Welcome to our beginners yoga class for
Flexibility this gentle yoga practice is perfect for anyone that is completely new to yoga
Or if you're simply looking for beginner postures to help you increase flexibility in your body
So if you're ready to get started, all you need is your mat and yourself, let's begin
Alright friends, let's begin our practice today by coming over to the back of our mat.
Sitting up nice and tall taking a deep breath in and then as you exhale
Drop the chest all the way down over top of your knees reach the arms forward into our Child's Pose
This is a wonderful posture to release any tension or compression out of your lower back. Just
Take this opportunity right now to settle into your breath
Don't worry if your hips do not touch your heels
With time as your flexibility increases your body will be able to go a little bit further
Take a deep breath in and exhale. Let it go slowly. Let's roll up into all fours position
What you're going to do here is slightly arch the back you're gonna bend your knees and tuck your toes underneath
Press into the hands as you lift yourself up lifting the hips up towards the sky
Let's keep the knees bent here
We're coming into our downward facing dog and just stay and begin to gently move your knees
So extending one knee and then extending the other knee
Just notice how you feel here where the restriction is in the body
If moving your knees side to side is too much you can always just stay with your knees bent
Eventually the goal is to get both of your knees straight
And allow the chest to release closer towards the floor into that full downward facing dog
Stay and breathe make sure your weight is equal between two hands
Making sure that your elbows are pointing downward towards the mat
And once again do not worry if your heels do not touch the floor it will come with time
for now just enjoy the release through the hamstrings and the calf muscles and
Once you're ready what we're gonna do is walk your feet forward towards the front of your mat take as many steps as you need
Make your way to the top of the mat
Coming into our forward fold. So coming up halfway first
Make sure your back is straight then take your hands behind your knees. Now. You might want to just stay here and breathe
Getting deeper into that release of the hamstrings
Most importantly is that we're not holding from the lower back you want to fold from the hip crease?
If you have a little bit more, give see we can reach for the ankles
Feel free to bend your knees to hold it there as well
Wherever you are just find your level and breathe into it
eventually getting your chest closer towards your thighs and your forehead towards the knees
As your hamstrings release over time extending the knees all the way out
Hold and breathe
Beautiful just finding your breath
inhaling deeply
And as you exhale allowing yourself
To go a little deeper each time
Finding patience with yourself
Understanding that you are exactly where you need to be right now with time your body will let go breath by breath
So enjoy where you are
Feel the benefit of this posture
Letting go of tension tightness restriction in your legs
Inhale now slowly let's release the hands coming up half away
Hands come up to the knees
Then as you exhale
Bending both knees and slowly rolling yourself up to standing
Let's reach both arms up to the sky big stretch
Exhale slowly take your body back all the way down into a seated position on your mat
Once you've come down onto your seated position bring the soles of your feet together and allow your knees to open out to the side
Grab both of your toes with your hands knees pointed outward. Let's take a breath elongate through the spine
And then as you exhale, you're going to slowly start to lead forward with your chest as you release into your butterfly pose
Again seeing how far your body will allow you to go and
Then once you reach that limit, you're gonna hold it there and breathe
This is a wonderful posture to release any tension and stiffness out of your hips
So just breathe deeply
Let go into the posture
You spend a lot of time in a seated position. This is a wonderful stretch for you to include on a daily basis
Just finding that presence in this posture
inhaling deeply into the body into your hips
And then as you exhale
Letting your body relax into the posture
Visualizing any tension any stiffness melting out of your hips with your exhalation?
Now slowly rolling yourself back to a straight back release the hands
Slowly bring your knees together. Take your time. They might feel a little bit sore and then slide your hips back a little bit further
Making sure that your legs are straight. We're going to come into our seated forward fold
Bending your knees and grabbing behind the knees and this slowly start to release your body down
So again you can hang out here or you can reach for your ankles
Eventually straightening your knees
keeping your back straight just like we did in our standing forward fold and
releasing yourself over
As your body begins to let go you'll be able to reach a little bit further each time
To the ankles and then eventually to your toes and feet
Feel free to close your eyes in this position
Which will allow you to keep that awareness internally
and with that awareness focusing simply on bringing in more oxygen into the muscles as you breathe in
And as you exhale letting your body relax deeper into this posture
Inhale and exhale let it go
Breathing in as you inhale
Exhale notice if your body starts to slowly relax a little bit more
Again remembering to be patient with your body to be patient with yourself
Great job one more inhale
and then exhale
Rolling your back up straight as you reach both arms up to the sky exhale
Hands next to side body scoot on forward and
Then slowly take your back all the way down
knees in towards your chest hug your knees
And then drop your head all the way down as you flex both feet and begin to extend both legs up to the sky
from here taking our happy baby posture
Reaching for your ankles or if you like to the outsides of your feet
Once you grab onto your feet or ankles begin to bend your knees and bring them down as close to the ground as possible
Breathing in deeply making sure your shoulders are
Staying relaxed and grounded on the floor
If you're feeling like you're having to lift your upper body to reach then grab lower along the legs
So either grabbing on to your ankles or even maybe the calf muscles if you need to
Once you've found that position
I want you to breathe into it and with each exhalation think about pulling your knees a little bit closer towards the ground
This is another wonderful hip opening posture
Letting go of tension of stiffness of any restrictions in your entire hip region
Inhale and exhale let it go
Feel free to close your eyes here
Inhale and
Exhale
Great job. Alright, let's release extend your legs back up
release the arms and all I want you to do is just make your way back up to your knees so you can do a
little roll up and
Then hands on the floor
transition yourself back over
towards downward facing dog
walk it back
And again, just finding that position heels
Grounded reaching towards the floor
open up the upper body just
Take a moment to breathe
Paying attention to how this posture feels to you right now
Versus how it felt in the beginning of our class
Notice the progress and the release you have felt already in the last ten minutes
You like to walk it out a little bit more go ahead and do so
Bending one knee at a time extending the opposite leg
this allows you to go a little bit deeper into those calf muscles as
This type of motion allows us to press the heels closer to the floor
Awesome job
Once you're done go ahead and come back into that downward facing dog pressing both heels towards the mat one last time
taking a deep breath in
And exhale, let it go
Lift your heels bend your knees and slowly make your way back over into our Child's Pose
Keep reaching those arms to the front of your mat as you allow your chest to drop over top of your knees
forehead down to the floor
At this time go ahead and take both arms along the side of your body now
Releasing your back closing the eyes and just coming back to the body
Inhale and exhale
Letting go of any thoughts any worries
Simply paying attention to the simple motion of your inhalation and exhalation
Staying connected to your breath to the energy within your body
Inhale and exhale
One more time deep breath in
When you are ready on our exhalation we are slowly going to come on up to your seated position
Arms are gonna reach up to the sky to give yourself one last big stretch
And then exhale palms together to your heart. Let's do that again
inhale arms up reach up stretch your upper body
And exhale bring your hands towards your heart
This time resting both of your hands in your lap as you close your eyes
giving yourself one more opportunity
To reconnect with your body with your mind as you take an inhale
And exhale feeling this present
awareness in peace that resides within you
Inhale and exhale
Beautiful job
Once you're ready, just take your hands back over it to your heart
taking this opportunity to send up gratitude to yourself
And for finding this time in your day to do something good for your body for your mind and for your health
Thank you so much for joining me on the mat and I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day
namaste
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