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00:00Welcome everyone! Thanks for tuning in and flowing with me today. This video is a
00:06flexibility flow working deep flexibility towards front splits and
00:11middle splits. So we'll get deep into our quads, our hamstrings, and hip flexors.
00:19Those will be the three large muscle groups we'll be working today. So go
00:25ahead and find an easy seated position. We'll jump right into this. Bring your
00:30attention to your breath and take some big rolls in the shoulders, releasing
00:35tension through your upper body.
00:41Take your knees wide on your mat, your big toes to touch. Reach your hands out far
00:47in front of you. Press your hips over to the right. Draw a big circle and back to
00:53the left. Continue drawing circles in a counterclockwise motion, beginning to
00:59warm up for the hips. I do incorporate lots of dynamic movements in my flow, so we
01:07will be getting warm throughout the process of this video. But it's always a
01:14good pointer to warm up a little beforehand, even if that's a hot shower or a 15
01:20minute jog, whatever. You need to just get your muscles nice and warm, ready to go.
01:24If you haven't switched directions yet, go ahead and do so.
01:27And next time your hips are at the back of the motion, hold in that child's pose.
01:47Sink as low as you can, as you rock your hips left to right, opening your knees a
01:53little wider, sinking deep into your hips, actively pressing them towards your heels.
01:59Continue rocking side to side. Maybe you bring it more into your shoulders as your hips have sunk as deep as they can go for now.
02:23Continue breathing.
02:35And we'll bring ourselves through all fours to down dog. Once you find down dog, have some
02:43active dynamic movements here, bending into one knee and then the other. Stretch out
02:49through one hamstring, then the other. Continue this movement. Do anything here that feels
02:55good to you, as long as you're feeling a stretch along the backs of your legs. That's the goal here.
03:01Continue to press strong through your hands and your shoulders, supporting your upper body and your spine.
03:09Hold one leg straight and the other bent.
03:13And switch sides.
03:36And walk your feet wide to the edges of your mat. Continue to make any movements here that help you warm up into your
03:43your hamstrings. Find some stillness. Hold on one side.
04:00And switch sides.
04:01Come on back to center. Inhale. Lift your heels and exhale. Set them down towards the mat.
04:18Lift. And lower. Lift. And lower. Lift. And lower.
04:34Continue here a few more times. Eventually step your feet all the way up to meet your hands.
04:41Take hands on opposite elbows. Allow your spine to hang long. Release through your upper back,
04:49your shoulders. Allow everything to hang long.
04:54Go ahead and release your hands towards the floor. Inhale. Find a nice flat back. And exhale, round down.
05:15So as you find your flat back now, try and straighten your legs a little more. Exhale, collapse. Inhale, flat spine,
05:32flat legs. And release. Inhale, lengthen. Exhale, collapse.
05:38Lengthen, collapse. Lengthen, and collapse. Continue this motion. Maybe you keep your hands on the floor
05:57as you move now. Finding a bit of a deeper stretch. Lengthening out through the hamstrings. Just a little
06:04more. Continuing this dynamic movement to lengthen and collapse in. Lengthen, and crunch in. Continue here
06:14just a couple more times. Continue to move with your breath.
06:18And find some stillness. Take your legs as straight as they can go comfortably. Maybe that means a slight
06:37micro bend in your knee. And toe heel your feet wide to the edges of your mat. Grab opposite elbows. Allow
06:45everything to hang towards the floor. Bend into one knee and then the other.
06:58Shifting the weight of your hips side to side. Bend left and bend right. You can bring your hands
07:05towards the mat or not.
07:10Continue here. A lot of dynamic motions at the beginning of this video to really
07:15open up. Warm up the legs and hips.
07:19Super important to prepare your body for deep stretches such as splits. So often people will
07:25jump right into it and not give your body the time, your muscles the time to really relax.
07:31So here we're preparing ourselves for a comfortable deep stretch and reducing the risk of injury.
07:39Feel free. Find yourself in the center. Walk your feet a little wider. Hold here.
07:57Walk your hands gently to the left side.
07:59Walk your feet a little wider.
08:11Inhale, find a nice flat spine, and exhale, fold over your left leg, inhale, lengthen,
08:38exhale, fold, continue here, dynamic movement, lengthen, exhale, fold, lengthen, and fold.
08:57Work hands all the way through center and on over to the right side, hold here.
09:21Lengthen, and fold.
09:29Lengthen, and fold.
09:39Lengthen, and fold.
09:49Lengthen, and fold.
09:55Try to make your way right back at center.
09:57Bring your hands a little further out in front of you here.
10:03So you're almost like a down dog or a puppy pose with your upper body.
