Hello yoga students, how are you today? Hope you're having a great day or evening so far. Today we are going to dive into some new poses. We're going to learn extended angle pose as well as triangle pose. So make sure you definitely have your blocks if you have them, if not some makeshift props.
I'm sure you've gotten creative by now. Of course your strap, your belt, and always that water. Find that space, clear the space, and we'll begin.
We are going to use our journal entry to focus on something called mantra. Mantra. Okay, so you're going to open up your journals and write about this at the end of class, but also think about it at the beginning of class here. So the definition of mantra, which is spelled M-A-N-T-R-A, is a commonly repeated word or a phrase or a sacred utterance. So I want you to think of something that you can draw towards a mantra in your practice today.
And it can be something really simple like breathe or just do it or smile or let go. whatever it is. Maybe it's just the word peace.
It can be anything at all. So we'll take a few minutes at the beginning of class to, you know, set our mantra up. And then after our class, I want you to get in your journal notebook and write about mantra, the definition, as well as what your mantra was or is for your yoga practice. And then I want you to think about a mantra for your day or your evening or your week or maybe even your month.
Okay, so something that if your mind starts to kind of go a little, you know, wild or you're not focused, you're not feeling really grounded. What's a short utterance, a sacred utterance you can say to yourself? And one that I commonly use is just peace. Peace, I just feel like that word really resonates with me and it helps me to really just sort of let go of whatever else is going on and breathe into peace.
So Um, I'd like you to, uh, go ahead and do that for your journal today before we start. Um, and then I wanted to just share a quote. Um, I love all the quotes that are coming in. And so I'm just going to pick one to share. I love this one.
This one was by Henry Ford and it's whether you think you can or can't, you're right. Which is so true, right? I'll say that again.
Whether you think you can or can't, you're right. So it's really a mindset, right? You want to have a strong mindset in whatever we do. Because if you're telling yourself you can't do something, then you're already setting yourself up for failure. But if you're telling yourself you've got this, you can do it, then you're manifesting this different vibration that will bring that to you just by your mindset, okay?
So think about that as we begin. Let's go ahead and get started. Take a seat and let's roll those shoulders back a couple of times. Face up, close your eyes and think about your breath. Inhales and your exhales in and out through your nose.
As you begin your breathing, keep it moving. Keep it flowing. Start to let go of the past. Try not to worry about the future.
And just focus in on your breath yourself. And let's choose our individual and personal mantra. We'll start with this class. What is your mantra for this class?
And as you go throughout this class, your mind wanders, go back to your mantra. When you're ready, inhale, reach up, open your eyes, and exhale, hands towards heart center. And come down to all fours, and reach your hips back in your child's pose, stretch.
Sit back and stretch your back arm, lengthening. Through the arms, the legs, hips are sitting back as you stretch. Walk your torso over to the right and get a side body stretch. Feel the side of your body lengthen. Through neutral go to the other side and stretch.
Back to Child's pose. Push up to all fours. Tuck your toes.
Knees underneath your hips. I'll face the side of you. We're going to cat tilt, dog tilt. Make sure the belly is pulled in as you move. Curling and opening.
Start to feel your back moving up and down. And from here, if you'd like to, you can add a couple of bows, two or three bows. You just bend your elbows. You don't have to go all the way down. You don't even have to do the bows.
It's just if you want. Then we'll come down to our bellies and into a little back bend. So line up your elbows underneath your shoulders, point your toes, and just feel your back open here. Good. You want to pull the navel towards the spine.
If this is easy for you, you can lift the elbows off the floor. Shoulders are down. Look over your right shoulder.
Twist, stretch. And let's go the other way. And back to neutral.
Roll it down. Press back. Child's pose. And stretch.
Take a nice deep breath in. On your exhale, lift the knees, downward facing dog. Good. As you get to your dog, start to walk it back and forth.
So you're just bending one knee and the other, pressing into your downward dog, digging into those heels as you stretch. How do your legs feel today? Have you noticed you're sore at all from our first few classes?
Good sore is fine. We don't want to be bad sore. If we're bad, so we're working too hard. Good.
Pressing into those heels. You're going to walk those hands back. Bend your knees.
Release over. If you'd like to, clasp your hands. Chest expansion. Let your head, neck, and shoulders relax.
And release. Roll it up one part at a time. Bring your legs together, reach your arms up, side bend to your right. You want to pull the navel towards the spine as you stretch. Remember, you should be able to breathe comfortably.
Good. Back to center, other side. Back to center and forward fold. Roll it up. Half salutations.
Inhale, reach up. Exhale, swan dive over. Bend your knees if you need to.
