Kickstart Your Day

Hey there, how's it going? Welcome to yoga anytime. Welcome to keeping it real, okay? This exercise format here is all about like starting your day off with like energy, positivity, and maybe even just getting the workout done for the day right here, right now, okay? So join me if there's anything you need to do to up it, to down it, please do that, right?

Make it the best possible experience you can for yourself. Otherwise, let's do it. We're going to start standing at the front of your mat if you've got a mat. I'm going to warm it up with a few sun salutations, okay? So like any other yoga practice or movement or whatever you want to call it, like got to be here, got to be here, be in your body, be in your breath.

Let's take one full breath together, sweep the arms up, breathe in, and exhale the hands right to the center of the body, your heart. Breathe in, reach the arms high, and breathe out, forward bend. First one will move kind of slow to work out the kinks. Half lift, inhale, firm the core, lengthen the spine. On the breath out, step back into downward dog.

Tune it up a breath or two. Inhale into plank. First one, knees down, lower down, point the toes back, look for a little cobra pose as you breathe in here. Breathe out, curl the toes all the way back into downward dog. Pushing the heels down toward the floor, not ever feeling like the floor is the destination, sort of a direction.

Walk your feet to the front of the mat, grabbing a few forward bend stretches along the way. Open up those hamstrings. Half lift on the breath in, good long spine, shoulders back, breathe in. Breathe out, fold, grounding the feet using your strong legs, rise up, breathe in. Breathe out, palms rest at the chest.

Breathe in, reach up, breathe out, forward bend. Breathe in, half lift. Breathe out, walk it back into plank pose, tune up your plank for a moment. Another one with the knees, lower it down, point the toes back, lift the chest, inhale, cobra pose, get long in the spine. Downward dog, exhale, nice.

Keep it moving, walk the feet forward, forward bend, exhale, inhale, long spine. Exhale forward and down, strong from the ground, rise up, inhale, and exhale, hands to heart. Three more rounds, breathe in, and breathe out, forward and down. Half lift, inhale, exhale, step back into plank pose, and lower, maybe it's an upward dog now, inhale, warm up the shoulders, it can be a little finicky sometimes, downward facing dog, exhale. Three breaths or so, get those hips involved.

So as we're moving through these sun salutation A, any time you can grab a few stretches here and there, right, so it's like warm the body, stretch the body, tune into the breath, walk your feet forward, forward bend, inhale, lift halfway, fold, exhale, rise up, breathe in, breathe out, hands to heart. Breathe in, reach up and back, breathe out, forward and down. Breathe in, half lift. Breathe out, plank pose, lower. Breathe in, upward.

Breathe out, downward. Walk to the front of the mat again, inhale, half lift, exhale, fold, inhale, rise up, and exhale, palms rest at the heart. That's one, breathe in, breathe out, fold, inhale, half lift, I'm going to jump back and lower this time so you have the option. Upward dog inhale, downward dog exhale, okay, let's finish this off, walk up to the front of the mat, inhale, half lift, exhale, fold, inhale, rise up, and exhale, fold, inhale, reach up, we'll transition down, forward down, inhale, half lift, and plank pose, bring the knees down for a moment. Here's where we go right into 20 pushups, as best you possibly can.

