Healthy Aging

Hello, friends. Welcome back. Lovely to have you here for another practice. Today for our class, you'll want a blanket, a block, resistant band, and your hand weights. And we'll get started in our class for healthy aging. To begin with, I wanna encourage you to get your blanket set up about the middle of your mat, for some padding for your knees, and that'll be useful for a first piece. And then take a block, maybe in your medium position, or maybe you need two blocks, and we're gonna bring that back between our ankles.

And you can decide if that doesn't work for you to something else. Let's have hand weights to your side, and we'll get them to them in a moment. Okay? So settle yourself in a way where your spine feels long. And you feel grounded here with your hands pressing down lightly against your thighs. Oriented to your horizon line with your eyes.

And if you're comfortable, you might even soften your gaze to look down while keeping your posture or close your eyes entirely. And then maybe we center ourselves with our breath for a few cycles, feeling the air come in through your nose, moving towards chest, towards upper abdomen, and then exhaling from that abdomen area all the way back up toward the nose. K. Centering brass, feeling the air going in towards your chest, maybe the essence of the breath going down towards the base of your spine. And exhale that breath rising back up towards the nose on exhale. One more grounding brass, following the brass to the chest, the essence of the brass going towards the tailbone and down into the earth.

Exaling the breath rising up as you maintain your posture. Alright. When you're ready, if your eyes closed, just let your eyes slowly open, letting in a little bit more light. I'm gonna take one of your hand weights to start with and just hold it in front of your chest. As you hold these ends, you're gonna raise that up into the air a little bit above your head, and we're gonna start to draw a little bit of a circle with the weights going to the left, back, and right. It's kind of a nice way to warm up your shoulders. I sometimes do this with a block as well. But also I suppose do this with a strap.

I love the addition of a little bit of weights. And this is just the two pound weight. So it's pretty manageable. And you're feeling all these different ways you're moving your shoulders here. K. Let's put it in reverse for a moment and see what happens when you flip it around the other way.

What other areas of the shoulder or upper mid back do you feel as you move the weight around your head? Extra challenge if you have a ponytail on top of your head or a bun. Alright. So let's go ahead and take that weight down. Okay. Now let's have a weight in each hand, and we're gonna bring the weights up to your shoulders.

So one of the moves is just simply going straight up and then back to the shoulders. What we can add is the lifting off your block as you push up, and as the way it's come back down, we sit down lightly onto your block. K. So you choose the lift or no lift, but the arms come up, and we slowly sit back down. Engage those legs perhaps and come up and come down. I love that block between the ankles because it keeps my feet from sliding together. Go up and slowly take it down.

Not rushing. Again, up, and some knees might be cranky. Right? So just doing the arm work can also be an option in that kneeling position. Let's do just a couple more, up and down. And I'll show that last one.

Maybe we're all in the kneeling and just doing this three times together. One, two, and now three. Hey. Leave your arms at your side, then maybe we can all come to the kneeling position now. Let's take your left arm up towards your ear and start to slide your right hand down towards your leg and look a little bit towards your right hand or the right side of your yoga mat. Let's take that right hand up to meet your left hand. Take your left arm down and we look towards your left hand or to the left side of your mat, the slight tip to your left.

And then take that left arm back up by your ear. And again, right arm comes down. Slide your hand down your leg. Tip to the side, look to the right. Right hand comes up to meet the left arm.

Take your left arm down. A little tip to the side, look to the left. And then take that left arm up. Alright. Let's take both arms down and let's go ahead and move that block out of your way and turn to face the long side a short side of your mat. And we'll set the weights to the outer edges for a moment. Let's put your hands on the floor and wiggle your legs back so that you can come into a plank position.

So we have the knees off the floor for a moment. Rock your body a little bit forward and back. So we're starting to wake up legs, the torso, the shoulders with a little bit of our plank pose. Now let's see if we can hold still and try to put even weight in right hand, left hand, equally pressing down right foot, left foot. And one more moment, letting your back body open a little bit more towards the sky. Okay. Now knees back to the blanket.

Grab a hold of your hand weights, and let's come up to that kneeling position. Swing your left foot forward and point your right toes straight back. Alright. Now we're gonna turn here, your palms up towards the ceiling as you stretch your arms forward, holding the weights with palms up. We're gonna deepen the lunge as we pull the weights towards your ribs. And you move back, hold your arms forward, and two, pull the weights towards your ribs.

You reach forward, and three, pull back lunge. Hold the arms forward. Four. Lunch your arms out. And five. Lunch Hold the weights out, and let's put the weights down, curl your back toes under. And as we lift that back knee, if you wanna make the transfer to plank here, or put both knees down, walk your hands forward, and let's come to plank that way.

