Athletic Strength Yoga

Welcome. My name is Jason Schneider, and here we go with yoga strength. Strength training is vital to athletic performance, providing a foundation that enhances power, speed, agility, and endurance. While reducing injury risk. It improves neuromuscular efficiency, builds muscle mass, allowing you to generate more force and move more effectively and efficiently.

So today's practice, we're gonna find some strength in our movement. So we're gonna start today in a seated position. I'm gonna recommend that you place your mat if you have it available close to a wall because we will be using the wall. And and blocks are gonna come in very handy in our practice today. So starting in an easy pose, seated position, sitting up nice and tall, feel your sit bones pressing into the ground.

Where you connect to the planet, where you connect to the earth. Lift through the spine nice and tall, feel the crown of your head lifting. And as you do this, I'm gonna take a nice deep breath in. And as you exhale, engage the abdominal muscles and feel strong through your abdominal. As you take a nice deep breath in, relax Now, this time, I want you to squeeze your glute muscles, those things that are pressing into the ground, and also squeeze those abdominals into the center lines.

We're looking for that core activation. Do it again. Inhale, lift, relax. And as you exhale squeeze and feel that engagement of the glutes and the abdominals, This time, we're gonna inhale, relax, lift the arms nice and tall. And as we exhale, we're gonna rotate to the right, squeeze those abdominals, and feel the glutes engaging and lifting into the center line. Inhale comes center, and exhale, turn off to the left.

Again, one more time, inhale to the right. Excel, feel that squeeze, inhale center, and exhale off the list. Good. Turn, so that you're laying lengthwise on your mat. Holding on back behind your thighs, heels connected the ground lean back just slightly so that your chest is reaching up towards the sky.

Remember holding all of that length in your spine. Lift one foot and then the other foot. Again, holding on underneath, just underneath the legs. Low boat, high boat, half boat, half boat, core engagement. Good. Bring the legs down, sit up. Option, you can hold on underneath the legs.

Or as we come up, keeping knee to ankle parallel to the ground, extend the hands, lengthen lift through the heart. And come on down. Not in the work yet. Just trying to create some activation, find those muscles wake them up. Lean back, legs come up, lift through the heart, extend out towards your heels and hold for five for four, for three, for two, and for one. Feed come down.

We're going to lay all the way back on our mat. Hands pressing down into the ground. Walk those shoulders, shoulder blades in towards the centerline, heels directly beneath the knees, take a big breath in, and as we exhale, lift into a bridge. Heels are firmly pressing to the ground, balls of your feet and toes are nice and light, inhale, bring it down, and exhale squeeze. Glutes are working in towards that center line.

And at the same time, pressing your heels into the ground, can't imagine if you were trying to drag the mat in towards your butt cheeks. Inhale down. One more time. Squeeze. Feel that engagement.

Still feel that engagement through the abdominal muscles, through the glutes. Lower back, and lower it down. Either both knees or one knee comes up, give yourself a roll into a sitting up position, and we're gonna turn over into a plank position. Options, you can keep your knees down on the ground, draw your shoulder blades forward so that you're holding in a plank and feeling all of those same muscles stabilizing. Another option is to bring those knees off the ground.

We're gonna hold this for about thirty seconds. Doesn't seem like a long time, thirty seconds. But I'll talk to you when we get closer to 25, and you tell me how it feels. Drive back through the heels, feel the thighs and the quads engage and draw into the center line. Tail bone drops down towards your heels, and at the same time, lift the belly button up towards the ribcage.

We still have four, three, two, and one. Walk the hands back towards your feet, spreading the feet nice and wide apart. We're gonna go into a low squat. Now in yoga, we all know our melas and a squat, but this isn't exactly a melas and a squat. This is more of a strength squat.

Bring it up. And again, down into a low squat. Heals are pressing to the ground, toes are light, so we're trying not to grip with the toes, Think of bringing the tailbone down just slightly bring it up. Let's go again. Gown. Just waking up those lower body muscles.

Notice if you take a look down, are your knees splaying out? Are they falling in? We want our weight evenly spread across both feet. Can you bring your eyes up? Good. Come on up. Let's walk towards the front of our mat.

