Straight Up Core

Hey there. Welcome to yoga anytime. My name is Robert, and this class is a core class. Now core let's think of the core from your shoulders and chest area down to the knees, your front body, side body, and back body. So we'll do our best to target all of those muscles through some traditional movements and some kind of flow yoga movements. Alright? So when I think of vitality, right? I think of like feeling really good and energized in my life and healthy. I think of it starting and beginning in the core.

So let's start in tabletop and we'll see how that feels as we move through. So we're gonna flow through some tabletop, cat cow. So inhale cow pose, exhale cat. Continue with that. Feeling your way through the very early stages of the practice. That cat cow and giving that extra little emphasis in cat pose of pulling those belly muscles in and protracting the shoulder blades, meaning widening, broadening. Yeah. You know, it just, I think, when the core so continue with that and freestyle a bit, when we develop a really strong capable core.

Everything else begins to feel better, whether it's, you know, your yoga practice or just simply sleeping, getting up out of bed, your sports. So you know, why is it why is it important for you? Add that to your practice today, and it's just enough to know that the core is super valuable and important, and we're gonna get after it today. Okay. So from here, from tabletop, keep the hips over the knees, walk your hands over to the left. We'll get a nice little stretch, puppy pose sort of side body stretch. So the emphasis is reaching through the right arm, the right hand, opening and breathing into that rib cage on the right, stretching that right waistline, Nice.

Walk it over to the right side. So the right hand can be just like stabilizing. The left hand, you reach to emphasize that length through the left body. Get creative, maybe drop the shoulder down, lift it up and open. See where those little secret spots are that need some attention.

This is like the stretch portion of it. Right? We're gonna be contracting and engaging. So get that length. Now, back over to puppy pose, situate yourself on the mat so you're really, like, you know, feet toward the back, hands, toward the front. Softening the elbows down just to kinda release some of the shoulder tension with puppy and focus on the heart softening and releasing down toward the mat. So you get that upper spine extension and release.

Breath. Really lovely place. It's almost like you're bowing down and in a prayer type position, you know, to create that super, super specific intention for you today. Why it's important for you to work your core? Okay. So the tops of the feet are grounded.

Come forward into forearm plank, but keep the tops of the feet pressing into the mat, lift the knees, forearm plank. What I love about this forearm plank with the feet like this as it engages your legs a little bit more. You're forced to use your quads. Now push the elbows into the mat separating your shoulder blades, finding that element of cat pose here. Holding, adding that like immediate fire, and you can feel it. I mentioned from the shoulders down to the knees.

Right here, right now, we're working all of it. Back body, side, you can even tip your hips a little to the right and left. Fire all of those muscles. Now bring the knees, the hips, the belly down for sphinx pose. Bring the elbows a little farther forward if you need to release the back.

Look up, look to the sides, kind of loosen up the neck, throw the hips from side to side. We'll start with the left side. Bring your left arm out to the side nice and wide, bring the right hand down to the mat, push over onto your left side, opening that left shoulder. So the right foot steps back behind the left leg, You can bring your head down to the mat if you'd like, keep it lifted. Good back over.

Let's do the right arm. So slide it out. And as you're rolling over onto it, continue to reach further and further. That way you get into the front side of the shoulder where the shoulder and chest meet. And then that extra bonus is the left foot stepping back behind, and you may get a little release in the back. Body. Really good. I mean, it can be really good.

You have to find that position of the right arm that works for you. Come back out to center Set yourself up for cobra, hands alongside the ribcage, elbows back, shoulders drawn down away from the ears, lift the hands up off of the mat, So lift them, pull the elbows back towards your heels and up to the sky, and you'll feel your back body start to engage. Now lift the chest up. Good. So this is cobra, but like an honest cobra, This is what you're able to do using your own muscles. Right? Lower down without touching the hands and lift back up.

Perfect. Lower down. Lift back up. Keep the muscles in the upper back engaged. Stay with this movement or reach forward as you lower down, and then imagine pulling a bar, let's say, as you draw the elbows back toward the back body, towards your seat as you lift up. Good. Lower down in reach, and exhale.

Lower down in reach. And exhale. So back body strength, back body core, exhale. Give a little extra squeeze up top. One more time. Breathe in.

Breathe out. Reach back. Clasp your hands if you can and open up for locust pose. Good. Press the palms together if you can. If the feet wanna lift, lift them, and maybe a little roll to one side, a little roll to the other.

