Introduction to Flow Yoga

Introduction to Flow Yoga -- Postures and Deep Abdominal Breathing

Flow yoga integrates movement with deep abdominal breathing, yet the movements evolve through basic Hatha Yoga postures. The following postures will be used throughout Introduction to Flow Yoga. Hold all of these poses for 1-3 minutes with deep abdominal breathing.

Deep Abdominal Breathing: breathe into the bottom of your lungs, letting your abdominal muscles expand out as you do so, then exhale completely, letting your abdominal muscles contract. Do this with each breath you take.

Corpse pose	Lay on your back. Align your skull, your shoulders, your spine, your hips, your heels. Let your arms and legs fall open naturally. Let the natural curve of your spine assert itself. Let every muscle you've got melt into the floor. Breathe into the bottom of your lungs. Exhale completely.
Half-Wind pose	Lay on your back. Bring one knee up toward your chest, clasping your shin or thigh. Press your navel firmly against your spine, lengthen your back out, lengthen the lower leg along the ground and press your knee gently, but firmly, toward your chest. Breathe deeply, exhale completely. Repeat with the other leg.
Reclining Big-toe pose	Lay on your back. Bring one knee up toward your chest, then lengthen your leg out. You may use a yoga strap as shown to help you get your leg completely straight. Press your navel firmly against your spine, lengthen your back out, lengthen the lower leg along the ground. Breathe deeply, exhale completely. Repeat with the other leg.
Wind pose	Lay on your back. Bring first one knee, then the other, up to your chest. Clasp your legs around your shins or your thighs, drawing your knees firmly, but gently toward your chest. Lengthen out your back and neck. Press your navel firmly against your spine. Breathe deeply, exhale completely.
Reclining spinal twist	Lay on your back. Bring one knee up to your chest then bring it across your body until your knee touches the ground. Press your navel against your spine. Lengthen the lower leg along the ground, stretch your back up and away from your waist, open your shoulderblades (as much as possible) along the ground. Breathe deeply, exhale completely. Repeat with the other leg.
Stretch Pose	Lay on your back in perfect alignment. Press your navel firmly against your spine. Lengthen your whole body out. Place your hands on either side of your tailbone right under your hips, so the presence of your hands tips your pelvis and your low back comes onto the floor (not shown in illustration). Lift your head and chest up a bit and look at your feet. Raise your feet 5 inches off the floor. Hold and do deep abdominal breathing for 1 minute.
Reclining bridge	Lay on your back. Bring your heels directly underneath your knees. Let your toes point straight forward. Let your thighs emerge straight out from your hips. Let your arms be along your sides, palms to the floor. Lift your tailbone off the floor by pressing your navel against your spine firmly and curling your pelvis up toward the ceiling. Continue curling up, peeling your spine off the floor, one vertebra at a time, until you are on your shoulders. Keep your thighs parallel, your knees right over your heels, and your toes pointing straight forward. Breathe deeply, exhale completely.
Reclining bound angle (cobbler's)	Lay on your back. Draw the soles of your feet together. Let your legs fall open as they will. Draw your heels up as close to your body as possible. Press your navel against your spine. Lengthen your back along the floor. You may have your arms over your head or along your sides. Breathe deeply, exhale completely.
Sitting Forward bend	Sit up with your legs extended out in front of you. Let your shoulders come directly over your hips. Lengthen your legs along the floor and your spine up toward the ceiling. Press your navel against your spine, lift up, roll your pelvis forward and lengthen your torso out over your legs, elongating your back from the base of your spine all the way out through your occiput (the joint joining your spine to your skull). Breathe deeply, exhale completely.
Janusirasana -- Sitting forward bend with half-angle	Sit up with your legs extended out in front of you. Let your shoulders come directly over your hips. Lengthen your legs along the floor and your spine up toward the ceiling. Press your navel against your spine, bring one foot along the inside of the opposite thigh. Roll your pelvis forward and lengthen your torso out over your extended leg, elongating your back from the base of your spine all the way out through your occiput (the joint joining your spine to your skull). Breathe deeply, exhale completely. Repeat with the other leg bent.
