Full Body Yoga Stretches for Building Flexibility & Improve Mobility, Beginner Friendly Routine

Hi, I'm Ariana and today we're doing a yoga flow focused on flexibility. All you're going to need are two blocks and one strap and let's go ahead and get started. If you're not in a place where you can do this video with me right now, please save it to your watch later and join me whenever you can. Hi, welcome. Today's yoga sequence is going to be all about flexibility. So let's start with our foundation, our feet. You can start with yogi toes. So go ahead and tuck your toes, all 10 of your toes and sit up tall. Find a neutral pelvic bowl, bring your navel into your spine, lift it up and relax your shoulders. So take a few breaths here. I invite you to close your eyes or to keep them open and find a point to focus on in front of you. And if there's ever too much sensation going through your feet, you can always come off of your toes at any time. So go ahead and acknowledge your breath as you inhale through your nose and exhale out of your mouth. And we breathe into our foundation, find flexibility through our feet. Because the more flexibility we find through our feet, the more flexible we're able to be throughout our bodies. So take a few more rounds of breath in this nice Virasana tall chest stance. And go ahead, come off of your toes. Find a seat if you can stay in your Virasana. Nice thunderbolt posture, sitting your hips back towards your heels. Relax the muscles around your neck, Sukha Mukha, soft face and take your strap. If you have one, you can also use a towel or anything that looks kind of like this. And bring it taut over your head and do some shoulder flossing. So bring it up and back. And you can do this in your own time. You can bring your hands as close or as far apart as you need. And any other movement that feels good, go ahead and invite that into the body. You can do around the world, bringing the strap down and around. And whatever you could do one way, go ahead, do the other way as well. Do a couple more rounds of shoulder flossing, just feeling into those muscles around the shoulder, the joints, the shoulder girdle, all of that fun stuff. Breathe into tight space. And readjust your strap. Take it behind you. And you can stay seated as you are or come back into that yogi toes, yogi toe stance, sitting on your toes, on your heels, finding that stretch through your feet. Draw your knuckles back. Take your strap behind you and draw your knuckles back and down. You'll find a mini backbend here. Start to lift. Open your heart. Sun worshipper. Open your chest. Look up. Lift up. Draw your knuckles down and stop wherever you want. And you'll return center, neutral spine. Release your strap. Take it by your side. Set it down. You did a good job. And then sit back down once more. Lift your knees to find a stretch through the fronts of your legs. So we found one through the backs. We'll find one through the fronts of our shins, tibialis anterior, fronts of your ankles, feet, and then find a seat. So dandasana, sit up tall. And you can always utilize your blocks. You can sit on a block if you want. You can also, if you find you're more flexible, take a block at the soles of your feet. So find that tall seat. And options, you can also, we have options. You can also use your strap as well. So find that tall seat. Take an inhale at the top and start to hinge forward. So belly towards your thighs. You can grab onto your feet, your shins. You can use your strap. And start to tuck your chin. Bring your forehead down. Breathe into tight space. This is also good for your back. Or you can grab onto your block. So draw your shoulders back away from your ears. If you want to find an active pose here, as you inhale, lift. And as you exhale, draw your belly further, nose further into your legs. And stay for a round of breath. As you exhale, imagine releasing tension, relaxing, finding softness. And as you inhale, imagine finding that effort. Where do you expand? Where do you grow? You can slowly, in your own time, scoop your navel in and help yourself roll up to a seat. Once more. Find a wide-legged stance. Toes point towards you. And fold again. This time, find that neutral spine until your body wants to round forward. So start to walk your hands down the mat, down in front of you. And you can round when your body wants to flex forward. Round forward. And again, just breathe into tight space to create new space. And we'll return to that seat. Roll back. Bring your knees into your chest. Give them a hug. And draw two circles with both of your knees. Then draw both of your knees into your armpits. So imagine laying through your tailbone, your low back. And plant both of your feet about shoulder's width, hips width distance apart. And start to windshield wipe your knees side to side. From here, find your strap once more. And you can keep your left knee bent. Take your strap and place it on the two top balls of your right foot. So right underneath the ball of your big toe and the ball of your little toe, that's where you'll place your strap. You can go ahead and rub it right and left a few times, just activating your foot a little bit too. And then keep your hips planted. You can keep your knee bent or extend your leg. Extend your leg long or keep it bent. It's up to you. Relax your shoulders. That's what the straps are for. The strap is for. And start to find a stretch through your adductors. So the inner part of your leg. Start to open your leg to the right. And you can take your left hand, bring it to your left hip. And you'll keep your left hip from rising up. So whenever your left hip starts to rise, back your right foot up, leave it there and breathe into tight space. Find relaxation. Find relaxation in the discomfort of this nice opener stretch and slowly draw your foot back up towards the midline. Take your hitchhiker's thumb and press it into your right hip crease. Keep your right hip lowered and down as you draw your left, your right foot over to the left side of the room. So finding a stretch through your abductors, your outer glutes, your IT band. And again, breathe into tight space when your right hip starts to rise back up just a tad, just a little bit. Soft face. Find your breath. Slowly return to the midline and press on your strap. Pull your toes towards you so you find more of a stretch. Then release your strap, point your toes and draw some circles with your ankle. Or draw some circles with your toes and feel into your ankle. Massage your ankle. Go both ways. Bring your knee back into your armpit. Grab onto your shin or the outer ridge of your right foot and hold your left foot to the ground. Again, you can always keep your left foot bent if that's better for