Hi, I'm Christina and welcome to Yoga with Melissa.
Today, Melissa is having me as a guest on her channel and I am going to be sharing with
you a restorative yoga class without props.
In the restorative yoga technique, we use props in order to ease you into the poses
make you feel more comfortable as you're staying there for very long periods of time.
However, I created this sequence just in case you don't have access to props and you still
would like a restorative yoga experience.
We'll be starting out the class with some gentle stretches and then we'll move into
some more restorative poses where you'll hold the poses for longer periods of time and
it's very passive and very meditative.
This class is great for relaxation, it's great to reduce stress and anxiety, something great
that you can do over the weekend or even after a long hard day at work.
It's great for traveling so if you're traveling around and you don't have access to yoga props,
this class is a great thing to do for relaxation and to reduce anxiety and stress levels.
Before we get started, if you aren't yet subscribed to Melissa's channel, hit the subscribe button
down below the video.
She posts awesome yoga classes every single week and once you're done with this class,
head on over to my channel, Krisca Yoga, Melissa posted a restorative yoga class with props
and that class is amazing.
You should definitely give that a try as well and while you're over there, subscribe to
my channel as well because I post two free yoga classes every single week plus some bonus
videos here and there and I would love to have you as a subscriber as well.
So if you're ready, grab your mat and let's get started.
So we're going to begin by sitting on the ground.
Cross your shins, flex your feet underneath your knees.
Bring your hands to your legs, close your eyes for a moment.
Take a deep breath in through your nose and a deep breath out.
From here, begin to quiet your mind by focusing all of your attention on your inhales and
your exhales.
If another thought comes into your mind as you're focusing on your breath, gently set
it aside and move your focus back to your breathing and just remain here for several
deep breaths.
slowly come to open your eyes.
From here, take your left hand, place it on your right leg, bring your right arm behind
you, inhale, lengthen your spine up and exhale, twist around to the right.
Using your hands on the ground and on your leg to help you twist, hold here for several
deep breaths once again with each inhale that you take lengthen your spine up and with
each exhale twist just a bit deeper than before and hold here.
Slowly unwind from your twist and we'll take that twist on the other side.
Bring your right hand to your left leg, bring your left arm behind you, inhale, find length
through your whole spine, exhale, twist around to the left, looking behind you as far as
you can.
Remain even on both sit-spons at the bottom of your pelvis on the ground.
Remain here for several breaths with each inhale that you take, find length through
your whole spine and with each exhale twist a bit deeper than before and breathe deeply
here.
Slowly unwind from your twist and we're going to make our way onto our hands and knees for
a child's pose.
From your hands and knees touch your big toes together behind you, separate your knees slightly
apart, sit your hips onto your heels and relax your torso over your thighs.
Keep your arms stretching out in front of you, bring your head to the ground, close your
eyes for a moment and begin to deepen your breath once again, remaining here for several
deep breaths.
Lift your head up slightly and we're going to twist to the right, take your left arm
threading it underneath the right, bringing the top of your hand to the ground and the
left temple to the ground as well.
Remain here in your twist.
Slowly unwind from your twist and we'll take that same twist on the other side, taking
the right hand threading it underneath the left, bring the right temple to the ground
and remain here as your twist in your child's pose.
Slowly unwind from your twist, come up onto your hands and your knees and from here take
your right leg, step it forward in between your hands.
Take a low lunge on the right, be sure that your right knee is tracking directly above
the right ankle, have your hands to frame your right foot here, looking down, gently
press your hips down towards the floor, stretching the front of your left hip, softening your
right hip socket, breathe here, breathing into your hips and remain here for several
deep breaths.
From here, gently shift your weight back onto your left leg, straighten in your right
leg, flex the right foot.
If you need some padding underneath your left knee, feel free to fold your yoga mat over
or place any kind of padding underneath that you would like to.
Once you're settled, relax over your leg, looking down, stretching the back of your
right leg and breathing deeply.
From here, take the right leg, bring it back underneath your body and we'll switch sides,
stepping the left leg forward, bringing the left knee directly above the ankle, sending
the hips down towards the ground, have your hands down on the floor, framing your left
foot.
Feeling a stretch in the front of your right hip, softening the left hip socket, breathing
here, remaining here in your low lunge and relax.
From here, gently shift your weight onto your right leg, flex the left foot, straightening
the left leg.
Once again, if you need to place some padding underneath your right leg, you can do so now.
Wherever you are in this stretch, have your hands down to frame the left leg, looking
down.
Slide your mind for another few deep breaths here and relax in this stretch.
From here, bring that leg back underneath your body and we'll come to lying on our back.
Once you're lying on the ground, bend both of your legs, placing the bottoms of your
feet on the floor and knees pointed up.
From here, your legs are hips distance apart, keep your feet exactly where they are and
just drop both of your legs over to the left.
Let them relax over to the left, keeping your feet where they were.
Take both of your arms and bend them up into a cactus shape.
So we're getting a bit of a deep chest stretch and shoulder stretch here.
If this is too intense, feel free to just straighten your arms out to the side and
wherever you are in this stretch, look over to the right.
This is a twist, so close your eyes, remain here for quite some time, breathing deeply
in and out through your nose.
From here, quiet your mind by focusing your attention on your breath and relax into your
twist.
From here, without disturbing your upper body, gently bring your head back up to center
and bring your knees back up to center, leaving your arms where they are.
We're going to come straight into the other side, just drop both of your knees over to
the right, keeping your feet where they were.
Look over with your head to the left and remain here from your twist on the other side.
Good.
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