yoga routine for beginners

hi this is lesley fightmaster. iwanted to introduce you guys to tims senesi. he is a wonderfulteacher. leave a comment if you would like to seemore yoga with tim. enjoy the class. namaste. alrightwelcome everybody. this is a vinyasa flow class. and this is a beginner to intermediatelevel class. so you're gonna start lying on your back and take the souls your feet together and your kneeswide apart. so in this relaxed position allow yourself to breathe steady in andout of your nose.

feel your belly rise and fall with yourbreath. and just notice your energetic responseto the breath. in other words feel how your bodyresponds to the inhalation and exhalation. now bring your knees together plant your feet on the floor. stretch your legs out one at a time. and once your legs get stretched out press throughyour heels roll your inner thighs down towards themat. lengthen your tailbone towards your heels inhale your arms up and stretch yourarms overhead.

but keep a steady press through your heels. keepthe thigh bones down and draw your front bottom ribs downtowards your hips as you stretch your arms. feel a nice long stretch from your heels all the way to your fingertips. as youexhale bring your arms back to your side. bend your knees again and plant your feet onthe floor. roll over to the right side. press up to seated. cross your legs. plant your hands down and then come on to yourhands and your knees. so hands are underneath your shoulders kneesunderneath your hips.

so we're gonna do some breathing here. arch your back pull your chest throughyour arms and as you exhale drawl your navel to your spine, roundyour back, look back at your belly. and keep moving with your breath inhale.arch your back pull your chest through your arms, exhale. round your back, enable the spine.establishing breath with movement. one more time. full breath in. and look forward. look up. exhale. round out, look back at your navel. pull it up. now inhale into neutral spine,maintain that, curl your toes under.

lift your hips and press back into yourfirst downward facing dog. the day so downward dog it's like you're in an inverted v-shape. your hands are shoulder-width apart yourfeet are hip width apart. look at your feet, turn your heels out enough until you can no longer see your innerheels. so your legs are in a neutral rotation. so there's effort to get your legs in neutrally. we have to internally rotate to get them to go in neutral. start to press your thigh bones back. as you press your hands down to the matpress especially into the base at the

index finger. turn your outer arms your triceps down towards the floor and squeeze them in.move the hips way back. looking between your hands walk the feet to the front in the mat.grab a hold of opposite elbows and fold forward. just let your head drop down here. put a little bend in your knees. so wedon't wanna like go into the body forcefully. we want to create this ease. that' why wewe start out like this. calm, easy, breathe. connect to your breath

and feel the back body start to wakeup. so there's a line of energy from the feet up the backs of the legs. your whole back body, all the way up intoyour head. feel that whole back body start to release here as you hang.now bring your hands to your hips. press into your feet and inhale. come all theway up to stand. stand at the front of your mat or the front of your space. bring your big toes together and stand tall.mountain pose tadasana. so you're establishing your space. and this is kind of like your blueprint pose for all ofyour standing poses. so you wanna press down

evenly into your feet heels big toe mounts, little toe mounts. and make the leg strong. now inhale.reach your arms up. same things you did on the floor. press throughthe heels inner thighs back, tailbone down. armsreaching. exhale fold forward. let all the air out. inhale, create a flat back. lengthen your spine. exhale, step back your left leg into a lunge. so you're lungingwith your right foot forward. your knee is right over your ankle. so you press through your back heel lift yourback thigh and lengthen your spine.

plant your hands and step back toplank position. shift forward and lower down untileverything is in line with your elbows. it's called chaturanga. lower all the way to your belly. and flipyour toes back for baby cobra. roll your chest forward and up. as you reach back through your toes, press thepinkies down and lift the inner knees. lift your low abs and roll the chest forward and up. and exhale and move back to downward facing dog. look in between your hands, step thatright foot forward into a lunge.

inhale. exhale. step your left. inhale, create a flat back. lengthen your spine.and exhale, fold forward. let all the air out. press down into your heels. inhale. root torise. root to your feet. reach your arms up, grow tall. exhale, bring your hands to your heart. and drop your arms to your sides. back tothe mountain pose. inhale, raise the arms up over head. exhale, fold forward. inhale, create a flat back. lengthen. exhale, step the right leg back into a lunge.pause here in this lunge.