So just recenter ourselves, give our knees a break for a moment as we hold plank. And maybe delighting each year of this post just gets a little bit easier as you build more strength. Knees down, grab your weights, and then come back up to kneeling. Right foot forward, left foot points back. K. So let's have your palms face up as you hold your weights.

And then let's do our lunge with the weights by the ribs. Arms in front of you. And again, lunge, two open chest. Hold those arms out. Lunch three.

And hold those arms out and lunge four. Hold those arms out. And lunge five. And hold those arms out. Let's bring your arms down.

Bring your right knee to the blanket, and we're gonna have those weights to the side just for a second. And then let's go ahead and come to plank just to kinda get your orientation. And then we'll bring these to the floor pelvis to the blankets, and then grab your weights and bring them out in front of you. K. So we may or may not use them for this next piece depending on what weight you're working with. Point your toes back and lower your forehead just above the floor.

So try it with me for a moment to lift your right foot off the ground and your left hand. So you've got that diagonal lift, and then come back to neutral. Try to lift your left foot and your right hands. And we come back to neutral. So we can keep doing that or grab your left weight as you lift your right foot and your left hand.

Let's see if that works for you and come down left foot lifts, maybe you grab your weight, lift your right hand, and come down. K. So let's work with the one that's best for your body. Right foot and left hand come up with or without a weight. Lower. Left leg and right arm come up and lower, right foot left arm, lower, left foot right arm, lower again, right foot left arm, lower. Last one, left leg, right arm, and lower. K. Now just rest your hands on your weights, on top of your weights, and you might wiggle your hips a little bit right and left here. Take a comfortable belly breath in and out.

So next phase, we're gonna bend your knees. So toes point toward the ceiling. And then we'll look a little bit forward, either stay here or swing your hands back to touch your thighs. And then the legs go straight back to the floor, hands rest again on your weights as you come to neutral. Bend those knees, point your toes up, look forward, swing your hands back, touch your thighs, legs straight, arms in front of your paws.

We start with the legs, bend those knees, Look forward, swing the hands back, touch the legs, legs down, arms forward. Again, bend those knees, look a little bit forward, swang the hands back, touch your thighs. And after this last one, slide your hands under your forehead for a second, wiggle your hips, or maybe like bending your knees and wiggle your hips as your feet. Tip a little bit left and right like you would in windshield wiper pose. Kind of a nice way to release the hips here.

Alright. Now let's go ahead. Put those legs down for just a second. And take a pause, a comfortable belly breath in and out. Alright. Let's lift your head and bring your hands by your chest, and we'll get ready to press ourselves up just to the halfway point where we're gonna put the knees back on your blanket.

Let's grab one weight, maybe in your left hand, keep your right knee on your blanket and stretch your left leg straight back. Okay. The right hand under your right shoulder and the big toe side of that left foot is on the floor. So what we'll do is have your left hand with the weight reach straight out in front of you for a moment hold up. And let's start to lift your back foot. So it's sort of mimicking half moon as you stretch your left arm across to the to the right so your arm is parallel.

Lower your foot as your arm comes up. Lift your foot, stretch your left arm to the right. Foot down arm up. Lift your foot, drop that left arm by your ear, come back to neutral, lift your foot, nice side body stretch, foot down arm up one more, lift your left foot, stretch across. K. And then let's tip all the way up, and we'll switch and go ahead and slide your left hand to the floor.

You might have that left leg back like a kickstand and then have your right foot meet the floor. K. You might reach up in whatever way is best for your right shoulder and and eventually maybe put more weight on that left hand. Especially as we lift your right foot. Take your arm towards your ear and then drop your foot down, right arm up. Lift your foot stretch that right arm across the room.

Foot down arm up, and three foot up, stretch your arm across the room. Lower the foot reach up. The leg comes up again, arm across. Hold that weight up foot down last one, foot up, and reach across. Alright. Let's tip on up and put both knees on your blanket.

Alright. So we can set the weights down just for a second here. And as you curl your toes under, nice, to give them a little stretch, if you can do that move. Let's go ahead from here and fold your blanket and get that set out of the way. As we put our hands down and stretch your legs back, and let's do a little downward dog to open up the legs a little bit more, your side body and your shoulders. So wag your tail, walk your dog, whatever feels like it helps you get a little bit more into your body in this moment. K. And if you don't put your head down, you might just have your head a little bit more lifted looking forward.

Okay. Now start to walk your feet towards the back of your wrist, and we'll end up coming into a bent knee forward fold for just a moment. Let yourself fold over those very bent knees. More to release your back than to stretch your hamstrings. And when you feel satisfied here, then let's start to bring yourself up towards standing. And we wanna roll those shoulders back a few times as you come up.

And then let's see where your band might be. And we're gonna use your resistant band for the next couple moves. K. So I'm gonna be here more at the middle of the mat, and I'm gonna put my left heel on one end of the resistant band. Then I'm gonna take my right foot and set it up like you would in tree pose. Kind of a familiar pose.

