Lower Body Legs

Hey there. Welcome to yoga anytime. My name is Robert, and this class, right here, is all about the lower body. It's geared to get us, you and me, both feeling really strong and stable from sort of like the core down. We'll work a little bit through the upper body, but mostly about the legs. And just from personal experience, the stronger and more capable I feel in the lower body, the better everything else feels.

So we're gonna start in downward dog. Join me. So for the first few moments in downward dog, kinda wander around and stretch. In those down dog ways, peddling the legs out, straightening one, bending the other, locating your breath, Nice. Pressing all fingers and finger pads down into the mat. So you feel nice and grounded here. Grounded, strong.

Confident. Okay. So we're gonna stay with downward dog. We're gonna work on the calves here. Okay. So take the left leg, kind of straighten it out as much as you can. Take the right foot behind the left calf or heel.

Now, here, push the left heel down as far as you can. Now, breathe in, as you breathe out, lift your heel as high as you can, the left heel. Good. Now, press the heel down, get the stretch, and exhale squeeze up. Number two. So we'll do about 10. Think about 10 reps of a lot of the things we'll do today. XL, lift the left heel, three. XL four.

Focus on the calf muscle, five. Six, seven, eight, getting that passive upper body strength, nine. And 10. Good. So switch Sidoti. So push the right heel down. Left foot wraps around the back of the right leg.

Push the right heel toward the ground. Breathe in. As you breathe out, lift the right heel and Really think about and feel for squeezing that calf muscle on the right side as you lift all the way up. And then stretch it as long as you can down toward the ground. Exhale lift and squeeze two. Lift and squeeze three.

Lift and squeeze four. Perfect. Five. Stay with it. Six. Embrace that shoulder.

Heat you've got going on most likely from holding the pose. Eight, nine. Squeeze that calf muscle. Boom. Good. Both feet to the ground. Down dog for one full breath. Let's end down dog on a positive note, so breathe in fully. Breat out, let the knees come down to the mat.

Now, press up into tall kneeling pose. Whoo. So down dog's amazing because it acts as an inversion. So you get all that blood and energy. It feels so good. Okay. So tongue tuck the toes.

This one's geared for the quadriceps now. Nice little warm up and great exercise in and of itself. So we're gonna take our arms out in front of us, lean back while really securing like pelvis, glutes, core, lean back a few inches and lift back up. And when you lift back up, maybe bring the arms down by your side and squeeze those arm muscles. Inhale back, exhale up two. So again, about 10. And three. Perfect.

Four. And five. Go down as far as it's safe and effective for you. Six doesn't have to be too far for it to really work. Seven eight and nine and ten. Now, step the right foot forward. K. We'll come without hands, really.

We're gonna do a little half split lunge, a little warm up. So lean deeply into the low lunge. And then on the exhale, let's curl the back toes, actually. On the exhale, push the hips back straight in the front leg. Come in and out of this a few times. I actually like when I come into the lunge, I like to untuck the back toes for some reason that allows for more space, so you can flirt with that. But when I come back, I like to curl the toes.

So personal preference, Try it out. Good. Good. Good. One more lunge. For this one here, open up the arms. Let's get nice and deep and stretched out in the pose. One more. Generous inhale. Excellent. Perfect. Now, step back into the tall kneeling switch sides.

So again, play with the back toes, how you prefer them, lean into the lunge. So you've got like a little bit of the strength and stability in the left leg and the openness through the right hip, and then push back. Little half split hamstring stretch, lean back into the lunge, curl the back toes, if you'd like, lift the left toes up, get that hamstring, nice and long, The left leg, lean back into the lunge. Good one more time. Half split.

Super good back into the lunge. Okay. Lift the arm, point the back toes back. Good. Press, like, press into the mat with the top of your foot. Almost like you're trying to lift that right knee and that's gonna add some strength and stability also. Good. Your breath.

Think about really working on that lower body strength and stability. Helps with almost every other activity you do. Okay. Set back into the kneeling pose. Into tabletop. Okay. Table top.

You're gonna keep your right leg bent. We'll call it like a hip abduction. You're gonna bring the right knee out to the side. It's also maybe known as like a fire hydrant thing. Right? So two Keep your core engaged. Three, think about using the outside right hip muscles just to keep it kind of general and basic. Four, five, that extra little squeeze up top, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. Now shoot the right leg all the way back.

Point through those right toes as much as you can. Now, swing the right foot all the way around to the right, tapping your toes down, then lift the foot up and back, and kind of back behind you toward the left. And you can even lean back and get a little outer left hip stretch, and then back to table, swing it around, tap, and back lean back for that little stretch, swing it around, and tap. Oh, so the more you point those right toes as you swing through, the more it helps to engage that entire leg and keep it connected to the rest of the body. That makes sense?