Perfect. Slowly lower down. Slide the hands back into that cobra position. So it's cobra or updog, right? Lift back up into cobra, inhale, tabletop as you exhale.

Curl the toes under downward dog. Good. Maybe keep the knees bent for this first one and focus on really sending the tailbone, the sit bones high so you get that Kind of like spine into a neutral position, we'll say not too overly bent or tucked in that low back. Good, plank pose, breath in, breath out dog pose, tap the right fingertips on the left toes, let's say, or shin, or knee, whatever's available, plank pose, so full body core there, left hand, right foot. Plank pose, hold strong. Right hand, left leg.

Good. Plank. Left. If you've got it in your practice, add a push up. Then reach the right hand back.

Add another push up. Good, left hand back. One more round, you're away. Push up or not. Own the decision you make.

Feel good about it. Nice. Back to dog pose, pause. Now the opposite, inhale here, exhale, float yourself into plank and draw the right knee to the right arm. Step back dog pose, left knee, left arm.

Five on each side. So that was one one. Here's two. Good. Two.

And three. And three. Use your breath, exhale on the effort, on the movement into the difficulty, we'll call it. Let's go one more on each side. I think that's five.

So five. And five. Downward dog, pause, take your breath. Move back into your plank, come down to your elbows, forearm plank, tip your heels over to the left, parallel your left arm to the front of the mat, forearm side plank, reach the right arm high, Now as you lift your hips high, reach the right arm overhead, like extended side angle. Right? And then you lower down, lower the hips down, reach toward the right foot, and then lift back up and circle the hand overhead. That's one of five.

Good. Two. And three, lift the hips as high as you can. And four. And five, let's do the other side. So pivot, switch, slide.

I still see you. Reach up, reach overhead palm facing down, lift the hips as high as you can, then lower the hips down, circle the hand back to the left hip, and then lift up and over, two or one. Good, lift and hip, lift and hip, two. Lift them hips three. Perfect.

Four. Good job. Five back over to forearm plank, hold, bring the knees down, come back up onto your hands, lift the knees up off of the mat, say two, three inches or something. There we go. So now you feel those quads working. What we're gonna do here is lift a leg. So lift the left foot.

Lift the right. Lift the left. Lift the right. Now try lifting the left foot in the right hand. Left hand right foot. And again, and again, maybe tap a hand on the shoulder, mix it up a little bit as you're lifting those legs or lifting the feet, maintaining a stable spine engaged core for three. Three. Two. Oh, two.

One. One. Good. Bring the knees down. Now bring the forearms down to the mat. It's like a little three part thing to get the booty and the hamstrings. So take the right leg, extend it all the way back, point the toes.

Now tap the right toes down on the mat with the straight leg, lift it up as high as you can. You might feel the the glutes or the butt muscles working a bit. Now tap down and lift two. We'll do 10. Three.

Good. Four. Five. Six, seven, eight, nine, 10. Now bring the right knee down, come back up, give those shoulders a little bit of a break. Same leg with the right leg bent 90 degrees. Send the right knee out to the side and up.

Little fire hydrant move there. There's one. Good. Two. Three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, back down to the forearms. Now the right leg stays bent in this position, lift it by pushing through the right heel Keep the leg bent, push through the right heel, and then on the exhale, bring the right knee toward the right arm. One, lift and press, two, lift and press three.

Lift and press four. Five. Exhale six. Seven. Eight.

Nine and 10. Good. Take a puppy pose. So keep the hips up over the knees. Walk the arms out in front of you, a little release in the shoulders, more of a stretch, more of an opening. Take a couple deep breaths. Back into the forearm position, now left leg, send it back, point through the toes, exhale, lift. So you wanna try when you lift that leg up too.

Try to get the left glute muscles super engaged up top. You're gonna feel it in the hamstrings as well, possibly. Fort, five. Then, of course, you're building strength in the shoulders, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. Good. Backed with the knees down, back up onto your hands. Just to switch up the feeling in the shoulders a bit. Maintaining this position, trying to solely move the hip open to the left.

So breathe in here, and as you exhale, lift the left knee up, out, and wide. One, good, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. Good job back down to the forearms. You can stay up on the hands if you prefer with this move. I kinda like to come down to the forearms. Bend that left leg, keep it bent pretty much the whole time as you push the left heel up to the sky, get the glutes engaged, and then get the core and abs a little engaged as you draw the knee in toward the arm. Inhale up, exhale two. Three. Four. Five. Six.

Good. Seven. Eight. Nine. 10.

