45 min Slow Flow Yoga - Beginner Full Body Vinyasa Yoga

Hi , everyone .

Thank you so much for joining me today .

We'll be doing a 45 minute slow flow yoga class have two blocks and a strap close by .

If you don't happen to own any types of props like this , some cushions or pillows and a belt can do just fine .

Let's start lying down on our back and just have your block somewhere close within grabbing distance .

So lying all the way down , let's begin by pulling the right knee in towards the belly and extending your left leg straight .

Keep flexing through your left foot .

So you're pressing into that heel and the toes are facing up .

So this is one of my favorite things to do .

When I begin a yoga practice , it helps to open up into the hip flexor , which can be really great for anyone who has tension or tightness in the low back .

And I like to sway the knee from side to side just to get some movement into the joint .

Feel free to stay still or to do that same little sway as well .

Focus on the quality of your breath as you inhale and exhale through the nose , start to let go of anything that is not serving you .

You want this 45 minute practice to really be all about you .

So give yourself this opportunity to tune into your breath , tune into your body and do something positive for yourself .

So let's bend our left knee .

So the foot comes back to being flat on the mat , we're gonna interlace our fingers behind the back of our right thigh and extend that right leg up .

So , depending on the flexibility , you might be able to slide the palms further up .

But because we are just warming up here , really don't try to go too far deep into the stretch and you can bend your right knee a little bit or a lot .

Keep pressing your right hip down on the floor and start by flexing into your right foot .

So really reach through that heel and you should feel a pretty good stretch into your ankle in the achilles tendon .

So you're trying to get your toes to point towards you .

And now let's switch .

So point the toes up as much as you can and stretch towards the top of the foot .

Take one more deep breath , try to pull that thigh and a tiny bit closer towards you and then start to bend into that right knee .

You're going to cross your right ankle over the top of your left thigh , keep your foot firmly flexed and feel the right knee press away from you soften the arms .

If this is enough , you can stay exactly as you are .

Otherwise you can reach through and start to pull your left knee and thigh in towards the belly , either by holding onto the back of your thigh or the front of your shin , drawing the shoulder blades down the back .

Imagine that you can breathe all the way down to that right hip and right glute inviting it to open up a little bit more .

And you can start thinking of an intention that you would like to set for yourself and for your practice and intentions don't have to be very complicated .

You're basically answering the question , why am I doing yoga right now ?

So what benefits are you looking to get or what are you trying to cultivate ?

Mhm And a very simple but very powerful intention that you can set would be to stay present with your breath throughout the entire 45 minutes .

And it's a lot more challenging than it sounds .

Give that thigh one last big squeeze and then carefully set that left foot back down , uncross the legs and grab a hold of one of your blocks .

You're gonna place that block in between the upper thighs , keep your feet hip with distance apart and soften the arms .

We're gonna come up to bridge pose .

So press the feet into the floor and start to curl the tailbone up until the hips , the low back and the mid back start to lift off of the floor , squeeze your blocks .

So that helps to keep your knees in line with your hips and not allow them to open up any wider than this .

And we're going to charge up the legs a little bit more lean into your left leg and you're going to point your right toes forward towards the back of your mat .

So lifting that right leg at about a 45 degree angle , take one more breath , lift and squeeze and then bend your right knee .

Right foot comes down .

Let's switch sides .

Left leg extends up , reach through the toes , keep pressing firmly into your right foot , squeeze your block , lift your hips up a little more and then carefully bring that left foot back down .

Give yourself one more breath here in this pose .

See if the hips can lift up a little bit higher , breathing deeply and slowly curl and make your way down inch by inch until the low back and the hips finally come down to the floor .

Set your block off to the side .

Let's pull our left knee in towards our belly and extend your right leg straight , pressing into your right heel .

And the same thing we did on the first side , feel free to sway your left thigh a little bit side to side .

Finding a mo that is comfortable .

If the hip flexor are really tight , you might notice that your right leg hovers off the ground a little bit , which is ok over time .

As you improve your flexibility , you'll be able to keep that right heel on the ground .

Always remembering that this is a process and a journey .

We never really trying to obtain perfection .

We're just using these poses to get deeper into our body instead of trying to use our body to get into the poses .

And now let's bend our right knee , foot flat on the ground , interlace your fingers behind your left thigh and extend that like straight up towards the ceiling .

Feel free to slide your palms a little bit further up that leg and start with the heel flex .

So really press into your heel , the toes are pointing towards you both shoulders , pressing into the floor , both hips are leveled .

Just notice how the hamstrings are feeling today .

If there's any sensitivity or tightness in the area that you'll need to be aware of , and now let's point the toes up .

