Glutes, Core and a Whole Lot More - Chair Yoga Workout with Sherry Zak Morris, C-IAYT

All right. Well, welcome, everybody. Happy Monday. I don't know. There was no enthusiasm whatsoever. Zero, zero. OK, on a scale of 0 to 10, that was a zero. So happy Monday, everybody. Happy Monday. All right, yay, yay. All right, good. We want to start the day like that, right? We have no idea what the day will bring, right? We have absolutely no clue. So why not think optimistically, like something's going to be happening today that's really special, and starting with yoga, of course. So this is an energizing chair yoga class. It's my style, so please always explore other styles. You know, Lisette has hers on Friday, and she's amazing. I tend to be a little energetic and lively because that's my personality. I also can take it down as well. So I will give you a very balanced practice today. But I'm going to just ask just the room, what is aching you today? What do you want to work on? Anything in particular? Knees? Knees and neck. Love that. Tummy? Tummy tightening? Yeah, that's it. Back? Back, back. Upper or lower back? Always lower, but you're more on the lower side today, Paula? OK, good. We'll definitely do all of those things, and of course, a lot more. OK, so let's settle in. Close your eyes. You can place your hands on your laps. Palms facing down is more grounding and earthing. Palms facing up totally shifts the energy. So if you haven't noticed that already, just try both and just see what kind of calls to you today. And then finding your feet flat on the floor. So hopefully, you all have a little pad underneath there to help your chairs get supported. And then just notice where your baby toe is touching the floor. And then notice where your big toes are touching. And just make sure there's like an equal weight, equal pressure on the big toes and the little toes. That means your feet are grounded nice and steady and even. And then notice your spine right now. See if you can imagine yourself from the side. And your ears, your shoulders, and your hips would all line up in one straight line. And even right here, we can do a little bit of tightening of the tummy, right? Pretend that you've got these little tight pants that you're kind of zipping up all the way up to your waist. So that little feeling of pulling in towards your belly and up a little bit. And it's not a big, harsh pull in. It's just a really slight one, a little slight tummy tuck, I would say. And if your palms are facing up, I want you to flip them down right now. And we're going to take an inhale breath by lifting our chin up towards the ceiling. That's your inhale. And the exhale is going to be you're tucking your chin downward and just stretching the neck. Beautiful. I can hear you breathing. So inhale, lifting the chin up. And exhale, tucking the chin down. We'll do two more like that. Inhale, lifting up. And exhale, tucking down. Good. Next time we inhale and lift our chin up, hold it there because I want you to open and close your mouth. Open and close. Just move that jaw up and down, and then even side to side. Just move the jaw side to side. One of the tightest joints in our body is our jaw. So just letting that go. Good. And then slowly, slowly tucking the chin all the way down. And then holding that. Then you're breathing into the back of your neck. You are actually lengthening the cervical spine right now. So that should feel super good if you breathe right into those vertebrae. Good. And then gently lift your eyes open. And bring your head back to neutral. Good. And then blink your eyes a couple times. Blink, blink, blink. Good. Another breathing practice we're going to do is called hug a tree and pull the energy in. I love this one because we need to remember that our spines need to have a lot of movement, and our breath helps to move our spine. So we're going to hug a tree, and it looks like this. And we're going to inhale like this. And exhale, pull the energy in. And pull those elbows all the way back. Good. So that strengthens those back muscles. So we're going to inhale. Open up those back muscles. Tuck your chin a little bit. And then exhale, pull the energy in. Oh, lovely. OK, two more like that. So inhale. Bring the energy in. And exhale. Maybe lift the chin up, a little back arch, a little strengthening. Good. And last one. Inhale. Big breath. And exhale. Pull that energy in. Good. And then bring the hands out in front so that the elbows are lined up right there by your waist. Good. Take one hand out like this. Good. The teacup, and the other hand like this. The teacup, then the tray goes like this. Good. And we go in and out. Very good. And then hold it there. And then hands on your laps. Are you sitting up taller right now? You are, aren't you, huh? So all of that nice back alignment also helps with our posture. So take your left arm up like this into robot arms. Good. And then down, and then your opposite. Good. And let's do it again. Good. Now we're going to add the legs. So just first, the right foot's going to kick up like this with toes facing the ceiling. Good. And down. Oh, did I hear some crunching and cracking on that one? It was probably my knees. Yeah. Good. And then you do that again. Lift it up. Make sure your toes are facing the ceiling. It's really super important. Good. Now we're going to march like this. Robot arms, opposite leg. Let's see where your brain is today. Let me see. Everybody's brain working? OK, good. All right. Here we go. We're marching. Good. And the leg is super straight. That's going to strengthen the knees. The