Fitness with Friends: Spirit Yoga Club

VOICE: Thank you for watching. And for a full transcript, visit www.fun4thedisabled.com. We hope you enjoy. When joining us for this video, you need to take some precautions as your health and safety are the most important. To avoid any injury or harm, you need to check your health with your doctor before exercising. By performing any fitness exercises without supervision, like with this video, you are performing them at your own risk. See a fitness professional to give you advice on your exercise form. Strategy for Access Foundation NFP and SPIRIT Club will not be responsible or liable for any injury or harm you sustain as a result of this video.

REBECCA: Hello, hello. Welcome to Spirit Yoga. My name is Rebecca. Thank you for joining us for our 30 minute yoga practice today. To begin, perhaps you may or may not want pillows to sit on. If you got tight hips, it helps to elevate your hips above the floor. Blocks help for those of you who want a little assistance reaching the ground, you can use a block to bring the ground up to meet you for your forward fold. If you are seated in a chair, please make sure your feet can press firmly into something sturdy. I’m of the shorter body type, so I placed a platform so that my feet aren’t dangling from my chair. So please go ahead and get those props that might serve you and be mindful of practicing a hint of kindness to yourself. So your pace might be different than our pace. Please take your time, take any modifications or breaks you need.

DAVID: Hello, Rebecca, how are you?

REBECCA: Hi, David. David will be joining us to demonstrate our seated variations. Welcome, David.

DAVID: Thank you so much for having me today.

REBECCA: Our pleasure. All right.

(Soft music)

REBECCA: So we start with a simple seat. Sit however is comfortable for you, you can sit cross legged, or maybe you would like to sit Vajrasana‘s style on your heels. I like to place the pillows between my calves and my thighs for this one. This is my comfortable seat for today. And David is sitting up straight and tall in his chair. All right. First you wanna get your spine aligned on your hip, so go ahead and roll around on your hip bones until you’re sure that your shoulders are right above your hip. Okay. Then we roll our shoulders up and back to broaden the chest, let the arms be heavy to start, letting the shoulders draw away from the ears. And then you may place your hands in your lap, palm facing up or in any hand position, mudra that you like to practice. Now, we lengthen our spine. So find the crown of your head. As you inhale, breathing in, you reach the crown up as if the air you’re breathing in is making you taller. Exhale, relax. And make any adjustments you need to be totally comfortable. Please close your eyes or hold a gentle gaze, meaning your eyes aren’t quite open or quite shut, you’re just kind of staring at the floor. Let yourself settle, arriving on your mat for your yoga practice today. Give yourself permission to be here in the present moment, leaving all things of the past in the past. Leaving worries about the future in the future. Yoga is about living in the present moments.

(soft music)

REBECCA: Right, tune into the breath, please. Focus on the tip of your nose, where the air is traveling in and out of your body as you breathe in and out. Follow the breath into your nose. Visualize it reaching the top of your sinus cavity in your brain to breathe up. And then follow the breath all the way down into the chest. Allow the belly to fill up, so the energy continues moving to your roots. As you exhale, the energy moves with your breath up your spine, through your chest, your throat, back out of your nose. So breathing in through the nose, up into the crown, following the breath and the energy down to your roots. Exhaling, moving the air and the energy back up and out of your body.

(soft music)

REBECCA: We’ll do this to a count of four, to even out the breath and stabilize it. We’ll begin with everybody exhaling together so that we are all empty at the same time, so please breathe out all of your air. Inhale, two, three, four, exhale, three, two, one. Inhale, two, three, four, exhale, three, two, one. Inhale, one, two, three, exhale, three, two, one. Inhale, one, two, three, exhale, three, two, one. Inhale, one, two, three, exhale, three, two, one. Inhale, one, two, three, exhale, three, two, one. Inhale, one, two, three, exhale, three, two, one. Relax the breath.

REBECCA: Take a moment to tune in to your body and your mind and see what’s going on there. What can you feel? Is there any tension or are you completely loose? What’s the quality of your breath? How do you feel in your head? If you would like to set an intention for your practice, this is the time to do so. David, do you have an intention for today’s practice?

DAVID: Yes, I do. Our intention for today is kindness.

REBECCA: Kindness is a great intention. To set your intention for kindness or anything else, you would say to yourself, “I am kind,” or something along those lines.

