Gentle Yoga Stretch Workout for Beginners & Seniors

Hi and welcome to this gentle yoga stretch routine. All exercises will be performed on the mat. It's perfect for all beginners, seniors, and anyone maybe on their rest day. Let's go ahead and get started. Also grab a small pillow if you need support underneath your hips or maybe underneath your head for some exercises. Starting on our hands and knees. Don't worry, this is joint friendly. We won't be here for long. Wrists underneath the shoulders, knees underneath the hips. Start with a cat cowl. We're going to tuck our chin, round our back up, gazing at our belly button, pulling it up to the spine. And then the reverse, chin up and shift your hips back. Again, drop the chin, round it up. Lift your chin and lift those hips. One more time, drop that chin, round it up nice and tall. Gaze up at that tummy and hips up. From here, shift it all the way back, tailbone towards those heels. Reach the arms forward, sitting back into our child's pose. Relax right here. Big inhale and exhale. One more time, big inhale and exhale. Let's combine these two moves. We're going to ripple our spine up, rounded back into our cat. Chin comes up, a little sway in that back, and then push back into our child's pose. Again, nice and fluid here. Roll it up, one vertebrae at a time. Chin up, push those hips back. One more time, we tuck. Roll it up, chin up, and hips back. Drop the chin one more time, round it up, and then flatten that back, coming to our neutral position. From here, slowly lowering onto our tummy. Just bending those elbows, lower yourself down. Place your hands underneath your shoulders. Feet are hip distance apart. And then go ahead and place your forearms onto the mat. Make sure your elbows are touching as well. Very gently, let's lift up. Head, neck, and shoulders. Make sure your shoulders are pushed down and back, and gently release it down. Push up. Don't go too far here. Just want you to feel a nice stretch. This is great for our posture. And lower it back down. One more time, nice and slow, let's push up. And if we're able to go a little further, you can push up with the palm of those hands, straightening those elbows. Relax the shoulders down and back. And very slowly, lower the elbows back down, and your chest down as well. Let's roll onto our backs. On your floor, you can support your head with your pillow if needed here. Feet are on the floor, hip distance apart. Hands also on the mat, palms down. All we're gonna do here is a little imprint for our spine here, so we've got a little space. Underneath our lower back, we're gonna tuck our hips and tighten our core. So we press that lower back into the floor, reducing that space. And then we relax. Inhale, exhale, let's do that again. Tuck, think about drawing that lower rib cage up to the hip ball. And we relax, let's do that one more time. Little tuck, little squeeze. Maybe walk those heels in a little closer to your seat. Relaxing the head, neck, and shoulders. Barely, slowly starting with our tailbone. Let's peel it up off the floor. And then vertebrae by vertebrae, gently lift up, leaving your shoulder blades on the floor. So we have a nice straight line. Relax the head, neck, and shoulders. And then starting from the top this time, very slowly tuck those hips and roll it down. I like the visual of a piece of tape starting from the end and very slowly pulling it all the way up. Let's do that again. Tuck those hips, starting from the tailbone. Lift, lift, lift, lift. Pulling the belly button to the core. Again, relaxing head, neck, and shoulders. Squeeze those glutes. Lower down nice and slow. We've got one more like this. Starting with the tailbone, imprint that spine. Lift, lift, lift. Inhale and exhale as we slowly lower. Go ahead and put your knees and your feet together. And all I want you to do is drop your knees out to the side. They may stop here. They may go all the way down. You do you. Just relax into this stretch for the hips and for the inner thigh. Let's put one hand on our heart and one hand on our belly. Relax here at your own pace, your own time. Take three deep breaths. Pull your knees close together again. And lift one knee to the chest, give it a hug in. Other knee to the chest, give it a hug in. Using that lower back, maybe a little rock and roll back and forth if that feels good to you. And from here, we're going to separate our knees. Lift up those feet a little bit. And if you can grab maybe the inside of your pant leg or the inside of your foot here into a little happy baby pose. So think about pushing those knees closer to the floor. Again, this feels amazing for the hips. Relax into it here. Deep breaths, inhale and exhale. One more big inhale. Let's take those legs and extend them straight up towards the ceiling. Hands down at the floor. While we're here, let's flex the feet. And point. Flex, feel a great stretch all the way up the back of the leg. And point. One more time. Flex, pull those toes down towards you. And flex. Press one ankle over the other. Then knee out to the side. I want you to slide that ankle down. Then taking our hands underneath the opposite thigh. Go ahead and bend that knee. And here we are into a figure four position. Maybe pulling the knees a little bit closer to you. And let's flex the foot that's on top. My favorite stretches. This is a beautiful one again for the outside of the hips and the buttocks. If it feels good to you, you can push that foot away from you. Maybe a gentle rock side by side. Keep breathing. Release those hands. Let's take them out to a T. And then I want you to take that leg, cross it over the other. And let's just let them