Yoga For Beginners at Home _ Pranayama For Beginners _ Yoga With Sahithi _ Socialpost Fitness

Hey guys , welcome .

My name is Flo and I'm honored to guide you through this practice today .

It might be your first yoga class today and you just wanted to try out this thing called yoga .

I was in the same boat several years ago and so was my wife and we are running this channel together where we're teaching yoga classes , movement based classes , also breathwork classes and meditation classes .

And we kind of want to give you also a glimpse and insights into our life with living yoga off the mat .

So we share some vlogs and some yoga lifestyle tips on this channel as well .

So I hope you stick around and you check out the other videos too in today's practice .

We will go through a very simple begin of flow .

So this class is perfect .

If this is your first time on the mat , I'm trying to do my best to give you a good experience about what yoga is .

Explain a little bit more about it and we will guide you through all of it , the movements , the breath , what's going on with the mind , perhaps some philosophy , we'll see what happens but know that there is just so much more to yoga than just doing movements and posts on the mat .

Most of us think that yoga is doing poses on the mat , which is partly true .

It is part of yoga , but it's really only a very small part .

It's an important part , but just a very small part , know that there is so much more out there that is part of the yoga system .

Think of it as the poses only as the tip of the iceberg and then the rest of it underneath that you can't really see is all the breath work .

The meditations .

There's so much about nutrition and lifestyle and diet and fasting and philosophy and there's just so much it's a complete lifestyle really and not just being on the mat doing , doing poses .

So I'll guide you through it all you need .

Today is your mat .

If you have one otherwise carpet is fine for your first class as well .

If you are practicing on wood floor , then you might feel your knees a little bit more .

But know that the more you are on the knees , the stronger they will get .

Even though it's uncomfortable in the beginning , even on the mat , it might be uncomfortable being on the knees , know that the knees will get stronger and it will feel better over time .

If you have blocks or books around , sometimes we need those .

If you need some more reach and you can't reach down to the ground and you want to use a book or something like that .

So put a couple of books next to you .

It's always good to have all the prompts ready .

Even though you might not be using them , it's good to have them just in case if you have some pillows also around and put them around you too .

Couch cushions are great as bolsters just get all the things , build everything up around you and around your mat and perhaps play some good music that you enjoy or check out my Spotify channel where I have also a ton of music specifically for classes like this .

Get ready , find your way into a seated position and let's start sitting nice and tall , comfortably .

So I sit in heroes post sitting on the heels for a lot of people that's maybe uncomfortable for the ankles for the knees .

So you can also sit cross legged .

You can also lift your hips up a little bit higher .

You can , uh , in this case , grab the bolster or grab whatever you want to sit on so that you can be comfortable .

We're going to be here for a couple of minutes to arrive , to feel the breath to set an intention .

So it's important that you are comfortable , place your hands wherever you want , you can place them in your lap or also on your thighs , maybe on the knees , sit nice and tall so that you have the head stacked right above the shoulders and the shoulders , right above the hip so that the gravity can go straight down .

It's a very efficient and also effortless position for the upper body to be in , close your eyes .

Some of us this might be uncomfortable .

So do your best to stay with eyes closed in the beginning .

But of course , if there's something that doesn't feel right that I suggest here and it just doesn't feel good for you , then modify it so that it feels good for you .

So in this case , it might be that you want to keep the eyes open .

Notice the body first , let's start to scan the body .

Feel what is touching the ground , what is having contact with the earth with your mat with your carpet or the floor ?

Feel the ankles , the feet , the knees , your shins , scan the body moving upwards .

Start to feel the thighs , the hips , lower back , your belly , your chest , your mid back , your upper back , your shoulders , relax them down the fingertips , the fingers , the hands your neck , sit tall , feel the crown of your head .

Notice the breath , the sensation of the breath , the air that's flowing in and out through the nose , it's happening automatically .

So usually we're not doing much to breathe .

But in a yoga practice or as part of yoga can do quite a bit of breath work and breath and breathing exercises that help us to breathe better .

And to calm the mind .

But for now , let's just notice often this is one of the most challenging parts of the practice is to sit down , be quiet , be still and just breathe .

It happens that the mind , the thoughts get really loud and there are lots of thoughts coming up of the future .

The past some planning thoughts , some stories that you're telling yourself that someone else is telling you or you start to analyze things .

And this is part of the reason why we practiced to quiet that voice down so that the thoughts are still there , they still come up .

But you're not so controlled by the thoughts .

Instead through this practice of yoga , you will learn what thoughts to follow what thoughts not to follow .

You gain a little bit more control over what's going on , how you respond to things that are happening within or from the outside .