A little momentary puppy out of the shoulders. Back up onto the hands and all the way to the tall kneeling position. Roll a little break on the shoulders here. Draw the tailbone down. These little camel reaches, tailbone down, super engaged, quads, glutes, hamstrings, everything, lean back a bit, now reach the left arm up, tap the right heel.

Tap the left heel, reach the right arm up. Good. Back and forth. Lower down as far as you can, enough to feel like your legs, the tops of your legs are getting like a combination of a really good stretch and they're working. So back and forth, Let's add a little rotation. So like that Charlie's angels position.

So lean back, exhale to the left, exhale to the right. So you get that rotational work here. Two more. One. One.

Two. Two. Back in the table. Downboard dog. Take a breath.

Walk the hands back to the back of the mat, find your squat. Maybe the squat, you open your feet up quite a bit, or you keep them straight ahead. It's up to you. We're gonna do a little combo here. So it's a low squat.

Come up about three quarters of the way, but maintain this sort of like half lift, straightening the legs a bit, and you start to feel the hamstrings sort of like a dead lift, right? If you've been to the gym, you've done the dead lift, come down into the squat, not all the way, and into that little stretchy dead lift. Little combo. So you're hinging at the hips up top, dropping into the squat. Download. Hinge. We're also taking a break from the shoulders. Last one.

And squat back out into your downward dog. Take a lovely little pause and stretch. Okay. Move from down dog into table, bend your knees, like we were before, that, hovering the knees tabletop. Now, we're gonna use those side kicks, which is great for core as well, different plane of motion. So pivot the heels over to the right, especially the left heel, ground it, stack up on that right arm, and shoot the right leg straight out. You can bring it down, if that's helpful, or shoot it straight out and pull the left elbow back.

Now staying low right back to that knee hovering position and shoot to the opposite side. Put it on pause if it's helpful for you to get some of the, like, the alignment. Stay low, center, and kick through to the left. Kick through to the right, pulling that right elbow back, staying strong in the midsection. To the left. Good to the right.

One more to the left. One more to the right. Good job. Need hovering. Here's where we're gonna try to find our balance and strength here.

So right hand, left leg, fully extend with the right knee hovering. Gotta really engage that right leg quite a bit. Extend both limbs. Work work work. Bring it down.

Keep the left knee lifted. If not, bring it down all good. Good. Now, engage that left leg quite a bit. Extend the left arm and right leg. And downward dog.

What I love about that little drill is that even just in the effort of it, you're firing these core muscles that are really hard to get to. As you can see, I'm breathing. It's nice. Okay. Kind of meet the hands and the feet toward the middle of the mat. Drop into squat. Bring the seat down.

I'll face you for these. These I like. Okay. So find a seated cross legged position. You can press into your hands or maybe your fists If you're on your fist, it gives you just a little more height. So this is about really stabilizing through here as we push the earth away to lift your seat up off of the mat. 10 times.

Palms down, if you'd like, two. Good. Three. And like, give it an extra little hold up top. Four. Five. Six. Seven.

Eight Good. Nine. Try one with a fist again. Hold 10. Good. Now, send your legs straight out.

Same thing. Palms down or make a fist. Breathe in. Breathe out, lift the seat, lean forward a little bit. Two, three, You can use blocks.

Four. Keep your legs engaged. Five. Six. Seven. Eight, nine, nine, and 10, hold, hold, hold.

Really good. Boat pose. So Let's just play around with what it would feel like to hold the legs. Okay? So lift back or lean back. Get those sit bones of the flesh of the seat grounded.

Lift the feet. Grab hold of the ankles or the outer edges of the feet for now. So that's a nice balancing boat pose. And you can flirt with straightening one leg at a time. Try not to. I do it myself, but to round. Trying to round. Straighten the left leg.

Come back to center, have a little sense of humor, straighten the left leg. And maybe see what it feels like to straighten both legs. Good. Now try to release the hands, bring the legs together, tighten up through the core, point through the toes on this one for five. Good. Four. Three. Little shaky shake. Two and one. Nice.

Okay. Stay here. Bring the hands back behind you. Fingers back possibly. You could even come down to your forearms if you prefer. Lift the feet up off of the mat. Actually, I'm gonna take my fingers forward.

Straight the legs out. Talk them back in. +1, 0987654321. Okay. Now you're gonna lower down. I'm gonna bring the block on the side of the mat.

