Strengthen Your Balance

Hello, and welcome to yoga armor. My name is Jason Schneider. Balance is Essential. It's the foundation of all athletic movement. It improves performance by allowing efficient power transfer and reduces injury risk, better body control, faster reaction times, enhanced stability and coordination.

It's the secret sauce of athletic performance. For today's practice, I strongly recommend two blocks, or maybe something like a book or a small stool that you can use for a little bit more stability. Ready to get into it? Let's go. We're gonna lay on our backs. So we're gonna see today when we're in our balance, how important it is to ground and also engage.

So we're gonna work on some glute activation in this line down pose. Feed out, draw your toes up towards the sky. Take a nice deep breath in. And as you exhale, squeeze those glutes, also known as your butt muscles, into the center line and feel it actually lift you away from the ground. Hold for three, two, and release.

We're gonna do that one more time. Take a deep breath in, and squeeze. Feel as if you're reaching through your heels. Feel the engagement in your legs. And I want you to remember that because that's going to come back a little bit later on when we're in our practice. Hold for three, for two, and relax.

We're gonna turn around and come into a tabletop position, so whatever feels good to you to come up and come into your tabletop position. We're gonna focus on some balance and some core stability, because in our balance work, wobbly bodies don't balance well. So as we press our right knee into the ground, we're going to lift our left hand And now I'm sorry. Take that right leg back and balance on that left knee. Again, this is also more than just body control.

It's brain control as we're going opposites. Bring back down to the ground. Now we're going to engage. That right leg, left leg is going to go back. Right hand comes up.

See how much of a straight line you can make from your fingertips, all the way along down your back to your heel. And we're holding and bring it down. Always like to add in a few options, if you would like it, bird dog, big breath in, exhale hand comes to knee, inhale long. Exhale, hand to knee. Inhale, hold, and bring it back down to the ground, other side.

Inhale. And exhale. We're doing stability control and a little breath work. And exhale. One more, inhale long.

Make sure to reach as long as you can through the fingertips, and through the heel, and bring it back down. Now you have two options here. You can stay here in your tabletop position. We're going to do a version of a pushup. So actually bringing your knees back a little further, if you would like to go into a full extension of a pushup, but we're not doing an actual pushup.

We're going to focus on the scapula, which is that big bone right there, those big bony wings at the on your back right behind your shoulders. And we're gonna do what's called a scapular push up. So we're gonna push into the ground round our back spread the scapula as far apart as we can. And then on the inhale, allow our chest to drop and draw those bony scapula up towards the ceiling and exhale. And inhale.

So that movement is in the shoulders, in the shoulder blades, and not really the arms, exhale. Inhale. And exhale, hold, and let's bring it into a down dog position. Option to keep your hands on the mat Or if it feels good, and you want to bring blocks onto your mat, now would be a good time in our first down dog of the day, and pedal down. You may have heard this before. First time I ever heard it once, I was teaching a yoga class, and somebody said, walk that dog.

And I was like, that's brilliant. I love that. So let's walk that dog out. Bend the knees, rock the hips, find as much length as you can from where your hands press into the ground, to the tailbone reaching up to the sky, and look for as much length as feels good through the backs of the legs. Let's warm up that ground flow with an inhale forward, exhale halfway down Chaturanga, turn the tops of the feet over, lift, and hold for just a moment in that up dog remembering to draw the scapula's shoulders down your back and exhale back to down dog. That felt good.

We're gonna do that again. Inhale forward. Breath in, exhale halfway down, Shaturanga. Inhale, up dog. And exhale back to down dog.

We have a bunch of those coming up, so we'll get plenty of that work in. But let's work into our standing balance inhale that left leg high, exhale knee to nose, and step it straight through. You want to get that foot directly underneath the knee. We're going to keep blocks close by because I'm going to show you that if you struggle a little bit with balance, having that block close by can be really helpful. We're gonna bring that back leg knee in and come into a standing pose, single tadasana.

Option, toe on the block. It gives you just a little bit more comfort, especially with this movement that we're going to go into. So I'm going to start this first one with my toe on the block. Feel all four corners of that grounded foot, in my case, my left foot, really pressing to the ground. Remember that engagement we worked on earlier? Feel the squeeze through that left leg.

