- Hello and welcome to Yoga With Adriene. I'm Adriene and today we have Yoga For Bone Health. A practice for every body. (snaps) (screams) (suspenseful music) Alright and we have begun. We're gonna begin standing in Mountain Pose with the feet together. So come on to your mat, bring the feet together. A little smile is alright for this practice. If you don't feel like smiling, that's fine too. Take a look down at your feet and we're gonna lift the toes here. Let's bring the hands to the waistline just for a little stability. Just take a look down at your feet. We're gonna lift the toes and as you lift the toes, press firmly down through the ball joint of your big toe, the ball joint of your pinky toe and then the back two corners of the heels. So starting with the strong foundation, then you can start to slowly place the toes down. Squeeze the inner arches together. Draw energy up through the ankles, the inseam, the inner thigh. And we'll start to lift up through the chest a bit. You can relax the arms down gently at your side. Stand up nice and tall. Relax the shoulders down. I didn't know if I had that in me but apparently I do. Mountain Pose. I'll invite you to close the eyes here or soften your gaze down gently past your nose. And just notice if you feel really fidgety or you want to move. See if you can start to anchor in the sound of your breath as we stand tall here in Tadasana. And then as you start to slowly deepen your breath, press down firmly through your feet and re-engage that upward lift through the inseam. So you can think about lifting the kneecaps, you can think about toning the quads, you can think about drawing the navel in and up and lifting up through the chest. Thinking about hugging muscle to bone a lot during this little practice, this little ditty. Now spread the fingertips wide, tuck the chin slightly to lengthen through the back of the neck. And as you lift through the crown, try to get as tall as you can lengthening through the spine. Nice, then you can open the eyes and on your next inhale, reach the fingertips all the way out to come up for a Volcano Pose. And same thing, when the arms are reaching you can really tell like, am I kind of just hanging out Mountain or can I engage creating a feeling of like an upward current of energy through the front body, engaging the muscles of the thighs and then a grounding through the back body. Drawing the shoulder blades together down towards the hips or the tail. Good, then on your next inhale, slowly carve a line with your nose to look up. Reach, reach, reach. And then slow and steady exhale arms all the way down. Beautiful, we're gonna step the feet wide now, toes turned out. Good, bring the palms together. You can interlace the fingertips if you want or keep them in more traditional prayer position, Anjuli Mudra. Inhale in, exhale you're gonna bend the knees, try to get as low as you can here. And we're gonna find a nice deep breath. So starting with the feet again, press into all four corners, the outer edge, the inner arch lifts, we're pressing into the big joint, excuse me, (chuckles) the ball joint of the big toe mound and the pinky toe mound and the back two corners of the heels. Now as you sink into this squat here, think about lifting your femur bones, look at this, this is great, into your hip sockets, so you feel this lifting of the pelvic floor as you do so. And then we're just gonna pulse here, nice and easy, slow and steady for 10. 9, breathe, 8, 7, lots of awareness in the foot, 6, navel draws in, hugging muscle to bone. 5, 4, 3, 2, stay low on 1, release your hands, bring them to the tops of the thighs. We're gonna start to send the hips back as you lean forward, still working to track, to spread awareness through the feet and track your knees over the first two toes there. So don't, don't come in even on this is very skeleton like let's, let's keep working on our goal. Inhale in here, lengthen through the crown. Exhale, you're gonna bend a little bit deeper in the knees, drop your left shoulder to center and spiral your heart up towards the ceiling, maybe sending your gaze past your right shoulder. Now think about breathing deep into all four sides of the torso here. Think about that spiral maybe happening in the mid-back, the thoracic spine. Then sink back into your heels to spread weight evenly through all four corners of the feet and you can just try drawing those thigh bones in a little bit here for one last breath. Lovely, come back through center if you need to take a little break, totally understand. If not, let's go right to the other side. Dropping the right shoulder down through center. So what really matters here is working from the ground up so keep paying attention to those feet. Finding your twist. Hugging muscle to bone, pressing into all four corners of the foot, keep dropping down through the hips. And that kind of traction you create when you draw the femurs in, lifts up through the pelvic floor and you might even find a little more on your twist. Good, then we'll slowly release. Come back up, straighten the