- Hey everyone, welcome to Yoga with Adriene. I'm Adriene, and today we have a practice for your legs, for your gams. This is in response to a request for people wanting practice after they've been on their feet all day and/or after a long walk or a hike, or maybe a couple of days after a run. So this is a yummy practice to help your tired old legs feel amazing. This is a really great practice any time I think to just as a little TLC, a little love moment for yourself, connect to your breath and, you know, take some time for you. Alright, so hop into something comfy and let's get started. (light music) Okey doke my friends, we're going to begin lying flat on our backs today. So take a second to get settled in here, lie down and, for this beginning portion of our practice, I'm going to try to really guide you with my voice so you don't have to crank your neck to see the video. So when you get flat on your back, just take a second to get settled in. And bring the hands to the lower belly. Relax the shoulders and elbows down so you're not having to hold anything here. And then tuck the chin into the chest just slightly so you can feel a little length in the back of the neck. And then close your eyes. Again, I am inviting you to just, especially for this first portion, take your eyes off the video. Trust me, trust yourself, and just take a couple moments here to close the eyes. And deepen the breath. Inhale, take a gigantic, enormous big breath in. And as you exhale, just kind of letting go of the day thusfar. And a big breath in through the nose. And now out through the nose. And keep those big conscious breaths going. Just take a moment here to check in with your body. We're doing yoga for tired legs, but as we know, the beauty of yoga is that it's all connected. So we're checking in with the full body. And using the breath to just settle the thinking mind a little bit. And to really, you know, take a little bit of time for ourselves. I always say a little goes a long way and that's so true of today's practice. This practice is going to leave you feeling awesome, feeling good. So your job is to just simply be present and to breathe deep. Take a couple more deep breaths here with your eyes closed. See if you can relax through the shoulders and the arms. See if you can feel your breath with your hands so feel the belly rise with your inhale. And fall with your exhale. Relax the legs from the hips to the ankles to the toes. Last but not least, maybe tap into a little inner smile. Choose to commit to the duration of this video. And treat yourself to a little you time, a little TLC. One more deep breath in here, and then go ahead and let it exhale through the mouth. Bat the eyelashes, open your eyes, start to wiggle the toes here. And then when you're ready, we're going to take the hands to the sides. Press the palms down on the earth. Connect to your center here, so tap into your core as you draw the navel down and we'll lift one leg all the way up towards the chest and then the other. Great, scoop the tailbone up. Give yourself a big hug here as you wrap the arms around the shins. And continue with the deep breathing. Feel your spine supported by your yoga mat here and then find any movement that feels good here, so pointing and flexing through the feet. Spreading the toes, you might rock gently side to side. So the body knows, so let your body talk here and do your best to listen and to breathe deep. Cool. Now take the hands towards the inseam of your pant or your inner thigh. And reach to grab your feet, the arches here. If the hips are too tight for this, you can just do one leg at a time. We're going to bring the thumbs to the arches of the feet and just take a second here to massage the arches of the feet, should feel really good. Pressing the arches of the feet, and then if you want to improvise from here, taking it to the toes. Maybe your feet are sore from a long walk or a long day or a good hike. Maybe to the Achilles here, or the ankles. And then all the way up through the shins and the calves. And then to the knees, just a little love. The quads and then to the backs of the thighs your hamstrings, which are going to get a good amount of love today. Just take a second to rub them or even pat them, whatever feels good. Cool. The navel draws down, knees draw up towards the chest. And we open the shoulders here, open the chest rather so we're not holding here. Sometimes we don't even realize how much we're holding. We're relaxing the weight of the shoulders down and finding a little opening through the chest. Great, keep the right knee hugging in. Send the left leg out long. Go ahead and let that left heel come onto the earth. And then just notice what's going on in the upper back, or excuse me lower back here. Can you draw the navel down? Scoop the tailbone up. And this might seem really easy for a lot of people. So to you, I invite you to tap into the breath. Go that next layer. Play with your pranayama practice. Breathe deep. Great and when you're ready, we're going to slowly peel the nose up towards the knee. And the key word is towards, so we don't have to touch. You don't have to strain here. Finding a little length, staying active in that left leg, that extended leg. Take one more deep breath here, and then exhale, release and switch. Left knee in, right leg extends out. Pay attention to the lower back here. Firm through the top of the right thigh bone, breathe deep. Open in the chest, relaxed in the shoulders. Then gently peeling nose up towards the left knee here. Keeping the shoulders relaxed. Sending awareness throughout the entire body for today's practice. And really using these nice long yummy breaths. To really make the most out of this time on our mat. Gently release. Great, right knee comes up to join the left. This time we cross the ankles here. Grab the big toe with the middle finger, index finger and thumb. Those are your peace fingers here, or you can grab the outer edges of the feet so you have two options here. And taking a second to bend the elbows. Breathing, breathing deep here, you might rock gently side to side. Great, then option here. To connect to your core, light a little fire in your belly and rock front to back. Rocking all the way up to seated. Other option is to just gently rock to one side and press