Draw the glutes into the center line. Now hardest thing of the most, close your eyes. How does that change the work in You don't have to close them tight. Just for a moment, now open them up. Whoo. Both feet come to the ground.

Love it. Inhale. Reach it up. Exhale forward fold. We're gonna take this slow. Inhale halfway up.

Nice long spine. Again, hands on blocks, depending on your level of flexibility. And as we exhale step back and take it through a ground flow or straight to down dog, exhale, inhale, up dog, and exhale back down dog. Other side. Inhale that right leg high. And exhale, step it through, making sure that that heals directly beneath the knee.

Use your strength, press into that right leg to lift. Remember you have the option of a block at the front of your mat. I recommend it for the first round just so that you can get the feeling for this. Hands at your heart to help you with that stability. Engage, squeeze, wrap, close your eyes. Try to count.

Five, four, Three, two, open the eyes, both feet to the ground. Inhale. Reach the sky, lift the heart, breath in and exhale forward fold. Take that moment to readjust your blocks. Inhale halfway up, exhale forward, hold, bending the knees, step it back, and take it through your flow, or straight to down dog.

Be sure to match as much as possible movement to breath. Let's do that one more time on each side. Inhale that left leg high. Knee to nose, exhale. Place the block up front if you think you might need to use it, but it's an option.

Use your strength to lift. Let's challenge ourselves. Hands at the heart, squeeze and close the eyes. Who that changes things? For three, two, and one, if I die.

Do you feel that wobbled? Do you feel that shake? That's a good thing. That means that we're challenging ourselves to get stronger, inhale up and exhale forward fold. Inhale halfway up. And again, we're gonna step it back through your flow or straight to down dog.

We have one more side. Not my strong side. So let's see how this goes. Email right leg goes high. XL, step it through.

Slow wins the game. Bring it up. Remember, block at the front of your Mac for a little more stability. Close your eyes. Oh, I embrace the challenge here, and I'm trying not to grip on with my toes For three, for two. Woo shaky, and I'll reach it up.

I like to believe every time getting a little stronger, exhale, inhale halfway up, and either step or float the feet back into Chaturanga, up dog, and exhale back to down dog. You have options. You can tiptoe. You can step. You can float the feet up between the hands into forward fold.

And slowly come into standing pose, hands at your heart or hands at your side, and just take a moment. Set yourself because we're going to move into our flow. And you're going to find challenges throughout this flow today. Think of this as your training. You will fall.

You will wobble. You will shake, and that means that we're working to get stronger. So never beat down on yourself because you're working to make improvements. Here we go. Starting with the right leg, we're gonna step back into a crescent pose.

For our first crescent pose, I like to keep my back knee a little bent until my hips are nice and warmed up, but we're gonna work to drop our tailbone down and again feel that engagement through our abdominals, extend all the way through the fingertips. And we're going to work on a few knee drops. Take a deep breath in and exhale. Drop that knee down. Just a tap and up. And exhale.

And up. And exhale, and up. Take a breath in, and warrior three. You have blocks. Those are options at the front of your mat.

Hands can be at your heart. Hands can be reaching straight out in front of you. Hands can be reaching back. You have so many options here slowly bring that right knee up into your single leg stance, your tadasana. For tree pose, I'll give you the three different options.

If you're starting out with your practice and you feel more comfortable being grounded, place that toe lightly against the ground in the heel of that right foot just to the inside of your ankle. Low tree, placing that right foot to the inside of the left shin or the left calf. I feel a little bit stronger, and by all means feel free to help it up. Take that right foot above the knee against the left inside thigh. If you feel that your left hip is popping out, you're going to hear me say pin those glutes into the center line, be a nice straight tree and grow the branches.

And slowly step back with that right leg into a long lunge, making sure those ribs are staying off of that front leg. We're gonna build on to this in a moment. But for now, blocks or hand the hands down to the blocks or to the mat, and take it back and let's rinse it out with a flow. Inhale, up dog, exhale back to down dog. And give it a little pedal out.

Moving on to the other side. Come up high on the balls of the feet, bend the knees, step, or float, or tip toe the feet to the front of the mat. Forward fold. Big inhale all the way to stand, hands at heart, and we're gonna move on to our other leg. So pressing that right foot into the ground, Step back, find your crescent.

