Core-Focused Flow

Hey there, welcome to yoga anytime. And thank you for joining me for this 20 minute core Vinyasa class. So core Vinyasa, we're going to move, we're going to breathe, we're going to strengthen our core and other muscles in our body. So let's get strong. All right. So we're going to start lying down on our back and we'll get started right away, right away. Ah, make sure you've got all your things set up. No distractions. Bend your legs, plant the feet right below your knees. Let's take three nice deep breaths together just so we can arrive together. So breathe in and breathe out. When you inhale, expand. When you exhale, relax. One more time. Breathe in nice and full and exhale. Draw your knees into your body. Okay. Stretch out the back a little bit, rock a little side to side. Then we're going to extend the left leg all the way up. You can keep it up straight or bent, or you can lower it down 45 degrees or almost to the ground. Pull the right knee tight into the body. Okay. We're going to do 10 on each side. So 20 total. And ideally you breathe out when you pull a knee in. Okay. So lift the head and shoulders as an option to strengthen just a little bit more or engage the core just a tiny bit more. So here we go. There's one. Now exhale to the left. One. Good. Exhale. Two. Three. Four. Five. Head and shoulders up. Little commitment involved here. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten. Good job. Legs straight up hands. Preferably, we can do it two different ways underneath your low back. This helps to support your low back if you feel you need that. So toes pointed up. Spread the toes. Feet active. Push into the elbows to lift the head and shoulders up a little bit. Again, that just helps to engage the abdominals. Now inhale. Lower the legs down. Keep your core nice and tight. And exhale. Lift back up. That's one. We're doing 10. Exhale. Two. Exhale. Three. Pause. If your neck gets a little tired, you can take one or both of your hands behind your head to support, but make sure you engage your core quite a bit when you're lowering the legs down. You'll notice a difference. Inhale. Lower and exhale. We're going to call that four. Exhale. Five. Good job. Exhale. Six. Exhale. Seven. Lift those shoulders. Exhale. Eight. Exhale. Nine. A little extra lift. Last one. And ten. Perfect.

Draw the knees in. Get a little relief here. We've just got one more of these. These options. So again, it's a straight leg option. So send the left leg and the right leg, all the legs up. Okay. Now take your left leg and lower it down about halfway or almost all the way. Keep both legs strong. That's the exercise in and of itself. Right hand braces alongside your body. Now ten times rotating. Left hand up toward the right ankle or shin. Exhale. One. Exhale. Two. Exhale. Three. Exhale. Four. Exhale. Five. Six. Seven. Cross. Eight. Cross. Nine. Cross. Ten. Let's go right to the other side. Lower the right leg. Legs are super strong. Left hand bracing. Right hand reaching up and cross. One. Exhale. Two. Exhale. Three.

Exhale. Four. Do the work. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten. Good job. All right. Both feet down below the knees. Pause. Let an exhale sort of release any tension. That good tension in the core though. Feet below the knees. Going to bridge up. So push the hips up. Walk onto the upper arms and your shoulders and shoulder blades peel under your body as you extend the hips upward. All right. That might feel nice now after engaging and contracting those abdominals. Spread or stretch them out. You can clasp your hands if you'd like for a few moments. Then we're going to try this little exercise here you might enjoy. Okay. Keeping your hips up. Undo the hands. Start with these robot arms. Now lower your butt a little bit and then what you're going to do is lift your hips. Push onto your upper right arm to reach the left arm up and back behind you. So the big long stretch and strengthening through the left side. Then you come back to neutral. Lower the hips a little bit. Lift the hips and reach now the right arm up and back behind you over to the left. One more on the left. Back to bridge. Press up, up, up, up, up and then lower upper back mid back low back. Give a little hug to yourself and then gently start to rock forward up to sit like so. Reach the arms back behind you as you rock back. So think about like this like mobility and movement of the spine. Reaching back into a partial plow and up partial plow boat pose up to balance on the seat. Good. You can hold onto the hamstrings at first just to set the pose. Feet active, shoulders back, core engaged, long spine. Arms now reach out palms facing up possibly legs bent or maybe straight sitting on the sit bones or the flesh of your bum and you're holding through the center. Now cross the legs. Move onto your hands and knees into tabletop. We'll push back into a momentary child pose. Stretch the hips back. Take a couple of deep breaths. Okay. Tabletop. Before we get moving, bring your knees about as wide as the mat. Curl your toes under, lift your knees about an inch or so. Okay. Now without moving your hips as little as you can, tap your right fingertips to your left shoulder. You got to really engage the right leg, tap, and then left fingertips to right shoulder. Let's play around and see what that feels like. Another way to work on stabilizing that core center back to table, downward dog. Walk your feet forward up to the front of your mat. Forward fold. Half lift, inhale, and exhale, fold forward and down. Rise up, root through the feet to rise. Exhale, hands to heart. Inhale, reach the arms up and back and exhale, forward and down. Inhale, half lift. Exhale, plank pose. Lower yourself down. Inhale, upward facing dog. Exhale, downward facing dog. Inhale, the right leg lifts. Exhale, step it into warrior one. Back foot down, rise up, arms reach, seal the back foot, plug into that right heel, drop the right hip back, left hip forward, and reach up nice and strong. Now forgive me, but my back will be to you for a couple of these postures. Warrior two, step back, open up the arms, hips open, strong stance. Now use those muscles that you were working on with the core work to stabilize you here. Perfect. Reverse warrior, inhale, reach up and back on the exhalation, straight in the front leg. I'm going to shorten my stance just a tiny bit. Triangle pose, pull the right hip back, reach long through the right side, right fingertips to the shin or ankle and peel the left arm up. Maybe look up, maybe keep the gaze neutral. How's your breath? Let's take this with both arms, reaching long overhead. Now here's where the core comes into play. Strong in the legs, strong in the center, all the way back up into reverse. Inhale, exhalation, extended side angle. I'm going to move back, right forearm, land softly on the right thigh, pull the right hip back a bit, ground the back foot, left arm rises up. Now take that left hand, palm facing down, stretch that left arm up alongside your left ear. Now take the right arm and reach it as well. So you've got a lot of right leg work, a lot of core work going on here. Hold and breathe. Reverse warrior, reach up and back, peaceful if you'd like to call it peaceful. Half moon. All right, so I'm going to step to the middle just a bit. Now launch up onto that right leg, wiggle around a little bit to find your balance and then extend the left leg back. Maybe it's parallel with the floor.