We're gonna work through five rounds of our flow. Sun salutation a. I like to bring blocks onto my mat. Just to give myself a little raise from the ground, you can use books, you can use the mat, you can use blocks, you choose what works for you. So first, with a big breath in, reach the hands up, lift through the heart, exhale forward fold. Inhale halfway up, hands just above the knees or on the shins.

Exhale forward fold. Hands on the blocks for this first one, bend the knees. Let's step back into that high plank. Don't rush it. Hold. Exhale halfway down. Chaturanga.

Knees can always come down to the ground for a little extra support. Turn the tops of the feet over, inhale up dog. Think less about pressing your hips down to the ground and more about raising your heart up away from the ground and exhale back to down dog. That's one. We're gonna tip toe up for this first one, feet between the hands, come all the way up, and exhale forward fold.

Inhale halfway up. And as we exhale hands come to the ground, step or hop the feet back. Chaturanga halfway down. Inhale up dog lifting the heart, and exhale back to down dog. Some options.

Come up high on the balls of your feet, bend the knees, step or float the feet up. Come all the way up, inhale, and exhale forward fold, inhale halfway up, exhale hands to the ground step, or float the feet back. Chaturanga, updog, down dog. How many more? Two more.

Step or float. So come up high, bend the knees, step or float the feet up, rise and exhale forward fold, inhale halfway up. Nice long spine. Hands come to the ground. Step or float the feet back. Chaturanga.

Up dog, and down dog. One more time, come up high on the balls of your feet, step or float the feet through, rise, and forward fold, inhale halfway up. And as we exhale step or float the feet back, Chaturanga, up dog, and exhale back to down dog. Take an extra couple breaths here. If you have very tight hamstrings, consider spreading the feet a little further apart to give yourself a little more length in your hamstrings.

We're gonna inhale our left leg high, three legged dog. Me comes towards nose, step it through. Don't hesitate to lift it up a little further if you need to. Drop that back heel down and cartwheel up into our warrior too. Option.

Palms open, reaching the energy through the fingertips, palms closed, not tightly, but imagining that you're pressing your knuckles against the wall in front of you and the wall behind you. Inhale come up, And again, drop into that warrior too strong, maybe a little bit deeper. Feel the energy into the ground underneath that front knee through the heel. Feel the energy through the back edge of that back foot, the outer edge. Can you feel slight scoop under of the hips, the squeezing together of the glutes, that engagement of the abdominals so that we're not dipping forward but lifting up.

With our backhand, we're gonna sweep towards the front and step that back leg up into a chair pose, but we can't just do a chair pose. We're going to add a little bit to it. So in this chair pose, weight is back in your heels. Take a moment, look down. Can you see all your little piggy's down there?

If your knees are too far forward and you can't see your toes, drive the hips back, weight in the heels. Imagine you're sitting on a little stool behind you. And here we go for small little pulses. Eight seven six five four three two one forward fold. Inhale all the way up.

Exhale forward fold halfway up, and as we exhale step or float the feet back. Chaturanga, up dog, and exhale back to down dog. With that breath in, right leg goes high, step the right leg through, and open up into your warrior two. Always think from the ground, I am firmly rooted to the earth. And as you move up, do your checks through your body And last but not least, energy reaching out through the fingertips or through the knuckles, choose your gaze, your drishti, inhale up, and exhale single of deeper.

Pressing into that front leg, sweep and bring that back leg up to meet. Toast can be touching. But if they're not and they do not have to be, make sure that your knees are directly over your ankles. If your toes aren't touching, your knees aren't touching either. We want to avoid being knocked kneed.

Can you sink that tailbone down a little lower? And here we go with our pulses. Eight seven six five four three two one forward fold. This is where we're gonna need a block. If you don't have a block, again, you can use a book.

You can also just press your hands together or even a small lightweight We're gonna take our block with us as we rise. Bring our block right here, center of chest, pressing our hands in firmly. We're gonna step back with our left leg into a low lunge and pall of press pressing into that block, press it out, fingertips away, and bring it in. Step up. Now, bouncing on that left leg, step back right.

Press and in. Do it again. Step back, left, and up. Step back right. This is a lunge. Both knees are bent.

And up, strength. Remember, we're working on strength. Really press into that block. Step back with the left. Get your lunge. Give me two.

