Energize Your Day

Hey there, welcome to yoga anytime. And thank you so much for joining me for this 20 minute practice. This practice, I think will leave you feeling pretty energized, kind of strong, and it'll work on some of those trouble spots, right? The mobility and flexibility we all struggle with at times. So let's begin.

I'm going to start facing you for now. And what I'd like you to do is just kind of do a few shoulder rolls. You can alternate arms. Take like you're doing a backstroke, right? With one arm and then the other one and do this as if you were trying to warm your shoulders up and then go the other way.

Right arm reaches up forward and down left arm. Now you're doing the crawl, right? And again, just to get the shoulders warm and then we'll take some, some swings. Okay. So if you take your feet kind of on the wide side, soft knees, just let the body rotate from side to side and let the arms kind of slap the body, you know, like the waist.

You can also do it with your hands up here. Elbows kind of wide and it's a little more focused on the core and the trunk. So you go over to the left, you spin the right heel up and draw the right hip forward, boom. Good back to center. One of my favorites.

Take your knees or your feet wide, knees bent hands. It's almost like we're huddling up, right? What's the play coach, but it really can feel nice on the shoulders and spine and hips. So knees bent, right shoulder draws forward and down in the direction of your left foot and maybe look over your left shoulder and then you can go to the other side. So left shoulder down toward the floor, toward the right foot, rotate, twist one more over to the other side, left side, and one more to the right.

Super good. Heels walk in a little bit, heel and feet, heel and feet drop down into your squat pose, heels up or down. Just start to say hello to that space, a little wiggle to the right, a little wiggle to the left and we'll take a stretch out forward fold. So lift the seat, walk your feet toward pointing forward and hang kind of lazily yet intentionally over your legs. You can hold on to opposite elbows, just starting to kind of like wake up some of the areas in the body that deserve a little attention.

Okay. If you're not at the front of the mat, come on over to the front of the mat. You can stay in a forward fold for now. That's very nice. Step the left foot back all the way back.

Keep the back knee lifted for now and I want you to really bend deeply into the right leg. So you're in a lunge, right foot forward up on your fingertips. You can let the left knee graze or even drop to the floor. Lift the left knee, lift your hips, begin to flirt with straightening out the right leg, a little early on maybe so mindful of your ambitiousness, is that a word, ambitiousness? So you're kind of bending and straightening into the right leg like you're trying to warm up the knee, the ankle.

Okay, nice, keeping the back knee lifted, left leg strong, ground the left hand your way, lift the heart, the chest, lengthen the spine and twist generously to the right, right arm reaching up to the high, super good, nice. Right hand back down, step the left foot up, squat again, heels down, heels up your way, walk the hands forward, maybe even reach your booty back so you stretch out the back and the shoulders. Okay, set yourself up for lunge with the left foot forward. So right foot back, left foot forward, and you're just kind of moving in and out, straightening the left leg a bit, bending it as deeply and safely as you can. Bringing the right knee down just to kind of get more attention and length through the right side, low waist area, hip, you can bring the knee completely down, take the half split or its pyramid with the right knee lifted, your choice.

Different shapes for different folks, different depths for everybody. Back into your strong lunge, right hand grounded your way, fingertips, fist, palm block, rotate and twist to the left. So turn and rotate the chest to the left, reaching the left arm high, feel it out, listen to your body, breathe, okay, left hand back down, step the right foot up to meet your left this time forward fold, feet hip width, flat back inhale, beautiful long spine, fold exhale, rise all the way up to stand with your arms, reaching overhead and exhale, hands to heart, inhale, reach the arms up, take a gentle baby back bend, push the hips forward, reach up and back, exhale forward and down, stretch the back and legs. Exhale half lift, exhale plank pose, walk back, organize yourself, shoulders, elbows, wrists all aligned, fingers spread out, pushing your heels back, engaging your thigh muscles, core engaged. Now lean onto your toes so your shoulders come forward a little bit, exhale bend the arms 90 degrees if you've got that, inhale upward facing dog, roll the shoulders back lift the heart, exhale downward facing dog, lift your right leg up, bend it, open up the hip on the right side, step the right foot forward all the way up, spin the back heel down.