legs, beautiful. Send the fingertips all the way out to come up, big breath in. Long breath out to float the fingertips all the way down. We're gonna walk the feet now into hip width apart, so hip distance. Inhale, reach the arms out and up. Exhale, you're gonna take the left wrist up and over to the right. So a nice side body stretch here, get nice and long. Good, dig into both heels evenly, lift up through the kneecaps, lengthen your tailbone down just a bit as you hug the low ribs in towards your body. Beautiful, come back to center, take it to the other side, big stretch. And back up through center. Rain it down, nice and easy. We're gonna walk the feet out wide again. This time toes turned in, toes turned in. Good, bring the hands to the waistline. Oh, Benji. Inhale, lift up, really drawing energy up from the feet. Arches of the feet, pressing into all four corners. When you're ready, hug the low ribs in, send your heart forward. Try to keep your elbows pulling back as you come just halfway as if you were looking down into a spooky pond. Soft bend in the knees here, draw the shoulder blades together. Think about hugging those low ribs back up and in. Good, then ground through the feet to come all the way back up. Now turn the right toes out and the left toes in a little bit more so you feel that rotation coming from the left hip. Right hip's rotating out, of course. And then we'll send the fingertips out wide on an inhale. Exhale, you're gonna bend the front knee, Warrior II. Stay here for a beat, pull the pinkies back, hug those low ribs in, and imagine you're trying to draw the front of your yoga mat and the back of your yoga mat into center. So we're lifting up here. You're creating some traction, you're, again, drawing the thigh bones in towards center. Excellent, now we're gonna inhale, reach the arms up towards the sky, straighten the front leg. Exhale, go right back into your Warrior II and practice that pull, that traction, that strong connection through the feet. Inhale, arms lift, legs straighten. Exhale, Warrior II. One more time, inhale, arms lift, legs straighten. Exhale, Warrior II. Now bring the hands to the waistline, turn the right toes in. So now both toes are in. Inhale in, exhale, halfway again coming into a wide-legged standing Forward Fold. Elbows draw back, hug the low ribs in, crown of the head is nice and long. So we're kind of putting ourselves in a stressful position here, building that bone density. We're not putting the arms down, holding it up here today. Drawing the navel in to support the low back. Lovely and then ground through the feet to come all the way back up. (chuckles) Exploring my lower range today. Left toes turn out, right toes are already in but you can give them a little more of a hug, again, to consider that movement coming from the hip, the ball in socket. Alright, send the fingertips out. Inhale in, exhale, bend the front knee, Warrior II. Think about dragging the front foot and the back foot in towards center without moving them. Engage your right inner thigh. Peace out, Benji. And let's move, nice and slow with control. Inhale to reach up, straighten the front leg. Exhale, bend. Inhale, reach. Exhale, bend. Inhale, reach. Exhale, bend. Inhale, reach. And exhale, bend, Warrior II. Beautiful hands come to the waistline, straighten both legs, turn both toes in. Last time, inhale, we lift up, option to interlace the fingertips behind the back this time. And exhale halfway, halfway into the fold. Shoulder blades draw together. We kind of fight gravity here, slight micro-bend in the knee. Think about drawing energy up from the arches. And then slowly rising all the way back up. Great, bring the palms together, bend your knees, inhale in, exhale, jump the feet together. Beautiful, from here, hands come to the waistline for more stability or arms reach all the way up. We're gonna come up onto the tippy-tip toes, and then drop on to the heels, creating a little vibration in thy bones. (chuckles) Inhale to lift, exhale to drop. Inhale, lift. Exhale, drop. Keep it going. And release, slowly float the fingertips all the way down, nice work. Last bit here, palms come together, press them together, really together as you shift your weight to your left foot. Inhale, lift the right heel. Exhale you're gonna open from the right hip to come into a low Tree. Press up out of your standing leg so we're not collapsing in, press up out of the standing leg to find length. If you find from here you want to slide the foot up below the knee, we can do that. Or we can take the right foot and bring it to the left inner thigh pressing firmly into the right foot with the left inner thigh. Of course you can take your fingertips up, take any variation here, hugging a muscle to bone, really feeling that outer right hip connected. Inhale, exhale to slowly come out of the pose, and we'll take it to the other side. Press the palms together, shift your weight to your right foot. Lift up the left heel as you breathe in. From your hips, so not from your knee or your foot, open it out, low Tree, everyone. No matter