Number six. Perfect. Number seven. Swing it out. Tap gently, lift and back. All the way around. Tap number eight.

Really good. And 9. And tap 10, send it straight back, right knee down, right into the left side. Good. So breathe in here, exhale. Keep the core engaged. Hydrant out to the left.

Left knee opens out wide, two. XL three. XL four. XL five. Good. Six.

Say strong in the arms and shoulders. Seven. Stable in the core. Eight. Nine. 10. Shoot the left leg back. Point those left toes like You really mean it, so you feel like the entire left leg is is engaged. Okay?

Now take the left foot, swing it over, tap all the way back behind you. Toward the outside of the right mat, push the hip back, grab the stretch to the right hip, then nice and controlled, tap number two. Swing it around. Tap number three. Perfect.

Tap number four. With as much control as you can, so lifting, engaging, swinging, gently, tapping gently, lift That's five. Six. Nice and patient. Seven. Eight. Good. Nine. 10.

Shoot it straight back. Back down into kneeling pose. Grab a cat cow. If you feel the the spine realign. Exhale. Inhale.

Back to neutral. Second round of those reverse, we'll call them reverse Nordics or camel pose. Okay? So lock in, nice and strong, lean back. There's one. If you'd like to lean back, and touch the ground and give yourself a little push up. You can do that. That's two.

Three. Four. Doesn't take much again. Just Be safe. You don't have to go back that far to make it a very effective exercise. You feel that stretch and strengthening in the quadricep muscles with this exercise.

Let's say there's three more. I lost count. One, and two. Okay. From here, curl your toes. Step the right foot up into what a squat position would be, so the right foot open out to the side a bit.

Now, with control without coming up all the way, step into squat. Come to stand. Lower back down, we stepped up with the right foot, so step back with the right foot into kneeling. Now, left foot forward, right foot forward, squat, rise, left foot back, right foot back, right foot forward, left foot forward, squat, rise, lower, right back, left back, left foot forward, right, squat, rise, good, left back, right back, right foot, left foot, squat, rise, right foot, left foot. Left foot, right foot, squat and hold, pulse, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, Two, all the way up. One. Good work. Make your way to the front.

Inhale the arms overhead. Breathe in there. Breath out forward fold. Half lift breath in. Breath out downward dog, inhale plank, exhale lower all the way down.

Point the toes back, cobra pose. May be growed into an up dog, hold for a sec, downward facing dog. Heels lift and press. Heels lift and press Heels lift, and press one more time. Heels high. Heels low.

Good, right leg lifts, breathe in. Step it up toward the right thumb. As you breathe out. Keep the back knee lifted, rise up. Okay. We're gonna keep the hands, maybe right around where the chest is.

You can keep them overhead if you'd like. But what I'll work a little bit is keeping this length and stance, draw your right knee forward. You can even lift your heel up a little bit if it calls for it, but draw forward forward, forward, almost like you're drawing forward to bring the left knee down. And then come up into like a tall pyramid pose. So we'll do about five.

So lower, mindful of the knee, but we're really working that right ankle. We want that knee to go beyond the toes safely. Two. Good. Three.

You can keep the back leg straight. And four. And five. Okay. Now, bring the hands to the heart. Warrior three. Lift off. Perfect. So now we've got that single leg, stability and balance to the right side.

Point the left toes back, a little lift through the chest, level through the hips, alive in the breath, bend the right knee a little bit more. Now we're in that right hip a little bit, right? We've got some strength going there. Rise all the way up, bring the left knee high, left ankle on top of the right thigh. Hands at the heart, flex your left foot like you would in pigeon pose, push the seat back, hold.

Breathe. Tree pose come up, open the hip, bring the left foot to the ground, and then to your calf or higher, just somewhere below or above your knee. Find your steady gaze. Bring the arms overhead. Allow that burn.

All those muscles to be speaking to you. And it's really awesome when you're about to fall because when you're about to fall, all these other little muscles start to engage to catch you. So embrace the almost fall or even the full fall. Big breath in, finish on a positive, and exhale hands to heart, left foot to the mat. Pause.

Allow your arms come down by the side. Palms open, chest open, reach the arms up, breathe in, breathe out forward fold, stretch those legs out, low back, inhale half lift, and exhale plank pose. Pause. Hold your plank. Let's kind of like balance this out a little bit for a moment and feel a little bit of arms, shoulder, chest, core, and leg work.

Breathe in, use your exhale to lower down all the way or halfway, you choose, and then choose the backbend that feels best for you, breath in, and breath out downward dog. Couple more little heel pumps, so lift the heels high, squeeze the caps, press them low, stretch. High for two of five. High for three. High for four.

