(optimistic music) - Hello, my name is Coco Bopp with Renew Active with
the UnitedHealthcare. I'm a health promotion specialist, fitness instructor and yoga instructor. And I welcome you to
today's chair yoga class. We are going to be
sitting part of the time, but then we're also going to be doing some standing postures. I recommend you having a chair, putting it on a mat if
you have a slippery floor. If you have wall-to-wall carpeting, that might help grip the chair, but we're gonna be with a chair. And then if you'd like
to have a water bottle, feel free to have a water bottle nearby. But I recommend putting it
under your seat out of the way so you're less likely to
hit it or trip over it. To begin with, this class will be approximately 30 minutes long. You're welcome to work at your own pace, stop, restart, come in and out. Please do not experience
pain, I don't want any pain. The idea behind yoga and doing exercises is becoming more in touch with our bodies, mind, body, spirit, and gaining
some flexibility, strength, finding some peace and
calm, it's your practice. We can begin with our
chair mountain up tall, crown of your head lifted,
shoulders away from your ears. Your heart open, belly button
pulled towards your spine. We wanna root our feet
when we're grounded, under the big toe, little toe heels. Try not to squeeze with your toes. If you want right now, you can lift your toes
up and spread them widely and then just float 'em back down. And then, in general, we have soft knees and, in general, the safest thing is having your knees above your ankles. Doesn't always happen, but
it kind of right there. So check in with your body,
you can have a soft gaze. You can close your eyes, noticing how you feel at the moment, physically, mentally, emotionally. And set an intention of
your choice for this class. Inhale and exhale through your
nose if that works for you. Otherwise, you're welcome
to breathe according to how it works for you. And then begin to lengthen and your inhalation and your exhalation. Notice how that feels. Notice where you're
feeling it, belly, chest. Inhale peace. Exhale any remaining tension. And then slowly begin to inhale as you bring your chin
over your collarbone and exhale as you lower your
chin towards your chest. Inhale as you bringing your
chin over your collarbone. And if it's okay with you, you can continue looking towards the sky. But again, do what
works for you is safest. Just saying looking forward and exhale and coming back down again. And one last time, lifting
chin ever collarbone. You can stay there or,
if it's okay with you, you can continue going up. And coming back to chin over collarbone and noticing how you feel. And we can move towards our shoulders, so shrug your shoulders
up, notice that tension, then roll back down. Inhale and shrugging up
and exhaling back down. And then she rubbing up and down one last time, inhaling
up and shrugging back down and floating your palms
back to your thighs, pumps down as a grounded
position and kind of my default. You're invited to do that
or something different. And then up top, we're going to bring our arms
up and then slice them widely, So then notice your shoulder blades moving towards each other we're warming up our shoulders
inhaling as we go wide, moving our shoulder
blades towards each other and exhale, I'm using my left arm. You can use your right if
you want to be my mirror or the same left, but exhale and cross,
inhaling reaching out if that works for you,
thumb towards the back wall exhaling, floating`that arm back down inhaling, moving your shoulder
blades towards each other opposite arm cuts across as you exhale. And the only ratio, you know,
look up is okay with you. Exhaling floating down,
inhale reaching widely exhaling across, inhaling reaching up. And again, you can stay
looking forward if you want, exhaling floating down, last arm inhaling, moving
your shoulder blades, feel them notice them exhaling across, inhaling that arm bones
towards the back wall. And then floating back down
and we can continue and float all the way down and then
