Hamstring Focused: 29-Min Less Talk Yoga Class

Exhale, slide your hands down towards your feet. Look forward, inhale, straighten your spine. Exhale, round the head in, angle down. Repeat.

Inhale, arms up, look up. Exhale, go forward. Inhale, halfway up. Exhale, round.

Repeat two full more times. Last round. Sit back up, hands behind you. Reverse plank, sit down.

Repeat this eight, ten times. Completely straight legs, pushing the thighs up. Don't lift the belly, use only your hamstrings, not so much your lower back. Sit down on your butt, bend one knee in and switch.

Now you're pulling the chin in with your hands. Guard retention drill. Now with straight legs, same like we did on the back, grab your leg and pull it as high as you can while the other one is laying down. Then switch.

Don't pull so hard that you feel it in other places like your lower back. You should only go far enough, but not too far. Nice. Squat, five breaths.

All fours. You can do anything you want with your hands. A couple of cat and cows just to make our back feel good. Then right leg out behind you, bend the knee and lift the thigh.

Don't open the hips, but keep your hips square. Try to place the foot in the ceiling and then straighten the leg. Do that a few times. Straighten, pull in.

Straighten, pull in. A couple more curls. Hamstring curls. Then place the right foot on the outside of your right hand, lizard style.

Today straighten the leg so that we're in a really tall high split. You're not trying to slide all the way down, you're staying high. If you need to straighten your back leg, do that. Find some gentle ballistic stretching so that you're going in and out of the pose, focusing on the hamstring.

Don't think too much about the front of the other hip. Try to inch your way into a good hamstring stretch. If you're super inflexible, you can just walk away from the foot or angle the foot further away from you. Take a few breaths.

They should not be too intense. If it is, use your fingertips. Back to all fours. Left leg out behind you, bend and kick.

Bend and kick. Curling the hamstring in almost to the point where you feel a cramp in the hamstring. Really contract. Step forward, lizard pose first and then slide it out.

Hips side to side, hip back and front, hips up and down. Your chest should be in the middle of the hip. Find your way. Step forward, lizard pose first and then slide it out.

Hips side to side, hip back and front, hips up and down. Your choice. Find your way. Sit down on your knees, relax your shoulders, move the shoulders around.

Any pattern that helps release tension. Shoulders, neck and wrists. My favorite hamstring pose of all, down dog, is next. That's why we need some mobility and warm up for our upper body.

Spread your fingers, hands wide. Plank pose. Start with wide legs. Go back into a mix between plank and dog.

This one could also be called beginners shitty down dog because this is how beginners think the dog should look. But we use that as a starting point. Start bending a knee, rock from side to side. If you feel like rocking a bit forward and back in a U shape, do that.

Do whatever you like as long as you're stretching the back of the legs. If your calves are stiff, they're getting a nice stretch too. Maybe rock your head from ear to shoulder. Step your right foot between your hands.

Back and forward like this. If your legs are long, you might have to do this with hands on the knee. But go into a lunge and into a half split. Nice.

Stepping back. A couple of times inhale plank, exhale dog. Maybe step your feet a bit closer to each other. Exhale back.

Inhale forward, exhale back. A couple more on your own. Left foot forward, half splits, low lunge. Small movements or big movements.

Hamstrings is our focus, but we're not isolating. We're stretching the whole body. We're just thinking and focusing more on the back of the legs. Dog.

A couple of times with the feet together, inhale plank, exhale slow, push back to a deep dog. Inhale forward, exhale deep straight legged dog. Inhale, exhale push back. If you have a yoga mat, grab the edges of the mat.

If you're slipping, stand next to a wall with either your fingers or your feet. Everybody squat. Take a couple of breaths in squat. If you have long legs and short arms, find something to place your hands on.

Inhale, look forward, exhale fold and stretch your legs. Repeating the pattern. Inhale, exhale. Inhale as slow as you can.

