Yoga for Mobility & Flexibility

Hi, welcome to Yoga & You. My name is Joshna, and today's video we're going to see how can we keep our joints healthy. This is suitable for beginners, and this is level one of the series. When I consider a joint, it's the most important structure of our body. Let's say when you grow up from a kid towards becoming an older person — when you're a kid your joints are much more mobile compared to when you're growing up. Why is that? Because during our growth we have a lot of lifestyle issues because of wrong posture and the work we do and the stress we have, these joints become really tight and it's very difficult for them to move. That's why we have all these problems when we grow old — we have knee pain, we have back pain, we have shoulder pain.

So to really address this we have to start from scratch, we have to address the joints. So what are the joints we have in our body? Like, what is a joint? Joint is nothing but a bone connecting to another bone. So wherever there is a bone connecting to the other one, it's the joint. So let's say in our fingers — we will start with that. So we have joints in our fingers.

So first, start with — you're going to stretch your arms forward. Nicely open the fingers as much as you can and slowly make a fist, close it — keep your thumb outside. Now again, inhale, you open your fingers as much as you can, palms are open; exhale, you make a fist, now bring your thumb inside. So you're going to do this continuously — open, and the thumb can be outside for the first one, and open with the thumb inside. We'll do this one more time — open with the thumb inside, and open with the thumb outside. So now we already feel a nice stretch in your finger joints.

And now the next joint we're going to work on is our wrist. So now we can just use the same position to start our wrist warm-up. Now draw your palms towards the floor as much as you can, fingers pointing towards the floor. Now as you inhale you lift it up, make sure your palms nicely open and open in your wrist. So this kind of a right angle is very important — you see how much you can go. Now exhale, drop it down, so your fingers are pointing down. Inhale, you lift it up as much as you can. We'll use one more time — drop it down, and inhale lift it up, exhale relax.

So we can also add one more to this wrist — we can come on all fours. So when you keep your palms on the floor, your knees are directly below your hips. So you just gently move your shoulders to the side — to the left, go forward, go towards your right and go back; and to your left, forward, to your right and back. Do the opposite side — to the right, forward and to the left and back. Three times — forward, left and back — last one, right, forward, left and back. Very nice. So that's for your wrist.

So the next joint we're going to work on is our elbows. Elbows is again — if you want to lift a heavy object, you're using the elbow joint. So the forearm strength was very important for your elbow joint. If your forearm is not stronger, then your elbows can also become weaker and you feel pain in your elbows eventually. So we will try to use a block, because this is not really heavy — you can use the blocks, the blocks like this. As you exhale, you bend with your blocks facing towards your face, but don't drop your elbows down — try and lift your elbows in line with your shoulders and slowly stretch your palms out. Exhale, slowly you bend. Inhale, slowly stretch. Focus on keeping the elbows in line with your shoulders — the moment it goes down, you are not using the strength of your arms. Exhale, bend, and inhale, stretch. If that's difficult for you to hold the blocks, you can keep it — you can use your hands to bend and stretch. The blocks will challenge you a little bit to make your arms a little stronger, and as you exhale, drop your hands down.

The next thing we're going to work on is our shoulders, and see what all we can do with our shoulders. So the shoulder joint is a very mobile joint, because you see we use our arms to reach anywhere we want — we can reach up, we can reach in the front, we can reach to the sides. So the shoulder, it's a ball and socket joint, it can move in different directions. So what we can do — you can sit in any comfortable position, either cross-leg position or sit on a chair. So first, you shrug your shoulders towards your ears and drop it down. Inhale, you take your shoulders up. Exhale, drop it down. Inhale one more time. Take your shoulders up. Exhale, drop it down. Last time, inhale, and slowly drop it down.

Now you have to make the shoulders move forward and backward as well. So round your — so you're going to push the shoulder blades away, round your shoulders and push the shoulder blades together, opening your chest. This way, you actually work on the shoulder muscles and help the shoulder joint to be more flexible and also more stronger. So keep — if you want, you can keep your hands, fingers on your shoulders. Exhale, you round your upper back, bring your elbows together. Inhale, you open up, chest open. Exhale again, you round your upper back, bring your elbows closer. Inhale, you open up. Open as much as you can, chest open. Last one — exhale, you round your upper back, touch your elbows together. Inhale, slowly open up. Now exhale, relax.