knees, Angela. Good. All right. Now we're going to see if we can lift it a little bit higher. So come back here and lift this left arm up like that. Good. Down and up. So you decide if that's too much of a reach or not. You can always go back to robot arms. Here we go. Opposite leg, opposite arms. Good. Here we go. Good, you got it. It's like the toy soldier marching along, huh? Good. And another one. And this is the last one. Good. Now we're going to reach both arms up. Good. Bring it down. Both hands are going to hold on to the chair. Lift both legs up. This is your tummy tuck right there. Pull that in. Good. Come all the way down. And now we're going to do both. Both arms, both legs hold it for 99, 98, 97, 96, 2, 1. Good. All right. I want to get you in a good mood. OK. So scooch on up. Take your legs out a little bit wider and just go side to side. Yeah, that opens up those hips after all those marches, huh? All right. So keep the legs a little bit wider because we'll start to work a little bit in the lower back. So we did the upper back, right, with the hug-a-tree. The lower back is going to be just that simple crisscross. I do it every day. It feels so good. So it's going to be the left shoulder rolls over towards the right knee. Yeah, that's it. Good. Back to the center. And the other way. Back to the center. Crisscross again. This time it's that reach and grab. Remember, we're trying to grab with our fingers. Good. Reach and grab. Good. Back to the center. Crisscross. Reach and grab. Good. Back to the center. Now we're going to do the rainbow. So take left hand to the right knee. And we're going to go up like this, up, up, up, all the way back behind you. Look at it. Get your hand. And then bring it all the way back in front. And when you bring it back in front, reach again. Oh, yeah. Stretch and reach. Open and close. Good. One more time. Rainbow all the way up. Good. Look behind you. And all the way over again. And stretch and reach. Oh, yeah. Stretching the fascia. Good. All the way back. OK. Right hand, left knee. All the way up. Maybe that's the inhale as you look back. And the exhale is the opposite way. And then stretch and reach. Try to grab. Grab, grab. Good. One more time. Inhale up and over. And exhale back. And crisscross. And reach it. Whew. Good. And when you come all the way back to the center, hands are on your thighs. Couple rounds of cat-cow. So the inhale is the arch and the squeeze of the shoulders. And the exhale is the round and the tuck of the belly. Yeah, this is also a little tummy work, right? So we're arching. We're releasing those belly muscles. But then when we pull in, we pull the belly in super tight, super tight. Yeah, let's do two more. Here we go. Inhale, arch. Lift up. Exhale, squeeze the belly in tight. Use the core muscles. And last one. Inhale, arch it. And exhale, round it. Good. All the way up to the center. And why not do one more tummy tightener? We're going to stir the pot with our ladle, OK? Imagine we've got a big old spoon here. And we're going to stir the pot. And basically, you are using all of your core and your back muscles to do this. And you're deciding how big that ladle, or actually, the pot is, right? You can really reach it over to the side and really reach it in the front. You're deciding, right, all of these muscles that we are toning and tightening right now. Good. And guess what? Let's go the other way. Stir it all the way around. Get to the edges of the pot. Good. One more. One more stir. Good. When you come all the way back, a couple cat-cows. Here we go. On your inhale, the arch. And on your exhale, the round. And one more. Inhale. And exhale. Good. Walk it all the way back. And now, it's knee to chest. So another low back stretch. Bring it up. Good. Hold that. Now, what about your shoulders? Let's bring them back. Yeah. Oh, look at that posture. Love it. Good. Back down. And the other one comes up. Roll those shoulders back and down. Good. Let's do one more cycle. Here we go. Up we go. Roll the shoulders. And then release it. And then the other one. Here we go. Hold it. Good. And then release it. Good. How about a power walk? Yeah. We feeling good now? I hope so. Good. And release it. All right, let's do something with the fingers. Let's rub our hands. OK. Rub our hands and create a little friction. Good. And then open and close the fingers. Good. Twirl the wrist and open and close the fingers. Twirl the wrist the opposite way as you open and close your fingers. Good. Then pump your elbows in and out as you move your fingers and your wrists. Good. And then take one elbow back and the other one as you do all those motions. Look how smart you are. Good. And then off to the side for the hula. Get the waist to move a little bit. Yeah, the hula. Good. Fluid movements. And the other side, the hula. And then the wave goes like this, the wave, the wave. Good. Since we're up here, let's climb the rope. So pull down, reach and pull. Good. Maybe a little sideways movement like this, sideways. Get into the armpit. Yeah. Good. Let's get to the top, all the way to the top. Reach up and bring it all the way down. Very good. Bring your hands into namaste hands. Good. And then we're going to create the cat eyes. It looks like this. See that? The cat eyes? So namaste hands into the cat eyes. So once you have the cat eyes, we're going to take the fingertips and touch them together. The knuckles touch them together. The knuckles touch them together until we're doing this. Yeah, you guys got it. So we go to the cat eyes. We go to namaste hands. And then we go to the lotus