press through your back heel. lift your back thigh. and squeeze your left hip into themidline is you lengthen from your tailbone to your crown. keep that length as you step the left legback into plank. from the heels to the crown you're long. shift forward and lower. keep that line of energy. chaturanga. andlower to your belly. inhale, baby cobra. elbows in here. chest broad, exhale press up and back downward facing dog.

holding your down dog, lengthen the backs ofthe legs. move the tops of your thighs back. press yourfemur bones back. now step your left foot in between yourhands on an exhalation. inhale, step your right leg forward and lengthen your spine. press down into your heels. inhale,reach up with your breath take the arms up. exhale, bring the hands to your heart. drop the hands to the side. inhale, raise your arms up andover head. look up this time, maybe touch. exhalefold forward.

inhale, create a flat back. get length. exhale, step or jump back to chaturanga. inhale, stretch your toes, open yourchest. up dog. exhale, downward facing dog. look between the hands. so when you look at your hands look to seethat the pressing even into the mat. move your hips back and then on your exhale, step or jump lightly. inhale, lengthen thespine. exhale, fold forward. press down into your feet. inhale, come allthe way up. reach your arms up.

exhale, bring your arms to your side. again, sun salutation a. inhale, take the arms up creating heat andenergy in the body. exhale fold forward. exhale, step or jump back lightly tochaturanga, strong arms here, belly in. inhale upward facing dog, legs active. firm the backs of your legs and yourbuttocks to your heels as you open your chest. exhale, downward facing dog. you want to make sure those thighs stay in neutral this whole time. youdon't want your legs turning out especially in the back bend. otherwise it's gonna puta pinch your lower back.

take a couple breaths here in down dog.feel the energy balance out with your breath. okay now let's jump forward.look in between your hands, step or jump. inhale, lengthen it out. exhale, fold. press down into your feet. inhale, come all the way up. keep yourlegs strong as you reach your arms up. exhale, bring the arms to your side. good, nowstep your right leg back about four feet andspread your arms out. turn your toes so they point straight ahead. now let's turn the legs to the right. the left leg pivots in slightly.

the right leg turns out ninety degrees, allthe way. as you anchor your left heel bend the right leg toward a 90 degreeangle so that if you look down on your right knee it'sright over your ankle. and then you want your whole leg to track so look at your right leg, the center ankle,the center knee, even your center hips should track straight ahead. so squeeze your outer right hipin. gluteus maximus. firm that buttock in. press your right knee openso it tracks straight ahead. now as you anchor that back heel, bend theright leg a little deeper and let's move

put the right hand on that outside of the foot on the floor, on a block. then externallyrotate your left arm. take the arm all the way over head. so i normally like to use a block in this posture, but i didn't have one today. so i just put myfingertips high on the floor. and what i'm trying to do is i'm tryingto create length through all four sides of my torso. so i don't want the right side to getcrunchy here. it's not a side bend. it is a lateral movement, but the spine stayslong. so as you press into your back heel feel length all the way out through your fingertips.

breath. now inhale, come back up, warrior 2. exhale, straighten your right leg, turn yourfoot in. so let's pause here in the middle andthen turn your legs for the other side. so i pivot my right leg in slightly. and i turn the left leg all the way out. press theback heel and bend the left leg towards a 90 degreeangle. now look at that left leg, it's really important that it tracks straightahead. you don't want your knee to lock in. so press that knee open, squeeze the left hip in. and now lift through all four sides of your waist. lift your side chest

and spread your arms from thecollarbones, the center the chest, all the way out to the fingers. most importantly breath steady in and outthrough your nose. now exhale, put the fingertips on the outside of your foot. right close to your ankle. exhale, take yourright hand all the way over head. feel your foundation. it's your feet. press down evenly into your feet. soanchor your back leg and make the back leg strong. feel the weight in the front of the left heel. did your knee start to fall in? press your

left knee open, and feel length through all four sides ofyour waist. the chest is open, but watch that your frontbottom ribs don't get exaggerated. they're gonna want to push forward when you openyour chest. so draw your bottom ribs back in towards yourfrontal hip points. towards your hip bones. inhale, take your right arm backup. back up to warrior 2. exhale, straighten your left leg. pivot your left foot in. alright now let's step the feet to the front of the mat.

