Yoga for Weight Management

Hi everyone, welcome to Yoga & You. I'm Sanjana Prasad. Today we're going to be practicing a yoga flow that's going to be super active, dynamic. It's going to help you burn some calories but leave you feeling super energized. Let's get into the practice.

We're going to start off in a tabletop position. You want to stack your hips over your knees, shoulders over the wrists, spread the fingers out nicely. From here, as you inhale, you're going to lift the chest up, arch the back. It's going to warm up through the spine. Exhale, draw the belly in, round your back. Inhale, lift the chest up, arch the back. Exhale, round your back, two. Inhale, lift the chest up, arch the back. Exhale, round your back, three. Inhale, and arch the back. Exhale, and round your back, four. Inhale, arch your back. Exhale, round your back, five. Now slowly come back to a neutral position.

We're going to invite some heat and some strength to the body by just tucking the toes, lifting your knees an inch off the mat, and staying there. One, two, keep pushing the floor away. Three, draw the belly in, four, and five. Drop the knees down. Relax here for a few seconds.

You're going to bring your knees closer to each other. Inhale, and you're going to lift the right leg up, arch the back. Exhale, try to bring the knee towards the elbow. Inhale, lift the leg up. Now you're going to bring the knee towards the forehead, round your back. Inhale and lift the right leg up. Exhale, right knee to the left elbow. Slowly bring the right knee down. Let's repeat this to the other side. Inhale and left leg up. Exhale, knee to the left elbow. Inhale, left leg up. Exhale and knee towards the forehead. Inhale and lift the left leg up. Exhale, left knee to the right elbow. Slowly bring the knee down.

Now we're going to repeat this, but we're going to try and hold it. Inhale, lift the right leg up. Exhale, knee to the elbow. Stay there. Three, two, one. Inhale, lift up. Exhale, knee to the forehead. Stay, three, two, one. Inhale, up. Exhale, right knee to the left elbow. Three, two, one. Drop the knee down. You should be feeling a good activation in the abdomen. Let's repeat this to the left side. Inhale, left leg up. Exhale, knee to the left elbow. Three, two, one. Inhale and lift up. Exhale, knee to the forehead. Three, two, one. Inhale, left leg up. Exhale, left knee to the right elbow. Three, two, one. Slowly bring your knee down.

Keep the knees hip width apart now. We're going to walk the hands forward. Your hips are not going to move forward. Gently press your chest down towards the floor into puppy pose. Stay there. One, two, three, four, five. Slowly come back up. Walk your hands back. Get into child's pose. Open out your knees. Extend both your hands forward.

From your child's pose, we're going to keep moving through this practice to keep that activation. We're going to press the arms, tuck the toes, lift your hips up into downward facing dog. Pedal out your feet. One, two, three, four, and five. Now from your downward dog, as you inhale, shift your body forward into a plank position. Exhale, go back to downward facing dog. You can soften the knees here. Inhale, forward to plank. Here your knees are straight, solid plank. Exhale, back to downward dog. One more. Inhale, forward to plank. Stay there. Engage your glutes, straighten the knees. One, two, three, four, five. Exhale, go back to downward facing dog.

Now from your plank, you're going to continue forward into an upward dog. So it's going to look like this. You go through plank, lean forward, drop your hips, and lift the chest up. Tap the chin to the collarbone. Exhale, go back to downward facing dog. Inhale, go through plank. Drop the hips. Arch the back. Tap the chin to the collarbone. Exhale, go back to downward facing dog. Last time, inhale through plank. Drop the hips. Arch the back. Stay there for three, two, one. Exhale, go back to downward facing dog.

From your downward dog, you're going to step the right foot outside of your right palm, left foot outside of the left palm. Hold the opposite elbows. Allow your upper body to hang loose over the legs. Maybe you sway side to side. One, two, three, four, and five. Release your hands. As you inhale, take the hands forward, come up. Tap the tailbone. Arch your back. Exhale, lengthen forward. Go all the way down to the mat.

Now from here, you're going to take a step back with your right foot. Like I said, we're going to try and keep moving. You place the right knee down, bring your palms to your waist. Start pushing your hips forward and down. If you're still comfortable here, start arching back. Three, two, breathe into the chest. One, exhale, bring your hands down. Now take your left foot back to plank position. In your plank, lift the right foot an inch off. Three, two, one. Bring the right foot down. Drop the knees down. Chest, chin down to the mat.

Now, you're going to slide forward. Lift your chest up. Stay here. If you're very comfortable, lift your hands an inch off the floor. Three, two, one. Place the palms down, tuck the toes, lift your hips up into downward facing dog. Now from here, you're going to step the right foot forward between your palms. Place the left knee down on the mat. You're going to bring the upper body to neutral. Ensure you're tucking the tailbone. Then start pushing the hip forward and down. Still comfortable, support the lower back. Arch your back. Three, two, one. Exhale, bring the hands down.

Now lift your left knee off and you're going to step the left foot forward. Now separate your feet and you're going to squat down into Malasana. Push your knees out with your elbows. Stay there. One, two, three. Place the hands down, straighten the knees, into a forward fold. Move the hips side to side. Relax for three, four, two, one. Inhale, take your arms up. Arch your back. Exhale, you're going to continue forward and down.

Once again, you're going to take the right foot back. This time, we're not going to place the knee down. Instead, you're going to bring your palms to your waist into a lunge position. Take both your arms up. As you exhale, bend your knees. Inhale, up. One, exhale, down. Inhale, up. Two, back foot is on the toes, so keep it stable. Exhale, down. Challenges your balance. Inhale, up. Exhale, down, and now you can bring your hands down to the mat.

