15 Minute Yoga For Beginners 30 Day Challenge Day 1 With Fightmaster Yoga Video Lecture | 30 Day Yoga Challenge: For Beginners - Personal Skills

Hello, it's Lesley Fightmaster
Welcome to 30 days of yoga for beginners
This is day one
We're gonna come onto our backs
with the knees bent to begin
and spend a little time with our breathing
So, get comfortable
And just rest your hands on your belly
and just listen, or just feel
the breath rise and fall in the belly
As you breathe through your nose
Allow any tension in the neck and jaw and shoulders to release
Just taking notice
if there is any tension
Sometimes we can and we don't even realize
And just take longer breaths
So the breath in yoga is in and out through the nose
However, if you have any congestion, you're welcome to breathe through the mouth when you need to
The breath is very important
Every movement has a breath
We always want to connect our breath and our movement
in our practice
With your hands on the belly, just gonna inhale
and really expand through the belly
and then exhale
feel the air empty out and the belly draws in a little
And then again, inhale
Fill the belly
And now, walk your hands up to your rib cage
And then exhale
Feel the breath contract and empty
So as you inhale, you fill the belly and up through the ribs
And now bring your hands up all the way to your chest
All the way by your shoulders
See if you can take the breath there, all the way high
and then you'll exhale completely
One more time, nice full breath
Inhale belly and ribcage all the way up
and exhale, release it.
Now inhale through the nose
This time exhale out your mouth like you're fogging a mirror
And again inhale through the nose
Exhale like you're fogging the mirror
Halfway through close the mouth
That slight constriction in the back of the throat
try and keep it as you breathe in and out through the nose
This is called ujjayi pranayama
It means victorious breath
So just continue breathing in and out through your nose
with that little constriction in the back of the throat
If it seems difficult today, don't worry.
You'll just keep practicing it, it becomes easier as we go
Now we'll keep that breath going, but extend the legs out
and point your toes up to the ceiling
so your ankles are flexed, your leg muscles will be more engaged
And now you can just let that relax
I want you to notice your body on the ground
So, notice the points that are touching
and especially notice in your back, the spine
The spine has natural curves
The lower back is not touching the floor most likely
but the upper back is touching
the neck lifts away from the floor
and the back of the head is touching
also the hips are touching and the heels
Maybe the backs of the thighs and the calfs
So we just wanna take notice of that
and especially the natural curves in the spine
We would like to keep our natural curves in our spine as often as we can
during our practice
And a lot of times we're not aware, so we are gonna become aware
So flex the feet again, firm the legs
This time, inhale, reach your arms up toward the ceiling
Exhale, stretch them by the ears as far as you can
And notice your ribcage might pop up, your lower back might arch a little bit more
If that happens, take the hands further away from the ears up toward the ceiling
and draw those ribs in
Now, take your fingertips to shoulders
and just start to make circles with your elbows
We wanna warm up the shoulders
So as if you're drawing circles on the ceiling with your elbows
Make them nice and big, as big as what's comfortable
And then pause, and start to circle in the other direction
Keep the breath nice and steady. Don't forget about breathing
And then pause and arms by your sides
Your legs might start feeling this because the legs are so firm here
Inhale, arms up over as far as you can
but make sure those ribs don't pop out
and the lower back doesn't over arch
Let your shoulders relax away from the ears so they're not all bunched up
As you exhale, take the arms back down by your sides
Once again, inhale, sweep the arms up and over as far as you can while keeping the ribs in reaching the tailbone towards the heels
Exhale, arms down by your sides
Legs are still active
Now we will draw the right knee into the chest
And bend the left knee, put that foot on the floor
Or you can keep it extended out
Start to circle the right ankle in one direction
You can hold on to the shins or behind the thigh
Circle it in the other direction
You might notice I'm wearing socks. Usually I don't wear socks when I practice, but today it was really cold
so I kept my socks on for this one
Now extend your right leg up toward the ceiling
And let it straighten out as much as it will
Now it might not straighten up that much, it might be a little bit bent
You might be holding on to the leg closer to your hips
But wherever it is, try to draw the right hip a little forward so your hips stay leveled
And keep that left leg active, toes pointing out toward the ceiling
And continue steady breathing
Go on a little deeper if you can. Or not.
Wherever you are, it's fantastic
That's all a process. When I first started, I could not stretch my leg that much, anywhere near it
So now we'll switch
Bend the left knee, put that foot on the floor
And draw the... Or, sorry. Bend the right knee, draw the left knee in
Circle the left ankle in one direction
Right leg is extended out, or you can keep that leg bent
Circle the left ankle in the other direction
And then we'll extend the left leg up toward the ceiling
I'm holding on behind the thigh but you can grab a bunch of your pants and hold.