tadasana mountain pose. so pause afterthese standing poses, stand up straight and tall. take this time to feel your mountainpose. you're pressing more into your heels so the weight of your body comes back over your ankles. stack your hips, shoulders, and ears overyour ankles. role the shoulders back. now inhale intochair pose. bend your knees and sit back take arms up. inhale to create a flat back. lengthenyour spine, legs strong.

plant the hands. step or jump to chaturanga. inhale, upward facing dog. roll yourshoulder tips back as you open the chest. exhale. downward facing dog. from down dog step your right foot close to your right thumb. angle your backfoot down. so you want your back foot turned in a littlemore than 45 degrees. make the back legs straight. and then inhale, come right on up forwarrior one. squeeze your right hip in. lift through allfour sides of your waist. reach with the arms.

exhale, bring your hands back to the matand step back to chaturanga. inhale, point the toes back. upward facingdog. legs are strong, inner legs tight. exhale, downward facing dog. from down dog on your exhalation pull your left knee upand step it close to your left thumb. angle the back heel down. squeeze yourleft hip into the midline. come right up the middle. reach with your arms back legs straight. lift your side chest. exhale, bring your hands back to the mat.plant them step back into chaturanga. low plank,everything in line with your elbows.

inhale, upward facing dog. exhale, down dog. pause here. steady your breath. so we just created a lot of heat in the body with chair pose and with warrior one. so balance out that heat. use that heat tostart to move deeper into your poses. alright, now bend your knees, step or jumpto the front of your mat. inhale, get length. exhale, take all that length and get deeper. inhale, into chair pose. bend the knees and sit low like you're in alittle chair. inhale arms up.

exhale, bring the arms to your side. inhale, backinto chair pose. so we're gonna create a flow now. exhale fold forward. this is called sun salutation b. surya namaskar b. inhale, lengthenyour spine. exhale, chaturanga. exhale, upward facing dog. exhale down dog. step your right leg warrior one. close to your right thumb. turnyour back heel down. same thing we did last time. bring the arms up moving with the breath. exhale, bring thehands back to the mat. step back to

chaturanga. inhale, upward facing dog. exhale, downdog. step the left leg warrior one. turn your back heel down. inhale, come up slow with your breath. reach there's no rush. exhale hands back tothe mat. step back into a low plank that's called chaturanga. elbows in. inhale, upward facing dog. exhale, down dog. so this vinyasa practice, or breath with movement practice. this isdesigned to build heat in the body. so

that you feel safe to do you're standingposes. so your muscles are warmed up. when we movedeeper into the postures. continue to breath even though you're nolonger moving. you're just pausing here in downward dog. let the breath flow. now let's step the right foot and come up for crescent. so in crescent pose your backheel stays up. it looks like warrior 1 except the back heel stays up this time. lift your back inner knee. squeeze your right hip in. okay now lean your chest out over yourknee. try to feel

the line of energy from your back heel out throughthe crown of your head. shoulder blades on your back. lean your chest forward until you startto lean and balance. pick up your left leg. so you're balancing onyour right leg. lift your left leg up to hip height.bring your hands forward maybe. it's a challenge, don't let yourbelly drop. keep your low abs lifted. good, then step back into parsvottanasana. step your left foot back about three and a half feet. ground the heel in the mat likewarrior 1. and then fold forward over your right leg.

as you press your right big toe mount downdrawl your right hip back and in. now let's step back to downward facing dogfrom here. so plant the hands. step back, down dog.let's do it on the other side, step your left foot in between your hands. close to yourleft thumb. inhale, come up for crescent. so the backheel stays up. it's just a lunge with your arms up. take a breath here. drop your arms to your side, lean your chest out over your left knee. yourback leg is strong. your left hip hugs in.

