 Welcome back to the School of Calisthenics. I'm Jaco and I'm here with Coach Jude, our residence yoga expert as well as Calisthenics coach here at the School of Calisthenics. I'm just going to take me and you through a little yoga flow that is going to be designed to help you with your calisthenics movement aspect of our framework. Yeah so it's a short flow today hopefully you'll be able to follow along about 15 minutes or so so get yourself on that and enjoy. So today we're going to start in a child's pose so on the floor Jaco toes together and you can either have the knees apart all together it's totally up to you what feels more comfortable and we're going to reach forwards with the hands extended child's pose sinking the chest down towards the floor and if it's comfortable for you get in the forehead all the way down onto the mat so having a big stretch from the tailbone all the way to those fingertips. Now again start with your practice you can stay here as long as you want to until you feel ready to move we're going to get going straight away so we're just going to come up onto the fingertips so make a little tent with your fingers lift up the elbows and you should feel a deeper stretch through your shoulders can you feel that? Yeah yeah and we're just going to walk the hands over to the right side of the mat so try and keep your hips still we're going to take the hands as far as we can so we just begin to stretch through the side body into those lats maybe bringing the left hand on top of the right just to make it feel a little bit stronger if you want to and then coming back to centre and walking all the way over to the left side good back into the centre of the mat and just coming off onto all fours so if your knees were wide like mine i'm just going to step them a little bit closer together so the knees are directly underneath the hips and i'm going to make sure that my wrists are underneath my shoulders so shoulders elbows wrist so in a nice long line fingers are spread nice and wide are we going to be nice and active through the arms so sometimes when we come into this what we call tabletop position you can kind of slump down into the shoulders but we're going to push the mat away with the hands make sure that we're nice and active through the arms draw the belly in towards the spine try and create this nice flat back from here we're just going to use our breathing our breath to wake the spine up a little bit so as you take a breath in i want you to drop your belly down towards the floor lift up your tailbone and see if you can drag the chest in between the biceps you can even roll your eyes up towards the sky so this is cat pose good and then as we breathe out we're going to tuck the tailbone under took the chin to the chest and really arch through the back of the body so just moving between cat and cow nice simple movement but it feels really good for your spine and you might find that one of these maybe when you sink into cow or maybe when you stretch through into cat it just feels really nice and you want to stay there for a little while so if you do just stay there all you might find that you get an urge to kind of swing the hips from side to side so what we call wagging the tail so if you do that perhaps just bring the right shoulder a little bit closer to the right hip and the left shoulder a little bit closer to the left hip a little bit of lateral movement and then yeah and then we're coming back into that tabletop position again so we're going to thread at the needle to get a bit of rotation through the t spine so let's take the right fingers all the way up to the sky and then we're going to thread that right hand underneath the body bring the right shoulder right into the centre of the mat drop it down onto the floor if we can and drop that right ear down next to it nice so your bum stayed on top of your knees yet perfect and you're just going to press ever so lightly into that left hand to try and get a little bit more rotation through that spine can you feel it yeah feel good yeah good and then come back through centre come back into that tabletop position and we'll try the other side so big breath in left fingers to the sky and then let's throw it through that space again left shoulder left ear down to the floor push into that right hand see if you can get a little bit more rotation through the spine and then coming back to centre so hips are back on top of those knees we're all we're going to do is walk the hands forward into what we call puppy pose so letting the chest sink down towards the floor it's a good stretch for the shoulders if your shoulders are really tight then taking the hands a little bit wider is going to make it easier for you if your shoulders feel okay what you can do is lift the chin and look forward so there's variations here that you can use depending upon the mobility of your shoulders anyway nice jacko and let's walk back up to centre if you like it yeah extension and getting over it so took the toes we're going to move the seat towards the heels and lift those hips nice and high into downward facing dog inverted v shape so have a little puddle of the heels it just feels nice for the hamstrings and for the calves when we come into our final down dog it's perfectly all right to keep the knees bent we want the hips the bum to go as high as we can and to feel a nice long line from the fingertips to that tailbone that's it good so if your hamstrings are tight keep us off bending the knees and find this nice inverted v shape that jacko's shown us here is that good yeah it's really good so from here we're going to do a little bit of work for the core so let's take the right heel up to the sky we're going to put a bend in that right knee come high on your left toes and then squeeze the knee to the nose as we bring the shoulders back over the wrists good lift and lengthen that right leg and we're going to squeeze that knee down to your right elbow keep your foot nice and high if you can lift and lengthen and then let's take it under the body to that left elbow that's it lift and lengthen again this time we're going to take that right leg all the way underneath us rest it on the side of the mat that's it and let's push the mat away with that right hand and reach the left fingers up to the sky nice so we're starting to build a little bit of shoulder strength here as well yeah can feel it shaking let's bring the hands down step back into your down dog good have a little rest there have a breather sink into child's pose if you want to before we do that left side so when you're ready coming back into your down dog let's take those left toes up to the sky that's it bend in that left knee squeeze that knee to the nose we're going to bring the shoulders back over the wrists nice and then lift and lengthen that left leg squeezing it down to the left elbow keep that foot nice and high lift and lengthen and then let's take it to the right side lift and lengthen once more and then we're going to pass that left leg all the way underneath us keep that left hand nice and strong reach the right fingers up to the sky so one thing to think about here is being active through the shoulder not letting that shoulder collapse to the ear and then we're going to bring the hands down to the mat and step it back into your down dog have a big long breath there good so take a look at the space between your hands we're going to step the right foot forwards so scooping it forwards if it takes a couple of steps that's fine we're going to bring that left knee down onto the