Bed Yoga for Seniors: Gentle Full-Body Routine

Hi everyone, welcome to Yoga & You. I'm Sanjana Prasad, sharing the joy of yoga from its birthplace India with the world. Let's move, breathe and grow together. Today's practice is especially for senior citizens, and this is a practice that can be done completely lying down. So it's very helpful on those days where it's kind of hard to get off the bed, or you're feeling like extremely stiff, when you want to move a little bit before you start your day.

We're gonna be doing a very gentle flow. There is no need to rush, no need to push yourself. If you're finding it too challenging to keep up with my counts, you can even maybe like note down the practice and follow it at your comfortable pace, okay? And take all the support that you need. Your comfort comes before any kind of challenge or pushing yourself in the practice, okay? Let's get started.

We're going to lie down comfortably. Before you lie down, if you have a yoga strap, you can keep it ready with you. If not for yoga strap, a towel which is slightly long or a dupatta will really help you and assist you in this practice. Go ahead, lie down comfortably on the back, ideally without the pillow, so that you're completely lying flat. But if you feel like, no, my neck is uncomfortable, you need that support — go ahead and use it. Maybe it's something a little flatter so that you can still maintain the alignment of the spine.

Now from there, we're just gonna bring awareness to the toes. All I want you to do is kind of curl the toes and relax the toes. That's it, simple, let's go. Exhale and curl the toes, inhale and relax. Exhale and curl, inhale. Exhale, inhale, exhale. Inhale, three more. Exhale, inhale. Last two, exhale, inhale. One last time, exhale, inhale.

Same movement for your fingers. So now you can turn the palms towards the ceiling. From there, exhale and fist your hands, inhale and relax the fingers. Exhale and fist the hands, slightly tight, inhale and relax. Exhale and fist the hands, inhale and relax, three. Exhale and fist the hands, inhale and relax, four. Exhale and fist, inhale and relax. Last one, exhale and inhale, relax.

Now, going back towards the ankles, you can bring your legs a little closer to each other. We're gonna do some simple ankle rotations, but what I want you to try and do is cover the full range of motion. So when you're doing this, try to flex the ankle and then point through the ankles, okay? Let's go, one, two. Do it very gently, enjoy the movement. Three, four, five, six, opposite direction. One, two, three, four, five, six, super.

Extend both your arms towards the ceiling. Fist your hands, same way — wrist rotations. One, two, three, four, five, six. Opposite direction, one, two, three, four, five, six. Release the hands, relax.

Now we're going to bend the knees, place the feet — here I'm on the mat, if you're on the bed, on the bed. Simple movement here, we're just going to try to extend the right knee up and down. You notice I'm not taking it up to the ceiling, just diagonally. So my leg is here, just in line with the knee and down. That's it. If this feels too challenging, you can even slide the leg down towards the bed and bend the knee again, like you're sliding it forward and dragging it back. If that feels accessible and you're very comfortable, from here you're just going to inhale and extend the leg, exhale and bend.

We'll alternate this one, inhale and extend, exhale, bend. Inhale, extend, exhale, inhale, exhale. Try to straighten the knee as much as you can. It's a very gentle way of developing control and strength through your legs also when you're trying to extend. Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, exhale, last one, inhale, exhale. Left side, inhale and exhale.

So same thing, we're going to try it with the arms. You're going to extend the arms up towards the ceiling, but we'll turn the palms towards the back wall. From here, exhale and bend your elbows, lift the elbows up as much as you can. Inhale and straighten it out. One, exhale and bend, inhale and up, two, exhale and bend. Inhale, up, three, exhale and bend. Inhale and up, four, exhale and bend. Inhale, up, five, exhale and bend. Inhale and up, six. Release the hand.

Now you have two options. You can do this with legs straight or with legs bent. I'll show you both variations. With your legs straight, what we're going to do, as you exhale, you're going to hug the right knee into the chest, inhale and relax. Exhale, hug the left knee into the chest, inhale and relax. But sometimes when you're practicing this, some people do find a little bit of discomfort around the hips or the lower back. In that case, you can do the same movement with knees bent. So it will look like this, with the feet on the bed. Exhale, hug the right knee into the chest. Inhale, foot back on the mat. Knees bent. Exhale, left knee. Inhale, down. So choose which one feels more comfortable. Exhale, hug the right. Inhale and relax. Exhale, left. Inhale, relax. Exhale, right. Inhale and relax. Exhale, left. Inhale and relax. Exhale, right. Inhale and relax. Exhale, left. Inhale, relax. Last one. Exhale, right.

Now you're going to keep the thigh close to the chest, okay? Legs will stay as it is. On your next exhalation, see if you can bring the forehead up to the knee. Inhale and relax. Exhale, come up. Inhale, relax. Exhale, up. Inhale, relax. Exhale, come up. Inhale, relax. Last one. Exhale, up. Inhale, relax. Release the right leg down.