10:09As you tilt forward, you'll lift up high on your toes.
10:15As you sink back, heels will come down.
10:17Press your hips up high towards the sky.
10:19Press your chest a little closer towards your thighs.
10:23Inhale, come forward, lift your heels, and exhale, press back.
10:29Come forward, lift up.
10:31Come forward, lift up.
10:33Press back, stretch.
10:35Forward, lift.
10:37Back, stretch a little deeper.
10:39Forward, lift.
10:41Back, stretch.
10:43Press your chest a little closer towards the floor here.
10:47And forward and lift.
10:49Back, sink down.
10:51Continue this motion forward and back.
10:55And go ahead and walk your feet in just a little bit closer so they come to about the edge of your mat.
11:05Sink your hips low.
11:07Find a deep squat and exhale, straighten out both legs.
11:10Inhale, deep squat.
11:12Exhale, straighten the legs.
11:14When you sink to your deep squat, make sure the weight is in your heels.
11:19Knees stay as far back as you can.
11:22Exhale, lengthen the legs.
11:24Inhale, sink low for that squat.
11:27And straighten the legs.
11:32Deep squat.
11:34Straighten out.
11:36Continue here.
11:38Squatting and lifting.
11:42Lots of movement going on here.
11:46So feel free to take it at your own pace.
11:48Do what feels good.
11:53Next time you come down, stay there.
11:57Bring your heels in towards one another.
11:59Allow your toes to face out.
12:01Diagonal towards the corners of your mat.
12:04We'll work our way towards garland pose or yogi squat here.
12:09Hands working towards heart center.
12:11Using your elbows to press your knees a little wider.
12:15See if you can balance here.
12:16Big stretch through the backs of the ankles as well.
12:30Hands will come wide on your mat as if you're setting up for a very wide based crow pose.
12:36You can think of it that way too.
12:37Leaning forward and back.
12:38As long as you're feeling some opening in your hips here, you're doing it right.
12:43And this movement will look a little different on every body.
12:44Hold where you feel your deepest stretch.
12:45And that's a little bit different on every body.
12:46Hold where you feel your deepest stretch.
12:47If you're doing a frog stretch on your elbows.
12:48If you're doing a frog stretch on your elbows.
12:49Take a few deep breaths there.
12:50With every exhale, allow yourself to sink into your hips.
12:51And that's a very, very wide crow pose.
12:52You can think of it that way too.
12:53Leaning forward and back.
12:54As long as you're feeling some opening in your hips here, you're doing it right.
12:59And this movement will look a little different on every body.
13:11Hold where you feel your deepest stretch.
13:13And take a few deep breaths there.
13:16With every exhale, allow yourself to sink in a little deeper.
13:20And maybe you release for a brief moment, then sink back into it.
13:35And go ahead and return to your garland pose.
13:49Go ahead and release hands and knees to the floor.
13:53And now we'll work our way towards our frog stretch or our frog split.
13:58Now your alignment of hips versus in line with the knees is up to you on this first frog split.
14:08Find where you feel your most stretch.
14:11For me, that's with my hips a little bit below my knees.
14:14For you, it might be when they're right in line with your knees.
14:18Continue to breathe here with every exhale.
14:22Allow yourself to sink a little lower.
14:25Allow your hip rotators to open a little more in those muscles of your inner thighs.
14:30Take those muscles of your inner thighs.
14:31Take those muscles of your inner thighs.
14:37See if you can release a little more.
14:38Allow your hips to come down a little lower.
14:39Maybe you'd adjust a little more.
14:40Allow your hips to come down a little lower.
14:41Maybe you'd adjust your positioning a little bit.
14:48Walk your hands slightly to the left side and get that lieutenant 130 feet down a little lower.
15:11Walk your hands slightly to the left side and gaze over your left shoulder.
15:26Head over to your right side, bring yourself back to center, deep breath in and exhale,
15:45sink a little lower.
15:46If you had your hips pressing back towards the back wall like I was, see if you can bring
15:52them right in line with your knees.
15:55If they were in line with your knees, see maybe you press them back a little bit.
16:00Just adjust to hit a bit of a different angle in your hip rotators.
16:08As we hold our frog stretch, you can play around with changing your upper body position.
16:14Sometimes by pressing into the floor and arching your upper back a little, you can actually
16:18put more pressure on your hips and allow for a deeper stretch.
16:23Come out of this posture, press with your hands as much as you can to take as much pressure
16:33off your knees as possible.
16:35Pull your knees in towards one another.
16:38Come to all fours and rock out left and right, releasing the stretch in your hips.
16:46Keep your knees together, take a couple big rolls, moving counter-clockwise.
