Yoga for Recovery Day

Hello, and welcome to yoga, rest and recovery. My name is Jason Schneider. Flexibility and rest are critical for athletes to maximize performance. Prevent injury, and ensure long time sustainable success. Rest allows the body to repair the muscle tissue, reduce fatigue, and manage stress, ultimately improving your strength and your power output. As a former athlete, when people used to tell me to stretch and to take yoga, I used to say, I can't sit still.

But as an athlete, I ask you to embrace that challenge because these are the moments that are so crucial to our long term success as athletes. We must find those quiet moments. And as an athlete, you'll understand this. Embrace the challenge. Find those moments where you want to get out of the stretch.

Take a deep breath and sink deeper into it. So you're ready to embrace the challenge. Let's go. We're gonna start out on our backs. Find in a nice comfortable position. If for any reason lying on your back, feels a little bit tense on your lower back.

You can always bend your knees or put something like blocks underneath your feet, just to raise your feet up slightly. And we're gonna focus on some breathing techniques We're gonna start with four counts, inhale, four counts, exhale. Here we go. Inhale. Two, three, four, hold.

And exhale four, three, two, and one. Do it again. Inhale for four. An exhale for four, four, three, two, and one. Can you add two counts to that? Six counts in.

Hold, and six counts out. Slowly. I do that again, six counts in. Hold and exhale for six. One more time for six, inhale.

At exhale. Now, let's see if we can do that for eight counts. So slow the inhale down. Here we go. An exhale.

Big breath in, eight counts out, and eight counts out. Do that one more time, slow eight counts in. And slow, eight counts out. If you're had dry eyes closed, blink your eyes open. And for this class, we're definitely gonna want a strap or some blocks around.

So if you haven't gotten those, you might wanna grab those. And we're gonna find that strap. And we're gonna start with our right leg. Create a loop at the end of the strap. Just big enough that you can be able to put your foot in your foot in.

Bring that right leg up and wrap that around the ball of your foot, just around the ball of your foot. Try to keep it up off the arch. Extend that right leg towards the sky using just one hand, keeping that right shoulder down. If you are like me, like most athletes, and we have very tight hamstrings, use a little flossing technique, a little bend, and an exhale strengthen, inhale bend, and exhale straighten, and bring slightly forward towards the top of your mat, soften, inhale bend, and exhale straighten, bringing the toes up towards the mat. We hold only as much as we can still keep that shoulder against the ground through the one more time, inhale soften.

And exhale straighten and bring it up towards the head side of the mat. And hold it there. A little nuance is to draw the toes down towards your face reach up through the heel, feel that stretch all the way through the calves. And we're gonna hold on this side, bringing that right foot on top of our left knee. You can take the strap, keep it close by because we're gonna use it on the other side.

And we're just gonna set this off to the side of our mat. And in this cross legged position with that right ankle on top of that left knee, we're gonna pretend we have string on that left knee, and we're pulling that string in towards our face. We're gonna take our right hand through the center, left hand around, and grab onto the back of that left thigh, and gently pull in towards your face. Figure four. If it's in your practice and your flexibility and you want to reach up and grab hold of that shin as long as we can keep the shoulders and the head connected to the ground.

Find what works in your body. And remembering those nice deep breaths, and exhale it out. We hold each stretch for about three long inhales and three long exhales. And in this practice, If a stretch feels particularly good and you feel it opening up your body, give it some extra love and let it have a couple of extra breaths. Good. Release that left leg back down to the ground.

Take that right and just give yourself some circles on that right side. Feels good, helps to sort of produce the synovial fluid that's in your joints, create a little lubrication, and go ahead and extend that right leg out. We're gonna grab our strap again. Find the loop. Pull that opposite leg in so that's my left, around the ball of the foot, and extend that leg nice and long.

Same arm, same leg. Imagine you're making as much of an l with your lower body as you possibly can. And we're gonna go through that same flossing technique where we take a deep breath in and we soften, and then we exhale and reach through that heel towards the sky, and gently pull the toes towards the head side of the mat. Inhale soften and exhale lengthen This is where we really have to work to get out of our athlete brain and think that pulling harder and stretching further is gonna benefit us. There's no winner in a yoga class.

There's winning if you listen to your body and treat your body well. Inhale soften, and exhale lengthen. You may notice you can start to choke up a little bit on that strap, get a little higher on that strap, maybe a little bit more movement, a little more length in that stretch, while still keeping the shoulders connected to the ground. We're gonna take one more deep breath in, and slow exhale it out. Bend that right leg and cross the left foot over.

I do it at the same time as I'm grabbing my strap. And I'm gonna take my strap And I'm gonna set it back up at the top of my mat. And I set myself back up from my figure four. My left ankle is at the top of my right knee. I have that imaginary string that I'm gonna pull up towards my chest And again, you might feel a little tighter on one side than the other.

