10 min Evening Yoga Stretch - Bedtime Yoga for Beginners

I must say welcome to my channel .

My name is Cassandra and I'm gonna take you through a simple yoga stretch that's ideal to do in the evening when you're getting ready to head on off to bed .

So a really good full body stretch , there are no props required for this practice and we'll begin in bolo child's pose and I'm gonna do the version with my knees close together .

You're welcome to do a wide needed child's pose if you'd like .

But I just find this one to be what I need right now .

So shoulders can rest towards your knees , arms reaching back and just letting your forehead drop towards the floor .

This is a really soothing grounding pose and a great first pose to connect to the rhythm of our breaths .

See if you can follow the flow of the inhale as well as the flow of the exhale .

We want both to be the same length .

Stay in this child's pose , just reach your arms in front and up if they were behind you and come up onto the fingertips , think of rolling your shoulders down and away from your ears and it's almost as if you're pushing down with your armpits , just getting a gentle stretch here , crawl the fingers out as far as they can go and walk your hands back .

Lift up just so that you're sitting on your heels .

We're gonna reach the right arm up and over big side body stretch and inhale , switching sides , exhale , left arm reaches up and over coming all the way back , bring your fingertips behind you this time and think of lifting up through your heart .

Keep your elbows slightly bent and think of squeezing your elbows and your shoulder blades together to touch .

Yes .

Table top , pose on hands and knees , hands under shoulders and knees underneath your hips .

Cat and cow as you inhale , drop the belly lift the gaze , exhale round and contract .

Keep going a few more flowing with your breath .

Yeah .

Really .

Try to get into those areas of your spine that feel a little bit more stiff , a little bit more stuck pressing into your fingertips and knuckles .

So we're taking the weight out of our wrists , come back to your neutral position here and we're just gonna kick that right heel up to the sky and make some big circles with your right knee .

So warming up through our right hip .

Then the next time you do this , you can just step the right foot to the outer edge of your right hand , deep lunge here and you might choose to stay exactly where you are if you'd like to add on , you can reach back with your right hand and maybe grab a hold of your left foot as you pull that heel in towards you .

And I like to keep pushing into my big right toe .

So I'm not rolling over on that right foot .

Let's carefully release that back foot and we're gonna step back to downward facing dog .

So , hands to the mat , step the right foot back feeder about hip with distance apart or so you might paddle the feet .

So bending one knee , straightening the opposite leg , switching this a few times , table top hose down on hands and knees and let's find the second side .

So palms under your shoulders , you can kick that left foot up and just start to trace some circles and you might notice that one hip feels different than the other .

This is completely normal .

Try to keep some weight in your left arm and then we're gonna step it forward , both hands to the inside of that left leg opening through your chest and maybe stay here in this deep lunge or add your quad stretch .

Left hand reaches back , pull that right heel in .

Try to really relax your hips into the floor .

Let's release the hold of our back foot downward facing dog left foot steps back .

And that same thing again , Ben , one knee and straighten the opposite leg as you push into that heel , just alternating getting into the calves the ankles , press your shoulders back , reach your chest towards your thighs as you curl your tailbone up and from this downward dog widen your feet .

So they're more towards the edges of the mat and start to walk your hands to the back of the mat , finding a rag doll fold .

So you can absolutely bend your knees a lot here , maybe sway a little bit side to side , decompressing through your spine , stretching out through your hamstrings .

And let's take a cleansing breath while we're in this forward fold .

So a big inhale through your nose and an exhale out the mouth .

Yeah , I bring your fingertips to the floor , turn your heels in a little bit melo and into your Yogi squat .

So hips come down , you can use your elbows to press your knees open a little bit more hands at your heart , one more deep breath here and let's find our table top pose on hands and needs .

And from here , last little pose , reach your right leg back , roll to the inner edge of your right foot and extend your right arm up .

This is your modified side plank and go ahead and reach your right arm up overhead .

So we're getting deeper into that side body stretch lots of length and let's release and we'll just go do that on the other side .

So step your left foot back , roll to the inner edge of that foot , modified side plank and then go ahead and reach bicep along the ear , fingertips stretching towards the front of your mat .

Left foot , reaching to the back .

Um , left hand comes back down .

Let's find that same bolos , a child's pose is that we have at the beginning of class hips towards your heels , arms back , forehead down and let your chest relax here .

Your belly can be soft , no contraction , no engagement through your abdominals , taking slower , deeper breaths , just inviting yourself to relax a little more , reach your arms out in front of you big stretch .

Let's walk the hands in .

Come to take a seat in any way that is suitable for you at this time .

Join your palms together at your heart , sitting up tall , finding this internal stillness within you , cultivating this sense of peace and relaxation .

Let's close with the chant of 01 time inhaling to chant big breath in .

Oh I must thank you so much for doing this evening yoga stretch with me .

If you'd like to stay a little longer on your mat to also encourage rest and relaxation .

This would be an excellent meditation right here to follow it up with .

If you're new , please do subscribe to my channel .

I put out multiple new videos every single week and I would love to practice with you every day .

Thank you again .

I must stay