Remember softness in that back knee until we warm up the hip flexors, and on the exhale drop. Inhale up, exhale drop, inhale up, exhale, slow drop, inhale up, and slowly into warrior three, blocks are an option, hands at heart, extend, back lots of options. How straight can you be from the crown of your head to your heel? Like you have a broomstick along your spine, slowly come up into your single leg stance, tadasana. Remember you have your three options, your grounded tree, your low tree, or your high tree.

Find what works for you. Be sure that that hip is not sticking out. We pin both glutes into the center line My tree is rocking in the wind, extend those branches and slowly step back. And bring those blocks down. We're in that long lunge, we bring our ribcage by rolling those muscles into the center line to lift our ribs off of that front leg.

Hands come down. And take it back. Chaturanga, updog, and down dog. Can we do that one more time, on each side? I think so. I love repeating because it gives me a chance, one, that I built some familiarity. And two, to say, what new can I bring to this? Come up high on the balls of the feet, step float or fly the feet towards the front of the mat in your forward fold, inhale all the way up and exhale hands to heart.

Choose if you're going to use your blocks We're going to ground through that left foot, bring that right knee up, slowly step it back, crescent pose. What could we maybe add in here? Length through that back leg, maybe a little movement through the arms as we exhale down to our knee drop, draw the shoulder blades down. Almost as if you were pulling a band apart, inhale come on up. Let's do that again.

Pull that band apart, lift the heart, inhale up. Exhale down. Hold here. And can you start to lean that weight forward and come right into your warrior three? Hands at heart, blocks back forward.

Choose options. Try different things. See What feels good, but also what challenges you. Single leg tadasana. A little more challenge, hands at heart, our hands up high towards the sky. Choose your tree, high, medium or low.

When you extend your branches, did your shoulders move up to your ears? Can you drop them down? Spread those branches wide. And slowly, step back in that lunge, hands come to the ground. We're gonna press into our right hand. Roll to the outer edge of that right foot and bring that left foot back for just a momentary side plank. Stag, stagger your feet, stack your feet, maybe fallen tree or fallen star, right into your vinyasa, chaturanga, updog, down dog.

My personal challenge, I'm gonna try to hold that for just one second more on the other side. Come up high on the balls of the feet, soften those knees, step float, fly forward. Hold for a moment in that forward fold. Big breath in all the way to stand. And exhale hands to heart.

Don't rush into it. Pressing into that right leg now. Let's bring that left leg up and slowly step it back into your crescent pose. Hands high, heart high. Length through the spine as much length as you can get through that left leg without causing you any pain or discomfort in your hip flexors.

And I want you to imagine you have that imaginary rope, exhale drop that back knee and pull that rope apart. Inhale up nice and tall, and exhale pull it apart. Inhale up nice and tall. Exhale pull it apart. And from here, shift the weight forward, warrior three.

In that warrior three grounded through your base leg, feel the engagement through that base leg, extend through that lifted leg long through the spine. Slowly, bring that knee up into your single tadasan member You can lift those hands high. For a little extra challenge, you can keep them at your heart and find your tree pose. They say the pose starts exactly when you want it to stop. So we're going to hold those branches nice and wide and slowly step that foot back into our side plank, bringing that left hand down to the ground, rolling to the outer edge of the left foot. I promise an extra second this time and drag that foot back and find your stack or your stagger How slow can you return that right hand to the ground and take it through your flow?

And back. We're gonna move through our standing flow now. Starting with that left leg, reach that left leg high, And on the exhale, step the left leg through. This time, our crescent and our lunge are gonna combine for a lightning crescent, from our fingertips, to our heel, our one long straight line. See how much you can extend from your hips up through your rib cage and shoot that lightning through your fingertips. Big breath in. And on the exhale, open up into warrior two.

Options, you press your feet into the ground and you feel strong through the lower half of your body. Remember those glutes reaching you to the center line muscles wrapping around the abdominal shoulder blades down, extend through the fingertips, or option for a little extra strength. Imagine that you are passing your knuckles against each wall and you feel that strength through your body. Big breath in. And on the exhale, Turn neutral, working to keep that back heel down, warrior one.

If you feel tight through your hips, it doesn't feel good on your back. Open your legs a little wider. Just to be nice to your hips. Draw that left hip back without moving that left knee. Inhale, and on the exhale as hands come down to the center line, we're going to extend them out and lean forward into our airplane.

