Afternoon Energy Boost | 25 Minute Yoga Workout, Vinyasa, Hip Openers, Pigeon & Low Lunge w/ Rachel

Hello, my name is Rachel and today I'm going to guide you through an afternoon pick-me-up flow. So maybe you have no energy right now and you're wanting to grab for that extra cup of coffee. So I encourage you to try this class instead and see how you feel after. Today you are just going to need two blocks, a mat, and yourself. And if you don't have time to practice with me right now, feel free to add this to your watch later list and practice with me later on. Today we're going to start sitting in a comfortable seated position. Just go ahead and place your palms either on your knees or on your thighs or on your belly and just start by taking a couple of deep breaths to really ground yourself into the space, into your body by taking a deep inhale through the nose and a deep exhale out of the mouth. Take another deep inhale here and a deep exhale. Take one more deep, deep inhale. And let it all go. When you're ready, go ahead and slowly open up the eyes. With your next inhale, bring the arms up overhead, bringing the palms to touch. And exhale, bring the palms through the chest. Inhale, arms up, palms to touch. Exhale, bring it through the heart space. And just do this a couple more times, moving with the breath. And with your next exhale, you're going to bring your right palm over your left knee and bring that left palm back behind you, coming into a gentle spinal twist. And with your next exhale, come back to center, bringing the left palm over the right knee, bringing that right palm back behind you, placing it onto the ground or onto the mat, and just taking a couple of deep breaths here. Now with your next exhale, come back to center and make your way into a tabletop position. Once you're in tabletop, you're going to set up for a child's pose. So bringing the toes to touch, you're going to spread your knees out as wide as the mat. Sit back onto the heels and slowly start to bring yourself forward, lowering the forehead onto the mat. If it feels nice, you can shake the forehead from side to side, releasing any tension in the forehead. And settle into your child's pose by taking a couple of deep breaths. And then slowly bring your breath back into its natural state, not forcing anything, just allowing yourself to fully relax here. And when you're ready, you're going to shift your fingertips all the way over to the right, shift your hips over to the left, and take a couple of deep breaths here, breathing into that left side body. When you're ready, shift your fingertips all the way over towards the left, bringing the hips over to the right. And breathing into the right hip here. When you're ready, slowly bring yourself back to center before rolling all the way up and coming into a tabletop position. This time you're going to bring the chest forward, lower the belly back onto the mat, and we're going to set up for cobra pose here. So go ahead and untuck the toes, bring the palms to the sides of the chest, bring the elbows in, and then make sure that your shoulders are directly over your wrists here. And whenever you're ready you're going to press into the palms and slowly lower the chest off of the mat. Maybe also bringing up the belly and hold. When you're ready, start to lower yourself back down onto the mat. Maybe shaking the hips from side to side, releasing that lower back stretch here. And when you're ready, we'll come up for cobra one more time. So with your next inhale, press into the palms and use the palms to slowly lower to, sorry. Um, so we're going to press into the palms and slowly lift the chest off of the mat. Maybe the belly comes to look forward, keeping the neck long. And this time, instead of lowering yourself back down onto the mat, we're going to come all the way up for an upward facing dog. A couple of deep breaths here. And when you're ready, go ahead and tuck the toes and make your way back into a downward facing dog. Once you're in down dog, since this is our first down dog today, you can go ahead and pedal out the feet a bit if that feels nice or shake the hips a little bit from side to side. But when you're ready, you're going to lift your left or your right leg up straight up towards the sky with your next inhale. Go ahead and bend that knee and I want you to look into the right elbow and you're going to bring that right knee in towards the elbow, pausing here for a moment in plank pose. It's okay if you start to shake a little bit, that means you're doing it right, and then come all the way back into a downward facing dog. This time with your next inhale, go ahead and lift your left leg straight up towards the sky, bend that left knee, look towards the left elbow, and you're going to bring that left knee in towards the right elbow, towards the left elbow, and pause, and then slowly bring yourself back into a downward facing dog. Now with your next inhale, you're going to lift that right leg straight up towards the ceiling, bend that right knee, and once again, you're going to bring that right knee in towards the right elbow, but we're just going to pause for one second, and then switch. So bringing that left knee in towards the left elbow, and switch, and just take a couple rounds of this at your own pace. Nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three. One, two, one, come back into a downward facing dog. Now with your next inhale, go ahead and lift your right leg straight up towards the ceiling, bend that right knee, and this time look forward in between the palms. You're going to bring that right foot and place it in between the palms, lowering that back knee onto the mat, untucking the back toes, coming into anjaneyasana. So once you're here make sure that the hips are squared towards the front of the mat and you're going to shift that right hip a couple inches back bringing that left hip forward and either bring the palms to touch at the center of the chest or bring the arms up palms facing one another or go ahead and bend the elbows and grab for opposite elbows dropping the shoulders and just pause here for a