Fitness Flow

Hey, what's going on, welcome. This I've put together, I think it's kind of like a yoga fitness flow, like a fusion of yoga and fitness. But before we get started, I just want to remind you, there are going to be moments when I'm going to encourage you to keep good form, keep your attention to your breath. The quality of the experience is so important, this at the end of the day is a yoga program. So don't turn it into a boot camp class or whatever you want to call it.

Just move consciously, do what's right for your body and have fun. Have fun with me, I'm going to be challenged, so let's begin. So we're going to start at the front of the mat, roll your mat out if you haven't already. Alright, let's take three breaths, alright, so once we take these three breaths, my friend, we are committing, alright, so there's no going back. So the breath is inhale, circle those arms up, like big morning or afternoon or evening stretch, whatever time it is, exhale the palms to your chest, inhale, sweep them up.

Exhale, palms to the chest, nice, last one, breathe in. And breathe out, alright, we'll start with a little warm up, breathe in, circle the arms up high, reach up, press the palms together if you've got that, exhale, come on down, forward bend, begin to feel the sensations in the legs and your back, so warming up, warming up in a forward bend, lift up into a half bend, so lift up, chest up, long spine as you breathe in, step the right foot back as you breathe out. Bring the right knee down, once you untuck the back toes, bring your hands up onto your left thigh. So let's kind of lean into it a little bit, alright, just kind of lean in, we're not going to hold in the beginning warm up anything real static, alright, think of this as a little bit more of like dynamic stretching, prepping the body for the upcoming movements, ha ha, which is still a surprise unless this is the second or third time you've watched this, which if that's the case, awesome, alright, now lean into it, alright, the feeling you may feel, the stretch you may feel is up through the right quad or hip flexor, right, maybe up into the belly if you reach your arms up for a breath, take the hands down to frame that left foot, step the right foot up to meet the left, exhale, fold, inhale, lift and lengthen that spine, never a bad thing, lengthen, fold over, exhale, step the left foot back, knee comes down, again, right, so hands up on that right thigh, body lifting, untuck the back toes and lean into it a little bit, so you might even coordinate the breath with the leaning, so breathe in, move away, breathe out, lean into it, lean in meaning draw your right knee forward, kind of sink into the hips a little bit, good, two more times, breathe in, back out, breathe out, lean into it, one more time, breathe in and breathe out, take the arms up, big full expression here, exhale the hands come down, stepping your left foot up to meet your right, finish the exhale, inhale, lift halfway, big full exhale, forward bend, send your seat back a little bit, bend those knees, not too much, right, lift the arms up and then rise all the way high, arms reaching to the ceiling, belly completely stretched out, exhale the palms to your chest. From mountain pose, take the right foot, actually let's start with the left, take your left foot, step it back, make sure like look down, make sure you're not on a tight rope, your feet are hip width, right?

