Yoga for Fatigue & Low Energy

Hi everyone, I'm Sanjana Prasad, welcome to Yoga & You. Fatigue has become such a familiar word for all of us today, whether it's mental fatigue or physical fatigue, all of us go through it. The kind of movement that you do when you're fatigued can either leave you feeling refreshed and relaxed or can drain you even further. Yoga is a movement practice that is both relaxing and energizing, mainly because of the breath component. Every movement is associated with a breath cue, and the breath is kept long and smooth, so your heart rate is not speeding up, and this leaves you feeling refreshed and relaxed even after a very challenging practice.

So let's begin today's yoga for relieving fatigue. So we're going to start on all fours today, coming onto your knees, in a nice table top position. Let's start with a few rounds of simple cat and camel. So tuck the toes on the mat and inhale, lift your chest up, exhale, draw your belly in, chin down towards your collarbone. Inhale, open up, exhale, rounding your back, one more time. Inhale, lift up, exhale, round your back.

Inhale, one more time, you're going to arch your back, keep the toes tucked, and as you exhale, see if you can keep your back arched and sit back onto your heels. Inhale, moving forward, your back remains arched here, slowly sit back as you exhale. Inhale forward, one last time. Exhale, let your spine open up, chest open up, energizing, and moving forward, exhale, round your back, you repeat the same thing. Exhale, round and sit back just countering that back arch, move forward. Exhale, inhale, one last time. Exhale, and inhale.

All right, relax, you're going to walk your palms forward, slowly, slowly, without moving your hips, your hips stay in the same position. Try to get your chest down, chin down. Slowly walking your palms back, sit back in child's pose.

Moving forward again into table top, sliding your right arm in between your palm and your knee, slide the left arm forward, twist and open the chest. Coming back to center, repeating to the other side, sliding your left arm down and opening up the chest. Slowly coming back to center, inhale, look forward, arch your back, tuck your toes, exhale into downward dog. Inhale, move forward to a plank. Exhale, drop the knees down, chest and body completely down to the floor.

Keeping your palms by the side of the chest, inhale, lift the head up, chest up. Exhale, go down. Inhale, lift up. Exhale down. Inhale, lift up. Exhale, go down. Exhale, sit back into child's pose. Keep your fingertips on the mat, go all the way down, chin down, stay there.

Moving forward again, look forward, arch your back, tuck your toes, and move your hips back into downward dog. Inhale, move to plank. Exhale once again, knees down, chest and chin down. This time, interlocking your fingers behind the back, allowing your arms to move away from the spine. Imagine someone is holding your hands and lifting you up. Inhale, lift the head up, chest up. Exhale, two more, inhale. Exhale, move with your breath. Inhale, exhale, palms by the side of the chest. Exhale, sit back in child's pose. This time moving your arms back, holding onto your heels. So you need your arms further again.

Inhale, look forward, arch your back, tuck your toes, exhaling to downward dog. We're focusing on opening up the chest. Backbends help you to energize, then you alternate them with downward dog and child's pose to relax.

One last time, inhale, move forward to plank. Exhale, knees down, chest and chin down. This time you move into Dhanurasana, bending your knees, holding your ankles. Allow the big toes to touch each other. Roll your shoulders back, start by initiating the movement from your feet. So allow the feet to move up into your palms, away up, up, up, up, up. Exhale, and come down, releasing your legs. Exhale, and sit back in child's pose. This time resting your forehead onto your palms.

Breathe, stretching your hands forward again. Inhale, look forward, arch your back, tuck your toes, exhale, downward dog. Draw your belly in as much as you can in downward dog, allowing your lower spine to stretch a bit. Slowly drop your knees down, coming down into Dhanurasana. If this is uncomfortable for you, you can slide a cushion underneath your butt or underneath the knees. Inhale, lift your arms up. Exhale, you're going to start by twisting to the right side, just to release your back after all of those backbends. Inhale up. Exhale, twist. One more time. Inhale, arms up. Exhale, twist. Inhale up. Exhale, twist. Inhale up. Exhale. Interlock your fingers. Inhale, open, just exhale one last time. Child's pose, opening up the shoulders. Inhale, and slowly come up. Release your fingers. Release the legs.

Stretch your legs forward and very slowly lie down on your mat with your knees bent. You're going to lift your right leg, place it on top of the left. Move your arms to shoulder level, and as you exhale, drop both knees to the left side, as close as you can to the elbow, and turn your head to the right. Inhale, back to center. Switch your legs. Exhale, drop towards the right elbow. Turn your head to the left. Inhale, come back to center. Releasing your legs, hug both knees into the chest. Bring your head up to the knee — Pavanamuktasana. Gently bring your head down. Turn to one side and you're going to sit up.

We're going to finish our practice with just a few rounds of Nadi Shodhana. So you can use your right palm in Vishnu mudra. Start by closing your right nostril with your thumb. Inhale into the left nostril. Close both nostrils. Exhale right. Inhale right. Hold, exhale left. Inhale left. Hold, exhale right. Inhale right. Hold, exhale left. Inhale left. Hold, exhale right. Inhale right. Hold, exhale left.

Slowly bring your palm down and open your eyes. We've done only three rounds here, but you can do six to twelve rounds to really feel the calmness and also the energy at the same time. You can also finish your practice with Bhramari, which gives a very calming, introspecting effect. I really hope you enjoyed today's video. I'll catch you in another episode of Yoga & You. Thank you so much. Namaste.