- What's up everyone? Welcome to Yoga with Adriene. I'm Adriene, and today we have a super yummy practice, yoga for the spine. Disclaimer, in my opinion, all yoga is yoga for the spine, but today we're just going to work on moving some energy throughout these pivotal points in the body and leave you feeling refreshed and good. I once heard that you are only as young and as happy as your spine. So hop into something comfy, and let's get started. (upbeat music) Okey-doke, my friends, let's begin in a nice, comfortable seat, cross-legged. You can lift the hips up if you feel like already your spine is kind of collapsing to the back. Totally normal with kind of the habitual things that we do in everyday life, so go easy on yourself. Just give yourself little support from the start by sitting on a blanket or a block or a towel. You can pause the video to do that if you need to. And then when you're ready, come into your seat and place the palms on the knees. Now trust me, trust yourself, trust the video, take a moment to close your eyes, so you can open them whenever you want to peak at the video, but to begin here, we're going to close the eyes, and let go of the day thus far, trust that this is time well spent, especially today's practice. And take a moment to relax, relax your shoulders. Again, relax the mind. Give the thinking mind a little bit of a break here. And then we're going to support this really yummy movement, this exploration of the spine today with the breath. So close your eyes and start to notice your breath. And then with the palms on the knees, we'll begin to move the spine, again with the breath. So inhale, nice and slow. Begin to lift the chest up towards the sky and imagine your shoulder blades melting down the back body. So the shoulders anchor down and the heart lifts up. Then take another deep breath in here, and then use the exhale to contract, so chin to chest, naval to spine, slow your roll, slow the tempo down today. We bow head to heart, feel a nice stretch in the back of the neck. And then on a big breath in, start to roll through, once again, lifting the heart. I invite you to close your eyes so that you can really slow it down and feel your way through this movement as you lift the heart, we ground down through the shoulders, the elbows, open through the throat chakra, and then exhale, chin to chest, rounding through, naval to spine. So starting with the slow tempo today can be maybe a little frustrating for many people, so I just invite you to notice that, notice what's coming up as you inhale with the heart, and then take this as a friendly, loving, beautiful challenge to really slow things down. Feel it out, chin to chest, as you breathe out. A'ight, let's do one more inhale, lifting up. Close your eyes. Create space. And exhale, after the expansion comes the contraction, chin to chest. Beautiful inhale, lift the head over the heart, the heart over the pelvis, and we'll squeeze the shoulders up to the ears as we breathe in here. Nice big full breath, and exhale, melt them down. Again, creating space, we inhale, loop the shoulders, lift them up. And try to keep your heart lifted as you relax and down. Great, one more time, inhale, squeeze and lift. And exhale, let it go. All right, take the left hand to the right kneecap, seated twist here. We swim the right fingertips around, use your breath, inhale, lift your heart, and exhale, naval draws in, and we twist. You gotta bring the breath here. Big inhale to lift, and exhale twist. And one more time, big inhale, lift and lengthen, and exhale to release. Other side, right hand to the left knee, left fingertips swim behind. We inhale, lift the heart, and exhale, journey into your twist. Wiggle your toes. Feel your feet, inhale. And exhale, twist. Make sure you're not cranking here. Just let the breath move and support you, inhale. And exhale to release, awesome. We're going to come forward onto all fours. Take your time getting there. Enjoy this time for yourself. Spread the palms super wide. Wrist underneath the shoulders, knees right underneath the hip points. Take a second to just feel it out. Go through your checklist. Find your Tabletop Position. And take a moment to close your eyes, or to just visualize this line of the spine. So if the neck is a bit disconnected, the head might be hanging down, or maybe looking up, or obviously looking at the video when you need to, but take a moment to really see this beautiful line from the crown to the tail, and remember that the neck is an extension of that. So sometimes the awareness kind of stops at the base of the neck, and so extension through the crown here. Take a couple more breaths, just going through your