So we are going to combine all of this together and we're going to do a nice shoulder rotation. So push the shoulders forward, lift it up to your ears, push it back away from the ears and down towards the floor. So that's one. Let's do it three times — one, forward, up, back. So continuous breathing, don't hold your breath. Last time, up, back and down. Let's do the other side — push back, one, up, forward and down. Two, back, up, forward, down. Three, back, up, forward and down. Fantastic.

So now we've worked with all the joints in our upper body, up until your shoulders. The next major joint we come to — the spine. A spine is like a stack of vertebrae on top of each other, and every part of the spine has a little bit of mobility. So if you look at all your back bends or forward bends, your sideward bends or twisting, it all comes from your spine. So attempting it slowly at your own pace will help you to loosen up in the long run.

So let's start from sideward bends. So you can keep your block on either side of you. You're going to keep your elbow — so make sure this block — if you don't have a block, it's okay, you can use a cushion or something higher to elevate the surface. You keep it next to your hips so that your spine is in one plane, and you drop your right elbow on the block and lift your left arm to the sky. Now as you exhale, you're going to bring your left arm to your ears and go as deep as you can. Inhale, you lift your left arm up. Exhale one more time. Inhale, come back up. Let's do this last time — exhale, you go towards your ears. Now keep looking forward; if you feel the neck is difficult for you to keep like this, look down. Keep breathing — five breaths. Four, three, two, and inhale, slowly come back up.

So this video is done for absolute beginners. So if you have never practiced yoga before, this is perfect for you. If you have practiced before and you want to make it a little bit more advanced, you can remove the block and go down to the floor directly. So I'm going to keep my elbow on the block, palms facing down, and as you inhale, lift your right hand up. Exhale, bring it towards your ears. So you see a nice stretch in your torso. Inhale, come up. Exhale, inhale one more time and exhale. So here, if you feel comfortable, you can stay for five breaths or ten breaths, up to you, however much time you have. Take a few deep breaths here and slowly inhale and slowly lift yourself up and back to center. So that's your side bend.

So let's try a forward bend. So you're going to take a block in front of you and place it directly in front of your knees. Now if this position is not comfortable, you can just relax your legs and sit in any comfortable position. I want you to reach your arms to the block. If the block is not possible — why are we using the block? I don't want you to round the back, because in the beginning, when you're doing forward folds, most of us have the tendency to round the back. I want you to keep your back as straight as possible and just push the block forward as much as you can, drop your head down. Inhale, you pull the block back towards you, lift your chest up. Exhale again, go forward and down, stretching as much as you can. Inhale, you come back up. If you don't have a block, you can use like a water bottle or a book, but you have to really push the book away. So exhale, go down. Stay here — let's say three breaths — see how much you can stretch your back, and inhale, you come back up. Fantastic.

Now we did a forward bend, we did a sideward bend, we're going to do a twisting. So for this, I want you to keep your block behind your back — one block behind your back, the other block right next to your knee. So if you don't have two, you can just use your knee to place. So take your left hand, place it on the block. Your right hand — you can use your right hand to press into the block and lift yourself up. So don't really round your back, try and lift your chest up. Open your right shoulder, twist back. If you don't have a block, place your hands on the floor, but don't lean into the floor — sit upright. Five, four — deep breaths, please — three, two, now as you inhale, you will come back to the center. Exhale, you can take this block on the other side, your right hand towards the block, your left hand behind on the block there, but lift yourself up, chest open, look over your left shoulder. One, two, three, four, and inhale, slowly release the block and come back. So we did a twisting as well.