inhaling palms towards the sky. We're doing our angel breathes
and floating back down, just go slowly in control. One last time, reaching out to get like
a it's okay with you. And back down from here,
we're going to do a, modify a salutation to the
sun, so we're inhaling, reaching up, looking up
if that's, okay with you. And then Swan dive. So try to keep your heart
open your legs rooted, Come from your hips, come
as close to your thighs, as you can, as much as
your back allows you to, and then exhale as you round inhale, half lift holding your shins, opening up your heart and exhale fold, and then we're gonna go
vertebrate by vertebrate, As we inhale, re-staking our
shoulders above our heads, all sorts of sky, grabbing more energy exhale hands to hearts. One more time, inhale reaching up ane exhaling and flat backs Swan dive, And again, you can have your arms closer
if that doesn't work for you, but try not to round your back,
so we're coming in control, as we exhale our descent
rounding at the end, inhale half lift as we
are folding a belly button (indistinct chatter) grabbing more energy and
exhale hands to heart, opening up your heart. Sometimes I see people
scrunching like this. When they come to prayer hands, try and have your heart open. And then we can float our palms back down, and we're going to slide my left, your right or whatever
you want up and down. So we're just noticing
our hip we're preparing for our accent. And then on your next
one we gonna slide on up If it's okay with you,
otherwise you stay down. You can cross, If it's
okay with your guidelines, or you can come up above your knee, pull your toes toward you, Your knee might be up here, your knee might be lower than mine It's all good opening
up our heart, inhaling, coming forward from my hip,
and I seem like I'm trying to keep my chin over my collar bone coming back up on my
inhalation and then exhaling coming back down from my hip, they stretch, moving stretch. This is dynamic. And one last time coming forward and then we're back up Tom, re-stacked, and then let
that leg float it back down. We're gonna switch sides, which is like, so other like sliding up and
down, noticing what you feel. And then on your next one,
you're gonna slide on up, if it's okay with you, I can
stay a little if you want to, but bringing it up above
your knee, if that works, pulling your toes towards
you, engaging those muscles, opening up your knee is where it is. It might be different than the other side. So good inhaling calling
for, from our hip, inhaling back up again, just finding your end point
and ceiling last time. And last time coming forward, big stretch, and then coming back down and
we get to look at that leg and float it back down again, and then we're going to
slide over to a side. I'm sliding over to my left. Probably your right as
you're looking at this, but we only have two
sides. So it's all good. We're going to take that
outside layer and slide it back. So you might stop earlier or
you might slide stray back and get a big hip stretches
again. It's up to you. Your heel is lifted.
It that works for you. Get a toes stretched up top, sliding the other leg and
making sure your ankles, your knees, your shoulders are stacked. You might want to stay just there. This is a prep for what we're
going to do standing up. So just knowing we stand up
and do our standing minyasa, that you can do it sitting if you prefer, but we're inhaling or we're
reaching up towards the back wall you can lean back slightly, if it's okay for your back,
exhale, hands to heart, pull in that belly button, inhale reaching up, exhale and start, and then lifting up, reaching up inhaling there's(indistinct) you can turn to a warrior to tight arms, that shoulder opener. So you're gonna turn
towards the outside lane, bring your arms parallel to the floor, kind of lining them up with your chest. If that works for you, reaching lightly and we're stretching, noticing how that feels. Now we're holding up against
gravity is a long letter. You can always come closer.
