Sun B Salutation: 27-Min Heat-Building Vinyasa for Grapplers

Inhale, it's the half lift, exhale, we step back into plank. Inhale in your plank, exhale forward and down. Inhale, cobra. So you already cued this in your vinyasa prep and then push back, downward facing dog.

Take a breath, remind them to relax the neck and drop the head. Inhale, right leg up and back. In the regular class we just do one rolling knee. In this variation class we do three.

So inhale is the straight leg up and back. Exhale is knee as close as you can to the chest or forehead. Inhale, stretch the leg up and back. Exhale, pull the knee in, shift your weight forward.

Third one, inhale, really lift the leg. Exhale, pull the knee in and up and place your foot between your hands. Stay on your back toes, come onto your fingertips. I like to cue it like this so people don't just move out of the strength of their legs.

You really want to have the legs engaged in the transitions. So I have come onto your fingertips and then move your arms away from the floor. Just use your legs to push down to lift up into crescent. So arms up, chest up.

So here also we're more dynamic than the regular class. We will inhale in our crescent pose and exhale leaning forward, arms back, warrior three variation. So lifting the back leg. Inhale, landing on the ball of your back foot, arms up.

Exhale, leaning forward. You can have a slight bend in the knee. It will help you to engage your quad and glutes. Inhale, you land slowly and lift the arms.

Exhale, you lean forward, arms back. You can do between three and five repetitions. Then on your last one, you inhale in crescent. Exhale, standing split.

So hands down, left leg up and back. So for a lot of people it's better here to bend the standing leg and focus on stretching the back leg. Some people can have both legs straight. So a few breaths in the standing split and then stepping back into plank.

Inhale, exhale through the vinyasa. So you've already been through the vinyasa so here you can allow them to flow on their own pace. We usually say move through your vinyasa. Then a breath in down dog and on the inhale the left leg up and back and it's the same thing on the other side.

You do three rolling knees. Use the legs to come up into crescent. You do the inhale lift, the exhale warrior three variation three to five times. Standing split, focus on lifting the back leg.

Maybe you bend the front leg. Go through your vinyasa and we're back in down dog. Then we take a breath. We bend the knees, gaze forward.

Inhale, exhale, walk or float to the top of your mat. Inhale, half lift and exhale you fold. So instead of going all the way up here now, we have them touch the floor, bend their knees from the floor. Just a very variation and then come into chair.

Exhale, heels up, arms back. Inhale, heels down, lift the toes, arms up. Exhale, on your toes, heels up, arms back and you do three to five of those and then you fold. So it's more movement in this class, more to cue.

Inhale, you do the half lift. Exhale, you either walk or float through the vinyasa. So if you want them to have the option to float back, have them bend their knees, lean into the straight arms, keep their weight forward and then land with bent arms and all the way down to their belly and then move through the back bend back to down dog. Take a breath.

Take a breath. Now we have round two. So we inhale, right leg up and back. Exhale, draw the knee to the left elbow or armpit.

Inhale, stretch the leg up and back. Exhale, pull the knee in. So what tends to happen if you just turn towards the camera with your head is that when they draw the knee across the body, they also twist their torso. We don't want to do that.

So when they want to keep plank pose, shoulders in line and then just pull with the belly and the hip to take the knee across the body. So we do three of those and on the third one, we bring the knee to center, step the foot forward. Same here, use the legs to push you up. So have them be really light on their hands, activate the back and the legs and lift up.

Inhale, so exhale, we twist like we did in the regular class here. You can have them maybe tap the back knee down as they twist and on the way up, we actually bring the back knee up and forward and try to just tap the knee with the opposite arm. So it's a lot of things going on in this transition. A lot of balance, a lot of left and right.

So release, back to the twist, back toes down, twist, back knee down. So if you want to do this with the breath, you can inhale, exhale, tap. Tap the hand and the knee, inhale, lower down, exhale, push up and tap. This is one of the things that doesn't really matter where you breathe since you're in a twist the whole time.