flower, which is the three middle fingers open up. The other fingers are touching. So back to namaste, into the cat eyes, all the way down so the knuckles touch. Good. Back to the cat eyes, back to namaste, and then lotus flower. These are beautiful mudras, and they're good for arthritis. We're going to do one more round. Namaste, cat eyes. Back of the hands, knuckles touch. Good. Back to cat eyes, back to namaste, and now the lotus flower. So everybody's got their thumbs and their pinkies touching. The lotus flower is going to turn into a crown on the top of your head. I can see all of your crowns now, the silhouette of them. And then you've got sparkles and jewels, so just wiggle everything up there. Yay. Good, good, good. Then bring both hands out in front like this. Namaste hands like this, pointing. Back of the hands now touch. And then make a knuckle fist and pump your knuckles the opposite way. Does that feel good, that nice little stretch? Love that one. And then we'll do the carpal tunnel stretch, the opposite. Good. So think about our fingers and our hands as being the tools, you know, in life, right? They comb our hair, they brush our teeth. I'm in good shape. Good. And then shake it out. Very good. All right. Take your legs out a little bit wider. Good. We're going to do a little sideways movement. So we're going to take the left hand open, and the left elbow is going to rest on that left thigh. Anybody feeling it right here on the other side, body? Yeah, you're going to feel that nice stretch. So opposite hand to the shoulder. And we're going to go down, and we're going to come up. Good. So we're going to inhale, and exhale, and inhale, and exhale. One more time. Inhale, exhale. Hold that. Now place your hand on your head, good, to open up the armpit. And then hook your arm like that. Just hook it over. Yeah, just let it dangle there. And if you want to, you can go forward a little bit and go back a little bit, just to get a little bit different angle there. Yeah, good. And then we'll go the other side. So now it's going to be the right hand's up, right elbow on that thigh, other hand down. So inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale, side angle. Inhale, exhale, and inhale, exhale. So hold, hand to the head, good. Hook over, let gravity do the work there. Good. Now this is your option, right? You could just do a little tuck and a little rounding back. Yeah, just to find a little nuance of a stretch. Otherwise, just hold it where you are. Good. And then your next inhale comes all the way back up. Very good. Walk it all the way back in. And then let's do a little apanasana this time with a kiss your knee. If you want to, you can take your nose down towards your knee and go muah, muah, muah, muah, muah, muah. Love our knees. We love our knees, huh? OK, let's do a little bit of knee work, OK? So knee work is all about making sure that your knees are in alignment. So we're going to take both hands and we're going to grab a hold of the left thigh. And we're going to straighten out the leg by holding the leg. Good. Now I want you to see right now, if you were to draw a line, hip bone, knee, shin, ankle, and toes, everything in alignment, right? Point and flex your foot, making sure that nothing goes out of alignment, no sideways movements. Good. And then if you can, let go of your hands just a little bit and keep on doing that. Is that some work right now? It is, huh? Working those quads. Good, and then release. Good. All right, other side. Lift it up. Straighten it out. Let's just check our alignment, just making sure, pretend like you're drawing a line, hip, knee, shin, ankle, toes. Point and flex for our beautiful circulation. And you know, if you want to make it more challenging, you just lift your hands up. Not even high, not even high. Good. And then release it. Now we've got to do the windshield wipers. Open up that nice inner thigh area. Good, just kind of swivel back and forth. Good work. All right, and then walking all the way back. All right, we're going to do a couple rounds of sun salutations. As many of you know, I do eight rounds because it's equivalent to walking a quarter of a mile in terms of your cardiovascular endurance. So if you don't get your steps in today, this is going to be really good to kind of complement that. So first thing is we're going to have our feet flat on the floor. Remember when we started how we felt that the pinkies and the big toes are touching, right? Knees are over the ankles, so they're not scooted back or scooted too far forward. What about your posture? How are you feeling? Good, yay. You look straight too. You look very straight. OK, hands to your heart. So that means you're not using anything but your muscles to keep yourself upright. Good, you guys look good. On your inhale, we're going to reach those arms up. Exhale, arms in cactus. Good. Take a breath, inhale. Exhale, tilt halfway down, but pull the elbows back. That's the most important part. Good, you got it. Take a breath. Exhale, hands to kneecaps, and we're going to slide down towards the floor. You can go to your shins, your ankles, the floor. Doesn't matter, just don't push yourself. Inhale, we're halfway up. That means hands are to your kneecaps, and we're arching and lifting our chin up. Exhale, we're taking the fold down. Inhale, just the right arm goes out to the side, and we're looking at the thumb. It doesn't have to go high to begin with. Good, bring it down. And then inhale that left arm out, look at your thumb. And bring it back. Then there's a big circle all the way to the top. Maybe