So we're reaching them up towards the ceiling , squeezing that thigh and a little bit closer by bending the elbows .

We'll come into our reclined pigeon pose .

Cross your left ankle over the top of your right side , press the left knee away from you , hold here or you can pull your knee in towards your belly .

So one side might be a little bit easier than the other , which is perfectly normal for most of us through the shoulder blades down the back , relaxing the jaw .

Give your your last big squeeze here .

Breathing into that left glute and let's set the feet back down .

We'll take bridge pose again with a block .

So grab it once more and place it in between the upper thighs .

Really feel the inner thighs squeeze and hug in towards your block .

Press the feet into the floor and start to lift your way up into your bridge pose , arms stay relaxed .

Notice if you roll to the inner or outer ankle in this bridge pose .

Most of the time I see students go out towards the little toe side of both feet .

So really press into the big toe side of your foot too .

So all four corners are active , lean onto your right leg and you're gonna lift your left leg off the floor point through the toes .

Keep pressing , squeeze your block and engage the glutes .

Relax the shoulders , left foot comes down , switch sides , right leg lifts up .

So this is for your lower body , upper body can rest bend that right knee , press into both feet .

See if you can lift up a little bit more , squeeze your block , feel how the navel lifts up on the inhale and softens back down on the exhale , slowly unwinding inch by inch until the hips come all the way back down to the floor .

And let's set our block out to the side .

Pull your knees in towards your belly , they can be together or apart , just rock a little bit side to side , massaging your low back .

So we are going to rock our way up into a Yogi squat or mass and a pose .

So hold on to the backs of your thighs and just start to rock a little bit , gaining some momentum and you'll need to step your feet wide with your heels in and your toes out .

So , coming into that little Yogi squat at the front of your mat , knees are bending generously .

You can press your hands together at the front of the heart and use the elbows to open the knees up a little wider .

We want to avoid rounding forward here .

Instead , we're trying to lift up nice and tall .

So notice how your hips feel today , how your low back feels .

You might not be all the way down like I am here .

Another alternative would be to set yourself up on a block and we're going to take a good five deep breaths .

So close the eyes , draw the shoulders down and away from the ears , reach the crown of the head up a little higher and let your hips drop soft , steady breaths .

Let's bring our palms towards the floor .

We're gonna straighten the legs and come into a rag doll fold .

So really , you don't want your legs to be perfectly straight because we are just warming up .

So be mindful for your low back and your hamstrings turn your feet .

So they are parallel to the longer edges of your man and your toes are pointing forward , let the upper body dangle , you can sway a little bit side to side , front to back , making any little movements or adjustments that feel good and give you that nice little stretch that we're looking for in the back of the legs and along the spine into the neck .

So this is a slow flow which means we don't want to be rushing in and out of our poses .

We want to really take our time with these transitions so that we can feel every single muscle as it as it engages and releases .

This will also help you with balance and coordination .

Usually when we're rushing in and out of poses , it can be really hard to stay balanced and now bend your knees even more just so you can get both palms flat to the ground .

You want your palms shoulder with distance apart and we're gonna step back into our plank pose .

So step the feet back and keep your feet about hip with distance apart , press into the fingertips and knuckles and reach your heart forward .

Just breathe deeply here , squeezing the inner thighs towards one another .

Lower abdominals are hugging in one more inhale and then set your right knee to the floor .

You're gonna roll to the inner edge of your left foot , lean onto your right hand and extend your left arm up .

So this is a variation of side plank .

You have a little bit more support in this one and maybe this is enough .

But if you would like to charge this pose up a little bit , you can always float your left leg off the ground .

And if you're hovering that leg off the mat , flex into the foot and reach through your heel , stacking your left shoulder over your right , take one more full breath here and then start to look down .

We're gonna come into our table top pose .

So left palm and left knee come down , hands are underneath your shoulders .

Knees are underneath your hips , taking cat and cow as you inhale , drop the belly lift the gaze curl , tail bone up , exhale round the spine , chin to chest , take a few more rounds and go at your own pace .

So just moving with the rhythm of your breath trying to warm up our spine and our low back to get ourselves ready for the deeper poses that we'll be getting into our last little round here .

So one more inhale , lifting and looking up , pulling the heart through .

Exhale , we contract , bringing our chin to our chest , come back into your neutral table top pose and let's walk the palms forward a little bit .

Coming to our down dog , curl the toes under and lift your hips up and back .

So you want your feet to end up being about hip with distance apart or so and your shoulders are roughly shoulder with distance apart or sorry , your palms are roughly shoulder with distance apart .

Feel free to bend your knees a lot .

We're just gonna try to lift our hips up and back .

