- Hey everyone, and 
welcome to Yoga With Adriene.

I am Adriene, and 
today we're going to continue

our Foundations of Yoga
series with the Runners Lunge.

A great posture for 
stretching the legs,

opening the chest, finding
space and length in the spine.

Also a really great stretch for

runners, or wanna 
be runners like me.

So let's get started 
and hop on the mat!

(upbeat music)

Okay, so for this 
pose we're gonna start

at the head of our mat.

And I'm gonna begin by 
bringing my feet together,

or hip width apart.

Okay, I'm gonna start 
in my Mountain Posture.

I'm gonna dive 
through a Forward Fold.

And if you're like,
"What the what?

"Wait, I thought this was
foundational series."

Then go back if you 
have just a quick moment

and refer to Mountain Pose 
and the Forward Fold,

Tadasana and Uttanasana,
just for the specifics

of those two poses.

But in order to get 
to our pose for today,

I'm going to, just very quickly,

go through my checklist 
here in Mountain Pose.

Draw my hands to 
my waistline, inhale in.

Exhale, diving forward 
leading with the heart.

Coming into my Forward Fold,

relaxing the 
weight of the head down.

Just letting the finger tips go

and letting the 
spine round naturally.

I can bend my 
knees a couple times here

pedaling the feet, just
creating a little bit of space

yeah, in the body.

Maybe shaking the head yes.

Ooh, hello microphone.

Shaking the head no.

Then from here I'm 
gonna bring my fingertips

to the outer edges of my feet.

I'm gonna press 
into my left heel.

And by bringing an 
active energy into my core,

whatever that means to you.

Just bringing a little bit of
awareness into your center.

I'm gonna step my leg back.

So even in the transitions here

I'm mindful through my belly,
through my core.

I'm gonna step my leg back

and then I'm gonna 
use my eyeballs, right?

No need to rush into asana.

In fact if you're a beginner

and you want to 
go to public classes,

don't let anyone rush you.

Take your time.

So, right here I always 
encourage my students,

especially in 
this Runners Lunge,

to take your time to find it.

There's no rush, no need 
to blow through, okay?

In fact we get 
double the benefits

when we take a 
little more time here,

especially in the beginning,
to create space.

So I'm creating space in the
front of the right hip crease.

Hello, lots of space here.

Now I'm gonna 
shift my weight over

and I'm gonna 
take my left thumb,

this is a great little trick.

Thumbs up everyone!

I'm gonna take my left thumb

and I'm gonna use it to 
peel my left hip crease back.

So right now, I'm 
gonna break out for a second.

Break out!

Right now my hips are 
like this, my hip sockets.

I'm gonna take 
my left hip crease

so that I can bring them
more in line with each other.

Parallel, trust me on this one.

Taking the left hip crease back

I'm gonna peel it, 
drawing them parallel.

And then I'm gonna 
notice that I might be on

like a tight rope 
(singing circus tune)

and I don't need to be,
there's no need.

Let's give ourselves 
a little more stability

by walking the left foot out.

So I'm on two parallel skis,
rather than a tight rope.

And then I'm gonna bring 
my attention to the spine.

By inhaling, radiating my
heart forward, and exhaling.

Sinking into that front hip,
noticing that my knee

is directly above my heel.

This is very common that 
people come into this line

and the knee is like 
hyper extending way over,

over, over the toes even.

No bueno for the knee,
so back it up.

Back it up and stack that knee

right above the heel, 
toes pointing forward.

Now, if this is becoming
excruciating in the hip creases,

or you can't seem to find that
straight line in the spine,

or open the chest 
the heart forward.

Cut yourself a break, okay?

Send that knee to the ground
for a little more stability.

And you can either come on
to the top of the foot here,

or you can stay with 
the toes curled under.

Honestly in this pose it's
whatever feels best for you.

Okay, so I'm gonna keep 
my toes curled under here.

I'm gonna bring my knee 
down for a little stability.

And then I'm gonna inhale,

loop my shoulders forward, 
up and back so that I can just

check in with my fingertips.

You might notice 
that you started to put

an excruciating amount of 
weight on your fingertips.

They start to change 
colors and become like

strawberry cream 
popsicles or something. Gross.

But take a little bit of that
weight off your fingertips.

Take responsibility for the pose

by extending through 
the crown of the head

and taking some 
weight out of the joints.

From Runners Lunge, 
I'm gonna inhale,

shine my heart forward.

And to get out of it I'll
either exhale, plant my palms

typically, and step it 
back into another posture.

Teaser, one day we'll 
learn Downward Dog together.

Or, I might take my back leg

and come back up the way I came.

Which means I'll 
take that back foot,

this case our right foot, 
pressing into my left heel.

And I'll step it up 
to the front of the mat

to meet the left foot.

Coming back 
into my Forward Fold.

Taking a breath 
here and then inhaling.

Drawing the 
hands to the waistline

and coming back 
up the way I came.

Long neck. 
Scooping the tailbone in

and arriving (clicks tongue) 
back at Tadasana.

Okay, so that was 
the Runners Lunge.

If you have any questions 
or comments about

the Runners Lunge, or about
anything else yoga related,

please leave them in 
the comment box below.

Make sure you 
subscribe to the channel.

Like us and I hope 
to see you next time.

Thank you. Namaste.

(upbeat music)