Inhale to your earth touch, touching the floor or your shins. Exhale, melt it over. Inhale, reverse up. Exhale, close.
And again, inhale, reach up. Exhale, swan dive over. Inhale, earth touch. Exhale, melt.
Inhale, reverse. Exhale, close. Full salutation. Inhale, reach up. Exhale, swan dive over.
Bend your knees, move into plank. Bow or chaturanga. Inhale, cobra or up dog.
Exhale, downward facing dog. Great job, you guys. You're pressing into your heels in downward dog. You're feeling your hips high.
Remember, in downward dog, you're in a V shape, right? So I'll show you my side view. It's a V. My heels don't have to touch the floor, and I can have a bend.
knees here your weight is back So we're going to lift that right leg to the sky. We're going to step forward into our lunge. Bring that foot forward, knee over heel.
Bring the back knee down. Crescent lunge. My back knee is down. Your arms can be a parter together. Let's open up and stretch.
Level twos, if you want to, you can bring your back knee off the floor. Okay? I'm going to go ahead and do it with my knee on the floor, but you can have your back knee off the floor. Inhale, exhale, twist over towards the right. Hands at heart center.
Again, your back knee can be off the floor in our crescent twist. Good. You want to feel the legs scissoring towards each other as you look over your shoulder. Keep breathing. Release.
Step back. Downward facing dog or go through child's pose. Reset. Stretch.
Inhale. Left leg to the sky. Step forward into that lunge.
Bring your back knee down or you could keep it up. Crescent lunge. Apart or together. Feel your heart open. Breathe deeply.
In and out through your nose. Inhale. Exhale. Twist to your left. Look over your shoulder.
Take it back. Step back. Downward dog or through child's pose. Inhale, right leg up.
Step forward lunge. Flatten out your back foot. We'll review warrior one. Come on up. Front leg is bent, back leg is long.
Good. Feel the stretch. Arms apart or together in warrior one.
The way I like to remember warrior one. warrior one is that the hips are facing straight ahead in one. Okay. Keep going.
Keep stretching. Great job. Inhale.
Exhale. Lift the back heel. Come down.
Step back into your downward dog or child's pose. Stretch. Inhale your left leg to the sky. Step forward lunge.
flatten out the back foot, warrior one. Remember in warrior one, you do not have to have heel arch alignment. Open up the stretch. Feel it in your body. Inhale, back heel comes up.
Step back, downward dog. And let's move to child's pose. When you're ready, great job. Level twos, if you want to do a little flow or stay in downward dog, you can.
Good job. Take a deep breath in and a deep breath out. Exhale. Tuck your toes. Lift back up to downward dog.
And walk your feet forward. Bend your knees and come on up. Take a wide straddle.
Make sure your blocks are handy if you're using them. Inhale, exhale, forward fold. You can use your block or blocks, okay? Or you just bring your hands to the floor or hold the outsides of your legs. Take a deep breath in.
Shake your head out. Yes. Shake your head out. No. And pause here.
Bend your knees, roll up. Bring your arms as wide as your legs. Flip the right toes.
And knee open, warrior two review. Shoulders over hips. The arms and legs are about the same distance. You're looking over that front arm. warrior two you can have that heel arch alignment place the palm up take it back reverse warrior Stretch.
We're going to add on to this today, learning a new couple of poses. Go back to warrior two. Now I want you to reach across over that leg, place the elbow on the thigh, top arm moves overhead for extended angle pose.
In an extended angle pose, you want a straight line of energy from your leg, torso, and arm. Good. Most of us will have our elbow to our thigh. Level twos can take it down to the floor or the block.
Okay. Up to you. I'll keep it nice and simple.
This is called extended angle pose. My tail is underneath. I'm very flat through the body.
Good. Inhale. Exhale.
Come back to standing. Flip the right toes knee in, left toes knee out. Warrior two. Look over your left hand. Front leg is back.
Back leg is long. Reach the palm up and reverse. Stretch back.
Reverse warrior. Breathing in and out through your nose. Nose breathing or nose throat breathing. Your choice.
Inhale, exhale, coming up through Warrior II. Keep reaching towards that leg. Place the elbow on the thigh.
Top arm moves overhead. This is called extended angle pose. See that line?
Leg, torso, arm. Level IIs come down to the floor, walk here, or Level Is, most of us, right here. Bring that tail under, twist, keep opening, extended angle pose. Lengthen back up through warrior two and stretch toes in. Good job.
Inhale, exhale, a little release. Reach your arms down, shake your head out, yes and no. Slowly roll up.
