Latest / Ten-Minute Mornings / 10-Minute Morning Yoga for Strength, Flow & Smooth Transitions
Transcript
- James @ Daily Flow: Hello friends. Thanks for downloading the audio version of today's 10 minute mornings practice. The YouTube video is linked in the show notes. And if you're staying with just the audio, don't worry about doing it right. Just move and breathe in a way that feels honest. That's enough. a follow or review goes a long way. And of course, you're always welcome to practice live with me on YouTube, 8 a.m. weekdays. Just 10 minutes to ground, strengthen and engage so that we're ready for whatever the day might hold. Hello friends, good morning. Welcome to this daily flow 10 minute mornings practice. My name is James. Come to sit and plant your feet flat on the floor. Place your hands underneath your shoulders, fingers spread wide, and wrap those elbows under so you feel your whole shoulder rotates externally. A little micro bend in the elbows. Press down and lift up your hips. Reverse table. Keep your chin tucked. Give the glutes a little squeeze. And then maybe let the head fall back, but listen to your neck. Especially in early days, I feel my shoulders opening. Feel a little bit of opening in my hips, but it's pretty gentle. Mainly it's a shoulder stretch right now for me, and then lower down the way you came. Pick up your feet. Keep your knees bent for now. I have my hands beside me. You can hold the backs of your knees or extend your arms, and maybe straighten your legs for both. Keep the heart lifted. So notice... If your low back starts to round and you start to collapse the chest and feel that external rotation of the biceps, feel the activation in the low body. Inhale. Listen carefully, cross your shins. So not your knees, your shins. Hug everything in really close and then roll yourself forward. Come to a plank, step back. Fingers spread wide. Inhale. We're gonna take Chaturanga, but let's move slowly. Pull your heart forward, keep your legs engaged, keep your core engaged. And you're trying to make 90 degree angles, elbows over wrists, shoulders in line with elbows. And then roll over those toes, lift your heart, upward facing dog. A of times people just kind of collapse into those poses. Release the knees, send the hips back to the heels, tuck the toes. Nice and long inhale. Exhale, come back to that. ⁓ Plank. Step your feet forward. Roll down. Find that boat. Yeah, you may have predicted we're going to start flowing down a little bit more, but right now let's just stay right here. Set the feet down, plant the hands, lift up, find your back bend, open those shoulders, wake up those abdominals a little bit, and lower down the way you came. I'm planting my hips right by where my ⁓ hands are. Pick up the summer left over right. Grab the ankles, pull everything really close. ⁓ Make yourself a ball. And then forward. Hands come forward. Step back to plank. Inhale, exhale. Bend the elbows, pull the heart forward. Keep the legs engaged. Roll over the toes, upward dog. Open up the front of the body. tap the knees. This time, I'm gonna cross the shins as I send my hips back, sit down between my feet and float them. I scooted way back, so I'm gonna scoot myself forward again. ⁓ Float the legs, boat. Set down the hands, set down the feet, lift the hips. Let's see if we can dial it up just a little bit this time. Lower the hips. Pick up the feet, cross the shins. I'm still going to grab the ankles, but now we'll roll over. Hands plant. Feel a sense of cat back. Hop your feet back, Chaturanga. If that feels like too much, then you'll step back again. Up dog. Let's take it downward facing dog this time. Bend your knees quite a lot. Feel that sense of cat back. Hop your feet. right behind your hands, sit back, boat. Inhale, exhale, set down the feet and hands, lift up for your back bend. Lower down, hips back, cross the shins, shift forward, flow back. And we're done. This time I'm gonna separate my hands a little bit wider and walk them a little bit further back. Bend the knees, pull the heart, pull the chest, find a sense of cat back, look forward, inhale, exhale, float, sit, boat. How'd you do? Listen, there are a lot of people who are a lot better at that stuff than I am. We're all works in progress. So meet yourself where you are. Maybe you're better at it than I am. I hope so. This time I'm gonna set down my legs straight, plant my hands and take a reverse plank. You can take that reverse table again if you'd like. Lower down, pick up the feet, cross the shins, shift, float. We'll move on, Downward Facing Dog. Down Dog Split the right leg. Actively flex the right foot, engage the right leg, and then step the right foot all the way between the hands. Spiral the left heel down. Doesn't matter in those Down Dog Splits how high your leg goes. As long as it feels like it's going high and it feels like it's straight, it'll get straighter, it'll get higher. Flexibility will come more. Warrior Two. One of things I like about yoga is that flexibility and strength are connected rather than feeling like they're different skills. They're the same skill, peaceful warrior. Open up the right ribs, extended side angle pose. Let's take a half bind. Wrap that left hand behind. See if you can noodle into the right hip crease. If it feels like it's too much, you can always take it back. And then I'm float my right arm by my ear, straighten my right leg. half bound triangle, release the right hand down, maybe to the foot, the calf, the ankle. Look up, you might even grab that right big toe, but I've focused more on aligning the skeleton and staying in these deep postures is helping open up flexibility, is helping build strength. Inhale, exhale, re-bend that right knee where you're to. Cartwheel the left hand down to the floor, right arm to the ceiling. Engage down in that left hand, step the right foot over the left. Wild thing. And then we're gonna take a little vinyasa. Right hand comes down, flip back over, lower halfway, pull the heart forward. Upward dog. Downward dog. Breathe. My foot is flexed. Oops. I'm reaching the heel up. feel the I feel like the left leg is really straight. I watch these videos back sometimes and I see that it wasn't as straight as I thought. We're all works in progress again. Inhale, exhale, step forward. Feel the heart square to the front. Feel the back edge of the right foot. Feel the four corners of the left one. Inhale. Exhale, Warrior II. So keeping my knees deeply bent, left arm sweeps back. I'm really focused on the energy in the left fingertips and on the bend of the left knee so I feel that stretch in the left ribs. Now if I take that left hand forward, forward, forward, and I come to my ⁓ side angle pose. I can look up underneath that left shoulder, right shoulder, then wrap the right hand behind, noodle that, those fingertips into the hip crease. Look up. Now press into the big toe side of the right foot. The right leg lengthens. And do whatever reorganizing you need to do. Having that half bind helps to lengthen the low back, also still opening up that right shoulder. I'm gonna grab my left big toe. You do not have to. Binds are in service of deepening postures, of taking them further. So you have to set it up first in the most, in the simplest way, I guess. And then you go further when your body says, ⁓ I'm not feeling much anymore. two. Cartwheel the right hand down. Shift your weight into the right hand, pick up that left foot. The right leg has to be engaged here too. Wild thing. and then flip it back over. Both legs are engaged. Three point chaturanga, upward facing dog, downward facing dog. Take your breath. Right leg high, step it through. Warrior one, inhale. Warrior two, exhale. Peaceful warrior half-bind. Extended side angle pose. Triangle pose. Take your breath. Release all of that. Cartwheel that left hand down, wild thing. We're moving now, we're flowing now. And then flow that back over. Chaturanga. When it starts to flow, you let go of the need for those micro adjustments and you just move your body down dog split left leg. Step it through warrior one, warrior two, peaceful warrior, side angle pose, triangle pose, warrior two, right hand cartwheels down, just breathe and move, step that left foot all the way over. wild thing. Flip it over. Chaturanga. Downward facing dog, walk your feet forward. I'm gonna have a seat. ⁓ Take a breath. How do you do? How do you feel? What of this strengthening grounding will you carry into your day? What doesn't serve you? What will you leave behind? The light that is in me bows to honors and is so, grateful for the light that is in you. Namaste.