Yoga Exercises For Beginners - Part 3

Hi, I'm Natalie.

Jill.

Welcome back to Happy, Healthy and Fit. I'm back with my friend Kim, my yogi, my yoga guru, Kim, because we're talking about the question, is yoga a waste of time? And I know you get this all the time. Is yoga a waste of time and the myths about yoga? Because I know, I hear, and I actually am guilty of believing, and you have heard this a lot, that either it's too boring, it takes too much time to get a benefit, or it just really doesn't do anything.

Exactly.

What do you say to that? Because you're the one who actually turned my mind around on it and have me including it in my regimen now. So what do you say to people when they say those things?

Well, I would just say that there's a myth that yoga is a waste of time because people think that all that you do is just sit on your mat and do a couple moves, and that's pretty much it. And then because of the sitting on the mat, people think that yoga is probably boring and so therefore a waste of time.

Well, I know for someone like me, who is definitely a type A personality, the thought of yoga before to me was I'm just quiet, hardly, not hardly doing anything, and my mind starts to wander. So to me, it was the watching the clock and thinking, oh, my gosh, I have an hour of this.

Exactly.

And I don't find it boring anymore. And I don't even know how that changed, how that shifted for you, how that shifted. Do you think there is. There are certain moves or certain way of instructing or what do you think makes a difference on making it boring or interesting for people?

Well, I think that for sure that like anything in life, that you might have resistance to that you don't really know exactly what your experience is going to be until you actually dive in and do it. And then I think when people start to do yoga, they are surprised at how much it makes them feel good in the mind and in the body. So it's not just the physical aspect that they start to realize that they become a little bit softer in the head or calmer in the mind and feel more balanced. And then that's what also lends to them wanting to come back to their mat.

Okay. And do you find that learning the wrong methods or doing the wrong way could take away from that? I know for me, before I knew the proper way to do things, I was so focused on, this doesn't feel right, or I don't like this. That's not doing Anything. And that contributed to the boredom.

I think a lot of times it's just so easy to get sidetracked by being intimidated by yoga. Yoga is a very intimidating activity and people think they have to be a little bit more flexible to try it on so they don't embarrass themselves in class or things of that nature. And so I think it's just a matter of allowing you to find what works for you. Maybe it's a group class, maybe it's personal instruction. So everyone has their own way of learning and of diving into something and is finding what works best for your way.

I'll say your method, what you've taught me, is definitely what has changed for me because now I actually, I look forward to it, which I thought I would never say before, but I do. I look forward to it.

I love it.

So the big myth about it just doesn't do much. I mean, what are some of the benefits of yoga? Because for me, I'll tell you, I feel personally more flexible. And it's escape for me now it truly is an escape. I understand what people meant about you can shut off your mind. So I'm getting into it and I'm not thinking about my to do list and my work and stress. And it just when I'm done, I have a new sense of clarity. That's what I've experienced.

And I am so excited when you say that because that's definitely like, as a yoga teacher, that's definitely a goal. And it's so exciting to see people get that from their yoga practice. As far as benefits, it really depends on the person. But I would say overall, what's most common is that it lends to a sense of centeredness. And in yoga, we call it a work in. Like people come to yoga class for work in versus a workout because it's your ability to work inside of yourself. And a lot of people call yoga their church or their therapy, and it's really just a way of connecting to who you are as a person. And that's why people come back for more, because they realize it's more than just a physical practice, but they're gaining so much more for themselves to take with them out into their life.

Got it. Now, what about the time? Because do you. Do you have to spend an hour or. I know some yoga classes are an hour and 30 minutes. Or do you have to do that to get the benefit? And do you have to do it every day?

Absolutely not. I know for as far as with yoga, it's like do what you can with what you have for time and just get something in and it'll definitely benefit you no matter what. Even if you only have five or ten minutes a day, just like meditation, that could be your form of meditation, then it's going to make a huge difference on the rest of your day if you do something small for yourself, even if it's just a couple moments.

Okay, so if you have five minutes or 10 minutes. If I have five or 10 minutes and I'm going to just do one thing and I want to learn one move or one series, what would you say do?

I would say definitely the number one go to is in my mind would be Sun Salutations Surya Namaskar A's.

What does that mean? What is that?

A Sun salutation is essentially a series of postures that are linked together and that you flow together, which I'll show you in a moment, but they're linked together in a special way and they're designed to teach, strengthen and to give flexibility to the body. They're also rhythmic. And so the rhythm of moving through that same series of postures, say two to five times, is meditational because it's rhythmic. It's just one thing after the next. And then you repeat that series again. And normally Sun Salutations are done in the beginning of the day because they're like a way to greet your new day.

