Hello , it's Leslie Fightmaster .
Welcome to 30 days of yoga for beginners .
This is day one .
We're gonna come onto our backs with the knees bent to begin and spend a little time with our breathing .
So get comfortable and just rest your hands on your belly and just listen or just feel the breath rise and fall in the belly as you breathe through your nose , allow any tension in the neck and jaw and shoulders to release .
So just taking notice if there is any tension , sometimes we can and we don't even realize and just take longer breaths .
So the breath and yoga is in and out through the nose .
However , if you have any congestion , you're welcome to breathe through the mouth .
When you need to , the breath is very important .
Every movement has a breath .
We always want to uh connect our breath and our movement in our practice .
Now , with your hands on the belly , I'm just gonna inhale and really expand through the belly and then exhale , feel the air empty out and the belly draws in a little and then again , inhale , fill the belly and then walk your hands up to your rib cage and then exhale , feel the breath contract and empty .
So as you inhale , you'll fill the belly and up through the ribs and now bring your hands all the way to your chest , all the way by your shoulders .
See if you can take the breath there all the way high and then you'll exhale completely one more time .
A nice full breath .
Inhale belly and rib cage all the way up and exhale , release it .
Now we'll inhale through the nose this time .
Exhale out your mouth like you're fogging a mirror and again , inhale through the nose , exhale like you're fogg in the mirror halfway through , close the mouth , you know that slight constriction in the back of the throat , try and keep it as you breathe in and out through the nose .
This is called , it means victorious breath .
So just continue breathing in and out through your nose with that little constriction in the back of the throat .
If it seems difficult today , don't worry , you'll just keep practicing .
It becomes easier as we go .
Now , I'll keep that breath going , but extend the legs out and point your toes up to the ceiling .
So your ankles are flexed , your leg muscles will be more engaged .
And now you can just let that relax .
I want you to notice your body on the ground .
So notice the points that are touching and especially notice in your back .
The spine , the spine has natural curves , the lower back is not touching the floor most likely , but the upper back is touching , the neck lifts away from the floor and the back of the head is touching .
Also , the hips are touching and the heels , maybe the backs of the thighs and the calves .
So I just want to take notice of that and especially the natural curves in the spine .
We would like to keep our natural curves in our spine as often as we can during our practice .
And a lot of times we're not aware , so we're going to become aware .
So flex the feet again from the legs this time , inhale , reach your arms up toward the ceiling , exhale , stretch them by the ears as far as you can .
Now notice your rib cage might pop up your lower back , might arch a little bit more if that happens , take the hands further away from the ears up toward the ceiling and draw those ribs in .
Now take your fingertips to your shoulders and just start to make circles with your elbows .
We're going to warm up the shoulders .
So as if you are drawing circles on the ceiling with your elbows , make them nice and big as big as what's comfortable and then pause and start to circle in the other direction .
Keep the breath nice and steady .
Don't forget about breathing and then pause and arms by your sides , your legs might start feeling those because the legs are still firm here , inhale arms up over as far as you can , but make sure those ribs don't pop out and the lower back doesn't over arch , let your shoulders relax away from the ear .
So they're not all bunched up as you exhale , take the arms back down by your sides .
Once again , inhale , sweep the arms up and over as far as you can while keeping the ribs and reaching the tail bone toward the heels .
Exhale arms down by your sides .
Legs are still active .
Now , we'll draw the right knee into the chest and bend the left knee , put that foot on the floor or you can keep it extended out .
Start to circle the right ankle in one direction , you can hold on to the shin or behind the thigh , circle it in the other direction .
You might notice I'm wearing socks .
Usually I don't wear socks when I practice , but today it was really cold .
So I kept my socks on for this one .
Now , extend your right leg up toward the ceiling and let it straighten out as much as it will .
Now , it might not straighten up that much .
It might be a little bit bent .
You might be holding on to the leg closer to your hips .
But wherever it is try and draw the right hip a little bit forward so your hips stay level and keep that left leg , active toes pointing up toward the ceiling and continue steady breathing going in a little deeper if you can or not , wherever you are is fantastic .
That's all a process .
When I first started , I could not stretch my leg that much , anywhere near it .
So now we'll switch bend , the left knee , put that foot on the floor and draw the or sorry , bend the right knee , draw the left knee and circle the left ankle in one direction , right legs extended out , or you can keep that leg bent , circle the left ankle in the other direction .
And then I'll extend the left leg up toward the ceiling .
I'm holding them behind the thigh , but you can grab onto your pants and hold your knee can be bend or if you can straighten up the leg , then straighten it , drawing the left hip forward a little bit .
So your hips are level and continue breathing in and out through the nose with that slight constriction in the back of the throat , good shape and your right toes continue to point up toward the ceiling .
