15 Minute Yoga For Beginners 30 Day Challenge Day 4 With Fightmaster Yoga Video Lecture | 30 Day Yoga Challenge: For Beginners - Personal Skills

Hello, it's Lesley Fightmaster
Welcome to day 4 of our 30 days of yoga
It is still a little bit chilly
So I've got my big puffy vest on
So we're gonna start on our backs today. So getting comfortable
I have two yoga blocks today and I encourage you to get yoga blocks if you don't have any
I'll try to leave a link below about where you can find some
So beginning, we'll extend the legs out in just kind of a nice savasana style pose
And just rechecking with our breath
So hands on ribs or belly, feeling the breath expand on the inahle
Contract on the exhale
So just check your belly, your ribs, you can check all the way up into the chest.
Make sure that your breath is going all the way up there
Nice full breaths with that slight constriction in the back of the throat
Then we'll hug the knees in
Gently rocking side to side which gives our low back a little massage
And now right into a new pose: happy baby
So take the pinky toe sides of the feet, the knees are bent, so drawing the knees into the armpits
If you can't reach your feet, hold on somewhere on your shins
Now lengthen the tailbone toward the floor, so we're gonna lengthen the spine
It's a nice little hip opening
Take another breath here, let your shoulder blades relax
And then hug the knees in, feet to the floor
So we're gonna roll off to the right side and with your left hand press up to sited
And then onto our hands and knees: wrists under shoulders, knees under hips
Let's warm up with some cat and cow
Inhale, bring the chest forward, lift the chin and tailbone up
Exhale, round the back, chin toward chest, pulling the ribs and the belly
Inhale, chest comes forward, widen across the collarbones
Exhale, rounding the back
There is a lot of repetition in our postures because that's the way our bodies learn
Inhale, chest forward, chin and tail up
Exhale and round
Our bodies have muscle memory so the more we practice these postures, the easier they become, our bodies are like "Oh yeah, I know that one, I'm used to it"
Inhale, chest forward, widen across the collarbones
Exhale, and round the back
Then, hips toward heels: child's pose
Remember, your hips might not go all the way back to the heels, so back as far as you comfortably can
And then extend the arms forward, we want straight arms
We're gonna walk the hands to the right and shift the hips over to the left
And stretching the left side body
So it's nice to move the spine in this direction as well
Inhale, center
Exhale, walk the hands to the left, shifting the hips gently to the right
Stretching through the right side body
And then back to center
Arms extended in front
So we're gonna come up onto the knees
Today, turn your inner elbows toward the front of the mat
So they move, they can move further back
Turn them toward the front
Press a little extra weight in the thumb and first finger side of the hand
And then, start to move into down dog
So as if you can continue to turn your inner elbows toward the front of the mat, you can't, but that's the action
Now start to bicycle the legs
So the action is the outer upper arms, the triceps, spin back; the inner upper arm, the biceps, spin forward
Start to bend one knee and the other
Remember, we want length in the spine
And then we'll take the knees down and rest
You can rest your head on your mat or on your hands if you like
Take a long breath here
And then again, spread the fingers, we're gonna turn the inner elbows again toward the front
Tuck the toes under, keeping that action as if you could continue to turn them to the front, make your way into down dog
And then, start the straighten the legs any amount
So we're gonna pull the belly in, stretching the weight here up to the hips, reaching it down toward the heels
If you can straighten your legs, make sure to firm you quadriceps muscles, pull up on the knee caps, spin your inner thighs back
Breathing here, always always checking in with the breath
Fingers are spread wide
And then back to the knees to rest
So in down dog, our arms are shoulders distance apart and our feet are hips width
Unless we're doing some other variation, but mostly that's the foundation of the pose
Let's take another breath here resting
And then once again, reach the arms forward, spread the fingers wide
Now remember: little extra weight into the thumb and first finger side of the hand
Turn the inner elbows forward, up onto the knees, downward facing dog, tuck the toes, lift up and back
So the inner thighs are spinning back, as if you're holding a block between your inner thighs
Which I think we will do today
Continue breathing
Gaze between your knees, you always wanna have a nice steady point to look at, so that your eyes aren't darting all around
Just a nice steady gazing point
And then look up, bend the knees, walk your feet up to the hands
And then inhale, come halfway up, hands to shins or above the knees or fingertips on the floor
Exhale, fold, hands may or may not touch, bend the knees as needed
Inhale, press through the feet, sweep the arms out, around and up, now triceps will spin forward
And exhale, samastitihi
Samastitihi means steady balance
Speaking of, let's find our tadasana pose: feet are together or hips width, make sure the outer edges of the feet are parallel, so the toes are pointing just a tiny bit toward each other
And then, firm the legs, spin the inner thighs back, tailbone lengthens down, belly pulls up, widen the collarbones, shoulder blades draw down toward the waist
Inhale, sweep the arms out, around and up, being careful that the rib cage isn't popping out
Exhale, arms back down
We'll do that a couple of times, a quarter sun salute
Inhale, sweep the arms out, around and up. Look up if it's ok on your neck
But make sure you're not arching your back!
