Plank

Hi everyone, welcome to class. Today is day 3 of the beginner yoga series that we are doing. Today's class is all about plank pose. Plank pose is something that is extremely difficult. It was very difficult for me when I initially began. It involves a lot of strength in the body. Not only strength in the body but also very much in the mind to commit to this and practice so that we are able to do this effortlessly. It involves a lot of strength in the shoulders and even in your lower body, in your legs and in your core muscles.

So we will approach this step by step, and when you are ready, so am I, so let's begin. Before that, close your eyes and observe the internal body for a moment and join your palms together. Let's just initiate the sacred space of the practice. Inhale. Slowly open your eyes. Let's get started, coming back over to the hands and knees, starting off straight away in a tabletop position. Again, remember the shoulders over the wrist, the knees are under the hip. Now this is a neutral spine position.

Let's go to a slightly arched spine. So inhale and arch the spine. Exhale, flex the spine, round the back, head down. Inhale, arch the back, elongate the spine, gaze upward slightly, and then exhale, round. This is just to warm up the back muscles. Inhale, arch the back, and exhale, round. Now let's hold it with the back rounded. Five deep breaths here. Remember the Ujjayi breathing, maintain that, breathing with sound. One. Two. Three. Be conscious to pull the stomach inside as much as you can towards the spine. Four. And super straight elbows, no bending the elbows. One more breath. And five.

One more time just to release the spine. Inhale and arch the back. And exhale, neutral spine. Let's take a break, come to Balasana and rest over here. Head down again. A few breaths. You can even release the hands and keep the hands behind you and head down. Slowly come up.

One more time, just because today we're going to put some weight on the wrist. We're working on plank pose. Balasana, let's warm up the wrist. Take a fist and rotate. Five times clockwise, five times counterclockwise. Bring some circulation here and then just shake everything out. And let it go. Okay, we're ready to come back to the hands and knees.

Still some more work with the core muscles, with the shoulder muscles. Inhale, let's just arch the back. Exhale, round the back. Let's maintain the rounded back position. Don't over-round, but just understand that this is a posterior pelvic tilt with the pelvis, and let's hold there. Now from here we're going to start working on our shoulders. So inhale, only the shoulders dip it down. Exhale, protract the shoulders. Come up. Super straight arms. Inhale, dip down. Now don't bend the elbows, we want the elbows straight. Exhale, take it up. Inhale, dip down. Exhale, take it up. Inhale down. Exhale up. Two more times. Inhale, dip down. Exhale, take it up. Last time. Inhale, dip down. Exhale, take it up.

Now hold it up. This is known as shoulder protraction. Shoulders are super straight, it's not sinking but it's protracted. Hold it there. Inhale, move the shoulders over the wrist, feel pressure on the wrist, and exhale, come back to neutral position. Inhale, move forward, forward, and then exhale back. Three more times. Inhale, forward. Exhale, back. Inhale, forward, try to keep the stomach pulled in. Exhale, back. Inhale, forward. Exhale, back. A little intense on the wrist, but try anyway. Inhale, forward, and let's hold it there with the shoulders forward. One, keep breathing. You can even smile here, it makes it better. Two. Three. Good. Four. And five.

Let's take a break, Balasana, child's pose. Head down. Let's keep going. Coming back over to the hands and knees, from here we're also going to start working on the legs now. So let's extend the right leg back. Now avoid arching the back, the back is rounded. Let's keep the toes down. Five breaths here with the toes down. You can look straight ahead or you can even look in between your arms. Deep, steady breathing. One. As the right leg is back, keep all the muscles of the leg very, very active. Two. If you pull the kneecap up, that activation will be there. Three. Again, no bending the elbow, super straight arms. Four. And five. Return it back.

Let's do it on the other side, left leg. One. Deep breath. Two. Three. Four. And five. Take it back down for a moment. Inhale, arch the back, release everything out. Exhale, round the spine. One more time. Inhale, arch the back, release. Exhale, round.

Now from here let's do the same thing, but this time let's keep the foot off the ground. Extend the right leg back, hold it there for a moment. You can point the toes. Deep inhale. Deep exhale. Now on your next inhalation, bring the knee towards the head and round the back. Five breaths here. One. Two. Take the knee as high as it will go. Three. Four. And five. That's it, set it down.

Let's do it on the other side. Inhale, extend the left leg back. You can point the toes or flex, doesn't really matter, but just maintain the hip facing forward. One. Two. Knee straight, no bending the knee. Three. Four. And five. Inhale, take it towards the head. Five breaths here. One. Two. Three. This is to activate the core muscles, start to feel your muscles of the stomach working. Four. And five. Set it down.

One more time let's take a break. Balasana. Let your hands rest, head down. And coming all the way back up. Now we're ready to try plank. So go slowly, it's a little intense on the shoulders, so let's go step by step. Coming back over to the hands and knees, let's release the spine to start off with, exhale, round the back. We want to maintain the rounded back position. You shouldn't enter plank with an arched spine, you should enter it with the rounded spine. So maintain that.

Come on the toes, get ready. Inhale, let's start by lifting the knees off the ground. So, lifting the knees off the ground, look right in between the hands. Remember not to arch the back or over-round. The shoulders are over the wrist in one line. And this is plank pose. Let's hold it for five breaths. One. No bending the elbows, super straight arms. Two. Just focus on your breath, let the breath become steady. Three. Four. And five. Good.

So let's flip back to Adho Mukha, the asana we worked on last class. Push back with the hands, let the head relax. And five breaths in downward dog. One. Two. Breathe slowly. Come. Three. Four. And five. Now you can take a break in child's pose, or we can keep going. Inhale, look forward, come over to plank pose one more time. Exhale, downward dog. Inhale, plank. Exhale, downward dog. A few more times. Inhale, forward, feel strength in the shoulders. Exhale, take it back. Inhale, forward. Exhale, take it back. One more time. Inhale, forward, and just hold it there. Three breaths only. One. Deep breath. Two. Three. And relax.

Exhale, downward dog again. Drop the knees down, child's pose. You can open the knees apart, toes touching, and go as deep as you can, head down. You can even try to get the chest to touch the ground. And slowly come all the way up. That was pretty intense. Plank takes a while to get used to.

We need to release a bit through the shoulders now. So come and sit in a comfortable seated position. Right hand in front of the face, left hand from inside, you're going to wrap it around to eagle arms and stretch it up. Five breaths here. If you can't get that behind, keep it apart, no problem, as much as you can. Stretch upwards. Take a few breaths. And then slowly bring it down.

And now we're going to release the right shoulder. So just start to slide the left arm over to the side, and don't lift the right shoulder up, it should be level, and just hold it there. Deep breathing. Let everything go, let everything come to rest. And slowly bring it back. Release.

Let's do it on the other side. Left hand in front of the face, right hand goes from underneath, wrap it around. This is known as eagle arms. You can get this bind, if you can't keep it apart and stretch upwards. Feel it right in the shoulder blades. A few breaths here. Inhaling. Exhaling. And then once you're done, take it down and take it over to the left side, your left shoulder is getting the stretch. Slowly back to the center. Let it go.

One last twist. Right hand on the left knee. Inhale, center. Exhale, twist and look back. Feel it in the upper back, the waist is getting a good release. Inhale, come to the center. Exhale, twist. Other side. Inhale, back to the center. Just close your eyes for a moment, join your palms one more time. We'll chant Om and end the class. Deep inhalation.

Tap the hands together. Feel the warmth of the hands. Place the warmth over your eyes. Open your eyes. Look at the hands. Thank you for joining me.