what stage of the yoga journey start with the low Tree and just feel that connection in the hips, draw your navel in and up. And then from here, we'll press away from the standing leg, find that leverage as you resist and then slowly slide the leg, maybe below the knee, or above finding your version of Tree Pose today. And then inhale in, use your exhale to release, and we're gonna walk on over to the front of our mat, but the way I would like you to walk, the way I invite you to walk, is by rolling through your feet very slowly. Nice, when you get there, inhale, reach for the sky. Exhale, send the hips back, Utkatasan, Chair Pose. Hug the low ribs in. Sink back into your imaginary chair. Tuck the chin slightly, maybe get a little lower. Inhale, and now exhale, straighten the legs and come into a Forward Fold. Stretch it out, take a break. Now we're gonna come to a position on the mat, so how you get there is really up to you, kind of taking your time, I'm gonna guide a way but you can find any way there. So bend your knees generously, bring one hand to the earth, then the other, step one foot back, and then the other. Now you totally skip this and just come right to seated, but if you are with me, let's come into a Plank. And the reason I'm inviting us here is to really practice hugging the muscles of the front body up to meet the back body, so supporting the spine in this position. Press away from your yoga mat. So come up out of your shoulders, reach your heels back, you can also do this on your knees, get the same conditioning out of it. Tuck the chin slightly, breathe deep. And then slowly lower to the knees, and we'll join together in a seated position. Excellent, from here bring your feet to your mat. Send your fingertips forward. Little core engagement here. Inhale in, exhale, drawl the navel into, I said drawl, draw the navel in towards the spine. Try to keep your chest lifted as you slowly lower down. If the feet come flying up, that's okay, we're just checking in, building strength around the spine slowly, or maybe quickly, we come all the way to the ground. Alright, place the hands on the earth, bend the knees, soles of the feet come to the mat. Preparing for Bridge, so good. Snuggle with the shoulder blades underneath your heart space, inhale in. Exhale, slow and steady start to tilt the pelvis, tailbone goes up, navel draws down. We'll continue the journey, so slow, nice and easy up the spine, pressing into the feet. Think about sending your shins forward. Lifting the chest to the chin, and then eventually the chin to the sky. And when you get here, see if you can imagine squeezing an imaginary ball between your inner thighs. Press into all four corners of the feet. Shins forward. And then slowly when you're ready, soften through the sternum, and melt it down very slowly. Again, press into the palms, press into the feet, we'll rock on the pelvis, navel draws down. This is the last one. Slow and steady lifting up. Shins forward. This time, think about drawing your heels back towards your hips. Oh yeah, and then chest to chin, and chin to sky. You might start to feel the glutes turn on a bit more as you tug back through the heels. Nice and then slowly, again, softening through your heart. Bring it back down, one vertebrae at a time. Really trying to articulate through the spine. Nice and then we'll slowly hug one knee into the chest. And then the other. Just take a second here to rock a little side to side, and massage your lower back. Great, from here, inhale in. Exhale, you're just gonna allow your hands to come rest gently on your low ribs, and we're just gonna nice and easy keep the feet soft. Peek at me if your need to. You're gonna dip just one toe down and lift, and then the other, down and lift. Maybe sliding the hands down to the low abs to check in, down and lift alternating between the right toes and the left toes. Trying not to engage the muscles in front of the hips, but really keeping this in the core. I mean it's all tied together but really trying to activate the core, and allow that to be what brings the knee back up. Great, now hug both knees in. The last bit is we're gonna inhale in deeply, and on the exhale, you're gonna let your feet fall to the mat with a thud. So here we go, inhale in, exhale. (thuds on floor) Again, inhale in, squeeze and lift, exhale. (thuds on floor) Inhale in, squeeze and lift. Last one. (thuds on floor) Beautiful, extend one leg out, then the other. Open one arm out, and then the other. Tuck the chin slightly, lengthen through the neck, take the deepest breath you've taken all day, maybe all year. And as you exhale, relax the weight of your bones, and your body completely and fully into the earth. As always, it's a true honor and a pleasure to share a practice with you. Thanks for sharing this little Halloween tradition with me, and if you're practicing this another time, thank you so much for caring about your body and taking this time for yourself. Take one final inhale in through the nose. And out through the nose or mouth. I'll see you next time. (suspenseful music)