- What's up everyone? And welcome to Yoga With Adriene. I'm Adriene and today, we have a special sequence for the knees. So this is a big request. Yoga for sensitive knees. This is a practice that's gonna help anyone and everyone build more awareness and strength and stability around the knees. And also, this is just a nice practice video for those who don't wanna be on all fours. So hop into something comfy. Oh, and if you have a block, go ahead and grab it but you don't need it. But everyone's definitely gonna need a blanket today or a rolled-up towel. Alright, grab your things and let's get started. (upbeat music) Alright my friends, let's begin seated. We're gonna take our blanket or towel and we're gonna roll it up, make a little tootsie roll. So you're creating a little makeshift at-home bolster. If you have a bolster, you can use that but this really works just fine. You're gonna bring your legs out and you're gonna place that bolster, yep, you guessed it, right behind thy knees. So this is an awesome practice for anyone who just wants to build more awareness in the knees which I feel like should be, could be everyone. So we start nice and slow and take it easy. Just also kind of using this time. It's time for yourself to chill out, to restore, to find your breath and bring a little balance to the body. So you're gonna bring your hands to rest behind you in a way that feels good so you feel supported and so that you're not collapsed in the spine. So try to lift up through your heart's pace. Again, whichever way and the hands feels awesome for you, go ahead and find that. And you're gonna take your toes and point them up towards the sky. So, there are some things that are just anatomical, right? Maybe the toes turn out or the toes turn in which of course, effect the knees and how you walk. So that's all good but we're just gonna take a little time to experiment and enquire and hopefully bring some stability and strength to the knees without hurting your knees. So a lot of people can't do a lot of the at-home yoga practices because there's a lot of pressure on the knees. So I got you. Here we go. Bring the toes up towards the sky. Excuse my voice today. Austin allergies, plus you know my voice, likes to fluctuate. So, hey buddy. And then bring your toes to pet your dog like so. Okay, no. Gosh, she has to make it all about him. Okay, toes are pointing up, you're gonna lift the heels. I'll focus. And as you lift the heels, I just want you to keep a little bit of awareness in the knees just notice what it feels like and then lower, and then lift the heels, and lower and now, this time when you lift the heels, notice what muscles around this area. Thigh bone, quadricep, inner thigh, inner groin. Notice what muscles, if anything, turn on. Ready? Here we go, lift the heels, toes are pointing up. And then if for whatever reason, you might be clinching in your buttocks right now, relax your butt. Can someone please quote me on that? Relax your butt. And then lower the heels. Let's do that one more time. Keep the glutes relaxed and just notice what muscles turn on. Hey oh. Alright, now lower, awesome. Make an adjustment with the hands if you need to. Make sure you're sitting up nice and tall. And then this time, we're gonna lift just the right heel and you're just gonna turn the right toes out a little bit and then in. Just noticing if we can engage the inner thigh muscle and the quad without clenching the buttocks. And you might feel that in the inner knee. Again, inner thigh. And then lower and let's try it on the other side. Again, if your heart is collapsing, see if you can lift up nice and tall and then lift the left heel and again, nice and slow. So at the very least, you're getting a nice little lube of the femur, that hip socket. And if you take the time to just kind of listen and you can even look down, see if as you turn your toes in and out, you can engage the inner left thigh. Naturally, you'll engage the quadricep but without clinching the buttocks. And if you're not used to this or if you are indeed in need of strengthening and finding stability around the knee, you're gonna feel it maybe in the little inner knee. It shouldn't feel bad, it should just feel like awareness. Sweet, and then lower that and then check it out, this is gonna be fun. You're gonna bring the feet to the ground, bring the butt down to the bolster or your makeshift bolster and come to lie on your back. Oh yeah. Alright, take the bolster with your right hand, slide your towel or blanket all the way up behind your neck. Yay! And then we're gonna slowly walk the feet, excuse me, walk the knees out by bringing the feet together. So bring the knees out, bring the feet together. And then bring your hands to your hips and breathe. Again, using this time for you to balance the body. Just allow gravity to do the work here. The tops of the thighs, nice and a heavy. Inner groin, soft and relaxed. And if you want a little more, you can massage the tops of the hips by pressing palms into the hip creases. Maybe if you've had some like stress energy or bad juju you've been carrying around, you can use this to just kinda brush it off, brush the day away thus far. Start to deepen your breath. Close your