If you'd like to bring your knees down, the knee pushup might look a little something like this, lower inhale, exhale up, keep the elbows stacked over the wrist. There's two already, okay, so if you'd like to bring the knees down, you can work at your own pace, I'm going to lift the knees high, doesn't have to be a chaturanga style one, you can bring your hands a little wider if you'd like, and it's an inhale as you lower down, exhale firm and press up, alright, so here we go, inhale, exhale one, inhale, exhale two, exhale three, exhale four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, there you go, ten more, inhale, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, downward dog, good job. Now, while I'm in downward dog, I just want to let you know that 20 pushups in a row for you is super difficult or even impossible, work with where you are, if it's one, do one, build progressively, also to get to 20, you may do one, stop for a minute, do one more, stop for a minute, alright, so figure out what works for you, but do not get discouraged, do everything you can to stay positive, walk to the front of the mat, inhale, half lift, and exhale, fold, that gets my breath, inhale all the way up, and exhale, palms to the heart, so already you're probably feeling it, right, let's feel it a little more now, so now we're going to get into the lower body, squats, I think I'll actually face you, that might be a good idea, so these are about as wide as the mat is a good stance position for your feet, okay, so get that, you can face me if you'd like, we'll do them together, turn the toes out a little bit, this opens up the hips a little bit, for me anyway, now the idea would be to do 20, okay, when you bring the arms out in front of you, you want to push and hinge the hips back, and sit heavy in the heels, when you come up, drive through the heels, bring the arms alongside your body, and everything kind of like lights up, squeeze the butt, core, shoulders, arms, 20, you and me, let's go, alright, so breathe in, keep the chest up, upper body stays as neutral as you can also, inhale, exhale, okay, just like that, in two, inhale three, exhale four, five, six, seven, ten, good job, eleven, twelve, push through the heels, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, a little double bounce at the end, take the arms up overhead, breathe in, and exhale. Come back to the front of the mat, now if from the push-ups and the squats, heart rate is elevated, take a pause here, bring the arms up overhead as you breathe in, and a nice long exhale, palms to heart. One more time, breathe in, and exhale, okay, we're going to transition down into a plank pose again, sorry, inhale, bring the arms up, exhale, forward and down, inhale, half lift, exhale, plank, bring the knees down, we're going to do two rounds, a 30 second count in my head of mountain climbers, so if you want to do these from your knees, make sure your arms feel good, shoulders feel good, and you stay right here and you go boom, boom, boom, for the 30 seconds, two rounds, I'll cue you.

