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Lesson Info
7. Powerhouse Stretch
Lessons
Lesson Info
Powerhouse Stretch
Hi, it's Kristin McGee. Welcome to my powerhouse yoga plan. And now we're gonna do a powerhouse stretch. So this is a really nice, restorative way to release all your muscles. Really? Get that deep, so as release, but still concentrate on using your core muscles. Tell you, go deeper in all of your poses. So it started. So starting to the front of your mat, finding I still comfortable seat close the eyes and rest your hands on the knees. Find that nice kind of stillness from within. Let the external world float away. Come into your breath. Come into your body deep, full, inhale and deep full. Exhale one more deep, full inhale as you exhale. Empty all the air out and open the eyes and take your hands on your knees and we're just going to start doing some circles in our seat. So warming up the spine, warming up the core, warming up the pelvic floor region, really make sure that these circles start from the depths of your seat and of your body that you're not just spinning the chest. You'r...
e going from the sits bone to the pubic bone to the other, sits boned the tailbone stop and then reverse it. And when my favorite teachers always talks about that region being like a baseball diamond, right, so you'll find home plate, first base, third base, fourth base. And then you can keep spinning around. Go the other way one more time and make sure that all your bases air pretty much loaded and spend the other way. And then the pitcher's mound is right in the middle, and that's the pelvic floor that's gonna lift up. So still. Keep those four corners anchored, but then find that lift that rises through the center. And let's do some cat cow breaths in this position. So try and really walk all the way forward over your sits bones, and then exhale, scoop and round that nice mobility and the pelvis. Joseph Pilates is always says you're on Lee, as young as your spine is flexible. That's one of his famous quotes that he said, and it's very true. We wanted to find that mobility and flexibility in our spine and the best way to really access that is through our core and then stop in center and find that nice, comfortable seat right in the middle. Once you find your midline in your center, it's such a nice feeling. Step your feet about Matt with the part. Take your hands behind your thighs. Lift your chest up without letting the rib splay. You might even feel little tightness in the hip flexors there and then scoop out the abs. Curl your tailbone up to the ceiling. Pubic bone shoots up to the sky and then come up to sit nice and tall. Lengthen out the lower back without splaying the ribs and scoop under shoulder soft and lift and scoop under. Now, stay here. Float your arms up. Just open your right arm to the right without moving anything and then the left arm to the left, right, I'm right. Scoop, scoop, scoop, left arm left. Come back up to centres at nice and tall. Find the abdominal scoop. Really hollow it out this time, right arm to the ceiling and then left arm to the ceiling and then right arm to the ceiling length. Now the lower back left him to the ceiling. Find the core. Let's try both arms to the ceiling. Hold it, hold it, hold it so tough and then scooping lower all the way down onto your back. Plant your feet flat. Bridge your hips up on that nice length out of the lower back. Scroll down through your spine. Upper back, middle back, Lower back. Make this in nice and juicy. Float the legs up to the ceiling. All about the abs. Lift up to sit Tallinn again. Don't let the rib splay and then scoop to lower down. You might have to slide your feet closer. Bridge the hips up on an inhale. Exhale to lower in health feet up. Exhale rock up using the core in how lengthen up, Exhale, scoop and lower down. It's like rocking a baby in hell up little Corvin, yassa Excel Lower in hell Feet up, Exhale, rock up in health Sit tall and excel Scoop it down one more time in how lift exhale, lower in hell feed up, Exhale, rock up in house, sit tall on Excel scoop and lower hands alongside the waste. And then again, some little pelvic tilts. Arch the back and then curl. So find that nice big opening and then scoop and throw your tailbone up to the ceiling. No arches back and forth. See If you can do this while keeping the ribs somewhat still, send outs more just about the lower body and the pelvic floor, and then see if you can find that place between the arch and the scoop so that you're in a neutral pelvis and that there's just the nice. Lengthen your waist and then keep that nice, neutral pelvis. But soften the back ribs into the floor and that will automatically fire up the powerhouse and keep your core nice and strong. Now, using the lower abdominals, pelvic floor muscles try not to move anything as you just float your right foot up off the floor in inch and lower down. Really subtle. Lift the left in an inch and lower. Try and work it from the core, not the thigh. Inhale lift. Exhale lower left foot lifts and lowers Nainkin. Try both feet and lower down. Just find the scoop lift and lower while keeping the neutral spine and the backrooms down and the tailbone. Heavy lift and lower one more time. Lift and lower. Now float your right leg up to the ceiling across the right ankle over the left knee and how the leg back up to the ceiling and exhale the foot to the floor. Just let the arms me nice and long. Left leg extends in hill, ankle to knee. Exhale and how to the ceiling. Excel foot to the floor in hell, right leg up. Exhale open in how lift excel step left leg lifts open lift and step right leg lifts open. Stay now. Take your