checklist, maybe drawing the naval up to the spine, lengthening the lower back. Bend your elbows. Press away from your yoga mat. Notice if the hands are kind of willy-nilly here, really sense some attention to detail throughout every fingerprint. And then it's from this strong base, this strong awareness that we'll start to move. Inhale, drop the belly. Slowly look up. Again slow your roll today. Nice and steady, and then on your exhale, rounding through. Tailbone lengthens down. Cat-Cow here, so you can close your eyes and start to move with the breath. Inhaling, drop the belly to look up, and exhale, rounding through chin to chest. Nose towards the naval. And then continue a couple more rounds. Again, soft gaze or close your eyes so you can really start to slow it down and feel it out. This is something we do all the time on our mats. See if you can find another essence if you would, another sensations, just slowing it down a little bit. And after this last one, we'll come back to neutral spine and take a deep breath in and a long breath out. Awesome, curl the right toes under. Curl the left toes under. Again, press away from your yoga mat with your palms so you're not collapsing in the shoulders. So kind of lifting up through the upper back body. Then we'll slide the right toes out. You can rock a little front, rock a little back get a nice stretch in the leg there, and just try to keep this super strong loving awareness on the spine from the crown to the tail. When you're ready, again not collapsing into the wrists or collapsing in the shoulders, pressing away, when you're ready, we'll slide the right toes all the way over towards the left side of the yoga mat. You can uncurl your left toes for more stability, yogi's choice, and then take a look at your right heel. Press away from your yoga mat. Grow long and tall in the spine. Deep breath in, then exhale, slide it all the way back through, and draw knee to nose here. Again, important to press away from your yoga mat, waking up the muscles of the upper body. Breathing deep here, in and out, nice big, full breaths. Take one more breath, squeeze, connecting to the muscles of the abdominal wall here, and then release, awesome. Bring the two big toes together, knees as wide as your yoga mat, and send the hips on back, Child's Pose. Just a moment here to come off the hands and the wrists so you can rotate the knuckles one way and then the other. Some wrist circles here. Then we'll come right back up to your Tabletop Position. Again, going through your checklist, finding that mindfulness in your practice. That awareness through the spine. Then curling the left toes, then the right. Deep breath in, long breath out. On your next inhale, extend the left leg out long, and then same thing, just check it out here. Finding a little stretch in the calves, the Achilles. And remembering to keep the awareness all the way through the crown, so not just to the base of the neck, but all the way out. Notice if your breath has gone away, that nice full, conscious breath that you started with, so return to the breath, and when you're ready, we'll send the left toes all the way over towards the right side of the yoga mat. Pressing away, finding that length. Turn your gaze to look at your left toes or your left heel. Big breath in, long breath out. Inhale in, exhale, slide the left toes all the way back through center, and then we'll draw knee to nose, squeezing up through the abdominal wall. Notice if you're clenching in the face. See if you can soften the face. Relax the shoulders down the back body. One more big breath cycle here, you got it. And then release, awesome. This time, knees together, arches together, send it back, fingertips back, palms face up. For a little love in the wrists, you can actually lift the fingers and walk the wrists back and forth here. Nice long refreshing breaths. Keep it going. It is a practice. Awesome, then slowly reach the fingertips back up, we'll come back to all fours. And whenever you're ready, send it up to Downward Facing Dog. Curling the toes, taking a deep breath in, lifting up through the hips on your exhale. When you arrive, take a moment to feel it out. Maybe take your dog for a little walk. And then come into a place of stillness, hug the lower ribs in, connect to your upper abdominals, tops of the shoulders externally rotate, we take a deep breath in, and a big cleansing breath as you draw the heels down to the earth. They don't have to touch. Big inhale in. And exhale, empty it out. Awesome, on your next inhale, draw the naval up to the spine, and start to slowly find articulation through the spine, as you slowly shift all the way to Plank Posture, strengthening