even touch your hands. Good. And exhale back to the heart center. I love it, you guys. I hear you breathing good. So here we go, inhale up. Exhale, arms in cactus halfway down. Take a breath, inhale. Hands to kneecaps, slide down. Inhale, we're arching halfway. Exhale, we're bowing. Inhale, that right arm is going out. We're looking. Lower it. Inhale, that left arm is going out. And lower it. And the big circle, pull your belly in on this one. Inhale, take it to the top. Exhale, back to heart center. Good, one more like that, and then we add things. So inhale, lifting up. Exhale, halfway down. Remember, elbows are pulled back. Take your breath. Hands to kneecaps, start to slide towards the floor. Inhale, we're halfway. We're strengthening our back with that back bend. Good, exhale, we're folding. Inhale, the right arm is reaching out. And exhale, lower. Inhale, that left arm. Exhale, lower. Big circle takes us to the top, maybe looking up. And exhale, back to the heart center. Good, this time we're going to add a twist. Inhale, coming up. Exhale, halfway down. Take that breath. Hands to kneecaps, slide all the way down. Inhale, we're halfway. Exhale, we're folding. Inhale, that right arm is out. Spread your fingers. Let it go down. Inhale, left arm all the way up. Good, exhale down. Inhale, arms all the way to the top. Exhale, arms into cactus. Hold it here. We're going to twist to the left on the exhale. So take an inhale. Exhale, twist to the left, to the center, to the right, to the center, and to your heart center. Beautiful. Here we go. Inhale, lift up, look up. Exhale, halfway down. Take your breath. Hands to kneecaps, slide all the way down. We're halfway through our marathon. Inhale, halfway up. Exhale, lower. Inhale, right arm. Exhale, lower. Inhale, left arm. Exhale, lower. Inhale, to the top again. Touch your fingertips. And exhale, bring it back to cactus. We're going to tilt to the left on the exhale. So here we go. Inhale. Exhale, tilt. The left elbow goes down. You guys got it. Back to the center, and the other side. Back to the center, and to your heart. Good. Now we'll add the feet. So inhale, lifting up. Exhale, lean halfway down. Take your big breath. Hands to kneecaps, slide towards the floor. Inhale, we're halfway. Exhale, we're bowing. Inhale, that right arm. Straight elbow. Bring it down. Inhale, left arm. Exhale, bring it down. Inhale, both arms out in front of you, like you're holding a beach ball in front of you. Now, this is your core work. You're going to lean forward. You almost feel like you're going to just do a face plant, right? But you're holding strong. Toes are down. Heels are going to lift up now. So like you have high heels on. And push the balls of your feet down. Good. That strengthens your arches. Good. And then heels down. Inhale, lift. Hands to your heart. Two more. We can do it. Inhale, lift up, look up. Exhale, halfway down. Take your breath. Hands to kneecaps, slide towards the floor. Inhale, we're halfway. Exhale, we're folding. Inhale, that right arm reaches. And lower. Inhale, the left arm. And lower. Hold that beach ball in front of you again. Remember, the work is in the lean. So if you could lean a little bit more, all the better. Good. Toes are up. Heels are down. And this time, you're going to spread your toes. And then you're going to wiggle them. Let me just see if you guys got it. Good. Toes are down. Inhale, lift. Hands back to the heart center. Last lap. Here we go. Inhale, lift up, look up. Exhale, halfway down. Take a breath. Hands to kneecaps, slide towards the floor. Inhale, we're halfway up. Exhale, we're folding. Inhale, the right arm is up. And lower. Inhale, that left arm is up. And lower. And take it all the way to the top, looking up to the sky and bringing it back to your heart center. Beautiful. Let's take a rest. Well-deserved. Come on, scooch on back. Just feel free to use the back of your chair. We good, you guys? All right. Did that give you a little bit of oomph to your cardiovascular system? I think so, huh? So just close your eyes. Just take a moment, just kind of feeling maybe the warmth in your body or a little bit more of your heart beating that's more obvious to you. Maybe you're just feeling overall a little bit more blood flow, let's say. Couple more deep breaths just to settle things down. And then flutter your eyes open. So I am always very interested in senior fitness, senior health. I think it's just a very important topic to me as I'm aging, as my parents age, as everybody in the world ages, right? And they always have these senior fitness tests all the time. And one of them is how well and how much you can get up and down off of the chair on your own. It's a very important part of independence. It absolutely is. Getting off the toilet, getting off the couch, out of your bed, all of that requires your core strength and your leg strength. That's why in every single class I do these blast-offs. Blast-offs are just coming up and down off the chair. But I know it's challenging for knees. It definitely is because you're straightening your knees and you're coming down. You're straightening your knees and coming down. I have a really good way to cheat. Anybody wanna know it? It's a really good way to cheat. And it does just as good, okay? It's called the butt lift. So some of the girls know this one, some of you don't. So everybody, I want you to take your hands and I want you to squeeze your hands like this. So like this and go squeeze. When you do that squeeze, even like your biceps would pump out, squeeze, right? You're gonna do the same thing