Yoga For Chefs | Yoga With Adriene

– What’s up everyone? Welcome to Yoga With Adriene, I’m Adriene and this is Benji. And today we
have yoga for chefs. This is a practice that
I think will benefit many, so I hope you enjoy it. Hop into something
comfy and let’s get started. (upbeat music) All righty chef and friends, let’s begin in a
nice comfortable seat. Come on down to the ground, and if you know it’s
a little bit difficult for you to sit in this
cross legged seat comfortably, go ahead and grab
a blanket or a towel and lift the hips up,
sit on your blanket or towel so that you can
length in the spine with a little more ease. Alright, so we’re gonna start by just taking a
second to be still and land here in this moment. It’s such an awesome
thing that you’ve done, taken this time
out for yourself. So let’s ease in. We won’t get too crazy today, but I love the practice
of yoga, the tools of yoga, because I’m constantly reminded that a little goes a long way. So taking this little
bit of time for yourself is so great. Let’s take a
second to tuck the chin, relax your shoulders, and if you’re
comfortable close your eyes, or just soften your
gaze down past your nose and allow the sound of
my voice to guide you here. As you’re ready give the thinking mind a break, start to scan the body and just notice how you feel, tired, heavy, sore, tight, stressed, energized, just take a second
to do a little scan and observe,
notice how you feel. Or it could be more subtle, it could be that you soften your attention towards one thing that maybe you’ve
been really focused on. Maybe you let go of it for
the duration of this practice, just so you can be
in the present moment and tend to your body,
and tend to your breath. Start to notice your breath and begin to segue into
a more conscious breath, a more conscious
breathing pattern, just deeper, fuller inhalations and
longer exhalations. Then continue to
gently deepen the breath as you drop the
chin to your chest and slowly begin to
make circles with the nose one way, nice and slow, and then the other,
reversing it nice and slow. And as you begin to create
these circles with the nose and continue to gently
deepen your breath, see if you can keep your
shoulders relaxing down actively and your heart
lifting out actively. Taking your
circles back and forth, working out any kinks
in the neck, the traps. Again, telling our brain
as we breathe deep here and start to move the body, that we’re gonna give
the thinking mind a break and really just be
in the present moment, fill your cup. Alright, bring the
head back over the heart. See if you can align
the head over the heart and the heart
over the pelvis here. And we’ll bring
the palms together, take a deep breath in, and on the exhale go
ahead and take your fingertips forward and then down. Big stretch here in the palms, in the wrists and the forearms. Try to keep your
shoulders relaxed still, heart lifting,
take a deep breath in, stay here, long breath out,
stay here. One more cycle of
breath in and out. Nice work, Benji. Alright, bring it back up,
interlace the fingertips, press the palms forward. Again, stretching
through the palms, the wrists, the forearms, but finding a
nice deep slow breath, kind of calming
the nervous system, again, telling the body, we’re taking a
little bit of time to reset, to find what feels good. Alright, now continue
the journey up, press your palms forward
on an imaginary surface as you reach the palms all
the way up towards the sky. If the shoulders are tight,
no need to push it, just keep it nice
and at a diagonal here. Inhale, lift up
from the waistline, lift, lift, lift, lift,
and then exhale, slowly release
the fingertips down soft and easy on the neck here. Awesome, left hand
comes to the earth, right fingertips
reach up and over, side body stretch. You can pulse
here a couple times, return to the breath,
nice full conscious inhalations and long exhales, letting
go of any stress or tension. Cool. Then take the right
hand to your left kneecap, and then take
your left fingertips all the way up and
over in the other direction. Breathe deep, keep
working to ground the shoulders down away from the ears. Lift your chest,
lift your heart. Take one more breath,
inhale in. Exhale, left hand
now to the right knee, round everything forward,
chin to chest, navel draws in
towards the spine. Bow your head down we’re
getting an amazing stretch, the whole back body here
creating length in the spine. Go ahead and let the
weight of the head relax over. Sweet. Then ground down
through the lower body as you lift up
through the spine, inhale, lift the elbows, open the arms out, ah, and fingertips come
back down to the earth. Awesome. Take the
right hand to the Earth, inhale, reach the left
fingertips up and over, side stretch. Breathing deep,
finding what feels good here. Don’t really worry
so much about the shape, but the sensation, right? We only have a
little bit of time to tend to your body,
to get into the good stuff, so make it your own. Take one more breath in here, and then on an exhale bring
the left hand to the kneecap, and take the right
fingertips up and over. Opposite direction, big stretch. Let the thighs be heavy here. Shoulders relaxed. Inhale, pull the
right thumb back just a bit, and then exhale, right hand
comes to the left kneecap. Go ahead and round
everything through again. So we’re really taking the
navel back towards the spine. Big stretch through both the upper and the mid-back. And then take one
more inhale and exhale to go a little deeper, feeling that length
in the low back as well. Great, here we go, releasing.