And in. Here we go. Step back right. Two presses. Come up. Wanna go for a third one? Let's go for a third one.

Step back with the left, find your lunge and strength, press in and out. Up, back with the right. Here we go press. It's hard to smile when doing the strength work. Good and up.

I'm working up a little sweat here. Go ahead and put that block down. Give me a reach up to the sky. Urdvat Stassana, big breath in, exhale forward fold. Hold here for a moment.

I know it's not just me breathing heavy. So we're gonna catch our breath, inhale halfway up lengthened to the spine. How much can you reach back to the tailbone and at the same time reach through the crown of your head? Exhale forward fold, hands the block, step, or float the feet back and hold, plank. Hands can be on your blocks, or hands can be on the ground.

We're still going to engage the same way. Feel from your heels, feel some engagement through the calves, quads, and hamstring squeeze. Imagine you're lifting your kneecaps up towards your hips. And at the same time, drop the tailbone, feel the belly button lift just a bit more towards the abs, and let's alternate. Raise the right.

Switch and raise the left. Switch and raise the right. Keep your neck neutral. Looking at the floor, raise the left. One more each side.

Raise the right. Good. One more time, raise the left. And now let's take it through our vinyasa, Chaturanga, inhale, updog, and down dog. Remember I told you we're gonna use our wall today.

Let's get into some good strength work with the wall. We're gonna take one block with us as we come back towards the back of our mat. Moving to the wall. We're gonna do a wall sit. And with the wall sit, this is gonna come in handy.

It's an optional tool when you're gonna do a wall sit. Now, important with the wall state. Goal, hips, the knees, we're gonna try to get parallel to the ground. What if I don't have a wall? That's okay. You can go back into that low squat, and you can do much of the same movements that we're about to do.

But starting with your back against the wall, Make sure that block is within reach. We're going to sit down as if I was sitting down on a stool behind me. Now, I don't have a mirror, so I can't see. So I have to trust. You tell me, if my hips and my knees are level.

My feet are about hip width apart. That's going to be important. And I'm going to grab that block. This isn't going to help me with a little bit of a counterbalance. Because we're going to start by lifting our toes away from the back.

Hold for three for two for one. Holding that block out, making sure we have a nice press against the wall. We're gonna work to this is challenging to lift and alternate our legs. Oh, boy. I'm gonna change that up. I'm gonna put that block down.

Need a little extra balance because of a bad knee injury that I'm rehabbing, and I'm gonna lift that left leg up, and I'm gonna lift the right. Let's see if I can do it with the block now. Now that my body understands what we're doing, lift the left. There we go. Sometimes your body just needs to know.

Lift the right, pressing your hips and your back into the wall. We're still holding in this wall set. Lift the toes for five, four, three, two, back out. Let's see if my body remembers. Lift.

Can you extend? Whoo. Down. Lift, extend. In one more each side. Lift, extend.

In if it looks like I'm struggling, I'm struggling, lift out in, down. Whoo, walk it up. Hello, quad muscles. Take your block with you back towards the front, off to the side. Inhale reach it up.

XL forward fold. And he'll halfway up. As the hands come to the ground, step or float the feet back. Chaturanga, up dog, down dog. Starting with the left leg, inhale that left leg high.

Bring the knees and the nose as we exhale. We're going to roll to the arch of that right foot and extend the left foot out for fallen triangle. Imagine you have string on the hips. Keep those hips up nice and high. Draw that knee back into chest.

Chaturanga, Up dog, down dog. Let's go the other side. Big breath in. Right leg goes high. With a breath in, knee to nose, thread it through as we drop that foot, extend it out.

Lift. Three, two. Me comes in. Rotate back. Chaturanga.

Up dog, down dog. We're gonna go one more time, and I'm gonna give you an option for a nice challenge. Left leg? Hi, breath in, exhale knee to nose. Can you keep that left foot off the ground?

Oh, lift. Bring it back. Chaturanga, up dog, down dog. Let's do the other side. Stay with me.

Right leg breath in, knee to nose, rotate. Can you float that bottom leg? For three, two, bring it back, go through your flow, but this time, knees down, come back to a child's pose. Oh, you hear me breathing. You're following along.

