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welcome to power yoga, mind and body. my name is adrienne reed. our theme for today: balancing poses. we're already having a lot of fun on the set, i hope you have a lot of fun today at home. this is kind of a challenging class, when you're ready, let's stand on up guys. so let's make it a fun class balancing poses are a little hard, don't get frustrated just laugh have a little fun. so we're actually going to stand here i want you to draw the tops of your thighs upward, tuck your tailbone slightly, hollow your lower belly. inhale, bring your shoulders up and exhale roll them back and down and try and keep that nice balance stance. from there, go ahead and close your eyes and just go for a couple of breaths there. really calming your breath relaxing your body you should be in a perfectly balanced spinal stance. so you're not standing up muscularly, you're balancing skeletally. and see if you can just lean forward slightly into your toes with your eyes still closed and then lean back onto your heels and just rock back and forth just slightly.

you may need to open up your eyes, you may notice as you have your eyes closed, it makes your balancing poses a little more difficult. nice job when you're ready, go ahead and open up your eyes. we're going right into warrior three guys. we're going to go a whole bunch different methodologies to get into warrior three so a lot of warrior three today, virabhadrasana iii. first one, go ahead and take a medium step back with your left leg. we're going to inhale, sweep your arms up overhead, as your draw your torso downward, kick your left heel upward so shift your weight to your right leg, come down with your torso and come up with your left leg. you're trying to keep your hips nice and square so kristen roll that hip down for me. you're lengthening back heel to fingertips let's go three more breaths on that side. pick a focal point fix your gaze in every balancing pose the calmer you are with your breath the clearer you are with your mind the easier the pose is exhale, draw your torso up come on up, shake that out a little bit. same thing other side,

so when you're ready sweep your arms upward medium step back with your right leg, left leg is forward, shift your weight to your left leg as you lower down with your torso, come up with your right leg so again virabhadrasana iii, sorry jas. relax in that try to enjoy that pose try and keep your hips nice and square toward the mat. so don't let that right hip roll up. lengthening back heel to fingertips and exhale come on up release shake that out a little bit. beautiful, we're going to take big step back with your left leg, we're going to float right into warrior one. so arms are coming up overhead, let's go two good breaths there. i want this to be a really deep lunge, so fall into that front knee, sink downward with your hips we're going two more breaths there, beautiful. so warming up through the legs a little bit before we get into this series after your second breath sweep forward with your torso, see if you can leave your arms up overhead, lengthen back heel to fingertips, let's go two deep breaths there, beautiful.

and then shift your weight to your right leg. see if without touching your foot or your hand you can kick right up, warrior three. that's a tough one lengthen again back heel to fingertips keep those hips nice and square smile in this pose this is a hard one. if you fall, no worries, just go right back into it with a calm breath and a quiet mind. inhale bend your front knee drop back with your left foot, look up, sweep up, arch back and exhale step on up to the front of your mat, shake that out a little bit. same thing other side, when you're ready so let's get a nice deep lunge with left leg forward, so warrior one to start. i want this to be a really deep stance you know where we're trying to go with this so sink downward with your hips, fall into your knee, relax into that stretch. exhale, go ahead and fall forward with your torso, so let it rest right on top of your left thigh lengthening back heel to fingertips. give me one more deep breath there. and then when you're ready shift your weight to your left leg

kick up with your right heel beautiful everybody, better on that side, lengthen back heel to fingertips. that's a tough transition, nice on balance, we're going two more breaths there, beautiful. so keep the foundation pose, so keep those hips nice and square, lengthen back heel to fingertips. when you're ready, inhale bend your left knee, drop back with that foot inhale, look up, arch back and exhale come on up step on up to the front of your mats shake that out a little bit. one last way to get into warrior three so one last round of that, we're going to take a medium step back with your left leg. you can either go into grasping your elbows or reverse namaste inhale, lookup. i want you to take a nice arch back exhale, go ahead and fall forward, stop half way make sure your hips are square your spine is long and then go ahead and drop the rest of the way downward. we're just going to get three good breaths in a forward fold here. again, square your hips, the beautiful part about approaching virabhadrasana iii in this position is you're already in a nice squared hip stance so it really does help to change that pose up.