Take your left foot back to plank. In your plank, we're going to lift the left foot off now. Three, two, rest of the body stays still. One, foot down. Exhale, knees down. Chest, chin down to the mat. You slide forward. This time, you're going to take your palms, tuck them underneath your thighs. From here, you're going to inhale and lift the chest up, legs up. One, two, your elbows should squeeze into the body, and three. Relax. Bring the palms on either side of the chest. Tuck the toes. Exhale, get into Parvatasana or downward dog. For Parvatasana, you bring your feet closer. Downward dog can be wider, lengthen the spine.

From here, inhale, step the right foot forward. Left knee remains off the mat. You can also bring it one step forward for better balance. First, come up. Bring your palms to your waist. Straighten the knees. Take your hands up and show you have the balance. Fix your gaze. Exhale, down. Inhale, up. Exhale, down. Inhale, up. Last one, exhale, down. Inhale, up. Exhale, you go down. Release the knee carefully. Bring the hands down to the mat.

Now, you're going to step the left foot outside of the left palm. So, you're in a wider stance here and you're going to squat down again into Malasana. Two, one. This round, we're going to lift the hips up into Utkatasana for five. So, keep the arms as they are. Lift your hips up. One, two, my thighs are parallel to the floor, chest parallel to the floor. Two, one. Place the hands down. Straighten the knees. Once again, you can relax here. You can also hold the opposite elbows. Leave the upper body hanging loose. One, two, three, four, five. Inhale, take your arms up. We're going to arch the back. Exhale, and we continue.

This is going to be your last cycle. From here, you're going to step the right foot back. This time, you're going to turn the right toes out. So, your right foot is turned out about 45 degrees. Your heels are almost in the same line. Now, from here, you're going to lift both your arms up. Join your palms in Namaste. Your hips are going to be squared. Bend the left knee. If you're comfortable, look up into Virabhadrasana. One, two, three, four, five. Bring the hands down.

Now, walk your fingertips ahead of the left foot. Lean and lift the right leg up as high as you can. One, two, three. Let's take the leg all the way back to where it was. You're going to take your left foot back to plank. Now, from plank, drop the knees down exactly where they are. We're going to hold a half Chaturanga here. So, exhale, bend your elbows as much as you can and stay there. Three, two, one. Push back up. Come back up into plank. Hold. Three, keep it going. You're just going to feel that burn too. One, drop the knees down.

While you rest here, I'm going to tell you what we're going to do next. You're going to come back into plank without dropping the knees down. We're going to descend to the floor in one straight line. You don't have to hold it. We're going to go all the way down to the mat. Let's give it a try. So, coming up into plank, lean forward slightly, squeeze the glutes, knees straight, exhale, slowly down. Two, three, four, and five. Relax, rest on the belly.

This round, we're going to practice Dhanurasana. So, you're going to bend your knees, hold down to the ankles. Inhale, start lifting the thighs up. Chest up. Stay there. One, two, three, work with your legs more. So, try to lift the heels up more. Four, five, exhale down. Bring your palms on either side of the chest. Tuck the toes. Push your hips up.

As you inhale, step the right foot forward. Now, the left foot, adjust, turn it out and place the entire foot down. Take both your arms up. Namaste, look up. One, two, three, four, five, exhale. Bring the hands down. Take your fingertips ahead of the toes. Lift the left leg up. One, two, three. You're not going to place the foot back. Instead, you drop it straight down next to the right foot. Separate your feet shoulder width apart. Squat down into Malasana.

You're going to practice Kakasana over here. So, I want you to place your hands down. You can lift your heels off. Open out your elbows nicely. Palms are going to be shoulder width. Lift your hips up. Just like Utkatasana, lean forward. Start lifting your toes off. Stay there and breathe. Two, three, four, and gently drop your feet down. Straighten your knees. Come into a standing forward fold. Shake the upper body out. Three, four, and five. Hands down.

We're not going to come up this time. We're going to squat down again into Malasana. Take the hands forward. Slowly release the hips to the floor. Vertebra by vertebra, lie down on your back. Get your heels a little closer to the butt so your knees and ankles are in the same line. Press your palms down firmly on the mat. Press into the feet and hands. Inhale and lift your hips up. Collarbone coming towards the chin. Keep drawing the belly in. Try to interlock the fingers. Get your shoulders and elbows closer. Stay there. One, two, three, four, and five. Gently bring your hips down.

Now hug the knees in towards the chest. Start rocking forward and back. On the fifth time, you're going to rock forward and stay in Navasana. I've done three, this is four, and five. We're going to rock up. Navasana hold. One, two, three, four. This time when I rock back, I'm going to go straight up into shoulder stand, Sarvangasana. Slowly, I'm going to rock back and lift the hips up. Legs up. Move into Sarvangasana. For all these postures, there are modifications. If you need to go to the wall for Sarvangasana, go ahead towards the wall. Put your legs up and start lifting the hips up. Two, three, four, five. I'm doing eight here, but if you can hold longer, hold longer. Eight.

Exhale, take your legs behind the head. Stay there. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Vertebra by vertebra, you're going to roll the spine down. Come all the way down, lift the head up. Drop the crown of the head on the mat. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Lift your head up. Look forward. Slowly lie down on your back. Keep your feet mat width apart. Your palms facing the ceiling. Close your eyes and completely relax into your Savasana.

So that was your active, dynamic practice for a quick calorie burn. It could be a challenging practice, so I would definitely encourage you to make modifications, take pauses when you need to, use the wall and use your props, but try to keep flowing with the practice. I really hope you enjoyed this one. Thank you.