Yoga for Flexibility 35 Min Practice Along

hi i'm kathy welcome to my channel we're going to focus on hips and hamstring flexibility so this is yoga for flexibility let's get started in downward facing dog today's class will primarily focus on a lot of the muscles that surround the hip joint and i'll be weaving in different flexibility tips here breathe here and your down dog will come up onto our tippy toes bend your knees and really get that anterior tilt of the pelvis that means the pelvis tilts forward and your low spine draws in breathe we'll straighten the left leg reach the left heel down try to lift and spread your left toes we'll switch sides as the right leg straightens engage through the quadricep muscles the front thigh muscles see if you could lift your right toes off the mat we'll come into downward facing dog reach your right leg up and behind you bend your knee we'll take some big hip circles in one direction so when we move the thigh bone in the hip socket it helps stimulate the synovial fluid there we'll switch directions and that will give us kind of better range of motion here as we move through our postures we'll release and switch sides left leg up bend your knee and big hip circles here in one direction we'll switch directions we'll set the knee down come up onto your tippy toes walk your feet up towards your hands try to keep your low belly scooping in we'll come to the front of the mat feet hips distance apart here grab opposite elbows so rag doll and take a bend in your knees so that you can get that anterior tilt of your pelvis where the pelvis goes forward and belly button pulls in and you can sway a little side to side so there's different techniques to do and get and stretch your muscles basically right and when we kind of hang here and let gravity take away and we can relax our breath and kind of be relaxed here we send all kinds of great signals from our brain to our muscles and tendons and such that they're safe bring your hands down inhale halfway lift long spine on your exhale big step of your left foot back drop your back knee and inhale rise low lunge you can always pad your back knee if you need to really reach up through your fingers here we'll push the hips back so they stack over the back knee and take now a posterior tilt so opposite direction and you might feel the front of the hip flexors stretch breathing here so we're going to stretch all the muscles around the hip joint on your exhale straighten your front leg fly your hands back so no hands runner stretch of course use your hands down if you need to challenging your muscles here hamstrings and calf muscle gastrocnemius muscle flex your right foot send those right toes up towards the crown of your head another breath and we'll bend the leg inhale arms up this time let your hips come forward in your low lunge now push down through your front leg fly your hands back this time release your hands take your right hip and i want you to drag it back so you're drawing your femur bone right into the hip socket to help you fold a little bit deeper so we'll do some active stretching here curl your back toes under flex your right foot and imagine you're dragging your heel down and back towards your hips and we'll hold like this for about five more seconds and then release that walk your hands over to the right send your hips over to the left i'm doing a little pulsing here too walk your hands through center send your hips over to the right walk your hands forward big step forward come back to your forward fold inhale half lift exhale we'll switch sides right foot steps back drop your back knee inhale up low lunge so we're taking more of a 90 degree angle here with the legs to start your hips stack over your back knee i want you to take your pelvis and scoop it under and breathe fly the hands back straighten your front leg use your hands if you need to but it's very active way to stretch here flex your left foot toes reach towards the crown of your head inhale chest goes forward exhale see if you could fold bend your front knee low lunge again hips forward this time squeeze your right glute muscles as the hips come forward reach your arms up shoulders stack over your hips come back to your runner's stretch this time we'll have our hands down so if you're always up on your fingertips but your arms are really bent you can start getting used to placing your palms down i want you to take your left thigh bone and draw it into the hip socket you can inhale half lift and exhale fold we're going to make this little active you can curl your back toes under that's just to stabilize flex your left foot toes reach towards the crown of the head drag your heel down and back towards the left hip for a count of we're doing a total of eight keep dragging back this is a pnf stretching technique sends signals to the muscles it's kind of tricking one of the tendons there to relax and just release that walk your hands over to the left send your hips to the right and walk your hands over to the right send your hips to the left walk your hands forward big step forward forward fold this time legs straight unless you need to bend them here please do and the need would come if you're tucking your pelvis under here and your chest is way away from your thighs and i want you to bend your knees and start getting used to taking your forward fold like this for a while a couple more breaths belly pulls in we'll bring our hands grab opposite elbows and we're going to take some kind of swings here so again knees are bent or not either way belly button pulls way into the spine we'll go for eight seven six five four three two one and release release your hands another breath inhale will come all the way up to stand you can reach your arms up and exhale take mountain pose shift your weight over to your right foot and bend your left leg hands are on your hips we'll send the left knee out to the left you can keep your foot up we'll actually point it here and then we'll go forward and then out to the left try to keep your hip points facing forward otherwise you're just keeping your hip closed right we're trying to take the left thigh bone and rotate it all the way out to the left and then forward and we'll do that two more times out and forward and out and forward this time as you go out bend your front knee we'll take a big step back coming into warrior two so i'm letting my feet kind of get farther away from each other so i can really bend into the front knee and i'm thinking here of stretching the adductors the right adductors and then take my right hip and scoop it under so i want you to try that there now your left hip is moving way out to the left so we take a very kind of active and mindful warrior two here reach your arms away from each other another breath pivot your front foot to meet the left set up for a wide leg forward fold so ground down through your hips bring your hands onto your pelvis and tilt your pelvis forward so that's that anterior tilt i was