Yoga Barre Fusion

Hello, and welcome. My name is Chantani, and welcome to Yoga Mix. For today's class, we'll be fusing yoga with some bar inspired movements. In today's class, all you'll need is a mat, and if you have a pair of light dumbbells at home, that would be really helpful. Think 2 to £3, nothing more you won't need it.

I am so excited to share this practice with you today. It's an opportunity for us to fall back in love with yoga in a new way to explore our bodies in all the different ways that they can move and get stronger. So let's go ahead and get started. Let's actually just start standing for a moment because in today's class, I will be queuing your breath, and I will be giving you a few counts to breathe with in a breathing pattern. So let's just start practicing now. Bring your arms along by your sides, your feet can go right underneath your hips, and just find a simple chair pose for me.

Take a deep breath in. And then as you exhale, come on up to stand, could inhale and exhale. So just taking a moment here on your own breath. First, you're finding your own and natural cadence. Just seeing how the breath feels waking up the legs, being open to exploring something new.

And so now we'll start to implement the breast movement on my count. Okay? So we'll be moving and dancing together. You inhale squat low into chair for 4, 3, 2, stand up here for 4, 3, 2. Beautiful for 4, 3, 2, stands tall for 4, 3, 2. Let's try it again. 2 more inhale. Sit low, core is tight. Exhale. So it's the same.

It's just on a different pace. One more this pace. Inhale. That's 2 and one stand up tall. Let's just try 2 counts see how it feels. Inhale.

2 exhale stand. Beautiful. Inhale. Exhale. So as we move together, remember that this is just about exploring something new.

And when we start to ask the breath to pick up the pace, the movement will follow. Two more like this. Inhale. Exhale. 1 more inhale. Exhale. And now just find our favorite chair pose.

Just take a moment. Feel the heat in the thighs. If the shoulders are already heating up too much, Hancing come to prayer. Just take a moment. Throughout this class, I may ask you to find little pauses, what I'll call maybe isometric hold. Okay? So just take a moment, breathe in.

Exhale. And it wouldn't be bar inspired without a pulse. So we're gonna start to pulse down and down. I know it's starting to burn. Just go with me for 8 7, and you go, exhale. Exhale. You've got it.

It'll help. Last three. Last two. And one. Shake that out. Okay. So we're gonna come down to the ground, give your legs a little bit of a breather, but just remember, this is just an opportunity to try something new.

Bring your hands on to the ground, underneath your shoulders, and knees are underneath your hips. We'll start with a cat cow. K? So just find your natural breath pattern. You inhale opening up, exhale round spine. So just starting out, mobilizing your spine, And just exploring, okay. Where's my body today? Where's my breath today?

Tumor rounds of breath, and then we have the invitation to play with pace. Exhale round and now follow my count. Let's just inhale for 4, 3, 2, exhale round for 4, 3, 2. Inhale. Open up for 4, 3, 2, XL. You got it. And just keep that internal metronome. Good.

One more like this. Keep the breath coming in and then exhale. Let's see what happens. 2 counts open and close. So expand and contract.

So if you've ever done any kind of breath work, where we change the pace of the breath, To create heat. This is very similar. 2 more. Last one like this. Good. And I just come to that neutral spine.

Here comes our isometric hold. You'll tuck the toes, lift the knees off. Now you inhale, exhale core tighter, You got this to one more inhale. Excel. Nice job. Drop the knees down.

You can come back to child's post. Just take a moment. So as you ground down into posed. Just remember. This isn't about it being perfect.

Right? And that heat that's building in the body, that's transformative heat. Right? So we're just burning off. Anything that you don't need so you can feel your best after this class. Take one more deep breath in.

And exhale roll yourself up. Head is the last to lift. Alright. So now let's play even more. Coming on to our hands, we're going into play post. Okay? So we've been here before.

I'm sure if you've taken a yoga class, right? Now I want you to send your hips up to downward facing dog. Grab the sides of your mat for a moment. Bring your feet nice and wide. I'm feeling generous. Okay. So just take a moment.

Big Saint Bernard dog, petal out your feet, and we can just kinda play with the pace. So we inhale as we press 1 heal, exhale as we press the other, inhale to exhale to inhale. Exhale. Good. And still just pulling the mat apart. It's gonna help to open up the sides of the waist.

Gonna feel really good for all the shoulder work coming later. Exhale. One more deep breath in. Deep breath out, and then just coming back to a traditional down dog. Bring your feet in line with those hips.

Hands can press. You're gonna inhale, lift your heels and tiptoes. You roll through the spine, feeling every bone, as you find yourself to plank. Then from here, I like to bend my knees just a little and then kind of like in cow of cat cow could arch the back and just melt back into down dog. So let's try that again. Inhale.