you. And find this half happy baby pose. Keep pressing your knee towards the ground or your armpit and your heel towards the ceiling. You can start to find a half straddle if you want by extending your your right leg. And we do want to be mindful of keeping our shoulder lowered. Then you can slowly bring your right knee and your left knee together. Start to make little half circles with both of your knees. Massaging, feeling your lower back, how it feels, your right and your left side. Give both knees one more hug in. Then lengthen your right heel to the ground or you can keep your right knee bent. It's up to you. So either way, go ahead give your left knee a hug. And then find your strap. We can always use our straps, our props to create space in tight places. So relax where you can relax here. And first, we're going to feel into our adductors as we bring our leg away from the body. Keep your right hip down. And when your right hip starts to rise, scoot over slightly. And when your right hip starts to rise, that's when you know you're at a good place. You can back up slightly and breathe. And we'll do the same thing on the other side. So take your left hitchhiker's thumb, plug it into your left hip and draw your left foot over to the right. Keep your left hip bone down, drawn into the ground. And maybe find a stretch through your abductors, your IT band. I even almost feel it in my low back. So you know, everybody's geometry is different. Feel it where you feel it. And breathe into those tight spaces. Keep that left hip down. It's not a twist. It's more of a outer leg stretch. And return center. Pull your strap so your toes point towards you. And then release the blue strap. It did a good job. Point your toes, draw some circles with your toes. And go both ways. Then we'll draw your knee into your armpit or past it. And find half happy baby pose. So grab on to the outer ridge of your foot or your shin, whatever is more accessible for you. Press your heel up towards the ceiling and your knee towards the ground or towards your armpit and then find your breath. Notice it where it flows, where it goes. And slowly bring both knees back into the chest. Oh, wait, no, no. First, straighten your left leg if that's in your practice, if that's accessible for a half straddle. And then bend both of your knees, bring them into your chest. Give them a hug. And find a tabletop position. We'll journey there. You can roll side to side or you can roll to one side and sit up however that works for you. Go ahead. Once you find a tabletop position, do some cat cows. So cat cows are great for finding flexibility through the spine. Inhale, drop the belly, lift the tail, lift the heart, draw the shoulders back and exhale, push away the earth, draw the navel to the ceiling, protract the shoulders round the spine. Inhale, drop the belly, shoulders back, extend the spine and exhale, flex and do some of those in your own breath. As you inhale, drop the belly, lift the heart, smile, happy cow. As you exhale, press away the earth, create space all behind the neck, behind the shoulders, squeeze the glutes in your cat pose and flow through that. You can also spend more time in a cat pose or a cow pose. It's up to you. And then set up your blocks by your sides. Find a downward facing dog. So press your palms into the mat, heels back, walk your dog, take your right heel up and back, draw your knee into your chest and find a runner's lunge. Step your left heel down, shimmy your right foot forward. Use your blocks if you want for your low lunge. So breathe into your left hip flexor, draw the chest and the hip points forward and maybe lift your hands. Open your chest, then sweep back. Take your blocks with you and find a stretch through your right hamstring. So hamstrings, your back thigh muscles. Inhale to lengthen and exhale to fold. You can fold forward all the way or halfway with your spine neutral. Go ahead, keep your toes pointing up towards the sky. Or you can point your toes, just keep them pointing in line with your knee. Feel into those muscles and then bend your knee once more. Plant both palms on the blocks or the ground and step back into that downward dog. Here, go ahead, lift your heels off the ground, keep pressing away the earth and then drop your heels to the left. Press your right hand into the mat so you're breathing into the right side of your body and lift your heels. Do the same thing on the other side. So drop your heels to the right side and press your left hand, your left palm into the mat. You'll return to that downward facing dog. Take your left heel and bring it up. Bring your knee in and through. Right knee down and find your blocks. So roll the shoulders back, hips point forward and breathe into your right hip flexor. Inhale for crescent, lean forward, breathe into tight space and find that halfway split. So right hip is in line with your right knee and inhale to lengthen. Draw that left hip back. Exhale to fold halfway with the neutral spine or all the way with your spine flexed forward like that cat position from earlier. And it's up to you what you choose. And you'll find a bend in your left knee. Press back into a downward facing dog. From your downward dog go ahead shake your head yes, shake it no and drop both of your knees to the floor. Find your stable table. So bring your navel into your spine and in your stable table find a short plank. So short plank, tuck your toes, press away the earth, protract the shoulders, levitate your knees, lower back down, inhale right hand up. Exhale, thread the needle about halfway and then reach a little bit farther. Reach your left hand out, press into the mat with your feet and create some space between your right shoulder and your right ear. If you want more of a twist, walk your left hand over to the right corner of the mat and slowly re-rise, reach up, lower down, do the other side. Inhale, left hand. Exhale, thread the needle, left hand reaches. Create some space between your left ear and your left shoulder. Press in with your feet, breathe into tight space to create new space. Walk your right hand forward and if you want more sensation you can add a twist here by walking your hand over to the right corner of your mat and you can slowly unwind and reach up. So you can journey into a child's pose to end your practice, maybe a child's pose with your hands on blocks to find more of a more opening through the heart, through the chest and bring your third eye, your forehead to the mat. As you exhale, breathe in more space. As you exhale, feel into tight spaces. As you inhale, breathe into more space and thank you for joining me for this practice. Thank you so much for practicing with me. 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