fall to the side. So you're rolling onto your one hip. Their shoulder blades are still on the floor. Beautiful stretch for the spine. Take another big deep breath here. One more. Hold the stretch. Melt into your mat on this exhale. Take our hands, help our knees back up. We're going to uncross and again hug those knees in. Let's extend them both up to the ceiling again. A few more here. Flex. Pull those toes down. Okay, this time cross the other ankle over the other. Knee out to the side. We slide it down. Let's grab underneath that thigh. Bend the opposite foot and gently hug in. We can flex this top foot, protecting the knee joint. And again, you should be feeling this in the glutes and the outside of that hip. Create some deep breaths here. Allowing yourself to really relax into the stretch. Stretch a little deeper if you hug the knees a little bit closer. Or again, maybe you want to sway side to side a little bit. Let's take our arms out to the T. Crossing the leg over and dropping the knees to the side. Doesn't matter if they don't touch. Just get that nice stretch in the spine. Shoulder blades and chest are laying flat. Take a deep breath here. One more. Let's take our back arm, pulling it towards the front so we roll onto our side. And then gently help yourself up. When I come to a seated position, I want you to tuck your heels in as close to your hips as you can. I'm going to lean forward here like a little ball and grab onto your toes if you can grab them. If not, maybe you can grab onto your toes. And then trying to keep our chest onto the tops of our thighs as much as you can. We're going to slowly walk our heels out. So nice and slow, we're bent forward. And you just go as far as you can go. Slide, slide, slide. This is a tricky way of getting you into that forward fold position. So hang out wherever you're comfortable as far as you have gone. Said it before, a good stretch should not be painful, but maybe a little bit uncomfortable so we can gain some flexibility. Let's hold that stretch here. Give me a big inhale and exhale. Again, big inhale, exhale. Release those ankles, roll it up. One vertebrae at a time, sitting nice and tall. Let's bend our knees, putting our feet back on the floor. And then hands come behind us. So nice proud chest sitting up nice and tall. We are just going to lower our knees to the side, through center, into the other side. Little swivel here. Another great exercise for the hips. Keep a nice proud chest here. Try not to sink into your shoulders. Side to side. You might notice that one side goes further down than the other. That's totally normal. And I want you to go to the side where it's a little bit tighter. Mine is this way and we're going to hold that side. Release, big inhale and exhale. Come back to center. Okay, coming to a crisscross position, but without our feet being on top of each other. So they're just kind of flat here on the floor. Supporting your hips with a pillow or a bolster if you need to. Sit up nice and tall, inhale. Exhale, I want you to forward fold, keeping a nice straight spine and chest. And just walk those hands forward, lowering down. Feel a really beautiful stretch in those seat muscles. Breathe into this. Let's walk our way back up. And then take the hands behind you again and lean back. Push the shoulders down a bit, just for a little chest opener here. Find your way back to center. Whichever leg is in front, we're going to take it, cross it over the other one. And then move your other leg so your knee is pointed towards me. Arm goes up, inhale. Exhale. Let's twist around to the side. Big torso twist. Other side, inhale. Exhale, twist over. Maybe using your arm to push against that knee. And come back to center. Let's do that again on the other side. So this time, make sure the other leg or shin is in front. And we start by crawling forward. Big inhale. Relax those hips. And walk it back up. And again, arms come behind. Proud chest, straighten those elbows. Shoulders down and back, lift the chest to the ceiling. And release. And other side, other leg's going to cross. So knee forward, all the way over as much as you can. All the way up. Big torso twist back. Return to center. And again, arm up, inhale. Torso twist back. Maybe pushing gently against the knee. Oh, so good. Come back up and around. Now just come to a comfortable crisscross or seated position. It's more comfortable for you for legs out in front. That's just fine. Take our fingertips to the floor. Roll those shoulders down and back. Really stretch the fingers long. And take the ear towards your neck or your shoulder. Stretching the side of the neck. Drop the chin. And gently roll it to the other side. Reach the shoulder. Drop the chin. And gently roll. Gently roll forward again. And this time, let's go all the way back and around two times. And drop the chin center. Let's reverse. Lift that arm. Big inhale. Side stretch all the way over. Hold it here. Inhale. Reach that arm. And come down. Other side. Big inhale here. All the way over. Inhale. And exhale. And come back down. Inhale. Both arms coming towards the ceiling. Palms facing each other. And I want you to reach up as high as you can. Growing one inch taller. But at the same time, keep those shoulders pressed down and back. Inhale. Exhale. Come to prayer. Do that again. Inhale. Arms reach up. Shoulders down. But grow one more inch lengthening that spine. Exhale. Prayer. One more time. Inhale. And grow to prayer. Thank you so much for joining me today. I hope you feel amazing. Please give this video a like. Leave a comment if you'd like more workouts like this. Share with your friends. And we'll see you next time.