Not worrying too much about the hamstrings just yet .

Instead , can you lengthen the arms and soften the neck ?

So the head is heavy , lower abdominals is hugging in and up to really pull the navel towards the spine .

That action will help you stay really stable through the core .

And it does help to protect your lower back if you're like me and suffer from some sensitivities there in the lower back , press into the fingertips and knuckles on your next inhale .

Let's come back into our plank pos .

So shoulders come back to being roughly over the top of the wrists or so , keep your feet about hip with distance apart , reach the crown of the head four where deep breaths and then left knee comes down to the ground , roll to the inner edge of your right foot and you're going to extend your right arm up towards the sky .

So we're doing that modified side plank on the other side , looking wherever helps you balance .

Hold here if you want .

Otherwise we're gonna float our right leg off the mat , engaging into the glutes , press into that right here , squeeze and lift it up a little bit more and then look down , coming back into our table top poles , we'll take a few more rounds of cat and cow .

I like to do quite a bit of this because it really is uh very good for your spine .

Inhale , drop the belly lift , the gaze curl tail bone up , exhale chin to chest tail bone down a few more .

So we expand when we breathe in and we contract when we breathe out .

And that's a pretty consistent pattern that we do throughout our yoga practice .

I often have students that are confused with the breathing patterns in yoga .

They're not sure which poses , you should inhale and in which poses , you should exhale .

And that's generally a good rule of thumb to follow .

If there's an expansion and an opening , generally speaking , you'll be breathing in and if you're contracting , getting smaller and compressing , you'd be exhaling .

But of course , this all comes with practice .

So if it doesn't feel too intuitive just yet , that's perfectly fine .

Last one here .

So exhale and we come back into our downward facing dog , so make some space for yourself and then lift the hips up and back , bending into the knees , softening the neck .

Let's look towards the top of the mat and we're just gonna step and make our way up there , bending the knees slowly roll all the way up to stand head and shoulders are the last to make their way up there , draw the shoulders down and away from the ears and do make sure that you are somewhere close to the top of the mat and we're going to grab both our blocks and place them at the front of the mat just so they're there .

If we need them , we won't need them right away .

But later on in our flow , we're gonna want to have some blocks there for stability purposes , bring your big toes together .

Heels may be an inch or so apart and let's drop down into our chair .

Poles , bend the knees , drop the hips , bring your hands at your heart , rock the weight into the heels , keep your chin and your chest lifted up .

Nice and tall , sink even deeper into it .

Inhale and exhale .

Fold over the legs release halfway , lift flat back , reach the heart floor where knees can be a bit bent .

Exhale , plant the palms , let's step it back into our plank poles .

So taking our first little inhale here , exhale lower all the way down to your belly point the toes back .

Let's take a little cobra press into the tops of the feet .

Lift the chin and the chest elbows are bent and hugging in exhale , release and press your way back into your downward facing dock from this downward dog .

Let's extend our right leg up towards the sky and bend your right knee to open up that hip .

So a nice hip opener here , side body stretch , you're trying to get your right foot as far over towards the left side of your mat as you can .

Let's straighten and square that leg and we're gonna step it through into a low lunch .

So right foot needs to go in between your palms to the top of the mat and left knee comes down to the floor .

Really be careful that your knee is staying over the ankle and you're not letting it go too far forward .

Once you have that strong stance , you can extend the arms up .

Overhead tail is reaching down , lifting out of the low back , press the hips forward and down , staying nice and lifted .

Let's bring our hands to our hips .

You'll need to straighten your right leg and then your left foot needs to go over towards the right side of your mat .

So the left toes go towards the right .

So now my left shin is parallel to the short edge of my mat and everything is facing towards the left side of your mat with your right leg straight , turn your toes so that your right foot is now parallel towards the short edge of your mat at the top of the mat .

And once you're here , we're pretty much in our gate pose .

So we're gonna lower our palms down on the floor , bring your hands underneath your shoulders .

Elbows are nice and straight and see if you can float your right leg off the mat without bending your left elbow , squeeze the glutes , lift it up a little bit higher .

Take one more full breath and then carefully set that right foot back down , engage your core and lift up with the upper body .

So nothing is changing with the legs .

We'll just take a side bend here , slide your right hand down your right leg .

Inhale left arm up and then exhale .

Move into that side stretch .

Inhale , come all the way back up .

Exhale , left hand comes down to the floor , right arm extends up and over .

So this is very similar to the modified side plank pose we did at the beginning of class re extend through your right fingertips .

Get really long and then use the obliques to lift yourself all the way back up .

Start to face towards the front of your mat , bend your right knee again and you're gonna tuck the back toes under to lift your left knee off the floor .

