30 Min Hatha Yoga for Beginners - Gentle Beginners Yoga Class - Yoga Basics

Hi , I'm Christina and welcome to my channel , Criss a yoga in today's video .

We will be doing a ha a yoga class for beginners for this class .

We'll be explaining things very thoroughly .

We'll be moving at a slower pace and you will need a yoga strap for the beginning part of the class .

Substitutions for the strap are listed in the description box below before we get started .

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So if you're ready , grab your mat and let's get started .

So we're going to begin in Shabaa to lay down on the ground , close your eyes for a moment , place your palms on the floor , so flat on the floor and begin to breathe deeply .

Take a deep breath in through your nose and expand your whole rib cage out .

Then on your exhale , feel your ribs coming back in towards your body .

Do that one more time .

Take a deep breath in through your nose , expand your rib cage and your abdomen coming out and then on your exhale , feel it all coming back in and slowly come to open your eyes .

Must say , welcome everyone .

My name is Cassandra and I'm going to be taking you through an hour long beginner yoga class .

So this is a Viasa styled practice which will focus on strength , flexibility and balance .

So even though it's a beginner class , there are going to be some challenges in this practice , but we are going to make them as accessible as possible .

You don't need any props and we are going to begin .

So in any way that is comfortable for your hips and lower back , try to find a nice amount of length through your spine and see if you can lift your shoulders up and roll them all the way back down .

So sliding your shoulder blades down your back , beginning first with this basic posture , you want to feel your lower abdominals hug in and slightly lift up rib cage , tucking down and then lifting the crown of your head up towards the sky and we'll just begin by stretching out through our neck .

Keep your left hand on your right leg and reach your right arm out , looking over your right hand and hold here for a moment .

Slowly .

Bring the leg back to center .

Here's where you're going to need your strap trying to reach mine .

So you can just drop one ear towards the shoulder .

So I have my left ear dropping towards my left shoulder , keeping the chin roughly parallel to the ground .

See if you can push and press your right shoulder down a little bit more .

So just stretching into the side of your neck , you can close your eyes here , taking a few deep breaths , breathing in and out through your nose .

Try to really relax your jaw and you might reach and crawl out with your right fingertips to intensify the sensation and the pose .

Slowly release your foot from the strap , set the strap off to the side , keep it nearby because we're going to be using it for the other side .

So set the right leg down onto the floor and then hug the left leg in towards your upper body , flexing both feet .

So your feet are active as you gently hug your leg in towards your shoulders , holding onto the shin or the hamstring , whichever you can do at this point and just breathe into your hips and feel the hip socket softening just a bit as you stretch .

All of us tend to have a side of our body that is more flexible , that is stronger , that is easier to balance and it just totally normal .

But over time , we'll try to find a little bit more balance and you can crawl your left fingertips out to the side just intensifying for a few more breaths here .

Try not to clench your teeth , slow steady breaths and start to tuck your chin down towards the shoulder and then roll .

So chin is down towards your chest .

Take a breath here and lift all the way up .

Let's reach our arms all the way up towards the sky , bring your hands or just the fingertips even together to touch .

And as you exhale , press the arms down two more like this .

Inhale .

And this is where you're going to need your strap again , place the strap on the ball of your foot and then straighten your leg up any amount that you can today and stretch the hamstring here .

So following rhythm with breath , exhale to release , inhale , to lift up into a twist , you're gonna bring your left hand to your right knee , right hand behind you again , eliminate any slouching from your spine , think of lifting up a little taller .

So your hips are still facing forward .

You're really just trying to rotate through your spine , pulling that right shoulder back and now keep your left hand on your knee , but face forward once more and you're gonna reach your right arm all the way up and lean it over .

So grabbing a hold of your knee should help you feel a deeper sensation through the right side of your waist and try to relax your neck and your head here .

No tension and coming all the way up .

Let's change the cross of the leg .

So bring your other foot in front or your other shin in front .

Same thing inhale , circle the arms up , maybe look up , exhale , per it down .

Two more like this with your breath .

Last one inhale into your twist as you exhale right hand to your left knee , left fingertips behind you and you can use the leverage of your palms , holding onto your knee and the left fingertips behind you to rotate a little bit more .

But if you find that you have a hard time taking deep breaths here , you've gone too far into the pose .