You're twisting one side, you're twisting the other side. So you can explore with the breath but it's nice to remind people to breathe because there's a lot of things going on. It's easy for people to want to hold their breath. So if we just do it on the other side, we start from the top, just a little bit more information.

So we do the rolling knee across the body. On the last one, the third one, we draw the knee to center. So we just did the rolling knee. He's in a hurry, we're not in a hurry.

So when you have the knee to the opposite elbow, you pause, you draw the knee to center, step the foot between your hands. Look at Sebastian here. If you don't give the cue to use the legs, he will lift from here up to crescent. With a rounded back, he will lift up.

So this is why I want to have the cue use the legs because people tend to be tight. So when the leg is forward, they're rounding the spine. So have them lower the hips, be light on their fingertips, flatten out the back, use the legs to lift the spine. So now we're in crescent, arms are up, we inhale and we exhale, twist, knee down.

Here you would probably, the first round, give them time to take a breath where you actually just explain what is going to happen. So back knee is coming up in front of you. So push the floor away with the back leg, lift the back knee and tap. Now it's the right knee with your left hand.

Slowly, this has to go slowly. Slowly release and move back to the same position, back toes, back knee down, twist, push into the floor, twist the other way, standing. You just have to find the most efficient way for you to cue this. But my guess is that the first round, you will have to be in crescent, inhale in crescent, exhale, twist, left arm back, right arm forward, back knee down.

Okay, take a breath. Now we will bring our back knee up in front of us and tap the back knee with the left hand, twist the other way, right arm back. Slowly release back to where we started, back knee down, twist, left arm back. Take a breath, push the floor away, move the back knee up in front of you, tap the knee, twist the other way.

If you want, try to move with the breath. Slowly release, inhale, exhale, push the floor away, inhale, exhale. Or the other way where you exhale back, inhale up, just explore. Either way you're twisting, so it doesn't really matter.

Three to five times. This one usually needs more attention and cue, so it can be nice to do five times. If you only have time for three, just be really precise with the first one and then flow more on the last two. You will pause and lift the back knee, take the, so we can switch so it's the right foot forward.

So right foot is forward, back knee down, you're in twist. You lift the back knee, place the left hand down, right arm up. So here we've been before. Now we're moving into a side plank variation.

So we've been through the side plank cues, so you go through the side plank and we add some movement also here. We want to tap the top elbow to the top knee, so keep the side plank, draw your knee and elbow together and then extend, breathe in, create space, exhale, push the air out, knee to elbow, stable left shoulder. Of course, option or modification is to have the knee down on the bottom leg. Same pose, just safer for more unstable shoulders.

So the side plank crunches. Pretty straightforward. You do the side plank, you draw the knee and elbow together without rolling in. So some people, yes, will roll down and in.

You want to keep them in the side plank, so keep pushing the hips forward, keep opening the chest up. So it's more a sideways movement than a closed movement. Okay, back into 60 of these. Yeah, no, three to five.

So now we're in plank, the left arm is pretty tired, so we move on to our bellies, stretch the left arm out to the left. Do not confuse people too much because now we have left and right. I usually just say keep the arm in shoulder height or a little bit higher. You don't want to have it too low.

So right leg, peel the right leg off the floor, move the right leg also over to the left. So now they get to stretch the front of the left shoulder after being balancing on it in side plank. Three to five breaths and then over onto the belly. So this one, just nice to keep it simple.

Like I said, when you have been on the left arm, just take a note in your head. Okay, we're on the left arm in side plank. That means left arm is the one who's being stretched. So left arm out to the side, shoulder height or higher.

Peel the right leg off the floor, move the right leg to the left and breathe into the front of your left shoulder. That's all you need. People figure it out. Some people will use this arm a lot, the right arm.

Some people will just rest, just allow them to do whatever they want with the right arm. Come back to your belly, both hands next to your ribs, push back, down dog. Take a breath and then it's the same on the other side. So you do the three rolling knees underneath the body to the opposite arm.

