- Welcome to Fightmaster Yoga.
This is the perfect morning stretch
when you're short on time
and you need some energy for your day.
So begin in a comfortable seat,
with your shins crossed,
or any other position that works for you,
and take a moment to just
softly close your eyes,
deep breath in
(inhales)
and deep exhale.
Inhale again, lengthen your
spine a little bit more.
(inhales)
And let it all go. (exhales)
Softly open your eyes,
and we'll work on our neck a little bit,
so take your right ear
toward your right shoulder.
Bring your right hand on top of your head,
not to pull but just to give
a little bit of extra weight,
and then inhale, reach your left arm out
and flex through your wrist.
Make sure this right shoulder stays soft.
Breathing here,
working out some of that
stiffness in the neck.
Take another long deep
breath in (inhales),
nice long exhale (exhales),
and then slowly release it
and bring your head back to center,
and we'll do the other side,
taking the left ear
toward the left shoulder,
bring your left hand, it's not pulling,
but just a little extra weight.
Inhale, right arm out,
and flex through the wrist
so you can feel the stretch
all the way down the neck,
the shoulder, and the arm.
Make sure this shoulder
releases away from the ear,
as you breathe here (inhales).
Remember, focus on taking nice,
long, smooth breaths.
(exhales)
Let's do another round of breath here.
(inhales)
And then release, and slowly
bring your head back to center,
roll your shoulders back,
one more time, loosening up,
and then we'll make our way
onto the hands and knees and table.
Line up your wrists under your shoulders,
your knees under your
hips, spread your fingers.
As you inhale bring your chest forward,
lift your chin, tailbone up.
As you exhale, round your back
chin toward chest (exhales),
and again, inhale, chest
through the gates of the arms,
widening through the heart, look up.
Exhale, rounding the back,
pull the ribs and belly in and up.
Inhale, one more time.
Widen across your chest,
draw your shoulder blades
away from your ears.
Exhale, rounding your back,
pull the ribs and belly in,
just like a cat stretch.
Come to neutral.
Tuck your toes under
and sit back on your heels.
This is an energizer,
starts with the feet.
If at any time you need to come up,
just do that.
And inhale, sweep your arms up,
keep your front ribs in,
as you exhale take your right hand down
and then reach over and
stretch the side body,
you can crawl your right
fingertips a little bit
on the floor if that works for you.
Soften your shoulders.
If your neck is okay with it, look up.
Take one more breath here.
And then back to center.
We'll inhale, come off of your heels,
just reach up.
As you exhale, bend your elbows,
open your chest
and then sit back on the heels.
If it's too much, you
can stay off of them,
come on to the tops of the feet instead.
Reach arms up, inhale,
resume belly in,
exhale, the left hand comes down,
and stretch to the right side,
you can walk those left
fingertips out to the left.
Breathing, relax through your shoulders.
Take one more breath,
maybe stretching a little
bit more if you can
and then inhale, come
back up off of the heels,
exhale, palms face front, open the chest.
And then return to hands and knees.
This is a great shoulder opener,
so reach your right arm up, inhale,
as you exhale bring it
underneath your left,
come on to your right shoulder
and on to your right ear if you can.
You can reach your left arm up to the sky.
You can keep it there,
or take it to the low back
or hook it onto the thigh.
Now option to extend your
left leg straight back.
You can even take it out to the side
and get into the hip a little bit.
If possible, try and turn your head
so that the back of your head
is moving toward the floor.
Take another breath here.
And then we'll slowly unwind,
making your way back to table.
Wrists under shoulders,
knees under hips once again.
Left arm up, inhale, big stretch,
as you exhale, take it
underneath the right,
come on to your ear if possible,
and then reach your right arm up,
keep it there, take it to the low back,
or hook it around your thigh.
Option to extend that right leg back
and if you want a little hip stretch,
take it out to the right.
Now as you're here,
try and turn through
the ribs and the belly.
And maybe turn the back of your head
toward the earth.
Deep breaths.
One more.
And then we'll slowly unwind this,
coming back into table.
Now walk your hands,
about a handprint in
front of the shoulders,
turn your inner elbows forward,
tuck your toes and come to down dog.
And then take your feet as wide as the mat
and your hands also as wide as the mat.
You can grab the sides of the mat.
Bend your knees and stretch back.
And straightening one leg at a time.
I know my hamstrings are
really tight in the morning,
you never wanna force
anything in your yoga practice
just move slowly with your breath.
It never matters how deep
you get into a stretch.
It's not about that.
It's about the connection
of your mind to your body
and your breath.
One more long round of breath here
and then walk your feet to
about hips distance apart
walking the hands back to the feet,
just slowly bend your knees
so they're nice and soft
and then let your head hang,
belly on thighs, lightly nod your head yes
and turn it no.
And then bring your hands to your shins
and lengthen out your spine,
straighten legs as much as they will
and then exhale, fold again,
knees can be bent or straight.
Walk your feet again as wide as the mats.
And we'll come down into malasana.
So just make your sure
your knees and your toes
are lined up.
Toes can be in,
or I'm sorry, parallel
or they can turn out,
just make sure they're
in line with the toes,
knees and toes.
Now take a big breath here.
Close your eyes.
Think about the day ahead.
What you would like to accomplish.
Take another long breath
here as you sink down.
If it's too much on your knees,
then just come up higher.
And then take your right
fingertips to the earth.
Stretch your left arm up for a breath.
Reach through the fingertips,
feeling that energy through the arm
and then inhale, center.
And then exhale, left fingertips down,
inhale, right arm up,
stretch through that arrow-straight arm.
Feeling the energy move
through your fingertips.
And then back to center.
And you'll bring your hands behind you
as you take a nice seat.
And a comfortable seat sitting up tall.
Close your eyes, bring your hands together
in front of your heart.
Hands to the forehead,
reminding you to have
clear and loving thoughts.
Hands to heart,
reminding you to have clear
and loving intentions.
And hands to the mouth,
reminding you to have clear
and loving communication.
Sending all this positive energy
to all beings everywhere.
Namaste.
It's very important that you
get a great night's sleep.
Practice this class tonight before bedtime
and I promise you will have
a wonderful night's sleep.
