Sebastian Brosche · 13 min · 1,784 words
Previously titled: Morning yoga for stretching
Hey everyone and welcome to class today. This is just a really quick class. If you've woken up in the morning and you're feeling a bit sore, a bit stiff from training last night, and you need something to get you going, there's no point just walking around all day moaning about it, do something about it in the morning and you'll feel much better. That's what this class is for.
I'm a bit sore from sparring last night as well, so we're just gonna do a few stretches that I like to do when I get up and I feel like this. First of all, just set yourself up in a bit of a lunge. So we'll have right foot forwards, left foot back. Want your hips over your left or back knee and your shoulders over your hips here.
This isn't a crazy intense stretch. Just start to slow your breath down here. If you're wobbly, just widen your feet out so your stance is nice and solid here. Just start to breathe.
Good, and especially if you've got a sore lower back, this one's good for that. So I want you to imagine you're tilting your hips a little bit. And that's gonna get a stretch on the front of that left hip and the quads if you're tight there as well. And again, just really slow your breath down.
Tense your glutes a little bit here and just feel that stretch and focus on it. And keep breathing. Good, as I said, this won't be a crazy class. This is just enough to get us awake, get us moving and get us going.
Good, let's switch sides now. So feel that on the other side first and then tilt your hips, feel that stretch come on. Keep everything activated here and just breathe. It's so important when our hips at the front are tight to loosen them off and it should help that lower back pain as well if it's related to tight hips at the front.
Good, couple more reps here. Nice, okay, let's step that right foot forwards one more time. And now this time again, tilt the hips. And this time your left hand is gonna come to that right knee and then you're just gonna open your chest over to the right, okay?
Again, if you can't go that far, just enough to open yourself out and breathe. And almost act like if someone is standing in front of you, you're trying to hide that back shoulder from them. So again, if I turn, I'm like this, I'm trying to hide that back shoulder and open my chest out to the right. It's just a nice little twist as we open out that left hip.
Good, one more deep breath in. And out. Nice, ease off that twist. Switch sides, good.
Tilt the hips first, right hand this time on the left knee and turn and remember that back shoulder. Opening that out and I'm trying to hide that. Breathe in here. Good, a few more breaths.
Every breath filling your chest up, filling your belly up. Exhale, let that deflate. Good, let's undo that now. Okay, both knees.
My hands are gonna come forward. So it's like I'm in all fours and I've stepped forwards and now I'm gonna keep my hips above my knees. Let everything drop down here. Feel your armpits, your chest, your shoulders, and everything open out and just rest your forehead on the mat.
And a little bit of pressure in your hands, just enough so you can feel yourself lightly pushing into that and opening out. Good, if you look towards your hands, maybe let your chest drop even more and your hips are tilting the other way here. Okay, so before in that lunge, we were tilting our hips this way. This time we're opening out, turning our hips, our lower back up to the ceiling and breathe.
Good. Good. Two more here. Inhale.
Let that out. Last one, inhale. Exhale. Good, bring yourself back up to all fours now.
Okay, so we've kind of tilted our hips one way and the other way. Now let's combine them, so some cat-cows. Okay, nothing too intense. Inhale, look up, tilt your hips back and up.
Exhale, look towards your hips, tilt your hips towards your forehead. Inhale, back up. And down. One more, inhale up.
One more, exhale down. Good. Okay, sit yourself down on the floor, all your mat now. Okay, just cross your legs the normal way.
And then I'm just gonna, left hand next to me, my right hand comes up, I look up, and I bring that over to the left as I drop my left elbow down towards the mat. Take a breath here. Don't let that right shoulder drop, keep your chest open to the front. Make that right hip nice and heavy.
One more inhale here. One more exhale. Now on the inhale, right hand up. And down to the other side.
Left hand up, over, exhale. Two breaths here. Left hip heavy now. Good.
One more in. One more out. Okay, let's inhale, left hand up. And down.
