, take a deep breath in,
on an exhale draw your right toes over towards the left
side of your yoga mat, and then take a look,
take a little gander at your right foot.
If you were able to do the dunda practice with us
this will help here.
You can really see that line from the crown of the head
to the tip of the tailbone here, so we're not collapsing,
we're really engaging.
Stretch it out, stretch it out, and then release back
to center and same thing on the other side.
On the inhale lift the left leg up, square the hips,
and then take it over towards the right.
Take a look at your left leg,
press away from the earth with both palms,
stretch, stretch, stretch, and then we release.
Awesome, from here I'm going to curl the toes under,
take a deep breath in, and then nice and easy,
keeping the knees bent, I'm going to send that up to
a downward dog.
Pedal it out here,
soften the knees,
and we're going to slowly walk it up all the way to the
front edge of your mat.
Take a nice forward fold, and when you land,
just notice your breath,
notice how you might have stopped breathing
and continue to breathe deeper and deeper as you let
the weight of the head go.
(deep exhale and inhale)
So we're really trying to awaken the breath,
and if that's tough for you I just want to let you know
you're human, you're not alone.
It's a super challenging thing to cultivate a more mindful
breath practice.
When you're ready, roll it up nice and slow.
How slow can you go? Enjoy this move.
All the way to mountain.
Keep the knees softly bent here as you roll up
to a nice tall mountain pose, lifting up through the crown
of the head and then going ahead and just taking this
opportunity to check in with your body today.
Whether it's looping the shoulders, drawing some circles
with the nose, a little neck hygiene here.
Maybe pressing into the feet, shaking out any leg cramps,
rolling through the ankles a couple times, the wrists.
So go ahead and take a little freestyle moment to really
check in with your body,
and then we'll stand up nice and tall.
Toes pointing forward, feet hip-width apart,
so really stacking the bones here, and then,
when you're ready, just getting used to moving
with the breath.
And just going back for a second,
stacking the bones is so important because
our habitual selves kind of want to take over,
especially when things begin to move at a faster pace,
as they do in vinyasa.
So the more attention to detail we have now
while we're kind of going through the basics
and really building the foundation of our practice,
the better.
So when you feel like you have a nice foundation,
really pressing through all four corners of the feet,
just go ahead and, nice and easy, reach the fingertips
all the way up toward the sky and take a deep breath in.
(inhale)
And that's it. Exhale, let it go.
(exhale)
And again, full breath capacity, inhale, reach up.
Reach till you can't breathe in anymore,
and then exhale, let it go.
Couple more, try closing your eyes or just softening
your gaze, going inward, focusing on the breath.
Inhale.
Exhale, get used to really moving with your breath.
See if you can let the breath fuel the movement.
And after you've kind of found that synchronization,
or at least tried,
we're going to add one more thing to this.
So you can stay just kind of doing this flow here,
synchronizing the movement and the breath, the breath
and the movement, or you can begin to lift up on the toes.
So we're practicing a little balance here, too, inhaling...
This also just requires us to kind of slow it down
so we have more control over the breath and more
control over the movement.
Inhale.
Exhale, slowly release.
Let's do one more, spreading the fingertips,
and exhale back down to mountain.
Draw the palms together at the heart,
and let's keep playing with this moving breath
and movement, together as one, let's see what happens.
Inhale, soft knees, reach all the way up.
Moving nice and slow today, exhale down, go forward fold.
See if you can move with your breath.
And it's almost like we're moving through water today,
not because we want to be weird, but so that we can
really just kind of stay in control of the movement
and of the breath.
Also really great if you're a beginner to just take it
nice and slow, allowing the muscles that have been tight
for so long to reawaken and stretch out.
From here I'm going to inhale
and lift up to a flat back position.
Now, what that looks like today is this,
sliding the palms all the way up the shins,
all the way up the knees, we kind of draw energy up
through the legs as we do this, just a little bonus tip,
and then I'm going to loop the shoulders, pull the elbows
back, and find extension through the crown of the head.
Kind of like I'm creating the number seven shape here.
The legs might want to lock here,
especially in certain body types,
so just keep a soft bend in the knees.
Everyone draw your navel up to your spine,
this is hard work, and we're going to draw the shoulders
away from the ears.
Take one more breath in here, and then use your exhale
to slide back down to that forward fold.
Bend your knees super generously
to give your lower back some extra special love here,
and then if it feels good you can grab the elbows,
rock a little side to side,
keep breathing nice long, smooth, active breaths
best you can, and chances are you will stop,
and so we're just going to make it about coming back
to the breath each time, even if you have to do it
a million times, no worries, that's what the practice
is all about.
(deep inhale and exhale)
Then release the arms,
and slowly roll it back up once again.
Press into all four corners of the feet,
and again we'll take a deep breath in and inhale,
reach up towards the sky.
Exhale, soften through the knees, and down you go.
Rain it down.
Inhale, halfway lift,
palms slide up to the tops of the thighs.
I'm just going to pause here and work on this shape.
Finding that length through the crown of the head.
Usually the neck wants to kind of spill off like this,
so remember that the neck is an extension of the spine,
remember not to lock your knees, take a deep breath in.
Pull your elbows back and then use your exhale
to slide it down.
Great, rolling up one more time just like this.
Flat back position.
And then use your exhale to fold.
Awesome, this time we're going to bring the fingertips
to the mat, walk the feet in just a hair,
and then on a big breath in, send your right foot back.
On an exhale lower your right knee.
Inhale, open your heart.