So all the movements , all the poses are great , but it's really all about finding that peace and happiness within and it's all already there .

So we can all discover it .

It's not easy to sit down and breathe , but it's for sure possible for all of us .

That's why it's called yoga practice .

Take a moment to set your intention for this practice today .

It might be since it's your first class , just to have an open mind to try it out to do your best .

Just see how this yoga thing is .

It might be something else might be focusing more on the breath , especially if it's not your first time watching this video and you keep coming back to it .

You can set another intention each time , whatever it is , doesn't matter .

There's no right or wrong intention .

There's only the one that you set for yourself .

You add the meaning to all of this .

Keep the sensation of the body , the awareness , also the awareness of the breath , blink your eyes open .

If you want , we'll start , we'll start with a side bend , bring your right hand next to you on the ground , on your right side and your left arm is reaching up and over your head towards the right side .

You might keep that right arm that's , that's on the ground straight or bend it .

Pull the belly in and reach as far as you can so that you feel the left side body .

Now that you are in the position , you really want to bring all your awareness to the sensation of the body and then focus on the breath , nice and slow , deep breaths , in and out through the nose .

You're breathing into the part of the body where you feel this and you're breathing into the pulse by using the breath you fully arrive .

You are fully present in this shape that your body is in right now .

Remember it's all about the breath .

The poses are important and they are useful , of course , but they are secondary .

It's important what your breath is doing where your , where your focus , where your attention is while you are in the pulse .

When you're in her , release other side , left hand down to the ground , reach your right arm up and over your head .

The belly in , rotate your chest a little bit more to the right side up towards the ceiling .

Reads with your right hand to the left , feel the right side body and breathe nice and slow , deep breaths in and out through the nose , brings you back to center .

Now , interlace your hands behind the back , bring your hands over to your left hip .

Sit nice and tall , then relax the left ear down towards the left shoulder .

Looking for a sensation in the right side of the neck , sit tall , close your eyes if you want to breathe , send that breath into the right side part of your neck .

There's never a reason to hold still in any of these pauses .

So feel free to move around if you want to in any of the upcoming shapes that we are about to do .

And in this one , you can move the head forward and back , kind of like a quarter circle with your head .

This might feel really nice if you have some tightness or stiffness in the neck area or shoulders , it's also a great one to do at your desk or when you're after sitting a lot .

Very good .

Let's come back to center , switch sides , bring your hands over to the right hip , sit tall , release the right ear down towards the right shoulder .

Breathe .

Focus on that sensation in the left side , part of your neck and then you decide if you want to move the head forward and back or if you want to stay here , maybe give it a try to move the head forward and then you see it doesn't feel good , then you stop doing it .

It's really not about doing exactly what I do here .

It also might look very different in your body than it does in mind .

Especially if this is your first yoga class .

You know what I remember my first yoga class .

It was very different compared to how it is today , how it looks how it feels , what's going on in the body .

So don't use me as an as a guide on how it should look .

I'm just throwing out suggestions .

Let's come back to center .

Very good .

Let's find your way onto your back .

Keep the knees bent , bring the heels close to the hips , arms out to the sides .

Palms are facing downwards , press into the heels , lift your hips up for bridge .

In this one , you want to engage your glutes , that means flex your butt cheeks as much as possible to lift your hips up as high as you can .

Again , it doesn't matter how high you just lift them up as high as possible .

And then secondly , you want to keep a gap between the chin and the chest so that you keep the neck nice and safe .

So it helps often to tilt the head back a little so that you have more of a gap between the chin and the chest .

Three more deep breaths , nice and slow in and out through the nose .

Nasty brother , release the hips down , keep their feet as they are just bring the knees together .

Stay here for a moment .

Breathe very good .

Now , grab behind the , the legs behind the knee , start to walk forward and back .

We will all meet in a boat post which is the chains parallel to the ground point , the toes forward .

We're not here for too long just for a little bit to activate the core because a strong core , as well as strong glutes are so important to keep the lower back safe .

So if you're having any problems with your lower back , of course , have it looked at , but it really helps to , then once you are pain free to work on core and glutes , reach your arms forward , hold it there , just stay for five breaths .

That's it .

If that's too much for the hip flexor or for your back to set the heels down and stay there .

Try to keep the spine nice and long .

Last three breaths , nice and slow deep through the nose .

Now that we are in the feel the breath , focus on the breath .

Now , let's release , cross your ankles , roll over the knees .

We're coming into a table top position .

So you're coming into or onto all fours , make sure the shoulders are above the wrist , the hips are above the knees .

And for this one , stay on the toes , keep the arms straight .

Send the hips back with your arms straight .

