Hey, welcome to 
Yoga With Adriene.

I'm Adriene and 
today we are going to learn

one of my favorite poses,
the Bridge pose,

Setu Bandhasana, as part of
our foundations of yoga series.

So hop on the mat 
and let's learn Bridge.

(upbeat music)

Okay, so we're going to 
begin flat on our backs today.

Letting the soles of 
the feet come to the mat

and the knees 
point up towards the sky.

Let's tuck our 
chins into our chests

and lengthen through 
the back of our necks.

And then maybe just take a
second here to open the palms

and breathe letting the 
back relax into the mat.

(breathing loudly)

Then I'll bring my 
awareness to my heels,

I'm gonna draw my 
heels up towards my sit bones

and keeping my knees
in line with the hip points,

I'll reach my finger tips down

and kind of use 
this as a gauge here.

So where my finger tips land

is pretty much 
where the heels can be.

Sometimes we bring them 
a little bit closer in yoga

for a more deeper approach,

more deeper 
opening in the front body.

But I would 
recommend as a beginner

using this little cheat here,
finger tips to heels.

All right.

So, from here I'll press into
all four corners of the feet,

so I really 
wanna spread awareness

through all four 
corners of my feet,

particularly the inner arches.

Sometimes we go, tend 
to let the knees widen,

and go to the outer edges of
the feet, that's the tendency.

So I wanna keep my 
knees in line with my hips

and my awareness spreading

through all four 
corners of the feet, right?

I wanna pay 
attention to my alignment,

set up my pose just right.

So from here, I'll 
press into my feet,

take a nice deep 
breath in (inhaling loudly),

and on the exhale, 
I'll scoop my tailbone up,

drawing my navel 
down towards the mat,

hugging the navel to the spine.

I'll continue this journey,

scooping the tailbone up,
pressing into the feet.

I begin to lift 
my hip points up,

palms pressing flat into the mat

for a little bit of support,

tailbone scooping up.

You notice here I'm 
going nice and slow,

traveling up the spine.

Kind of getting a 
yummy massage here.

(inhaling loudly)

I continue lifting the 
hip points nice and slow.

(inhaling loudly) Pressing into
the spine (inhaling loudly).

I can release 
my palms open here,

(exhaling loudly)

I can grab onto the 
outer edges of the mat,

or I can just keep pressing all
10 fingerprints down strong.

So there's a couple different
options here (loud inhale).

As I continue to lift the hips.

(inhaling loudly)

(exhaling loudly) Bridge pose.

Neck is nice and long here.

Again, the tendency 
is going to wanna come

to those outer edges 
of the feet to support,

but remember your 
alignment, stay stacked,

working with integrity,
toes pointing forward.

Couple of action 
points and safety precautions.

I'm not looking at 
you on purpose right now

because I don't want to 
ever turn my neck, my head,

to look at somebody else's mat

or to look at you, my friends
out there watching this now.

I wanna keep the 
neck nice and long,

not move it side to side,
so we don't injure it.

Keep it nice and 
happy and supported.

This pose is tough,

but I don't wanna 
create any tension in the neck

or in the face or in the tush.

There's a tendency to 
really squeeze the tushy here,

I don't say tush or tushy,

(chuckling) I don't 
know why I just said that.

The bum, the buttocks,
the glutes.

Keep 'em soft.

So that's the 
beauty of this posture,

is marrying that strength,
that activity,

with a calm, with an ease.

(inhaling loudly)

Another action point, I 
wanna press my hips forward,

really reaching my knees towards
the front edge of the mat.

So I'm not just 
lifting up towards the sky,

but imagine 
scooping your tailbone

to the backs of your knees
or often, I tell my students,

sit bones to the 
backs of the knees.

So I'm lifting the hips,

but I'm really thinking 
about drawing my sit bones

to kiss the back 
of the knees there.

We can take a 
couple breaths here.

Perhaps you've 
already fallen out

and you're like why is she
still up there? (chuckling)

But I encourage 
you on the journey down

to move with the breath.

I often go down on an exhale,

but, as always, I 
encourage you to experiment

with your breath, 
finding what feels good.

I don't fall out of the pose,

but rather I take this nice,
slow journey down.

Feels yummy on my spine here

as I slowly release the hips,

the pelvis, back 
down to the earth.

