The new YWA August calendar with daily short Yoga video sessions popped into our mailboxes yesterday, so I thought I get our virtual workout space all prepared and ready for the start in exactly one week, next Sunday.
Adriene suggests in her email that August’s Cultivate practice is all about creation and invention, so I am looking forward to exploring where this practice can take my body on this next step of my fitness journey.
So what were your milestones from last month’s workouts? Some milestones for me from last month Yoga and Pilates were …. yup …believe it or not … planks: I find myself doing full ones most of the time now. A big step up from planks being the stuff of nightmares not too long ago!
So here’s to “reinventing one’s inner world” and “cultivating more flexibility, power and ease”(Adriene’s email).
And if you are just joining us, big WELCOME to you and any new Virtual Workout Buddies! The daily practice of YWA calendar is perfect to get started with Yoga.
And feel free to - as Adriene says - “find what feels good”, meaning if your knees feel too sensitive, amend that Child’s Pose. And if you find full planks are the stuff of nightmares, rather do half planks than full ones. I did for six month and am actually starting to enjoy planks! (I know, right ?!) And definitely get creative with props.
Here is a hopefully helpful post about YOGA props:
★ Here was my initial large collection of props, many of which I do not need anymore, but I certainly did in the beginning: healthunlocked.com/strength...
★ And if you want to see what last month’s Virtual Workout Room looked like, here the one for July: healthunlocked.com/strength...
Upwards, crow-wards and down dog-wards to this months practice!
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Happy working out everyone!
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How do I start this? Does everyone do this together or do you do it separately and chat on here etc? I’m excited to try yoga as my legs and particularly knees are in a bad way due to my own neglect during the couch25k plan x
Yes, I would still call my knees quite sensitive as well, so I tend to adapt some things, and I do use props. (See prop link in post above)
If you look at the May post you can see how it works if you scroll down the comments enough. healthunlocked.com/strength...
Everyone does the practice (or an alternative practice) on that day and in their own time and posts their thoughts in the reply of this post. So we have one post for the whole month and the chatter happens in the replies.
I tend to post at some point highlighting the day, so if you save this post you’ll get notified.
Links are all in the post above.
Great that you’re joining us! I think these daily sessions are perfect for beginners, so if you stick with it you will definitely see improvements in knees, core, legs, arms and improve your running. I am still amazed how different my body feels after 6 months of daily yoga! (See healthunlocked.com/strength.... )
Can I still join as a late arrival? I was on holiday and have missed several weeks of regular yoga practice. Today I started again with Yoga for Strength and couldn't hide from the fact that I had lost quite a bit of that, plus flexibility 🙈 So I need an incentive to stick with this month's calendar and hold myself accountable🧘♀️🧎♀️📆
After my last 10k, they’ve been a little more problematic…so I’ve mostly come off the August calendar, and reverted to my tried and tested “gentle” practices.
…not daily though…😉
CBDBAdministratorGraduate Gold• in reply toLottieMW
👍🏽💪 🎉 pretty regular though, from your posts! We’ll done!
I had the tiniest bit of surgery done and am not allowed to do any strength training or stretching with the upper body. Was surprised to discover how many yoga exercises are ruled out by that. 🤨 So out for the moment but hopefully back next week.💪
That’s great CBDB thank you for posting. I’ve enjoyed working through July, last nights Self Love led you into a false sense of yumminess at the start what a workout 50 mins later!🧘♀️🧘♀️🧘♀️🧘♀️🧘♀️
Love this yoga and have been following Adriene for last few years, would love to join in I must say when they are about 50 mins long I struggle to fit them in 😉
Day 1 - Yoga for strength: phew! 😰 😮💨 😥 This was hard and long. So for anyone joining us, if it was manageable for you, brilliant! You’ll be yogi-flying in no time.🧘🏼♂️
For those where these 39 min were exhausting and almost too much, like me, be reassured that that this was a hard session, in my experience anyway. Even with blocks helping with planks and dogs, I had to take a breather during the second long flow of lunges, warrior poses and eagle arms. But that’s ok. 💪
And she goes even to the length of doing some crow movements. 🦅
So great start, but phew!🥵
Stay strong everyone! This session will certainly help with that.👍🏽
I was a very wobbly one legged flamingo ! Looking ahead not too many long ones so we should be ok although I quite enjoyed that on a rainy Sunday afternoon.
Day 2 - Morning Yoga Flow: … or as I like to call it, ”get your yoga blocks ready!”
I couldn’t find this at first, as it was not yet on the playlist, but that’s because it’s the one new practice of the month, which dropped this morning.
But, phew (again!). I’m hoping the first two days are not foreboding of an overall month of more intense practice, I had to make copious use of blankets (underneath knees) and blocks (to help with planks). So some transitions I had to amend, e.g. rather than going from Cobra directly to plank (I wish), I take a detour through table pose, and then gingerly I try out my plank situation.
I did like the warrior - lunges flow, although I definitely did not look as elegant as she did!
Hope everyone got through this one, or if not, try a shorter one from her Foundations playlist youtube.com/playlist?list=P...