Your knee can be bent or if you can straighten up the leg, then straighten it
Drawing the left hip forward a little bit so your hips are leveled
And continue breathing in and out through the nose, that slight constriction in the back of the throat
Ujjayi pranayama
And your right toes continue to point up toward the ceiling so the right leg is active
We're stretching out our hamstrings a little here
Hamstrings tend to get tight from sitting in chairs
Take another breath
And then we'll release that
Now bend both knees, hug your knees into your chest
This is called apanasana
Rocking a little bit side to side
So the names of the poses are in Sanskrit. Sanskrit is an ancient language originated in India
and so I will sometimes use those names although you can always call them by the English names too
So we're gonna roll off to one side
And just pose a moment. I wanna show you how to get up safely
So, you roll to the right, left hand pressing into the floor and you'll bring yourself up nice and slowly with that hand
Now we'll make our way to hands and knees
If your knees are on a hard surface, be sure to pad them up with a pillow or blanket
Line up wrists under shoulders, knees under hips.
On an inhale, bring your chest forward, lift your chin and lift your tailbone up
As you exhale, round your back, tuck your tailbone under and pull the ribs and belly in as you press away from the floor
Inhale, gently drop the belly, bring the chest forward, shoulder blades are drawing toward the waist
As you exhale, press firmly into the arms and hands, and lift away like you're hollowing cat.
Or a scared cat
Inhale, bring the chest forward again, lifting the chin and tailbone
And exhale, rounding the back
Sometimes we call this one cat and cow or bitilasana
One more time, inhaling, drop the belly, lift the chin and tailbone
And then exhale, and start to round the back. Pull the ribs and belly in strongly
Inhale again. Chest forward, collarbones are widening
And exhale, rounding the back
This is a great way to warm up the spine
We're gonna take the hips all the way back to the heels in child's pose
Your hips might not touch, it's fine. If they don't, you'll keep your hips up higher.
You can also rest your head on the floor or on your hands
If your knees bother you, put a blanket between the back of your thighs and your calfs, or a pillow
So, this is your child's pose. It's a resting pose.
If you're brand new to yoga, it might not feel so restful. So remember, you can rest you head on your hands or a block if you have a yoga block,
put some padding between the calfs and the backs of the thighs, or keep your buns up higher, they don't have to go all the way to the heels.
Now we're gonna come back up. Inhale, bring the chest forward, lift the chin and tailbone up
Exhale, round the back and take the hips as far back to the heels as you can keeping the arms extended forward
Inhale, come forward again
Just gonna link some breath and movement
Drop the belly, lift the tailbone
Exhale, tuck and round, take the hips back toward the heels.
Once again, come on up to the knees, bring the chest through as you're inhaling
As you're exhaling, round the back, chin toward chest and stretch the hips back toward the heels
Keeping the arms extended
And again, up onto the knees, chest comes through, tailbone lifts, chin lifts
Exhale, rounding the back, chin toward chest, hips toward heels.
So these movements, you'll move any amount in these directions
Just until you feel a nice stretch
And we'll come up, we're gonna walk the feet forward so we can sit down
And then onto the back again, hugging the knees into the chest
So these classes will build little by little.
So arms to a T, we'll drop the knees off to the left and look over the right shoulder
Your knees don't touch, it's fine. You can hold up with your hands or if you've got a block or a pillow or blanket, you can put that underneath
I mentioned props. I don't have any with me today but I will further on, but it's nice to have those handy: a blanket, a pillow, yoga blocks if you have them, a yoga strap or a belt or a tie. All of those are helpful.
And I'll talk more about them as we continue
Inhale through center. Exhale, knees to the right and look over the left shoulder
Long breaths. Again relax, relax your jaw, relax your shoulders, belly, hips, let it all relax
And then we'll come all the way back in a moment to center
We're gonna set up in a moment for savasana, so this is our final pose. So it's probably the most important
Extending the legs out, let your feet flop open, bring your arms away from your torso with your palms up.
Let your shoulder blades release toward the waist
If it bothers your low back, bend the knees and feet on the floor instead
And now close your eyes and relax. This is savasana.We try to be still and quiet for just a short period of time, where we can practice being present
As you're resting a little longer, I always like to end it with a quote.
Today's quote is from Stanislavski who said: "The longest, most exciting journey is the journey inwards."
So this is the yoga journey: it's the journey inwards and I'm so excited that you are on this journey with us
Let's start to stretch out the body. Take a bigger breath, reach out through the arms and the legs.
Bend the knees and roll off to one side, and then remember you're gonna slowly use your hand to press yourself up so your head comes up last. We wanna keep the neck and back safe.
And sit up crossing the shins. If that's not comfortable then sit in a way that is.
Bring your hands together in front of your chest. Let's bring the hands to the forehead to remind us to have clear and loving thoughts. And our hands to the heart to remind us to have clear and loving intentions. And our hands to the mouth to remind us to have clear and loving communication.
So we'll send out this wonderful energy to all beings everywhere. Namaste: the light in me recognizes and honors the light in you.
Thank you so much for joining, so bowing forward any amount.
Don't forget to subscribe to our channel and push like, tell your friends.
We also accept donations for our free yoga classes. There is a link below or you can also visit fightmasteryoga.com, there's a way to donate there and a mailing list to join
Have a wonderful, wonderful day. Bye-bye!