If it gets challenging, too challenging, you can turn that front
arm palm towards the sky. We're gonna take a big breath
as we reach out and then take the opposite that are, that
we can be on your buttocks, your thigh, your cap
is what works for you, but we're trying to lengthen
reaching out, breathing, nursing, that wonderful stretch. We need to stay here for a few press and then inhale one last time. And then we're gonna
exhale back to this way two parallel arms, reach away. And then we're gonna windmill
that outer arm my left, turning back forward, reaching both arms up to the
back wall thumbs to that wall and say, hands to heart. So that's our flow, our
Vinyasa on that side. Then we're gonna take this leg forward. That that hip is probably ready
to come out of the stretch. We're going to come back to center, come back to your chair of mountain Tal. You can close your eyes. If you want, notice how you're feeling. We're gonna take it to the arch rounding. So inhaling, arching desire, exhaling. I'm turning my fingers
towards myself, rounding cats. One last time and exhaling, coming back to our chair mountain. And then we're gonna slide
over to the opposite side. So sliding over. Sometimes people do it across
the front of your chair. So you do that too. There's just a little bit more
of a risk of falling over the edge doing this, tall, take
that out, outlay my right, possibly your left, sliding
it back, finding your edge, do what works for you, lying off again, ankle, knee up top You can stay here if you
want or you can reach out thumbs towards the back
wall and notice how it feels exhale hands to heart, inhale reach up, exhale hands to heart, inhale reach up. When we're standing, this
may be warrior one`, exhale and start rolling into that warrior two, so rotating palms towards the
floor, which I know I have, putting our hands with our chest, moving our shoulder
blades towards each other, Look over that front arm in this case, it's my, my left arm, but it depends on which side you're using, notice how you feel, these
are like warrior two arms, So when we're standing, this would be the way or
to their adjustment too. And then we're gonna turn
your left palm, your front, lead arm towards the sky, and reach up, slide that right arm in my case, maybe left in yours down calf side, wherever it works for you reaching out. If you can keep your arm down, if it bothers you taking a
big breath and noticing that stretch, take one more big
breath and then exhale, warrior two arms moving
their shoulder blades towards each other, you can
look over that lead arm again, and this time we're
gonna¬ windmill my right, possibly your left arm forward, And as we bring both arms up, back into the warrior one type, arms reaching out high
exhaling, hands to heart open your heart so try not to scrunch, she knows how you feel, and then we're gonna relieve that hip, so hold on to your chair we
gonna slide that leg forward. Coming back to the front again, you can come to that chair
mountain, noticing how you feel. And then we're going to rise and come to the back of the chair. So we're at the back of the chair for the sake of filming. You'll see that I turned my
chair so that you'll now see a side view, but you just went to
the back of your chair and wanna come so that you can hold on to the chair if you want to. So we're up tall, we're
in that mountain position, but this time we're standing
crown of our head lifted chin over collarbone, shoulders
away from my ears, soft knees, rooted feet
and lift your toes, but you're rooted under your big toe. They're totally near here. And you're noticing how you're breathing. Remember those soft knees, meyata, and to begin with, we can start with the angel
type breath just to check in with their shoulders,
inhaling palms towards the sky You can look out if it's okay
with you and then exhale, floating arm step. On the next one we can
inhale up towards the sky, exhale, hands to heart. And on the next one, we can keep our palms facing each other, reach up thumbs towards the back wall and see how that feels,
if it doesn't feel good, keep your arms lower, you
don't have to go high, exhale hands to heart. And we're going to do that
Vinyasa that we did on either side of that flow on
either side of the chair, but we're standing, if you
want to continue in the chair, you're welcome to do that. So we're up taller mountain,
we're going to inhale, reach out palms facing each other, you can hold on to the chair
with one hand if you want, and step your right foot back
we're coming to warrior one, your foot will probably
turn out a little bit. Stay within that reaching
distance if you want, and you can let go and bring both arms up. Remember we want the knee above your ankle so you can readjust your(indistinct)
into, but breathing. You can have that chair right there by your side at any time, if you want we get inhale
coming up and then exhale, hands to heart if works for you. Inhale, reaching out,