So breath is always the highest priority .

Keep the hold of your right hand on your left knee , face forward and let's move into a side bend .

So left arm reaches up and over this time .

So down here and let's come all the way back up .

Now , go ahead and straighten and extend your right leg out to the side and bring your left foot in a little bit closer towards that inner thigh into your side bend .

Again here , left arm reaches all the way up overhead .

Same thing as what we had done before .

Think of rolling your left shoulder back lengthen and reach out through your left fingertips a little more and then come all the way back up .

You're gonna plant that left hand down , reach your right arm up and over and push into the legs in order to lift your hips off the ground .

It's a little bit of a back bend here and set your hips down .

Now , facing over towards that right leg , we're gonna fold down .

So you don't need to really worry about grabbing and pulling and pushing .

Just go to whatever your best edge , what your limit is here .

So really your breath will let you know if a pose is not appropriate for you or if you're going too far , pushing too much , just starting to wake up those hamstrings , crawl the fingertips out a little bit more and let's come all the way back up .

Now , from here , we'll take a seated twist .

So twisting even deeper , you're going to cross your right foot over the top of your left thigh .

You might need to rearrange yourself a little bit here so that both sit bones can be grounded on the mat .

And we want to push into our big right toe to lift that knee up .

Nice and high .

Think of squeezing and lifting a inhale , left arm up .

And now exhale , hook your elbow to the inner thigh , crease once more , bring your right hand back behind you and open through your chest .

So now you have even more leverage with the help of your elbow pushing into the thigh .

Lift up through your chest .

No slouching .

So just peddle your legs , adding some movement , gently stretching the calves , the hips and the hamstrings and slowly come to stillness in your downward facing dog .

Your heel should be pressing down towards the floor and they don't have to touch the floor and they should just be pressing down in that direction .

You can have a slight bend in your knees here .

If your hamstrings feel tight , if you have very flexible hamstrings , feel free to straighten them , but don't hyper extend your legs on your next inhale , we're going to take the right leg and step it forward in between the hands .

So this time , right foot will come in , stretch your left leg out .

So you wanna feel that leg open up to the side , we begin with our side bend first .

So not worrying too much about the hamstrings right arm stretches up and over , think of rolling your right shoulder back .

So there's a nice lift and finding our baby wild thing come up , you're gonna plant your right hand back behind you , swing that left arm up and back , press your hips forward , little back , bend , big counter stretch as if someone was pulling your left hand and your left foot away from one another .

And now as you set your hips down , you're gonna face over towards that straight left leg and you're gonna find your fold .

So folding any amount , let go of expectation and judgment of yourself in the pose , especially at the beginning of class , we tend to be a lot tighter .

This is totally normal .

And if these kinds of movements and poses are new to you , it's probably not going to feel super easy the first few times or even the first few , dozens of times that you do , it just appreciate the effort .

You're putting into it , stay with your breath .

And let's start to lift all the way back up into our twist .

So this time you're going to cross your left foot over the top of your right thigh , you wanna have your big left toe pushing into the ground , both hips anchored to the floor .

And as you pull that thigh in , we're gonna reach the right arm up and then your bow to that inner thigh , left fingertips behind you as you rotate a little bit more and the more you can feel your lower abdominals hugging in the deeper you'll probably find yourself in this twist .

The emphasis is on length first and then on rotation and release to phase four where it'll find that seated pigeon pose .

So you wanna just cross your left ankle over the top of your right knee and then choose the distance that you want to have here .

Try to keep your chest slightly lifted your shoulders , rolling down and back and just swaying a little bit again .

Take one more full cycle here , warming up the spine .

Inhale , drop your belly down , exhale round and contract .

Now come back to a neutral table top pose , squeeze and contract your abdominals .

Try to be flat in your low back here , nice and straight .

And you're going to lift your right leg up , keeping your flat back and see if you can just trace some big circles with your right knee and right hip without bending your left elbow and without collapsing here , take a few more , one more big circle and then you're gonna step that foot forward to the top of the mat on jana , low lunch .

So low lunch , we want our right knee to be directly over the top of our ankle .

If you feel like your stance is a little bit too narrow and if the fingertips don't quite reach the floor , you can do this one from higher up and just work at tilting here .