So what you're going to do here is you can leave your hands on your thigh, take your hands behind your head maybe or even up high, what I'd like you to do is straighten the front leg, breathe in and exhale just like we did in the low lunge, kind of lean into it, come on down, good, inhale, straighten the right leg a little bit, exhale, lean back in, make sure your hips are nice and square, the sensation most likely is up through the left quad hip flexor waist. Okay, so this time come up out of it, breathe in, exhale, lean into that intensity, that deep stretch, now kind of hover and bounce in that, like this little, like small little dynamic stretching concept here, right? So you might feel a little pull here, left hip, hip flexors, all right, now inhale, reach those arms up, exhale, the hands come down, step the left foot up, fold, bend the knees and go ahead and rise all the way up this time and palms to the chest, exhale, step the right foot back, so moderate distance, you don't need to go back too far, all right, pick your hand placement, I'll keep them at my chest, prayer like position, straighten the left leg on the breath in, exhale, lean back into the lunge, you know, you can always do in these, keep going, what you can always do in these lunge type positions is close your eyes, not only will it require more focus for your balance, right, but it gives you that internal kind of connection rather than potentially being distracted, in and out, now land in that big stretch, right, where you can feel the gentle pull in the hip, kind of lean into it, back and forth, in and out, okay, inhale, reach up, exhale, hands come down, step the right foot up to meet your left, full exhale here, providing space for the inhalation to rise all the way up, reach up, touch the ceiling, exhale, palms to your chest, okay, so that was a little warm up, I'm going to face you now, quick description, four different movements done three rounds, okay, we'll take the first one, kind of slow, so set up, set your feet up on the edge of the mat, this is roughly the edge of the mat for me, then take your toes and point them out, this is going to be like a melasana or squat position, so let's get the form correct, reach out in front of you, at the same time push your hips back, keep your chest up, tailbone reaching down toward the floor, inhale, lower down as far as it makes sense for you, now pause here, I want you to press deliberately down through your heels, through the entire motion coming up, and at the same time we're going to pull our arms back and engage our back, so breathe in, exhale, so right here I've got everything contracted, super strong, glutes, quads, back, everything, let's do nine more, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, you can kind of take a cross with the arms, pull back, breathe in, breathe out, let's call that five even though I think it was six, six, seven, eight, nine, good job, ten, good, so don't worry if you love those, we have two more rounds of those, come on down into your hands and knees for a moment, ten push-ups, this version will be the yoga chaturanga style, so hands below the shoulders, knees are an option whichever you feel is most productive, inhale, lower down, exhale, press up, ten times, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, breathe in, five, breathe in, six, breathe in, seven, stay with it, eight, nine, exhale, ten, pause right here, breathe in with control lower to your belly, good, that's two of four for the first one, take your arms out to the front like Superman, gaze downward, press strong through your feet, meaning press the feet strong down into the mat so that your kneecaps might even rise, lift your palms up off the mat, steady breath, lift your chest a little bit, good, on the exhale pull the elbows back like you've got this imaginary bar, you're pulling, create some resistance and tension, the idea is to feel it in the upper back, inhale, reach, lower down, exhale, if it bothers your low back to lift your chest, keep your chest lower just work the arms, same thing, exhale, four, ten times, inhale, exhale, five, exhale, six, try to keep your head neutral with your spine, seven, exhale, eight, good work, exhale, nine, exhale, ten, okay, take it back for the one quick child's pose, let a full exhale help land you there, good, forearm plank, side plank, so what we're going to do is you're going to take your right arm, we'll come here again the next two rounds so we'll go automatic set up, right elbow below your right shoulder, okay, now stack or stagger your feet so your right foot is lower than your left, left arm up, right palm down, option is to hold it steady or take your hips, lower them down a little bit and on the exhale lift the hips, reach the left arm up overhead, side stretch through the entire left side of the body, inhale lower, ten times, exhale, inhale, exhale, three, inhale, exhale, four, inhale, exhale, exhale, five, stay with it halfway through, switch sides, okay, my back will be facing you now, so left elbow underneath the shoulder, nice and sturdy and stable, right, create the framework, stack or stagger your feet, bring attention to the low left side of your waist, right arm reaches up, inhale lower down as far as you can, exhale, lift up and stretch the right hand as far overhead as you can, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, let's do three more, breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out, nice, back