High for five, left leg lifts breathe in. Step it up toward that left thumb as you breathe out. Okay. Feed are about hip width. You rise up for that standard lunge, hands can rest at the heart.

Now, same thing. What you're gonna do is lean and like forward into the lunge. The back leg can be straight or even slightly bent. The idea is to kind of like work like you're trying to bring the right knee toward the ground, but more importantly, bringing the left knee forward, working on that ankle. And if it's okay it's okay to bend so much that your heel lifts, just be mindful of the knee and then lift up and open in that long pyramid.

Lower back down. Find a place for your arms where they just kind of naturally move Number three. Good. Number four. Number five. Good. Okay.

Now put a generous bend in the left leg, find your target where you're going to focus for warrior three. Nice. Okay. Extending the back leg back like we do. Long spine, little gentle lift in the chest and square in the hips.

Put a bend in the left leg, work more muscle than sort of joint, come to stand and bring the right ankle over the left thigh. Flex the right foot quite a bit, protect your right knee, hands to heart, sit into that little chair called pigeon chair. That's it. You get a little stretch. And some loveliness through that left side, left leg burn. Tree pose come up to stand, open that right knee out to the side place the foot below the knee for now.

Why not? Remember that concept, right? Have you're about to fall, muscles catch it, brain work, muscular work, Nice. Arms can rise high. And exhale hands to heart, both feet down. Perfect. Maybe even kind of like move the legs around a little bit.

If you got any tightness in there. Good. Now, I'm gonna step toward you. We're gonna open up into the position for goddess or horse stance. So choose your distance, turn the feet open a bit, and to start, bring the hands to the thighs, lean forward, like, grow the huddling up with the team, and then take the right shoulder, bring it forward, and down in the direction of your left foot, maybe turn your gaze to the left, and then over to the other Sidoti. Left shoulder forward, gaze over the right.

One more to the left. Nice. One more to the right. Perfect. Now, draw the tailbone down, don't scoop it too much neutral pelvis, knees wide, arms out into that cactus position, sit nice and low. Now, we're gonna hold for now. Hold static.

So I invite you. You can keep your eyes open. We can have a nice connection here. Or you can close your eyes and really settle into the the feelings you have, right? From the feet, up into the legs, the legs, into the pelvis, the muscles of the core, the spine lengthening, That energy out through the crown of the head and the arms stable and strong. Take the left hand down to the left knee, take a little side bend over to the left. While holding. It's like a distraction while the legs are starting to feel a little burn.

And then right hand to right leg left arm up and over. Back to center, now straighten the legs. Okay. Arms out in front of you. Actually bring the arms up overhead as you lower down.

So we'll call these goddess squats, so lower, lower, lower, On the exhale, bring the arms down by your hips. Inhale, I'm gonna shorten my stance just a tiny bit. Lower down and exhale, two of 10. Inhale, up with the arms strong in the core, excel three. Inhale and four.

Inhale and five. Six. Nine, seven, eight, nine, 10, back down in. Hold on to the thighs. Shoulder to the right, or look over the left, shoulder, shoulder draws down toward the left. Over to the other side. One more to the left, holding.

Over to the right. Back to center, lift your heels, arms high for five, four, Good job. Three. Squeeze those calves. Two. Heels back down. Pries back up. Okay.

Now take your feet out a little bit wider. So skandasana, we're not gonna come into the the deepest fullest expression, let's say, feel free to. Join me as you open the feet up about 45 degrees. Bend into the right leg, push the hips back like you're trying to sit low back behind that right heel. Arms can go out in front of you.

Now instead of coming up, just pivot straight across to the left and over to the right. And to the left, and to the right. This time come up and over to the left, up and over to the right. Push through the heel, the heel will trigger the glute muscles to activate Over to the right, push through the right heel, boom, nice. Left heel. Right heel.

Left and right. One more over to the left, one more over to the right. Back to center, straighten the legs, pause, turn the toes forward, Take a breath in, arms overhead and exhale hands to heart. Okay. Let's continue. So we're gonna pivot to the right. Turn your right foot forward and then step into like a little abbreviated lunge position. So it's going to feel it's gonna look like this approximately.

You're gonna lower, see how my knee is a little farther forward than the traditional lunge, and my right knee is going to go forward a bit. That's okay. We're going to do 10. So lower down, press up one. Lower down, press up two. Three. Four. Remember strong legs, tone legs, good solid base, six, seven, eight, nine, 10.

Now push the back heel down straight in the front leg, but keep a tiny little bend. Push your fingers into your hip creases, lengthen the spine forward breathe in here and now breathe out, fold down for a little relief, a little stretchy stretch in that right leg. Bring the right hand to the right ankle. It's like a little bit of a twisted triangle. So the left arm rises high.