eyes. Again, see if you can soften the glutes. And slowly take a deep breath in, let your fingertips, your arms come out wide, palms up towards the sky. And as you exhale, this time let it out through the mouth, a little sigh. (exhaling loudly) Big inhale in through the nose, and again out through the mouth, that little sigh. Connecting mind and body, big inhale. Let it go. Cool. Bring the right fingertips to the right thigh, left fingertips to the left thigh and you're gonna slowly close the legs. Nice, and you're gonna send the legs up high. So lower back becomes flush with the mat so you need a little core strength here. Without being on the knees, so none of those Cat-Cow core strengtheners here but rather we'll use the support of the back. So scoop the tailbone up, engage the abdominal muscles by hugging the lower ribs in. You can keep a slight bend in the knees, they don't have to be locked. In fact, they should never be locked but it don't have to be straight. Awesome, and then we're gonna inhale, interlace the fingertips, bringing them behind the head, thumbs extended, elbows should fit nicely on your towel or blanket, inhale in and then exhale. You're gonna slowly twist the right, bring the right elbow over towards the left knee. You should feel your abdominals turn on, and then you're just gonna slowly baby pulse the right leg. Now, if you're able to come down low, you can but only go as far as you can to where the lower back feels nice and flush with the mat, still. So maybe it's here, baby pulses. Maybe it's here. You're keeping your twist. Right elbow reaching towards the front left corner of your mat. Baby pulses. And then maybe send your gaze up to not crunch in the neck and breathe deep here pulsing. Keep your twist. Scoop up through the tailbone. We're here for five. You got it, four, peaceful in the face, three, two and then one, keep the legs up, feet come together, you rest on your blanket. Take a deep breath in, you can bend the knees here if you need to. And we'll take it to the other side, so straighten the legs, inhale, scoop the tailbone up, draw the navel down, hug the lower ribs in. So feel that zip up through your abdominal wall and then bring the elbow up and over, find your twist so you're lifting the left shoulder blade up off the earth and then nice and easy, listen carefully, nice baby pulses again. Extend the left leg. It may not go down as far as you did on the right side. You want to keep the lower back flush, baby pulses. I did this yesterday so I'm feeling it. Alright, you're doing awesome. Gaze up toward that third eye and here we are for five, four, baby pulses, listen to your breath, three, scoop the tailbone up, two, and one, awesome. Release everything. You're gonna bring the hands to the backs of the thighs. You gonna bend the knees and if you can, you're just gonna drop the heels down. So lots of different levels of sensitivity here. Some people will be able to draw the knees all the way up to the chest but your hands are gonna be behind the knees so there's spaciousness there. So squeeze the knees into the chest, scoop the tailbone up. Just feel that last little bit of support on your yoga mat and your back body. Relax your shoulders. Big inhale, then exhale. You can either rock and roll up the length of your spine or you're gonna just slowly come to one side and we're gonna come all the way up to a Downward Facing Dog. So take your time. You can put your bolster, your makeshift bolster, keep it rolled up. You can put it to the side and then we're gonna come all the way to Down Dog. Keep an awakeness on the live energy in the toes and the feet as you move, and then claw through the fingertips when you get there and start to pedal it out. Send the hips up high. Keep the knees nice and bent. Then inhaling deeply, allergies, and then exhale, melt the heart towards the thighs, press the heart back, feel that stretch through the shoulders, the chest. Claw through the fingertips and then slowly you're gonna walk your feet up towards the center of your mat, nice and slow. Feet hip width apart. You'll come into a little rag doll here, a little Forward Fold. And again, nice slight bend in the knees here. Breathe deep and feel that big stretch in the lower back body as you bend your knees. Connect through your feet, all four corners, grab the elbows and you might just rock gently side to side creating that so semi, semi-circle? Semi-circle. Semi-circle or semi-circle? Shake the head loose and then release the arms and slowly press on all four corners of the feet to roll it up. And root down through the feet as you rise up. Lift the chest, lift the sternum and right away, you're gonna bring the fingertips around and interlace behind your back and draw the knuckles down and away, open the chest, breathe deep, feel this upward current of energy through the front body and allow your body to respond to that. So if the pelvis is dipping out here and you're thinking upward through the front body, bring your hip points all the way up towards the sky. Just kinda bring your center underneath you. And they might open the throat a little bit here, you might find soft easy movement that feels awesome. Take a deep breath in, and then exhale, bend the