pose here. Find that support, so lift the front body up to meet the back body. Press away from your yoga mat. Then shift forward on the toes, we're going to go back to Down Dog here. Nice and slow, connecting to your core. Inhale, same thing. Finding articulation through your spine. Draw the naval up, roll forward onto the toes. Plank Pose, take a deep breath in, then exhale, Downward Facing Dog. One more time, you got this. Nice and slow, draw the naval up, slowing finding that articulation forward. Take a deep breath in, press away from your yoga mat, and then exhale, Downward Facing Dog. Beautiful, inhale, look forward, and exhale, make your way to the top. Clasp the elbows when you arrive. Bend the knees generously, and then just take a couple moments to freestyle. Find what feels good, soft and easy movement. And when you're ready, we're gonna roll up to Mountain, as slow as you can go. Feeling that beautiful connection in the feet. Maybe you close your eyes if you're feeling adventurous. Starting by bending the knees, tucking the chin, and slowly making your way all the way to Mountain. And so lots of awareness as you stack up through the staircase of the spine. Just maybe even using your creative mind or your imagination to visualize what it might look like, paying attention to what it feels like as you stack head over heart, heart over the pelvis and come into your best and most beautiful Mountain. Reconnect with your breath here. Now on a big inhale, we'll spread the fingertips and reach all the way up. Big full body stretch. Exhale, turn the left fingertips towards the back of your yoga mat, soft bend in the knees here as you reach the right fingertips forward, then inhale, open the chest. So bring the palms way back, think Kate Winslet Titanic here. And then release, fingertips down to come up, inhale, full body stretch, reach for the sky. And exhale, right fingertips toward the back edge of your mat. Soft bend in the knees, and we open up to the right. Open the chest by pulling the backs of the hands slightly back as you inhale, open the chest, then exhale, fingertips come down to come up once again, big full body stretch. Inhale, reach for the sky. Connect, connect, connect. And then exhale, we float it down. Moving with the breath, my friends. Inhale, Halfway Lift, palms on the tops of the thighs for this first one. Find length through the crown. Deep breath in, and then exhale, release, Forward Fold. Inhale, reach for the sky, fingertips reach, reach, reach, reach and spread. Exhale, hands to heart. Soft knees, inhale, reach for the sky. Exhale, turn to the left. Pull the backs of the hands back so you can open up through the chest, soft bend in the knees. Fingertips go down to come up. Inhale, reach for the sky and exhale, turning to the right. Fingertips go down to come up, big inhale as you reach for the sky and exhale, Forward Fold. So we're looking for a bit of fluidity here. Inhale, Halfway Lift. This time, palms on the shins. Find length, create space, and then exhale, Forward Fold. Root to Rise, inhale, spread the fingertips, moving with the breath we reach. Fingertips kiss up and overhead and then exhale, hands to heart. Soft knees, inhale, reach for the sky. Exhale, gentle turn to the left. Inhale, and exhale dropping the fingertips down to come up. Big breath in, reach for the sky. And exhale, turn to the right. Pull the hands back open through the chest, deep breath in, and exhale release. Awesome, inhale reach for the sky. Exhale, down we go. Awesome, this time play with the fingertips on the mat. So bend your knees and inhale. Find length. Exhale, soften and bow. This time we're going to plant the palms, step it back to our Plank Pose. We've been here before, strong foundation. Inhale, shift your gaze forward. Come on to your toes. Hug the elbows into the side body. Light up through the back body, through the front body, and then slowly lower down, all the way to the belly. Draw the hands back in line with the ribs. Press pubic bone to the earth. Press into the tops of the feet. Heels are in line with the hip points. Then moving with the breath, start by tucking the chin into the chest, so really finding an articulation here in the cervical spine as you press into your foundation and slowly roll up, slowly lifting chin parallel to the earth, Baby Cobra. Inhale, exhale, release, nice and slow, in control. Tuck the chin into the chest. Inhale, slowly roll it up. Again the challenge or the invitation is slow it down today. And exhale, release. Do one more with your eyes closed. Tuck the chin into the chest. Pull the elbows back. Open and exhale, releasing all the way down. Curl the toes under. Lift the