Strength Building

Hi guys, I hope you have been following me through my journey. Well, I don't know about you guys, but I definitely feel a lot more flexible and a lot stronger. Like I told you, I took a three month break, so I'm as new as a beginner, just like you guys doing yoga. And over the past five days, I could see a tremendous difference, especially in my energy levels, my flexibility, stamina and strength.

Today, of course, we're going to be sequencing some strength-enhancing asanas, and I'm going to sequence it into a flow so that it's easier for you to follow as a regime. Well, although this is a weight loss video, we're going to be focusing a little bit on balance, because balance is good for the mind and, of course, it's good for the asanas that are going to come up in the power yoga sequence. So we're going to begin with a little bit of balancing asanas and then we're going to sequence our strength-enhancing asanas. I hope you've done your warm-ups and, most importantly, your breathing exercises. I hope you're ready.

We're going to begin with Tadasana, which is the mountain pose. Keep your spine straight and stand on your toes. If you find it difficult to balance, just try to find a straight line and focus on it, and you'll be able to achieve it.

Now we're going to go to the Vrikshasana, the one-legged tree pose. Take your right feet and place it on your left thigh, find your balance. If you find it hard, you can always put your arms out — you'll automatically find your balance if your arms are out and your spine is straight. Slowly take your arms up, and you could always bring it down and stay this way. Try to focus on a straight line and you'll automatically get your balance. You could also hold the Anjali Mudra, the reverse namaskar, which is very good for your posture.

Now we're going to turn it around and see how to do this. You take your time, slowly place your left feet on your right thigh, hold your arms out and slowly bring both your palms behind and hold them together. Chin up, stand straight and try to stay this way for at least 20 seconds, and remember the slower you breathe, the better balance you get. You can keep shifting your hand gestures to make it sort of a flow, and you could personalize it.

Now we're going to do the Natarajasana. You hold your left feet with your left hand and slowly bend forward, balancing on your right leg. Try to focus on a particular point and you'll be able to find your balance. Now let's try to do this on the other side. So you turn around and you hold your right feet with your right hand, put your entire balance on your left leg and stretch out. You know, we all have a good side, and mine clearly is my right side, but you need to keep working until you get equal amount of strength on both your sides. So again, you hold your left feet with your left hand, put your entire weight on your right leg and stretch, and stay in this asana for at least 20 seconds, and I'm sure a lot of people can do a lot better than that.

I always try to do my forward and my backward bends because it helps me to keep my muscles stretched out. Going to now sequence strength-enhancing asanas which involves the sideward plank. So always start with Balasana, take a little bit of time to focus and just prepare yourself for what you're going to be doing next.

We're going to begin with the Bhujangasana. Make sure that you achieve all the asanas properly and correctly stretch as much as you can in Bhujangasana. Slowly and gracefully move into the downward dog, kick your right leg up, bring it forward, shift your entire body weight to your left side and throw your right arm backwards. You bring it back, move into the plank, stay this way for 20 seconds, and again you move into the Bhujangasana, and now we're going to do this on the other side. So you go again to your downward dog, take your time, kick your left leg up. You bring it front, shift your body weight to your right side, throw your left arm backwards and stay for at least 10 seconds. You bring your arm back to the ground, move into the plank for 20 seconds and move into the Bhujangasana.

We did half the sideward plank, and now we're going to do the full sideward plank, which is going to be a bit hard, so make sure you rotate your wrist as often as possible and try to understand your body weight and balance it accordingly. It's going to take a little bit of a while for you to get used to this, but you know you need to keep trying.

So we begin now with the Bhujangasana, take your time, do the asanas correctly and then move into the downward dog, kick your right leg up, bring it forward, we do the same thing, put your entire weight on the left side and try to bring your right leg on your left and just stay. For most people, like me, the left side is a little more weaker than the right side, so let's do this on the right side and see how this works out. Bhujangasana, swan asana, stretch it out, kick your left feet out, bring it front, twist, put your body weight on your right side and slowly bring your left leg on your right and stay for at least 20 seconds. Don't push it if you're doing it for the first time, try to do this slowly. You move back into the plank, or you can move into Balasana to relax it out. Do this at least five times.

Well, this sequence could be specifically stressful on the wrist, so make sure you don't push it too much, make sure you don't break your wrist. Enjoy yourself, give yourself enough breaks, and remember, if it's very difficult for you to achieve an asana or achieve anything that you're trying to do, close your eyes, just inhale and exhale at least three times. If you're good at chanting, om chant, om, focus on yourself, and I'm sure you'll be able to achieve it.

Stay positive, stay healthy, bye bye.