Lift the heels tucking through the pelvis. Do your best. Finding your plank. Send it back. And let's find a little pace here.

So inhale for 4, 3, 2, exhale shift back for 4, 3, to inhale for fours. You roll through the spine. Send it back for four. Maybe you stay with 4, so we go to 2. So we inhale shift forward. Take it back to counts.

Inhale shift. Take it back. Now you keep going. You can also do this on your knees, right? So we can also go child's pose, roll it through. Right? So you have options. When we start to take yoga and remix it, sometimes it gets pretty heated. Okay.

So listen to your body. Cut. Let's get 2 more like that. Forward. Take it back. One more. Forward.

And take it back. Nice job. Finding your downward facing dog. From here, you're gonna inhale your right leg high to the sky. Exhale. Draw your knee towards your heart.

Step it through. Drop your back knee down for a moment. Let's just hang out. Hands can come to the top of your thigh. And just breathe here, opening up the front of the hips.

If you're using your dumbbells, your light dumbbells, or 2 light weights, whatever you have at home, We're going to readjust and grab these dumbbells and make sure they're on either side of your mat. Okay. So that'll really set you up for the next portion. Inhale, reach your arms up. Taking a moment here. Good. One more deep breath in.

Just coming back home to something we love. Something we know and listen up. So exhale. You're gonna bring your hands to grab onto those dumbbells. Tuck the back toes, lift the back thigh off, and then palms are gonna be facing forward in your crescent lunge. Okay. So the legs are yoga, the arms or bar. Okay? So as we do this, you're gonna find yourself bending both knees as you curl the arms into a bicep curl, and then you extend. Good. Exhale, bend.

Inhale lengthen. Exhale, landing, inhale. Good. So just find your own cadence of breath before we move together. Good. Now let's try for 2 counts of each.

I'm already in it actually. XL to inhale, lengthen. Beautiful. And so when you're doing this work, you might feel now, oh, crescent lunge feels a little bit different, but the basic principles are the same. Right? The hips are staying square. And the biceps, the arms, the front of the arm.

It's giving me a little extra love. 2 more. Last one. Now take it one breath, one movement, go with me. We go exhale. Inhale. And if those legs are heating up and you need to take a little breather, it's okay pay.

We only have 4 more, 3, 2, and hold it at the bottom. Our favorite, the little pulses here, we pulse. So go back to your favorite breathwork class, right, coming from deep in the belly, we go exhale. Exhale. Let's get 8 more. Woo. I'm shaking.

6543 2 and 1. Step your back foot forward, finding that chair pose, and then coming on up to stand. Alright. You can shake out your legs. A little shimmy shake, and then we'll switch it out other side. So from here, now you step your right leg back behind you. Back into that crescent lunge, let's actually come back down onto the ground.

Hands can come to the top of the thigh, and we just stretch out the front. So establishing a strong foundation for the work that we're doing, allowing the yoga practice to lay lay the track, right, for what we're about to layer on to it. So inhale, reach your arms up, feeling that connection with this pose that we come to so in on the mat. And the thing that I love about yoga mix, right, is that it's giving us an opportunity to really allow our strong yoga practice to be the anchor. Right? So take a deep breath in, let it feel good. XEL.

One more deep breath in. And exhale. And now from here, you can grab those dumbbells. Here we go. Tuck your back toes, lift your back thigh off. This time, I want your palms facing in, so just a little bit different, but the same basic movement.

So just finding a basic bend of the arms with the legs, and then we straighten. Okay. So just take this on your own breath first. A lot of times in my personal experience, when people start to forget the breath when the work gets hard in any any type of movement, That's when they start to get cranky. Okay? So if you're finding, like, oof, I don't know if this is for me. I don't know if this is me.

I promise you it is. Just take a deep breath. You're gonna be okay. You've done lots of hard things in your life. You can do this.

Let's try two counts of each. Here we go. Ben for 2. Extend to. Exhale, Ben. Inhale, straighten.

Good. And notice if one leg is stronger than the other, or are you putting more weight in one side than the other. Good. So it's like now more than ever You build a really intimate relationship with your breath. Let's go one count. Go.

Yes. You can. For 4. For 3. For 2. Our favorite part. Here we go. Tiny pulses go. Puls.

Only ten times they promise. 8 7, 6, breathe, exhale, exhale. Use that breath as your anchor. 4, 3, 2 and one nice job. Whoo. Alright. I face you. You face me.

So the cool thing about this yoga bar mix that we've got is there are a lot of poses that are in yoga that also come up in bar. So if you've ever met our good friend, the goddess, right, in bar, we call this second position. So listen. If you've been doing yoga and you've been here before, you've already done it. You're gonna be great. Okay. So you have your weights.

