10 min MORNING YOGA STRETCH for Beginners - Yoga for Sore Muscles

Good morning everyone .

My name is Cassandra and I'm going to take you through a 10 minute morning yoga class .

This is a full body practice .

No props are required suitable for all experience levels .

Let's start lying down on our backs , taking a few moments in .

So about your reclined butterfly pose , joining the soles of your feet together , knees apart .

And I like to reach my arms up over head to start opening into our shoulders into the chest .

I try to relax your thighs , no tension in your body as you take a few deep breaths here , checking in with the hips and even when you're really short on time , taking just 10 minutes for yourself in the morning can be one of the best things you can do to set off your day with the right tone with the right intention , learning to put yourself first before you care for the other people in your life .

Just slide your hands back down .

You can bring your knees and thighs back in towards one another and just move your hips a little bit over to the right and let both knees drop over to the left .

So just a little lang spinal twist .

You're letting your right thigh drop over to the left , reach out long with your right arm trying to stack your right hip over your left one , stretching through your lower back here and begin to ask yourself what your intention is today .

And it might just be one word .

And as you inhale , float your knees back up to center and we'll just switch sides so your hips can go a little bit more to the left , both knees and thighs drop to the right , push down into your left shoulder blade and try to lift that left hip up .

So it's aligned over your right one , send your breath all the way down into your lower belly and come all the way back up and you might just walk your feet out in front of you .

You can hold on to the back of your thighs inhaling to lift and curl your way up .

We're gonna cross at the ankles , tabletop , poses on hands and knees .

So you want your palms underneath your shoulders , your knees underneath your hips , spread your fingertips nice and wide and go ahead and just stretch that back , right leg , push into your right heel with your toes curled under .

So just stretching into your calves a little bit and go ahead and roll to the inner edge of that right foot and extend your right arm up to the sky .

Really stretch here , reaching one hand away from the other , pressing into that right heel and circle the right hand down back to the floor .

And we're gonna just kick and lift that right leg up .

Keep it at about hip height and roll that right hip down .

So you want your leg to be facing parallel to the floor and you might just choose to stay here or you can strengthen a little bit more by extending left arm forward , bicep along your ear .

Try to flatten out your lower back one more big breath here and release round and contract into this cat pose and press back , child's pose , hips towards your heels .

Arms reaching out forward .

I take another big breath here and really roll through your spine to lift back up , tabletop poses on hands and knees .

I go to the other side .

So reach that left leg back , push into your left heel , get deep into that ankle into your calf and modified side plank Vasa roll to the inner edge of that left foot .

Lean on your right hand as you extend your left arm up to the sky and really reach up even taller , lifting out of your right shoulder , keep pushing into your left foot and circle that left hand back down to the floor .

Engage your abdominals here to try to flatten out your lower back and then go ahead and lift your left leg off the mat .

Rotate in .

So your knee and your toes are facing the floor , pull up through your lower belly and maybe add a little bit more strength as you reach your right arm , forward , thumb , pointing straight up to the sky .

Focus on length as opposed to height and release round your spine and then press back , child's pose , stretch your arms out really far in this child's pose with your hands , shoulder with distance apart .

This is pretty much the alignment we want to find in our first downward facing dog .

So let's lift up from here and our hands or shoulder with distance apart , tuck your toes under and go ahead and lift your hips up and back .

So the odds are the back of the legs are probably a little bit stiff and tight .

So you can absolutely bend your knees .

Don't worry about having those perfectly straight , but do think of reaching your chest towards your thighs really feeling a lift here as you lift your tailbone up towards the sky and pull your lower belly in .

And we'll find some spinal waves as you inhale , lift your heels high off the mat and ripple all the way forward into a plank pose , shoulders over your wrists .

Now , go ahead and bend your knees and send your hips all the way up and back downward facing dog and just move through this motion a few times with your breath .

Inhale and exhale downward facing dog .

Keep going .

Oh , trying to get into your low back , midback upper back , last one here .

And once you're back in that downward dog , you can stay exactly as you are .

Let's reach our right leg up to the sky .

Bend your right knee , open up your hip and really try to send that right knee across over to the left side of your mat .

And let's bring that right foot through in between your hands , come up onto your fingertips .

So you're trying to lift your chest off of that front thigh , engaging a little bit here of strength as you reach your heart forward , slide your shoulders down and away from your ears , but let your hips melt and be heavy .

So a nice big thigh stretch , if you'd like , you can bring your back knee to the floor .

We're going to straighten that right leg .

So either taking this deeper pyramid pose variation , if it's too much , you can have your back knee to the mat into your half splits instead , but take a few breaths here as you fold and get into those right hamstrings pressing into your back heel , try to square off your hips as much as you can and bend into that front knee , plant your palms , find your plank pose and see if you can lower down into a form plank .

So right form down and then the left reach the crown of your head forward , squeeze through your inner thighs .

Big breath here and let your hips come down all open up through your chest sphinx pose .

So you're trying to roll your shoulders down and away from your ears , pulling your heart forward and let's press back in a child's poses , big toes together , knees may be a little bit wider than what you were doing before to get deeper through the inner thighs .

And we'll take five full breaths here before we repeat the sequence on the other side .

So really placing the emphasis on the flow of your breath and still asking yourself , what is your intention today ?

What do you want to focus on and stretch your arms out ?

Let's find downward facing dog , lifting your hips up and back .

And let's find three rounds of that spinal wave from down dog to plank , lift your heels , ripple all the way forward and then bend into your knees as you send your hips all the way up and back .

Two more .

Yes .

Last one , inhale , flowing through and exhale , lifting up and back .

Let's reach our left leg up to the sky , bend your left knee , open up your hip and really try to get that left knee across and over to the right and then we'll step it through for our lunge .

So the left foot goes in between your palms , try to come up onto your fingertips .

So you're slightly lifted a little bit more .

If you need to modify , you can absolutely let your backing come down to the floor .

Otherwise , keep it lifted and work on just sinking your hips down a little bit lower .

Yeah .

Breathing deeply into your belly and we'll stretch into our hamstrings .

So either straightening the left leg and folding forward or doing this with your back knee down on the floor .

So feel free to modify and leave out what does not work for your body this morning .

Bend into your front knee plank pose .

We're gonna lower into that form , plank just like we did before .

So left form down .

Then the right , just take a moment here .

Let your hips be pretty low as you reach your heart forward and then into your Sphinx pose , hips to the floor , open up through your chest , through your heart , pull your shoulders back , press into the tops of your feet .

And one last time , let's find belos our child pose , big toast together .

Maybe your knees go even wider .

Now that we've gotten a little bit more into our hips .

Walk your hands forward and fold .

Yeah .

And let's walk our hands in , lifting up and just come to take a seat sitting up tall in a way that supports your hips and your lower back .

Join your hands together at the front of your heart and really make this connection to your one word intention , something that really captures how you want to feel today and what you want to focus on .

And once you have this word will set this intention and close our practice with one chant of inhale to chant big breath in oh mhm Bowing forward .

And I must stay .

Thank you so much for doing this 10 minute morning yoga practice with me .

I would love to know what word you chose today .

Please leave me a comment below to let me know .

And if you'd like to really set the tone , this would be a great five minute meditation to do using affirmations .

I hope you'll decide to practice with me again .

Maybe tomorrow morning .

This is just a really wonderful way to begin your day .

Thank you so much .

Now , must stay .