Flexibility Yoga for Beginners with Rodney Yee - Extend Your Reach _ Yoga _ Gaiam

And now today , bring your hands together in front of your heart , take a moment to set an intention for your practice an intention is anything you want it to be .

Maybe your intention today is to really focus on your breath or be present .

Or maybe you want to send out some good energy to someone as you inhale , we're gonna sweep the arms out around and up , make sure the ribs don't pop up , release the fingers and then turn your palms to face , up , arms and ears are in line , but you can have your arms in front of the ears and exhale , turn to the left .

So inhale to lengthen and exhale will twist and then back to center on the inhale or release the arms on the exhale .

And again , sweep the arms up , interlace other pinky and fronts .

Exhale , turn the palms to face the ceiling , take an inhale to lengthen the spine .

As you exhale , start to turn to your right inhale to create length , exhale , turning , moving the rib cage , using your your internal muscles to twist you inhale , come back to center exhale , release .

You might find it's easier to twist in one direction more than the other .

Now switch the cross of the legs while inhale again , sweeping the arms up , making sure the ribs stay in , bring your right hand to your left knee and your left hand behind your back length .

And as you inhale , exhale and turn and twist , turning to look over the left shoulder , rolling the left shoulder back .

Now you can use your arms a little bit to deepen your twist , but always start with your internal muscles , bring the head back to center and other side , sweep the arms up on the inhale and the exhale , left hand or right knee , right hand behind lengthen the spine .

Inhaling ax , he'll roll the right shoulder back and turn the head in that direction .

Take your left hand to the center of the mat , reach your right arm up , press down through your bottom arm , reach through the top arm , exhale , move your right arm underneath your left shoulder , place your left fingertips to the ground , broaden your chest , broaden your back and turn free , press the legs , press the arms inhale .

Come back to center .

Take your right hand to the center of the mat .

Reach your left arm up from the press of your right hand on the exhalation , red , your left arm under your right shoulder , left cheek comes onto the ground , right fingertips to the ground , turn broaden your collarbones , broaden your kidney band , press through your hands and turn .

Breathe easy .

So we use our arms a little bit .

We'd never want to use our arms to crank deeply into a twist just to help and he'll head to center exhale to unwind and then you move the blanket all the way if you have it there and then we'll roll forward right onto the hands and knees on the inhale .

Chest comes forward , lift the chin and tail bone up , exhale round the back chin to our chest , pulling the ribs and belly again , inhale f the chest through widening the collar bones .

Exhale round the back , tuck the tailbone , our old friend cat and cow inhale for bringing the chest forward .

Lift the chin and tailbone , drop the belly and then exhale .

Pull the belly in , pull the ribs in , press away from the floor , let your head drop .

Inhale , come to neutral .

Now we're gonna step the right foot all the way up by the hands , your left knee might need some padding .

So if you need to pat it up , do and then come on up , the right knee is over the ankle , but the right hip needs to pull back a little rest the hands on the leg , keep the right hip pulling back , then inhale , arms reach out as you exhale , you might sink a little forward .

You might not , but make sure that the knee does not go past the ankle .

The right hip is pulling back , the left hip is drawing forward a little bit , spin the triceps forward .

Now , make sure the ribs are in .

Don't let the ribs pop out like they like to and then length in the lower back , arms by ears or not so far , let's bring the hands back down and now we'll straighten the front leg .

So this is where the blocks will come in handy today , hands on blocks will help to give me some space so that I can fold over my front leg .

The right hip will continue to pull back and then bend the knees again , bend the front knee again , sorry , and then back to table and we'll switch , it's bringing the left foot .

So if it doesn't make it up there , you can just pick up that left leg and move it there .

Make sure the knees over the ankle , bring the hands up , resting the hands there and pulling the left hip back , sending the right hip forward .

Make sure you're not arching too much in the lower back .

So it rips in tail bone down , then reach up through the arm , spinning the triceps forward , stretching up , maybe sinking the hips a little bit forward .

If you can keep pulling the left hip back , draw the front ribs in and create length through the spine and then hands down on the blocks .

Now , if you don't have blocks , you could also rest your hands on your leg .

Exhale and mountain pose , spread your feet , hips distance apart .

Take your right arm up , grab your right wrist with your left hand and take a little bit of a side bend to the left .

As you side bend , do a little bit of a forward bend , opening up the backside body back to the straight side bend .

Then roll a little bit into a side bend with a back bend , looking up underneath your right arm back to simple straight side bend .

Come up to up picking movement right left right arm , left arm , ground your legs right arm and the left arm reaches and then hold your left wrist with your right hand , straight side bend towards the right , opening the left side of your body .

You might be able to stretch back your heels toward the floor a little bit more .

Just play with that and see how it is .

Make sure you're pulling the ribs in and the belly , arms and ears are in line .

Now , feed back to hips with looking forward will step the feet all the way to the hands .

Inhale , come halfway up .

Exhale , fold forward .

Remember hands don't have to touch the floor by any means .

Inhale , press for the feet .

Sweep the arms up , looking up steady balance .

Finding to Daina here , the outer edges of the feet parallel firm , the legs , inner thighs are spinning back , chest is lifted and widen the collar bones .

Keep the belly drawing in , inhale , sweep the arms out around an up watch for that back arch and rips to pop out .

So tailbone down , rips in exhale , folding forward , hinge from the hips , keep the spine long bend , the knees as needed .

Inhale halfway up hands to shins or above the knees .

Exhale , folding and bending the knees as needed and press for the feet with a long spine .

Sweep the arms up , looking up and exhale hands to the chest again .

Inhale , sweep the arms out around and up .

Let the shoulder blades relax a little exhale .

Pull the forward , keep the belly lifted as you go forward to keep the spine long .

Inhale halfway lift , exhale , bend the knees , plant the palms step all the way back into down .

The belly is pulling in tail bones reaching to heels .

So notice that we're not arching the back .

We're not like hips aren't coming forward and hips aren't sticking back either .

But the night .

So neither of that or that , but we have a neutral pelvis .

So we're gonna try and keep that in Plank po .

So you'll imagine you have that block inhale .

So the arms up ax , he'll fold forward with a long spine , inhale halfway up , lengthen .

Now bend the knees , plant the palms .

We're in a step to plank top of a push up , shoulders are over the wrists .

So remember knees can come down at any time , lift the backs of the knees up if they're off the floor , but don't let the hips go down .

Don't let the hips go up hips and shoulders about in the same line , press up between the shoulder blades and widen the upper back a little but bring the chest forward .

Exhale downward .

Dog lift the hips as you inhale will lift the right leg back and up from the inner thigh .

Now , cross the right shin over the left and the left shin over the right .

Keep rocking and changing legs with each rock breathing rock up to sitting