16 Minute Yoga For Beginners 30 Day Challenge Day 2 With Fightmaster Yoga Video Lecture | 30 Day Yoga Challenge: For Beginners - Personal Skills

Hello, it's Lesley Fightmaster
and welcome to day 2 of your 30 days of yoga for beginners
We're gonna start again on our backs
So just to review the breath
Remember our breathing is called ujjayi
Ujjayi pranayama: prana means life force and ayama means to extend
And it's in and out through the nose
With your hands resting on your belly just take a couple of long, smooth breaths
If you remember how to constrict to the back of the throat, do that
If not, remember it's like fogging a mirror
But then closing the mouth and doing that little sound in the back of the throat
And this will help to warm up the body from the inside
Plus it keeps our attention a little bit
So for keeping our attention on the breath and the posture then our minds aren't wondering all over the place like a lot of times they do
So yoga is a wonderful way to quiet the mind
Relax the shoulders and the jaw
Any tension in the neck
And then we'll draw the right knee into the chest and circle the right ankle in one direction
Left knee can stay bent or extended out
Circle in the other direction with the right foot
And then we'll extend the leg up again as we did yesterday
Feel free to keep the knee bent if you need
Just working towards straightening the knee
And you'll notice I'm holding way up above my knee, or I'm sorry, yeah, above my knee
You can hold up higher and your leg doesn't have to draw toward your head so much
Mine just does because I've been practicing a while, but when I first started it wasn't anywhere near there
So just know, as long as you feel a stretch, that's as deep as you need to go
Now draw the right knee in and then take it across to the left side for a little twist
Now your leg might go all the way to the floor over, or it might just go a little bit over, whatever works for you
Turn to look over your right shoulder unless it bothers your neck
Breathing
Try to keep your inhales and exhales equal in length as you move through your poses
Inhale, center
Let's draw the left knee into the chest, right knee stays bent or you can straighten it out
Circle the left ankle in one direction
And then reverse it
And then we'll extend the left leg up toward the ceiling
And again, holding on anywhere along that leg and bend the knee as needed
You can also, yeah, just hold on if you've got shorts on or pants, you can hold onto your pant leg or short leg... shorts leg
And let the leg come a little more forward toward the right foot. So it doesn't have to be straight up and down
Relax the shoulders, make sure you're not creating any tension around your neck again, jaw, face
So we always wanna check in with that
And the breathing
Bending the left knee take it off to right side for your twist
So it might just go a little bit, it might go all the way across
Again, it doesn't matter
Look over your left shoulder
And try to turn your belly a little bit up toward the ceiling if possible
Continuing the long, steady breath
Then we'll come on back to center
Extend the legs and point the toes up to the ceiling
So a reminder here of the natural curves, we got that little curve in the lower back but we don't want it to get too curvy
So we got a curve under the neck, those are natural
The upper back touches the floor
We wanna maintain those natural curves
Because it keeps the spine as safe as we can
Tailbone is reaching toward the backs of knees
And the legs are firm as we pull the toes back
And then inhale, reach the arms up and over
So remember, low back can overarch here, the ribcage can pop up, so watch that
And then exhale, sweep the arms out, around and down
And then again inhale, arms up.They might not come all the way up by the ears, so just notice
They might be a little bit further away
Palms face out, exhale, sweep the arms out, around and back to the sides
Inhale again, sweep the arms up in line with the ears as much as you can comfortably by keeping the ribs in and the lower belly lengthening
Lower spine lengthening
Exhale, sweep around, lower belly is pulled in of course
Inhale, reach the arms up, ribs in, tailbone lengthens
Exhale, circle the arms down
And then we'll draw the knees into to chest, so just draw yourself into a little ball and rock side to side, apanasana
And then roll off to your right side, with your left hand press yourself up with your head coming up very last
And then we'll come back onto the hands and knees today
Again pad up the knees if you have sensitive knees
We don't want any pain in the knees ever
So inhale, cat and cow, bring the chest forward, lift the chin, lift the tailbone
Exhale, press away from the floor firmly and round the back, chin toward chest
Inhale, stretch the front of the body, bring the collarbones forward and widen them
Exhale, press away from the floor, pull the ribs and belly in strongly, tucking the tailbone
And again, inhale to come forward, so we're linking our breath and movement
Exhale to tuck and round, breathing through the nose if possible
Inhale, chest comes forward, belly drops
Exhale, belly lifts, chest collapses a bit
Now from here, we're gonna take one leg back, toes tucked under, the right leg back
And lift that right leg up.