remember you can hold on, exhale hands to heart, one
more time reaching out, the warrior one come to
though the warrior two, so reaching out, you can
float that left arm down, if you had stepped your
right foot forward, lift your right heel off, you might need to turn
your foot out so you can go 45 degrees or you can go 90 degrees. I tend to go more 90 degrees, but it depends on your
hip from what works here, holding on, bringing our arms parallel, looking over that front arm, notice that front knee, so I adjusted, I'm moving
my foot a little bit, so it's above the ankle
and you're reaching out, pressing out your knee
might want to come in, press out to the outer, as you reach up top,
pulling in your belly button and breathing, and then
our next inhalation, you are going to turn your
left palm towards the sky and reach up and slide your right arm down, Keep pressing that front
knee out to the outside, (indistinct) reaching out and breathing. So you're inhaling up and
then we're staying here for a few breast, noticing how you feel. You can always hold onto the chair, come out of it if you want,
one more big inhalation, and we're lifting our chest
or lacey exactly the same, we're coming to warrior two again, moving your shoulder
blades towards each other, pulling in your belly button
and noticing how it feels to be in warrior two, then if you want to hold onto the chair, you know, windmill that right
arm, lift your right foot, so it turns facing parallel with your other foot facing forward, you can come to your heel, we're going to come with
our heel, raised up, raising our out towards the
sky, you can stay there, you can hold on, if you don't
want to raise your foot, you can lower your heel down
and probably need to move your foot a little closer
and to the warrior one. But otherwise I'm in
kind of a crescent lunge, crescent lunge variation, inhaling champ. Again, you can hold on, take a big breath, and then we're gonna go a
little deeper hands to heart, so I'm going low, I'm not going forward, my shoulders stay by my
head, exhale, hands to heart, inhale and reaching up
straight, I mean that rear leg, exhale hands to heart, inhale
one more time, reaching out, exhale hand to heart. And then we're gonna reach up, you're gonna hold on to the chair, we're gonna take that right rear foot step forward next to your left,
so we're back in our mountain hands to heart, opening up your heart, soft knees, pulling in your belly button, you can raise your toes if you want to just kind of noticing how you feel. And then we get to inhale,
you can hold onto the chair, if you want to take one palm
towards the sky and lean the opposite direction. And then we need to float
on down and then switch, so you can hold on if you want take the other palm towards the sky, and then lean that right, and so she knows how great it feels too. You know, that stretching your side. And again, we can come back a little bit to our mountain cause
we're gonna switch legs. So I'll tal, noticing how you feel. And then we're gonna inhale, you can take one hand or two hands, you can hold on if you want, but this time stepping my opposite leg, my left leg back and it's warrior one, so my heels going on the floor, finding that right position for you, your foot will turn out
a bit and inhaling out. So again, you can stay holding on if you want, or you can let go. May wanna wiggle that front leg because you wanted to make sure
that ankle is above our knee and we're breathing warrior one, Vinyasa one or powerful warrior, and when you get to inhale, you can always look up
if that works for you but it'll fix your balance
exhale hands to heart remember you can hold on if
you want, inhaling reaching up, exhaling hands to heart, one more time, reaching up and this time we coming
to that warrior two, so this time you're gonna
hold on with your right hand, if you want, while you lift that left leg. Because for me, I tend to
do quite a bit of a change. I go to 90 degrees, you don't have to, you can be more 45 degrees landing out of, kind of our heels and our
short heels and heels. And then coming to parallel, arms pressing that knee out again, so remember bolder ankle, reaching towards the front,
living over that middle finger. You can stay there, you
can hold on if you want, or you can turn your right
arm from palm towards this guy and reach up so my legs are staying solid, as I reached back out sliding,
opening my heart breathing. Notice how you're feeling. And then when you're
ready to come out of it, we're coming back to warrior
two so take a big breath, come, lift your body so
your arms are that parallel reaching again I think
of that middle finger, noticing how that feels,
pressing that knee out. And then you can hold on
that front arm if you want, because we're gonna
wind mill that rear arm as you lift that rear leg minus my left, turn your left foot towards the front, so your feet are parallel again, and I'm reached back up, you can say holding on
