Hey, everyone.
Welcome to Yoga With Adriene,

Foundations Yoga.

Today we're gonna learn
Garudasana or Eagle Pose.

This is a request I get a lot
and it's a great one because,

especially for a beginner,

this pose can look 
like a pretzely yoga pose

that you just don't
even want to mess with.

But it's really fun and it has
a lot of therapeutic benefits.

You're probably going to come
across it in a Hatha yoga class,

in a public class.

So it's a really
fun one to learn,

and if you like the Eagle,
like I do,

then it always
feels good to practice.

What can I say?
I like the Eagle.

Eagle is actually a
special symbol in my family,

so shout out to the
Martinez family here.

Alright, let's hop on the
mat and learn Garudasana.

(upbeat music)

Alright, so we're going
to begin standing today,

and feet hip width apart.

Just need a second to
bend the knees generously,

send the
hip bones way, way back.

We're just gonna
do a little squat here,

sending the fingertips forward,

spreading awareness through
all four corners of the feet,

just kind of gearing up so

we're not going to
Eagle pose just yet.

And this is an attractive 
pose to demonstrate. No.

I'm just gonna take a second
here to just bring awareness

to the weight
distribution in my feet,

to send my sit bones back,
fingertips forward.

The legs get a
little wake up call,

a little charge.
And then last but not least,

I'm gonna bring awareness
to my belly and my ribcage,

just kind of drawing energy in
as I send the fingertips out.

So this is actually
a great workout here,

a little squat.

Take a deep breath in.

Maybe you sink a little lower,
lift your toes,

spread awareness through
all four corners of the feet.

And then on an exhale,
tuck the pelvis.

Should feel good.

And release the
fingertips down. Woo.

Awesome. Now we're gonna
bring the feet together.

Maybe keeping just
a little bit of space,

like almost a
thumbprint's worth of space,

between the heels.

Once again,
bend the knees generously.

We're gonna come
to an Utkatasan,

setting the sit bones back,
fingertips forward.

We actually have a Foundations
of Yoga for Utkatasana,

Chair Pose, but we're just kind 
of checking in with the legs.

And once again,
lifting the toes.

Connecting to
the foundation here,

which is the
soles of the feet, right?

Drawing energy up from there.

Take a deep breath in.

Maybe sink a little lower.

Inhale in.

And exhale.

Should feel awesome
to press into the earth.

Tuck your pelvis and find
that lift up through the heart,

and the crown of the head.

Great. We take just
a pause here in Mountain.

And then we're going to
send the fingertips forward

and explore Garudasana.

So right away, again,
foundations of yoga,

we're really
breaking it down here.

I'm going to reach
the fingertips forward.

In fact, I'll turn again profile

so you can see
this in my shoulder blades.

I'm gonna reach,
reach, reach forward,

spreading my shoulder
blades left to right.

Reach, reach, reach.

Then I'm gonna loop my
shoulders and plug them in.

Keep reaching energy
forward through the fingertips,

but we're gonna
come from this like,

"Gimme, gimme, gimme" shape

to looping the shoulders
and kind of plugging

the shoulder blades in 
and together and down.

So again, you can see this.

I'm going from reaching here,
to looping the shoulders,

finding this lift
through the sternum,

and a bit of
poise comes to my shape.

And it feels good,
feels active.

Excuse me, allergies.
Good ol' Austin allergies.

Looping the shoulders down,
finding that lift in the heart.

Stay here.

Take a deep breath in,
long breath out.

And we're gonna find
a soft bend in the knees.

So you don't have
to go into a big,

generous bend,
just a soft bend here.

And again, we remember
that squat as we really spread

awareness through
the soles of the feet.

Now we're gonna drop the
right arm underneath the left,

and then we swing the

fingertips up to kind of
come into this hi-ya pose,

so the elbows
are hooked here.

We kind of come into
this ninja posture here.

And I remember to
sink my hips a little bit.

Great. So from here,
stay at this V.

I'm going to peel
my right toes up,

cross my right toes
over my left leg here.