Take that left hand, reach it through, grab the back of the thigh. In case we're interested in visually seeing what imbalances look like, on this side, I don't have the ability to grab onto my fin and still keep my shoulders down. So I have to tell myself this is better for my body. What's better for your body? Ask yourself. Take one more big breath.

Slow the exhale. And when you're ready, bring that right foot back down to the ground, and make some nice big circles with that left knee. That's subtle. We're gonna work our way into a sitting up and kneeling position. So from here, we're gonna grab onto our knees one more time, give ourselves a nice rock and a roll until we come into a sitting up position.

And we're gonna get ready to go into a kneeling position. I'm gonna recommend your blocks, especially if you're tight through your hamstrings, because they're gonna help you. If you have any sensitivity in your knees, putting a towel under your knee, doubling up your mat, or they even make pads to go underneath your knees. So as we come up onto our knees, we're gonna go into a half split. So bring the right foot forward, and you're gonna wanna walk that foot just a little forward than the knee.

So the heel is a little forward in front of the knee. Take a deep breath in, and as we exhale, notice I'm taking my blocks with me, into a half split. If your knees feel good and you can set your butt down on your heel, and find as much length through that right leg that's extended by drawing the right hip back towards the back of the mat, Try to keep as much length in your spine so we're going to avoid trying to round our spine and instead exhale and hinge. The challenge here is a hold. Big breath in.

And slow exhale out. Inhale in and exhale out. Take two more of those on your own pace. Bring those blocks back about halfway as we take a big breath and press into those blocks. And walk them forward into a low lunge.

Press into the blocks to lift the chest just slightly. And as we think of that energy reaching forward through that right leg, can you exhale and drop the hips down towards the ground? We're gonna do that again. Walk the blocks backwards and exhale finding the height The hips coming down on top of that heel, or again, you can come up a little bit if that feels better too. On the exhale hinging forward, I like to walk my hands forward, that it gives me a little bit more length in that stretch.

We're gonna hold for five breaths. After that fifth breath, pressing the blocks into the ground, come forward one more time. Focus on lifting your heart and lengthening through the spine. Option on this round, to create a little more flexibility, more strength, stretch in your quad. The option is to bend that left knee and bring that heel up towards your hips or towards your buttocks.

And if it's in your flexibility to reach back around and grab hold, you can grab hold to the arch side of your foot, to the ankle, to the toes. I prefer the arch side of the foot. And again, draw the shoulder blades up and back and lift through the heart. And when you're ready, slowly release it. Try not to let it snap down like a rubber band.

And we're gonna bring that right leg back. Take hips back for a moment. Long stretch. And we're gonna move into the other side. So as we come back up, bring that left leg with you.

Remember, we're gonna walk it a little forward so that heel is just in front of the knee. And on the exhale, take it back, into that half split. Now, sometimes when I'm doing those quad stretches, I get a little cramp in my hamstring. That's what feels so good to get this nice stretch after I just got that little cramp in my hamstring. Walk it forward.

So much you can learn about your body when you're doing these long stretches, because you'll notice on one side of your body. I'm a little tighter than I was on the other. That affects your athletic performance. So think of this time as a good learning lesson, learning about yourself. Here we go pressing into the ground.

Come on up, back into that stretch. Pressing away. And walking it back one more time. How many breaths did we do last time on the second round? I think we did five.

So we're gonna do five again. I've got one more Bringing my blocks back and forward. You have that option for the quad stretch on the other side. So option for the side. If you do one side, I really recommend doing the other side. I'm gonna balance myself by pressing into my right hand for a little grounding.

Bend that right knee, bringing that heels close to my buttocks as I can, and I'm gonna reach back, grab that inside arch of my foot. Still driving that left knee forward lifting through the heart. Let's hear it. Let's take that one more big breath in. I wanna actually hear and deep exhale. As we release that foot back down to the ground, and bring that left leg back, come into a stretch.

A narrow child's pose. When you're ready, come into a plank position. So pressing those hands into the ground, You can start this plank position on your knees, or you can do it on your toes. We're gonna work to bring our shoulders directly over our wrists. Nice long, straight spine from wherever your knees or your toes are connected to the ground.

Draw the muscles of the abdomen into the center line, gently pull the belly button up towards your ribcage and drop your tailbone down. Just hold here for a moment as we transition. Lift the right foot just about six inches off the ground and bring that right knee in towards the right elbow, cross the right ankle over, and start to set yourself up for its pigeon pose. Left knee comes down to the ground. We're not gonna race this.