into push up position, downward facing dog, stretch it out a little bit, a few deep breaths, take the right foot, step it up to the right pinky, left foot, left pinky, okay, set the seat down, arms out in front of you and rise all the way up, good, two more rounds, okay, not super fast paced, deliberate, working on very key parts of the body, building strength, necessary strength, okay, I will face this way this time, so my heels are on the mat, toes are out, inhale, lower down, exhale, inhale, exhale, I want you to squeeze the glutes which is your butt every time, exhale three, exhale four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, let's do two more, two bonus, exhale one, exhale two, good, step back, come down to plank for a moment on your knees, this time bring your hands toward the edge of the mat, still want you to keep the elbows stacked over the wrists but it's a wider position, different sensation, okay, ten times, when you're ready, you inhale, lower down, exhale, press up one, inhale, exhale two, exhale three, four, inhale, exhale five, five more, you've totally got this, use your knees if that's more appropriate, pull the belly in, draw your tailbone in the direction of your heels, right, no sway back, five more, in, out, in, out, three more, breathe in, breathe out, two more, in, out, breathe in, breathe out, pause here, breathe in and exhale lower all the way down, take a deep breath, take two more like that, inhale, exhale, start to walk your hands out, find one more full inhalation with a long exhalation, okay, I took an extra breath, hopefully you did too, okay, lift the palms, lift the arms, option is to lift the chest, exhale, pull that imaginary bar back, get strong in your upper back, inhale, reach forward, exhale, inhale, exhale on that exertion, right, lift, lift, lift, pull, create resistance, strong upper back, strong lower back as well, breathe in, exhale four, inhale, exhale five, exhale six, pull that bar, exhale seven, nice, exhale eight, exhale nine, exhale ten, sweet, come back, land in a child's pose for a breath or three, why not, right, two more breaths, let your head rest on the mat or the forehead on the fists or forearms, one more breath, inhale, long exhalation through the mouth, all right, forearm plank, right arm, all right, so set it up, get the framework right, left arm high, five times on the right, five times on the left, lower the hips on the breath in and lift on the breath out, inhale, exhale, lift, inhale, exhale, lift, breathe in, breathe out, one more for the bonus, lift, lift, lift, lift, lift, sweet, other side, all right, get the shape right first, right, no rush, quality movement, quality attention to your breath as best you can, inhale, exhale, lift the hips, reach the right arm overhead, good, four more, breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out, last one, inhale, exhale, lift, lift, lift, lift, lift, great, come back into forearm plank, walk up onto your hands, downward dog, downward dog may or may not be an opportunity for you to relax, gather some strength, so it's either downward dog for three more breaths, four more breaths or child's pose, gather your strength for the last round, remember even if you're kind of fatigued I want you to still pay attention to how you're moving, okay, how you're breathing, step the left foot up to the left pinky, sink into the hips for a moment, right foot right pinky, lower down, lift the chest, look forward and all the way up, all right, that's two of three, last round, lucky you, lucky me, I got a little sweat, we're moving slowly right and you know every once in a while I'm realizing it while I'm doing it but with all the language I have to use and the breath cues and the movement my breath may be out of whack sometimes so just I'm doing my best, right, doing my best, make an adjustment, here we go, open up the feet, okay, same thing, let's do 15 this time, remember the heels, the heels are key in engaging and building strength in your butt, your glutes, breathe in, actually put the hands behind the head, they call this a prisoner squat, okay, breathe out, inhale, keep your chest up, exhale, exhale, exhale, don't worry about going down so far, right, you can lower down this far and it's still an awesome success, five, six, you can pull the elbows back, seven, eight, nine, exhale, ten, exhale, five, four, three, two, one, sweet, push up, okay, come back, hands and knees, this push up will be different than the last two, okay, we're going to do five on one side, five on the other, so we'll start by keeping, when you're in this position, push up position, keep the left hand where it is, slide your right hand forward about a foot, come into either a knee position or a full plank position, lean a little bit over to the left because that's the focal point, right, and if you want to watch the first one, watch the first one, watch my elbow, how it stays over the wrist, really important, left elbow over the left wrist, push up one, okay, five more, inhale, exhale one, exhale two, exhale three, exhale four, exhale five, good, switch, left hand forward, right hand back in like that neutral standard position, lean a little bit to the right, inhale, exhale one, two, three, four, five, one more bonus, six, nice, good job, breathe in plank pose lower down to the mat, take the arms out for a moment, give yourself a breath, breath or two, pay attention to where you are, take a moment here to really like gather your