If you want to lift the knees, it'll look a little something like this, you ready? Feels good, choose your way, 30 seconds begins now. Find the breath that helps you kind of get through it, halfway there, good job, firm through the core, five, four, three, two, one. Knees down, sit on the heels, roll the shoulders back, take a few breaths to recover, just one more round, again this is a quick, kind of efficient way to get the blood circulating energy up, mindset for the day, strong, alright, okay, one more, here we go, again from the knees or just holding plank, really it's up to you, here we go, in three, in two and one and go, nice and smooth, nice and quiet in the step backs or jump backs, you can run it out a little faster if you'd like, halfway there, supposed to be hard, if you're having a hard time so am I, I just have to put on my best, five, four, three, two, one, holy macaroni, holy macaroni, who says that? If you say it, good for you, I think it just, it says it, holy macaroni, anyway I feel awesome, blood's pumping, heart is working, now what we're going to do is come into little puppy pose, forearm plank combination, alright, so you get plenty of rest, don't let it just be puppy pose though, right, here we go, arms reach out, there it is, little puppy pose action, five times, what we're going to do is draw those elbows down, forearms down and then boom, right up into forearm plank, you can do this with the knees down but if you do this with the knees down, pull the elbows to the knees, knees to the elbows, same thing with the knees lifted, pull everything to the center, knees down, puppy pose, that's one, here we go, number two, forearm plank, your way, three, two, and puppy pose, so when you're in the forearm plank, do everything you can to press the forearms down, elbows down and pull to the feet or the knees and the same with the feet or the knees, so everything pulls tight, everything's working so you're going to feel a little trembley, trembley, holy guacamole, okay number three, here we go, so again, turn it on, everything's working, legs, glutes, core, shoulders, back, knees down, two more, we'll go back to the holy macaroni, I think that one works, listen, everyone says holy guacamole, two more, there we go, boom, boom, boom, boom, everything lit, three, two, yes, puppy pose, get the stretch, get the rest, feel the sweat possibly, hmm, last one, last one's a gift, it's not something you have to do, it's an opportunity, that's the attitude, here we go, forearm plank for five, four, three, two, one and puppy pose, good job, empty out and exhale, bring the hands forward, come all the way down to your front side, you can stay in a sphinx pose for a moment, how you feeling, what's going on over there, feeling alright, grab some water if you'd like right about now, but we're getting there, getting real close, so we're going to lower down, one of my favorite, favorite, favorite moves, I hope that it maybe becomes a favorite of yours, hands alongside the ribs, ground the feet, so the tops of the feet press hard into the floor, so much that you feel your knees lift a little bit, squeeze your butt a little bit, lift the hands, elbows reach up to the ceiling and back towards your heels, lift your chest, hold for five, four, three, two and relax, one more of those after a couple breaths, okay, same thing, alright, so I might add something that may feel really good or it might you come right back to this one, it's a little bit of movement and we'll just do five, but just to know that you can work it into your repertoire, hands up, remember the feet, legs, pelvis, lift the hands, lift up, now reach forward, breathe in, lower down a little bit, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out, back to that starting point, breathe in, breathe out, two more, breathe in, breathe out, everything locks in, strong, stable back body, one more time, breathe in, breathe out and hold for three, two, keep those feet strong and rest the head, undo the cramp in the left toe, if that happens to you by the way and your feet, your legs, it's totally normal, don't worry about it, okay, at least that's what I tell myself, don't worry about it kid, we'll come up, tabletop, we're gonna come right on down to our back, so we transition and we get a little momentary rest on the back, feeling good, okay, one of my favorite little core exercises is this dying bug, it might be called something else, client of mine calls it the mental exercise because you've got to really focus to get it right if it's new to you, so arms are straight up to the ceiling but make sure your hands are spread out, fingers are alive, forearms, all the muscles are working, legs are bent 90 degrees, feet active, okay, so what you're gonna do is you're gonna send your left leg straight out, right arm straight out, keep the other two limbs exactly where they are and as you inhale that's what you're doing but you're bringing and keeping everything here in the center core, low ribs below your chest pressing down, so there you go and exhale, we'll do 10 on each side, that's one, inhale extend, exhale, inhale extend, exhale, inhale extend, exhale, that's two, have some fun with this, reach, bring it in, reach, that's three, good, extend left and right, boom, left arm, right leg, boom, four, good work, five, five, halfway there, six, six, make sure to ground that back, seven, seven, finish the last three with the head and shoulders up and you'll have a lot easier time getting this area downtown, alright, so now let's go with the left leg, right arm, reach, reach, reach, reach and back home, reach, reach, reach, reach, reach, back home, good, left leg, right arm, extend, core ignited, good, that's two, two, good job, one and one, nice hands underneath the seat, ten leg lifts, legs straight up or bent, inhale lower down, exhale ten, you can lift your head and shoulders up just to again get that core a little more braced, that's two, exhale three, exhale four, exhale five, exhale six, exhale seven, eight, nine, ten, can I get a yay, feet below the knees, this is bridge pose, that means we're pretty much working toward the ease now, you can clasp your hands if you'd like, walk the arms, upper arms, shoulder blades toward one another, get that nice complimentary stretch across the upper body, breathe as you breathe in, your belly inflates a little bit, chest inflates, start to slide, release the hands, slide the shoulder blades out, it's easy because I'm a little sweaty, lift the heels and then from the upper spine through the middle all the way down to the low, low, low, low, low back, arms relax, big smile, big breath, windshield wiper your legs from side to side, okay get a little squeeze of the knees into the body, this will help to maybe lengthen out the low back, feel free to rest in a shavasana of your choice but that's all your, that's your choice 100%, the way we'll end this practice today is to come on up, I'll come right on to my knees, my shins, a kneeling pose, so again just to sort of end the way we started with energy, with positivity, okay that's however long that is, dedicated, boom, now you're ready to rock and roll, again if it's later in the day when you do this, that's cool too right, so whenever this is for you, however, take a deep breath in, exhale the hands to the heart, committed to taking good care of yourself always, namaste, have a good day, thanks for joining me.