with your butt cheeks, okay? So I'm gonna tell you like this. We're gonna go squeeze. And you're gonna pop up because your butt cheeks are really tight, right? And then you're gonna release. And you squeeze. You should get taller right now. Okay, good. And down and we're gonna squeeze. Good, all right? So that's what you do. And if we're doing blast-offs, I want you to do that. Maybe even this time around. Just try it because it's going to create so much strength in your glutes, which are really important for you to get up in your thighs, okay? So we're going to do 10 today, all right? Yeah, we're gonna make it easy today. Why not? Just a straight 10. Okay, so then the other thing is, you can use your hands to help you up, right? Because that gives you momentum to come up. And if you feel like, nope, I wanted all my legs and my core today, then your hands are on your shoulders. So all three of those options, butt lift, using your hands or hands to your shoulders. We're gonna do 10. We ready? Here we go. 10 and down. Good. Nine and down. Those butt lift girls really squeeze. Good, eight, seven. Good, six, five. Good, four. Good job. Three, two, one, and blast off. We're to the top. All right, sit down. Take a little pause, a little break. Ooh, that felt good, huh? How were the butt lifts, girls? It works, doesn't it? It really, really does. So you will find that your butt cheeks will be a little sore. Okay, just warning you. But the more often you do it, it really, really works. And the first muscles that go as we age, I did the research on this, is the quads. Where are they? Where's your quads? The knees. That's why knees are always precarious because the quads support the knees. And when the quads are weak, they can't support the knees. The knees kind of tend to kind of bunch together. The quads hold those knees and have a little space in those knees, right? And then the second thing that goes, I hate to tell you, is our butt muscles. They get kind of straight and flabby, you know? So that's why the butt lift is really good for that. All right, so for all of that, I was hoping that you're resting right now, right? We're gonna stand up. We're gonna do some standing movements. So come on up. All right, so everybody's behind their chair? Good, I'm gonna go sideways so you can kind of see how it all works. Okay, so we're gonna hold onto the chair. We're gonna go on our tippy toes. And we're gonna go back on our heels with our toes up. Yeah, so these are just gentle ankle rocks. Good, they're good for lower body. Circulation, good. Good, and now when we're on our tippy toes, the right arm's gonna come up. Good, and when we come down on our heels, the toes are up. And then we're back up to the toes and the left arm is up, good. We'll do one more round like that. And up we go, good. And the other one, up we go. Good, now take your right foot back behind you and tuck your toes, bend your front knee, and almost like a little pulsing action to stretch out that calf, like up and down. It's called a runner's lunge. So we did some tippy toe work which kind of creates that little bit of tension in the calf muscle, we're stretching that. Good, and then we'll just alternate that. Now the left foot, the toes are tucked and you're gonna bend that front knee and you're just gonna pulse into that. That feel good, you guys? Stretching out that calf, good. Yeah, it's good, huh? Good, and then come all the way back up. All right, downward facing dog. We gotta have at least one of these every day. So bringing your arms all the way up if you can. Bring them up, good. Bring your hands to the chair, walk yourself back. Bending your knees, flattening your back, and then gently, gently walking yourself back, walking yourself back, just little by little until you find a nice long stretch. And we are gonna spend four breaths here. So we're gonna take our time. Now if your shoulders feel like it's way too much of a pull, then walk forward and bend your elbows a little bit. So always feel free to give your shoulders a little break. So take some nice deep breaths, especially the lower back. If you've got those lower back tight muscles, I want you to be pulling your bottom all the way back away from you, lengthening in that area, just using your breath by doing that. Let's do one more breath cycle. Good, and then bring it all the way back to the center, looking at your chair, bring it all the way back in, and then shake one leg out, like that, good. The other leg out, like that, good. Now we're gonna power up the glutes, okay? So if you haven't felt your glute muscles, you're gonna feel them now, okay? Literally and figuratively, we're gonna take the right foot back and we're gonna tuck our toenails under. You don't have to bear weight, just a little tuck, okay? And then I want you to lift your foot up about two inches. Did you feel your butt muscle just get tight? Lower it down and lift it up. Now I want you to take your hand, okay? Take your hand right on your butt and then lift that foot up and if you don't feel your butt muscle get tight, guess what muscle's working? Your back, okay, your back is. So you gotta squeeze that butt muscle to get it up. Squeeze it to get that leg up, yeah, good. All right, and then when you come back forward, just step back and then lift that leg up a couple times to stretch the glutes, okay? So hopefully, maybe during the day and maybe during the week, try that and you'll really start to understand where those glutes are and how they work, okay? So now the left foot goes back. Remember, we're tucking the toes under a little