So left palm stays down , right arm extends up for your easy twist .

You're trying to pull your right shoulder back without letting your left shoulder pop forward or just stack one joint over the other .

Breathing deeply , be mindful of your wrist , press into your fingers and knuckles be kind to your joints and we look down , we'll take our second little V flow .

So right hand to the ground , inhale plank poles , exhale Teranga to lower all the way to the floor .

Cobra , inhale , exhale downward facing dog hips lift up and back , soften the neck .

Let your head be heavy like a bowling ball , press your chest towards your thighs .

Let's reach our left leg up towards the sky , bend your left knee and open up that hip .

So this time I'm trying to bring my left foot over towards the right side of my mat , both elbows are straight .

Let's straighten that left leg and step it all the way through for your low lunch .

So left foot goes in between the hands and right knee comes down to the floor , align your left knee over your left ankle .

And once you're there , extend the arms up , you're trying to press your hips forward and down until you get that nice stretch into your hip .

Flexor , not dumping into the low back .

Stay lifted one more deep breath , reach through the fingers and then bring your hands on your hips .

Let's straighten that left leg and you're gonna bring your right foot towards the left side of your mat .

So your right shin parallel to the back of the mat and you're gonna turn your left foot to be parallel towards the top of your mat .

From here .

Palms come down to the ground , align your hands directly underneath your shoulders .

Right elbow is gonna wanna bend , try to prevent that from happening and then lift your left leg up .

So you need to engage the obliques and squeeze into the glutes , lifting it up a little bit more , one more breath and release , set that foot back down , firm up the core , let's lift up .

We'll take a side bend .

So left hand down your left leg , inhale right arm up , exhale , move into it , really reach through those right fingertips .

Inhale to lift up and exhale .

Right hand comes down to the floor .

Left arm reaches up and over .

So this is one of my all time favorite stretches .

You should feel it from the left fingertips all the way down into that left foot , especially in the side body here and in the it band , it's not an area that we tend to focus on .

Too , too much .

Normally engage the obliques come all the way back up and we're going to come into our easy twist .

So you need to face towards the top of your mat again and bend your left knee .

Right toes point back , curl the toes under , lift your right knee off the floor , plant the right palm down and reach your left arm up and you're really bending into that left knee so much though that you're almost getting your thigh parallel to the floor looking up only if that's ok for your neck .

Otherwise just keep looking straight forward or even straight down .

Let's take our flow left hand down , inhale plank pose , strong belly exhale lower all the way to the floor , point the toes back for brushing and chest lift , exhale downward facing dog .

Five breaths here .

Remember , you can always bend the knees and this down dog and you should still have your blocks somewhere close to the top of the mat .

So from this down dog , let's reach your right leg up and keep it straight and squared .

So drop your right hip , press into the heel and then carefully pull that knee in towards your nose , look past your palms and step it forward .

So the foot is in between your hands and then you're gonna bring both palms onto your blocks , transitioning into your standing splits .

So you're standing on your right leg and you're trying to reach your left leg up nice and high .

So both knees can be a little bit bent here .

But you're trying to get a nice support and stability through that right leg and you need to squeeze and engage your glutes to let your left leg go up even higher .

Now , as you inhale , shift the weight onto the ball of your right foot and see if you can lift your heel off the ground .

Exhale , press it back down two more like this inhale , lift the heel up , exhale , press it down .

Last one .

Inhale , lift , exhale , set it down and let's come into half moon pose .

So start to lift your chest up , lean your weights onto your right hand on that block and bring your left hand on your hip .

You're gonna start to turn your left hip and your left shoulder open so that everything is facing towards the left side of your mouth , squeeze the glute and lift your back leg up even higher .

And if this feels pretty good , you can extend your left arm up as well .

So just breathe nice and controlled .

Notice how much weight and pressure you're putting on that block .

And from here , transition into your warrior too .

So bend that right knee generously and you're lightly going to step that left foot all the way back and extend the arms out .

Palms are facing down .

Right knee is bending and you're pressing your right knee , open shoulders are staying aligned over your hips .

Gazing forward , let's reverse our warrior left hand down , right arm up , breathe and nice and deep .

Keep bending and cheer right knee back into your warrior .

Two , coming into extended side angle , bring your right form over your right thigh and your left arm up and over .

So bicep is along the ear and you have one long line from your left fingers all the way to your left foot .

Start to look down towards the floor and circle the palms until the hands can come down to the ground .

Let's take our full this time .

So inhale to plank exhale , Teranga hover halfway point the toes back and lift up to your upward facing dog exhale downward dock .