I hope you're breathing too. Take about two breaths. Get your breath back. Walk the hands back. And we're gonna do some nice deep core exercise.

Roll onto your bum. Remember we were doing those half boats? Well, what happens if we full boat? Start with those hands underneath those thighs. Lean the chest back.

Come into your half boat. Find your balance. Holding underneath those legs. Can you extend? Legs up towards the sky, lift through the heart, make a perfect v.

Big breath. Come on back down. That's an assisted full boat. Give you the option to take it into a full full boat without the assistance. Important, find your balance first.

Lean the heart back, chest to the sky, half boat, release, extend, reach for the toes, hold For four, for three, for two, and down. I think we can do that again. For fun, if you would like to add it in, I'm gonna give you an option for one last added challenger with this core work. Come up, half boat. Open.

Open into a full boat and lift. And down. Two, move slow. Down. Three. Let's go for five magic number.

Four and five and hold for five for four. Oh, the shake. Three, two. That was a fast five. Alright. We gave ourselves that time to get our breath back. Now let's move into our standing work, grab onto one leg, rock yourself up. Turn around, plank, and tip toe those feet up till we come up towards the front of our mat.

We're going to be doing work that is strength with a little bit of cardio added in. So listen very carefully to my cues to make sure that we are first and foremost focused on the strength and the cardio effort comes second. So standing here, hands at your side. You have an option to keep the hands down at your side. I tend to like to bring my hands up.

Just gives me a little bit more stability. We're again gonna be working on a lunge. So holding the right leg where it is, bring that left leg back into a lunge. About 75% of your weight is in that front leg. If you're familiar with doing a lightning crescent, similar to a lightning crescent, We have so much of that weight in that front leg, which is going to allow us, hands out in and out.

In and out. We're moving slow and making sure that we're using this leg as our balance in and out. In that back toe barely touches. Five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten come on up. Chair pose. We worked on lifting our toes last time.

This time in our chair pose, up come the heels. Hold for three, for two, and a little pulse of the calves. Three, four, and five. Come on up. Reset. This time, our left leg is gonna stay in place.

That's gonna be our grounded leg. We're gonna step back with that right. Hands out. And in, where's the weight? It's in that left leg.

I could also work to keep that leg off. That's how I know. I've got it in my left leg. Two more. And step up chair pose.

Heels up, find that balance, length, lift the heart, and pulse up, two, Three. Squeeze those calves. Four and five. Come on up. Wanna do that one more time? We'll do it one more time. We're gonna focus on the strength and the grounded leg.

Right leg goes back. Find your lunge, extend the hands, bring those hands into the knee. One, can you keep it floating off the ground? Two, three, 4567, 8910, chair. Heels up, pulse up, up, up. Be careful not to push yourself forward, and five. Come on up. One more side.

Left leg goes back. Press into that left leg. That was my right leg that went back. Left leg stays forward. Press into that left leg.

Here we go. 1234. Don't rush it. Eight. Speed is not what we're working. Chair heels up.

And pulse. Two, three, four and five. If I said that loudly, because the work made me feel like it needed to be loud, inhale reach the sky, lift the heart and exhale forward fold. Blocks if you need them. Inhale halfway up, and either step, float, or fly back to a plank.

Let's do a little upper body strength work. Hold your plank. Is your plank here, or is your plank? Like a firm plank of wood. Good.

A single pushup. Plank. We'll take about ten seconds. We're gonna count these up. Here comes two.

Two push ups. Hold your plank. Try not to let the hips drop. Here we go. Three. Need a little break.

You can take it into a down dog, see if you can make it all the way through five. Here we go. One, two, three. We've got one more set. Here's our big five.

Here we go. Five, four, three, two, and one. Come down on the knees. Take a moment. I think this is more for me than it is for you. Take a quick break, stretch out that upper body. Cause the next work we're gonna do is we're gonna incorporate head to toe.

Fingertips to tips of your toes, everything is getting in the game. I want you to think yoga meets traditional fitness in this next movement. Come into your plank again. We're gonna use the weight that's in our hands to support us as we give a hop forward. Now as we come hopping forward, you can also choose to step if you would rather do that.