So get yourself set up here, hold the band in front of you, and I'm gonna gather a bunch of it in my hand. I'm gonna use both hands to help me work on elongation. So I'm gonna pull the band up towards the ceiling, and I get a little bit more hugging into my standing leg hip, my left hip, spine gets a little taller. And then they release slowly. And you might notice the hip kind of swings back out.

Let's pull up and get taller longer and release. K. So different bands have different tension. So you might kind of start to find a range or a range of band colors can be nice for you to do different work coming. This one's a slightly less tension than one you might see me in other classes that's blue. This one's a little bit less tense.

Which feels good for my shoulders here. Let's do just maybe one more. Just warming up our shoulders and then take a pause as you find the height of the pose, peek of your tree, take a moment here, and then release down. K. Now put your right foot down on the floor. And now we're gonna just do a diagonal line where you pull your right arm out to the right, and then take that hand back to the left.

Nice neutral spine, reach out to your right neutral. Reach up to your right, neutral, to the right. You kinda feel how one arm moves rather than moving the arms together going up. Recenter to the left. Let's do a total of eight. So we've got two more to do.

Going out to your right, opens the chest, which hopefully feels pretty good. And the recenter. Alright. Now let's try that on your other side and see what it feels like when you pin that down with your right heel, and then set up tree pose. So you've got your left heel somewhere in your inner right in her leg zone, gather a bunch of band in your hand, and they'll start to pull up and kind of maybe feel how this pulls that right hip into center. It gives you more lift off that standing femur.

And then come down. It's also a little challenge in your shoulders. Okay? Kind of feel your way up, that benefit of getting more lift through your core, length in your spine, and take it down. And again, going up, my feeling that shoulder stretch and come down going up, feel that stretch, and come down. This last one will do just a slightly longer hold just to dial in all the benefits here grounding that right foot, a little bit more strength in that right hip glute area, long spine, strong shoulders. And then take it down slowly.

You step out to your left, and now your left hand gets the band right arm at your side. And you might need to adjust the tension, but you're going to your left and the hands to the right. Go out to your left and looking straight ahead. Reach out to your left center. And for re center.

Five. Recenter. Six. Seven. Back to your hip and eight. Alright. Now let's go ahead and lift our heel and release that bands. So we're gonna take a walk to one edge of your yoga mat and put your feet down about the middle of the bands and your feet about hip distance apart. So then we've got the ends in our hands.

And as you bend your knees, we're gonna crisscross this band in front, and you'll be holding down somewhat by your knees. K. So, and then the arm part that we're gonna do here is pulling the elbows up. And then down to straight arms. So we're pulling the elbows up and arms down. So we're gonna add as a step out as we pull our elbows up and the deeper squat.

Feed it closer together, you release. The back is more straight, legs more straight. We're gonna do a squat and pull up with our elbows beat together or closer together. Step and pull and together. Step and pull and together.

So we get some leg work, shoulder work, back work, crisscross pull up. Pretty awesome little move. And then back together, let's do another walk across the mat. You don't have to go into a deep leg squat to get that benefit. And some of you might be going into a little deeper leg squat. K. We'll get back towards the center.

And hopefully that was enough to help you fall a little bit more in love with your bands and some of that resistance work. So let's go ahead and get rid rid of that part now. K. We're gonna turn the face one more time the short end of your mat. And as we face this short end, we're gonna open up the band and have it in our hands. Let's have your right leg step back so that you end up in your warrior one stance.

We'll hold the weight the band up above your head and pull a little bit on that band. Keep your leg position and pull the band to the back of the head. And then take it up And again, when we take it down to the back of the head, pull a little wider, arms come up, and we take it down and pull a little wider, and come up, pull down, pull wide, and come up, and one more. So I think we're getting five total. K. Now as you come up, we're gonna do a little rotation to your left and pull the band to the top of the head. Arms up, look forward.

Do a little rotation and then pull the bands at the top of the head. Release the tension look forward one last time. Rotate and pull the bands at the top of your head. Forward, and take your arms down and your back foot forward. Let's step back with your left foot, and then take your arms up.

Kinda move through that again. This time, let's take your band to the front of the chest and then arms up. Pull a little wider as you get to the top of your chest. Reach up. Pull down top of the chest.

Pull wider. Going up, release attention, pull down, pull wider. Going up, come down, pull wide. K. Now when you go up, let's bring it again, straight arms, turn to your right, and then pull the band to the top of the head and hold. Arms up, look forward.

Turn to your right, then pull the band to the top of your head. Arm up, look forward. Last one. Arms are straight. We turn.

