Yoga for the Exhausted: 28-Min Restorative Class (Part 1)

Take some time to notice all those sensations. Maybe it's your knee that hurts or you got a sprained elbow or you're just generally really spent up and used. So it's too early to go to bed otherwise you would already be sleeping but you feel that you need to do something that will help tomorrow. But all the effort you did will pay dividends later down the road.

This is just to balance out all that hard training if you've been lifting weights or sparring or just working overtime or just unable to sleep from your kids being awake at night. Whatever it is, be grateful for this brief moment on your back alone. Take two or three more deep breaths here. Now slowly slide your left ankle to the bottom of your right thigh.

Just below the knee, left ankle to right thigh and then slowly bend your right knee so that the heel is in the wall. Just let the friction of your right foot keep your foot in place and the pressure that the angle makes from the right leg stretches your left hip. So don't go for a lot, don't use your arms. If you need to wiggle out from the wall to make this more sustainable you can do that I advise you to just do the absolute bare minimum and try to enjoy not the super intense sensation but you stop at 30 or 40 percent of your maximum capacity.

You're not trying to get more flexible, you're trying to get your nervous system, your fascia, your joints and your muscles to relax. And if you go for more than 50 percent you will not be able to completely relax. See if you can relax every muscle in your body. You should not have to balance right to left or keep your feet engaged.

We are using gravity, the floor and the wall as tools to keep us in the position. One thing you can consider doing is moving your arms to another angle so if your arms were straight out to the side you can either move them up or down. Just for a different sensation in your shoulders, your lats, your clavicle bones. Now breathe again and relax your face.

And as slowly as we got into the pose, stretch your right leg, stretch your left leg, take a breath. Switching sides, right ankle left thigh, slowly slide your left foot down the wall until you feel 30-40 percent stretch in your right hip. Finding that perfect spot can be tricky. One thing about being super tired is that sometimes our muscles make ticks so they are so exhausted the muscles that they engage in relax and engage in relax.

When I have those they actually help me become aware of my muscles and I find it easier to relax when I notice those ticks. It can be in the knee or the shoulder or under the eye. But those involuntary movements takes me out of my thoughts and back into my body and makes it easier for me to breathe and relax. Take three more breaths in this hip stretching pose.

Sorry this hip relaxing pose. And then stretch your left leg, stretch your right leg and then let your legs separate to 90 degrees. And resist the weight of your legs for a second. And then let go a bit of your inner thigh so that the legs slide further apart.

Take a breath. Relax even more and let your legs fall as far away from each other as your hips allow. If you feel pain in your outer hips bend your knees and do a variation of happy baby instead like a wide legged squat or a full straddle with straight legs. If you want interlace your fingers behind your head and rest your head in your hands.

Let's stay here for a minute or two. Just breathing nothing else. The only reason to move is if your legs fall asleep and you feel that you're restricting the blood flow to the legs. But even if you do try to stay here for half a minute more because the sensation of when the legs wake up again can feel slightly uncomfortable but I believe it's a good thing to restrict blood flow a bit.

Not for too long though. If you have to amputate your legs I want to be free of blame. Relax your face, your jaw, your mouth, your eyes but keep breathing. Take three more breaths.

And now slowly slide your right leg towards your left leg. Back up to center and then roll over to your left side so the feet are together and you're laying on your left side. And then open your right arm overhead and then all the way out to the right. If you have a stiff and tight torso this is the pose for you right now.

Face to the left, arm to the right. Try to relax your neck and don't look any specific way. Let your head and neck find the center and stay there. Let your right torso feel heavy so that the weight of your right shoulder blade is not lowering but hanging down towards the ground.

And return to a steady breath again. Inhale and exhale nice and slowly. Exhale and exhale. Inhale and exhale.

Exhale and exhale. Inhale and exhale. Inhale and exhale. Inhale and exhale.

Inhale and exhale. Inhale and exhale. Inhale and exhale. Inhale and exhale.

Inhale and exhale. Inhale and exhale. Inhale and exhale. And now switching sides.

Legs up. Legs over to the right. Lay over to the right side. And then left arm overhead.

And left arm to the left. It's funny how it's equally hard to get out of the first side as it is to get into the second side. So it was a lot of heavy work to leave the left side. But now it's hard work to get accustomed to this side.

That tells us that there is a huge result. There is an obvious result. You can clearly see the difference between when you start the pose and when you finish the pose. When you enter and when you exit the pose, the feeling is quite different.

That's the nature of a Yin Yoga pose. Where we don't put any effort into staying in the pose. All the effort is getting into and exiting the pose. That is a sign of a truly restorative pose.

That it takes time to enter and exit the pose. But it takes no effort to stay a few extra minutes in the pose. Take two more breaths. And then left arm towards your right arm.

The most exhausting thing we will do all class. Get up to your butt. Try to squat but keep your butt on the ground. So you are walking your feet back.

So you are squatting down but you are also moving your feet far enough back so that you can actually sit on the ground. So your knees should not be restricting you here. Your feet should be far away from the wall so that you can sit your butt down. But you should not feel any discomfort here.

The plan is to move our knees apart. Walk the hands slightly forward. And do like a seated child's pose. So it's a child's pose where you it's like an open guard where you pull your knees in.

But instead of using any force here we will just sit and round our spine. Our spine is usually rounded when we sit, when we play Jiu Jitsu, when we drive a car. And I always talk about how unhealthy that is. But not when you do it intentionally.

When you actually try to round to your fullest. Then I think it has numerous benefits. It's just involuntary rounding where you are not rounding all the way. That's when it's not beneficial for you.

So let your head be heavy. Let your head hang in the air. Stretching your neck. And your spinal erectors, your back muscles.

And let the weight of the arms kind of weigh on your inner thigh so that your knees are pressing away. But you're not using any force or effort. You're just setting yourself up in a way so that gravity is doing the stretching. And you are just trying to restore yourself with some deep breaths.

Breathing Breathing If you need movement in slow motion Just tilt your head from side to side so that you're stretching either side of your neck alternatively. Breathing Breathing Five more breaths in this happy baby squat towards the wall. Breathing Breathing Slowly lift your head. And the final pose is just sitting on your knees.

You can choose if you have your feet flat or if you tuck your toes under. But sit close enough to the wall that you can lean your shoulder blades to the wall. Grrrrrr So your butt is on your heels. If you have knee problems, obviously avoid this pose.

You can just sit on your butt and lean back. But what you want here is some tension on the front side here. But lean your shoulders and your head back so that the front side is stretching automatically. Grrrrrr So not more than 40 percent.

Just a gentle lean back. Breathing Breathing Relax your arms. If your chin drops to your chest, let it do so. Breathing Grrrrrr Breathing All these poses that we do are obviously good for our body.

It's good physically, but the real benefit comes from closing our eyes, breathing, not looking at a screen, not interacting with the world. Turning our gaze inwards and our attention on ourselves and not to everything that is going on around us. Breathing If you're stressed out, don't stress out about being stressed out. Just keep doing the same work as everyone, all of us that are doing this.

You're in the same situation, so you're not alone by feeling stressed. We all have to go through the same phases and we all end up at more or less the same place eventually. Breathing We all end up at a place of feeling relaxed, rejuvenated, calm, grounded and stable. Maybe not right now, maybe not today or tomorrow, but for sure eventually if you keep practicing and if you keep letting go of the bullshit that is going on in your head and around you.

Three more breaths. Breathing Breathing Lean forward, take a second on all fours and move your ankles around. Breathing Enjoy going to bed or whatever it is you're going to do now, but I hope you feel much more relaxed and calm and rejuvenated than you did 20 minutes ago. Osu!