And is there a magic number on how many times through you would do this?

I would say normally five, but anywhere from like two to three is completely. What's going on?

Can anyone do this? Beginner or advanced? Anyone?

Absolutely.

Show me how to do it.

What do we do? Okay, so let's start out with variation one, which should be, it's called a Half Sunny. So start towards the top of your mat and move into a forward fold, feet touching and just fold forward. So in your forward fold, the weight of your body moves into the fronts of your feet. Soft bend at your knees and then just allow your body to drape forward. Drop your head as well. Good. And on your next inhale breath, we'll move into a halfway lift. Press your palms to your shin bones. Arms stay strong and grab your shoulder caps together behind you to flatten your back so you can feel your back lateral muscles tracking towards your spine. In this posture, pull your belly in nice and tight. Continue to wrap your shoulder blades back behind you. Yeah, perfect. Good. Take one more breath in. Exhale, fold forward. With your next inhale, rise up to Tadasana Mountain pose. Take your arms Straight overhead. Squeeze your legs together, pull your belly in tight and soften at your shoulders. Nice full breath in. Exhale, fold forward, palms through the heart center and back to the mat. And so this is called our hasanae. It's a really just simple postures. Here we'll move one more time through this. Come to a halfway left as you breathe in and exhale, bow forward, inhale, rise up to mountain pose. Send your arms high and exhale, palms move through your heart center, fold forward.

I don't think I did that the first time. So bad me.

That's okay.

Does it matter if it's not perfect?

Oh my God, not at all. You can even take your arms out wide and they don't have to touch at all. So inhale, halfway lift. Do that. Exhale, fold, inhale, rise to mountain. Send your arms high and this time take a swan dive forward. Open your arms out to your sides as you fold forward. Yeah. And then hands back to the mat. Perfect. So there's really you can definitely customize to fit your body at a time. And now we're going to move into the full Surya namaskar. So the full sun salutation A. On your next inhale, take a halfway lift. Press your palms to your shin bones and exhale. Plant your palms, step back to a high plank pose. This posture is called dandasana in Sanskrit.

Now what if somebody can't do a plank? What could they do right here?

So what you want to do to customize is to take your knees down to the mat, but still keep your tailbone tucked and your belly pulled in tight. You're lifting up in the space between your two shoulder blades, but not so much that you're puffing just enough that you're not sinking into your shoulder blades. And then it's really important in a plank posture to have your joints stuck. So you always want to have your wrists, your elbows and your shoulders in one straight line. It's going to protect your joints. So now we'll move into a chaturanga dandasana, which is really essentially a tricep push up different from a wide arm push up lower just a third of the way down. So not quite that low, but probably more like that low. And elbows stay tight to your sides. And then inhale to upward facing dog. So press into the tops of your feet. I don't want to make you hold there too long. And shoulder blades pull back. Look straight ahead. Squeeze your thigh muscles strong and also squeeze your heels inward. Keep a soft bend in your arms and see if you can, glide your sternum forward in front of your biceps. A little bit more. Good. Take one more breath in. Exhale. Roll over your toes. Downward facing dog. Adho Mukha Svanasana. And then once you get to downward facing dog, you take three breaths here. Inhale. Exhale. Big breath in. Slow breath out. One more time. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Look ahead. Exhale. Walk your feet to the top of your space. Forward, fold. Now we're flowing through our sunny. Inhale. Halfway. Lift. Exhale. Fold. Inhale. Rise to mountain pose. Send your arms tall. Exhale. Palms to the heart. Fold forward. Inhale. Look up and lengthen. Halfway. Lift. Exhale. Plant your palms. Step back on or off of your knees. Chaturanga. Bend your elbow straight back. Good. Inhale. Upward facing dog. Just send the crown of your head high. Exhale. Downward facing dog. So that's the full sun salutation A And that's what you would move through anywhere from two to five times.

That's awesome.

So you can choose half or you can choose the full sun A by adding the tricep, the arm workout.

So they repeat it. And whether beginner or advanced, you can change if you're on your knees or on your calf, any of that. I love it. So see, yoga is not a waste of time. You don't need a lot of time. You can do it even if you don't have the live Kim Guru. You can learn more about her 10 minute yogi down below. See you next time.

Bye bye. Thank you.