There's no race to get down to the ground. Instead, we're gonna start by feeling our body and making sure that our hips are as neutral as they can possibly be. See all this space that's right here? That's where a block can come in really handy for a little bit of support and guidance, because what this is going to tell my body is draw that right hip down and back until I can feel that block. Then I have two options. If it's a bit tight, and I'm struggling a little bit with my flexibility today, I can bring my elbows onto a block.

If you're feeling flexi Flexy Friday, maybe at your house, flexy flexy, and you wanna bring both hands down to the mat, start to walk them out, maybe bringing your head down onto that block or all the way down to the ground. Notice in your body, if there's anywhere that's gripping in your hands, in your shoulders, especially in your glutes. And as you draw that right hip down and back, At the same time with that left leg, create length and reach back straight back with the left toes. Another big breath in. And exhale it out.

When you're ready, walk back up onto your hands. And to come out of your pigeon, if you used a block, remove it. Now, this is a deep, deep, hip, and groin stretch. So we're gonna tuck that left leg and bring that left knee up and lift and give ourselves some nice circles on that right side. And bringing that foot back and we're back in our plank.

Remember all the engagement we had last time, heels back, lift the hips just slightly without piking the booty up. Drop the tailbone towards your heels and engage those muscles through the abdomen. When you're a strong plank, you're immovable. Somebody could come and lean into me, and they won't knock me over. They won't knock you over either.

Lift that left foot just about six inches off the ground. And as we exhale, bring that knee up, left knee towards the left elbow and cross the foot over. Set the right knee down. Remember putting something underneath the knee is padding. Perfectly fine.

I still have space on my left side, so I'm going to put that block right beneath my hip and feel my hip reaching back and down. My left foot. My right side creating as much length as it possibly can. I used a block last time as my guide, as I walked my hands forward, and brought my head down. This is definitely in my slightly tighter side.

So my forehead won't go down to the ground. I'm not gonna try to force it today. Instead, I'm gonna try to find as much calm and ease in my body in this pose before I try to push to the next pose. Take a deep breath in. Let's hold for three more breaths.

And you're ready. Walk yourself back onto your hands. Remove that block from the front. Remove the block from underneath your hip. Pressing the hands into the mat, tuck the toes on the right side, lift, and those circles with the left side.

Now, follow along with me as we bring that left knee back up towards the front and roll over onto our booty and set ourselves up for a wide legged forward fold. In your wide legged forward fold, I like to go long ways on the mat this way because it feels bent with my heels down on the mat. And when we go into our wide legged forward fold, This is as wide as my legs can go, but I'm gonna give you a secret to get another little inch out of this, is to bring those hands down, lift your bum off the ground and come forward. Just a little bit. A little more space. Big breath in, and as we exhale itsy bitsy bitsy spider, those hands forward.

Again, success is finding the quiet and the ease in your body versus forcing yourself into it or rounding your spine to try to get lower. Instead, see how much length you can find in your spine. Walk the hands back. And that same flossing motion we did when we were working with our hamstring, we're gonna find it in this one as well. XL, walking the fingers forward, finding a little more space. With practice, we can start to work our elbows down to the ground.

With a lot more flexibility than is in my body, we can start to work our chest down to the ground without compromising our spine. Let's do this one more time. Walk ourselves up. And we're gonna one more time, walk ourselves forward down to the ground, start to pull the toes into the center line. Take just a few more breaths here.

Walk the hands back. Now, let's bring the feet in to an easy pose. Just an easy cross, sitting up nice and tall. Inhale, take a nice deep breath and reach the hands up. And as we exhale, we're gonna rotate over our left leg towards the front of the mat.

I always love to say there's nothing on the floor. You don't need to look down at the floor. So keep your spine nice and long, chin up. Inhale back to center. And exhale off to the right side.

See that one more time. Inhale center. And exhale to the left. Just when you think you get to your edge, take a deep breath in, and find out if you have just another little micro millimeter of a stretch and inhale back to center and off to the right. As we return back to our center of the mat, we're gonna turn to face the front of our mat.

And come back into our tabletop. A little more work to open up. We've worked a lot on our thoracic spine, on our lumbar. We're gonna work a little bit more on our upper back. Cervical. So we're gonna take a moment and do what we call thread the needle.

So from our tabletop, take a deep breath in, lift that right arm nice and high. And as we exhale, take that right hand and thread it underneath the left armpit hold. I know we are eager to bring our shoulder down to the ground. We will get there. Inhale, reach that right arm high. And exhale thread it through, reaching towards the wall on the opposite side of the room.

And one more time, reach it out. And this time as we come through, go ahead and set that right shoulder and maybe your right ear down to the ground. Option is to take that left hand and extend it as far forward as possible. One more breath. Slowly walk that left hand back so that it's about even with your eye line.

