Yoga For A Strong Core

hi I'm Kathy medeao today I've got a yoga for core short practice for you today that should get you all fired up on all sides of your core so let's get started [Music] we'll start in child's pose widen your knees stretch your arms out in front of you let's take a moment to connect here to your mat and also get a nice shoulder stretch on your next inhale we'll lift on up into a tabletop position and we'll take just a few wrist push-ups here so lift the heel of your hand up set it down up down up down up down turn your thumbs to the side edges of the mat gently Rock side to side and we'll turn our fingertips to point towards our knees and rock forward and back peel the hands off of the mat as you stretch your fingers here will come into a kneeling position widen your arms apart so kneeling cat Cow exhale pull the belly in and begin to articulate the spine here as you move from extension and then flexion so essentially we're stretching our front body engaging the back and then exhaling engaging front body stretching the back and we'll keep it going Harris we've got the front and back sides of our cords getting nice and warmed up inhale reach your arms up we'll take a Twist to the right keep your crown of your head reaching up cross your right arm in front tuck your chin into your chest and now we'll get a another shoulder stretch here as we move into Eagle you can also hug the shoulders if wrapping the hands is a little too much right now will release inhale big sweep of your arms up twist to the opposite side reach the crown of the head up cross your left arm tuck your chin in take that same shoulder stretch here as we wrap the arms allow the shoulder blades to spread away next inhale will reach the arms up exhale come into your tabletop position straighten your right leg behind you reach your left arm forward now lift your right leg and hold here in a balancing tabletop so we want to keep the pelvis as stable as we can neck nice and long we'll tap the hand and foot down and lift up so tap down and lift up down up down up down up down and up bring your right knee down inhale sweep your left arm up take your left hand behind your head and crunch the left elbow in and open it up so not only are we getting some core engagement here of the obliques but we're also increasing our thoracic Mobility here as we try to open up through the mid spine last one and we'll release we'll just simply switch sides so left toes curl on under right arm reaches out lift the left leg up trying to get as a neutral of a spine as possible tuck your pelvis under a little bit and we'll dip down and up down and up feel your back body here glutes engage upper shoulder muscles engage three two one set everything down inhale right arm lifts up bring the hand behind you and we'll bring the right elbow in towards the left arm and open it up and exhale so we're trying to keep the outer right hip closed as we move through the thoracic spine two more here inhale exhale last one inhale and exhale inhale lift it up from here come into a forearm plank so set the forearms down curl your toes under hips in line with your shoulders scoop your pelvis under a little bit and we'll hold here think of all of the muscles around the core basically the muscles in your torso and also your glutes here just firming in towards the midline of your body and now we'll take this and we'll Rock forward and back so forearm plank saws three two one stay with me if you can come to the outer edge of your right foot and hold so you're still in your forearm plank and we'll swivel on over to the left and come back to your forearm plank keep the navel pulling into the spine as you lower the hips and engage your glutes and your landing and sphinx pose here pull the chest in one more breath I want you to think of really engaging your back body here and we'll lower on down take crocodile pose so right forearm underneath the head you'll lift to the right leg up you can widen your legs a little bit farther apart and then set it down so we're focusing here on the glutes and the low back muscles so your leg might lift much higher than mine I have a spine injury so I don't want you to stop yourself if yours goes higher but try not to kick and lift the hip the right hip off of the mat try to keep it grounding down we'll do a few more and then we'll switch sides so left leg lifts trying to keep your pelvis the Torso as stable as possible here isolating the movement a little bit more in the left leg okay from here roll the thighs in a little bit reach your arms out pinky side of the finger is down we'll try to keep the arms and the ears in the same line here as we inhale lift up into a Superman kind of form here lift keep lifting up through the strength of your back body hold and now as though you're pulling the elbows back draw your shoulder blades in and hold and we will take the hands alongside the rib cage curl your toes under lift up we're going to hold chaturanga for five breaths now have your knees down if needed so arms are in line shoulders are in line with elbows elbows stacked over your wrists holding push up to Plank and we'll press back to downward facing dog so feel free to Pedal your feet out here move around in a way that might feel good and we'll roll it Forward into a high plank position so if you can be hips distance or we'll bring them together shoulders stacked right over your wrist push the floor away elbow crease lining up to your thumb we're really just plank as a core stabilizing pose so we're just looking to minimize the movement and the Curves in the back holding here really nice everyone we will roll to the outer edge of our right foot and we're Landing in a side plank your left arm can reach up now you can always have your right knee down to stabilize yourself from here we'll take that left arm curl it under see if you could tap the right ribs and we're going up and under and up under Up and Under now if we want we could take the left hand here similar to what we were doing in the very beginning a little bit more challenging right as we're curling the left elbow towards the right arm okay on this last one we'll go through Plank and switch sides so outer edge of the left foot feel the left upper arm bone roll away from the chest so it sits nice in that shoulder socket and we will go under with the right arm and notice it's a small movement I'm nipping the front ribs in doing my best to keep my pelvis from dipping down and again if we want to amp up we'll take this elbow movement inhale exhaling as you're crunching in and last one and we'll take Plank and press back to downward facing dog from downward facing dog extend your right leg up open up the hips Scorpion dog come on to your left tippy toes will come into a high Plank and have your right knee try to touch the outside of the tricep and we'll swing it back through the Scorpion dog and this will be our movement here as we go to the outside and a few more of 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