20 min Beginner Flow for Strength & Flexibility

Hey guys , welcome to my channel .

My name is Cassandra and today we are doing a quick sequence for beginners who are looking to improve their strength and flexibility .

So without further ado , let's just get right into it .

There are no props required for this practice .

We're just going to start in a child's pose .

So child's pose being one of my all time favorite as to increase flexibility through the hips and inner groin , you're just bringing your big toes together , knees as wide apart as you would like .

And as you press your hips towards your heels , you can walk your hands out in front of you and fold on down .

So the wider you have your knees , the more intense this was this will feel through the inner groin and inner thighs .

If it feels uncomfortable or even painful , just bring your knees closer and towards each other .

Take some slow steady breaths , relaxing the hips , the belly , the chest and let's walk our hands in lifting the chest back up .

Please make your way into tabletop poses on hands and knees .

So you want your palms to align underneath your shoulders , your knees to align underneath the hips and spread your fingertips wide .

So the middle and index fingers are pointing to the top of the map and really push down into the fingertips and knuckles , cat and cow to warm up the spine .

So as you inhale , drop the belly , lift the gaze and squeeze your shoulder blades behind you on the exhale , round your spine , drop your tailbone down chin to chest and keep going like this at your own pace .

Following the rhythm of your breath , inhaling to lift up and exhaling to round and contract twice more .

Here , Ian Hill and exhale last one , fully engaging , stretching through the belly , exhale , contract , widening the shoulder blades and now come to a neutral tabletop pose .

So draw your lower belly in and try to flatten out the spine , push into the tops of your feet and see if you can lift and hover your knees just an inch or so off the mat .

You're pretty much immediately going to feel your core and abdominals engage hug in through the midline .

Notice if you're rounding through your spine , keep it flat for 321 and lower .

So doing that a few times and regularly will help to increase your core strength so that you can eventually make your way into plank poses and other kinds of um abdominal intensive as saunas .

Let's our right foot forward to the top of the mat , coming into a low lunch , right knee directly over the top of the ankle and you can tuck your toes under here in the low lunch , through that back leg , pressing the hips forward and down , lifting up through the heart and staying up onto the fingertips with your back toes curled under , lift your back , knee off the mat .

So you want your feet to be hip with distance apart here and start to push into the feet and really engage through the legs , come up onto your fingertips .

And as you engage the legs even more , see if you can lift up into your high lung , reaching the arms up overhead .

So high lunge , the ribs are drawing down and in lower belly is engaging , tailbone is lengthening down , keep your gaze steady , dropping the hips down .

This is a wonderful pose to strengthen the lower body .

But it also provides an amazing stretch into the hip flexor , bring your hands together at the front of your heart and now step forward to the top of the mat into your mountain pose .

So feet are about hip with distance apart or so .

And now leaning on to your right leg , lift your left knee up , engaging hip flexor strength , flex your foot and you can hold here or you can challenge yourself further by straightening and extending your left leg .

So this requires quite a bit of core strength , quite a bit of strength in the hip flexor , try to lift it up a little bit higher and exhale , release back to your mountain pose .

Let's take a little flow from here .

Inhale , reach the arms wide palms together to touch .

Exhale , fold down , bend your knees , relax your neck , relax your head , bring your fingertips to your shins .

Inhale , lift and look up flat back , exhale , fold , plant your palms shoulder with distance apart and step back to your downward facing dog .

So downward , dog fingertips are spreading wide , feet are about hip with distance apart .

Whereas your shoulders are about or your palms are about shoulder with distance apart .

Really doesn't matter whether or not your legs are straight here .

So you can absolutely bend your knees generously and focus on curling your tailbone up to the sky and pushing your chest to your thighs .

Take one big breath here and then set your knees back down to the floor , realign your palms underneath your shoulders and table top poses to firm up the core .

And we're gonna try that knee and shin lift for a few breaths once more here , push down into the fingertips and knuckles point your toes back , press into the tops of the feet and see if you can lift the shins up , draw your shoulder blades down your back , keep the crown of your head extending forward instead of pushing your stomach out .

Think of drawing it in and up , hug in through the midline .

Stay here for 32 , one , bring your knees back down and let's step the left foot forward to the top of the mat , aligning the left knee over the top of your ankle , lifting up through your chest and you can have your back toes curled under here .

We're gonna come from this low lunge eventually making our way to the high lunch .

So building up that essential strength for transitions .

See if you can start floating and lifting the back knee off the map .

Do you want your feet hip with distance apart and bring less weight and pressure into the arms more so into the legs coming up onto the tips of your fingers until you can lift up into your crescent lunge .

Circling the arms wide palms facing in towards one another .

Dropping and letting that pelvis be heavy , keep your gaze steady on something that is not moving to hold and help with balance .