up. So however you want to come up to seated. Make your way there, we'll come into a nice cross-legged seat. Sitting up nice and tall. And just three of these. Whenever you're ready, we inhale, squeeze the shoulders up to the ears and exhale, let it go. Inhale, squeeze the shoulders up to the ears and exhale nice and easy, let it go. And one more time. And exhale, let it go. Awesome, the reason we do this is because as we work with the hips and stuff, that information travels up to the neck, the shoulders, right, and we don't realize that we're tensing up in other areas of the body as we're focusing on certain parts. So, try to think of it all as one moving part. Right? Okay. So, from cross-legged position, I'm going to take both legs out long. And I'm going to try to keep my heels in line with my hip points here. So instead of zipping them up together here, I'm going to give myself a little space. Sit up nice and tall, feel free to sit up on a blanket or block here if you need. Palms on the tops of the thighs here to start. We inhale, lift and lengthen through the spine. Now try to engage the tops of the thighs so much that you're lifting the heels. Ready? Right here for five more seconds, you got it. Breathe deep. Great and then gently release the heels. Pull the right knee all the way up. Right heel comes in. Great, we take the left elbow to the right hip crease. And then we swim the right fingertips around, finding a twist here. Inhale. Lift and lengthen, exhale, grounding down. Inhale, lift and lengthen, and then exhale to release. Awesome. Take the right foot, we're going to grab it with the left hand here and just open up through the hip here, very soft and easy. Rocking the baby. Rocking the baby. Front to back and then gently left to right. Alright, if you're super open in the hips already and you know it would feel good, you can take the outer edge of that right foot right to the elbow crease here and work this way. Just make sure it feels good and that you can still sit up nice and tall and still keep stability in the extended leg. Left leg doesn't have to be straight, just nice and aware all the way through the toes. Great, then we release. And fold the left knee all the way up. Left heel comes in. Hook right elbow to left knee. Swim the left fingertips behind. Sit up nice and tall, breathe deep. Remember relaxing in the shoulders today, lengthening through the crown. Inhale, lift and lengthen, exhale, grounding down through the shoulder blades. Finding that opposition here, one more breath. Inhale, and then exhale release. Great, grab your baby. And begin to rock. Checking in with the hip, spreading awareness. All the way out to the sole of that right foot. If it feels good, you're welcome to hook the elbow here. Just work mindfully. And then gently release, awesome. Big inhale to reach the arms all the way up. Feel free to bend the knees here, press into the heels and then exhale all the way forward. Go ahead and let the weight of the head round down and just take a second here to close your eyes and chill. Breathe deep. If you want to begin to straighten through the legs you can, but again whatever feels good. Maybe the legs are super tight. Be gentle, be kind. Take one more breath here, big inhale. And exhale to release. Awesome, roll all the way up. We'll cross the right ankle over the left and we'll dive forward onto all fours. Great, find your tabletop position here, and any little movement that feels good here you might shake the hips a little side to side if you want to sneak in a little catcow you're welcome to. We're going to curl the right toes under whenever you're ready, find extension through that right leg. Hold on to your foundation here strong, might as well. Spreading the hands, the fingers, pressing into the top of that back foot. Keep an awareness through the spine as you rock front to back, waking up through the right foot. Stretching through the calf with the back of the leg. Breathe deep. Great, when you're ready, inhale, lift the right leg all the way up. Lift from your right inner thigh. Keep the right toes pointing down. And then on an exhale, bend the right knee, step it all the way up into your lunge. Keep the back knee lowered, walk it back. Make sure front knee's over front ankle. Light on the fingertips here, again walk that left knee back a little bit if it feels good. Then find that opening through the chest that we had on our backs in that. Ease in the shoulders, so we're not here, we're not here. We're creating a little bit of space. And then breathe deep here. You're welcome to come onto the top of the back foot if that feels awesome. Otherwise, keep the toes curled. Squeeze the inner thighs together. And here we go. Finding a little lift from the pelvic floor, connecting to your core, you got this, bring the palms together, inhale to lift up. Breathe deep. And then we're just going to take the palms and bring them to the outer edge of the right knee here. And then maybe begin to find a twist. Imagine someone kissing you on the left side of the neck here. You're welcome to bring right hand to the small of the back. Whatever feels good. Great, slowly coming all the way back down. Your hands are going to come towards the left side of your mat. Coming into a little lizard variation here. You can lift the back knee. If you're wanting a little more, or keep it nice and lowered. Other options here to come to the forearms. You might walk your right toes out a little bit. Just creating a little more space, you might come all the way to the forearms for a deeper hip stretch. Wherever you are, take two more nice full breaths. Beautiful. Now we'll bring the right hand around so we're framing the right foot again. Inhale, look forward, and exhale. Pull the hips back, flex the right toes towards the sky, walk the fingertips underneath the shoulders and keep the left hip right over that left knee. So there's a tendency to come all the way back here, but for this, let's stay stacked in the bones. Relaxing the head over whenever you're ready. Breathe deep. Right toes toward the sky. Great, then rolling through your right foot. Come back to your low lunge. Plant the palms and connect to your core a little bit here as you squeeze the right knee all the way up and come back to your tabletop. Great big breath in