when you're ready draw your torso up just slightly bend your right knee kick your left heel up come on back up warrior three again, last time. fabulous, keep that squareness through your hips so roll your left hip down, lengthen back heel to the crown of your head. if you want to throw arms into the mix, draw your elbows together if you're in reverse namaste. exhale bend your right knee drop that left foot back legs are straight, inhale, with a flat back, come on up, look up, arch back, exhale, step on up to the front of your mat. shake it out a little bit. same thing other side, when you're ready, medium step back with your right leg, left leg is forward, hands go to elbows grasped or reverse namaste inhale look up arched back slightly and exhale, go ahead and fall forward there. let's get a couple of deep breaths in that forward fold again let this be about squaring through the hips to really let yourself get into that nice foundation. so back with your left hip forward with your right, we're going one more breath in that forward fold.

very nice tina, and then after that breath draw your torso up slightly, bend your left knee, kick your right heel right up virabhadrasana iii one last time. beautiful, square through the hips long; back heel to the crown of your head try and open through your elbows to introduce your upper body into that as well. inhale bend your left knee, drop your right heel down, look up take a nice arch back, upper only and exhale, step on up to the front of your mat, shake that out a little bit. we're going to drop down into a squat position, so you guys can go about mid-mat. you don't have to be right up toward the front of your mat because we're going to extend our legs forward in this one. when you're ready, go ahead and drop down. you can drop your hands to the mat. you can either go on your toes or you can go flat footed. it is more difficult on your toes. you do what feels good for you. hands are going to sweep up to namaste. try and get your shoulders right over your hips your hands are in prayer, let's go four good breaths there.

so you're nice and tall though the torso, sitting sit bones to heels, beautiful. from there, you could either stay on your toes or flatten to your feet, you're going to drop your hands down to the mat, you're going to extend your right leg forward if you can, sweep your hands back to namaste. i'm going to drop my heel and go to that guys. beautiful, so nice for strength, nice for stamina nice for flexibility nice for balance looking good cody, we're going two more breaths there beautiful. you guys these are hard poses; smile, enjoy them laugh through them, no worries, don't be uptight, that's the way. exhale sweep your foot in if your hands are up in prayer see if you can tuck it in without touching the mat. did you do that? i'm so proud of you. hands drop back down on the mat, left leg comes forward come on up so left lag sweeps forward find your balance. if you can, bring your hands back to namaste.

you've got it, that heel comes up as high as it will go shoulders over hips. smile through this one this is a hard one. and if you can, tuck your leg back in without torching the mat beautiful. let's get a little bit more difficult so once again, drop your hands down to the mat. we're going to cross your right ankle over your left knee. if you can, hands come to namaste. whew that's a hard one smile guys laugh, enjoy that. you all look so serious, going two more breaths on that side. this is really nice for opening through your hip opening through your groin finding your balance exhale go ahead and release that. same thing other side, so when you're ready left ankle crosses over your right knee if you can, hands come to namaste. kristen, yes that's the way, beautiful,

beautiful. come on guys challenge yourselves try and bring your hands up. it's ok to fall. yes, cody, and exhale go ahead and release. go head and drop to your hips on the mat and shake that out a little bit, straighten up your legs. if you want, your can roll to your back and float to happy baby or bend your knees, pull them in towards your chest and a reminder to those who don't know what happy baby is; go ahead and fall into that for me kristen. you bring your ankles above your knees grab your feet and then rock side to side gently that way, which is a release through your hips as well. let's go two more breaths there, either knees in towards your chest sitting in a comfortable seated position or rocking back and forth in happy baby, beautiful. from there when you're ready come on up to a seated position, so lay your legs flat on the mat, draw your arms overhead and use the strength of your arms and abs come up to seating. which nobody here did so you're going to lay back down again;