knees and take your knuckles, draw a big rainbow, so they actively reach up towards the sky, all the way up and over. Big stretch requires big breath, big inhale and exhale. All the way back up. Great, then you're gonna cross the right arm over the left, over the body, give yourself a big hug. Inhale, root down through the feet, lift up through the inner thigh here. And then exhale, release. Interlace the fingertips behind, this time, opposite thumb on top, so reverse your grip and then draw the knuckles down and away again. Inhale, lift the chest. Lift the throat and draw your center underneath you. Hip points towards the sky. This is gonna require that inner thigh and the quad to kind of turn on again. See if you can locate that, just play. Maybe lift the toes on this one and then here we go. Bending the knees, bringing the heart forward first and then down, knuckles draw up towards the sky. Big stretch so big inhale to support. And then exhale, to press into the heels, draw the knuckles back, heart lifts up, release your grip, feel that flush of energy and this time, big hug, left arm over the right. And take a second here to draw up through the arches of the feet. So again, feel that inner thigh lift but also to just feel this embrace. Feel this hug. Feel the expansion in the lungs, the upper back body and the ribs as you breathe in, and exhale, release it out. Awesome, inhale, send the fingertips up high this time. Wu-Tang grip today, big inhales. You hook the thumbs, fingertips reach up high and then exhale. Keep lifting up through your arches, so press in all four corners of the feet especially the outer edges. So if you tend to roll in towards the inner arches, press to the outer edges and then as if you're in between two panes of glass, just slowly tilt to the left. So not a big bump, but just a slow tilt and then lift up from your pelvic floor. And a lot of times in yoga, you'll hear someone say lift the kneecaps. Think about engaging the inner thighs and the quads without clenching your glutes. And then back up through center, press through the feet re-establish your foundation, ground through the feet and then slowly sliding to the other side. Tuck the chin slightly. See if you can lift up through the inner thigh, just a sensation. And then slowly bring it back, palms come together and down at the heart as you breathe out. Anjali mudra, awesome, deep breath in. Long breath out. Now, resist the urge to look down. You can, of course. You're the boss. But keep the palms pressing together and this time, bring the elbows out, and then just trust that the earth is there and if you don't wanna step out wide, you can keep the feet on the ground and slowly move your foot out. You're just gonna step out nice and wide. Stay connected to your core for stability. It's hard not to look down. And then turn your toes just so they're facing forward so feet are nice and parallel. And if you're feeling any pressure on the knees here, bring your stance in way in. Otherwise, we'll walk it out. Alright, so I'm giving us time to set these up because a lot of times, what happens with the knees is we just get rushed into doing something in a public class or even at home or we just haven't trained our mind to consider the nuance of things and we're just setting ourself, we're not setting ourselves up. So there's a lacking of setting ourself up for a strong foundation in the posture which can put a lot of pressure on the joints. And if you're dealing with an injury or something and healing, forget about it. So take your time. Toes are pointing forward, lift up from the arches of the feet, engage the inner thigh in the quad that we did when we're doing that little beginning exercise. Lengthen tailbone down without clinching the glutes. So it's not just a tightness and the gripping, we're activating hugging muscle to bone with awareness. So lengthen tailbone down. Just play with that here. Not so much here but right here. And then hands come back to the heart, elbows out wide, whenever you are ready, or maybe you're already there. So again, think up, we're kinda zipping up from the arches, we're lifting up from the inner thighs, inner groins and we'll continue that motion from the lower body all the way up through the spine. So lift up through the pelvic floor. Imagine it rising, rising, rising all the way to the crown. Posture is nice and long, spine lengthen. Inhale in, exhale, slight bend in the knees, claw through the outer edges of the feet and slowly just send your heart forward. And then come back. However far you made is good. Inhaling again and exhale, draw the navel in. Connect to your center, your core stability and come forward. Oh yeah, and then come back. And then one more time, maybe you go a little further and maybe not listen to your body. Draw the navel in and up. Maybe you come all the way down, we're here for three breaths wherever you are. So the goal is to kind of challenge you to keep the inner thigh engaged here, pressing into the outer edges of the feet. Creating stability and strength around the knee. Breathing deep. And then you're gonna bend the knees and really find that connection from the ground up. So work from the ground up to rise up nice and slow. And if