now keeping your left hip hugged in, step upand balance on your left leg. stack your left hip right over your ankle.level your hipsand your waist to the floor. you want your right toes to point straight down. now hold here. if you wanna make it morechallenging like you did on the other side, take your arms forward. its not arequirement. hands could stay at prayer. hold here. good, nowplant your hands on the mat, step back your right foot about three and a half feet, put it on the floor and try to straighten your left leg.instead of pushing the knee down, think like your pulling

energy up into your hip socket. so lift your thigh bone up into the hip socket and pull your left hip crease back and in. all right, now plant your hands, step back,downward facing dog. you're welcome to ad vinyasas throughout these. if you want to do an extra chaturanga, up dog, down dog, that's fine. from down dog look in between thehands, step or jump forward. inhale, get length. exhale, fold. let your head drop down. inhale into chair pose, oh no actuallylet's come into a squat.

we've done enough chair. so squat down andwe're gonna try an arm balance now. you gonna put your knees way up high into your upper arms. your gonnasqueeze the knees into your arms, see if you can just lean into your arms like your arms are doing chaturanga.and you're gonna look forward and start to balance. maybe the arms can start to gostraighter like i'm showing in the video. now look forward, step or jump back tochaturanga. inhale, upward facing dog. exhale

down dog. it's kind of a tricky pose. if you didn't get it down just keep practicing. from down dog shift forward to plank position. shoulders over your wrists. and let's roll onto the outer edge of the left foot. and take the right arm up. so this is just like doing mountain pose but turned on side with the arms spread. so you want to create... keep the activity of the feet pressed through the heels, roll your inner thighs back. and your tailbone down. press through your heels and lengthen outthrough the top of your head. alright now bring your right arm back to the mat. right hand down.

let's go right to the other side. roll onto the outer edge of your right foot, take your left arm up. make the leg strong, squeeze thethigh muscles to the bone. firm the buttocks to the heels and lift up your belly. as you lift and broaden your top chest. the neck is long so feel length in the spine. bring your left hand back to the mat,back to plank. press straight back to down dog. so in myown practice i don't like to do too many vinyasas. because the repetitive nature of it can start to cause injuries. if not done really well.

but you're welcome to ad these vinyasas if you like. bring your hands to your hips with your right leg straight come on up.press into your back heel, with your left arm up, and then reach forward halfway. put yourleft hand down on the outside of your foot turn your chest and take a right arm up.so this is called twisted triangle pose. back heel is down like warrior one. now i didn't have a block today but i normally like to use a block underneath my hand because it is too hard to get my hand down and get the full expression the pose. if you want to use a block, just put a block underneath your hand, it might help.

from here let's move into twisted half moon. so slide your left hand a foot in front of your foot. squeeze your right hip in and lift the left leg up to hip height. pull your chest forward as you press through your back heel. open up, spread your arms. now stay even on the right foot. squeeze the right hip in so it's right over the ankle and as you inhale, look for more length from your back heel to the top of your head. now bring your right hand down and take yourleft leg up from the inner thigh. standing splits. if you wanna play around withbalance

you can try bringing your hand to your right ankle. lift the leg a little higher. and lower your left leg to meet your right. fold forward. alright now squat down on your heels, we're gonna try a... another arm balance. this one's calledtwisted crow. so in this one i bring my hands to either side of my right leg, and then see if i can hook my knee into myleft tricep. and maybe balance on my arm. keep the elbows hugged in like chaturanga. and then maybe even try to stretchyour legs out. a little tricky variation, eka pada koundinyasana.

from there lower your toes back down themat. come back to your squat. fold forward. inhale, lengthen. step or jump back to chaturanga. inhale upward facing dog. roll the chest open. exhale down dog. so don't worry if you can't do those arm balances just keep going with the practice. from down dog, step your left foot in betweenyour hands. step your back foot a little bit closerand turn the heel down. straighten the left leg put your hands to your hips and come on up. inhale, take your right arm up. exhale, fold forward halfway.

set your right hand down on the outer edgeof your foot. and turn your chest up to the ceiling.take your left arm up. keep your back heel anchored. as you press yourleft big toe mound down, squeeze you left hip in. as you anchor your back heel, lengthenfrom your tailbone to your crown. and turn your chest. maybe even look upif the balance is good. i just like to look straight ahead though. now look down. put your right hand a foot in front of your foot as you bend your left leg. step up to balance.