Maybe it's not like super twisty, but a little twisty. Little relief from the legs for now. Okay. Bring it back down with control through the core and strong legs rise up. Pivot to the left side of the mat.

Same thing. So your feet are about hip width, hands can rest at the heart or somewhere where you need for balance. Bring the right knee down toward the ground, and up for one. Two, you can shorten the stance or lengthen it to your preference. Three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and 10. Good. Find that position for pyramid. So a little tiny bend in the left knee or generous bend up to you, pushing the hips back, lengthening the spine, exhale fold.

Finding good balance in the legs, If you need to adjust the stance a little bit, do so. Left hand to the left ankle or a little bit higher, if you'd like. Twist open to the right. Nice. Bring it back down. Step back into dog pose.

Okay. Now here, use this pose to kind of like Get out of the intensity of the legs, stretch the spine. That's the great thing about dog pose is you can really get into that neutral and a lengthened spinal position. Bring the knees down to the mat, one cat cow or two or three up to you. Inhale and exhale round it.

Good. Back to neutral, knees pretty wide, if you'd like, child's pose. Reach the arms forward, seat way back. Come forward. Let's grab a couple moments in puppy pose, hips over the knees, stretch the arms out in front of you, bring the elbows down if it's too intense on the shoulders, but chin chest toward the ground, that opening through the upper back. Okay. Press back up into table.

The transition will be off to the left or right. It doesn't matter onto your seat. Lower on down to your back. Okay. First bridge will be the traditional feet and ankles underneath your knees.

So the arms are long down your side for now. Press the hips up. Walk only partially underneath you. Not into that full bridge. Now, I invite you to simply lower the hips down toward the ground, push through your heels to press the hips high.

10. Nine. Eight, seven, six, good. Five, exhaling up four, Three, two, and one. Lower down. Now walk your heels out a little bit further.

Okay? So the legs aren't bent as much. What this will do is ask your hamstrings to work rather than the glutes and quads that we're just working. So press through the heels, walk the shoulders under you a little bit, lower and press. Lower. You can take the heels out a little bit further if the hamstrings aren't working as much. And press two.

Three. There we go. Now I've targeted them. Four, You're also getting the glutes, but the hamstrings are definitely taking most of the load. Let's call that five. Can I get an extra one in there? Six, seven, eight, nine, 10. Good. Lower yourself down.

Perfect. Legg straight up. Hands underneath your seat. Protect your low back a bit. Now hip flexors, quads, and core.

So inhale lower the legs down, exhale up 10. Point the toes, nine, squeeze the quads, eight, seven, six, and five, you can lift your shoulders up off the mat if you'd like a little more core engagement, four, Three, two, one, bend your knees, arms out to the sides, palms facing down. Now with control, take the knees over to the right, maybe only about like halfway or three quarters of the way. And use your core to push the ground, the low back down into the ground and your knees up and over to the left. Same thing, exhale, push, engage the core to lift those legs up.

We'll do five on each side. XL two. Lower to the left, exhale two up. Good, exhale three. Over to the left, exhale three. So you get a little rotational core work.

And four. Over to the left, four. Last round, to the right, five. To the left, to the left. Five. Good.

Now bring the feet down. Shift the hips over to the left and allow for a little spinal twist. Bring your right hand to your left thigh. On the exhale, pull that left thigh down toward the ground while pinning the left shoulder and arm down as well. One more time. Big exhale squeeze the abdominals, pull in, and twist.

With control, up to center, push the feet down, slide over to the right. Twist to the left, left hand assists that right thigh, plug the right arm, shoulder, shoulder blade, exhale. Twist. Inhale out a little bit, exhale. Twist.

One more time. XL. Twist. Slowly back up, centered on the mat, hug the knees in, grab hold of either the shins or the hamstrings, give yourself a big hug, Bring the feet back down, legs bent, bound angle, possibly, or straight. Choose your most comfortable resting position.

Let's do a big breath together. You and I, inhale fully. Open the mouth and exhale everything out. One more time. Breathe in and exhale everything out.

And just a quick thought as we're leaning into relaxation, some of these exercises can be a little tricky or sensitive in the knees or the hips, and if you just find your way, find your progression, your level, quote unquote level, and stay with it work on keeping your legs strong, your hips strong, and the joints will benefit. It will get easier coming from someone who has done it himself. So That feels really good when you can get to that point. He might already be there. Let the breath be calm, the body rested, stay as long as you'd like.

As long as you'd like, make it your own. If you'd like to join me, come to sit. Well done. Well done. So good to work this portion of the body. So I see you. I see the work you're doing.

Give yourself a little pat on the back for showing up once again for yourself, and we'll close with thank you, Namaste, blessings, until next time.