Yoga For Beginners at Home (15 minute) 30 Day Challenge Day 1

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 .

So bowing forward any amounts don't forget to subscribe to our channel and push like tell your friends , we also accept donations for our free yoga classes .

There is a link below .

You can also visit Fightmaster yoga dot com .

There's a way to donate there and a mailing list to join .

Have a wonderful , wonderful day .

Bye bye .