kneecaps. Send your heels towards the back edge of the mat, inhale in, and then exhale, power up. Plank Pose. Here we go, inhale, shifting forward. Exhale, send the hips, really moving from the hip creases here, all the way up and back, Downward Facing Dog. A little bit of strengthening, here we go. Naval draws in and up. We roll through the spine, really finding as much articulation in the spine as possible as we make our way to Plank. Inhale, gaze forward, shift forward, and exhale, Downward Facing Dog. Again, hug the lower ribs in. Naval draws up and in. Uddiyana Bandha as we roll through coming to Plank, nice and slow. Then inhale, shift forward, tippy toes, and exhale, Downward Facing Dog. One more, you got this. Naval draws in. We find articulation. Take your time. Inhale, look forward, and exhale Downward Facing Dog, beautiful. Deep breath in, exhale, empty it out. Inhale, look forward, and exhale, make your way to the top. Inhale, Halfway Lift, do your version, so you can choose where you place the fingertips or the palms. Find length. And then exhale, Forward Fold. Awesome, Root to Rise, inhale, spread the fingertips, try to create a hundred percent full body experience here, maybe lift your toes, and exhale, hands to heart. Take a moment here to close your eyes and observe your breath. Maybe tap into a little inner smile here. And that inner smile is a little reminder just of your own inner guidance, your inner light. Deep breath in, and exhale, open the eyes. We're going to come to a nice, wide-legged stance, and then we'll take it down to the ground. So go ahead and bring the legs nice and wide. Take your time getting there. If you're new to the practice, let me just remind you that you don't have... Focus on the sensation over the shape. You don't have to step super wide or anything. Your body will tell you what's a good length. Traditionally for this next posture, you can take the arms out and kind of measure where the ankles kind of align with the wrists, and that's kind of a good thing, but you know, every body's different, so you kind of have to practice listening to your body. Everyone, though, lift up through the front. Find this upward current of energy through the front body, supporting the spine, and then ground through the back. Turn the toes in just slightly. So you're really feeling that connection to the outer edges of the feet here super strong. Then hands come to the waistline here, and we're gonna draw some energy up from the arches of the feet, engage the inner thighs. So you're kind of pulling up energetically from your foundation and all the way up through. We come to a little power pose here, ah, where the brain and the body connect and have a conversation. Super important to remember that as we practice, how truly powerful these poses, this experience can be. Let's take one more breath here, big power pose, just notice if you're collapsing anywhere or if you're really sort of able to embody and evolve the embodiment of a posture. And if you're like, what is this woman talking about, don't worry about it. Just breathe deep, enjoy this time for yourself. When you're ready, we'll take it into a full by inhaling and lifting the chest. Lifting, lifting, lifting from the sternum. Think about when we started practice on the seated position opening up through the chest here. Inhale, then exhale. Keep this openness in the chest, you might even think about drawing your elbows back towards one another, and send it forward, nice flat back, soft, micro bend in the knees here. Tuck the chin to the chest and find length. Hug the lower ribs in. If you like for one big breath cycle, we'll send the fingertips out. Inhale, and exhale. Great, fingertips come back to the waistline, and we continue the journey down. Now, fingertips can come to the earth here, or hands, or you can bring them to a chair or a block. Standing wide-legged Forward Fold. Notice if you've lost connection, communication with your feet and that drawing of the energy up through the inner seam here, or through the arch. And then reconnect with your breath. Remember when you were in Table Top, not collapsing in the shoulders, but finding this powerful awareness from crown to tail. And if you're starting to shake and feel heat, that's the ticket. This is the ticket. Stay focused. And nice and slow, left hand or left fingertip's gonna come right below the chin, and we're going to move into a twist, again soft micro bend in the knee here, as you inhale, open the right fingertips all the way either to the side or maybe up at a diagonal. One day, maybe we'll be able to get, maybe stacking the shoulders, but don't have to push it. Nice and easy, we inhale, open the