You can also absolutely bend your knee .

Don't worry about being super straight here .

I think of pulling your heart forward , pushing firmly into that right heel and let's bend into that front knee , plant your palms , come back to your table top , poses strong through your core and extend your right leg up and back , roll your right hip down .

So the front of your thigh and the front of your shin face , the floor pull through your lower belly .

And if you'd like to go further , extend your left arm up , bicep along the ear , try to keep your right elbow straight .

We're just gonna hold here .

This is a challenging pose , two like a table .

We're starting to ramp things up a little bit and let's lift back up table top , poles on hands and knees , cat and cow as you inhale , drop the belly , lift the gaze up , exhale round and contract .

Get this in your upper back as much as your lower back .

Take two more cycles .

Follow your own rhythm , breath and movement fully synced up and find your neutral tabletop post squeeze and engage through your abdominal .

So really strong core here and we're just going to take some circles with the left hip and left knee and it's normal to lean on the right a little bit here , but try to keep some weight in your left palm and try not to bend your right elbow .

So your feet are placed , reach your arms out to the side , your hips are on the diagonal .

And from here , bend your left leg into Warrior two pose via two Warrior two .

Hold here for one more deep inhale and exhale , lunging forward into that left leg .

The back leg is straight .

I'm gonna add just a bit of movement to our warrior two .

So take an inhale , straighten your left leg and reach your arms all the way up .

Exhale , press that leg down or press your arms down and bend your left leg into another warrior too .

Coordinate your movement with your breath , inhale and strain your leg , reaching your arms up and exhale .

Press down .

Last one on your low lunch .

So the left foot steps forward , you can always grab a hold of your heel to help it along , make sure your knee is directly over the top of your heel .

And you can come up onto the fingertips here trying to press the hips forward and down and lift our gaze up .

Big stretch into that right hip and right thigh and flatten your right palm to the floor , bring your left hand to your thigh and push the palm into your leg as you rotate to twist .

So it's almost like you're trying to look over your left shoulder , push into your big left toe .

Notice if you're rolling on the outer edge of that left foot and facing down into our half splits , send your hips back and again , you might need to readjust the stance here by wiggling that left foot further forward .

And you can come up onto your fingertips or lift up your chest with your hands on your hips , slide your shoulder blades down your back .

You can always bend to your left knee if needed .

We're setting up for that two legged tabletop pose , bend into your front knee , step back , tabletop hands under your shoulders , knees , under your hips and reach your left leg up and back , roll your left hip down .

So an internal hip rotation , draw your belly in flatten out your lower back as if you are balancing a teek up here and then maybe extend your right arm forward .

If you want to strengthen through your back even more .

This is also a core strengthening pose .

So anything that requires balance will be really good for your abs .

Keep reaching out and long .

And now right hand comes down to the floor point your left toes and you're gonna tap the toes down and lift it back up .

Seven more .

So seven , six , five , four , three .

So and one loss and a child's pose .

Big toast together .

This time , you might want to widen your knees even more for your wide , like a child's pose as you press your hips towards your heels , stretch your arms out in front of you and fold down five full deep belly breaths right here in the pose , one more full breath .

And now walk your hands back towards you , bring your knees hip with distance apart and just see if you can tuck your toes underneath you as you sit your hips on your heels .

This is a big stretch through the soles of the feet .

We're gonna inhale , reach the arms up and then exhale right arm forward , left arm back , think of pushing your palms down to the floor .

Inhale to lift .

Exhale other side , left arm forward , right arm back a few more like this .

Inhale and exhale , lifting up and pressing down one more on each side .

You got this in here and exhale .

Last one , left arm forward , come all the way back through the center and release .

Let's find our first downward facing dog .

So from table top .

See if you can walk your hands a couple inches past your shoulders , keep spreading your fingertips wide and digging into the mat with your fingertips , tuck your toes under and lift your hips up and back .

So you can alternate here by bending one knee , straightening the opposite leg .

So depending on where you have the most tightness in your body , you'll probably feel it more there .

So for me , I feel this a lot at the back of my knees and in my calves .

But you might feel this more in your shoulders , in your hamstrings , maybe even in your wrists in your upper back .

But think of getting your entire body engaged .