the legs are tired here and you feel weak, no, the legs are tired because you're waking up, not just the muscular body but the energetic body as well. Alright, turn the left toes in very gently. Keep the left inner thigh engaged. In fact, bring your left hand to your left inner thigh and just give it a pat to kind of feel, oh yeah. What does it take to engage that muscle? Alright, and then after you've done that for like an awkward amount of time, then you can stop and turn the right toes forward. And then we're gonna nice and slow, we're gonna track the knee over the middle toe. Okay so, open up here and now we're engaging both inner thighs. Give them both a pat. Beautiful. And we'll come to Warrior II. So we're hugging that right femur in, we're making sure we can always see that big toe, we're engaging both inner thighs finding that inner lift for the inner groin. Benji, you're being funny today. And then we'll come into Warrior II. So, I find for people who are trying to build stability and strengthen knees, going that super wide stance isn't really helpful. You can work your way there. So notice my stance is a bit short today. Making sure I can see that front big toe, left toes are turned in. I'm gonna breathe here, relax the shoulders, and just inquire. Strength in the legs. We're here for five, front knee over front ankle. Four, lengthen tailbone down, hips up. Three, two, one then take the right fingertips up and over. Peaceful Warrior, press into the outer edges of both feet, inhale, lift your chest and then exhale, Extended Side Angle. Keep hugging it in. Hugging the right thigh bone in. You're gonna send the right fingertips, excuse me, left fingertips to the sky and right elbow can come on to that but you're wanting to keep your core strength not press into that knee. What good does that do? Awesome, then left fingertips reach up towards the sky, bring you back up to center, palms come together at the heart. Toes turned facing forward again, we take a deep breath in, lengthen tailbone down, heart lifts up and exhale, relax the shoulders. Awesome. Turn the right toes in, press into the outer edge of that right foot, engage the right inner thigh. So the power of these warrior posture's coming from the back leg and we turn the left toes out, front knee over front ankle, lengthen tailbone down, hip points up. Make sure you can see that front big toe and then really engage the inner thighs. So much of their drawing zipping up and in. Lengthening tailbone down. Just take a couple moments to feel it out here and when you're ready, find your arms Virabhadrasana II. And again, today, shorter stance. If you don't have weak knees or excuse me, sensitive knees, then you can go wide. But I'm just trying to pull it back a little for those who are wanting to continue to deepen their practice. Find that engagement. So there's no point in hitting the pose or the mark if you know, it's not doing the body good. And take one more breath here. Five, four, three, two, one. Left fingertips reach forward up and back. Peaceful Warrior, try to keep this length through the right side body all the way up. Front knee stays bent. Strong and engaged through the inner thigh, inner groin. Take a big stretch, big breath, and then here we go, lifting up. Keep the lift up all the way so we're not crashing into the joints. Extended Side Angle. Right fingertips to the sky this time. And then just notice the awareness since this whole video's about being kind to the knees. Notice if you're kinda crashing down into your knees or if you can draw strength from the earth. I mean this is a warrior sequence for heaven's sakes. So reach for the sky. Strong and steady. You won't even need this in time. When you build strength, you'll be able to hover. No extra pressure on the knee, just strong and stable. And then to come up, reach the right fingertips all the way up to the sky, smile just a little bit and we'll come all the way back hands, Anjali Mudra at the heart, toes pointing forward. Deep breath in, exhale, release everything, and you're just gonna step the feet together nice and slow. Try not to look down, feet together, really together, really together, really together. Take a deep breath in, Mountain Pose. Exhale, release the fingertips down. And see if you can zip up the legs here and spread weight evenly through all four corners of the feet, knowing that that information travels up to the knees to the hips, to the heart, the shoulders and up through the crown. Take a deep breath in. Now long exhale out. And then inhale, the reach for the sky. And then exhale slowly all the way down. If you need to step the feet hip-width apart, here you can bend the knees as generously as you need to. And plant the palm, step it back one Plank Pose. Alright, in your Plank Pose, reach the heels back, press away from your yoga mat, try to keep the hips where they are in space and touch the left fingertips to the right shoulder. Then bring the left hand down and touch to the right fingertips to the left shoulder and now back and forth, gaze straight down, you're gonna try to keep your hips where they are in space. Super core strengthener here. Breathing deep, you got it. And even it out. And then slowly