arms come up overhead use the strength of your arms and abs come on up to sitting. you guys know that we have to get some ab work in here. come up to standing whenever you're ready. alright, let's do some work with a pose called crow. we're going to talk about a couple of methodologies to get into crow. crow is for those that are unfamiliar with the pose, is this. jason actually why don't you hit it because i could probably explain it better showing someone. there are two different methodologies for floating into crow. go ahead and drop out. one is to have your knees right on top of your elbows and lower into it from down below, second way is to bring your knees right up into your armpits and come from up above. so you're going to do whichever of those feels good for you. so when you're ready guys, drop your hands down to the mat, and you should be about mid-mat. so kristen you may want to step back a little bit. if you're working at home, you could put a pillow a blanket, or something in front of you so if you fall you have something to fall into. when you're ready, float on up, crow. so knees are either on your elbows or in towards your armpits

see if you can touch your big toes together. beautiful, we've got people shaking, smiling, having a good time here on the set. we're going two more breaths, come on steph. and exhale, come on out, shake that out a little bit, release. no pressure, no pressure alright from there we're going to do that one more time. if you're feeling good and i'm one of those feeling good kind of people, jason i know you are too. when you are ready we're going down dog and we're going to try to jump forward into crow. if you do not want to try that guys just go back into crow for me. so that is completely optional. this is one of those crazy sort of fun things to do. jason go ahead and show that for me. so you're going into down dog look forward, jump forward into crow. of course if put pressure on you so you couldn't do it. that's the way. hard to do that's a really challenging thing; the people on the set are looking at us like oh dear goodness. beautiful, so give it a shot a few times. if you fall, that's alright

it's kind of fun to try. and if you're feeling really crazy, after crow kick your legs straight; see if you can go right back into plank, yes. boy, we're feeling good today, when you're ready lay down flat on your stomach. relax a couple of breaths guys. so these balancing poses are really fun to do; i think. and it's really nice that you also get an opportunity to kind of work through a pose without paying too much attention to form, without worrying too much about everything being in the perfect place. you're just really engaging your core working through your upper body and trying to just find your balance there. so i think that's really an interesting way to approach a pose. when you're ready, we're going to go into bhujangasana guys, one of my favorite names so come on back up to a seated position. i know we've done this in some other classes. you're going to go into a down dog position. have that down dog position be kind of toward the back end of your mat so you're mid-mat with your hands if you can, ok? from there, we're going to inhale, you're like a soft down dog here, you don't have to be too aggressive with your down dog.

we're going to inhale, look between your hands and then exhale, you're going to jump forward with your feet try and have you feet go past your hands you're going to bend you elbows sit right on top of your elbows and if you can, you can hook your feet, if you're feeling really good you can open up into a split kristen and i are twins over here, fabulous. that's another tough one so do what feels good for you. we're going to go three more breaths there. if you fall, that's ok, no worries; fall with a calm breath, with a quiet mind, smile, enjoy don't get frustrated. and exhale go ahead and release shake it out a little bit guys. go head and lay down flat on your back, if you would like to go to happy baby, feel free to do that. you can bend your knees pull them in towards your chest or you can just lay down flat on your back i just want you to do what feels good for you. sometimes when you do a lot of work with those upper body balancing poses, you'll want to rotate your wrists a little bit here.

so some people notice it more through the wrists than others. nice job, when you guys are ready we're going to come on up to a seated position. we're going to do abs this time, legs are straight, arms come overhead use the strength of your arms and abs, come on up to a seated position. sit in a nice crossed legged position. let's actually do a little bit of a stretch to release your wrists so we're going to draw the back of your hands together, you're trying to keep the back of the wrists together you bring it up toward your face and then exhale, draw your hands down towards your chest. and that gives you a nice stretch across the front of your wrists. so we're just going for a couple of good breaths there releasing your wrists because we're going to do more work with our arms, more work with our wrists here. and then when you're ready exhale go ahead and release that. so we're going to do a nice funky balancing pose, one of my favorites but it is very, very challenging so i want you to go to a level that feels good for you. when you guys are ready, we're going to float back into a table position.