lift the right leg up to hip height. now get even on the left foot. press into all three points in your left foot. the bigtoe, little toe mound and the center heel. squeeze your left hip in and nowas you inhale, lengthen from your right heel out through the top of your head. push through the heel, pull forward and turn your chest. reach your arms. nowbring your left hand back down to the mat and take your rightleg up from the inner thighs. standing splits. if you wanna play around balance, youcould try bringing maybe one hand to your

left ankle and taking that right leg higher up. and then lower your right leg to meetyour left. squat down. we're gonna try that arm balance on the other side. so i turn my belly to the left. put your right arm on your left leg. so try to hook theknee of your left leg way up high towards here right armpit.then lean into your arm and maybe pick up yourfeet and balance. hug in on your abs. so hug your ribcage

in and down. lift your pelvic floor and low abs. so you're engaging your abdomen. maybe take your legs open...stretch em out. okay now come back to your squat. inhale, lengthen your spine. create a flat back. ardu tadasana. exhale fold. let your head hang. inhale, lengthen out again. exhale. step back to plank, lower the knees, sit your buttocks down to your heels. child's pose. so extended child's pose, the bigtoes are together,

take your knees just wide enough for yourtorso, your ribs to fit in between. stretch the arms out. alright now moving right along, inhale come on up. and we're gonna do preparation for headstand. so to do this i want you to put your elbowsunderneath your shoulders like i'm showing. i interlace my hands. i curl my toes under, i lift my kneesup. so this is called dolphin pose or down dog on the forearms. i'm pressing the center forearm down i lift the hips up away from the elbows. and then notice the shoulder blades, the upper back ispressed in, so you want to

move your upper spine in. you don't want yourupper back to round here. see if you can walk your toes in closerlike i did without letting your upper back round. then lift the hips up higher. if that wentwell, that's gonna show you're ready to do a headstand. as long as you have control of your upper back. so if you wanna stay here just work onthat control. it's good to hold it for about a minute. if you're new to yoga it'sgonna build the strength that you need. if you working on headstand, i've showedgoing into headstand here.

so you can lower your head, bring your knees into your chest, balance. bring the knees up and then take the feet up. headstand. what's important is that you'repressing down into that forearm. so from the elbows to the wrists you're pressing evenly. if your head is down you're right on the crown of the head. same thing as in tadasana. pressthrough the heals, inner thighs back. tailbone lifts this time, lengthens towards the heels. and those ribs drawl in. alright now, comeback down. and rest in child's pose.

i like to take a variation in child'spose with the arms back after headstand. let your head rest. so if you decided just to work on thatdown dog on your forearms, that's a great preparation pose. in factmany days i actually just practice holding that instead of headstand. just to work the arms, the upper back, create the alignment i need necessary to beable to do headstand. alright let's inhale, come back up onthe hands and the knees and move back into so especially if you did headstand, this isa pose to help to release your neck. so just let your head hang. right now let'slook forward...

ooooh... jump through to seated. tricky jump through. if you can't jump through just step. whatever you've got to do. lie on your back, and once you're on your back you're gonna preparefor bridge pose. bring your heels close to your buttocks, feet hip width apart. press the heels down, lift the hips up. if you're using a mat take your fourfingers under the mat, and your thumbs on top so you're gripping the sides of the mat. if you don't have a mat you can just grab a strap or a shirt or interlace your hands. now pull out withyour arms.

spin your biceps out and turn your triceps, that's the back of your arm musclestowards each other. this external rotation of your arms will help you to open upyour chest and the shoulder blades will plug on yourback more evenly. press the arms down so you activate your back muscles necessary tohold the blades in. keep the neck long. now as you press yourheels down squeeze the backs of your legs and your gluts towards the backs of your knees. keep the inner thighs down so the thighs stay in that neutral position that we talked about earlier.