Cobra	Lay on your stomach, perfectly aligning your body. Press your navel against your spine, lengthen your legs along the floor, bring your palms slightly in front of your shoulders, lift your head, then chest, then torso, pressing up into Cobra. Keep your navel pressed firmly against your spine. Lift with and lengthen the muscles between your navel and your chin. Breathe deeply, exhale completely. You should feel no stress in the mid and low vertebra if you are lifting properly with the torso and deep pelvic muscles.
Half Locust	Lay on your stomach, perfectly aligning your body. Place your palms by your side either facing up or onto the floor. Lengthen your back away from your waist, press your chin onto the floor. Lengthen both legs firmly along the floor, press your navel against the spine, then lift one leg up by lengthening it out and away from your pelvis. Breathe deeply, exhale completely. Repeat with the other leg.
Half Bow	Lay on your stomach, perfectly aligning your body. Press your navel firmly against your spine. Lift one heel off the floor, reach back, grab it. Press your hips firmly into the floor, then draw your heel toward your hip firmly, but gently, elongating your quadricep (the big muscle along the front of your thigh). This will also stretch your knee. If this is easy, proceed as you see in the photo - lift your chest slightly off the floor at the same time that you lift your knee slightly off the floor. Breathe deeply, exhale completely. Repeat with the other leg.
Rabbit	Come onto all fours. Let your knees be under your hips, your hands under your shoulders. Drop the top of your head down onto the floor as shown. Clasp your hands behind your back, then lift them up over your shoulders, or as high as possible. Breathe deeply, exhale completely.
Child Pose	From being on all fours or in rabbit, drop your hips onto your heels. Let your forehead come onto the floor by your knees. Let your arms be at your sides, your palms facing the ceiling. Breathe deeply, exhale completely.
Mountain Pose	From child pose, lift you hips up and curl your toes underneath you. Lift higher and roll back onto the balls of your feet, bring your hips over your feet, roll up to standing. Let your feet be directly under your hips, your toes pointing straight forward. Press your navel against your spine. Bring your shouldblades toward each other in the center of your upper back as you lift up from your navel through your chin. Let your shoulders relax down, lengthen your neck and your spine. Breathe deeply, exhale completely.
Chair Pose	From mountain pose, bend your knees straight out over your toes as though you were about to sit in a chair. Lean forward slightly, extending your arms overhead. Let your upper arms be right by your ears. Lenthen your spine out, navel against the spine to stabilize your pelvis, shoulderblades toward each other in the center of your back as you draw the blades down your back toward your waist. Hold, breath deeply, exhale completely.
Reed Pose	From mountain pose reach up, clash your hands over your head. Let your upper arms stay close to your ears. Lift up powerfully from the base of your spine, let your navel stay tucked firmly toward your spine. Lean out directly to one side as you exhale. Inhale and return smoothly center. Exhale and lead out directly to the other side. Inhale as you return smoothly center. Continue this for 1 minute.
Archer Pose	From mountain pose step to one side. Let the front foot point in the direction you are stepping, the back foot is perpendicular to the front foot. Bend the front knee out over your toe. Let your shoulders stay right over your pelvis, navel against the spine. Let your arms be in the position as shown, just as if you were drawing a longbow. Lift up powerfully from the base of your pelvis all the way through your sternum. Let your arms be powerfully active in this stretch. Press your feet firmly into the floor as though you were striding forth to battle. Breathe deeply, exhale completely.
Cat/Dog Alternation	Cat PoseDog Pose Come onto all fours. Move into Cat Pose by rounding your back, droping your head, and pressing firmly into the floor with knees and palms as you exhale. Inhale, beginning in the pelvis, arch the back up, lifting your chin high into Dog Pose. Alternate between Cat Pose and Dog Pose slowly and smoothly to release the spine, hips, and chest. Be sure to exhale as you move into Cat and inhale as you open up into Dog.
Prayer Pose	Lower down from all fours, bringing your hips onto your heels. Stretch your arms firmly in front of you, clasping your hands together, bringing your forehead to the floor. Breathe deeply, exhale completely.