Energy going out through the wings of your plane, reaching back through your heel. Gaze, try to keep it neutral and length through the back of the neck. Slowly pull that right knee in and come into your single leg stance. A little strength work here. On the exhale, that right knee is gonna drop right behind that left calf.

You can bring the toe to the ground or first to extra shiva squat strength, tuck it in right behind that calf and keep it floating off the ground, tadasana. Inhale, and exhale. Inhale, and exhale. One more time. Stand up. And tree. Find the part. When your leg gets tired, you gotta find the balance moment.

Remember everything we worked on, engage and squeeze and bring that right foot to the ground. Urdvastasana, big breath in, and exhale forward fold. Inhale halfway up. And as we exhale step or float the feet back, inhale up and exhale back. Heavy breathing, because we're going to do it on the other side now.

Inhale, the right leg high, knee to nose, step it through, lightning crescent. How low can you get that rib cage without setting your rib cage on your legs? Keep it nice and long. Feel the energy through the fingertips. On your next inhale, open into Warrior two.

I gave you those options, length through the fingertips, or fists. I like to take a couple extra breaths, especially in the beginning, and take stock from the ground up, called like a body scan. One more big breath. And turn into warrior one. Back foot stays grounded.

Hips rotate towards the front of your mat. Drawing the right hip back and allowing that left hip to come forward. Open the legs a little more, open the feet, stance, a little wider if it feels better on your back. Inhale, reach to the sky, exhale hands go out, and warrior three airplane arms. I'll give you another challenge as we go through this again to really concentrate on those hips.

Slowly raise that left knee up. Your single leg stance tadasana, and let's prepare for our shiva squats. Option to keep that toe off the ground. Or tuck it in and keep it hovering up and exhale. Find the balance.

Moving slow. Gaze, your drishti means a lot. Where are you looking? An unmovable object, something that is stable and come back up and find your tree pose. Choose your height.

Never against the knee, above or below. And both feet ground, nice reach to the sky, lift the heart, raise the eyes, and exhale forward fold. Inhale halfway up, and bend the knees step, float, take it down. I can hear you from here. And I hear you saying, alright, Jason.

Think we got it. Let's do it one more time. Challenge ourselves even a little more. Left leg goes high, three legged dog. And on the exhale, step that left leg through lightning crescent, ribcage floating off the ground.

75, 85% of that weight in that front leg, that locked back leg nice and light. On the inhale, open up into warrior two and feel evenly weighted pressing down through that outer edge of that back foot, that weight directly over that front knee. Tail bone reaching down. Glute squeezing in the center, wrap shoulders down. Big swing of that back arm, right arm towards the front for Warrior One.

Can you feel like you're extending, creating length through that left leg by drawing that left hip back and allowing the right hip. Just come forward just slightly. Airplane, arms out, lean forward, warrior three. Can you feel is your right hip lifted If it is, can you drop that right hip? But without allowing the right leg to drop, draw that right knee into chest. Hands at your heart, or lifted and prepare for our Sheva squat repeats.

Three rounds, breath in, and exhale. Inhale up. The faster you move, the worse your balance is gonna be. Inhale up. And exhale, inhale up to tree pose.

Use a little help if you need it. Bringing that right foot to the inside of that left thigh. Squeeze, engage. We learn that way back in the beginning. Right foot comes to the ground. Inhale, lift away from the ground and exhale forward fold. Inhale halfway up.

And as we exhale, step, float, or fly, if it's in your practice, and take it back. Got one more in you. Well, we have to to even out our sides. Right leg goes high with that breath in, exhale, step it through, lightning crescent. Remember we talked about 75, 85% of that weight in that front leg.

Hold for another breath. Again, feeling that engagement through the abdominals so that we know that our ribs are off of that front leg. And on your next big breath, open up into your warrior too. When you squeeze your glutes into the centerline, it helps to open up and prevent that front knee from falling in. Hands open, hands closed.

Think less about tension in your hands and more about extending that energy. Out to the walls in front and behind you, sweep up into warrior one, adjust that back foot as necessary, making sure that that heel stays grounded in the back. Good. Ready for that airplane, hands reaching out, slowly lean forward, and lift that left leg. Now I automatically can feel that my left hit is up high. So I'm going to drop that left hip and raise that left heel. Slowly bring that left leg.