Keeping my knees in line,

now I can turn my 
head and smile at you.

Okay, so, to go a 
little bit deeper in the pose,

we're gonna go up 
one more time here.

I'm gonna just 
show you one more thing

to go a little bit deeper.

I'll inhale, again,

pressing into all 
four corners of the feet.

Let this movement, rather
than just hiking the hips up,

let's enjoy this journey, right?

You get a nice, solid back
massage out of this, as well.

But let it start 
from the tailbone,

like we do in our Cat-Cow.

It starts here, the 
movement starts here.

I'll scoop the tailbone up,

lower back becomes 
flush with the mat.

And then I'm slowly 
gonna travel up my spine

as I lift up 
into my Bridge pose.

And actually for this one,

I'm gonna draw my 
heels a little bit closer,

in case you wanna try 
that to go a little bit deeper.

So heels draw in 
towards the sit bones,

toes pointing forward.

Knees up towards the sky 
and in line with the hips.

Pressing into the palms

or, again, sometimes it's nice

to grab the outer edge of the
mat for a little stability.

Or if we're really going for
the ease, the grace today,

I'll go palms up.

So you can experiment with that.

Inhale (inhaling loudly)

and on an exhale 
(exhaling loudly)

scooping that tailbone up.

Moving with your breath.

We don't have to do 
this all in one breath,

we can breath in 
and out nice and easy.

Slowly lifting 
the hip points up,

but thinking about 
drawing these sit bones

to the backs of the knees.

Knees really moving forward,
energetically even.

(inhaling loudly)

Pressing into the 
inner arches of the feet,

pressing into the 
ball joints of the big toe

will really help you figure out

what the hell 
(chuckles) I just meant

by drawing your knees 
energetically forward.

(chuckles)

(humming)

Now to go a little bit deeper,

I'm gonna continue, nice,
strong in the legs here,

continue pressing into 
the inner arches of the feet.

Continue to scoop my 
tailbone up toward the sky.

But this time I can walk my
shoulder blades in together,

one at a time.

And perhaps 
interlace the finger tips

underneath my bridge.

Walking the shoulder blades in

and really stretching 
through the front body,

neck is nice and long.

I find that 
softness in my face here.

(loud breathing)

Can take a couple breaths here.

Sometimes we can 
also use the thumbs here,

the hands to support.

Or if we have blocks,

we can do a more restorative 
version of this posture.

But this is a 
great heart opener here.

I'm still really 
strong in my legs here.

(inhaling loudly) 
Breathing into my belly,

lifting those hip points up
towards the backs of the knees.

(inhaling loudly)

(humming)

To come out of this posture,

I'll release the 
fingertips with grace

(exhales loudly)

and then let that be my 
cue to slowly release down.

Walking down the 
spine nice and slow.

And then pelvis releases.

As a quick counter-pose,

I'll hug my knees 
in towards my chest,

wrap my arms around my shins,

and just take a 
couple seconds here

to rock a little back and forth.

Careful you don't get too tense

in the shoulders 
here as you do that.

Remember, (loud 
inhale) to relax them down

and away from the ears.

We can do this a couple times,

we can even draw a 
couple circles with the knees,

just massaging the lower back.

And then I can release the
soles of my feet to the ground

and sometimes it feels 
great to do it with a thud.

(exhaling loudly)

And then I'm here 
for another Bridge pose.

(inhaling loudly)

We can do this as 
many times as feels good

or often we'll 
begin or end class

with a couple different 
variations of this posture,

which we'll do at a later date.

(humming)

Okie doke, so that was Bridge
pose, super yummy posture.

I love bridge because 
it's active and relaxing,

and so we can 
practice balancing those two.

Also, really 
great for the ladies.

(clicking tongue)

Really 
therapeutic for the women,

but really 
therapeutic for everyone.

I'll list all the 
benefits on the blog,

so visit the blog 
at yogawithadriene.com.

Make sure you subscribe, leave
comments, questions below.

And enjoy your Bridge pose.

Thank you and namaste.

(upbeat indie music)

A really awesome 
pose for the ladies.

(clicking tongue)

In terms of therapeutic 
relief for lady problems.

Not problems, I 
can't say problems, dammit.