The third one, you bring the knee to center, step the foot between the hands, have them lower the hips, lengthen their back, use the legs to lift the spine. Inhale, create length, exhale you twist. Back knee down, take a breath. Okay, so also this round we will bring the back knee up and tap it with the back hand, twist the other way.

Slowly come back, so lean forward to put on the brakes and slowly bring the back knee down, twist, push into the legs, bring the back knee up, twist the other way, breathe as slow as you can, control the leg back, knee back, twist. So we want to keep this movement slow. Okay, so three to five, just give the most important cues, just where the hand goes, which knee is where and like I said what can happen here is moving really fast. Just do it fast a couple of times, you don't really get much from doing this fast.

Maybe you get your pulse up but you don't get the the fire in the legs and the twist in the spine and that's what we're looking for here and also moving with the breath. So last one, you have your back knee down and arms are in the twist, you cue to lift the back knee off the floor, this time the right hand comes down, left arm comes up, take a breath here, then we move into side plank, so the bottom leg knee can be down, knee can be up, start to crunch the left arm and left knee together, same time you push the floor away and lift your hips. So three to five, inhale, lengthen, stretch the side body, exhale, pull the knee and elbow together, keep your chest open, inhale, exhale, inhale and exhale and last one we do plank and lower all the way down, this time it was the right arm that was doing the side plank, so the right arm out to the side, shoulder height or higher and bring the left heel in, peel open to the right, breathe, do whatever you want with your left hand, three to five breaths and then slowly come back, hands next to the ribs, tuck your toes, find your way back, down dog, take a breath, drop your head, drop your hand, inhale, prepare, bend your knees, gaze forward, exhale, walk or soft float to the top, inhale, half lift, exhale, fold, bend your knees, keep the hips low, chair pose, inhale, exhale, iron chair, inhale chair, exhale, iron chair, last one, inhale, exhale, so inhale through chair, exhale, fold, inhale, half lift, exhale, the vinyasa, skipping it, it's also a lot, you can also cue in this sunbeam where there's a lot of things going on, it's nice to say move through the vinyasa or skip it, people are allowed to skip it also, last round, inhale right leg up and back, exhale, draw the knee to the outside of the right arm, so this is just a slight different variation of knee underneath, so it's a little bit more hips, inhale up and back, it's nice to open up the hip, exhale, knee to the outside of the right arm, same thing usually happens here, if you turn to the camera, when they're turned the other way, yes, same thing usually happens here, they roll the shoulder and they twist the lower, the opposite hip to bring the knee forward, that's not what we're looking for, we want to use the push of the arm and the pull with the hip flexors and the lift from the core to bring the knee to the outside, okay, so the cue here, if you move the other way again, inhale, open up the hip, exhale, draw the right knee to the outside of the right arm, that's the first round and then you see if anyone is doing what I just said might happen, then you say inhale, open up the hip, exhale, keep the shoulders in line as you draw the right knee to the outside of the right arm, keep lifting your hips away from the floor, inhale, open up, exhale, push the floor away like you're doing cat pose, keep the hips lifted, draw everything in, draw the knee to center and step the foot between your hands, inhale, up to crescent, so now you've been through the whole talk of lifting with the legs, so they should be getting it by now, hands in front of your chest, exhale, inhale, arm circle, exhale, as the hands now lower, you ask them to bring the left leg forward, so we've been doing this in the regular class, but now we're adding movement again, nope, so we're staying here and then we have them open up the hip, draw the leg out to the side and back through the warrior three and then bend the front leg to land softly and as they land, they inhale, arms up, exhale, hands come down, you lean forward, left leg up in front of you, circle the leg out to the left through warrior three, soft landing, as you inhale, arms go up, exhale, lean forward, left leg forward, around through the warrior three, just keep breathing, move at your own time, so it's basically what we've already been through, crescent, fighting warrior with the leg in front and warrior three, we just move through it in a different way, just constantly moving with the breath and not holding, so I would say five rounds here, the first two you cue, the last three they just move, last one you keep them in the fighting warrior just for a while and then we do standing split, leg up and back, hands to the floor and now we're doing, we call it the switch leg, handstand, so again just more movement, bending the right leg, keep the left leg straight, inhale, exhale, switch the legs, bend the bottom leg, keep the right leg straight, switch the legs, exhale and then we do ten, nine, keep both legs straight, eight, stop bending your knees, people will bend their knees, bend your knees Sebastian, yes, so we want to get the hamstring stretch and the shoulder and core strength, and the heat from moving, so have them be really active through the legs, so one cue can be push the top foot like you're trying to push something away through the ceiling, push the lower leg like you're trying to push something away from the floor, so really active pushing everything away, so after ten vinyasa or down dog and then the other side is the same thing, open up the hip, roll the knee to the outside, three times, on the third draw the knee to center, step the foot forward, inhale crescent, exhale hands in front of your chest, arms circle, inhale arms up, exhale as the hands come down, lean forward, right leg in front, so you take a moment, the first round you explain to push the floor away through the left leg, and then just open the right leg to the right and slowly move through warrior three and lower the back leg, inhale arms go up, exhale lean forward, right leg forward, out to the side, through warrior three, as you lower the leg, arms come up, inhale, as you lower the leg, arms come up, inhale, as you lower the leg, inhale, exhale, lean forward, right leg forward, out to the side, through warrior three, as you lower the leg, arms come up, inhale, as you exhale, you lean forward. So people might need more time to breathe here, so the last three rounds you just say go on your own pace, maybe you move within an exhale, maybe you take a breath in a pose to regain balance if you lose it.