Palms come together at the front of the heart and we're gonna step up into our mountain pose .

So step your right foot next to the left leaning this time over onto your left leg and left foot , bring your right knee into your chest .

So working on balance , push down into all four corners of your left foot and maybe extend and straighten your right leg as if you're pushing and kicking into the heel , squeeze and lift it up a little bit higher and release right foot comes back down .

Let's take a little flow from here .

Inhale , circle the arms wide , exhale fall down , bend your knees , relax your upper body , fingertips to your shins , lift and lengthen up and plant your palms , step the feet back downward , facing dog lengthening out your arms .

You can absolutely bend your knees here or just here for a breath or so .

And now from this downward dog , you're gonna step your feet up to the top of the map , feet are wider than your hips .

Bend your knees a lot and hold onto the elbows for your rag doll fold and you can sway a little here side to side .

So this is not as much about your hamstrings .

It's more about decompressing your spine , folding over the legs , letting go of any tension in the neck or shoulders .

You can bring your fingertips down to the ground , bend your knees generously and slowly roll all the way up .

The stand , pushing into the heels , head and shoulders are the last to make their way up and now step the feet wide onto your matt , turn your heels in and your toes out at about a 45 degree angle .

So the toes are most likely pointing to the top corners of your map .

As you inhale , circle your arms wide , bring your palms together to touch .

And as you exhale , bend your knees , draw your hands to the center of the heart .

So in this temple pose , you're squeezing your glutes to push the knees open a little bit wider .

Inhale , straighten the legs circle the arms up , exhale , dried and sink a little lower .

One more like this .

Inhale , circle up wide , exhale , bend the knees hands at the heart .

Stay low .

You're gonna interlace your fingers , flip the palms and reach the arms up .

So this is your full temple pose or in some traditions they call it goddess pose .

Squeeze and press the knees open a little wider and push the leg straight .

Release the arms , bring your hands on your hips , turn your feet so your feet are parallel to the shorter edges of your map .

As you inhale , lift and lengthen up and only exhale , tilts your pelvis forward as you fall down and you can let your hands come down to the floor here and I like to just shake the head a few times , getting rid of any tension here and we're not locking the knees just keeping a tiny little micro bend .

Notice if your weight is rocking all the way back to your heels or maybe all the way forward into the balls of the feet , keep it evenly distributed between both and bring your hands out in front of you , lifting the chin and chest up and you can just toe heel your feet in together , bend your knees into a little squat and just lower your way down to take a seat .

So from here , extend your right leg out in front of you and bring your left foot to the inside of your right thigh , sitting up , nice and tall as you inhale , reach your arms up , lengthen your spine , exhale , fold over the right leg .

So I'm not rounding too much here .

I'm trying to keep a nice flat back so you probably won't be going that far down , which is perfectly fine .

You can hold on to whatever is accessible and appropriate for you here .

I think of pulling the heart forward .

You're getting a nice stretch into the hamstrings and lifting the chest back up .

Lift your left knee back up and you're gonna cross your left foot over the top of your right thigh , hug your left thigh with your right arm , bring your left fingertips behind you and open up into a twist .

So looking over to the left , we want to avoid rounding forward and slouching here .

Try to sit up nice and tall and exhale release .

Let's switch sides , left leg forward , bring your right foot to the inside of that left thigh and how arms rise and then exhale , moving into a fold and really , it's called the fold , but we're just tilting a little bit to maintain a flat back .

You really don't need to go too far in this kind of pose to be able to feel a good amount of sensation into the back of the leg .

To me , it's one of those poses where less is more lifting back up , bring your right knee in cross your right foot over the top of your left thigh , hug your right leg with your left arm , bring your right fingertips behind you , twist open , still pushing down into your big right toe , lengthening your spine a little bit more .

Exhale to release , uncross the legs and lower all the way down to your back .

So just pulling the knees into the belly , give it a big squeeze here , maybe rocking a little side to side , massaging your lower back and then coming to Shiva , you can extend your legs out in front of you , take up some space , turn your palms to face up to the sky .

So , Shawana or corpse pose is how we close every yoga practice .

I like to think of it as digesting after a big meal .

This is your body's opportunity to really integrate the work that you've done .

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So you can move a little through fingers and toes or turn the head side to side .

You can reach your arms up overhead , taking a great big stretch .

Um We'll roll over to one side .

Come on up .

Let's take your seats sitting up nice and tall , close your eyes , bring your hands together at the front of the heart .

Really take a moment to thank yourself for making the time to practice yoga at home .

I know it's not always easy to carve that time out .

We'll take a cleansing breath in , through the nose out the mouth , big breath in , bowing forward and I must stay .

Thank you so much .

Yogi is for doing this quick sequence with me .

I hope you enjoyed it .

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I put out new classes every single week .

Thank you so much and I look forward to practicing again with you soon .