bit. We're lifting that leg up and we're trying to squeeze the glute, good. Lower it down. Now you can take your hand if you want to. That's just for your sake to see like, do I feel that muscle tightening? If it just feels like exactly the same when you lift it up, that means you're using basically the wrong set of muscles. You're using your back. You gotta squeeze, squeeze, good, and come back in and then take that leg up and down a couple times. You will definitely have sore glutes tomorrow now, I know. Sorry, ladies, good. All right, we're gonna come into chair pose. So we're gonna work a little bit into the quads. So actually, this one I call stool because it's not quite the formal chair. I want you to take your knees and just bend them. Your back is straight. Your back is straight, good. Now look down, make sure your knees are parallel. If you can see your toes, make sure they're facing forward. Good, back is nice and straight. Okay, good. Take your right hand in front of you, hitchhiker thumb. We're gonna go out to the side one finger at a time. So here we go. We're gonna go one, two, three, four. You can look at that thumb as it goes backwards. Then bring it back in, pinky first. Four, three, two, and one, good. Keep those knees bent because we're gonna go to the other side. Here we go. Left thumb is up. We're gonna go out one, two, three, four. All the way out, looking. Back in, four, three, two, and one, good. Bring your hand down. Keep your legs bent if you can because we're gonna do both one time. Here we go. One, two, three, four. Big open heart, good. And back in, one, three, two. Very good, straighten up. Now we're gonna stretch those muscles by doing the kick the butt. Looks like this. Make sure your foot is flexed. That means the ankles are 90 degrees and we're just stretching the front of the thigh, good. Very good, you guys got it. All right, let's come into warrior. So we're standing right there in front of our chair. Left foot is gonna go back. Right foot's gonna stay where it's at. Both hands are gonna be right there on your chair. Bend your right knee. And remember, we're always double checking. Knees tend to like to go out or knees tend to like to go in. Make sure that kneecap is straight on, good. Left arm in cactus, good. Right arm in cactus, good. Now you've got your balance and your strength. You're the warrior, good. Both arms go out to the side like airplane wings, good. Now we're gonna lean forward, pull the belly in. This is your core work again. Just lean forward a little bit. The arms are out to the side, good. You're hovering, flying above the trees, good. Hold it, three, two, one. And then bring your hands to the chair and we'll walk it forward, good. Other side, left foot stays, right foot steps back. Remember, we're gonna check that knee alignment when we bend that left knee, good. Right arm cactus, left arm cactus. Find your balance, good. Both arms, airplane wings, spread your fingers, good. Take a breath and exhale, lean just a little bit. Doesn't even have to be halfway, just a little bit. Yeah, this is your core at work. If your core muscles weren't strong, you would be face planting, okay. Hold it, good, three, two, one. And down, bring it all the way up and then take a leg and shake it. Take a leg and shake it, good. And then bring your chair in front of you if it's not already, because we're gonna do some balancing. We're gonna do falling star, okay. So the legs are gonna be parallel and we're gonna have the right foot out to the side. Most important part of this one is that the toes are facing forward. Now, for anybody who has hip issues or knee issues, sometimes your toes like to go out to the side. Bring them straight forward, good. And then shoot the matching arm up, good. This is called falling star. This is called twinkling star. This is called supernova. If you can let go and wiggle all about, good. And then release it. And then how about a little hip movement like this, like you're skiing. And then grab your poles, come on, let's go, let's go. Good, moving those outside hip muscles, good. All right, falling star to the other side. So now it's left foot out. Remember toes are facing forward. Might even feel awkward sometimes, good. Shoot that arm up. You can always bend your arm if your shoulders don't like that, good. Okay, falling star, got it. Twinkling star, supernova, yay, we got it. And then release it, good. And how about skiing, good. Grab your poles, here we go. All right, back to the center. Take one leg out, give it a shake. Other leg out, give it a shake, good. We're gonna come into goddess. So taking your legs out a little bit wider, could be as wide as maybe the back of those chair legs, but this time toes are out and heels are in, because this is a hip opening movement. You're just gonna go down and up a few times, good. This one's super important for releasing your low back and for opening up your hips, yeah. Most of life is in the two dimension. Very rarely we have our hips go out like this, right? So you might feel a little different feeling in the lower butt muscles in that area. We're just stretching them, good, good. Now we'll add the arms. So we're gonna take the arms and cactus when we bend the knees, and the arms straight out when we straighten everything out. Good, here we go. Down and up, two more. Down, down and up, good. Now we'll just tilt to one side, good. To the center, up to the other side, to the center, and bring it all the way back in, good. Heel, toe, heel, toe, and how about a march? How about a march? Come on down, that was nice, huh? Just