Now, your low back will really wanna arch here, your right hip will probably wanna lift up, so instead pull the belly and ribs strongly, and drop the outer right hip down as you pin the left hip in towards center
And now set it down
And now we'll extend the left leg back, toes are tucked under
Pull the belly and ribs in here
Now lift that leg just straight up from the inner thigh
Don't let your low back arch, don't let the hip open up, so drop the outer left hip down, lift the inner left thigh up
Keep extending the crown of the head forward and through the heels, straightening out the leg as much as you can
And then we'll set that down
Right leg back again, tucking the toes under, lift it straight up so the toes point right to the floor
Drop the outer right hip down, pull the ribs and belly in firmly, press away from the floor with your arms
And release it
And left leg. Tuck the toes and just lift that leg from the inner thigh, keep your hips leveled
Press away from the floor, keep your torso leveled as well, so pulling the ribs in, pulling the belly in
And then, set that down
We'll come to child's pose
So remember, child's pose: we take the hip back towards the heels, they might not make it there
So take it back as much as you can
Head can rest on the floor or you can rest your head on your hands
Or a yoga block if you have one, or a pillow, or a blanket
Now, wherever you are, if you're up higher or your head's on the floor, doesn't matter, but I want you to extend your arms as straight as you can
Then come up onto your knees, bring your chest forward into a cow pose
And then exhale, round back into child's pose
Keep the arms straight
Inhale, bring the chest through. So now your wrists are a little in front of your shoulders
Exhale, stretch back, so we'll lengthen the spine as much as possible as those arms are straight
Spread the fingers, arms are shoulder's distance apart
Inhale, bring the chest through, lifting chin and tailbone
Exhale, and take the hips all the way back to the heels. Keep the arms extended in front, fingers spread, we wanna press into the base of the fingers
Keep the arms straight and the hands right where they are, fingers spread, as if your hands are glued to the mat
Then come back up onto the knees, bringing the chest through
This time tuck the toes under and lift the knees off the floor, but keep the knees bent
So we're gonna try to keep the spine as long as possible
So we bend the knees
And then we'll take the knees down and come to child's pose
That was called downward facing dog or adho mukha svanasana
So arms are shoulders distance apart
Inhale again, onto the knees, bring the chest through
Exhale, and tuck the toes, start to lift the knees off the floor. Keep your hips up nice and high. Arms and ears in line
Now reach your right heel towards the floor any amount, but keep the length in the spine
Bend both knees and then left heel reaches
Inhale, knees bent. Exhale, right heel, oh, I'm sorry, exhale knees come down back into child's pose
Child's pose in balasana. Balasana is the name
I like the Sanskrit names, some people don't, but I like the history of it
So anyway, it just makes it feel, I don't know, authentic I suppose
Ok, up onto the knees, tuck the toes and lift back into down dog. If you can straighten the knees, straighten them. If not, keep the knees bent.
I'd rather see a long spine and bent knees than straight legs and kinda more forward without the lenght in the spine
Ok, so keeping arms and ears in line, pull the belly in and stretch back
Press into the base of the fingers as your forearms lift away from the mat
And then take the knees down, child's pose to rest
This time bend your elbows and rest comfortably, head on hands or head on mat
And breathe, check in with your nice long steady breathing
And then again arms in front, shoulders distance apart, come back up onto the knees, tuck the toes, downward dog
The feet are hips width apart
Reach the heels toward the floor, the weight is pressing up to the hips
Now, we wanna try keep the spine long so you can bend the knees to stretch back and then straighten them as much as you can
Inner thighs are spinning back
Keep pressing back, back, back. Weight up to the hips and then reach it down toward the heels
If your legs are straight make sure to firm the quadriceps muscles
Then come back onto the knees and rest
Back to child's pose, our resting pose, which by the way you can push pause on these videos and take that at any time
It's one of the beauties of practicing at home
So back onto sitting and lying onto our backs
We're gonna take the right ankle just past the left knee, flex the right ankle and draw the legs in toward the chest
You can hold on behind the thigh, or hold the shin, or maybe your left foot will stay on the floor
But what you might be feeling here is a little stretch on the right hip
So we wanna make sure that we keep the right ankle flexed to help keep the right knee safe
If you have any discomfort on the knee, then don't go in so deeply
Remember your breathing
I remind you because I know I always forget
And then we'll release
Left ankle just past the right knee, flex that left ankle
So you can stay with the right foot down, or hold on behind the thigh or reach for the shin
A little stretch in the left hip
Keeping nice steady breath here as well, relax any tension you might find again in your jaw, shoulders, neck, hips, belly
Check all through the body. Always wanna check, be aware and release.
With every exhale you can let it go
And then slowly we'll release that
And we're gonna rest here. So we're gonna make our way to savasana, you can keep your knees bent or extend the legs. Remember savasana, most important: we wanna relax
So, if you're more comfortable with knees bent, keep them bent. If not, extend the legs, feet flop open, arms by your sides, palms up. Close your eyes and rest
As you're resting today our quote from Amit Ray: "Yoga is not just repetition of a few postures, it is more about the exploration and discovery of the subtle energies of life."
Start to make movements in your hands and your feet.
Stretch out through your arms and your legs
And then bend the knees, taking the feet onto the floor, roll yourself off to usually the right side
And then with your left hand press up, head comes up last
And come into a sited position, so cross the shins if that's comfortable or another one
Bring the hands together. This is called Anjali mudra
Hands to forehead reminding us to have clear and loving thoughts
Hands to the heart to reminds to have clear and loving intentions
And our hands to the mouth to remind us to have clear and loving communications
Sending out wonderful energy to all beings everywhere, namaste
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Bye-bye!