I want you to bring them along by your sides for the first part, excuse me, long in front of you, open up your chest. So we're just going down into goddess, as we do that, you pull the dumbbells up. So the elbows can go a little higher than the shoulders. Here we go. So you go. Exhale, inhale stand, exhale, inhale. God.

Inhale. So everything you know about this pose, right, where the knees are opening out wide, It's all the same. You've done this before. Good. 2 more this pace. XL 2.

Inhale to one more like this. Let's have some fun, a little quicker. Yes. You've got it. Use that breath. Right? This is just like breath work, to the next level, okay, a few more.

You got it. In that goddess, we're gonna hold in 4 3, breathe, 2. Now hold at the bottom. Bring your hands to prayer. Okay. Bring your hands to prayer with these weights in front of you. It's gonna feel a little different.

Just breathe. Stead. Steady mind. Feel that transformative heat, the legs. And we'll get our final 10 pulses here, but we have an opportunity to grow a little stronger. Maybe you start to lift your heels just an inch or 2 off the floor.

Maybe they come up a little higher. It's still gorgeous. It's just a different version. Take a deep breath in. Ready? We're gonna go together ten times.

We've pulse. Good. 6 more. 5 more breathe. Use that breath as an anchor. Last three, two, one. Nice job. Shake that out. See? So you've done it before.

It just feels a little bit different. Okay. Now we're gonna play even more, working to the back of the arm, and then we'll come off the arms, I promise. K. So go to face the top of your mat. Feed are gonna go hip with the part.

Soft bending your knees. From here, We'll just start with the feet in chair pose, right? So we've been here before. Now, draw your elbows in and back, and then you extend the arms out straight and then you'll pull the bend. Good. So I like to find the breath. I like to exhale when my arms go straight. And inhale when it comes back center.

Why? Because for me and for most people, When the arms go straight, that's where the work feels more challenging. So we bring balance with that exhale. Softening, And it also helps us pull the core tight to support this work. If you haven't found 2 counts, find it with me. XL 2.

Inhale 2. XL 2. Inhale too. Keep this going. Yes. Can you sit a little lower? Just play with fire a little bit. Good.

So it's the same thing. Just like if you were in a traditional yoga practice here, right, it's those moments When the instructor says hold chair pose or hold a challenging pose for a while, where all the stories come up. Right? So it's the same thing here. Just watch where your mind goes.

2 more. Exel. Here we go. Let's try a little quicker. Go. This is where it starts. I'm starting to get hot in the face.

You got this. Be more. Use that deep belly breath. Let's get 4 more here. 4, 3, 2. Now hold the arms back. Breathe.

Study breath. For 4. Maybe you start to shift your weight forward. Play with balance. Right? This comes up in both yoga and bar for 3. For 2. And let's release that.

That's one. Forward fold. Nice job. I like to use my dumbbells almost like little blocks. You can shake your head. Yes. Shake your head. No. Should I stay? Should I go? You should stay.

We're almost done. We're so close. Those arms should feel worked here. We're gonna come down to the ground, setting those dumbbells down for now, come on to all fours. So you have 2 options.

You can do this with just you, me, and the mat. Okay? If you are loving this extra strength that you're building, you can grab one dumbbell for this work. And you would just place it right behind your knee for just a little extra heat and accountability. If at any moment, it becomes way too much and you're falling out form or you're getting too discouraged to continue, you can always set it down. Okay. So you can be the judge of that. I'm feeling bold.

Just like these pants, and I'm gonna take the dumbbell behind my knee. Okay. So we've been here, right? This is where we were for Kat Cow. But here, I want you to spread your fingers wide, bring a soft bend into your arms. Your knees are underneath your hips. Draw your abs up so just feel that connection with your pelvic floor. Now, right leg is moving. I'm gonna flex my foot, draw my heel in. So you gotta really squeeze onto that dumbbell. Okay?

From here, you're gonna exhale, press your leg back behind you. Now it doesn't matter how high the leg is. It matters that you're pulling the abs up and that you're feeling the squeeze in the back of your leg and in your seat. And then lower down. The breath goes exhale.

Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. So I don't want you to worry about the the pace right now.

Just start to feel into what's your natural cadence. Come back to what you know, sinking the breath to the movement, And then you'll start find that you might actually be picking up your own natural cadence. So maybe it's 2 counts up. 2 counts reset. Excel press in health center.

Good. And then start to notice, if your wrists are hurting, it's just like in yoga. Right? You wanna be pressing through all ten of your fingers. Still using all of that good yoga work as foundation for something new. Let's pick it up one count. Go. Good. And you don't have to go as fast as I am. Right?

You can go whatever one count means to you, that's where you go. Let's get 4 more. 4 3, 2. We're gonna hold at the top, our favorite, pulses. Are you ready? You find the breath with it. Otherwise, it doesn't feel good.