And come on up. And again, big circles with that right shoulder. And and we're gonna repeat that on the opposite side. So plant the right hand down, and with that inhale, lift the left as high as you can by rotating from that thoracic spine, that lower spine. So try to keep your hips as level as possible and exhale thread it through, keeping the shoulder off the ground to start and just reach and inhale, reach it up.

And exhale. One more. Inhale reach it up. And here comes that exhale slowly lowering that left shoulder down and bring the ear to the mat. Spider spider spider walk that right hand forward. Always thinking On those exhales, if we can sink and lower ourselves, dropping that right arm pick down towards the ground, hips stay as level as feels comfortable.

You're very relaxed through the lower half of your body. That right hand comes back to about even with your face as we press into that right hand, and we make those nice big circles with the left arm. I'm gonna be a little selfish on our next pose as it is one of my absolute favorites, this one, that I said, this is what my body wants and needs. So keeping those knees connected to the ground, hips directly above the knees start to walk the hands forward. Allowing your forehead to come down to the ground or onto a block, relax the elbows down to the ground, hips rep nice and high, puppy pose, What is this? It looks like a small down dog.

It's exactly what it is. It is a puppy pose. Can you relax your armpits down to the ground, relax the arms, try to take the tension out of the upper body. Walk the hands back, bringing yourself up. And we're gonna find our strap again, going into a very deep shoulder stretch.

If you happen to have the flexibility for Gomakasana arms, bringing your shoulders back, and connecting your hands and back, or getting very close to it, go for it. I find that most athletes who have tight upper bodies, tight shoulders can utilize a strap. So put the strap in your right hand and bring it around back behind you. Reach back, find that strap with the left hand, and start to inch the hands as close together as you can possibly get them without causing yourself pain, inhale, bring yourself nice and tall, spine tall. I like to use my head to press back just gently on that right arm to give myself a nice tricep stretch through the right and draw the left shoulder back. We're gonna hold that for just a couple more breaths.

Release that left hand first, give it a little twist in the shoulder complex, and switch the strap around if you're using the strap. Strap goes high in that left hand now, bend that left elbow, reach back and find that strap, depending on your flexibility, You might need to work a little hard to find that strap inch those hands together, and again, sitting up nice and tall. This is a deep stretch, so only as far as you feel the stretch, but not pain or discomfort. Let's take one more breath here. And exhale it out and release give a little roll on that right shoulder.

And let's take our strap, put it back towards the front of the mat. And we're gonna roll over onto our back. Keeping our knees up, and we're just gonna give ourselves a little windshield wiper. Of our knees to the right and to the left, up and over to the right, and up and over to the left Do you know that you have some incredible tools at your home or your office or your studio that are really great for your stretching and your flexibility? We're gonna use the wall.

If you don't have a wall space free, you can go back utilizing the straps. But as I move closer to the wall, I'm gonna take my legs out And as I lay back, I'm gonna bring my legs straight up the wall. Working to create as much length as I possibly can, finding as much of that extension through my heels towards the sky again, pulling my toes back. Now, this time, We're imagining our body is the perfect l shape, that long leg through our legs, and that extension through the crown of our head. Are you a digital person like me?

Sometimes I say, I don't have five minutes to stay here with my legs up the wall, but if I bring my phone here, I can stay here forever. Now I want you to stay in the moment and find that length to your body. But if taking five minutes with your phone here gets you to do it, then do it. Take one more deep. Powerful breath.

Nice big exhale. And start to walk those feet back down the mat. And we're gonna roll over onto our belly and walk out onto our elbows. We want our elbows to be directly beneath the shoulders four arms down, hands flat. Extend back through the toes and lift through the chest.

My runners feeling tightness in your lower back. My cyclist, feeling tightness in your lower back. This is what your physical therapist will recommend. You draw your gaze up, lengthen through those hip flexors. Great stretch through the abdominal muscles.

All the way down through those hip flexors. Even feel a nice little stretch through the psoas muscles that can really cause some havoc on a tight lower back. We're gonna finish off today. Either by walking the hands back and coming into a kneeling position with your bum on your heels, hero pose, or you can sit in easy pose with your legs crossed. Close your eyes for just a moment.

Either hands, palms up in your lap or hands at your heart. And just take final two deep and healing breaths. Exhale it out. To be calm, it's the highest achievement of self. I share with you that ZenPro verb because we think in speed, we think in agility, we think in strength.

But truthfully the strength comes in the calm moments in allowing ourselves to recover, allowing ourselves to rest so that we can come back stronger. Thank you for practicing with me. Thank you for calming with me. For just a moment. And I hope you come back and you practice with us again.

No mistake.