(soft music)

REBECCA: Repeat the intention to yourself three times with full feeling. When you are ready, please bring your hands together at your heart. Prayer hands, Anjali Mudra. Good. You may keep your eyes gently closed or open them up. Good, allow the shoulders to relax down. All right, we’re going to keep the counting breath in with a prayer breath arm circle. So you can practice the movement and then time it. The movement is taking your prayer hands, and as you inhale, you raise them overhead, reaching up tall. As you exhale, release your arms out to the side and circle them back together at your heart. If you would like to add the timing, we inhale and raise our hands up, one, two, three, exhale, open your arms, three, two, one. Back to the heart, inhale, palms up, one, two, three, exhale, release, three, two, one. Back to the heart, if you would like to slow your pace to a four/four, four/five, or five/five, you may do so if you’re breathing slower. I would like you to set a target of evening out the breath, so whatever your number is for today, that your inhalation equals your exhalation. So continue moving at your own pace. Now, finding your yoga, the union between your breath and your body. That is why I’ve ceased cuing, ’cause at this time, I would like you all to feel your body and move with it and move with the breath. Good. All right, take one more, and we’ll all meet together with our hands back to our heart.

REBECCA: All right, go ahead and release your hands all the way down. If you’d like to shift the seated posture, you may do so. All right, let your arms be nice and heavy to stretch the sides of your neck down. Okay. Then drop your ear to shoulder, either side, let the head hang here, maybe you wanna move it around a little bit, play with it to find what feels good. Then roll your head forward, chin to chest, and over to the other side, ear to shoulder. Let the head be heavy. And continue moving in a very slow half circle, from the ear hang to the shoulder on one side, forward chin to chest, moving head to the other side, ear to shoulder. Everybody moving at their own, yogi’s pace.

(soft music)

REBECCA: And let’s all meet with our heads down, chin to chest. Inhale, raise your gaze upward. Exhale, drop your chin back, chin to chest. Again, inhale, raise your gaze upward. Stretch the front of your neck. Exhale, drop your chin down, stretch the back of the neck. And raise your head up to level, to look forward. A couple turns of the head as if you’re watching a very slow tennis match, looking left, and slowly moving your head towards center to look right. Take another one, looking left. And another look to the right, and then we’ll meet in center again.

(soft music)

REBECCA: Next, we’ll be doing cat cows. If cat cow, the tabletop version, is in your practice, please feel free to play with it. Otherwise, we will all be doing the seated variation which is a hugging cat cow. Everyone doing the same thing. So as you inhale, your arms will be opening out to the sides. Maybe your shoulders can go back, shoulder blades squeezing for a very big hug. The key point here is to lift your heart for that back bend. And as you exhale, you take one arm on top of the other for a hug, reaching the sides of your arms or maybe you can reach your shoulders. Then you move your elbows towards your thighs to hunch forward. Inhale raising the elbows back up, opening the arms, then lifting the heart up for the back bend. Exhale, switch which arm’s on top for your hug and tilt down again. The crunch part is the seated cat. The big open hug is your seated cow. So exhaling into cat, elbows down, pull the belly in. Inhale, lift and open into a big old flying cow. And then continue moving. Give yourself a little forgiveness if you forget to switch which arm’s on top or can’t remember, it really doesn’t matter. Just a little something to bring a little more awareness into your practice because awareness is so crucial in yoga. Continue moving at the pace of your own breath, inhaling to reach up and open. Exhaling to hug, and bring your heart to yourself. Crunching in, inhale, elbows lift, arms open, heart lift. Exhale, hug, elbows down, belly in. Let’s get one more. Inhaling into your cow, and exhaling into your cat. Keep your arms hugged together as you lift back up. Give yourself a really good hug with some twisting motions. Good.

REBECCA: All right, next we are going to do twists. So go ahead and release your arms. We’re doing what I call sunflower twist. So inhaling to reach your arms up overhead as high as you can, palms are facing forward. As you exhale, twist to face one side and drop your hands to the side of that thigh. Inhale, raise the arms back up overhead, reach tall. Exhale, turn your body, drop your hands down to your thigh and twist to the other side. Inhale, arms up, twisting center. Exhale, twisting to the other side and dropping the arms down. You might also call this a rainbow twist ’cause the arms are arcing up and over the head, building a semicircle that’s kind of like a rainbow. So continue moving with your own breath. Again, inhaling when you come center, and exhaling when you twist to the other side, because it’s easier to twist a deflated balloon. Inhale, up. Exhale, twist. Inhale, up and exhale, twist. Get one more to either side in your own time.

(soft music)

REBECCA: And when you reach back up for the final time, bring your hands together and down to your heart.