So the right legs active , we're stretching out our hamstrings a little here .
Hamstrings tend to get tight from sitting in chairs , taking another breath and then we'll release it .
Now , bend both knees , hug your knees into your chest .
This is called Anona rocking a little bit side to side .
So the names of the poses are in Sanskrit .
Sanskrit is an ancient language originated in India .
And so I will sometimes use those names .
Although you can always call them by the English names too .
It's gonna roll off to one side .
I just pausing a moment .
I want to show you how to get up safely .
So you roll to the right left hands pressing into the floor and you'll bring yourself up nice and slowly with that hand , now we'll make our way to hands and knees .
If your knees are on a hard surface , be sure to pad them up with a pillow or blanket line up , wrists under shoulders , knees under hips on an inhale , bring your chest forward , lift your chin and lift your tailbone up as you exhale round your back , tuck your tailbone under and pull the ribs and belly in .
As you press away from the floor , inhale , gently , drop the belly , bring the chest forward , shoulder blades are drawing toward the waist as you exhale , press firmly into the arms and hands and lift away like you're a Halloween cat or , or a scared cat inhale , bring the chest forward again , lifting the chin and tail bone and exhale .
Rounding the back sometimes call this one cat and cow or a bit Lana one more time inhaling , drop the belly , lift the chin and tailbone and then exhale and start to round the back .
Pull the ribs and belly in , strongly inhale again , chest forward , collarbones are widening and exhale around in the back .
This is a great way to warm up the spine .
We're gonna take the hips all the way back to the heels and child's post your hips might not touch and it's fine if they don't , you'll keep your hips up higher .
You can also rest your head on the floor or on your hands .
If your knees bother you put a blanket between the backs of your thighs and your calf or a pillow .
So here is your child's pose , it's a resting pose .
If you're brand new to yoga , it might not feel so restful .
So remember you can rest your head on your hands or a block .
If you have a yoga block , put some padding between the calves and the backs of the thighs or keep your buns up higher , they don't have to go all the way to the heels .
Then we're gonna come back up , inhale , bring the chest forward , lift the chin and tail bone up , exhale round the back and take the hips as far back to the heels as you can .
Keeping the arms extended forward .
Inhale , come forward again .
So we're just gonna link some breath and movement .
Drop the belly , lift the tailbone , exhale , tuck and round , take the hips back toward the heels .
Once again , come on up to the knees , bring the chest through as you're inhaling as you're exhaling around the back , chin toward chest and stretch the hips back toward the heels , keeping the arms extended and again , up onto the knees , chest comes through tailbone , lift , chin , lift , exhale round in the back , chin toward chest hips toward heels .
So these movements , you'll move any amount in these directions just until you feel a nice stretch and we come up , I'm gonna walk the feet forward so we can sit down and then on to the back again , hugging the knees into the chest .
So these classes will build little by little by little .
So arms to a tee will drop the knees off to the left and look over the right shoulder .
If your knees don't touch , it's fine .
You can hold up with your hand or if you've got a block or a pillow or blanket , you can put that underneath .
I mentioned props .
I don't have any with me today , but I will further on , but it's nice to have those handy , a blanket , a pillow , yoga blocks if you have them , a yoga strap or a belt or a tie , all of those are helpful and I'll talk more about them as we continue in health through center , exhale knees to the right and look over the left shoulder .
Long breaths again , relax , relax your jaw , relax your shoulders , belly hips , let it all relax and then we'll come all the way back in a moment to center .
I'm gonna set up in a moment for .
So this is our final pose .
So it's probably the most important , extending the legs out , let your feet flap open , bring your arms away from your torso with your palms up , let your shoulder blades release toward the waist .
If it bothers your low back , bend the knees and feet on the floor instead and now close your eyes and relax .
This is Shana .
We try to be still and quiet for just a short period of time where we can practice being present as you're resting a little longer .
I always like to end it with a quote .
Today's quote is from Stanislavsky who said the longest most exciting journey is the journey inwards .
So this is the yoga journey .
It's the journey inwards .
And I'm so excited that you're on this journey with us .
So let's start to stretch out the body , take a bigger breath or reach out through the arms and the legs bend the knees and roll off to one side .
And then remember you're gonna slowly use your hand to press yourself up .
So your head comes up last .
If you want to keep the neck and back safe and instead of crossing the shins , if that's not comfortable , then sit in a way that is and bring your hands together in front of your chest .
Let's bring our hands to the forehead to remind us to have clear and loving thoughts and our hands to the heart , remind us to have clear and loving intentions and our hands to the mouth , reminding us to have clear and loving communications .
And we'll send out this wonderful energy to all beings everywhere .
Now must stay the light in me , recognizes and honors the light in you .
Thank you so much for joining .
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Have a wonderful , wonderful day .
Bye bye .