Now we have to do a backward bend. So I'm going to show you from the side, so you have a better understanding of what's going on. So you're going to keep the blocks facing your spine — I want to lean into the block with my fingers. If this is difficult, you can change the arm position like this. First I'll show you this way. Now you're going to just lift your chest up, lift your head up, look up. Exhale, back to neutral spine. Inhale, push your chest forward, keep your arms straight, don't bend your elbows — then there is no point of doing this stretch. Lift it up, arch your back, exhale and back. Last time, inhale, lift your chest, push forward and stay for three breaths. If you have a kind of a dizzy feeling, just keep your chin to your chest but keep pushing your chest forward. If you're comfortable, then drop your head back. Now exhale, you come back and relax the blocks. If that's comfortable for you, you can use your hands in this position — that will help both your wrist and shoulders and the back together. So try and straighten your arms and lift your chest up. Do as much as you can, don't really push yourself.

Now we've finished all the spinal movements — the backward bend, forward bend, twisting. The next joint we're going to look at is your hip joint. When I say hip joint, that's where your thighs are joining your hip bone. So for this, we have to do certain movements — because it's a beginner's video, I'm going to make it even more simple for you guys. So please lie down on the floor, make sure you keep your legs slightly apart, and you're going to bend your right knee. When you bend your right knee, you bring your palms on top of it, interlock your fingers, press the knee towards your chest and exhale. Inhale, slowly stretch your right leg out. Now exhale — this works not just on your hips but also on your knees, both joints get activated. Inhale, you stretch it back up. One more time, exhale, bend your knee. Inhale, you stretch it out again. Exhale, bend your left knee. Inhale, stretch it out, and we're going to do this last time holding the posture and breathing normally. See if you're comfortable here — if your lower back is touching the floor, you keep your eyes closed. Take five breaths.

Now you're going to slowly stretch your right leg out and bend your left leg. Hug your left leg towards your chest. Keep breathing, see how free your breath is. Make your breath long and stable, don't be in a hurry to breathe. Relax and let go of all that you're holding on to. As you inhale, stretch it out. That's comfortable — I want you to bend and hug your knees to your chest. Keep your chin down — majority of us, we'll try to lift our head up because it's not very comfortable for us, but consciously bring your chin towards your chest and press your knees down. For now, you can keep your knees slightly open — that's comfortable, or you can bring your knees together, but find out where you are and do it with that. Two more breaths here, and slowly moving on to the last joint, the ankle and your fingertips.

So you can hold your legs halfway bent and point your toes, flex your toes, point your toes, flex your toes, point your toes, flex your toes, point, flex, point and flex, and do a nice circle. So you're going to imagine you're drawing a circle with your big toe, and you feel this muscle, the calf muscles, all activating. And do the other side as well. One, two and three. Good.

Now slowly drop your feet on the floor, and you're going to finish off with a combination of all the joints' mobility. Take your hands to the sides. Now drop both your knees to one side — your right leg will come close, right knee will come close to your left heel, your left knee will go to the floor. If you can't keep it on the floor, put a block, place your leg on top of it, and slowly turn your head to the opposite side. If you're going to the left side, you turn your head to your right. Stay for three, two, and inhale you come back up. Exhale the other side, turn your head to your left, breathe out as much as you can. Three, two, and inhale you come back up.

Now you're going to slowly keep your feet together and drop your knees to the sides. If you have a cushion or a pillow, you can put it on the sides of your knee and let your knees be supported by the pillow, and you close your eyes. You want to stay here for 15 breaths before we finish the practice. So in this posture, you can feel your groin is nicely stretched, your knees are flexed, your back is fully on the floor, and you will start relaxing every joint. You can keep your hands on your thighs or anywhere you feel it's comfortable. Now focus on deep breaths — inhale for three seconds, exhale for three seconds. Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale and exhale. You can continue lying down in this position for the next 10 to 15 breaths. Once you've finished that, you drop your knees together, turn towards one side, towards your right or left, and slowly sit up.

So that's a full video for you guys to do a joint mobility, especially for beginners, and you don't have to worry about "I've never done any kind of movement practice before or yoga before" — this will be useful for anybody, any age group can practice this. Just make sure, if there is any discomfort, to breathe into that — so when you keep breathing, you feel more relaxed and more present in that moment. Thanks for watching. This is Yoga & You, and I'm Joshna.