Core & Cool Down

Well guys, we are on day ten, the last video of this series. Don't worry, I'll see you very soon with something interesting. Well, in this series we saw a lot of sequences — we saw a flexibility-enhancing sequence, a strength-enhancing sequence, and of course we worked a lot on our midriff, our core section, because it's not just the fat or the muscles that we were trying to work on, but also the internal organs. Like we discussed, most of us put on weight because the metabolism goes down and a lot of glandular problems — glandular secretion, hormones, everything — goes out of place. So all the asanas and exercises that we did actually help you regulate them. So what yoga does is pretty much put you back into balance.

Of course, for real yoga, proper yoga, you need to find yourself a really good teacher or a really good school and start your journey, adding in that spiritual element as well. But for now, I think if you follow these exercises, you'll be able to go on your journey a little better. Well, since today is the last video, I'm going to show you some of the easier asanas which are done sitting down, and of course we're going to concentrate on stretches, the relaxing stretches. Like I always keep saying, it's equally important for you to relax as much as you work out. So I hope you're ready, and keep doing your breathing exercises and your stretches even if you don't have time for power yoga or the other sequences.

Alright, so now we're going to do the Vakrasana. You sit straight, put your feet forward, make sure your spine is straight. You bend your right leg up and take your left arm up; you inhale, hold your stomach in, bring your elbow to your knee, and exhale. If you can, hold your breath normally and make sure your back is straight, and stay in this position for at least four or five counts. Alright, you inhale, exhale, and come back.

Now we're going to do this on the left side so you'll be able to see it a lot better. Bring your left knee up, position yourself, take your time — there's no hurry, you're not striking a pose, no one's recording you. It's very difficult to do yoga if you don't have a mirror to understand whether your spine is straight or whether you're doing the asanas correctly. Anyway, bring your left knee up, bring your right hand up, inhale, and bring your elbow to your knee and exhale. Adjust your hand in such a way that your spine is straight and stay this way; concentrate mainly on your abdomen — it's much better if you can exhale, retain that, hold your breath, and stay this way. I'd like to hold a mudra, so if you want to do that, you could do that too — it sort of helps you push your knee a little more inwards and makes it a little easier. And as you come back, you inhale, take a deep breath, and back.

Now you could do half of the Vakrasana — you bring your right leg up and bend this knee; this is another variation. You inhale, left arm up, bring it to the right knee, and exhale; you inhale and exhale, you do this. You completely shift your leg back, keep it straight always — inhale, right arm up, bring your right arm to your left knee, and exhale. A lot of people find doing this a lot easier than with the leg stretched out; it all depends on individual flexibility. You stay, or you could hold a mudra — again you inhale and come back.

So the camel pose — you can start by sitting in Vajrasana, then you get up so your legs are a little apart, hold your feet, and bend backwards; you can breathe normally. The camel pose is very good because it focuses a lot on your abdomen. Now we're going to focus a little on our core muscles — you get on all fours, make sure that your knees and your palms are in line with each other, and you lift your left leg up. Make sure it's in a straight line, not too high or too low, just right, and slowly bring your left arm forward and stay — most people can stay for twenty seconds; you do as much as you can and relax. In this process the whole of your core muscles, your legs — pretty much all your muscles — get worked; it's a strengthening exercise, but it focuses more on your core, and you increase your core strength by doing this. Again, do this on the right side, and stay — point your toe outwards, it'll be easier; you can hold a mudra if you like. You stay and come back, and you can continue doing this for a good five minutes — it's not that difficult, especially if you've been following all these asanas before. We'll do it one more time, we'll try to do it while holding our breath — you inhale, stay, stay, and exhale, you come back. Again you inhale, and as you inhale you not only gather the oxygen, you also gather the strength and the focus that you need to do this — inhale and exhale.

Now we're going to be talking about stretching and asanas that will help you relax. Get on all fours, take your left arm, take your left hand, and put it between your right hand and your leg, sort of like this — I'll do it on the other side so it'll be much better. Also make sure you turn your head, and don't stick like me — you take your right hand up and you go down. This is very relaxing for your lower back; some people tend to fall asleep in this.

Alright, so we've been doing the puppy pose and the Balasana throughout the sequences earlier, so now I'm going to show it a little more in detail. The puppy pose — you start with your Vajrasana, and you go down and stick your butt up and stretch; you'd feel the stretch on your back all the way from here, and the more you push yourself back the more stretch you'd feel. It's very relaxing, and you can breathe normally in all of these relaxing stretches that we're doing. To move on to the Balasana, make sure your knees are completely apart and your feet are touching each other, and you stretch — this is so good, this is of course my favourite asana of them all. And you come back and do a little bit of the Bhujangasana now — of course many people might not agree, but it's quite a relaxing stretch.

And now we move on to the supine pose. The supine stretch is something that I recommend everyone does after they work out or finish the yoga sequences that you've been following. You pretty much just lie down, stick your right hand out, turn completely onto the right side of your body, bend your left leg so your left knee is over the right side of your body, and take your left arm and just throw it backwards — there's a complete stretch on your lateral muscles, and you need to consciously stretch each and every leg out, feeling like you're being pulled from all four sides. That's when you know that the supine pose is done. If you have a little help, ask someone to pull your hands on either side and your legs on the other side — it's just the best.

So you come back to position and do the same thing on the left side — move over to your left side completely, bend your right knee, bring it over, make sure you're comfortable, make sure you don't twist your neck, and throw yourself back. Make sure your shoulder touches the ground, and stretch — point your toes outward, alright?

Great, now we move on to the Pavanamuktasana — we've seen that before, it helps with gas and of course it's a great stretch; it helps you stretch out your lower spine as well. So it's pretty much — you need to hold your knee and bring your head to your knee. You can warm up, of course, starting with bringing your right leg forward, pointing your toes outward always, the same with the left, and then bring both — you can hold it from below and bring your head to the knee.

I don't know about you guys, but I feel extremely stretched out and relaxed — of course that's the whole purpose of this, and of course you finish up with your Shavasana; if you have a guided meditation track it's even better. What we usually do after yoga classes is concentrate on each and every part of our body, just to give — it's a gratitude, it's just saying thanks for functioning well. You could either do that or you could just relax, arms outward, palms facing upwards. You breathe, you breathe deeply, and slowly start focusing on all your organs, starting with your head, your skull, your hair — each and every piece, like each and every cell of your body — you concentrate from head to toe and from toe to head, and completely relax your muscles out. Relax your muscles out and try to keep your mind still and active, alright, so you let your body go neatly, and make sure you don't fall asleep — that's something that happens to everyone, everyone falls asleep.

And I will see you very soon. Well, if there's something that you would like me to help you with — for example, I have a very bad right knee, I was born with it, there's nothing much I could do except for yoga — so I plan to probably do a series for increasing or enhancing or dealing with a bad knee or injury. If there is something specific you'd like to see, please let me know in the comment section. I will see you very soon, and until then, stay healthy, stay positive, take care of your body, take care of yourself, and everything in life will fall into place. Peace be with you, bye bye.