You move forward , you kind of want to rock forward and back on this one and you have your hands uh almost as wide apart as the shoulders , maybe a tiny bit more , tiny , bit less but kind of roughly underneath the shoulders so that the gravity can go straight down in any other shape .

If you go further out or further in , you just use more muscle and it's less efficient of pose to be in a couple more times , walking forward and back .

We will warm up the wrists a little bit .

Although we are not so much on our hands today since it's your first class or you might be very new to yoga .

I want to give you this advice to always warm up the wrists in the beginning of your practice before you put any weight on the hands .

Let's come forward and move in a circle .

Keep the arms straight , stay on the toes .

So you're also stretching out the feet and the toes because a lot of times people in class and instructors also don't really warm up the risk , which I think is a very dangerous thing .

I think one of the main injuries in yoga is usually with the , with the wrists .

And so by warming them up , you do a lot for your safety and also you do a lot for your wrist , health , switch directions for risk , mobility flexibility .

And if you imagine that most of us sit a lot or work at the desk , then in the evening you might go to yoga studio or at home and do these videos .

And if you don't warm up the , you know , you were just at the desk all day doing this position , then you want to come into a plank or downward dog and put so much weight on the hands .

It really not , not smart to do them .

So you want to warm up the wrists first , get them ready for the practice .

Very good .

Now , last one for the wrists just so that you have a couple of options what to do for the hands , the fingertips are pointing towards the knees , keep the arms straight , stay on the toes , send the hips back , the palms lift up and it might be if the palms were you still on the ground ?

That's great .

You just lean back as long as you feel this in the forearms and also in the fingers , it's all good .

It's all about the sensation .

Focus on the breath .

I have a video on this channel specifically for wrist warm up .

So if you experience any wrist problems , I have a video only for that with like 10 or so wrist exercises to hopefully help you get rid of any wrist pain and to increase the wrist flexibility .

Very good .

Sit on the heels , shake out the hands .

Let's stretch the toes out a little more .

Just two more breaths .

I know it might be uncomfortable to sit on the toes again .

It will get easier over time , hands down back to table top .

Very good .

So not at the wrist of warmed up , you can put some more weight on the hands in that table top , untuck .

The toes see on the top of your feet extend the right leg back and the left arm forward .

This one is called spine , balancing .

Press into your right palm , really push that ground away .

So notice how now the shoulders just zag down .

I kind of let the chest lower down .

You want to avoid that .

You want to push up , push away .

Of course , it's challenging , but we're working on building strength .

Pull the belly in , reach your left arm forward and up and the right leg back and up .

Very good .

Feel the right glue the right butt cheek , press into your right palm .

Let's do three of those to bring the right knee to the left elbow , curl into a ball around your back , extend the left arm and the right leg back .

Very good .

Just two more .

Keep breathing extended back .

Last one very good set , the left hand down the right knee down with your inhale , arch your back .

Look forward when you exhale around your back , push the ground away cat posts .

When you inhale cow post , arch your back , look forward .

X at the round one more in her arts around .

Let's come back to neutral .

Extend your left leg back and the right arm forward .

Very good present to your left palm .

Really push that ground away , pull the belly and reach your right arm up the left leg , up and back , breathe lower the left hip , more down .

Focus on that breath , feel the post .

So we're building strength and awareness .

That's the reason why we practice yoga .

Everything else comes from their flexibility comes as a side product , being more mindful , more present comes from that awareness .

Practice that we do right now by focusing on the breath while we are in the shape , especially if it gets challenging .

We learn so much from this .

Now , three of those as before , right elbow , left knee , tap around your back , extended out , tapping around , extend last one .

You're doing great .

Very good back to table top , both hands down , both um knees down .

Now we're coming into a downward facing dog .

Our first downward facing dog , maybe the first downward facing dog in your life .

That's amazing that I can guide you through your first downward dog .

It's a such a great moment .

Now come onto the toes , keep the knees bend and then you lift the knees up , you move the hips up and back , keep the knees bend .

So the chest is moving towards the thighs .

So I want you to be in this downward facing dark shape .

It doesn't matter what you have seen anywhere in any yoga magazines on Instagram , anywhere else on youtube .

If you're new to yoga , then this is the shape you want to do .

You want to open the shoulders up , having this really nice long line from the wrist , all the way up to the hips , pull the belly in .

Now keep that length in your back in your arms , open your shoulders , move the chest towards the thighs .

And then if you want , you can straighten your legs a little bit more so that you feel it in the back side of your legs , but you want to keep the chest moving towards the thighs .

So maybe this is your down dog , maybe with the legs a little bit more straight , maybe if you're already a seasoned practitioner and you just wanted to check out this video .