Strong like the Hulk!

(waves crashing) Hi, today we're going to practice a series of yoga poses for strength. That's why I brought my friend, Hulk, here. And I'm gonna put him right here, in my special place with lots of my special things. I invite you to create your own space in your home and find your own special things. It will help you focus your attention as well as making your practice something special which it is.

So from here, let's start in downward facing dog. So bring your hands to the mat. Spread the fingers wide and push back towards your heels. Bend one knee a lot, breathing. Other knee a lot, breathing.

Do that a few more times. Walk your dog off and feel the tension in your legs, your hamstrings. Excellent, now bend your elbows. Push back to your heels, lengthening the spine. Ground through your right hand.

Inhale the right leg to the sky. Bend the knee and let the foot drop over. Lift and lower the right knee several times, breathing into those inner channels of your legs. Excellent. From here, square your hips.

Inhale the right leg to the sky. Perfect. Release, and then, once we do the first side, we'll do the other. Ground through that left hand. Inhale the left leg to the sky and go ahead and drop that foot over.

Perfect. Now lift and lower that left knee. Feel the tension in your hips. Make sure you're breathing. And then, from here, square the hips.

Inhale that left leg up. Eventually lower. Walk your dog off a few more beats. And next time you're around a dog, watch the dog do this. Perfect.

From here, drop to your knees. And then let's come into a pose called, dolphin. So, let's make the dolphin nose. Interlace your fingers. Ground through your forearms.

Straighten out your legs. Push back towards your heels and feel the strength in your arms, your shoulders, your legs. Perfect, bend one knee. Bend the other knee. And then, picture your body like a dolphin.

You might even pretend to swim. It feels good to move in shapes, breathing. Eventually pause. Lengthen towards the earth. Push your heels down.

Excellent and then come down onto your knees. And we'll move from here into a pose called, plank. Great to keep your arms really strong so spread the fingers wide. And come up. Pretend your body's a piece of wood, long and strong.

Shoulders over wrists. Your legs are really strong so really use them here. Breathing in your belly. See if you can relax your face. You might even crack a smile, breathing.

Oh my gosh, you guys are doing so well. Take one more deep breath. Beautiful. And now, we'll do the yoga push up so bend your elbows toward your body. See if you can hold your weight off the earth for just for few beats.

You can always drop to your knees and then we'll come up into cobra pose. Perfect. Bend and straighten and it might feel good for your wrists, your arms, to rotate them towards your body. Wobble, pretend you're a snake. That's where these poses came from, the animals, watching the animals.

Eventually inhale up. Take a deep breath in your throat. Beautiful. Curl your toes, push back to downward facing dog. Walk it off.

Nice and then bend your elbows, look at your feet, take a few bunny hops. Get light. Excellent. Now, from here, look at your hands. Some of you will walk forward.

You might step forward and you might even jump forward. Inhale, lengthen. Exhale, round. Take a deep inhale up. Look up towards the sun.

And then bring the sun shine, our source, back into your body. Pause here. Close your eyes. Take a deep inhale. Exhale.

And feel how powerful and strong you are. So, from here, we'll do something called a vinyasa, a great way to warm up your spine and build strength in your legs. So we'll begin together. Let's take a breath, take a big inhale. Exhale.

Inhaling. As you exhale, push your hands down towards the earth, circle to the sun. And dive. Inhale, lengthen. From here, bend your knees, press into your palms and either step or lightly hop back to plank.

Perfect. Rock a little from side to side. Feel your power and either drop to your knees and scoop your chest or bring your elbows in. Lower slowly, you might even hover. Wow, take a deep inhale.

Arch up to your snake, your backbend. Make sure it feels good for your spine. Deep breath in your throat. Curling your toes, come back to down dog. Walk your dog off.

See if you can rest a little here, breathing. And then bend your knees look at your hands. Find those bunny hops again. And you can walk or lightly hop forward. Inhale to lengthen.

Exhale, round. Push into the earth to arch to the sun. And bring the sun into you, energy. Close your eyes here. Once again, feel your power.

Visualize a river through the center of your body, flowing. So, from here, let's move into a couple more standing poses for the strength of your legs. So go ahead and open your legs wide. Turn one foot open. And we'll come into a pose called, high lunge.

So turn towards this foot. Rock a little forward and back. I like to pretend I'm jaguar in the forest right here. Now pause, get quiet, lengthen your spine. Some of you will stay right here, this is perfect.

Others of you will find the knee and you might even inhale the arms up. This is called monkey pose. You can pretend to swing from vine to vine. You might even arch up. Spread the fingers wide.

Notice if you crack a smile, it gets a little easier. Deep breath. And then bring your hands back to the earth. We'll move from here into side angle pose. So take your back foot, drop it.

Elbow to knee, hand on your waist. Pause. Look at your back foot. Really ground it. That will keep your ankles strong.

Circle the front arm into the center of the room. And then lengthen from your back heel all the way up through those top fingertips. That's called a line of energy. Close your eyes and feel it. Breathe.

Beautiful, now take your top hand, inhale up. Turn both feet in. Pause for a moment, rest on your feet. Feel your feet on the earth, grounded. Other side, so turn the other foot out.

We'll come into that high lunge again. Rock a little forward and back. Perfect. Now stay right here. This might be that perfect pose for you.

Listen to your body. Otherwise, your hands can find the knee. Slow, pick a spot on the earth. That will balance you. Excellent.

Now stay right here or circle the arms up. Find your inner monkey. You can swing from vine to vine. You might even want to look up and smile. Deep inhale, exhale.

Beautiful. And then, from here, hands find the earth. We'll find side angle pose again. Anchor the outer edge of your back foot. Elbow to knee, hand finds the waist.

Now stay right here. Ground through your feet, feel it. Perfect. So this is one choice. Some of you will want to circle the arm in front of the face into the center of the room.

From your back heel, so that's right here, through the leg, the side waist, up through the arm, lengthen. See the line. Take a deep breath. Beautiful. Now imagine someone's pulling on that top hand as you reach up.

Lengthen. Turn both feet in and rest here for a few minutes. Breaths, noticing. So one more pose for the strength of your legs. So walk your hands down to the earth.

And sync your hips. Look at your opposite foot. Flex it. Great stretch for the inner channels of your legs. From here, walk your hands over to the other foot.

Same thing. Spread the toes wide. Good. We like to call this Spider Man Pose, Spider Woman Pose. So if it's useful, pretend and rock a few times from side to side.

Notice how flexible you are, breathing. Make sure it feels good for your body. A few more times. Do this on your own. Feeling.

Nice. Eventually come back to center. Walk your feet in. Sync your hips and come into squat pose. Pause here, bring your hands to your heart.

Take a deep breath. Peace.