Me up for that single tadas and then prepare yourself for your shiva squats. And on the exhale, slow. Inhale up. As slow as you move down, as as slow as you come up. Oh, embrace the shake of the leg. Quality of movement, and up, and tree pose I'm very deeply concentrated.

I hope you are too. Our tree trunk pressing firmly into the ground, and slowly lower that left leg down. Whoo. Breathen, and exhale into your forward fold. One more time. Inhale halfway up, hands can be on your shins, your legs, still connected to your blocks, and we're going to take it down.

Step or float it back through one more. Vinyasa, and exhale back to down dog. We have a little bit of work to do on the ground. So let's bring our knees down to the ground for a moment. Bring arches in and just give ourselves a mindful pause.

Can you hear me breathing? Can you hear yourself breathing? Let's take that mindful moment before we move on. So that we can enter this last block strong and ready. When you're ready, join me. I'm gonna move my blocks off to the side by all means, feel free to use them. Press my hands into the ground and come into a high plank.

You can also do a plank on your knees. We're looking for stability We want to take all the hip rock out, feet are nice and wide. Drop the tailbone down towards the heels, feel those muscles in your abdominals, engage and reach into the center line, and shoulder taps. One, two. Minimal hip rock. One.

Two. Good. One. I hope you can hear my shoulder is going, crack, crack, crack, crack, one, two, really dig those feet into the ground. One, two, one more time. One, two. Lovely down onto your belly for a moment.

You can bring your chin to the ground, forehead to the ground, cheek. I'm gonna go forehead down. Hands back, palms down. Working on that scapular engagement. We're gonna look for scapular stability, drawing the shoulder blades down, and now squeeze them into the back and lift.

And hold. For three, for two, and for one. Take a moment. Really looking for that lift, that squeeze, and drawing down your back. Lift a little higher.

Oh, look at that ad. All that space. Do you have space to lift and still draw like you're reaching your fingertips towards the toe side of your mat, and bring it down. Give it a little rock. Come up onto your knees. And roll over onto your bum.

We're gonna still stay doing a little core work. Starting on the ground, bring the knees up. Draw the shoulder blades up. Lift and hold. Half boat from the knees to the ankles parallel to the mat.

Try not to let them drop. Slowly bring it down, heels come down. That feels good on your back. Option. Hold on behind the thighs. Option to take a little more challenging.

Come up. Slow down, keeping the feet off the ground, shoulder blades off the ground, up, and down, and up, And, you ready for it? Up and hold. When do we stop? Just when we want it to stop, we go a little bit longer.

We hold for five. For four. Keep those legs up. Three, two. And slowly lower yourself back down to the ground. Bring those knees up over the hips. Be careful of any blocks or anything that might be around you. Extend the arms out.

Drop both knees down to the right side. The knees may not get down to the ground, but we wanna try to keep the shoulders engaged. Two options, you have blocks. You can take a block You can stick the blocks between your legs. You can also put the blocks underneath your knee.

I prefer between my knees, because then I get to take it with me, inhale up, and exhale down to the opposite side. If your back shoulder, the one that's opposite of your knees lifts, bring your knees up just slightly. That's where placing that block underneath may help slightly tighter on one side than the other. Inhale up, and take it down to the opposite side. Phew.

Each time, noticing if a little more space comes into your body. Can you turn your gaze to the opposite hand of where your knees are? In my case, turn in my gaze out towards my left hand. Inhale up and to the opposite side. Turning my gaze towards my right. Notice if you're gripping at all, and can you just sink into the ground?

Take one more final breath. Remove the block if you have it and come back to center and extend the legs out to the ground. Hands out to your sides, palms up. Give yourself a mindful moment. Breathe, and on the exhale relax every muscle.

Little movement in the fingers. Roll of the wrists, movement in the ankles, squeezing of the toes. We're gonna return back to a sitting up position Whether you like to roll to your side in the fetal position or maybe grab onto those legs crossing at the ankles, give yourself a rock and a roll to a sitting up position. And when you're ready, legs crossed, easy, hands in your lap, lengthen the spine, close your eyes. They say when you take one of your senses away, the rest heightened, and what I'm hoping is that you listen carefully.

Balance isn't something you find. It's something that you create. Yoga armor will help you be strong, help you find balance, and create more achievement more strength, more power as an athlete. Thank you for joining us. Please come back and practice with us again.