All right, we're going to learn triangle pose. I'm going to do it both ways. We're going to start this way at first.
So if you have a block, make sure it's by your right foot. We're going to do the same thing. We're going to go ahead and turn that right foot and leg out.
Our stance is nice and wide. And this time you're going to reach across just like we did with extended angle, but we're not going to bend our knees. The hand can land on your block.
or on your leg, but not your knee. Never your knee, okay? Above or below your knee, on the block, or level twos on the floor. And I'm leaning back here.
It's hard to see the dimension here on video, so that's why I'll do it in both directions. But I'm just first starting here so you can get a face-on view of triangle pose. Your hips are moving towards the left as you stretch towards your right.
You lean back a little bit. It's like you're against a wall. in a triangle pose. You can play with your gaze up and down depending on how your neck feels.
Good. Keep breathing here. And if you do have a block, hold on to it.
Inhale. Bring it with you on the exhale. Good.
And switch legs. Block. You can use it as a tool or if you have a second block, You just.
Grab the second block. We move our hips to the right as we reach across to the left. If you don't have a block, your hand is on the leg, above or below the knee, or maybe on the floor.
But you want to make sure you're leaning back. You're flat through your body. And you'll see what I mean when I change my facing.
You can look up or flat as you breathe into your body. And this is called triangle pose. inhale exhale come on up bring the toes forward step jump or move to the top of your mat let's do a flow inhale exhale swan dive over bend your knees move into your plank from your knees or toes Bauer chaturanga Cobra or up dog downward facing dog. All right, I'm going to go into those two poses again, but from a different angle. So let's go ahead and lift our right leg to the sky.
We're going to step forward in our lunge. Make sure the knee's over the heel. Now, make sure you have blocks handy.
I'm going to flatten out the back foot, heel arch alignment. Place the elbow on that front leg, reach the top arm across. And you can see by this angle now, I'm very flat, meaning what I don't want to see is butt back and chest forward, right?
You want to get an alignment here. and open up in our extended ankle pose. Good. Level two is, of course, you can go down to the inner ankle and create more of a twist. Inhale.
Exhale. Come on up to standing. Now straighten your legs.
Same thing. You're going to reach across, but this time legs are straight, bringing your hand to your block if you've got one, or your leg, or the floor. Once again, what I mean by flat if you don't want the butt out the chest forward you want to line everything up Top arm is reaching towards the sky Triangle pose breathe into the sides of your back Inhale, exhale, come up slowly.
Great job. Windle your arms, lift that back heel. To transition, you can step back to downward dog or you can go through a child's pose. So child's pose helps you to reset.
Downward dog helps you to reset. One more side. Inhale, the left leg to the sky.
Step forward, lunge. Flatten out the back foot. Bring the elbow to the thigh. Extended angle pose. Get that tail under you.
Top arm reaches across. Let's breathe. Good.
Nose or nose throat breathing. In and out through your nose, if possible. Keep reaching. Level twos can take it all the way down.
Nice job. Inhale. Exhale.
Coming up. Straighten your leg. Reach across. Triangle pose. If you've got a block, make sure it's handy.
Or maybe you bring your hand to the leg or to the floor. Again, you're very flat. You can feel the stretch. The legs and your back. Inhale.
Exhale, coming up. Great job. Windmill your arms, lift that back heel.
And let's all meet in downward dog if you can. Good. From downward dog, you're going to move forward to plank and lower your knees, chest all the way down. Hands come down. Wind your weight with the legs.
You can also take a sip of water. Now's a great time to take that sip. I'm going to adjust a little bit the camera.
as we're going to take it to the floor. So extended angle and triangle are great poses to add on to our repertoire. Let's go ahead and take a little back bending. So we're going to reach back, place the blocks off to the sides now, reach back, grip both feet if you can. If you're not able to, just grab the right foot, okay?
And you can kick into half bow or you can grab both feet and kick into full bow. Good. Look down towards the mat so that your head and neck is an extension of your back as you breathe. Inhale. Exhale.
Release your down breath. Pause. Take a deep breath in and out through the nose.
Feel your heart rate. Second side or second set. Reset. You can grab the feet or grab your left and do a half bow or a full.
Here we go. Start to kick. Breathe into your back. And kick for five, four, three, two, and release.
Rest. Slowly push back. Child's pose.
From child's pose, give yourself a little massage on your back. Inhale. Exhale. Roll it up. And have a seat.
All right. You can sit flat on the floor if you prefer. You can sit on a pillow. You can grab your strap or belt if you've got one. Bring the right leg forward.