And you can have your arms go more forward if the back arches or arms out wider
Exhale, bring the arms down
So as you inhale, sweep the arms up, the palms face up
And when you come to the top, make sure your shoulders relax a little, they're not bunched up around the ears
Exhale, the palms face down as the arms come down
And once again, inhale, reach up: utthita hasta in tadasana
Make sure you're not arching
Exhale, hinge from your hips. Uttanasana: forward folding
So extend through the spine, keep the lenght, bend the knees as much as you need to
Just keep the length in the spine, it's better than rounding your back a whole bunch
Inhale, halfway up, hands to shins or thighs
And then exhale, fold
If your hands aren't touching the floor, you can rest them on your legs
Hands to hips with a long spine, come on up
Then sweep the arms up again
And then exhale, bring the hands to the heart. Samastitihi
Inhale, sweep the arms out, around and up, look up
Exhale, hinge from the hips to come back
So hip creases is where you're moving from
Hands come down to the legs or the floor
Inhale, come halfway up, hands to shins or above the thighs... above the knees, onto the thighs
And exhale, fold, keeping the spine as long as you can
Inhale, hands to hips, little bend in the knee, come up with a long spine
And then sweep the arms out, around and up for urdhva hastasana
And exhale, samastitihi
That's half sun salute
Or half surya namaskar
Now turn to the long side of your mat and then turn your right leg all the way out and your back toes in a little
Line up your front heel with your back arch and take your arms out to a T
Your wrists should be out right above your ankles
And then bend the knee over the ankle. Make sure the knee and ankle line up in your right leg. It's super important to keep the knees straight
Then inhale, straighten the front leg, stretch up, look up
Then exhale, bend in. This is called warrior 2
The front hip is dropping down, you'll gaze over the front fingertips, the knee is opening a little toward the pinky toe side of the foot so it lines up with the middle toes
Inhale, straighten the leg, reaching up
And exhale again into warrior 2, virabhadrasana 2
You're gonna take your right hand to the inner thigh, brush it to the inner knee, making sure the knee is right over the middle toes
Then brush it behind, take it to the top of your hip and lengthen that hip down
Take your left hand to the inner back thigh and lift that up
Press weight into the front heel and through the outer edge of the back foot
Arms are in line with each other, lift the chest
Inhale, straighten the leg, take your feet to parallel and now left leg all the way out, back toes in.
Make sure you're lined up front heel with back arch
Take the arms up, inhale
Bend the left knee as you exhale: warrior 2
Make sure the knee doesn't drift in, we want it moving open
Knee over the ankle: super important. So take some time to make sure, look at your body, make sure
Inhale, straighten the leg, reach up
Exhale, bend the knee over the ankle
Make sure it's in line with your middle toes
Inhale, and we'll straighten that front leg, reaching the arms up
Exhale, bend the knee, warrior 2
With your left hand brush it from the inner thigh through the inner knee, making sure the knee is over the middle toes
Then take it to the top of your left hip, drop that hip down toward the floor
Take your right hand to the inner back thigh and lift it up
And then gaze over the fingertips
Press through the outer edge of the back foot and through the front heel. Breathing
Eventually the front thigh will become parallel with the floor, that's where we're moving, but there's no hurry
Take your feet to parallel and then step your feet back together and come back to the front of your mat, back into tadasana pose
Inhale, and sweep your arms up
Exhale, fold forward with a long spine, hinging at the hips
On the inhale, halfway up, hands to shins or above the legs or fingertips to floor
Bend the knees and we're gonna step all the way back into downward facing dog. Arms shoulders distance, feet hips width
Spread the fingers, press into the base of the fingers, lift up through your forearms
See if you can turn the outer upper arms back
And then, down to the knees
And move off to one side so you can lie onto your back again, so roll all the way down
Draw the knees into the chest and gently rock
Then take the arms out to the sides, drop your knees off to the left, look over your right shoulder, and twist
Long breaths here
Inhale, knees to center
And exhale, take them over to the right and look over your left shoulder
Now remember: if it bothers your neck to look to the opposite side, then you don't have to, you can look straight up instead
And then let's come on back to center
We'll make our way into our final resting pose: savasana
Remember: it's important to take a little time for this posture, so relax. Feet flop open, arms by your sides, palms up. Feel free to bend the knees if you have any discomfort in your lower back
And then just rest
As you're resting, just a little more about yoga, this is from the yoga sutras, it's an ancient text talking all about yoga
And the quote is: "The restraint of the modifications of the mind-stuff is yoga"
So basically what it's saying is when we practice yoga all the fluctuations of the mind, all the jumping from thought to thought, it just relaxes and calms down
So I hope you're experiencing a little of that
We'll start to stretch out as we come back to the breath once again
Bend the knees, roll off to your right side, pausing here for gratitude for all of our blessings
Always, always a great idea to remember to be grateful
And then come on up
And I'm sounding like one of those tree huggers, aren't I?
So come up, sit nice and tall, bring the hands together in front of the heart
Hands to forehead reminding us to have clear and loving thoughts
Hands to heart to reminding us to have clear and loving intentions
Hands to the mouth to remind us to have clear and loving communications
Sending out wonderful energy to all being everywhere. Namaste
Bowing forward any amount
Thank you so much for joining today, I look forward to seeing you tomorrow
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