thoughts, gather your breath, feelings in the body, here we are lying down, the next position that we're working right is our upper back, lower back a little bit, reach forward, head neutral, inhale, exhale lift the arms, lift the chest, exhale pull back one, inhale, exhale two, inhale, exhale three, exhale four, exhale five, exhale six, good work, exhale seven, exhale eight, exhale nine, exhale ten, hands come down alongside the ribs, breathe in lift the chest, breathe out tabletop, this time to kind of work the low back neutral, the spine more neutral right, cat cow three rounds, inhale, cow pose, exhale cat, inhale, exhale cat pose, inhalation cow pose and exhalation cat, good, last forearm plank okay so right arm down, the feeling right with the right arm down is that low oblique region of the right side, hips waist line of the right side okay five times, inhale lower, exhale lift and open, inhale lower, exhale lift in, out and up, good two more, exhale lift those hips, lift, lift, lift, sweet one more time, breathe in, exhale lift, reach that left arm open, over your head stretch your entire left side of the body, hold, lift your hips more, more, more, nice, other side, okay get the set up, right arm lift, lift high, inhale lower, exhale pull the belly in, reach up and over your head one, inhale exhale two, inhale exhale three, breathe in lower, exhale lift four, breathe in lower, exhale lift five, stay open, stay open, reach, reach, reach, lift, lift, lift, come to your forearms, forearm plank up onto a push up position plank pose, good, downward dog, let your head hang, bend those knees a little bit, lift your seat, your sit bones up, lengthen your spine, create a position here that allows you to find a few comfortable breaths. We did three rounds that was great, if you feel compelled to do another round on your own go for it, four more rounds go for it, if you only made it through two or even one that's great, you're here, you're doing it, see what happens next time, okay set the knees down, child's pose, take those knees pretty wide, reach your seat back, so child's pose what I've learned, I've learned another name recently as you shift your hips from side to side and you recover in your breath, it's like a strength gathering pose, I just love that because I think sometimes it can be viewed as or felt as like well I can't do something so I'm going to go to child's pose but really all you're doing is gathering your strength so you can come back feeling more energized, a little stronger and prepared to tackle the next task, right, take another three or four breaths here and in the bigger picture it's like a reminder to us that it's okay to relax, I have a feeling you are very good at getting things done, you know like myself and I need to remind myself that it's okay to like relax it doesn't make me weak, it just might make me stronger, all right so from here come on up, okay right on time to cool down, all right so I hope you feel good from that, let's come on down to our backs, do a few stretches that might help kind of help us recover, slow and relax the heart rate a little bit so if you lie on your back with knees bent take your left ankle over your right thigh, I like to have that left ankle actually kind of like hanging over the right side of my thigh just below the knee gives me a little support, you could figure out what the best option is for you, okay first stage take the left hand on the inner left thigh, point your left toes straight up and then gently guide your left thigh away from you opening up your hip in kind of a subtle way, for me it's somewhat subtle for you it might be this like whoa and some of you may not feel the thing but do it anyway, there's something going on in there and if you kind of like roll from side to side on your low back you might find another little nugget of feeling, good, okay come back to center, make sure the back is long, your neck is long, lift your right foot up off the mat but when you do so can you still keep your left hip open, your knee away from you, left knee away, take your left hand weave it under your left calf, right hand reaches around and you might interlace on your shin just below the knee, hamstring the right hamstring might be more available to you, I like to hold on to the shin just below the knee, once I get the hold I don't want to stay up here and work too hard right, so what I want to work toward doing is exhaling pulling the legs gently toward me so I lengthen out the back of my neck, rest my head and then give a little effort to pull the legs toward my body, so the sensation if this is new to you the stretch the work is most likely in the outer left hip or side of your butt or thigh, inside that left groin there's a little something as well and so a little different from when we first started with that sort of gentle dynamic stretching, now we're moving slowly maybe even static and holding a pose, maybe if it feels okay to you you're actually kind of enjoying it, how's your breath, I was talking for a while and I didn't really cue you so I just always I'm assuming that you're working on your breath, little flow constant commitment to breathing, okay so now the next move here is if you bring your right foot down you can cross that left leg over a little bit more like you're working toward like eagle legs, mindful right don't suffer if you are a dude and you want to adjust now, no need to come into this in any discomfort unnecessary discomfort