if all that's too confusing for you just thinkabout pressing your heels down, lifting your hips up. that's enough. alright, take a break. lower down take abreath. and go right back up into it. press your heels down, lift your hips up. hold here. this is a great position tostrengthen the backs the legs, which is important for your posture. that thebacks of your legs, the glutes are strong. keep your knees in. if your knees areknocking out you've got to bring them back in towards each other. so lineup with your ankles. now again pull yourheels towards

your shoulders. so you squeeze the backs of your legs. release your inner upper thighs down, butthen squeeze your buttocks to the backs of your knees. alright lower back down, take a breath. we're gonna do one more these, this time with thehands interlaced. so press the heels down, lift your hipsup, interlace your hands. come on, get those hips up. now keep the neck long, try not to strain in your neck. your arms are interlaced, you're pressing the

arms down so you could lift your chest more. but keep squeezing and lifting your buttocks up. alright, now lower the buttock back down to the mat. take a breath. so if you have a different variation of that posture like you wanna do urdhva dhanurasana or upward bow, you're welcome to try that now. otherwise, thats enough back bending. bring your feet into happy baby, so bring your hands onto the inside of your knees. grab a hold of the outsides of the feet. and take the feet up towards theceiling. the let the knees drop down. see if you can let your tailbone buttockdrop back down to the mat.

and then lengthen out your neck, you're next gonna kind of gonna try to pull in. so think of moving the back of your skull further from your shoulders here. so you let the spine elongate on the floor. alright now hug your knees into your chest, apanasana. bring your head up to your knees and roll up to seated. stretch your legs out in front of you. sit in dandasana. just like mountain pose, it was important that we establish a good mountain pose. thisseated pose dandasana is important for

all of your seat postures that we'll do. so press the heels forward. roll theinner thighs down. lift through all four sides your waist.now let's bring the right knee into the chest. hug it in and sit up tall. try not to let yourself sink. wrap your left arm around your leg, putyour right finger tips behind you. roll your right shoulder back, open yourchest. now first i look for the length so i pull my knee in and i try to grow tall on my spine from the tailbone to the crown. i'm sitting up tall. and then i look for the twist. always intwist the length

comes first. you wanna get length evenbetween all the vertebra in the spine before you start twisting on them. otherwisewe run into problems. with the twisting. keep the left hip active like in dandasana and turn your chest. alright now let's come out. straighten the right leg back to dandasana. seated staff pose. sit like you got a stick up your back. bring your left knee in towards yourchest. hug it in and sit up tall. remember first the length in the twist. wrap your right arm around your leg. left arm comes behind you. again inhale sit up tall. then exhale turn.

you can even turn the gaze here to help with the turn of the chest. the right leg stays active like it's still in dandasana. the inner thigh rolls down. you're liftingthrough the four sides of your waist. turning your chest as you hold here. breath steady. inhale length. exhale twist deeper. alright now come out of the twist, look forward. stretch your left leg out so you're back in dandasana. seated staff pose. the staff is like it's up your back.

that's why it's called seated staff. inhale the arms up. exhale take all the length that you've created andreach for your feet. this is called paschimottasana, western intensivestretch pose. the sun salutations are done facingeast. so the backside of your body is consideredthe west side of the body. so in this pose the full backside of the body is being stretched. so once i grab my feet i inhale and lengthen and then i can exhale and fold deeper into the pose. deep stretch. inner thighs release down. the front of the buttock bones press down into the mat.

and then i try to lengthen the whole spine. there's atendency just to round down the upper back. try not to let yourself do that. try to lengthen the whole spine. head toward your feet. now inhale, come back to dandasana. and slowly roll yourself down one vertebra at a time. all the way down on to your back. turn yourpalms to face up. let the feet sway open. take a deep breath in, and let it out. shavasana. so you worked really hard this practice,

built a lot of heat in the body. you wantto give yourself this time to relax. this is your final meditation, it's a very important part of your practice. in this final meditation let all themuscles of the body release. from head to toe just let yourbody drop into your mat wherever you're lying down. let go thecontrol of the breath. so throughout the whole practice you were trying to breathesteady in and out through your nose. you weretrying to balance the length of the inhale with the exhale. now just let go of that. instead

just watch the rhythm other breath. and how it affects your body, your energetic response to it. observethis flow of energy, this flow of breath. without trying tochange or control it. i'm just gonna do that for the next few minutes. watch the body relax. and let yourself move deeper inword. past all the layers. let yourself move in.