After five rounds we meet in fighting warrior, just stay here for three, two, one, arms down, back leg up, standing split. Switch leg, so we're moving pretty fast here, switch leg, bending the knee, straight leg, so I just want to emphasize the straight legs because if you do bent knees or sloppy legs, it's just the shoulders, shoulders alone that has to do the splits. So all the weight will sink into the wrist and shoulders, so the arms want to push the floor away and the legs want to actually lift the weight of the hips and also at the same time you really get a nice hamstring stretch through those active legs. And that's our switch leg, we move through the vinyasa and then we're back in down dog and we finish three rounds of our variations for the sun salutation B.

So I'll just recap in true language if you're too tired. So we do instead of just the regular chair, we do the iron chair, just on your toes, arms back, inhale lift the toes, exhale lift the heels. Then we do the vinyasa, we do rolling knee just straight forward but three times before we emphasize on lifting from the legs in crescent. We do warrior three, exhale, we do crescent, inhale, we do that three to five times.

Then we do standing split, just breathe in standing split, move through the vinyasa, do the other side, we jump forward again, do the iron chair three to five times, continuously moving. And then it's rolling knee across the body, so right leg, left elbow. Then we draw the knee to center, we come back up, we do the twist that we did in the regular class but we lower the back knee. And then the back knee comes up in front and you twist the other way, just tap your knee three to five times.

You will see how much time you need to explain it so people get it. If they get it the first round, you can get away with three. If it's a lot of confusion, you do five so they get to flow through the last ones. Then you end up in the high lunge twist and you move into the side plank with the crunches.

And you come onto your belly and you do the nice twist for the front of the shoulder where you peel the opposite leg. Then it's the same on the other side and you jump forward again, do the iron chair chair. Last round, rolling knee to the outside of the shoulder or elbow. You make sure they don't twist.

They keep plank, keep pushing the floor away. Come up into crescent, do the arm circle with the breath and then you move into fighting warrior, out to the side through warrior three, landing crescent, inhale, exhale leg forward out to the side, in through warrior three to crescent. Three to five times. Switch leg handstands, I would do between five and ten.

If people have really, really bad alignment, it can be enough with five to begin with because the more tired they become, the worse their technique will be. So if they look horrible, just say, okay, great, let's move on. And then you will have a handstand workshop or something to help with that problem. So between five and ten depends on your crowd.

Do the same on the other side. And then people should have some nice heat in their bodies for the next round. Anything you want to add? Okay.