so there's three different steps if that's the way we can say it to this one. we're going to go back to a plank position, you're going to flair your right elbow out to the right hand side and as you lower down you're going to bring your right knee toward your right elbow. if that's good for you i want you to stay right knee to elbow. if that feels ok, kick your right leg straight, and if that still feels good straighten through your left leg. i sorry i'm kicking you and kristen is kicking me, we're all kicking one another here. that's the way jason. so if all that you can do is get your knee to your elbow man, that's awesome. smile, be proud of yourself because boy that's a hard pose. a nice scissor, lengthen lengthen foot to foot so it's really coming from your feet you're really engaging through your core, we're going to go two more breaths there. tina, you're so close. kristen, yeah that's awesome. cody's saying, oh my goodness what am i doing in this class. steph, i stepped on you. release, shake it out a little bit lay down on your stomach drop back to extended child's. man, do what you got to do to release from that one. enjoy it, if you fell, you may have noticed

we all fell too and that's ok. it's nice to fall. there are not a lot of opportunities in life where somebody says, hey, you know what, it's ok to fall so take that opportunity and enjoy it. try and regroup, come back to a nice calm breath and like i said, the fun thing is this is challenging for your upper body, challenging with flexibility through your hip flexor, through your core, your working a lot but you're paying attention how cool the pose is how fun the pose is; i hope. and forgetting how you're working all these parts; and everyone is saying, no, i'm not. when you're ready, come on back up to a table position for a couple of breaths there. same thing when you're ready so you're going back into plank, you're going to lower down flair our left elbow out to the left hand side, bring your left knee forward. i'm going to move so i don't get in anybody's way. if you can, straighten up through your left leg and if you're feeling real good, kick your right heel up.

cody looks at me like, i'm not feeling real good. you've got it, couple more breaths, kristen, go girl, that's fabulous. challenge your balance challenge yourself engage your core go foot to foot and lengthen lengthen, lengthen, that really makes the difference if you extend foot to foot. kristen that's awesome man, when you're ready go ahead and relax out of that. some of you are relaxed out of it already, and rock back; extended child's lay on your stomach, do whatever you need to do that makes you feel good. if you'd like to roll your wrists a little bit here feel free to do that as well. that's real aggressive through the arms. i'm sure some people at home are thinking what am i'm doing with this class today? just having fun no worries. when you're ready, let's come on up to a seated position. i want to do that same wrist release again. so just sit comfortably, if you want to stay hips on top of heels, feel free to do that. back of your hands come together

and then slowly draw your hands down get that little bit of release through your wrists. beautiful, from there, go ahead and release that draw your arms up, shake that out a little bit, nice job. when you're ready, go ahead and lay down flat on your back. and just hang out a breath or two there, again if your heart rate is come up a little bit see if you can calm your body, just relax into the mat for a breath or two. wonderful, from there, bring your arms overhead use the strength of your arms and abs, come on to sitting. let's get some nice twists in to give a little bit of release here, so when you're ready i want you to bend your right knee, keep your right foot flat of the mat, nice job left hand swings around your right knee right hand comes behind. inhale, lengthen through your spine exhale, take a look out over that right shoulder.

so you're nice and tall through your spine you're really relaxing through your shoulders your sit bones are nice and flat. that twist is coming mid-back, mid-section; let's go two more good breaths there. that's fabulous, everybody's looking much calmer now, and then exhale, go ahead and sweep toward center, straighten up your right leg shake it out a little bit left knee bends, same thing; let's get a little bit of a twist in there. so right arm wraps around your left knee, left hand comes behind. inhale, lengthen through your spine exhale, look out over your left shoulder, couple of deep breaths there guys nice job. sit bones are nice and flat, shoulder blades are back and down; every inhale you lengthen through your spine every exhale, you deepen through your twist and exhale, float back to center. guys, i want to get one more balancing pose in. let's go for a hard one shall we?