You can press yourself forward, or you can reach forward. With your strap, or maybe with your hands, over fold. Take a nice deep breath in, exhale, let it go as you pull the toes back. Keep that breath flowing throughout your body.
Inhale up, twist towards that right leg. Use your arms to help you look over your shoulder. Stretch your neck.
Remember to breathe. If your mind wanders, you've got your mantra to draw towards anytime. And release. Switch your legs. Use your arms, strap.
Whatever you choose, forward fold. Let's stretch. Inhale up, exhale twist towards the leg that's long towards your back.
Look over your shoulder and breathe. Inhale, exhale release. Bring your legs forward. Find those sitz bones.
You can either press forward if you need that support, reach forward, or use your strap. Reach that heart, pull those toes back. Keep breathing.
Lengthen up. And release that strap. All right.
Put the pillow, if you've got one, off to the side. You guys can stay facing whatever way you'd like. For you, this is easier to watch from the side.
It's going to roll down my back. You guys can roll down yours. And that's bring the knees towards the chest.
Get yourself a high-legged rock side to side. We're going to go into our hips into that finger four or that line of the knee. Don't bring the right leg up.
Open it. Rotate it. Place it on the thigh. Bring the hands through.
Hold onto your shin. You're going to really feel this in your right hip. You need that pillow underneath your head.
got in hand okay if you want walk side to side or simply just hold breathe into that hip joint Inhale, exhale, come down, shake out the leg. Other side with the left, turn it out, finger forward, eye to the needle here. Flexing your feet, hold onto it, notice if the side feels similar or different.
Inhale, exhale, release, shake it out. Good, and bring both feet flat to the floor, take your hands onto your thighs. Push the thighs down away from your head and just kind of wiggle your hips. Feel a stretch and a release in your low back. Press your head into the mat.
So lift your hips up for bridge pose. Hands can be to each side. You can clasp them under and walk them in. Lift your heels. Release your arms if they're clasped.
Roll down. And bring your knees towards your chest. Give yourself a hug. You're going to shift your hips towards the right a couple inches.
And then with your hands, flip the knees to the left. Twisting in a low back twist with legs bent. If you want it to be a little more challenging, straighten your legs.
And I'll stay with the beginner level. Look towards the sky or towards your right hand. Starting to take it down, starting to slow down the breath.
Let gravity pull you down and let the earth touch your breathing. Inhale. Exhale. Rolling back to neutral.
Square off the hips, bring your knees towards your chest. Bring your hips towards the other side, towards the left. Knees close to the right. Your hands can help. And you can keep them there or straight them out.
Good. Feel your low back as you look towards your left and breathe. Inhale. Exhale, coming back.
Bring the knees towards the chest. Come up. Legs up.
Hands behind your head. Just some soft, subtle little pulses here. Try to lift your shoulder blades and your hips up.
Just feel your core. Strength of your core. As you pulse for eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, and one.
Great job. And the knees. Happy baby.
Grab the feet and rock side to side. Massage out your low back. Great job, everybody.
Take a deep breath in through the nose. Exhale, side through the mouth. And then bring those feet together. And if you'd like to, for relaxation today, so as if you can be together the knees wide.
For some people, this is a little bit too much of a stretch. So what you can do, if you have two blocks, is you can place the blocks underneath the knees as support. And if that's too much for you, just go ahead and straighten the legs today, like we normally do.
Do anything else you'd like to do to get yourself comfortable, maybe a stretch, maybe... A big exhale, maybe circling of the hands and feet, whatever you like. And then you're going to close your eyes and let the eyes fall back to your head. Really just let an exhale out. And we'll take a few minutes in our relaxation and I'll call you back.
Thank you. the legs together and gently start to draw our focus back. Start by deepening your breath. If your knees are open, just bring your hands underneath and squeeze the legs together.
Draw them to your chest. Give yourself a hug. Maybe rock side to side.
And then move to a fetal position and rest over to your side. So your knees bend. You're on your sides. Close your eyes. Just think about your mantra.
Maybe you keep it with you throughout the rest of this day or maybe it's time to let it go. Use your hands to rest as you can take your time. Roll your shoulders back as you approach your seat.
And bring the palms and face them up. Close your eyes. Draw the chin to the chest. Circle your head.
Feel your neck. And we'll circle the other way. And back. Room to center. Let's exhale.
All of our air out. Take a deep breath in. Reach towards the sky.
And exhale. Hands to heart center. Thank you and namaste.
I hope you enjoyed today's lesson on extended angle triangle pose. And hopefully some of the other poses are getting more and more familiar to you. Don't forget about your journal entry now on mantra.
Think about a mantra for, you know, the day, the week, the month, whatever it is.