But to get the full bang for the buck of these slow and thoughtful yoga burpees, press into the hands, bring the feet up, tailbone drops, heart comes up. Hands go down. Step or float the feet back. Give me a push up. Hop it up.

Chest comes up. And down. Back. Up, back, push up. Up, lift to the sky, down. Hands down. Back, push up.

Up, and down. How many more you wanna do? How about five? Not because I want to, but because we should. Here's six. Up.

Down. Here's seven. Make a count. How many more we got? I'm counting two.

Here's nine, up. Back. Push up. Last one. Up.

Whoo. Down. Push up, down dog. We're gonna take a little bit of a restorative breath. Tip toe the feet up.

And hold in a fourth fold. Very out of breath. Come up about halfway. In our forward fold, allow the weight to come slightly forward under the balls of the feet. He will stay connected to the mat, but light.

Slowly walk it up. I'm a sweaty mess. And I hope at home you got some shaking legs and a little sweat going and a lot of breath. Alright. Let's take it down to the floor and start to down regulate. Inhale reach it up, lift the heart, exhale forward fold, inhale halfway up, exhale hands to the ground, step back, or float, last Chaturanga, last up dog, down dog, knees down. And roll over onto your bum.

Leg stretch straight out in front of you. We were doing the standing forward fold. Now we're going to take it on the ground. Leg stretch straight out in front of you. Very tighten the hamstrings.

Put a little bend in the knees. Think of this as progress. Don't force it. Don't grab a rope and force yourself into it. Instead, ease into it. Nice tall, long, spine, and exhale.

Reach forward. Where do your hands come to? Here? That's perfect. Here? That's perfect. Wrap around your feet.

That's perfect. Find your perfect. Come up halfway. Exale forward full. Oh, maybe there's a little more space on that second one.

My friends with tight hamstrings, feet further apart, just like when we're standing, little closer together, a little more challenge. Halfway up. Let's see where we can get to. Exails. Each time, just a little bit more. If you feel tension in your upper body and your shoulders, in your elbows, can you just let them flop down?

Woke it up, finishing where we started, hands up. Do you remember that engagement in the abdominals? Do you remember the squeeze of the glutes, exhale, rotate it off to the right? You guys made it. We made it. I'm glad I made it.

I'm glad I made it. Inhale center off to the left. That felt really good. Let's do that one more time. Inhale up, off to the right.

How about we put a bonus stretch in here? Come back to center. Right hand goes down. Oh, stretch across. As you reach that left hand across, make sure both hips are staying connected to the ground.

Both toes are reaching towards the sky just to stretch from your belly button up, inhale center, and off to the left. We're gonna do that one more time. Back to center. Left hand goes down. Reach that right hand across.

Try not to let the lower half of the body follow. And come back up. Here we go. Great. We're gonna turn around real quick. And take it back down to the ground.

Final stretch, bring that right knee up. Take a nice big breath in with that left hand, grab that right knee, bring it across your body, extend the right arm straight out. This is not about getting the knee down to the ground, but instead of just finding that nice twist in your lower body. Come to center, switch legs, bring the left leg up with the right hand, grab it, and bring it across. I think we can do that one more time.

Bring it up. Right knee comes in. Take it across. Bonus stretch, if you've got it, you can extend that leg out. If you have the ability, pardon gustasana to grab that toe, please do. I have short Tarosaurus arms.

They can't reach that toe. Come back to center. Left leg comes in. Reach across, and let's go. Extend it if you got it.

Come back to center, extend both legs out and settle. If you have your favorite final stretch to add in, my personal favorite is to bring the soles of my feet together and just let my knees lie out. Just fine. That moment of peace for just a minute. Start to bring yourself back with some movement in the fingers and the wrists, extend those legs back out.

Extend the hands up over your head. And on your next exhale, allow yourself to roll into a fetal position. And you're ready, use your top hand, press into the ground to return back up to a seated position. Relax the body. Hands in your lap, palms up, or hands at your heart.

Today's work was all about strength. Finish today, By hearing me, maybe repeating this to yourself. Today, I will do what others won't so that tomorrow, I can accomplish what others can't. Be strong, be efficient, be powerful. Always be willing to challenge yourself.

Thank you for practicing with me today. Thank you for practicing with us, and hopefully you come back and practice with us again.