REBECCA: Next, we’ll be doing a ladder climb. So if you’re on the floor, please move to standing pose. You might do so by bringing your hands in front of you, tucking your toes into a squat. Then with your knees bent, you press your heels down, and come all the way up to stand, in Tadasana, mountain pose. All right. So if you’re seated, option to your legs or not. You’ll be starting with high knees if you’re on the floor, so set your targets with your hands. Maybe they’re low below your hips or maybe they’re hip height, or maybe they’re all the way up by your chest. And you’re reaching one knee up to the same side hand to start. If you’re in a seat, please follow David, you’ll be raising one arm overhead like you’re raising your hand in class and you reach super tall and drop the arm down and raise the other arm up. So alternating arms are raising overhead. You might even picture that you’re climbing a ladder, and if you wanna make it a more realistic movement, you can move your hands as if you’re reaching for each ladder rung, okay? If you are standing, you can stay with the high knees or add the arm movement. I would like you to target. When you lift one knee, you lift the other arm up. So if you’re lifting your right leg, the left arm goes up. And vice versa, when the left leg goes up, the right arm goes up. Okay, so go ahead and move at your own pace. I encourage you to move nice and slowly with awareness and intention. Notice that you’re balancing on one foot for a short period of time, and how important it is for you to pay attention to the contact of your foot and the floor, so that you can balance.

REBECCA: All right. So within the intention of kindness, if you chose it, we wanna light the torch of our heart to spread that kindness. Because when you demonstrate kindness, others around you are inspired to put out that same energy level. So let’s shine our light. Please end your leg movement. Raise one arm overhead, palm facing forward. David had the inspiration, kindness, the Liberty torch. So your hand is the torch, the one that’s raised.

DAVID: Yes.

REBECCA: And then, yes, he had a great, David is full of great ideas. All right, then you take the other hand and grab the wrist of your torch to help support it. Good, and then now you’re reaching tall, and we’re going to turn this into a side bend. So if your right arm is raised, you are going to tilt the upper body over to the left side. If this would feel good to you with wide legs, you may do that as well. And we’re going to move this into a free flow. So drawing big circles. So if you’re tiled over to the left, you’re gonna continue moving down and forward to draw giant circles with your torch, shining that light all around like you’re exploring the cave. So the arms come down towards the knee, circle around over to the right side and then you lift back up, so your torch is over your head again. So you wanna see all the walls, the ceiling, and the floor of the cave. So you’re moving that torch all around in circles. Feel free to bend your knees, keep them tough. And David is doing the same thing in the seat. Definitely a good balance practice in the seated position because your upper body, the weight will be moving forward and all around. Is it challenging for you to keep your balance, David?

DAVID: Yes, it is. But I love challenges.

REBECCA: Yes, he does. True inspiration. All right, come back up to center. We’re going to switch our torch to the other hand. So go ahead and grab the other wrist, switching arms. If you’re grabbing your left hand with me, you’re tipping over to the right, or vice versa, if you switched to the other side. Take a nice stretch up and then lean to the side. We’ll take a couple breaths here, and then continue the movement dropping the hands down and make giant circles, shining the torch of kindness all around. Dropping it low the ground, over to the side, up. And again, over to the other side, drawing a giant circle with our hands, and everyone’s, some circles might be small, and some might be big. It’s totally up to your body. Please be kind to yourself and do what your body asks you to do. And don’t push it too far. Find the balance of effort and ease. All right, get one more in and we’ll meet back with arms overhead, and then lower them down to your sides.

REBECCA: We’ll get a sun salutation in here. Please step to the front of your mat if you’re on the floor. If you’re seated, your plank options will be legs up or legs down, David will demonstrate. Your hands will be straight in front of you like you’re pushing open a door, okay?

(soft music)

REBECCA: If you’re keeping your legs down, you might add the intensity by leaning back in your chair in which case you need to scoot to the edge of your chair a little bit, so you have that space, okay? All right, and downward facing dog in a chair, is hands to knees and a flat back. All right, let’s start together, seated or standing up straight. Inhale, raise your arms overhead, reach tall, exhale, fold forward, hands towards your feet, or as far as you can go safely. Inhale, halfway lifts, flat back, exhale, fold, bend your knees, widen your stance if you need to. Prepare for plank. If you’re seated, that means raising your upper body away from your side, so you’re sitting up straight, hands in front of you. Palms forward. You’re free to do that lean back or lift your leg. If you’re on the floor, you’re stepping both feet back as far as they can reach, getting a long line heels to head. Feel free to drop the knees for half plank. Moving into Chaturanga or low plank. If you’re seated, the hands come towards the shoulders, drop the legs if you lifted them. If you’re on the floor, lower your body to the ground either by dropping the knees or through Chaturanga. Coming all the way to the floor for baby cobra. Everybody is going to lift their shoulders and heart upwards with an inhale. Baby cobra, exhale, release. Moving back to downward facing dog. If you’re in a chair, drop your hands to your knees, flatten your back. If you’re on the floor, press yourself up onto your knees. Tuck the toes, then lift your hips up and press them back towards your heels to build your downward facing dog shape. All arms are long, legs are long. Feel free to bend the knees. Breathe deeply.