finding your breath, got your belt or your scarf handy, and just close your eyes and just maybe even check in with your mind right now and just say like, gosh, what am I thinking right now compared to what I was thinking about an hour or so ago? And sometimes we have worries and thoughts and plans, and sometimes it's nice to just clear that all out. Give your mind a little break, a little peace of mind, right? And then gently flutter your eyes open if they're still closed. Grab your belt, because we're gonna do some beautiful stretches for our legs. Now we did a lot of strengthening, right? We did a lot of squeezing and holding. That's very important for creating strong muscles, but we also have to stretch those muscles because that's what makes nice toned muscles, okay? We just don't want bulky muscles, we want toned muscles. So we're gonna take the belt across the ball of the left foot. So how it looks like is the ball of the foot, it's not the arch, okay? It's actually the ball of the foot, that like fleshy toe mount area. What's this one doing besides creating a little bit of arm strength, right? Arm strength? Okay, what about the belly right now? Can you pull that up and in just a little bit? Yeah, look it, you just got taller. I just saw you get taller on that one. We're opening up the back of the knees, okay? Really important for your knee space, knee health. Good, you do. Grab a hold of the belt with a matching hand and take the other hand out to the side, the thumb is up. This is where your posture comes in, in your core, right? So don't sink down if you can. And then take your leg out, out, out, until you hit a stopping point. Good. And then when we come back in, we're gonna switch the grip and we're gonna take the other arm out and we're gonna try to take it up and over just a little bit. It doesn't go very far this direction. Everybody feel that a little bit, that stretch? Okay, good. You still sitting up tall? Good. And then when you go back to the center, it's gonna be the ankle to the knee. Now I know a few of you or one of you has a hip replacement, so you're gonna modify as needed, right? You always can cross down lower if you need to. Okay, so if you've got it up here, make sure you have your foot flexed and you can take your belt right here, cross your lap. Okay, so sitting up nice and tall, hands are out in front like this, and we're gonna do give and receive. So it looks like this. We're reaching forward like we're giving something to someone and then we're bringing it back in and receiving. Good, so inhale and exhale. Good, two more. Inhale and exhale and inhale and exhale. Good, when you come back in, grab a hold of that knee, maybe interlace your hands around the kneecap. Bring your arms in cactus and we're gonna kick three times. Looks like this. Once, good. Twice and three times. Very good. And then shake it all about and we'll do the same thing to the other side. So grab and hold of the belt across the ball of the right foot. And what you wanna do is you wanna hold onto the belt so that your elbows have a bend to them, okay? You don't want your arms straight like this. Want you to have elbows bent because that's gonna create a little bit of strength in the arm muscles. And we wanna, while we're at it, we might as well do the arms while we're doing the legs, right? So the knee is straight, right? We're opening up the back of the knee. What about the bottom foot? Does it feel really solid? Yeah. Then grab the belt with the matching hand. The other arm is out to the side. We're gonna open up until we hit that little bumper space. Yeah, good. Holding that, good. Come back to the center, flip your grip, cross over the midline. The other arm is out, good. Back to the center, ankle to the knee or ankle to the other side or the shin, and then place the belt or the scarf on your lap. Okay, give and receive. So the hands are open. We're gonna inhale, reach, and exhale, pull it in. Good, inhale and exhale. Two more, inhale. And again, inhale and exhale. Very good. Grab a hold of that knee, interlace. This is where we're gonna create a little strength. So arms are in cactus. We're gonna kick three times. Soccer kicks once, twice, and three times. Good, shake it all about. Bring your legs out nice and wide and let's go side to side a little bit. Open up that inner thigh space again. And I hope these chairs are good for you to slip and slide with. Yeah, good. All right, so we're all gonna slide so that our left knee is in the front, our right knee drops, and we are halfway on the chair. Remember, we talked a lot about butt cheeks today, didn't we? Yeah, okay, so it's just the left butt cheek that's on the chair. The right one is not, it's hovering, right? Grab a hold of the hand, the left hand on the chair, and the right hand is gonna go to your shoulder and we're gonna circle backwards. Circle backwards, good. You're tucking that back toe, good. And then take your elbow down, lift it up, and then lean into the chair. Good, so here we go. We're gonna go inhale, the elbow's down, exhale, the elbow's up and we're leaning. And two more, inhale, and exhale, and inhale, and exhale. Good, come all the way back to the center and we'll go to the other side. So gracefully pivot. Now that left knee is dropping, right hand's holding onto the chair, and the left hand is going to your shoulder. Here we go, backwards, circling backwards. Nope, circle backwards first with the elbow. Circle backwards, yeah. Opening up the shoulder a little bit, yeah. These are your pectoralis muscles that we're opening up. They're good for