And then I can stay here,
and the reason I stay here is

not just to be cute and
fun in this ninja pose,

but to really gauge
my hips and shoulders.

So right toes
touching the earth,

I'm gonna pull
my right hip down.

Fingertips are
pointing up towards the sky.

I'm gonna pull
my right shoulder down.

So there's a
tendency to kind of do this.

I'm really low on my Eagle.
I'm all twisted up.

But given that this
is Foundations of Yoga,

we're really gonna consider
our foundation and then you're

gonna really be able
to soar in this Garudasana,

with practice.

I go from my hi-ya V here.

I cross my right toes.

Again, pull the
right hip crease down,

and pull
the right shoulder down.

Nice. And if
you're new to the shape,

this could be where you
kind of stop today and go,

"Alright, I'm really
going to work with integrity,

"pulling that
right hip crease down.

"Keeping an awareness to
the sole of my left foot,

"and then pulling
that right shoulder down,

"lifting up through
the sternum." Okay?

To go a little deeper,

we might continue the
wrap of the arms around.

Palms come together but
not at the sacrifice of

these shoulders being
kind of in line, in alignment.

So keep that right shoulder down

and then maybe I lift
my right toes up and maybe,

just gonna fix my mic here,

maybe I wrap my
right toes all around,

but again, not at the cost
of this hip rocking forward.

So I'm gonna imagine 
an imaginary thumb

pulling my 
right hip crease down.

So again, 
I may just stay here

with the right toes 
on the ground,

and this kind of
awesome hi-ya V here

so that I can practice

leveling the shoulders
and leveling the hips,

and still really connected
to my standing leg in a nice,

really strong,
just integrated way. Right?

So what I'm getting at is we're
not kind of getting into the

pose and then
holding on for dear life.

We're getting into the pose in

a way where we're
fulling integrated.

All those intrinsic muscles
are going along for the ride.

I'm connected with my breath.

And yeah,
from there, Eagle Pose.

You can really soar high,

fly high with the breath.

So if we are able 
to wrap the palms

and we are
able to wrap those toes,

then we're just gonna keep a

constant awareness of
the hips and shoulders.

Wherever you are,
we're all going to bring our

awareness now
back to the breath,

and then pay attention to
what's going on in the pelvis.

So there might be a tendency,

although this is an awesome
kind of full variation of Eagle,

we're gonna keep it
nice and stacked today.

So just notice what's going on

in the pelvis and lengthen
the tailbone down

and find that lift up through
the heart again, the sternum.

Then you might take your 
gaze from the video now

and focus your gaze 
just past your nose here.

Finding a soft gaze,

or we call this
focus Drishti in Sanskrit,

down past the nose.

So the heart is lifting up,

the shoulders
are grounding down,

the fingertips might reach up,

and the elbows,
nice integrated moment here.

So we're not just
reaching forward,

but we're finding the 
balance between this lift

and lengthen
and this grounding down.

Take one more
breath wherever you are.

You might challenge yourself
by sinking in a little deeper.

If you are further
along in the practice,

you know there are
variations of Garudasana,

Eagle, Sleeping Eagle,
that you can play with.

But wherever you are,

let's take one more
full, buoyant breath.

And then we'll release.

Unravel the arms.
Unravel the legs.

Press into both feet evenly.

And let's inhale, reach the
fingertips up towards the sky.

Full body stretch.

And then exhale,
let it go.

Back to Mountain.

And let's try the same
thing on the other side.

So we spread
awareness through the feet,

and we're going to bend
the knees generously again,

just kind of softly
coming into a bend.

So there is this
thing of kind of rushing.

It's the same thing when we

look at the
Foundations of Tree Pose.

If you just dump the
weight into your right foot,

kind of into your right hip,

and then build
the pose from there,

you're really putting a lot
of undue pressure on the joints, A

and B, it's going to be
harder to be this buoyant,

free, beautiful,
find your energy,

your prana,
your Kundalini vibes,

or whatever in your posture,

if you're not connected.

So really slow it down and

let's play here with the process,

I guess,
is what I'm trying to say.

Bend the knees.

We find this
comfortable seat here.