17:00Switch directions, clockwise circles.
17:16And switching it up forwards and backwards, pressing the hips forward, exhale, press back.
17:22It's getting some good movement in here.
17:37Next time you come forward, tuck your toes, send your hips high, downward facing dog, walk
17:42it out a little here.
17:49Next inhale, send the left leg up high behind you, exhale, pull that knee into chest and step
17:57it up in between the hands.
18:00Nice low lunge here.
18:03We'll begin to bend and extend, so bending the knee and straightening the knee.
18:11When you bend, you're working the flexibility of the hip flexor and the right leg.
18:18And when you straighten out that front leg, you're working hamstrings of the front leg.
18:24Continue bending and extending.
18:30Breathing deeply here.
18:32Always feel free to hold one stretch a little longer if that feels good.
18:38Come forward, bring your back knee all the way to the floor and lift it up.
18:44Drop the back knee and lift it up.
18:48Continue this movement and stay very conscious of the stretch in your right hip flexor.
18:54Keep actively pressing your hips down a little closer towards the floor, stretching that hip
19:01flexor.
19:03Drop the knee and lift the knee.
19:12Next time you lift the knee, hold there.
19:14Bring your hands to the top of your left thigh.
19:18Continue to press down.
19:20Stay strong.
19:21Lower that back knee all the way down.
19:27Stay in your low lunge here.
19:29Continue to breathe.
19:30I know this is a deep stretch.
19:33Reverse the stretch.
19:35Press your hips up and back.
19:39Stretching out that hamstring.
19:40Then we'll take our rocking motion forwards and backwards.
19:48Again, working hip flexor on the forward motion and hamstrings on the backward motion.
20:08Next time you're in the hamstring stretch position, go ahead and hold there.
20:15Exhale, lunge forward.
20:16And if it feels good to sit up tall, taking some little bounces.
20:22Go for it.
20:23Continue to breathe here.
20:24Only do this if it feels okay to your body.
20:29If it feels okay to your body.
20:30If it's too intense, hold the lunge.
20:31Inhale, the hands up high.
20:32Exhale.
20:33Exhale, through heart center.
20:34Reach up.
20:35Exhale, through heart center.
20:36Reach up.
20:37Exhale, through heart center.
20:38Big cleansing breath.
20:39Reach up.
20:40Big cleansing breath.
20:41Reach up.
20:42Reach up.
20:43Heart center.
20:44Continue here.
20:45And if it feels good to sit up tall, taking some little bounces.
20:47Go for it.
20:48Continue to breathe here.
20:49Only do this if it feels okay to your body.
20:52If it's too intense, hold the lunge.
20:55Inhale, the hands up high.
20:57Exhale, through heart center.
20:59Reach up.
21:00Exhale, heart center.
21:01Big cleansing breath.
21:02Reach up.
21:03Heart center.
21:04Continue here.
21:05Take as many as you need.
21:09Sink a little deeper.
21:14Last one.
21:19Hands come down to either side of that front foot.
21:22Sink back for hamstring stretch.
21:25One more time.
21:26Come forward.
21:27Tuck the back toe.
21:30And we'll make our way up to pyramid pose.
21:33Nice flat back.
21:35Both legs stay straight.
21:37Hands can be on the floor or on your shin as you rock your hips.
21:42Forwards and backwards.
21:43Finding that spot where you feel the deepest stretch.
21:46And that's where you're going to want to stay.
21:50Hold here.
21:54Keep breathing.
21:57Bring your weight into your front foot.
22:13Send your back leg up high.
22:15Continue pressing.
22:16And exhale.
22:20Meet and forward fold at the top of your mat.
22:24Hang along here.
22:25And we'll begin that same series of stretches on the other side.
22:31Send your left leg back.
22:33Come into that low lunge with the right knee forward.
22:37And begin to bend and straighten that front leg.
23:02Continue moving at your own pace.
23:15Next time you're low, stay there.
23:19Bend the back knee.
23:20Drop it all the way down.
23:21Keep your hips as low as possible.
23:24And lift that back knee up off the floor.
23:27Tap it down.
23:29And lift it up.
23:31Continue tap and lift, tap and lift.
23:36Again really opening up through your left hip flexors.
23:39Next time you're up, hold up.
24:01Lift your chest, hands come to hips.
24:03Stay strong.
24:04Hold here.
24:05Deep breaths.
24:06And drop that back knee all the way down.
24:10Hands come to the top of the right thigh.
24:13And exhale.
24:14Press your hips back.
24:16Big stretch.
24:17We'll begin lunging forwards and backwards.
24:20Again move at your own pace with your own breath.