release. Awesome, you're just gonna come on to your bum. Send the legs out wide. Yay! And if you have a block, you're gonna grab the block now and then we're all gonna come to lie flat on our back with the feet on the ground. So take your time getting there. Wipe any sweat off your brow, take a nice big refreshing inhale in through the nose and out through the nose or mouth. So we're ending with a little Bridge, twist, relaxed sequence. So the thing about Bridge is if you don't know what Setu Bandha or our Bridge Pose is, go ahead and watch me the first time because it's not the type of pose where you wanna look at the video when you're in it. It can cause a little bit of harm to the spine and that's the opposite of what we're trying to do here, y'all. So bring the heels up, fingertips are gonna reach down and this is a nice little marker, heels to the fingers. And if you have a block or something that you can bring between your legs, then you're gonna go ahead and use it today so you can squeeze and feel that inner thigh engaging once again. And again, you can practice this today or once a week but remember to take these things with you into other practices. This is for everybody. So the knees aren't splaying wide when I have the block. It's nice a little reminder, but if you don't have the block, put in a little imaginary block in between your thighs. And then so important, a lot of joint issues, you know, they stem from the foundation of whatever it is, so the hands for the wrists, the feet for the ankles and the knees. So find that foot to earth connection. Burabanda. And really root down through the ball joint in that big toe, ball joint of the pinky toe and the back two corners the heels, then squeeze your block. Use your hands to guide you. I'm gonna scoop the tailbone up and nice and slow from the feet. So often, we think about hips lifting up. Really pay attention to your feet. Pressing your feet so much so that the hips start to lift up. And we're pressing evenly through all four corners of the feet and really pay attention to the nuance there. We tend to forget about the feet and just really try to get to this bind. So really lift up, feel the nuance and feel the block as you lift the hips, the inner thighs engage to stabilize, to strengthen. Then send the shin bones forward, hug the femur in, lift the hip points up high and see if you can do this. Here's here's the kicker, without clenching the glutes. See if you can engage the inner thigh. Obviously, we're toning the quad without clenching the glutes. Press the palms into the earth, inhale and then exhale, lift your chest to your chin and your chin to the sky. Should feel awesome. And release everything down. Awesome, take a little break, sigh it out. Close your eyes. And one more time, I'm gonna talk less but I want you to really try to find where the muscles turn on. See if you can soften through the glutes and this time, if you wanna take the bind, you can. Some strong focus on the feet, here we go. Inhale, lifting you up. Listen to the sound of your breath, squeeze your block or your imaginary block. Shins forward, hug the femur in, lift the hip points up high. Chest to chin, chin to the sky. Maybe you walk the shoulder blades underneath. Engage the inner thigh. Keep uncovering, keep adding too, subtracting. Pay attention, again, to the nuance. And then slowly release the bind if you have it, and bring it down nice and slow and with control. So another thing I will add is a lot of times, things happen with the knees, in between poses. Not during but the consciousness in between. Take your block. You're gonna bring it to the side or you can bring it to your head for a pillow, and then we're gonna come to that, nice Supta Baddha Konasana. Again, so knees wide, soles of the feet together, hands on the hips, breathe deep. Let everything go. We're almost done here, so really activate the breath, take your vitamins. Nice control of your breath. Slowing it down. Can completely change your day and maybe your life. So use this time with me and with everyone else who's practicing this around the world to just check in before we get up off the mat. And we'll do that by breathing deep. Use your hands to slowly guide the thighs, the knees together. We'll just take a nice easy twist of your choice so you can do one knee and cross it over or you do both knees and cross it over. Take the arms wide, breathe deep, just to restore the spine here. And then take it to the other side, even it out, nice and slow. And then we'll come back to center. You're gonna take your bolster, you're gonna bring it back underneath the thighs, excuse me, the legs, excuse me, the knees. So back to where we started. Feel that support and just feel, oh yeah. This permanent problem maybe doesn't have to be permanent. My body is amazing. The mind is powerful. Come to a place where you can relax for a few breaths. Honoring this time and space that you have taken for yourself. Relax everything. Soles of the feet all the way to the crown. Close your eyes. And bring the palms together nice and slow at your heart, we honor the light within ourselves and see that in each other by finishing our practice with a bow. Tuck the chin, a reverence. Namaste. (upbeat music)