couple of deep breaths. And with your next exhale, go ahead and place your palms back down onto the mat and come back into a downward facing dog. Now with your next inhale, go ahead and lift that left leg straight up towards the sky, bend that left knee, look forward and you're going to bring that left foot in between the palms, placing it on the mat, dropping that back knee onto the mat, untucking the back toes, coming into Anjaneyasana on the left side. Once again, setting up, so making sure that the hips are squared towards the front of the mat, bringing that left hip a couple inches back, bringing that That right hip forward. And then setting up for whatever arm variation you want to take on this side. It can be different than what you took on the other side. And just pausing here for a couple of deep breaths. Now with your next exhale, go ahead and place your palms back down onto the mat, coming back into a downward facing dog. Once you're in your downward facing dog, you're going to walk your feet up towards your hands as much as you can, coming into a forward fold at the top of the mat. Once you're in your forward fold go ahead and slowly roll on up as slowly as you possibly can. The neck and the head come up last and with your next inhale go ahead and bring the arms up bringing the palms to touch and exhale bring that through the chest. Inhale as you bring the arms up palms to touch. Exhale bringing the palms through the heart center and just do that a couple more times moving with your breath. One more time and with that next exhale you can go ahead and release the palms out to the sides and we're going to come into pyramid pose here so you're going to bring that left foot back a couple of inches setting up for pyramid pose and I like to bring my blocks with me here so if you have blocks you can either bring them on the highest height or the medium height. Go ahead and square the hips and keep a slight bend in that front knee before Slowly folding forward now with your next exhale instead of rolling on up you're just going to do switch both of your feet so you're gonna bring that left foot forward and you're gonna bring that right foot back a couple of inches bringing the toes to face the front of the room and squaring the hips coming into pyramid pose on the left side keeping a slight bend in that front knee. Now with your next exhale, bring that back foot up to meet the front foot, making sure that the feet are hips-width distance apart. You can move the blocks off to the side of the mat and come into a forward fold. Now with your next exhale, go ahead and arch the spine, place the palms onto your shins, look forward, and exhale, step back into plank pose, and bring yourself back into a downward facing dog. Inhale, you're going to lift your right leg straight up towards the sky, bend that right knee, open up the hip, and make little circles either with that knee getting into that right hip or with that right ankle, and make those circles in the other direction. Go ahead and square the hips, and bring that right knee in right behind the right wrist, placing it onto the mat, setting up for pigeon pose on the right side, and you're going to bring your blocks with you. Thank you. So. Bring one block underneath the chest on its lowest height and one underneath the forehead. Make sure that your hips are squared before slowly coming down onto the blocks or whatever other props you're using. And just breathe into that right hip here. Now with your next exhale, go ahead and slowly roll on up, moving your blocks to the side of the mat and making your way back into a downward facing dog. This time you're going to lift that left leg straight up towards the sky, bend that left knee, open up the hip and begin to make circles either with that left knee getting into the left hip or with the ankle and make the circles in both directions here. Then go ahead and square the hips, looking right behind that left wrist. You're going to bring that left knee right behind the left wrist, placing it on the mat and setting up for pigeon pose on the left side. So go ahead and take your blocks with you, placing one underneath the chest and one underneath the forehead, and then square the hips before slowly coming down onto the mat or onto your blocks. Breathe into that left hip here. Next, exhale whenever you're ready, go ahead and slowly bring yourself off of the blocks, off of the mat, moving the blocks to the side, and then you're going to swing your back leg forward, coming into a seated forward fold, so you're going to bend your knees here as much as you need to, to make contact between the belly and the thighs, and then go ahead and grab for the backs of the feet. And you can either stay right here or you can practice with each exhale slowly straightening out the knees a little bit more while still keeping that contact between the belly and the thighs. But either way, go ahead and lower the head and the neck, keeping the spine long. And when you're ready, go ahead and lift up your head, slowly straighten out the knees and come Come into a comfortable seated position at the front of the mat. Go ahead and close your eyes and I want you to place your palms back either onto your knees, onto your thighs, onto the belly. Just take a couple of deep breaths here. Breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth. A couple more rounds. Whenever you're ready, go ahead and slowly open up the eyes. Thank you. Bye. Thank you so much for practicing with me today. If you absolutely love this class and want to keep practicing with us, check out our Yoga Plus app using the link below. Welcome to Yoga Plus. Courses available from pupil to yogi. Sort by yoga, fitness, and instructors. Create your own routines. Access the Pose Library. Yoga Plus by Psyche Truth. Available on Google Play and the App Store. Join us for 14 and 30 day programs, hour long classes, and much more on our yoga app, Yoga Plus by Psyche Truth. It's free to download and features a variety of wellness content, including yoga, fitness, Pilates, guided meditations, and interviews with dozens of wellness experts.