24:25If the forward motion or the backward motion just feels really good for you to stay there,
24:30stay there for a few breaths and switch it up.
24:34Always feel free to pause the video and continue your stretches.
24:48Hold in the hamstring stretch.
24:49Hold in the hamstring stretch.
24:55Hold in the hamstring stretch.
25:24Reach it up, lunge forward, hands come to the top of the right thigh and take those
25:29little bouncing motions if that felt good if you did it on the other side.
25:48And find some stillness, inhale, reach both hands up high, and exhale through heart center.
25:54Three more of those, reach, exhale, reach, exhale, last one, reach, and exhale, hands come
26:16down, tuck that back toe, find your pyramid pose on this side, maybe you take some gentle
26:23rocks forward and back to find that spot with the deepest stretch.
26:28And once you find it, hold there, find stillness and breathe.
26:40Bring your weight to your front foot, shake out.
27:10If you send the right leg high on the other side, go ahead and send your left leg high
27:16behind you on this side.
27:20Otherwise find your way to your forward fold and walk your hands to the outside of your
27:25left foot and through center to the outside of your right.
27:37Leg back at center and send your right leg back.
27:42We'll begin working seriously on our front splits on both sides now.
27:47So continue that forward back rocking motion with the left foot forward.
27:55And how we're working getting into our front splits here is slowly walking either the
28:01front foot forward or the back foot back a little or both and rocking and rocking closer
28:08and closer to the floor.
28:09If you have a yoga block, it's a good idea to set it up under that front hip as you lower
28:15yourself down.
28:17Otherwise, you can use your hands on either side of you, stack up a stack of books, really
28:21anything you can set up to prop you up a little higher so that you're not dropping into too
28:27intense of a stretch.
28:29That's not good for improving flexibility.
28:32That's good for pulling muscles.
28:34So really take your time, feel free to pause the video, sink a little deeper.
28:42Take your own time stretching here.
28:44I'll just be showing some different variations on screen to allow you guys some time to stretch
28:51on your own practice.
28:52Thanks.
29:40Continue to breathe, finding some different variations, some rocking motions, some wiggles
29:59in your splits.
30:00Here's an option to reach back for your back foot, looking over your right shoulder.
30:06You can get a nice added stretch in your back quad, maybe you reach out, lean over your
30:12front leg or take a little back bend when you're up tall.
30:16When you're ready to come out of your split on this side, continue that forward rocking
30:22and backward rocking motion until you come to all fours.
30:28Loosen out your hips, some circles, some forward and back motions, shake out your legs, do
30:33anything you need to here to get you feeling good to get going on the other side.
30:39So when you're ready to stretch out your other splits, start out that forward rocking and
30:47back rocking, lunging motion on this side.
30:51And I'll be showing just about the same techniques on this side.
30:58You'll probably notice one side is a little more less flexible than the other side and
31:03don't be afraid that's completely normal.
31:06I have that, everyone most likely has that.
31:09We're all working to be a little more even and yoga lets us realize the asymmetries in our
31:16bodies which is actually awesome that now that we're able to realize it, we know what we
31:21need to work on a little more and I'll give you guys these next couple minutes to work on
31:28your splits on this side.
32:51And when you're ready to remove yourself from your splits on that side, gently make your
33:11way to all fours, continue rocking out the hips, take any little wiggles that you need
33:16to.
33:17And we'll take one final stretch, begin to sink back towards a wide knee child's pose here.
33:31And as you sink deeper into your child's pose, allow your knees to fall wider and wider as
33:45the big totes stay together for as long as they can for a frog stretch variation.
33:50And as you lay here longer, allow your knees to come wider and your feet can come apart,
34:00working towards a 90 degree angle at the hips, at the knees and at the ankles, flexing the
34:06feet.
34:07As you find your way there, breathe deeply.
34:13Gently release the stretch by coming forward, shaking out the ankles a little bit, taking
34:41a big stretch on your mat.
34:47Stretch the arms out forward, your feet out behind you for long spine, long body here.
34:53Deep breath in and exhale.
34:57Allow your body to melt down deeply, supported by the floor below you.
35:03I want to thank you all for flowing and stretching with me today.
35:08I hope I inspired some movements for you to incorporate in your personal practice and that
35:15you feel like you got a good stretch and made some good steps in working towards your splits.
35:21Splits are really all about consistency.
35:23So you got to keep stretching.
35:24I say at least two or three times a week to see some serious improvements.
35:29So keep with it.
35:30Good luck and keep me updated on your progress.
35:33I love to hear it.
35:34So leave your progress in the comments.
35:37Any questions that you have for me, I'd be happy to answer.
35:40Namaste.
35:41Namaste.
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