So if I feel like bringing it in, We're gonna lower into canoe. So, let's sit, straighten the legs, lower the low back down, keep the legs lifted, point through those toes quite a bit, arms, alongside the body. If you want a little more difficult challenge, bring the arms overhead, You choose for five. Good, four. Shoulders lifting. Three. Two. Good. Bring the knees in.

Try to touch the ankles. One, legs extend out, hug yourself, two. Three. Doing 10. Four. Probably feeling it.

That's good. Five. More of a traditional midsection exercise. Seven or six. Seven. Good, eight, nine, and 10, legs straight up hands underneath the seat.

Actually, yes, I'll finally use the block. Let's put the block in between the thighs. Kind of like so. Keep the legs active. Flex the feet point through the toes, you choose, whatever keeps your legs active and strong.

Leg lifts, inhale lower. You can do this bent or straight 10. Good. Mindful of your low back. Nine. Eight. Seven.

Six. If it's too much, bend your knees tap your heels. Super good, effective way to do the same thing. Let's do four more. Four three two One, good. Remove the block for a moment.

Take a breath, wander around the low back. Next round, different options. So bend your legs 90 degrees. Take the left hand to the top of your right thigh. Okay. So the opposite leg.

Now take the right arm reach it straight up. Left leg stays bent. Now, option, lift the head and shoulders. Extend the left leg out. Now really point through the left toes quite a bit and extend through the right arm.

That's one. Push as hard as you can into that right leg. Exhale two. And three. Good. Four.

Five. Keep pushing with the left arm and pulling that right leg in. Seven. Eight, nine, stable through the core, and 10. Good. Take a moment to rest, right hand to left leg, that push and pull version, left arm up, shoulders up, or down, begin. Extend the right leg, left arm. One, two, three. Good, four. Five. Six, seven, eight, nine, 10. Perfect.

Whoo. One of my favorite because you really feel stable and grounded. The back feels okay. Legs straight up. You can keep them bent if you prefer. So, shin slides, 10 times, fingertips to the knees, or lower if that's what you've got.

On the breath out, lift and reach, exhale 10. Nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, One, bound angle legs, knees out wide. This will give you a little stretch too. Hands behind the head just to kind of, as a placeholder. Now, exhale, elbows try to meet the knees.

So lift the low back, and squeeze elbows in. Lower abdominals, mid abdominals, uppers, two, three, four, five, good job, six, seven, exhale eight, exhale nine, exhale 10. Oh, okay. So Bring the feet below the knees. So now we've been sort of shortening and tightening those muscles.

Let's open them up and stretch. So the feet below the knees, you can take them a little wider if you'd like, elbows, upper arm bones alongside the body. Now press up, hips high, belly stretch. We're going to try something maybe a little different for you. I don't know, but come on to the backs of the arms and shoulders as much as you can. Now, you're going to lift the hips, lean to the left side, so you have to really use your left arm and shoulder to, stabilize yourself as you reach the right arm back as far as you can.

So it deepens the stretch through the hip, back to center, reach to the left arm. Good. Reach through the right. Stabilize. Stable through the right, reach the left. Nice.

So an active bridge bridge pose, not better, just different. One more time, reaching the right arm back. One more time reaching the left arm back. Super good. Now, lower all the way down.

Draw the knees in gently. I'm going to move the block a little bit. Good. Arms out wide, double knee twist to the right as you shift your hips to the left. Let's, ring out, rinse out, twist out any low back, Sensitivities. Good. Up to center.

Simultaneously going to the left as you shift your seat to the right and twist and open those arms, especially the right arm. Left hand can assist. So you can see we got the back body, the side body, the front, got some shoulder stability work in, the legs, the booty. So for me, that's a relatively complete way to kind of take care of some key players in your overall general sort of health and wellness, strength, muscular development, at whatever age or stage your ad is so important. Come back out to center and design and set up your relaxation.

You have done enough for now. Full breath. Hold it for a moment. Open the mouth and let it all go. Maybe there's a little gentle smile, a little grin acknowledging you're making the effort being willing. It's a little bit of work.

More a lot. It always comes down to that for me. This practice is yoga practice, core, whatever it may be. It's just taking good quality care of yourself. Allow your body to rest.

Another great self care tool, rest. Allow yourself to sink in deeper and deeper. Rest fully. For as long as you'd like. If you'd like to join me to sit and close, do just that.

Okay. Nice to see you again. We made it. Take the arms up. Breathe in, stretch.

Take it all in. All the gratitude. Right? Bring it. Pull it in. Little bow, namaste.

See you next time.