(soft music)

REBECCA: Moving into a forward fold. Everybody walk your hands towards your feet. Feel free to bend your knees. Inhale, halfway lift, flat back. Exhale, fold. Inhale, press into the floor. Rise all the way up. Arms circle overhead. Come together down at the heart. All right, David will lead us to the next step sun salutation, please listen carefully as he might cue a different version than I do. All right, back to the front of the mat if you’re on the floor, David, please go ahead.

DAVID: Inhale, raise your arms all the way up.

(soft music)

DAVID: Exhale, forward fold. Inhale, halfway lift. Exhale, forward fold. Inhale, prepare for plank. We have the option of lifting both legs off the ground, or keep both legs on the ground. Yogi’s choice.

REBECCA: Likewise, you can drop your knees if you’re on the floor.

DAVID: Exhale to low plank. Inhale, baby cobra. Release cobra. Inhale, downward facing dog. Exhale, forward fold. Inhale, halfway lift. Exhale, forward fold. Inhale, raise your arms all the way up. Palms together back to the heart, namaste.

REBECCA: Namaste. Thank you very much, David. And that brings us to the cool down portion of our class. If you are standing on your mat, please take a nice little yogi squat back down, and make your way onto your back side. We will be doing a half pigeon real quick. So if you’re seated in a chair, fold forward over one leg. And if you’re on the floor, one ankle comes to the top of the other side. You’re building a figure four. You may stay here. So right now my right ankle is on my left thigh. My left leg is bent, foot on the ground. If you would like to intensify, from the floor version, you will bring the left knee towards the chest. Please be sure that the right foot is flexed when you do this. If you would like to intensify in the seated position, like if you’re folded forward and your chest is all the way to one thigh, you will take the thigh that you are not folded over, press down on the top of it and push it off to the side.  Outward. All right, breathe easy here.

REBECCA: And release, switch sides. So if you’re seated, lift your torso up and then fold over the other leg. If you’re on the floor, you drop your feet down. Switch which leg is on top. You can stay with the supporting leg down or bring that knee towards your chest. One arm goes between the legs and the other one goes to the outside of the supporting leg. Please remember to flex the top foot. Three, two, one. Release.

REBECCA: So if you’re seated, come up to sit tall. If you’re on the floor, we’re moving into Shavasana. Take any last movements that you might like, maybe you wanna twist your knees windshield wipering them side to side, or maybe you wanna get into a seated, whatever feels good. Make any adjustments and any fidgets you need, and then make your way into corpse pose, your version of it. Personally, I like to keep my knees bent up and angled in towards the middle, so they support each other, and David will be taking a comfortable seated posture, like how we began with a nice long spine. If you’re on the floor, please relax your arms away from your body, palms facing up and allow your eyes to close.

(soft music)

REBECCA: And to surrender, assuring yourself that you are completely safe right now. No harm will come to you for the next minute while you relax completely. If it helps, you can imagine yourself lying or sitting in soft sand that forms to your body and cradles you completely. Allow the breath to deepen.

REBECCA: Notice where your awareness has moved to and then gently bring it back to your breath, paying attention to the rising and falling of your chest, linking your mind and your heart back together.

(soft music)

REBECCA: Begin to waken your body, moving your fingers and your toes, making any stretching movements that might feel good. If you’re on the floor, please make sure your knees are bent up, and then roll over to one side into a fetal position. Please take a few breaths to pause there, savoring the closing of your practice and how you’re feeling right now. When you’re ready, press up on your hand, and we will all meet in a comfortable seat.

(soft music)

REBECCA: Bringing our hands to our heart. May all beings everywhere be happy and free, to the light that resides within each of us. Namaste.

DAVID: Namaste, Rebecca.

REBECCA: Namaste, David and Namaste everyone who practiced with us. We are so grateful for you to practice with us. I hope you enjoyed today’s video and enjoy the rest of your day. Goodbye.

DAVID: Thank you for joining us!