mat so you might want to adjust the position when you're in this lunge so right ankle underneath the knee and left toes flatten your left foot into the mat and just shuffle those toes backwards so we're going to feel this left hip flexor opening a little bit so you should feel something already when we take a breath in we're going to make that stretch a little bit deeper so keep your weight in your right heel and let's take the things up to the sky nice so a couple of things to think about in this low crescent lunge first thing is to not let these ribs flare too much we want to keep the tailbone pointing down towards the floor shoulders nice and relaxed so if your shoulder has shrugged up two ears just draw the shoulder blades down the back nice and if you started to let the weight drift onto your left knee which happens ease back into that right heel right hand is coming on to the hip left fingers are going to reach high and then we're going to take a bend over towards the right it's going to challenge the balance a little bit as well can you feel that stretch even more now then the left hand comes down on to the mat we're going to roll the belly to the right side and reach those right fingers up to the sky let's tuck that left those left toes and pick up the left knee so again we're working these shoulders a little bit here make sure you haven't collapsed into that left shoulder keep pushing the mat away with the left hand and look up towards that right thumb let's bring the hands down we're stepping it back to down dog and we're going to do the other side so look at the space between the hands big step forward to that left foot and then drop that right knee down into the floor so we're just again if you need to you look pretty good on your in breath let's take those fingers up to the sky so keeping those ribs knitted down keeping the weight in that left heel shoulders nice and relaxed take a look at the space between the hands and we're going to bring the left hand to the hip and have a little bend over to the left and then plant that right hand down onto the mat roll the belly to that left leg and reach those left fingers up to the sky tuck your right toes let's lift up that right knee so nice and active do that right arm if you've slumped into the shoulder keep pushing the mat away nice jacko and then bring the hands down to the mat and let's step it back into your down dog take a look at the space between the hands big step forward with the right foot this time we're going to float up into our high lunge so a little bit of work for the shoulders in this high lunge we're going to interlace the fingers at the tail bone i'm going to turn around you stay where you are jacko and we're going to try and work the heels of the hands together so if your hands are loose then it's a little easier on the shoulders so we're going to try and work the heels of the hands together and really squeeze those shoulder blades together and open up the chest then from here we're just going to bring the right shoulder down towards that right knee so lifting the thumbs away from the tailbone as much as you can good and then coming back up to centre reach those fingers high and then let's plant the hands and step back to down dog we're going to do a little movement here a little flow before we do the other side so on your in breath let's float into a plank position easy option to begin with we're going to drop the knees to the mat i want your elbows to graze your ribs as you lower the chest in between the hands so your bum should stay high then we're going to slide the belly onto the mat extend the crown of the head away from the tail a little back bend before sending the seat back to the feet tucking those toes and lifting those hips into your down dog left side yeah so take a look at the space between the hands big step forward with that left foot closing up into that high lunge shoulders relaxed let's interlace the fingers work the heels of the hands together draw those shoulder blades together open up the chest and then let's take a little bow el shoulder down towards that knee big breath in reaching high and then plant the hands we're going to step back to down dog this time slightly harder version for that vinyasa so let's float into a plank position this time just roll forward on your toes for me so the shoulders are ahead of your wrists squeeze your bum cheeks we're going to hover down to elbow height low plank push into those hands just at the tops of the feet on the mat shoulders away from the ears up dog and then lift those hips into your down dog so take a look at the space again and we're going to tiptoe the feet into the space between the hands so take it slowly bend the knees give the hamstrings a bit of a chance to stretch and when you get there just let the crown of the head go so let the body fold over the legs it can be nice just to cradle the elbows and have a little rock from side to side bend in the knees we're going to plant the hands and let's hop the feet back into a plank position drop those knees send the seat back to those heels sinking back into extended child's pose for a moment and then sliding forwards onto the belly so we're just going to do a little bit of bat bending just to strengthen the lower back so to begin with we're going to um take what we call a diagonal locus pose so superman arms legs and ice and relax so about a mat distance apart we don't need the legs pushed together foreheads are going to stay on the mat and what I want you to think about is lengthening your right fingers forwards and your left toes away from you push the pelvis into the floor that's it and then we're going to lift opposite arm and leg then come back down to centre and try the other side back down to centre right arm left leg back down left arm left leg nice now keep the legs where they are but let's interlace those fingers at the tailbone again a huge slug go that thing we've got creatures in our practice that's that is nature interlace the fingers now we're going to do exactly the same thing but we're going to you're going to try and push your knuckles towards your heels so both legs this time so as you take a breath in push the pelvis into the floor lift the legs and let's squeeze the knuckles down towards the heels nicely done two more breaths and then let it go hands underneath the shoulders um we're going to push back into that final child's pose so seat all the way down to the heels forehead on the floor if it reaches you might want to swing the arms around to the ankles this time palms up towards the sky it's a little bit kinder for the shoulders and you can stay there until you feel ready to move so there we go another yoga flow for you and for us i certainly feel better straight away just from literally doing that some of that work through the spine particularly the effect that that has on your on your shoulder mobility and then however that is going to impact on things that you're working on in castle it's like handstands and muscle ups and human flags is fantastic so i hope you've enjoyed it as well let us know in the comments how you found it and also if you'd like to see more follow along type videos like this where you want to see more yoga stuff as well and we will we will do our best to put more out there for you guys so remember take your time listen to your body if anything it feels uncomfortable then you know that you've gone a little bit too far so make sure you enjoy it and that it feels good and this will definitely help you with your calisthenics it's on next time