Now you've got warrior one, so power down through the feet, the legs, rise up, you want to point the back foot forward a bit so the left hip comes forward, reaching the arms nice and high, humble warrior, reach the arms back, clasp your fingers, open up, stay here if you feel like lowering doesn't work for you, I like to step back a little bit more, almost like a warrior two stance, it's more in the hips for me, open up, breathe in, breathe out, dive down, humble, devotional, warrior, power yourself back up, open up the chest, the heart, nice. Now kind of situate yourself back into a warrior one, now it's even more turned forward with that back foot, okay, so you want your hips to be squared up for revolved triangle pose, so both feet forward, right hip back, left hip forward, I like to drive my right fingertips into the right hip, soft bend in the right knee, now reach long through the left side, reach long through the left arm through the fingertips, now bring the left fingertips to the inside, outside or maybe even on top of your right shin, keep your spine long, beautiful, then turn and twist open to the right, maybe the right arm reaches high, keep pulling the right hip back, left hip forward, super nice, back over to center, good, up high into like a warrior one pose, I'm going to move back just a little bit, now here the transition come to balance on the right leg as you sweep the left knee up high, okay, so first find the balance, balancing on your right leg, we're going to move into dancer pose, okay, so bend the right leg, take hold of that left foot with your left hand on the inside of the foot of the outside, I kind of like the outside for this one, soft bend in the right knee, little wobbly there, good, now as you push the foot into the left hand, maybe you reach the right arm out, lengthen the torso, reach forward as you push into the hand, good, left foot pushing deliberately into that left hand, strong left leg, lengthen out through the spine, lift the heart a little bit and release with control back to that neutral place, left knee high, right leg is definitely firing, step the left foot back, both hands down to the mat, revolve lunge, we were here just a little bit ago, right arm reaching up, twisting, rotating through the trunk of the body, right hand back down, take it into three-legged dog, reach the right leg up, open the hip, we're going to transition into a pigeon pose, so knee toward the nose, plank, take the right knee to the right wrist, right foot toward the left side of the mat, landing, take a few moments to organize yourself, we're not going to be here too long, long enough to grab that lovely, potentially lovely stretch in the outer right hip, okay, to transition to seat, drop onto the right seat, sweep the left foot all the way around for my favorite twist these days, Lord of the fishies, okay, so left foot on the outside of that right thigh, reach the right arm around that left thigh, left knee, shin, okay, plug in the left sit bone down to the mat, so both sitting bones are grounded, left arm reaches up, back behind you, rotate and twist, gazing potentially over the left shoulder, perfect, come back to center, reach your body kind of like over to the right for that counter twist, good, release the left foot all the way back behind you, back into almost like a temporary pigeon into three-legged dog pose, move into plank pose with one leg lifted, right leg lifted, right, lower yourself down, exhale, inhale upward, exhale downward, my back will be facing you, side plank heels to the left, right arm high for five, four, I have my feet staggered, I prefer that, you can stack yours or even bring your knee down, three, two, other side, right hand down, heels over to the right now I get to see you, make sure you've got good form, lift the hips, left arm nice and high for five, again you can bring your right knee down for a little more support, four, three, you can lift your left foot up, two, back into plank pose, back into downward dog, let's take a moment to pause here and stretch it out, perfect, lift the left leg up, bend it, bend the hip, explore that space, and with control step up into warrior one, back foot down, right foot forward, same drill as we did on the other side, warrior one, nice and powerful stay here for a few moments, this side, let's take the arms, bend them, bend them down like imaginary bar you're pulling and lift chest, from here reach the arms back interlace, open up shoulders, open up the chest and heart, walk the right foot back a little bit more if that felt good, humble warrior dive on down, exhale, beautiful, grounding both feet evenly so you have strong stable legs, legs and ground, rise back up, organize that warrior one, make that subtle shift in the back leg, revolve triangle pose, bring the hands to the heart, shorten your stance, turn your right foot forward, soft bend in the left knee, left hip back, reach long through the right, that whole right side, start to feel that in that outer left hip, okay, left hip back, right hip forward, now right fingertips down toward the ground, you have your own destination, choose it, left arm, eventually possibly rising up, nice, center yourself through the core, a little bit of a balancing pose too, nice, come on back out, come to standing balance on the left leg, boom, I'm going to come back just for the sake of being balanced here, okay, so right leg up, reach grab hold of the top of the right foot, squaring the hips, reach your left arm forward, push the right foot into the right hand dancer pose, it's a great balancing pose, I've never been like the most bendy out there but I definitely feel like an opening and the stability and the strength, the balance so lovely, come back to that neutral position, right knee high and then we'll step back into that long lunge, right hand down, open up into the twist, left arm fries, left arm flies high, good, left hand back down, three legged dog, open the hip, a little relief in that left leg, pigeon pose with control so square, it's almost like you're doing the knee to nose, bam, knee toward the left wrist, angle the leg, slide on in, we're going to stay propped up on the fingertips or palms for this one, add subtract as it's suitable for you, set the left sit bones down, sweep the right leg all the way around that same spinal twist, right foot is on the outside of the left thigh, left arm reaching and hooking around that right knee, lengthen the torso out through the crown of the head, reach the right hand back behind you, rotate twist, back over to center, little counter pose, bone bone, good, you can stretch your legs out, take a gentle little straddle here for like three breaths, reach the arms to the feet, legs are straight out in front of you or super wide or somewhere in between, back up to sit, roll down to your back, hug your knees into your body, hugging the knees in in a way that feels like you stretch out that low back, we'll bring the feet down, knees bent, bridge pose, reach your fingertips towards your heels as a general distance, safe distance, then press the hips up, walking the shoulders and shoulder blades toward one another, you can clasp if you'd like but this is really just about opening the front of the body as effectively as you can, not forcing anything good, stretch the thighs, the hip flexors, stomach, chest, shoulders, to lower lift your heels and then slide down, upper back, mid back, low back, bend the knees in once again, reach up toward the outer edges of your feet, take a happy baby, make sure you lift your head, tuck your chin and then set the head back down so your neck has lots of length, we'll take one more breath together here, generous breath in and exhale everything out and bring your feet down to the mat, take a little windshield wiper with your feet nice and wide, loosen up the low back, let's take a few moments to close together, let's meet in a seated position, you can sit with your legs crossed or kneeling, whatever feels best for you but organize yourself in a way where you sit tall in the spine, relax your shoulders and close the eyes and we'll take three breaths together, breathe in through the nose, breathe out of the nose or the mouth, breathe in through the nose, breathe out, last breath inhale the arms overhead, exhale the hands to your heart and forehead to your fingertips as a gesture of gratitude to be able to move and breathe and live, namaste, thank you, have a beautiful day, I really appreciate you being here with me.