your breathing. Good, now the elbow's gonna go down towards the hip and then we're gonna lift the elbow up and we're gonna lean into the chair. Good, you guys got it. So inhale, we're down, exhale, we're lifting. Inhale, down, exhale, lift. And last one, inhale, down, exhale, lift. And then gently coming all the way back, all the way back. And once we're back, we'll keep that nice straddle position because we are gonna do a couple Cat-Cows. So whenever we take a little bit of a sideways stretch for our bodies, we always have to bring everything back into the neutral. So it's gonna look like this. Inhale, we're arching, and exhale, we're rounding. Inhale, arch, exhale, round. And again, inhale, arch. Good, walking your feet together. Okay, we are gonna work a little bit on the core muscles. As we mentioned before, those are gonna be very important for your posture, right? Because if your core muscles are not strong, you're gonna tend to be a little bit lower in your posture. When your core muscles are strong and tight, you're up a little bit higher, right? You actually grow taller in this. So we're gonna work the muscles between your belly button and your pubic bone just by lifting up one leg like this. Good, and then down. And the other one. Good, we got it. Yeah, that little motion, of course, uses your leg muscles, but it also uses the lower core. These muscles are important for holding your peak, okay? So anytime you're bored at home and you feel like I better do some exercises, this one's a good one. Now we're gonna add the arms to it with what a sequence I call Rowing the Boat. So we're gonna grab the oar, and it looks like this. We're gonna row to one side, and we're gonna row to the other side. So get the rhythm of the row, okay? And once you got that, then we're gonna actually lift up a leg, the opposite leg, and down and lift up the opposite leg. So the oar goes in the water on one side and the opposite leg lifts. This is a brain teaser right here, okay? So we got it. Wow, we're strengthening our core, of course. Here we go, good. We're rowing that boat. Good, here we go, double oars. Double oars, and guess what? Double feet, and not very high. Not high, like an inch or two, that's it. That's where we really power up the core. Oh, is that harder? That's a lot harder, you can feel it, right? You can feel it. But if you go up too high, you're gonna use your back muscles, okay? So just teeny, yeah, oh yeah. Now hold on to your chair. Lift your feet up only about an inch or two, just right there. Okay, 99, 98, three, two, one. Was that some work? That was some work, all right. Well done, girls. So we're gonna end it with something nice and relaxing, okay? So first of all, we're gonna do a little bit of finger movements. This one I call the spider, I don't know why, but it looks like it. So we're gonna bring all the fingertips together like this, okay, and we're gonna twiddle our thumbs. Let go of your thumbs and just twiddle them. Twiddle them, good, and twiddle them backwards. Easy peasy, huh? Don't be so cocky, okay? Because now we're gonna do the index fingers, same thing. Twiddle the index fingers without touching. Look at you, good girl. Okay, and the opposite way. Now don't feel cocky again because the middle finger is gonna be the challenging one. Let it go and twiddle that one. How's that one going? Slow, exactly, go the other way. I'm hitting my fingertips. I know, and then now the ring fingers. Oh, the ring fingers are hard because they don't wanna bend, do they? They don't wanna bend very well. Look at you going, Grace, good. And then go the other way. Good, and now it's easy, the pinkies. The pinkies, yay, we're back to the pinkies, okay. Pinkies are happy, and the other way. Okay, now we're gonna make the heart. You probably have seen this on commercials. See the heart? You take the fingernails of each of your four fingers and you touch them. That's the top of the heart, and then the thumb touches the bottom. And then now show your heart to your neighbor. Just, yeah, everybody look it. Does everybody see through the silhouette that everybody's got a heart? Okay, now place that heart on your own heart. Does everybody know what side it is? It's the left side, it's the left side. Very good, and then release it. Good, shake your fingers out. Oh, yeah, shake them all about. And then shake your legs like this. This is a little limp shake, okay. So bring your arms up and shake it all about. And let's do our voices in here. Ah! Ah, that's great. With your thumbs on your heart, want you to open up the three middle fingers, forming this beautiful chalice right here. Beautiful chalice that will flow right into your heart. And at this moment in time, I want you to ask for whatever your heart desires. We always hear that saying, right? My heart desires this. Well, ask for what your heart right now is desiring and know that you are worthy of receiving that. Fill that chalice up with that beautiful intention flowing right into your heart space. And then placing your fingers back together, touching and bowing your head down. And so sealing that intention in. I am worthy of all that my heart desires. I thank you all for your dedication by coming today, taking good care of your health of not just your body, but your mind and your spirit through your practice of yoga. I wish you all a beautiful day ahead. Namaste. Namaste to all of you. Turn around and greet your neighbor with a namaste. Namaste. Yay! It was so nice to have you ladies here today. I just hope you have a beautiful day and until the next time. Thank you. All right.