It's not comfortable.

And we find a little seat and
we find a place of ease here,

I should say.

And we reach the
fingertips forward once again.

Take a deep breath in,

long breath out as you ground
down through the shoulders,

and remember
that reach and pull.

See if you can find
that movement as we

plug the shoulders in 
and lift the heart up.

This time we'll draw
the left fingertips down,

so left arm comes underneath
the right and once again,

we hook the
elbows and lift up.

Okay, this is gonna be a little 
different for everyone, right?

Just find what feels good here.

And we're gonna start paying
attention to the shoulders.

So left arm underneath,

and this time we keep this
energetic lift up through the

center channel as we peel
up through the left foot.

We squeeze the left
knee up and we cross it over.

So we're here, and here.

Left toes touch the earth,

and we now bring our awareness
to those hips creases again.

So you might imagine again

pulling that
left hip crease down.

We might sink a little deeper.

Lengthening the
tailbone down towards the earth.

And we're here,
playing with the shoulders.

So again,
if you're starting to torque,

this is really not the
Eagle we're looking for,

kind of holding on
for a wing and prayer,

(snaps) Eagle wing and a prayer.

So you might just stay here,

leveling the hips and
leveling the shoulders.

If you feel like
you can play with that,

even wrestle with it is good,

while still
bringing the palms around,

even if they don't touch,

you can still play with
continuing this twist around,

you might do that. 
And same thing with the toes,

but we're just gonna play here,

finding the breath
and finding a softness,

paying attention to the hips,

head over heart,
heart over pelvis here as we

lift the fingertips up
maybe on this variation.

And once again,
when we're ready,

taking our
focus from the video,

and maybe bringing it into a

softer gaze of focus
down past the nose line here.

We breathe into the belly.

Stretching and strengthening

the lower body as
we lift the heart up,

Garudasana, Eagle Pose.

We inhale,
lift the fingertips up.

Exhale, ground down.

Maybe you sink a little bit
deeper into that standing leg.

If you want to take a variation 
here now, if you're like,

"I did it all on one side.
I'm gonna try it on the other,"

maybe you go ahead and practice
a little, playtime here.

But otherwise,
work on your breath.

And if you have to come out
of it and in and out of it,

this is the time to play,
so rock on.

So the thing about
Eagle is we kind of just…

I speak from my own experience.

We kind of just
wrap into a tight.

Trying to master the shape

rather than build the
process and the experience.

And the more you kind
of focus on the process,

the richer the
experience is gonna be,

especially when you're in
public class and this comes up.

So wherever you are,

take one more deep breath in
and then we'll use the exhale

to unravel the
arms and the legs,

press into both feet firmly.

And again,
we'll reach up nice and tall,

maybe slight back bend
this time if it feels right.

And then we'll exhale
back to Mountain pose.

Awesome.
Just notice how you feel.

Notice the differences between
the right leg and the left leg.

Shake it off if
you need to here.

Shake it off.

Taylor Swift shout out.

Only in my yoga videos, right?

We take a second
to close the eyes.

Seriously, take your
gaze off the video.

Maybe draw your
attention inward.

Notice your breath.
Open the palms. Life is good.

We take a deep breath in.

And exhale, let it go.

Alright, awesome work,
my friends.

So that was Eagle Pose.

If you're craving
more Foundations of Yoga,

I just wanted to tell you,

a couple videos that you
might want to try after this,

if you have some time,

that will go good
with your Eagle Pose.

You might try Tree Pose.

You might try Recline Twist.

And I think that
actually Wind Relieving Pose

would be a
fun thing to end with.

So if you wanted to kind of

couple up a
couple of foundations,

that was redundant,

then that might be a fun
place to go after Garudasana.

And I will raise you up
on eagles' wings.

Name all the songs you know
with eagles in them down below.

Thanks, my friends. I love doing
Foundations of Yoga with you.

Leave questions, comments below.
I really like tending to the

foundations questions so that
we can all grow our practice

to be really strong,
and happy, and healthy.

Alright?
Find what feels good.

I'll see you next week.

Namaste.

(upbeat music)