hands to the tops, your thighs and push your thighs away. Get that length in your lower back again. Let the tailbone heavy and anchored into the floor and then pull your back groups down. Place your hands alongside your hips. Use your pelvic floor lower abs and float the hips up off the mat for two for three and four and five six seven eight. Now thread the needle. Take the hands underneath the left thigh and again work on anchoring the tailbone down. As you pull your left leg closer to you. Let the right knee open and breathe into that outer hip. Take all the wrinkles out of the right ankle and keep the foot nice and flexed. Soften the shoulders, breathe through the nose, inhale and exhale. Now place the left foot down and walk your left foot all the way to the left so that the knee is directly beneath the hip and then dropped the knees to the right. Here's your nice big so as release. See if you can curl your tailbone under slightly structure. Left arm long. Breathe in through the nose and breathe out deep. Full breath in and deep, full breath out. One more inhale and exhale. Release your left hand. Walk your left foot back underneath you lace your hands under your right thigh and then just do some Littlefoot flops with the ankle and the calf. Let your leg flippy flop in one direction and then the other direction and then flex. Extend the foot up point. Drop the hill down flex, extend point and drop flex. Extend point and dropping a flex extent and keep the leg up there and rotate the foot all the way out to the right from the upper thigh. Stretch her left leg long on the floor. This is a really fun one to do with a block on your foot, so if you have a block at home, you can always place it on your foot try and bend journey a little to the right without letting the block fall. Or imagine that you have a block there on account fall and then pushed the hell back up to the sky. Make sure your left hip is rooted down belly button to spine in Help Lee a Excel press, so find that connection between the inner thigh public. For lower abs, spend a little and squeeze for four. As the hill presses up, pull the belly button of the spine for five and six and seven. Stay upon eight. Now point your toes. Put a little magic marker on your big to circle to the left, around to the right, back up to center. Stop. Don't let the hips move. Circle around. Lift for three. Keep the ribs dropping for four for five and six long through the spine and seven and eight. Now reverse it. Go up across up, one out. Cross up to cross up three and four and five and six and seven and eight. Now we're gonna climb up the back of the thigh. Sit up nice and tall. Lengthen out of your lower back if there's Popsicle sticks, perch in your ribs up and then walk it down in hell. Walk it up. Sit nice and tall. Lengthen. Walk it down one more time. Walk it up. Said it nice and tall. Lift and lengthen. Let go of your leg. Hold it up there. Use your core and then come all the way down and give your leg a nice hamstring stretch. Breathe in through the nose and breathe out. Take all the bends out of the knee. Keep the shoulders soft and how exhale one more breath. Inhale exhale. Float that leg long all the way to the floor. Notice if you're right legs longer than your left leg. Now that you've created space there, it's pretty cool. Stretch your arms up to the ceiling, float your arms back by your ears. Don't let the rib splay Inhale to roll up. Exhale to die forward in hell to lower, as if your feet are Velcro to the front of the mat. Exhale the arms back in health scoop. Exhale round. Pull the belly button to the spine and how lower arms back in hell up. Exhale. Reach in how lower arms back one more time in jalape Excel reach in hell lower this time. Hands alongside your waist. Slide your heels in. Press your feet down into the floor, bridge your hips up, scooping the abs and slowly lower down upper back, middle back. Lower back. Keep the tailbone heavy. Keep the backrooms pressing into the mat. Extend the left leg up and cross the ankle to the knee. Take the hands to the upper thighs. Press the hands away from you. Press the thighs away from you and your hands. Think of proof pushing away. Now Stretch the hands down into the mat back of the shoulders, press and then use your pelvic floor. Lower abs to scoop. Lift one to three for five, six, seven and eight. Now thread the needle. Take hold of either the top of the right knee or behind the right thigh. And again, think of dropping the tailbone heavy as you draw the late closer to you, you go wrinkle free in the left foot. Breathe into the outer left hip, deep full, inhale and deep full. Exhale now. Place the right foot down, walk the right foot all the way to the right and drop the needs to the left and stretch your right arm overhead. So you get that nice release in the So as in the quad, curl your tailbone under slightly and keep drawing your belly button your spine. You'll get a deeper stretch. Listen to the breath. Now step your right foot back underneath, you lace underneath the left time. Just do some little flip flops, but that leg circle around in one direction and then the other direction and then flex. Extend point drop extend. Release extend. Released Now extended up there. Keep it up there. Turned like all the way out to the left from the upper inner thigh. Extend your right leg long on the mat. Anchor both hips down. Flex the foot strong. So again, if you have a block and you want to place it on your foot, you can otherwise imagine you have like, a pizza tray or ah, pitcher of beer on your foot. I don't know. Just don't let it spill is you. Bend the knee to the side and then progress the hell back up to