Beginner Yoga Class – 45 Min Practice Along

hi friends Kathy Meadow here back with another video this one a beginner yoga class this was another request from one of the subscribers so thank you so much feel free to let me know in the comments any yoga classes or tutorials you'd like me to make for you and I will be sure to add it to my list for today's beginner class this is really designed for absolute beginners or those just want to take it easy a little bit in their yoga class so if you have props I'd recommend two blocks a blanket and a strap or something you can use for any one of those kind of items I'll be using the props throughout the entire class so that you can see how I would recommend using them of course if you don't need the props you don't have to use them and I did get a brand new puppy so this is honey she might be joining us in class from time to time grab your props and let's get started [Music] come on to your mat lay down on your back allow your knees to come together feet wide and we'll just take a few moments here to Center and connect to our breath you can close down your eyes and place both hands on your belly just below or across your navel allow your spine to neutralize here and I want you to just notice your breath and so often we hold on tight especially through our stomach area I want you to just let it go and yoga we breathe in and out through the nose so as best as you can close the lips gently let your breath flow in and out and just allow the diaphragm to expand and fill the diaphragm with air and as you do that it'll push your organs down and expand your belly and just let that happen and then as the breath releases try to release the breath all the way you'll feel the front of your torso go down towards the mat so this is just deep diaphragmatic breathing just allowing the belly to rise and the rib cage to widen you'll notice it doesn't take long for the nervous system to calm only need a few minutes of mindful breathing As You Are calming here on your mat just continuing to be mindful of your breath you can set an intention for your class today maybe it's something you want to work on in your yoga practice or even off your mat in your life you'll just set that intention it's called sankulpa and Sanskrit and uh positive I am statement so it might be something like I am whole or I am enough or I am strong I am flexible just fill your whole body with this this feeling this positive affirmation or intention and then on your next inhale take another deep breath in we'll hold it at the very top and then I'll allow you to open up your lips and exhale deeply out through your mouth and just surrender that intention you can gently blank open your eyes we'll lift the feet off of the mat pull the knees in reach your arms up towards the ceiling make a tight Fist and just start to move your joints around here of the feet and the hands so the wrist and the ankles and then just switch directions hug both knees into your chest and let both knees fall over to the right and as you do that you'll take your right hand to the outside of your left leg and a big circle of your left arm so you're getting a nice twist to release the low back and you can turn your head towards your left hand or stay looking up at the ceiling we'll release that come back to our starting position again just let the knees fall to the left this time left hand takes the outside of the right leg and you're turning your chest towards the ceiling gaze can be over to the right feel the low back muscles stretch here and we'll inhale back up we'll keep our legs at a 90 degree angle reach your arms up Palms will face each other and you'll straighten your right arm behind you and your left leg down and as you do that I want the low back to flatten as best as it can and for you to pull your core muscles in towards the ground here and then almost like two levers you're pulling back to your starting position so this is dead bug you might know this from other movement places here we'll continue on here so this is just a classic core exercise working to stabilize your pelvis keep the rib cage down low back working too flat might not be flat here we'll take a couple more you're exhaling as you pull the arm and the leg in we'll go one more on this side from here you can rock and roll or roll to your side we're coming into tabletop position so all fours on your mat so risk crease is parallel to the front of your mat knees or hips distance apart here and we'll continue to warm up the wrist joints and now we'll get into the shoulders and the hips a little bit as we take our dancing lion so big circles in One Direction and big circles and the opposite direction come back to your tabletop position allow your belly to drop and your pelvis to tilt forward as you shift your gaze up for cowl stretch and then when you exhale pull your belly in round the spine spread your shoulder blades away so linking breath to movement here will inhale into cow extending the spine and exhale flex your spine and let's take one more inhale extend and exhale Flex now we'll take a couple wrist push-ups to condition our wrists here so we'll lift just the heel of your hand up the thumbs will slide in all eight Knuckles are pressing down and then set it down and we'll continue to do just a little round of these here we'll do about five more this is really good to develop strength in your forearms and your wrists and your hands will take about one more here now we'll come into balancing tabletop first we'll straighten the right leg curl your toes behind you we'll get a little calf stretch as we rock forward and back and now lift your right heel up so that it's in line with your right hip and keep that outer right hip closed reach your left arm forward your palm is facing inward your thumb reaches up to the ceiling so we're back in almost that dead bug position now we're just weight bearing on our hands so it's a little bit more challenging take an inhale in exhale curl elbow to knee and you keep going so if that's too much you would place your hand down and just do the knee so you're either doing arm and knee or just the knee and we'll release and we're just going to switch sides so curl your left toes under Rock forward and back stretching your Achilles heel and calf and sole of the foot and we'll stabilize here lift the left leg up working your glute Maximus stretch your right arm forward your neck is nice and long so the crown of the head is facing forward take an inhale here and then again we're going elbow to knee doing about four rounds and if that's too much you're placing your right hand down think of that cap position through the spine as you spread your shoulder blades away and bring your knee in and we'll release now we'll come into a child's pose so big toes touch knees wide walk your hands forward and you can place your forehead down so in yoga kind of you'll feel mostly what's tight for you stretching but most of the poses have kind of primary muscles tha