Pull to the top of your head. Arms up and then take those arms down. Step your back leg forward. And now we can say goodbye to the band for a little bit. Get back to it later. Grab your hand weights, and let's open up and face the long side of your mat for a moment.

So let's give us another warrior two option of things we can play with. So let's turn your right foot out, bend your knee, and adjust your legs so you feel stable here. We'll do a little bit of arm work. So we have the arms out and turn your palms to face up. So we're just gonna do a little curl where you bring your weights to your shoulders and then open back out.

Hold those weights curl in towards your shoulders, and then go back out. Curl in. And then go back out. Curle in and out. Getting those Popeye arms. She curl in and out.

And curl in and out and take your arms down. Turn your right foot in. Bring your feet a little bit closer together. So it's easy to turn your left foot out. K. And then with your arms out turn your palms up, bend your front left knee, aligning yourself here and more your two.

Now let's get to the arm part, curl in, and arms lengthen out. And two and release out. And three, and release out. Four, release out. And five, release out. Let's take those arms down to your side. Turn your foot forward and let's heal, toe our legs and feet towards each other and just roll your shoulders for a moment, and take a big exhale in mountain pose. Now let's let the legs wiggle a little bit wider again to our straddle position with the knees bent, ankle bent, weights to the shoulders.

So as we lift our right here, we're gonna lift the right arm straight up. And then come down. Take your left heel up as your arm comes up. Back to neutral. Now slowly lift both heels as your arms come up, and we take it back down. Lengthen up through your right side, lift your heel.

Come down, lift up through your left side. Come down, and we got both heels up, both arms up a moment of balance. Lower. Okay. One more because I'm sure you're having so much fun go up through the right side and down. Left side.

And down. And then both heels going up. Going up. And then back to center. Alright. Straighten your legs, bring your legs in, and let's put our weights over to a side. And we're gonna come down to the floor here.

So when you come down, have your hands a little bit back behind you so we can have our legs straight on the ground in front of you. So we're gonna have the left leg just lift straight up and down straight up and down engaging the quadricep. Going up and down and up and down. Let's do one more. Going up and down. K. Now your right side, just lift that leg up. As far as you're comfortable going up, and you might start to feel that quadrice up engage when you do that lift.

That'll be enough lifting as soon as you feel that engaged. Alright. Now let's come down to the floor. And as you bring yourself to the floor, you wanna have your band around again. So once you get yourself situated here, let's take your right foot into your band. And pull pretty firmly your band against your foot so that you can point and flex against that band.

Okay. So you're kind of challenging your ankle a little bit in the cap as you're pulling pretty firmly against that band. Are you feeling that out? Now let's release that tension and put your left foot in, and you might open up your band a little bit if it rolled up and you're pulling pretty firmly, the straight ish leg point and flex and feel how that works with your calf, your ankle, should feel like a fair amount of work. Push against the band point and flex. Okay. Now release that tension and let's put both feet in the band and then find the ends.

K. We're gonna hold the ends with both hands and pull your arms a little bit back towards your ears as you invite your legs to drop a little bit forwards. Slowly, come back to your center position. Okay. Start with your arms. Pull back. And to see how much your legs might go forward. Slowly, come back to your center.

Again, arms back, legs forward with control releasing back to center. Try a couple more. Arms back, legs forward. And back to center. Lakes forward, arms back.

Really keeping a neutral spine. One more. And now as we recenter, bring your knees towards your chest. And you might drop your heels down and just rock a little side to side for a second. Let's do one last thing with your strap with your feet on the ground, hip distance apart, band above your chest, hands shoulder distance apart. Let your legs tilt a little bit to the right pull your arms really wide until your hands meet the floor and look to your left.

Slowly, bringing the arms up as your legs tip back to center. Lakes to the left, pull your arms slowly wide, look to the right. And recenter. One more time. Legg's right. Pull your arms wide. Look to the left.

Center. Lakes to the left. Arms wide. Look to your right. Back to center. Wonderful work.

Let's release your band to your side. And take a moment with your palms open towards the sky. You might keep your feet on the ground for a little pause, relaxation. Or maybe you like straight legs, a moment of proper shavasanum, gliding the ground, the earth supports you. And focusing again on your breath for a moment or two, just by noticing the breath, not necessarily changing the breaths.

See, focusing on the breath and keep us for another moment more present right here right now. Alright. And then any wiggling of fingers and toes after our little rest and pause moment of gratitude as you bend your legs for all that your body was able to do today, and whether you like rocking up or rolling to a side, oh, let's bring yourself up. And, again, I'm a huge fan of re centering yourself even if it's brief, in the best way possible. So maybe with a blanket under your hips or a block underneath you. Alright. Find that posture that you might visit again throughout the day.

And maybe set that intention to check into your breath every now and then to be a little bit more present, connected to your body. Thanks everybody for being here. Nava stay.