Drive through the heel, right fingertips. I'm going to kind of hover them. If you'd like to put your fingertips on a block or the floor, go for it. Oh yes, I love that little catch. So if you find yourself wobbling, just see if you can catch. And if you can't put the foot down and reset, open up into half moon, full half moon for you. And warrior two again, reverse warrior, reach up and back, inhale, exhale, bring the hands all the way down to the mat, shoot yourself into plank pose, lower down, inhale up dog, exhale down dog, inhale, the left leg lifts, exhale, step it up, back foot grounds, rise up on the breath in warrior one, hold here, gather yourself for a moment, take a couple of breaths, some stability in that center body, warrior two, get that extension. I'm going to come to the back so I don't have to keep adjusting. Let's go for a really super strong warrior too. So bend as deeply and safely as you can in that left leg, hold center again, ground the back foot, extend the arms, reverse warrior, reach up and back inhalation, triangle pose, straightening the front leg, sealing the feet down, extend the left arm, have fingertips to the left shin or ankle, right arm reaching more core work. So it's a core triangle pose, reach long, both arms overhead, legs working, core working, bend the left leg, reach up and back, reverse warrior, inhale, extended side angle, you can go right into it, extending that right arm, long overhead, palm facing down. Now core again, left arm. Nice. Perfect. Left leg burning a bit. Nothing wrong with that. Good. Now reverse it again, reach up and back, inhale, half moon, move back, not taking a break. Don't think I'm taking a break. Half moon. You can start with a little short stance, lift the right leg up. So find the structure of the legs, peel the right hip open a bit, left fingertips reaching toward the floor and then maybe that right arm high. My gaze for this one is down. You choose your gazing point, whatever gives you most kind of stability and balance. Step back with control. Here too, again, peaceful warrior, reach up and back on the exhalation, hands come all the way down to the mat, plank pose, Vinyasa, inhale, up dog. Hello plant, exhale, down dog. Good. Now you're going to make your way into forearm plank. So on your elbows for the first portion of this uncurl your toes. If you can lift your hips, you're going to feel this in your thighs, your quads a little bit more core work for sure. Push the elbows in, spread the shoulder blades nice and wide for five, four, three, two, curl those toes under again. Next one, walk the elbows a little farther forward. That way you have to use more of the center body for five, four, three, two, good. Back to forearm plank, left forearm heels over to the left side, plank it up, right arm lifts, hips, lift, breathe. Good.

Push it up, right forearm heels to the right, left arm rises, continuing to breathe through it all nice back into forearm plank. Now walk your feet forward in your seat up for dolphin pose. So it might feel like a little relief in the midsection, but more work in the upper body, shoulders, dolphin pose, soft bend in the knees, seat up nice and high. Walk back into forearm plank, bring the knees down, take a moment to stretch back into child's pose. Okay. From child's pose. Let's come on to the back. All right. Come on to your back and it's your choice. Maybe take a moment, squeeze the knees in and choose between bridge and wheel, or maybe you end up doing both, but for now I'm going to demo wheel pose. So feet hip width, I might take them out a little bit wider, right hand ground behind the right shoulder, palm facing down, same with the left. I like to press up onto my head gently just to get a little adjustment here. Then for me, I like to lift my heels so I can adjust my pelvis. So tucking the pelvis a little bit and then lift up. Good. Tucking the heels gives me personally just a little more space and softly down, roll down, arms alongside your body, feet wide, knees bent, arms up back behind you, field goal pose. Let's take some windshield wiper movements. When you go to the left, reach the right arm up and back. That'll just kind of add a little flavor to that. Then you go to the right with the legs, reach the left arm up back to center, bend the knees and reach up and grab hold of the outer edges of your feet or your ankles or shins or knees for happy baby. Kind of ground and massage the back body, giving yourself that little internal applaud for pressing play and taking the time in your day to, you know, to work out a little bit, strengthen yourself, bring the feet down and stretch the legs all the way out. Take a real short, short, short relaxation. In fact, we'll take three breaths together, hands on the belly. Inhale and exhale. Inhale, nice and full. And exhale. One more breathe in and breathe out. Stay here as long as you'd like. It's your call. Come on up to sit. And always nice to close together, bring the hands here as a gesture, right? Forehead to fingertips, hands to heart, gesture of gratitude for your health, your ability to move and be here. Namaste. Thank you. Peace, blessings, strength. Have a great day.