So finding your neutral downward dog , both knees can bend a little bit , think of curling your tailbone up towards the sky and pressing your chest towards your thighs .

All right , let's walk our feet forward to the top of the map for a rag doll fold so your feet can be wider than your hips .

You can bend your knees generously here , hold onto the elbows and maybe sway a little bit side to side .

Really let yourself dangle .

So don't worry so much about your hamstrings .

Instead think of this as decompression for your spine and come back towards the center , release your hands down to the mount , you're gonna bend your knees a little bit more here and to heal your feet .

So they're only hip with distance towards one another .

So a little bit of space between your feet , between your shins , between your knees , sink your hips down as low as possible and lift up into your chair pose .

We'll start with our hands at our heart .

So as if you're trying to pull on your right hand with your left , push into your right hip , come all the way back to center .

Let's switch sides .

Hold on to your left hand with the right .

Wow , crescent over and all the way back through to center , release your arms , hands on your hips .

We're gonna come into tree poses , Rick Shona .

So lean on your right leg and you're gonna bring your left foot somewhere along the inside of that leg .

So it might just be on the shin with your toes down on the floor .

You might go up higher to the calf or up higher , even towards the inner right thigh .

So regardless of the one that you've chosen , think of pressing that left knee open and try to avoid placing any direct pressure on your knee .

You want to feel that supporting leg push into your foot as you hug into the midline and lift up a little taller .

Once you feel balanced , you might play with reaching your arms up .

So growing the branches of your tree , slow steady breaths , you got this , keep your gaze steady , wobbling as normal and just start to bring your hands together and lower them at the front of the heart on Mudra and let's release the left foot .

Shake it out .

Now , keep your right foot exactly where it is and you're gonna step your left leg as far back as you can .

You want your feet to be hip with distance apart for your high lunch as you're bending into that right knee .

So I have a very sway back and I have tightness in my hips .

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So when I do this , you'll notice I kind of let my belly drop and my tail bone lifts up .

This is not what we want .

So if you have a sway back also , you'll want to bend into your back knee a little bit so that you can scoop the abs under and lengthen your tailbone down .

So my hips should be directly underneath my shoulders , bending into the front knee trying to get your front thigh parallel to the top of the mat , reach your arms up .

And now just like what we did in our chair post , see if you can find some tiny little pulses .

I know you can feel this one .

I can feel it too .

And you know , just because classes are meant for beginners really does not mean that they are easy , just means they're accessible , but we're still challenging ourselves .

Ok ?

So seven six , five , four , three to and one look down to the mat from this tabletop hose will take puppy , walk your palms out in front of you .

So my hips stay over my knees .

I'm just walking my hands out and melting the forehead and the chest down towards the mat .

So big stretch into your shoulders , into your upper back , into your chest .

Think of pulling your lower belly in a little bit and let's ripple forward into stints pose .

Each time relaxing your bones , your muscles , your joints , your skin , every part of you is melting and relaxing deeper .

With each exhale that you take and remain here .

So you're laying on your belly farms are on the ground in order to lift your chest up , think of rolling your shoulders back .

And as you exhale lower all the way down , now we're going to extend our arms out in front of us .

Palms facing in towards one another .

Keep the back of your neck long .

So you don't need to really look up too much here .

Your feet should be about hip with distance apart as you inhale , alternate by lifting your right arm , your left leg and your head off the floor .

Exhale to lower down and switch inhale , left arm , right leg lifts and release two more on each side and hill right arm , left leg , exhale down and her left arm , right leg and lower once more in hill and exhale .

Last one and release .

Let's press back to an easy child's pose .

So this time , keep your knees together , feet together , reach your arms back towards your feet , forehead down to the floor and you can just rock a little bit side to side .

You can bend your knees so that your chest and belly are kind of dangling over your thighs and maybe hold on to your opposite elbows and sway a little side to side and release your hands to the floor , bend your knees a little more so you can narrow your stance .

You want your feet and your knees hip with distance apart , not quite touching , bend down as low as possible .

We're coming up , we could toss in a chair pose .

So just like in that lunch , think of lengthening your tailbone down , squeezing through your abs hands at your heart and we're just going to pulse , you know where we're going with this .

If you did give it a big thumbs up and let me know in the comments how you're doing .

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See you next time .