it or you can let it go. So I'm bouncing I'm wiggling a little bit its your heels lifted. You can always come to
warrior two with your heel on the floor, if you want, or
you're can lift that heel up. We're inhaling and then
exhaling go a little deeper, I'm going straight down, I'm trying not to go forward, inhaling or reaching up
straightening that rear leg, exhaling as you back down, then this is hard work for your legs, so come out of it anytime,
exhaling back down, one last time reaching up, and then you could hold onto the chair cause we lift that rear leg
and step back to our mountain, standing mountain of Tal . (sighs)knows how you feel, great job. You can come away from
our share a little bit, sit back a little bit because
we did that patient type pose sitting down so you can do it back, sitting down, or we can come here. You can cross your ankles,
if it's okay with you, you can come up higher, if you want or you can come above that. You can stay there if you want, or you can sit your buttocks back. Now, I'm trying not to let
my knee come way far forward. I'm sitting my buttocks back, big stretch, noticing how I feel breathing into it. Push down on chair so you don't
want to pull on the chair, pushing down and then we're
going to take another big breath, as we step back down,
lower our feet and we reach up we can float our arms down and
come to the top of the chair, Walk our feedback a little bit. So stopping anywhere along
line for your shoulders, soft knees coming into
a modified down dog, noticing how that feels. Then slowly walking back forward, still holding onto my chair, making sure I have space
for my other leg up top. And then we're gonna come together late , so you can stay low if
you want to sit back, you can come up higher, just
don't press on your knee, but we are coming above our knee, pull your toes towards
you and then sit back. So it's another big stretch, big strength that are
for the standing leg, noticing how it is. And then I want you guys to
take another deep breath and re root that foot. Reach up palms towards
the sky, grab energy, exhale give yourself a big hug, and then if you notice
which arm is on top, we need to open up widely
thumbs towards the back wall, exhale the other hand on top of a hug, and we're gonna head
back to having a seat, feel free to drink the water, if you'd like at this
time, but we're good, go back and sit down. Now that you're back in
your seat, if you want, you can have a soft gaze or
close your eyes coming back to that chair mountain. (indistinct) Noticing how you feel,
chin over your collarbone, belly button pulled towards your spine, open your eyes if your eyes were closed and come back to our cow and our cat. So inhaling as you arch your back, you can look up if it's okay with you, exhale as we ground, you can keep your fingers facing forward, or you can turn them. You're trying not to jam your shoulders, inhaling, arching, open up your heart. Exhaling rounding. Now we can add some movement, inhaling coming forward and circle around, so it's like you're inside a bowl, as you exhale rounding, inhaling forward arching
going around that inner bowl exhaling and inhaling forward
and then pause this time when you come forward and we're going the other way. Exhaling rounding back, inhaling forward arching,
exhaling rounding , one last time inhaling coming forward and coming back to our chair mountain and we can extend your right leg, but if you're too far back on the chair, your knee, isn't going
to be able straighten, so come to the edge to make
sure you're living on the edge, not going over it, ankle
aligned with your knee. You can extend your other leg forward and you can come cactus arms, so it's kinda right-angle, right-angle spreading your fingers, widely opening up your heart or your chest as you inhale and exhale
coming forward, soft knee. So it's pretty straight, but
it's not locked coming forward, so you can stay with your
hands in your heart position, (indistinct) or you can bring them down
to your thighs rooted, but we're just kinda
noticing that stretch. And then coming back up again and we get to re root and switch legs. So opposite leg straight,
pulling your toes towards you, right-angle right-angles
90 degrees cactus arms so, but again, doing
what, what works for you. So you can always lower
your elbows with you prefer spreading your fingers widely, inhaling and then exhaling coming forward, from your hip I'm trying
not to round my back, you can stay up high or you
can float your arms down, noticing one side might be
different than the other. And again, feeling that stretch, and slowly coming back up
again and then coming widely. So we're going wide, knee
align with your second toe stance too wide if your
legs start falling in, make it a narrower stance,
but otherwise we can go wide. Taking a big breath and again
we're coming from our hip, Make sure you're not going over the edge. Only go as low as it's okay
with you so you can stop high, Some of my body weights on my thighs, you can walk your hands