Exhale and hug the left knee into the chest. Thigh will remain as it is. Exhale, forehead up. Inhale and relax. Exhale and lift up. Inhale, relax. Exhale, up. Inhale, down. Last two. No straining in the neck. If you feel that strain, you can just hug the knee to the chest and stay there instead of the neck movement. Exhale, up. Inhale, down. Last one. Exhale, up. Inhale and down.

This time you keep the left knee bent and bring the foot down to the bed. Once again, right knee to the chest. We're just going to do a simple movement. Only a right palm is going to rest on the right knee. Left hand can remain down or it can rest on the left leg. Then you're just drawing circles with this right leg. You're just going to take the knee out forward center. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Opposite direction. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Slowly bring the right foot down.

Left leg. Bring the left knee close to you. Use the support of the left hand to guide the knee. Drawing circles. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Opposite direction. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Come back to center. Now hug both knees to the chest. Gently rock side to side. One. Two. Again, only if this feels good for you. Three. Four. Five.

Just one time, we're going to try to wrap the arms around the leg. Exhale, bring your forehead up towards the knee. Three. Two. One. Inhale and slowly come back down. It's called Pavana Muktasana. It gives good compression to the belly. So any discomfort around the belly, if you have any gas issues, it can really help with that. Then you're going to slowly bring your feet down to the mat.

Now you notice that there could be a slight gap between your lower back and the mat. Your back could be arching. We're just going to practice a simple technique from here. We're just going to try and press the lower back to the floor. Inhale and relax. Come to neutral. Exhale and press to the floor. Inhale and relax. Exhale and press to the floor. Inhale, relax. Exhale and press to the floor. We're practicing a pelvic tilt to get some control and relaxation for the lower back. Inhale and relax.

Exhale, now you press to the floor. Keep the position, pressing to the floor. Very gently press into your feet. You can use the support of your hands also to gently lift the hips up. Exhale down. You'll notice it's not going fully up like a bridge pose. It's called Setu Bandhasana Kriya. We're trying to just release the lower back. So again, press the lower back to the floor. Keeping that position, gently lift the hips up. Exhale down. Inhale up. Exhale down. Inhale up. Exhale down. Inhale up. Exhale down. Inhale up. Exhale down. Inhale, exhale, last two. Inhale up. Exhale, one last time. Inhale, lift up. Exhale and down.

From here, you'll need your strap or dupatta. The legs can be bent. You take the strap or your dupatta and see if you can loop it around your foot. From here, you start to straighten the leg up towards the ceiling. Start walking your hand a little higher on the strap and see if you can start bringing the thigh closer and closer to the chest. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Release. Switch to the other side. Loop the strap around the left foot. Take the leg up. Walk as close as it's comfortable for you. Start bringing the leg towards you. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Gently release the strap. Relax.

Now, I want you to bring the soles of your feet together. You'll be in a butterfly position. Since you're on a bed, you can grab two pillows and also stack the pillows underneath your thigh so that you don't feel like the stretch is too intense. From here, palms on the thighs. Inhale and lift your arms up. Exhale and bring the palms back to the thighs. You can even close your eyes and practice this. Inhale and take your arms up. Exhale and come back. Inhale arms up. Exhale and come back. Inhale arms up. Exhale and come back. Inhale arms up. Exhale and come back.

Bring your knees together. Open your arms out. Shoulder level on the bed. Simply drop your knees towards the right side. Turn your head to the left. If this feels comfortable, when you come to center, you can bring the feet a little closer to you. Drop the knees to the left. Turn the head to the right. Inhale center. Exhale to the right. Inhale center. Exhale to the left. Inhale center. Exhale right and turn your head to the opposite side. Inhale center. Exhale to the left. Inhale center. Exhale to the right. Inhale center. Exhale to the left. Last one. Inhale center. Exhale to the right. Inhale center. Exhale to the left. Come back to center.

Extend both your legs forward. Bring your arms down by the sides of the body. Close your eyes. You can practice a few rounds of Bhramari Pranayama lying down so you can inhale through the nose and as you exhale, you produce a humming sound. If that feels a bit challenging for you to do lying down, simply relax completely in your Shavasana.

So that was a practice for senior citizens, fully lying down on the bed, very gentle relaxing practice. The last part of the practice, Bhramari Pranayama, we have practiced Bhramari before and we will be sharing or linking that video so that you can add that to your practice. If it feels comfortable for you to do lying down, or you can simply do some deep breaths, four counts inhale, four counts exhale, and completely relax in your Shavasana. I hope this video benefits you. Definitely try it out and comment and let us know how you feel. Thank you.