So maybe the heels can come a tiny bit closer towards the floor or maybe you can find even more length in the arms pressing into the fingers .

Let's move on to the second side .

Left leg goes all the way up and back , keep it straight and squared and then pull that knee in towards your nose , look past the palms and step it through .

You're gonna bring your hands on the tops of your blocks coming into your standing splits .

So you're standing on your left leg and you're trying to extend your right leg up and back as high as you can .

While folding forward on the inhale , shift into the ball of the foot and lift your left heel off the ground .

Exhale , press it back down two more inhale , lifted up , exhale , drop it down .

Last one .

Inhale , lift , exhale , release into your half moon , lift your chin and chest a little so the elbows can be straight .

Keep your left hand on your block and bring your right hand to your hip .

You're going to start to pull that right hip back as you roll the right shoulder back .

So an external rotation and once you have your balance , you can reach your right arm up .

And if you lose your balance , don't worry too much about it , just get back in the pose .

This is a fairly or a very challenging pose for sure .

There's a lot going on .

Squeeze the glutes , lift , lift , lift , engaging the obliques and will lightly step back into warrior two .

So left knee needs to bend until you can drop your right toes back behind you arms extend out .

Palms are facing down , press your left knee open , reverse your warrior right hand down , left arm up , deep breath in here and exhale back to warrior .

Two extended sign angle left form over your left thigh , right arm up and over .

So you're trying to drop your hips down low , almost getting your left thigh parallel to the floor stretching and look down , circle the palms .

Hands come to the floor .

Inhale plank , exhale , inhale upward dog exhale downward facing dub .

Let's take a hip opener , reach your right leg up and then bring your right knee behind your right wrist .

Setting ourselves up for pigeon pose .

Left leg goes all the way back behind you .

So if your hip is off the ground , feel free to prop yourself up on a block .

Otherwise you can simply fold down taking a good 10 or so breaths right here in the post , relax the chest and shoulders .

Let's walk the hands in lifting the head and the chest we meet back in our down dog .

Just do any little movements that feel good here to help release after that deep hip opener .

And we'll go to the other side .

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And let's walk the hands in .

This will be our last downward facing dog .

So make the most of your time here pressing into the heels , reaching the chest of the thighs .

And let's also take our last via flow inhale to plank exhale , inhale upward dog , exhale into your down dog .

And let's set our knees to the floor , swing your legs out in front of you and lower all the way down to your back and grab a hold of your strap .

So remember if you don't own a strap , just feel free to grab a belt .

So that works really well too .

So with the knees bent , feet flat on the mat , we'll do similar to what we did at the beginning of class .

But using a strap will help us go a little deeper into it .

So just loop the strap around the ball of your right foot and extend that right leg straight up so you could go all the way up closer towards your foot .

I find it more comfortable if I keep the grasp of the strap lower down so that my shoulder can stay , shoulders can stay relaxed on the floor .

And as you pull that right knee in , keep both hips pressing on the floor .

Remember , you can always bend your knees a little bit here .

If this feels pretty good , go ahead and straighten your left leg .

It will make the pose a little bit deeper .

So if it's too much , keep the knee bent .

Now , shift the strap into your right hand only .

And we're gonna let that right leg drop over to the side .

You can extend your left arm out to help you counterbalance the weight here , a little micro bend in the knee is always a good idea .

Flexing into the foot .

Let's lift the leg back up to center .

And this time you're gonna switch your strap in your left hand , reach your right arm out and let your right leg drop over towards the left side of your mouth .

So I might go all the way down to the floor and might not .

It's perfectly fine if it's still floating off the mat , try to keep your right shoulder , pressing on the ground .

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So the strap goes around your left foot , extend that leg straight up , hold the strap wherever is most comfortable to you and decide if you want to keep your right knee bent or if you'd prefer to extend that leg forward .

So we're starting to close our practice focusing on stretching rather than strengthening .

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So your left leg is going to drop all the way towards the right side of your mat and you can extend your left arm out to the floor .

Try to keep your left shoulder pressing on the ground .

Chest is facing up , twisting from the navel down the leg can definitely stay hovering off the ground .

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We're gonna come into our final resting pose .

So it might feel good to just squeeze your knees in towards your belly one final time before extending the legs and the arms out .

Really let yourself take up some space here , draw the shoulders down palms , facing up , closing the eyes .

This is your opportunity to kind of digest the work that you've done .

So your body can integrate the poses and the sequences maybe focus once more on the intention you had set for yourself at the beginning of class .

I encourage you to stay in Shabana for at least three or to five minutes even longer if you have the time for it .

Thank you so very much for doing this class with me .

I do hope that you enjoyed it .

And I must .