the ceiling. Inhale bend Exhale Press for three and four and five and six and seven back ribs pressing, and eight now keep it up their point through your toes. Circle right around left of center. Stop for two around, lift three and lift four, five and six. No disco hips. Keep everything tight. Seven bellybuttons spine and eight. Just like that leg. Find the freedom out crossover up out to the left. Now circle up for three. Every time the leg stops, draw the belly button of the spine for four for five and six and seven and eight. Climb a tree. How about the lower abdominal? Set up nice and tall and then walk it down? Inhale. Walk it up. Sit nice and tall. Lift in, lengthen. Lock it down one more time. Walking up, up, up, up, up, up, up. Sit nice and tall. Lift, lengthen. Let go the leg for a moment. Stay and then come on down and stretch the hamstring out. Soften the shoulders, breathe through the nose. Inhale. Exhale deep full breath in and deep full breath out and let that lake float all the way down to the floor. Now you got that nice space created in the front of both hip rooms. Stretch the arms up, float the arms back. Don't let the ribs play. Inhale around up. Exhale die forward manifold over the legs. So keep hollowing out the lower abs, too. Inchworm the chest forward over the thighs. Keep the shoulders soft, breathe through the nose. Expand the lower back breathing to the kidney region. And as you exhale, narrow the front body. Come on up to sit. Take your right foot back to the inner left thigh. Take a nice big twist around to your right anchor. Both sits bones. Press down the left thigh, every inhalation lengthen every ex elation twist and use your core. Think of your entire rib cage spinning around to the right. Try not to let your head move faster than the torso. It's not easy to Dio and then stretch the right arm up. Keep that right hip anchored as you lean to the left, soften the shoulders, breathe through the nose. People inhale and deep full. Exhale now. Spend the chest around to the left. Think of scooping out the abs and a twist in the lower body and then a forward bend in the upper body. Keep scooping out. Keep hollowing out. Keep flexing the left toes up to the ceiling deep full breath in and deep full breath out. Inhale up to sit. Place the right ankle above the left knee. Full the left ankle under for Gupta, sina or ankle to knee pose. Sit up nice and tall, pull in the lower abdominals and then hinge out of your lower back as you come forward and how to lift in. Lengthen through the lower abs. Exhale to fold, but the head go that the shoulder soften. Keep during the belly button of the spine. Breathe in and breathe out. It's often right when we want to exit. Oppose that. If we stay just a few more seconds, we finally release. Sometimes that's the way in life, right? Just when we think we want to leave something so badly, if we just surrender things kind of release and fall into place and then come on up and we're going to Swan Lake, that right leg behind us for pigeon on the left side, so keep your hips square to the front of the mat, Lift the chest open and then float the chest forward belly button the spine. Pull it in to lift you up. Lengthen it forward, scooping round up. Lengthen it forward and this time, walk it all the way forward and this released. Let the forehead soften. Maybe make a pillow for the forehead. Keep drying in the lower abdominals, soften the shoulders. You have the option here to slide the right arm in front of the left knee if you want to. Maybe take the left hand around and find the left foot and then come back around, set up nice and tall. Bend your right knee in, reach around and catch your right foot. Keep scooping in the abs as you draw that late closer, and you can try any sort of our mayor's variation you'd like. If you want to go into a deeper stretch, go for it. See how much you can keep drying the belly button to the spine and pulling in the lower abdominals as you get that quad. So as stretch, release the foot, slide it up underneath the left knee. For cafes, pose open your feet to the same place. Help your bomb a little more to the right. Sit up nice and tall. If you want to do the arms, it's right arm over, left arm under and here the ribs have a tendency display, so then draw them in, pull in the lower abs, lift out of the lower back and then come forward and fold. Maybe keep the arms a few breaths and then take them out in front of you so that you can work on anchoring the sits bones back as you scooping the abs and float the chest forward and then come on up to sit. Stretch the right leg forward. Keep your left knee in this cattle face position and go forward over the right thigh and you'll get you baby stretch in the back of that right hamstring calf. The left Knee X is a little prop to keep that guy down. Shoulder soft abdominals drawn in and up, and then come on up inside that left foot inside. Take a nice big twist around to the left anchor the sits bones. Find the inhalation to draw you up out of your lower back. The X elation to go a little deeper into the twist. Inhale and exhale. Float the left arm up inside, lean over to the right, soften the shoulders, breathe through the nose, inhale, lengthen out through the spine. Exhale deepen into the stretch and then spend the torso to the right and fold over the right thigh. Keep hollowing out. Keep scooping out. Keep lengthening the torso forward as you anchored the sits bones back and then come on up side that left ankle above the right knees like the right ankle underneath. I kind of find your sits bones. Lift up. Lengthen out your lower back. Walk the hands forward, breathe into the hips. How about the lower