Flexibility Focus

Hi guys, hope you have been following the previous videos and I hope you have been practicing them as well, because you know looking at your phone is not going to help you lose any weight. Anyway, we focused on asanas that will enhance your flexibility and strength. From today onwards we are going to do a little bit of sequencing. So sequencing is just, you know, sort of putting the asanas in a certain order, so there's a certain bit of flow and it's easy for you to move from one asana to the other. So today's sequence is going to focus a lot more on flexibility than strength.

I hope you have done your warm-ups, your breathing exercises, and I hope you're ready. Well, if you haven't done your warm-ups or breathing exercises, you could do like a quick version of it. Try to do deep inhale and exhale at least 10 times. As you inhale, remember to let the oxygen in, fill your lungs, and as you exhale just let all your breath out. Do this at least 10 times before you begin, and you know, do your basic stretches of your legs, because you know we've been doing very intense exercise for the past four days, so it is common that the muscles get really tightened up and it might hurt.

You can also do the cat pose, which is one of the easier stretches, try to do this at least five or six times, and remember the breathing of the cat pose: as you inhale, you hunch your back, chin to your chest, and exhale you look up at the ceiling and arc your back as much as possible. Do this five or six times and remember to go into balasana to relax. When you go into this fetal position, remember to also use this little time to focus and prepare yourself for what we're going to be doing next.

All right, if you're ready we're going to begin. First we're going to start with the Bhujangasana, the cobra pose, the snake pose — spread your legs apart, make sure you stretch all the way from your neck to your lower abdomen, and you slowly move into the downward dog position. You can kick your right leg up and then smoothly move into the pigeon pose and stretch backwards, and stay this way for 20 seconds. Again kick your right leg up and come back to the downward dog and easily just move into the Bhujangasana.

Again, we do this with the other leg. You bend into your downward dog, kick your left leg up, and gracefully just move into the pigeon pose — take your time, because asanas have to be correct. You need to place your legs correctly, bend backwards, come back, kick your leg up, back to downward dog, and again back to the snake pose. Now this particular sequence is going to help you a little bit with your flexibility — with the downward dog you're stretching out your hamstrings and your arms, with the pigeon pose you're helping your back — and again you can always try to do the advanced version of this. This is also called the mermaid pose, where you try to hold your feet with your arm; if this is a little difficult for you, don't do it, because you could easily get a catch.

Now we're going to try to do this again, on the right side. You move into the downward dog, back to the Bhujangasana, and again you get up to the downward dog, you kick your leg up, you place yourself into the pigeon pose, and try to hold your leg and stay this way. You know, personally I really like this pose, I sort of meditate in this pose, I can hold it up to five minutes, but as a beginner try to do everything a little slowly, make sure you don't get a catch, and the breathing as well — you got to be very careful, make sure you inhale and exhale deeply, breathing enhances your flexibility.

Now we're going to do the balasana just to relax it out a little bit. You can also do the puppy pose to relax your lower back out a little bit, and now we're going to do a little more advanced version of the previous sequence — it's going to involve a little bit of dynamic downward dog. To prepare yourself, make sure that you inhale and exhale deeply in between; you could sit in Vajrasana. It's very important for you not to sweat during yoga, because if you sweat then you're doing something wrong.

Anyway, you start with the Bhujangasana, stretch as much as possible, gracefully and slowly move into the downward dog, kick your right leg up and touch your forehead — knee to your forehead — and slowly move into the one-legged pigeon pose, stretch backwards, and in this sequence we're going to add the sleeping pigeon pose, which is a relaxation part of it. Make sure that you relax as much as possible. Again we continue doing this — you kick your right leg up, you inhale, you exhale, you inhale, and you move into the pigeon pose. You can do the dynamic dog at least 3 or 4 times, or as much as you are capable of doing.

Now we're going to try to do this on the other side. All right, so we begin again with the downward dog, we kick our left leg up to the knee, knee to the forehead, kick it up, knee to the forehead, and gracefully and slowly take your time and position yourself in the one-legged pigeon pose and relax. So in this sequence we have added the dynamic downward dog and we've added the sleeping pigeon pose, so it's all about how you try to personalize your sequence so it is easy for you to get the flow of it.

Now again you go back to downward dog, stretch it out, do the dynamic downward dog, you kick up, make sure you're breathing right, and you do it 3 times minimum, and go into the pigeon pose. You relax the dog and try to stretch yourself, expand, stretch as far as much as possible, and you come back — make sure that even if you come back you do it slowly and gracefully. Come back to downward dog and move into balasana, your feet to position, to relax.

We're going to do a different variation, of standing up. You start again with the downward dog, your right leg forward, place it forward, put your right elbow on your right knee, and throw your left hand to the other side and stretch the left side of your body completely, and just cartwheel backwards, use your right hand and bend backwards, keep repeating this a few times, make sure the entire lateral muscle is stretched out.

You go back again to the downward dog and repeat it on the other side. You kick your left leg up, you bring it forward, place your left elbow on your left knee, and stretch completely the right side of your body, and hold your thighs and cartwheel your left hand backwards and stretch back. You know, as you can see, I've thrown myself a little more backwards than on the side — you sort of personalize your stretches according to how your muscles are feeling. So you stretch backwards, do this a few times, and you come back to position. You go into the downward dog and make sure you're breathing correctly, you go into the Bhujangasana if you want to rest it out a little bit — make sure that you're not putting too much pressure on your wrist, you need to understand how to balance your weight out, which you will understand in time.

Now we're going to do a little different version. You start again with your downward dog, kick your right leg up, you place your right leg forward, right elbow on your right knee, and stretch completely the left side of your body, and if it is possible try to place your right palm on the ground, and again you cartwheel back, you try to bend as much as possible, you go again back to the ground and back to the downward dog. Now we're going to explain the breathing — you inhale, all right, you place yourself and exhale, and again when you're moving to the other side, try to hold your breath and make sure your breathing is slow and deep, and again you inhale and bend backwards, and as you come down go all the way to the ground, exhale and stretch as much as possible. Again you do a deep inhale and you come back to position, exhale, and you can move into the Bhujangasana and remember to go into balasana to relax.

So these two sequences are something I put together because it works for me, I hope it works for you as well, but a lot of people ask me what do you mean by a healthy food and healthy lifestyle. Let me talk about food and flexibility — it's very important to keep your body clean, try to eat food that is less cooked, steamed, and don't eat food that is fried too much, because oil and everything takes a long time for your body to digest, and especially nowadays we have a lot of preservatives in our food, so try to avoid all your instant noodles and instant food and your chips and pretty much ketchup and everything that has preservatives in it. You can try to avoid meat, because they say red meat sort of like takes a big toll on your muscle flexibility, so try to stick to a vegetarian diet, try to stick to fresh fruit, and I'm sure that you could see a much, much like a very big difference in your flexibility.

Okay, we're going to be sequencing some asanas that's going to enhance your flexibility, take care.