Lifting elbows all the way up. Come all the way back
up to a seat. Awesome work. Take a deep breath in. Empty it out
through the mouth. (sighs) Alright, coming
forward on to all fours. Take your time,
move nice and slow. Benji, you’re so
sleepy today, bud. Bring the wrists right
underneath the shoulders, knees right underneath the hips. Inhale to drop the belly,
open the chest, Cow Pose. Exhale to round through,
Cat, chin to chest. Inhale, drop the belly,
open your heart forward. And exhale,
rounding through now. Take a couple
rounds on your own. Spinal flexion, getting the spine moving, nice and easy. Awesome, and then
bring the big toes together, come back to center,
bring the knees wide. Inhale in,
send your right fingertips up towards the sky,
really reach. And then exhale, you’re
gonna thread the needle, bring the right arm underneath
the bridge of the left arm, and you’re gonna come to
a rest on your right ear. Left hand can come
all the way forward, you can bend the
elbow for a deeper stretch, or you can even
take the left hand to the small of your back here. As you breathe
deep in the twist, send breath to your belly, massaging the internal organs. And then slowly bringing
it back up through center, and when you’re ready,
switching sides. Sending the left
fingertips up high. Threading the
needle as you breathe out. Coming to rest on
the left side, left ear, the left shoulder, and right
arm can, again, find extension. You can bend the
elbow for a little fulcrum or you can take the right
hand to the small of the back. Breathe here. Try to keep your feet
pressing down on the earth. Yep, you got it. Take one
more cycle of breath here. And then slowly release. Awesome work. We’re gonna come
to a Downward Dog. Walk the hands out,
upper arm bones rotate out, opening up through the chest. And then we’ll
curl the toes under and nice and
slow in your own time send the hips up high. Bringing the heart
above the head here, so good for the body, taking a second to
pedal the feet out. Make sure you’re
not holding your breath, but start to
really stretch the feet, stretch through the ankles,
the calves, the hamstrings. You can twist a little
bit from left to right. Mhmmm. Make sure
you’re not holding in the neck or gripping in the neck. Let your head hang
here for this variation, just nice smooth deep breaths as you stretch out the feet,
the ankles, the legs. Great, one more cycle
of breath here in and out. And then we’ll
slowly lower to the knees. Awesome work. We’re gonna take the
legs to one side, any side, and we’re gonna
come through to a seat. Send the legs out long. You can bend your
knees generously here or start to straighten
the legs right away. So just feel it out. Inhale and send
the fingertips up high. Exhale, think up and over, you’re gonna
reach towards your toes. Don’t even have to come close, we’re just wanting to send
some more love to the low back. So feel free, again,
to bend your knees as generously as you need, and eventually we
wanna round through, letting the weight
of the head melt down. So folding in. Listen to the
sound of your breath here. Taking a little
time to go inwards, so close your eyes. Take one more breath in. Exhale to slowly roll up. Bring the feet together,
Cobbler’s Pose. It’s okay if the hips are tight, that’s why we’re here,
checking in. You can grab the ankles
or you can take your thumbs right to your sweet feet and give yourself
a little massage. So holding onto the ankles,
sitting up nice and tall, drawing the tops
of the thighs down, or give yourself a
little foot massage. It might sound weird at first, but a little goes a long ways. So take your thumbs
to the arches of the feet and you can go to town here just stretching
through the feet. Giving yourself some love. Awesome. Then we’ll bring the
knees back up through center, walk the feet as
wide as your yoga mat, or a little bit
wider than your hips, and you’re just
gonna windshield wiper the legs one way
and then the other. And your hips and your
bum are gonna kinda scoot down and we’re just
gonna let that happen, ’cause we’re coming
onto our backs next. So we have external
rotation in one hip, internal rotation in the other, as you windshield
wiper side to side. And eventually we will come
all the way onto our backs. When you get there, go ahead and hug the
knees into the chest, more lower back love. And then kick
your left foot out, hold your right knee in, but let your left heel
hover just above the earth. Take a deep breath in. On the exhale, switch.
Bring your left knee in, send your right leg out, but let your right heel
hover just above the earth. So just welcoming
gently a little core. Switching in your
own time back and forth, seeing if you can get
the low belly to draw in, the low ribs to hug in as
you switch back and forth, just lighting up
the abdominal wall. You have the support
of the earth here, your yoga mat literally
has your back in this moment. Let’s do one more on each side. Awesome. And then allow
the feet to come to the earth, knees up towards the sky, kick the right foot up,
cross the right ankle over the top of the left thigh. Reclined Pigeon,
you’ll lift the legs up. You can interlace the fingertips
behind your left hamstring, and then start
to squeeze your legs in towards your body. This is our last
shape here on both sides, so reconnect with your breath, close your eyes,
relax your shoulders. For this last inhale, you
might straighten the left leg. Flexing the left toes
towards the face, and then slowly
release as you breathe out. We’ll switch to the other side. Right foot on the ground,
left leg kicks up. Left ankle crosses over
the top of the right thigh. When you’re ready,
thread the needle, lifting it up, interlacing
behind the right hamstring. And you can imagine pressing
your right foot into a surface, like an imaginary wall here. You can use your left elbow to create a deeper
stretch in the hip, pressing it into the left thigh. You can move around here
a little bit, breathe deep. Close your eyes. Feel your back supported here. For this last inhale, you might consider
straightening the right leg, flexing your right
toes towards your face. And then as you breathe out,
let’s unravel everything. Release everything,
send the legs out long. Inhale, reach the arms
all the way up and overhead, a final big stretch here,
full body. Spread the fingertips,
open and close the jaw. Spread the toes. And then take one
more deep breath in. And as you exhale, just bring your arms to
rest gently at your sides. Walk your ankles,
your feet out just a bit, and close your
eyes as you breathe in and relax the weight
of your body completely and fully into the mat,
into the earth as you breathe out. For a hot second here
just let everything go, a total surrender. Awesome, nice work everyone. If time allows you to be still
and relax here a bit longer, you can pause the video
and return to this position. Otherwise we’ll
bring the palms together. Thumbs right up
to the third eye. Take one final big
breath in through the nose. And out through the mouth. And we finished this practice by recognizing the light in ourselves
and each other. Thank you for what you do. Thank you for
taking time for yourself and sharing it with me and the
Yoga With Adriene community. I’ll see you next time. Namaste. (upbeat music)