so we're going to go ahead and drop your right knee up toward your right shoulder, you're trying to hook your right shoulder in front of your knee. if you're feeling real good, you can hook your foot behind your head. when you're ready, hands drop to the mat, you're going to inhale pick yourself up off the mat left heel tries to come up but that's hard. so if you cannot get your left heel up and cody's going, no way; if you cannot get your left heel up that's ok. jas can you do that? yes, that's the way, couple of more breaths there. so good on balance, strong through the core, tina fabulous, exhale, release, shake that out a little bit, some of you are thinking, oh no way. when you're ready, let's go same thing on the other side. so left knee bends bring your left knee up towards your shoulder, hook your left shoulder in front. you're trying to get that knee up toward your shoulder, if you want, you can hook your behind your head. when you're ready, hands drop to the mat. push through your hands so you're trying to get your bottom

up off the mat. if you can, see if you can pick up your right heel up off the mat. nice job, so strong engagement though your core, long through the arms, using legs, arms, core man you're using everything. exhale, come on out, release. cody, that's a hard one, no worries. and shake that out a little bit, nice job guys. let's get another twist in here so when you're ready, go ahead and lay down flat on your back. nice job, i want you to bend your knees pull them in toward your chest and rock side to side, gently massage your lower back. nice job, open up your arms into a giant t, palms are downward. i want you to keep your knees bent, and you're going to roll your knees off towards the right hand side, so they come off by your ribcage they drop all the way to the floor so let your hips and knees extend to the mat and if you feel good stay there. if you'd like a little more work straighten though your lower legs, and you guys may all hit one another

so just be careful there. if you want, you can hook our big toe or big toes with your right hand and you're looking over your left shoulder so you're really trying to relax your shoulder blades back and down and relax through your legs. so again, this should be a nice passive stretch where your legs are relaxing they may be elongating but it's a nice relaxed stretch. sorry jason, i almost stepped on your hand here. two more nice breaths there; every inhale, you may notice if you fill all the way up by your collarbones that your body pops up a little bit and every exhale sink deeply into the mat so shoulder blades sink down; legs get nice and long. if you're strong through the core keep your legs straight, roll back towards center otherwise bind your knees and roll back, everyone should end in center knees bent pulled in towards their chest; rock side to side, gently massage that lower back. one last twist and we're done for today so go ahead and open up your hands into that giant t, palms downward roll your knees off

toward the left hand side. once again, establish hips and knees if you feel good there i want you to stay there. otherwise, straighten through your legs, you can hook your big toe or big toes with your left hand and look out over your right shoulder. so you're relaxed through your legs, relaxed through your torso. every inhale you may notice it pops up a little bit and every exhale your body sinks down and just melts into that mat. two more breaths there looking good everybody. utilize your breath with your body. after your second breath, if you're strong through the core legs are straight, roll back to center. otherwise, bend you knees if you're tired, lay on down. if you want one last stretch tuck your hands behind your hips drive your heels up toward the ceiling and slowly lower your heels all the way down. you're all doing it, i guess i didn't work you hard enough today. once you get down there, you can release your hands out from underneath,

let's get ready for savasana. the final pose of class is the most important in yoga called savasana. this pose is what you worked the entire class to achieve; an exploration of stillness in action. as you lay on your mat allow your entire body to come to rest. let your feet flop open, bring your hands by your sides palms upward close your eyes. let your mind and body relax completely. the purpose of this time is to just be; be still in your heart still in your body still in yourself. try to remain in this pose for five to ten minutes finding health and harmony within. thank you so much for your time and hard work today guys. namaste. ♪

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