chest, and then exhale, right hand replaces the left. Lots of integrity, maintaining in the shoulders, stability, nice and strong. And when you're ready, we open to the left. Big breath in, again it doesn't have to be all the way stacking, we can let it evolve. Inhale, expand. Exhale, come through center. Inhale, press away from the earth, expand, and exhale back through center. Inhale, find expansion, slow it down, and exhale. And do one more on each side, inhale, moving with the breath. Exhale through center. Last one, you got this. Inhale, open your chest, lengthen through the crown, and then exhale, release, awesome. Hands are gonna come to the earth. We're actually gonna heel, toe, heel, toe the feet all the way in, hip-width apart, so you should land in a nice Forward Fold. Toes pointing forward. Swim the fingertips around to the calves, and bend the knees as generously as you need to. Take one more deep breath in here, and then exhale, release. We're gonna bend the knees. Use the fingertips here to guide you as you lift the heels. We're gonna come into a little toe stand here, be fun. Toes come together. Use the fingertips to guide you. I'm gonna find that connection to my core by lifting up from the pelvic floor. I'm gonna start to balance from the toes here. Have some fun with it, really lifting up from the pelvic floor, squeezing the knees together, eventually hugging the lower ribs in. So we find this strong lift up through that center plumb line. This is a challenge, in order to hold your balance here, you have to be really lifting up through that mid line through the spine. Hugging the muscles in to the bone. Stay here, if you need breaks, you can come onto the fingertips. We're gonna take a little twist, so we'll inhale, hands together at the heart, and exhale, start to dial your heart center towards the left. Options here are you can repeat this opening of the wings we've been doing, you can take the right hand to the outer edge of the left thigh, find a little deeper twist. Now what's going on with the knees is a good indication of the hips, so keep lifting up through that pelvic floor, this is tough. Inhale, and then exhale, hands to heart, take a little break if you need to by lifting the hips up, Forward Fold, and then when you're ready, sending it to the other side. Little bit of a challenge today, you got this. Drawing up from the pelvic floor. Squeezing it all in together. So good, so now we're finding a little strength and stability. Just take it with a grain of salt if you feel like, you're not here yet or the feet are too tight, just let it evolve. All the more reason to return to this practice. Hands come to heart, deep breath in, and then exhale, we dial it to the right. Can stay here or inhale, find that expansion from before. Big breath in, and then maybe outer edge of the left hand comes to the outer edge of the right knee. We breathe deep here, one more breath. Lifting up from the pelvic floor. Support all through the spine, and then exhale, release. This is gonna feel awesome, a total rinse in the legs as you come to sit back and send the legs out long. Great, take a second to just shake the feet out. Fingertips are gonna come in line with the hips or maybe slightly back. We'll loop the shoulders, find that lift in the chest, once again come to Dandasana, stick pose, or the staff pose. Firm down through the tops of the thighs, press into your heels, maybe so much just for a moment, so you can find the action that they lift up off the yoga mat. And then just notice if you're kind of leaning forward or collapsing back. Now would be a good time to lift the hips, even by doubling up on your yoga mat if you need to, if you need that support. I'm gonna actually be here for a couple breaths, so breathing in deeply through the nostrils, and then exhaling out through the nose or mouth. Head over heart, heart over pelvis. If the palms come to the earth, they can, more traditional version. I'd like to invite you to close your eyes here as you breathe deeply, active legs, toes pointing toward the sky. Start to lift up from the pelvic floor. Hug the lower ribs, the upper abs connecting, finding that containment or that zipper effect, that zipper sensation through the front body. Lengthen through the back of the neck, tuck the chin slightly. One more breath, you got this. And we release. Awesome, take thriller arms, pressing the base of the right forward, and then we'll bring the palms together, interlace, just kind of steeple grip here, arch to arch here, inhale, lift your heart, and exhale, see if you can really articulate through the spine here, if it helps to point the toes so you have more support in the lower