down to your shins, if that works for you, you can stay here or you can
your hands down to the floor if that works for you. You can stretch them out ahead,
you can go under the chair. I'm turning my palms away from the chair, you can wrap around. So it's kind of, you find
where you want to be, but root for a few moments
and then wherever you are, bring your hands back to
legs and walk your palms to your thighs and then
press into your thighs to help your back, bring yourself back up. And then we can step our feet
back into the chair mountain, come forward a little bit,
might want to walk your feet a little further ahead of your knees, Cause we're gonna come to a bridge. So shrugging your shoulders up, rolling our shoulders back and down and taking your palms
to the top of the chair with your fingertips pointing
towards your buttocks, pressing in your elbows. So you'll start feeling more
of an opening in your heart, your chest, you can
stay there if you want, or we can extend our legs, and this is kind of a modified fish to begin with, soft knees
noticing that stretch. Then we can walk our feet back and then just ahead of our knees, hold the side of our chair, that works for you, we can stay here or you can press down using
your back and your arms and then lift your thighs up. So we're stretching our hips opening up, you can come out of it at any time, again, just doing what works for you. Then control that dissent, coming back, walking back
into our chair mountain, and then coming forward, we're going to come to modify puppy pose, but because our buttocks
is away from our heels, you can stop up high,
you can rest your elbows on your thighs, you can go lower. You can press your arms
against your shins. We're going to stay
here for a few moments. You either hang your head if you want, or we're standing Hottie. And rest your head in your palm the lower your head goes the more it affects your blood pressure, so be careful do what works for you. Come out of and go into
all postures very slowly. You can go lower, you can
move your hands on the floor, if you want. Remember no pain, this is relaxation. And then we can again, walk our
hands back up to our thighs, to take some work off our back, come on back up slowly, coming up. We can slide over to
the side of your choice. I'm going to my left your right, probably sliding back that hip stretch. You can hold onto the side of the chair, shoulders above your hip. Get to inhale with your
left palm towards the sky, and then lean slightly
to the opposite side. Bending your elbow trying not to jam that shoulder up into your ear. Holding it for a few press and again, you can always hold your
shoulder if you want. I'm trying not to round, I'm trying to keep my shoulders stacked and then we can come back
up, good hip stretch there. We end up sitting a lot. So it's good to stretch our
hips and we can slide over to the other side and bring
the other leg back. Stack your shoulders above
your hips, opposite palm, my right, your left probably or you'd be in the same reaching out and leaning to that side,
again is dabbing shoulders. You can hold on to your
shoulder if you want, you can come close to
your shoulder if you want` again its up to you. And on your next breath, you can begin to float your arms down, and we get to slide and
find a comfortable position. So you're guided to lie on the floor. If that works for you for our shavasana, or you can find a comfortable
position sitting out. You can lie back in my chair,
you can extend your hips. You can close your eyes. You can have a soft
gaze towards the floor. It's kind of up to you. I'm gonna come back to see that, you find your comfortable position. Just notice how you're feeling, allow your body to totally relax. This is an opportunity, if you want to do a kind
of a quick body scan or a slow body scan and check your feet, your ankles, your shins your
caps, your knees, your thighs. Just let them relax. Your hips, buttocks, belly, chest, your upper back, your shoulders, your hands, your fingers,
your wrists, your forearms, your elbows, (indistinct)your
neck, the back of your head, the top of your head, your jaw, relax your jaw. Nourish your eyes, soften around your eyes and then bring your mouth
and lips to gentle smile and notice how that changes in your brain. Your brain doesn't know you're a smile is a smile. Doesn't mean matter if you've
put it there yourself on purpose, or if it's automatic, it translates into your
brain as happy smile. Be gentle to yourself, kind to yourself. Thank yourself for participating today. And I thank you for participating today. Again, my name is Coco Bopp, I'm with Renew Active UnitedHealthcare, Thank you for participating in this class. And I hope that you come to
additional classes of mine, but also other classes. And if you would like you
can place the palms with your hands touching gently, bow your head. And I thank you. (upbeat music) (piano music)