Exhale for as long as you can. A few more. Squat down. You probably can notice that your feet are pointing out, which is great for warming up, but the more intensity you go for, the more parallel you can place your feet.

If you point your toes inwards, it's more hamstring stretch. So parallel feet, grab your big toes with bent knees and then with your biceps, pull your head down. And then when you reach the bottom of your pose, start stretching one leg and bend it again. Stretch one leg and bend it again.

So stretch out as far as you can and then quickly re-bend. Do that a couple of times on each side so that your hips are swaying from side to side. If this is too much for your head, if you're getting blood clots in your head and strokes, squat down, take two breaths. And do it again.

Nice. Everybody stand up. Hands on hips, move your hips a bit to lubricate the spine and hips. Other direction.

Classic and perhaps forgotten warm up exercise in judo that we could all use in jiu-jitsu. Hands on knees, circle the knees. Switching directions. Opposite directions.

And the opposite of opposite directions. A few squats and straighten. Fingers straight, arms straight, legs straight, spine straight. Everything straight.

Touch the floor or as far as you can go. And then straight leg deadlifts. All the way down, all the way up. Make fists and try to make the fists touch the floor.

Just imagine doing deadlifts. Our spine is not endangered here. Final, try to get your palms to the floor. Perhaps difficult, perhaps not.

Stop with the palms on the floor. If you can't reach the floor, walk forward until your palms can touch the floor. So we're somewhere in the middle between a dog and a forward fold. Three more breaths.

Slight bend in the knee might actually increase the intensity of the pose. Everybody sit down and lay down on your back. Grab your feet. With bent knees move the hips and knees around so that your lower back and hips are loosening and up a bit.

Playing our open guard defense. And then karate kick one leg as far sideways as you can go. And go back. Don't go too long, just go as far as you can and return quickly.

Keep going. Grab the inside of the feet so that your thumbs are holding your heels. And if you thought this was hard, let's try both at the same time. Stop at 80% and return.

Self torture in a sensible way. Rock up and down a couple of times. Sit up, reverse tabletop, bent knees, straight arms, lift the hips and go down. Don't lift the belly only the thighs.

Squeezing your butt and really pushing your heels down to lift. Nice. Spread them, seated straddle, go forward. If that's impossible bend one leg and go forward.

I like doing push ups in either of the positions. Push ups sideways, push ups over the short leg, over the long leg. Just finding a place where it feels. That's what we're going for.

Switching sides. Or keep doing both legs straight. Switching sides again. This time over the straight leg, drop your head.

Try to find oxygen in a really constricted pose. Switch sides. Nice. Lay down on your back, heels to butt, lift your hips, bridge pose, go up and down.

Stop at the top, feet together, one leg up. Let's do a few. Hips up, switch legs. Both feet down, lift, lift, lift, lift, lift.

And lay down. One leg bent, one leg straight. Catch the straight leg. And letting the weight of your arms pull your leg half a millimeter closer.

Your hamstrings should be protesting loudly here. If your foot is close, grab the foot. If you need to grab your pants or your hairy legs, do that. Now for the final masochism, straighten the leg completely.

Straighten both legs completely. Breathe, breathe, breathe. Switch sides. One leg bent, one leg straight.

Grab as high as you can. If your leg is shaking, breathe. More intensity, make your arms heavier. Make your arms heavier.

If you're from Mexico, make your arms heavier. When you're over 30 and married, tons are about as fun as things get. Stand up, spread your legs, straight legs, standing straddle, fold forward. Three more breaths.

And sit down. Shake your head. Now, inhale, touch your feet, exhale. Can you notice in about 20 minutes how much our hamstring flexibility improved by doing calm things, nice things, uncomfortable things, a nice mix of them?

You probably started feeling like this, and now you feel more like ah. We can't put a percentage on that, but we can definitely assign a value to that. That value is probably high on your scale. Going from ah to ah is huge.

Thank you guys very much for practicing with me. Keep doing that and I promise greatness. Usss.