abs? Flute yourself forward. Close the eyes if it helps breathe through the nose. And remember the sound that the years like to hear most is the oceanic sound of the breath. Two more breaths. Que. Walk your hands back. Swing the left leg around this time for pigeon on the right side. Scrap the hips. Press the left big toe, man down. Lift the chest and round lift in, scoop and lower. Lift up and lower lift up and then walk your hands all the way down and out. Make a little pillow for your forehead if you'd like. It's like that left arm in front of the right thigh if you'd like. The right hand can always reach around and try and catch the right foot and breathe where was most comfortable for you. So you find that edge where your working past the discomfort, but you're not causing any pain. Shoulder soft and then walk the hands back. Reach around. Catch the left foot trains to anchored on your sits bones. Keep trying to pull the belly button in the abdominals strong, but maybe take a variation. If you'd like lifting, open the chest. So as long as you stay connected to your core in your breath, the less likely it is you're going to injure yourself. Release that leg slide underneath the right thigh for cal face pose, so separate your feet. These were the years of the cows. Help your bum a little to the left. This time this site is usually worse because a lot of people are right side and they have, ah, tighter rotator cuff. It's the right arm up and over in the left arm behind. You need a taller strap. You can grab one or hold your shirt from behind. Just make sure your ribs draw in hurt center, lifts belly, button the spine and then fold forward. Let the head and neck go and then, after a few breaths, you can always let the arms go, walk the hands forward release and then come on a up stretch that left leg forwards. We're gonna go over into that hamstring calf stretch on this side, right side stays and cafes pose left, legs extended. It's pretty intense and crazy, and then you can lift up. Open that leg out to the side, Open the left leg out to the side for straddle. If you want to turn sideways on your mat, that's cool. We're gonna twist around to the right one more time. Lift and sit up nice and tall. Float the right arm over to the left anchor. The right sits bone. Maybe you place your left arm inside the thigh. Keep breathing. Keep drying in the belly button or keep drying in the abdominals. It's just a nice visual to think of the bellybutton pulling back to this mine and then forward folds the left leg, come up facing the left side, twist to your left, sit up nice and tall and then folds the right side bending, anchoring the left hip, scooping in the ABS forward full to the right. Walk your hands around through center, so find that external rotation that we did in serving tray. Think of the inner thighs rolling back in space as you scoop in the abs and walk the heart centre forward and out. Keep turning the toes up Listen to the breath, Walk your hands back If you want a really fun abdominal challenge, place your hands in the center, lift your bomb and try lifting your legs and then lower down and float your legs up into the air For open leg rocker we're gonna rock back to shoulders. Rock up in balance in how rock back Exhale up to balance. Use the corner at the moment, um, in hell back exhale balance one more time in hell Back Exhale, balanced a point, the toes reach up towards the sky Nice little teaser Stretch here or strengthening. Come all the way down onto your back Let the arms come overhead. Inhale Come up this time, Keep the legs where they are, Come all the way down into your back and see if you can lift up a little tougher last time. Keep the legs where they are. Lower down but have your hands by your waist and then in how lift up and then lower everything down and just let your feet drop open to the sides. Let your palms turn up to the ceiling. Your eyes close that your body melt into the floor. There's any last minute things you need to do before Shabbas. No, if you want to add a supine twist or put something warm on, remove any distractions. Let yourself completely go. We go fingers, wiggle toes. Extend the arms long, lengthen up to your legs world here, right side. Curl into a little ball. Make your way up to sit. Find a comfortable seat. Close the eyes, rest the hands on the knees. Take a moment, tap into your breath. Tap into your core. Really thank yourself from the inside out. That deep seat of knowledge that inner gut, that wisdom that we all have, the more we can keep tapping into that core strength and that power, the more confident we become in herself, the easier it is to share our authentic self with others, and the more likely it is we are to expand our circumference. Keep growing open to new circumstances keep challenging ourselves in our life. Take a deep full breath in Baffour would seal your practice and not must a thank you guys so much hope to see you soon.
Ratings and Reviews
Anja Vlasblom
This is a great class. I like Kristin's energy and way of teaching. A few years ago I attended Bikram Yoga Classes, and that is all my experience with yoga so far. Before I started to view this class, I watched Dylan Werner's class "Yoga Strength Basics for Beginners" here on Creative Live, and this was super helpful for understanding how to move correctly during this class.
Christine Yun
I took the Full Body Sweat Session lesson and thought it was a great overall yoga class. Kristin walks you through all the basic moves and I loved how she incorporated ab workouts too. I didn't sweat as much as I wanted to but it was definitely a great home workout!
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