body, please go for it. I'm gonna point my toes, and we slowly, slowly roll down. And as you return to this practice, you can close your eyes here. Again use the video if you need, but you can close your eyes and really start to feel all this beautiful articulation all the way down through the spine, working the core, and eventually we come all the way down and send the fingertips out, big Texas T, left to right. Take a deep breath in, then use a big exhale to sigh it out. Feel the support of the earth beneath you. When you're ready, we'll draw the knees all the way up towards the chest. Scoop the tailbone up so the lower back is nice and flush with your yoga mat. And then snuggle the shoulder blades underneath your heart space. Should feel awesome. Great, inhale, draw the knees in towards the chest and exhale, slowly melting the legs towards the left, but see if you can do it nice and slow. Should get a nice little massage if you do it really slow here. Keep the palms rooted, shoulders rooted. And there's lots of variations here. We can turn to the right ear, we can extend the top leg, we can even reach around and use the left fingertips to grab the left toes, excuse me, the right fingertips to grab the left toes, so coming in to a little bend here, and use the left hand on the right thigh. So lots of options here. Breathing deep. Reclined Twist. Then moving from your center, draw the naval down, release, we'll come all the way back through, take a deep breath in, and then other side, melting the knees to the right, finding your Reclined Twist on this side. Sending big buoyant breaths to the belly. Taking any variation that feels good. Extending that top leg, maybe you reach around to grab that bottom foot. Take a deep breath in here. Fill the lower belly with air. And then exhale, all the way back, ending with a bridge pose today. So we'll take the knees up towards the sky. Soles of the feet rooted to the ground. Fingertips reach down towards the heels. About where the heels and the fingertips meet, that's kind of a good gauge, but again every body is different, then squeeze a little bit of energy between, you can imagine having a block between the inner thighs, so we're not splaying out here, but really starting at the feet, connecting, finding that lift up from the arch. Imagine squeezing a block in between your inner thighs. Snuggle the shoulder blades underneath your heart space and as slow as you can roll today, my friend, starting to peel up from the coccyx, the tail, and articulating all the way up through the spine. And so by inviting you to slow the tempo, we're just kind of opening ourselves up to a new experience. Allow whatever wants to happen in the arms here to happen. Maybe they stay palms down, or maybe they gently blossom open. Press into the ball joint of the big toe here, keeping the knees safely in here. All the way up, and then use the exhale to fall. Nice and slow, finding that massage in the spine. I'm getting super zenned out doing this. This works, this is working. And again, inhale, lifting from the tail. And this time when you come all the way to the top, you have the option here of either grabbing your yoga mat and snuggling the shoulder blades a little bit more under, just grabbing the edge of your yoga mat, sorry, or you can interlace the fingertips and snuggle those shoulder blades together, finding that lift. Lift your chest up to your chin, and then lift your chin up towards the sky. Again, lift your chest up towards your chin, and your chin up towards the sky. Send the sitting bones energetically towards the backs of the knees, take one more deep full breath in here, and then with control, exhale, release the arms, and let it slowly float down, nice and slow. Fabulous, bring the soles of the feet together, knees nice and wide. Take the base of the palms to the front of the hip creases, give yourself a little massage here. Inhale in and exhale, open the hands. Close your eyes. Take a moment to consider why you rolled out your mat today. And just feel your spine, that which holds you up, feel it supported by your yoga mat, and by your practice, by this time that you took for yourself. Gently slide one leg out, and then the other. If your body's asking for any other little movement, go ahead and give it that, listen. And then we'll come to settle in Savasana. Stay here for as long as time allows, but make sure you spend a couple moments here, just giving thanks, residing in a nice, soft breath, and a very powerful stillness, letting the body rest. Thanks so much for sharing your time and your energy and your practice with me and the Yoga with Adriene community. We'll see you next time. Namaste. (upbeat music)