Yoga for Periods

Hi everyone, I'm Yoga & You Teaching Faculty. Welcome to Yoga & You.

If you are wondering if it is safe for you to practice yoga during your period, it is absolutely safe to do so, provided that you are very, very comfortable and ready to get into your practice. During your period, your Apana Vayu, which helps with elimination, is extremely active and there is a lot of work already happening around your lower abdomen. So the goal of your practice is not to challenge and push yourself but to help to release and relax your hips, your lower back and your lower abdomen. Let's get started with today's flow.

You're going to come on to all fours first, your knees in line with your hips, wrists in line with your shoulders, into a nice, stable table top. We're going to do a cat and camel stretch, but slightly more isolated, so you're going to focus on releasing every vertebra. So let's start from the lower back. As you inhale, start releasing from the lower back, mid back, upper back, and finally you lift the chin up. Exhale, start rounding from the lower back, mid back, upper back, dropping the chin down, all the way down to the collarbone.

Let's do this two more times. Inhale from the lower back, mid back, upper back, lift the head up, chest up. Exhale, start rounding from the lower spine, moving up, finally chin drops down towards your collarbone. Last one. Inhale, opening up, vertebra by vertebra. Just enjoy this movement. Exhale, finally the chin drops down.

Next, inhale, you come to a neutral spine, keep your big toes touching each other, open out your knees slightly. As you exhale, sit back into child's pose, stretch your arms forward, head down. Inhale, move forward, lift the chest up. Exhale, sit back, child's pose. Inhale, move forward, open up. Exhale, sit back, child's pose. Inhale, move forward, lift the chest up. Let's stay here for three, two and one.

Coming to a neutral spine, on your next exhalation, you're going to bring your right foot forward in between your palms. If you need a little bit of support here, we can use two blocks — it gives you a little bit of elevation to stay up. As you exhale, shift back. Inhale, lunge forward, one more time. Exhale, shift back. Inhale, lunge forward, lifting the chest up. From here, your palms stay on the block next to you, lifting your left arm up, bend over to the right side.

Coming back up to the block, use the blocks for support. Step back into table top. Exhale, step the left foot forward between your palms. Lunging forward, lifting the chest up. Exhale, shift back, lift the toes. Try to get the chest down towards the thigh. Inhale, lift the chest up. Exhale, go down. Inhale, lift the chest up. Moving the block closer to you, lift your right arm up, bend over. Inhale, back up. Palms on the block. Shift back into table top position. You can let go of the blocks.

Tuck your toes. Exhale into downward dog. Start to pedal the feet here, just releasing your hips. Keep your feet hip width apart so you have enough space. Let's do this a few times. Then when you're ready, lift both your heels up. Exhale and settle into downward dog.

Two breaths here. Stepping forward, this time outside of your palms — right foot outside the right palm, left foot outside the left palm. You're going to come into a nice deep squat, Malasana. Use your palms at the center of the chest. Elbows pushing into the knees, lifting the chest up.

Take your hands forward and slowly allow your hips to settle into the mat. From here, you're going to open your legs out, using the blocks in front of you for support. Inhale, lift your arms up. Exhale, fold forward, resting your forehead on the block. Adjust the block's position according to your comfort. Let's stay there for just a breath. Inhale and come up. Exhale, hands down, bringing your feet together.

Paschimottanasana. Lifting your arms up again. Exhale, fold forward. Here again, we don't want to put too much pressure on the abdomen, so you're going to keep it nice and open. Chin down, just this much to give you a little bit of stretch in your lower back, at the same time not pushing into the abdomen too much. Couple of breaths here. Interlock your fingers, inhale, stretch up. Keep your arms up. Round your back gently and see if you can go all the way down to the floor. Exhale and bring your arms down.

On your next exhalation, you're going to bend your right knee, hug the knee into the chest. Use your left hand on the knee to gently drop the knee towards the left side. Turn and look at your right fingertips. Inhale, come back to center. Hug the knee again. Next inhalation, stretch the leg forward.

Exhale, hugging the left knee into the chest. Using your right palm, dropping the knee to the right side. Turn and look at the left side. Make sure your shoulder is not coming off — pressing it into the floor. Inhale back to center. Hug the knee. Next inhalation, stretch the leg forward again.

From here, you're going to bring the soles of your feet together in a Baddha Konasana position. To support your knees, we can slide two blocks underneath the knees this way. Inhale, lift your arms above the head or keep them tucked underneath your head. Keep the chest open and breathe into the belly. Let's do five breaths here.

Slowly bringing your knees in together, hug both knees into the chest. Stay here, rocking side to side, giving a gentle massage to your spine. And as you rock forward and back, forward and back, forward the next time you're going to sit up.

For the next one, we're going to use the help of a bolster. If you don't have a bolster, you can also use pillows stacked one on top of each other. I'm going to move the bolster to my back, touching my lower back, hold onto the bolster, stay in a comfortable cross leg posture, slowly recline onto the bolster, keep my chest nice and open, and allow my hands to relax. So here, my hips are opened up. My belly is nice and open and stretching. My lower back is supported and comfortable. So all the areas that need a little bit of work when you're on your period are getting enough support.

Close your eyes and focus on your breath. Breathing into the belly. Once you're done with five breaths, bring your knees together. Very gently roll to the right side. Use the support of your left hand as you come up into a comfortable cross leg posture.

You can finish your practice with the gentle practice of Nadi Shodhana, which is a balancing pranayama. You can also do a cooling pranayama like Sheetali or Sitkari, followed by Bhramari.

I really hope you enjoyed today's flow. I'm Yoga & You Teaching Faculty, for Yoga & You.