Inhale up. And down. One more each side, inhale up, even slower. Exhale down.
One more. Good. Okay, seat yourself back up now. Okay, cross your shins the other way, the weird way.
Okay, now just open your hands out, bring them up. And out. Inhale up. And out, good.
Keep your spine nice and straight here. Don't be pinching in your lower back, nice and straight. So what I mean is, I'm not doing this and opening, keeping my back straight, and I'm opening my chest. Inhale up.
Exhale down. Good, hands behind you now, okay. Opening out the chest, so shoulders back, chest forwards. And again, I'm not pinching my lower back, I'm keeping my back straight, but I'm opening my chest here, so you might need to kind of engage the core a little bit.
So you might need to kind of engage the core a little bit to do that. Open your chest out, maybe come up to your fingertips, shrug those shoulders back even more, so you can feel your shoulder blades pinching. Nice, now bring your knees up. Okay, ease off that with your chest a bit.
Knees over to the left. Now up, over to the right. Back up, left. Good, back up, right.
One more each side. Nice, now bring yourself to all fours, and we're going to pigeon pose, depending on how deep you normally go into pigeon pose. So we'll start off on like the first level, then we'll go up and up and up, all right, and just stay where you're comfortable. So right knee under the right wrist, then bring your foot under the opposite hip, okay.
From there, lean your weight over to the right, and then just sit on that right hip, okay. If this is enough of a stretch for you, that's fine. Just try and get your legs at a 90-90 degree angle here, and then lean forwards over that right shin, the front one. If you're okay here and you want a little more, you can bring your weight up and tuck that foot under that hip again, and then start to drag that left knee back into pigeon.
Into pigeon, take a few breaths here. Again, if you're okay here and you maybe want a little more today, you can come down to your elbows if you fancy that. And maybe rest your forehead on your hands and just breathe. Okay, wherever you are in the pose, wherever you were yesterday, doesn't matter.
See how you feel today, how tight things are. Just breathe here. Good, one more inhale wherever you are. Exhale, sigh that out.
Start to undo that. So if your forehead's on your hands, come up to your hands. Good, if you're on your hands, let's go back to that 90-90. So we all should be in that 90-90 now.
Now knees come up and over to the other side. Good, and we'll do the same stretch the other side. So if you're comfortable in 90-90, stay here or come forwards. If you want a bit more, come up, tuck that foot back under the hip, then the back knee goes back.
See how that feels on your hands. Okay, if you want a little more, down to your elbows. If you can, rest your forehead on your hands and keep that breath nice and slow here. And just feel everything open.
And just feel everything open. Take another breath in. And out. And last one in.
And out. Really good. Okay, let's undo that. So if you're on your forehead, come to your hands.
If you're on your hands, go back to 90-90 and then just tuck both your knees together, so you're in all forwards, and sit your hips back over your heels. Okay, if you feel a pinch in your hips when you do this, you can widen your feet out, and that should make that a little more comfortable. As you come down, just rest your forehead on the mat. Okay, wherever you are here, just feel your lower back open as you inhale.
And then feel that slowly deflate as you exhale. And we'll take a few breaths here. Good, and if you enjoy this kind of class, I've done a 10 for 30 program as well that I urge you guys to check out. It's good for this kind of, you know, if you're looking for this kind of class, or if you need a cool down after work or after training, that's what it's for.
It's just 10 minutes a day for 30 days, and we spread out the practice depending on what day, depends on what body part we do. And it's good for all levels as well. So check out that if you enjoy this kind of a stretch. Good, take one more inhale here.
And sigh that out. Good, okay, sit yourselves up. Thank you for practising with me today, taking a few minutes out of the start of your day to get yourself prepared. Hopefully you're feeling good now and ready for the day and not sore and kind of hunched over like a lot of us are in the morning when we've been training hard, okay?
Keep training, keep practising, keep that consistency up. That's what's gonna make you better. Let me know how you got on in the comments, and I'll see you in the next video. Cheers everyone.
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