Awesome. Exhale.
Inhale.
Exhale, plant the palms, and we're going to
step the left knee back to meet the right.
Cool. Catch your breath, gather your bearings.
And we're going to come to kind of a half push-up here.
Inhale, open your heart forward,
so really let the chest open.
Exhale, bend the elbows slowly, lower down.
Stay down.
Then inhale, lift the heart up,
lower the legs if you haven't already.
Cobra. Exhale down.
Keep your cobras nice and small here.
Inhale, lift up.
Especially if you're new to the practice there's a tendency
to kind of want to recreate the shapes that we see,
and then this ends up happening.
Because it takes a long time to get everything integrated
and working happy to kind of get here, so...
Don't worry, not trying to call you out or anything,
just trying to help you, don't want you to have any
back pain or anything, so keep it nice and low.
Inhale, lift.
Exhale, release.
So we're doing this on our own here,
we're really pressing through the foundation,
inhale, lifting up.
Exhaling, lowering down.
Each time you lift up with the breath,
pull the elbows back like little grasshopper legs,
press into your pubic bone and the tops of your feet.
So it's like a pump here: inhale, lift,
and exhale, fall.
Let's do one more. Inhale, lift.
Baby cobra, and exhale, release.
Cool. Curl the toes under, lift the kneecaps, inhale in.
Exhale, press up into a push-up. You got it.
You can always be at a half push-up.
Inhale in, exhale to your downward dog.
Soften through the knees,
and then eventually begin to straighten it out.
Awesome work, everyone. Here we go.
On your next big breath in, lift your right leg up
into your lunge,
exhale, lower your left knee down.
Inhale, loop the shoulders, open your heart,
take a deep breath in,
and exhale, let it go.
Great. Inhale, take your time.
We're going to lift the back foot up to meet the front.
Big breath in.
And if that doesn't happen in one step,
which it probably won't, who cares.
Take as many steps as you need.
And then everyone exhale, forward fold.
Probably already there,
so take a couple nice long, smooth, deep breaths.
Awesome. Inhale.
On your next breath, halfway lift.
We know this position, just checking in, staying curious,
experimenting.
And exhale, down you go.
And then softening through the knees,
pressing through all four corners of the feet,
spread your fingertips and begin to reach it up.
Full body stretch, it'll feel really good.
And exhale, hands to heart. Awesome.
Just take a second to catch your breath, or observe
your breath.
You know, getting used to moving with the breath in this way
is actually a really intricate thing,
so we go to vinyasa class and we're expected to just
perfectly sync up.
So I think it's really nice to actually break it down
like this whether you're a beginner or not.
Just to kind of slow it down and remember,
ah, yes, synchronicity.
So taking a second here to just observe the breath.
If you're brand new to the practice and you need a sip
of water right now, go get your sip of water,
it's really your home practice too, so you can kind of
take what you need.
That's when you return to the mat,
like when you're really listening to your body.
A lot of yoga for beginners is just about learning
everything the "right way" and we forget to allow for
permission to make it so that you want to come back
to your yoga mat.
Okay, so we're just going to go through one more
little flow here, just practicing moving with the breath.
So soft knees, marry the breath to the movement
and the movement to the breath, best you can.
Big inhale, reach the arms up and overhead.
Full body stretch.
Long exhale, enjoy this move as you forward fold,
dive forward, soft bend in the knees, take good care.
Inhale, halfway lift, this time you might experiment
with bringing the palms to the shins, just another option.
Instead of the thighs.
Take a deep breath in here, lengthen, lengthen, lengthen,
and then use your exhale to bow forward.
Moving nice and slow. Walk the feet in just a hair.
Inhale, step the right foot back into your lunge.
This time you can keep the back knee lifted, or you can
lower it, go ahead and let all the air out.
On your next inhale open up the palms wide, lift your heart,
press into your feet strong again,
we can also be on the knee here.
Take a deep breath in, full capacity of breath here
as you open and expand and then exhale.
Back down you go. Plant the palms.
Walk the left toes,
or slide the left toes back to meet the right.
Stay here, or lower the knees like we did before.
Inhale, extend. Exhale, slowly lower down.
So we're doing it on the knees, we're lowering
all the way down.
And everyone hug your elbows into your side body,
and on your inhale lift up, cobra.
Move with your breath. Exhale, release.
Inhale, curl the toes under.
Exhale, draw your navel up to your spine,
lift your kneecaps, come up to push-up, plank.
Inhale in. Exhale, downward-facing dog.
Awesome. Inhale, step your right foot up into your lunge.
Again, you can lower the back knee here, exhale,
or you can keep it lifted.
On your next breath in, wherever you are, move at your
own pace, we'll inhale, open the heart, expand.
Power up through the legs.
Open, open, open, breathe in.
And on your exhale, let that be your cue
to make your way back down.
Awesome. Step the back foot up to meet the front,
take a big breath in.
Exhale, forward fold.
Awesome work, everyone. Inhale, halfway lift.
Palms on the shins or thigh.
Exhale, diving forward.
And inhale. Awesome work, everyone.
Take the deepest breath you've taken all day as you
reach your fingertips up towards the sky,
reach for the stars,
full body stretch here, full breath,
and your exhale brings you back
to the heart, back to palms together,
back to namaste, which is where we end our practice.
If you still have more energy and you want to do more today,
you can repeat this sequence.
Everyone just take a second to notice how you feel.
Maybe closing the eyes,
and allowing the breath to return
back to its natural rhythm.
(guitar outro)