shift your hips to the left, arms come out like a big wing on each side and really kick the hips over to the left so you're on your right hip and we'll get a little spinal twist, hands free you can use your right knee to leverage on to the left calf to go deeper, hopefully by now your heart rate if it was ever lifted is relaxed, good okay let's come back out over to center like shift yourself back to the center of the mat release and go ahead and just kind of like whoosh and switch over to the other side so a couple key reminders point your right toes straight up flex that right foot gently guide your right knee away from you, good try to keep that knee and that hip open away from the body as you lift actually do this we did it on the other side so if you keep that and you just rock from side to side you might find some little areas of interest and that's what's nice about feeling more and more comfortable about slowing down is that you find areas of interest that may get completely bypassed in your daily walking or normal exercising right moving so fast slow down see what's around okay that works for me I'm not saying that works for you but just a suggestion something to consider stretch the back of your neck point your toes up definitely now because you're putting a little more pressure on that knee potentially that right knee one little thing I do is I push my right in this case my right elbow into the inner right thigh or wherever your elbows touching and as you're pulling you're also pushing with the elbow that keeps that hip somewhat open again this depends on your framework and outer right hip your butt glute region might be feeling some stretch I'm not saying this is a remedy or will help for sure but there are folks that say this pigeon stretch helps with sciatica so research that if you're interested okay bring the left foot down cross your left leg over okay shift your hips to the right as far as you can really right coming on to the left hip arms come out spread the back wide twisting to the left you can use your left knee or thigh into the right calf as leverage so it's nice to do this hands-free that's what I'm getting at you don't need to force anything right we're just looking for a little release low back mid-back hips generally the gazing point is straight up if you'd like to look over your right shoulder and that feels good go for it okay let's take one more breath breathe in exhale it all the way and come back to center okay happy baby let's get into the hips a little bit so if you bend your knees into your body reach up to your your shins your ankles the outer edges of your feet basically what you want to do is hold on somewhere where it enables you to flatten out your back I think if you find that you're in this sort of like on a turtle shell right try to hold a little lower that might get your head down and most of your back flat and grounded okay so get the feet up over the knees bring your attention to your inner inner inner groin hip region and now maybe send some some breath into that space if that makes sense a little rocking from side to side might feel good good release that send your left leg all the way out onto the mat as you hug your right knee into your chest here's where you've got like full license to explore right so that right knee is into you the belly maybe it's over toward the ribs or way out to the right that's going to give you a similar sensation as happy baby but good maybe you just move it around again explore investigate be curious okay switch sides left knee into the chest into the belly so need a chest pose right leg extending out explore through the left side okay both knees in finish it off just before final relaxation so you hug those knees in stretch out the low back if that's something that happens when you hug your knees in good bring your feet down slide your legs all the way out so basically for the next couple moments in addition to my cues everything you do think and feel right like really supports you spending good quality time in final relaxation will take one minute or so it might be helpful for you to take a full body inhale so when you breathe in almost feels like your whole body is flooded with that inhalation hold it for a moment and then a really slow release through the exhale letting go of any muscular effort residing in the body make sure the back of the neck is long relax your shoulders and chest relax your legs feet and ankles draw your attention to the muscles in your face around your mouth and jaw common place for me is my eyes whenever I bring my attention to my eyes and my forehead I'm kind of squeezing there takes real effort for me to like kind of smooth and relax out the region around the eyes and forehead bring your arms up overhead reach through your fingertips in your toes take a full body stretch like super super thankful like try to end it on a positive note right there could be a handful of things I could focus on right now that I didn't do well or I wish I did better right but I tend to like to focus on the fact that I just did it okay so draw the knees in rock up to sit say hello hi how are you nice to see you again so good job good job right it's working on basic muscle groups I'm really I'm a big fan of strength balancing it with flexibility so hopefully you got a little bit of strength match with some flexibility some relaxation I feel pretty cool and relaxed and thankful so thank you have a beautiful day evening wherever you are