Before I Did This: Forward Fold 25 Min Practice Along Yoga Class

hi friends Kathy medo here back with another video this one a highly requested one coming from you all so I have been recently sharing a lot of my home personal practice on my shorts on YouTube and I've been getting a lot of requests to practice along in real time so that's what this class is going to be it's all about getting really deep into your Ford fold and these are the exact techniques that I use in my own practice to do that for this video you're going to need a set of blocks if you don't have something like that just do your best with household items I actually have three so if you have three have three and then now you can do this video without this band but I've also gotten a lot of requests about how to get this band so this is just a long resistance band that I got on Amazon I'm going to link it in the description box it's actually on my Amazon storefront I have all of my favorite yoga products on there by the way so feel free to shop my Amazon store this is only $8 I've been practicing yoga for 30 years this is hands down the best investment I've ever made in a prop I use it in so many different ways now if you don't have this yet or you don't have anything like it don't worry about it we're only going to use it during two of the drills and you can do it without the strap but if you want to invest in it hit the link in the description box it'll take you to purchase this off of my Amazon storefront all right let's get [Music] started we'll get started on our bags with a simple nerve flossing drill you'll Bend both knees take your right knee lift the foot off the floor thread your hands behind so that they're clasp behind your thigh have your foot flexed as your knee is bent and then as you straighten your leg you'll point your foot so bend your knee Flex foot and straighten and point and we'll just continue to do this so part of the way that I practice at home especially when I'm trying to focus just on maybe a single skill like forward folds or deepening my flexibility is a lot of drill based stuff like this so it's not going to feel like a traditional yoga practice here we're doing just drills to deepen our forward folds take two more and then we'll just switch and for me as a single mom and business owner you know just being really busy practicing yoga as long as I have at this point it's uh I like to be efficient in my practice so doing these kind of drills is a bit of a shortcut for me to go right into deep flexibility with still taking care of my body and warming up and then we get more strong and flexible as we do these drills as well okay one more on this side all right now from here I want you to straighten out your legs take a moment to tuck your pelvis under so your low back is trying to flatten against the mat and begin to hug your legs together Point your feet hover your feet off the mat and then we'll turn take your chin into your chest and bring your arms up so hollow body shape you might be wondering why I'm doing core work for a forward fold but the Torso compresses to your thighs in a forward fold so you want a strong front body and a long back body so just a little bit here stay with me if you want to make it harder you can reach your arms above your head squeeze everything in if your low back is popping off the mat you can always bend your knees a little bit hold and we will release now we'll just rock and roll or you can roll to your side just going to come and stand so have your feet hips distance apart tilt your pelvis forward begin to bend your knees a little bit here so for me I didn't warm up at all before this class and you I'm not like naturally flexible so I have to bend my knees a lot at the beginning and if you're wondering why I would have you do that check out this video on how to unlock your hamstrings fast so nice bending the knees until you can get your chest down to your thighs you're grabbing opposite elbow for ragal and I want you to just fully Let Your Head release jaw release and you're just feeling the um especially like the low back and glutes just stretch and release not so much focused on the hamstrings here yet and then if you'd like you can start to sway side to side and as you sway side to side one of your legs might straighten out a little bit and that's great okay now we're going to do another drill and instead of swaying side to side like we usually do in our yoga practice I want you to rock forward and back and as you do that again you can have a bend in your knees you want to kind of swing your chest towards your thighs and I'm doing it a little bit more forcefully so I'm not swaying anymore I'm doing these rocks do about five more and just release and hang release your hands and then roll up one vertebra at a time feel your vertebrae stack those are your fastet joints there and the spine is what I'm referring to until you're standing all the way up okay you'll grab two of your blocks and have them frame here at the front of your mat and just step your right foot in between your hands and your left foot back so we've got a pyamid stance feet are hips distance apart and you'll tilt the pelvis forward coming down with a flat back till you hit about 90 Dees and then allow your upper back to Round Here and adjust the blocks as needed we're going to start going to move my block so you can see my foot you're going to start going back and then up on your tippy toes back and then up on your tippy toes back and up back and up back and up one more on this side you'll inhale long spine here tack your right hip back I'm even taking taking my thumb into my hip crease pull the hip back and fold so we're looking for that compression torso to thigh now maybe not so obvious but this this is how I practice right I've been practicing yoga 30 years so um and this is not exactly how I practice yoga but practice some deep flexibility stuff so this class might not be for everyone so if you're looking for more of a yoga poses to deepen your forward folds you can check out this other video of mine okay we'll inhale lift step your left foot forward come up all the way up and we'll just switch sides so right foot back feet hips distance pelvis is tilting forward for our forward folds it's got to tilt forward low spine draws in we're at about a 90° and then you can Flex the upper back here as you fold and we're we're going forward and rocking back and then coming up onto the tippy toes and back just moving my block so you can see my feet up on the tippy toes and back up on the tippy toes and back last one good and then you'll fold and place you can place like a horseshoe grip in your hip crease tack it back it's called hip traction to perhaps get a deeper fold here deep breaths inhale halfway lift you'll take one of your blocks set it down in the lowest setting take your right foot so the toe Mounds are on the Block so the edge of the block okay and then you can bend your left knee and straighten your right leg send your hips back