here. Big breath out. Here we go, curling the left toes on our other side. Stretching through that left foot. We're not collapsing in the shoulders here. Lots of awareness through the shoulders, the chest, the neck. See if you can try to reach back through that left pinky toe. And see if you can hear your breath. Here we go, when you're ready, big inhale to lift the left leg all the way up. Lift from your left inner thigh, keep the left toes pointing down. So instead of opening up here, we're keeping and lifting. And big breath in, on an exhale we squeeze. Left knee up in towards the heart of the chest, and then step it up into a lunge. Walk the right knee back a bit. Nice stretch here, breathe deep. Careful not to crash into the weight of the fingers. Find a little lightness here. Beautiful. Palms come together, we connect to our core a little bit here. Finding a lift from the pelvic floor. Imagine this scissor effect here. Really getting a nice stretch through that right quad. Pull the left hip crease back and here we go. Up and over with our palms together, Anjali Moudjar, we take it into a little twist. We can stay here, maybe begin to turn your gaze past your left shoulder. Finding stability in the legs, you got this. Keep breathing, maybe left hand to the lower back. Remember, it's all connected. One more breath here, you got it. Great and then release. Hands come to the right side of the mat, we come to a little lizard variation here. Your version, so listen to your body. Keep listening to the sound of your breath. Different variations here, also each side is different. You already know that, but just a reminder. One more deep breath in. And big exhale out. Great, take the left hand, bring it around to frame the foot. And when you're ready, send those hips up and back. This time, left toes up towards the sky. So strong awareness through that left foot, walk the fingertips back. Bow the head whenever you're ready. Get lost in the sound of the breath here. Great then inhale in. On your next exhale, roll through that left foot. Plant the palms, see if you can tap into a little core strength here as you step the left foot all the way back. Left knee comes to join the right. We curl the toes under and nice and easy, we walk the palms back, sending the hips back. We come to a kneeling position here. We're here for five breaths, you got this. Close your eyes and breathe deep. Try to press into your pinky toe. Sit up tall. Open the chest, lift your heart. Two more breaths, count them out. Good. After your last breath here, come back to all fours. And what we're going to do here is actually take the left foot back, and we're just going to cross the right toes, bring them up and around. Coming to cow legs here. So the right leg is front, the left leg is behind. And then I use my hands here to slowly sit back into the posture. This is a really nice way to get into this pose. I think especially if you're really tight or tired. So we're coming from all fours, again bringing the right knee in front, left knee behind. And then we're using the hands to slowly come to sit back. You can sit on the blanket or the block here. We're almost done, you're doing awesome. Hands come to the arches of the feet once again, and we sit up nice and tall. Breathe deep. Maybe you take this moment to check in with the head, the neck. Drawing big circles with the nose. Maybe you prefer a deeper hip stretch, so you take this moment to bow forward. Nose to the knee. Maybe you're tight in the chest and the shoulders, you want to take the fingertips behind. Either reverse namaste or palms interlaced, fingertips interlaced. So definitely make it your own here. Great and then we'll send the arms all the way forward, come back up to all fours. Take your time, just unravel and switch. So right knee comes to the center. Left knee comes on top, left toes up and around. And then when you feel like you've found the foundation of the legs, use the hands to guide you back. Gomukhasana. Gomukhasana legs, cow legs. It's like this is the head and these are the ears. If you've ever wondered. If you take a look down, you can see. I love it. You know me, I like to use my imagination. That's an understatement. Okay, so nice and tall, and then just tap into the sensations of what it feels like on this side. Take a variation that feels good to you, and it could just be here in stillness, breathing. Slowly. And then just notice if you're kind of tense in the shoulders here. Take one more big breath to find relaxation in the shoulders and lift through the chest. Just playing with that opposition. And then we'll reach the arms forward, spread the palms, come all the way back. Unravel the legs. And we'll drop the belly. Inhale, exhale, round through the spine. Stay here, really arching the back like a black Halloween cat. A little bit of a tongue twister there. Press into all 10 knuckles. Press into the tops of the feet, one more breath here. And then release back to neutral, awesome. Take the legs, fling them to one side. Come to lie all the way down once again. This time bringing the feet together, soles of the feet together. Getting really comfy on your mat. We're going to end in cobbler's pose here today. Bringing the soles of the feet together and then taking the knees wide. It's nice to bring the hands to the belly here. Another nice thing if you've been on a long, hot hike or a steamy hot hike. A hike or a run, you might take the hands, interlace the fingers behind the head and just let the armpit chest breathe here. And this is how we're going to end today. So I encourage you to at least take five nice long, smooth deep breaths here. After this posture, you might windshield wiper the legs a little bit. You might take a meditation moment. You might extend the legs out long into chevassin. But I'd like to inspire you to make these decisions on your own and to find what feels good. Ooh, super loud plane. I'll roll with it. So when you're settled in, close your eyes. And again, your practice can continue after this video is over. But we'll take one big breath, one last big breath together. Just connecting us and all the other people practicing around the world. Acknowledging the highest in ourselves. And acknowledging the highest in each other. To that we say thank you and namaste. (light music)