Here we go. So you're kicking your leg the best you can straight up to the sky. If you wanna test your balance, Right? Finding that sense of focus, you can start to tend to your left fingers on the ground. Okay? So I'm just kind of like holding my fingers up that's gonna hold me accountable for leaning towards the challenge. Right? That's what this yoga mix is giving us today.

Really embracing that heat, that's where the transformation happens, right, letting that fire really alchemize anything that we don't need Let's get 10 more. Ready here. 8 more. 6 more. Last 4, 3, 2, and child's pose.

Take a moment. Nice job. Oh, who knew those tiny little wakes had packed such a big bunch. Take a deep breath in. And a deep breath out. Start to slow down the breath.

Come back home. One more deep breath in, and deep breath out So to roll yourself up, head is the last to lift. How you doing? We only got one more side. Thank goodness. We only got two cheeks. Here we go.

Alright. So you grab that dumbbell. If you didn't use it on the other side, no worries. We come up to all fours. You're gonna take it behind your knee. And find that grounded, like, grip on the mat by spreading her feet fingers nice and wide and really pushing down. Draw the abs up. I have a tiny bend in my elbows for support.

Flex now your left foot. Make sure that dumbbells in snug. And then draw that heel up and down. First, we start. Slow.

Find the breath connection. So this is a bridge. Right? This is a bridge for you, an invitation for you to walk across and to explore a new way of how can breath something that happens when we're on the mat and off the mat. Fuel me through the challenging moments. We're just practicing that right now. Good. Now if you found that 2 count up, 2 count down, really lean into it.

At this point, if you're feeling like your seat muscles or your hamstrings are not only burning, but they're starting to quiver and shake a little bit. That's totally normal. I remember my very first bar class, and my friend was teaching it, and I'd never taken bar before. And when we were my legs started to shake, I started to get scared. She was like, no, you're doing good.

So don't be afraid. Let's try one count. That's just your muscles getting stronger. They're approaching their edge. Right?

And this is gonna empower you on the mat. And off the mat to feel stronger in your body, find that breath. So can we lean in to the hard parts? Not just coming to the mat for the things that feel good, but coming to the mat, for the things that we know will make us stronger. Right? Let's get 4 more.

We've got it. 4. 2 more. You've got it. Now hold it at the top. Little pulses go pulse. Pulse.

Only 10 of these are coming up soon. Remember, it doesn't have to be big, but it is honest. Okay. Pull the core tight. Lean in. You can tend to your fingers on the right side. Let's get 10 more. 10, 9, 8, 7. Breathe.

The breath is your anchor. Don't lose it. Last 3, 2, and 1. Good job. Let's come back to child's pose. Now child's pose never felt so good. And now notice.

Stick with me. Stick with me. This is where most people fall off. If you're not in child's post, now meet us here. Feel the heat and the hamstrings still lingering. Just notice it.

Deep in your breath. So can you start to watch the inhale, go through the nose, and that oxygen goes straight the space in the body that feels tight and really release it with the exhale. Take one more deep breath in and release. So to roll yourself up. Head is the last to lift.

Nice job. Let's wrap this up. You're gonna take a seat with me. Hey. We're just gonna open up those legs. You're gonna bring your right leg out to the side. Arms can go out to a tee.

Take your right arm down your left arm up. Take a nice side bend. Opening up the heart skyward. Breathe. And this is the part too where a lot of people just skip it. They kind of, like, move through it.

We've been waiting for this moment. Take it. Take a deep breath in. Under natural cadence, you exhale. Release, switch it out other side. Left leg goes out.

Point the toes. Arms go out to a tee. Your left arm goes down. Your right arm paints the ceiling or paints the sky. And just being honest with yourself. Today's class was like, woah, that was really far out of my comfort zone.

That's fair. That's so fair. Take a deep breath in. Exhale. Release it. And we'll just take one more stretch together. Extend your legs out in front of you.

On or off the mat doesn't have to be perfect. We're breaking boundaries today. Reach your arms up. Exhale. Fold over. Your hands can reach your feet, your ankles, your calves.

Whatever feels best. And so the invitation with this practice is to expand your concept of what it means to be in this body, right, what it means to move in this body and to honor your edge, right, to really be the one to meet yourself in the challenging moments. So thanks for coming on that journey. Take a deep breath in. Exhale, roll yourself up.

Head's the last lift. Let's just finish in a cross legged seat. Hands come to the heart. Either over the heart or in prayer, whatever feels best for you today. And I bow to you.

I celebrate you. For being willing to explore something new, to expand your preconceived notions of what's possible here on the mat. And to meet yourself exactly where you are, sending you peace in, and peace out. Beautiful job today. My name is Chantani. That was yoga mix yoga with a bar twist.

Make sure to check out some of these other classes. They're so much fun on your edge, and we'll see you back here next time.