Day 3 - Yoga for Gardeners: Now that’s what I call a lovely 32 min session!! Nice gentle stretches and twists, easy on knees (only one table and cat-cow section), and lovely attention to arms and wrists without too much burden on them.
Love it. Sadly it’s me all alone on the mat in the garden, as hubby pulled his calf muscles yesterday. But I’m thinking he could have done this one, as there were no planks, no down dogs, no lunges.
Saved this one and it may be my favourite one so far!
Day 4 - Yoga for Self-Respect: 20 min medium effort session. Some planks and down dogs, but quite manageable. There was a low heel squat that my knees just can’t take, but otherwise all ok.
Day 5 - Yoga for…….???? Well it was supposed to be Yoga for the Beginners Mind, but I couldn’t load it on either phone or on my usual YouTube tv setup. I was actually looking forward to it as it sounded intriguing.
So I replaced it with Yoga for Runners, as I had just run. 👍🏽😀🏃🏼♀️🧘🏼♂️
Day 5 Take 2 - Yoga for a Beginners Mind: And saw on phone that this video is working again, so set it up and finished it (alone ☹️) Just before dinner pinged to be ready on the steamer.
Nice one. Mindful. Two down dogs and planks, but mindful ones. 😃
Day 6 - Yoga for Psoas: I had to look up where the Psoas muscle sits, as I seem to have not come across this muscle during my reading about running, but it’s basically the muscles that connect your lower back spine with your front pelvis. So any movements in the pelvis including walking will need the Psoas.
22 min session was great. A lot of leg and spinal twists, some planks. One down dog, I think. And I could finally do the pigeon!
I have to move into the pigeon pose a bit differently (from seated rather than down dog) but this way I can ever so easily stretch into the pigeon pose, keeping my hands firmly on the ground still providing support to upper body. But this is huge progress for my knees!
Day 7 - Confidence Boost Yoga: very nice 27 min of a session, balance poses were a bit above my ability (a bit more than a bit) and I didn’t join in on the crow poses, and did cobbler instead.
But nice. Also wanted to mention my grippy yoga socks, which now in cooler weather are great. I’ll add a picture. I got them below a 5er at deacathlon, and they really help with grip when you want to keep your socks on!
True…I’ve been keeping up my daily 10k steps…so something has to give I guess…
CBDBAdministratorGraduate Gold• in reply toLottieMW
👍🏽💪 I think we often beat ourselves up too much. When I manage only one run/week I feel as if I’m lazy, but then compared to 2 years ago… wow! Daily 10k step is pretty awesome! 👏👏🙌
Day 8 - Deepen & Flow: ⛔️☢️☣️⚠️ 50 min of slow, very intense flows with slow-motion planks, dogs, warriors, sitting poses, leg raises, balances, - did I say slow? 50 min!
I finally talked myself into doing this one (had tried to avoid it as long as possible by shifting around the other practices). My browser told me that I had done it before at some point, and at first I couldn't remember anything of that practice, but when we got to the downward dog twists and the warrior 3's I knew how I had sweated last time 😅 Happy to tick this off then 😀✅
Day 10 - A little goes a long way: this is subtitled Yoga for Beginners, and it’s an ever so gentle 20 min. Easy on everything really. Also some breath work. But a great one saved for those times where you need to just have some yoga relaxation!
FAIL. There, I used the F word as regards CULTIVATE. 😱
I’ve done zero yoga since July 31st and it’s my longest streak off the mat since I started Yoga with Adriene in January 2018.
Mr Cheeky was seriously assaulted at his rowing club resulting in him spending 5 days in hospital. Enough info on here, but it was horrible. He’s home now and getting better daily, I’m happy to say. 🥰
So that’s why I’ve let yoga go as I haven’t been in the right headspace to relax. Ironic really as it helps to relax, but somehow it didn’t feel right. I’m still running though, and I intend to get back to yoga next week.
Oh no! That’s awful! Gosh! I hope you both are ok, it must really throw you. I can understand how running (the stored up adrenaline and the sitting in hospitals) feels like the thing your body needs after having had a shock like this.
Sending you both really peaceful thoughts. So awful that has happened, and especially at his own club.
Day 11 - Yoga for Equestrians: I skipped this practice as I had a migraine-y thyroid-y headache all day yesterday. Slippery slope, I know… but looking forward to today’s day 12: Yoga for Swimmers. Hubby said he’ll join me! ☺️😄
Day 13 - Yoga for when you’re in a bad mood : lovely 34min practice. Slow and gentle. It had every usual position but in a very gentle way, moving into all positions with alternative suggestions or just slow speed. So planks, dogs, warriors, trees, child’s poses and happy babies. Really gentle but thorough session. I’ll save this one!
Day 16 - Yoga for flexible mind and body: Nice little 22 min ditty going through a nice flow that changes subtly over the duration. Some new moves: shark fin combined with child’s pose, with bringing elbows together for that extra stretch!
Liked that stretch, but bailed out at the LUNGES!!!
…Also do prefer to end with some floor work…it feels ‘incomplete’ to me to finish in a standing pose…probably due to me using my practice as a wind down, end of day, session 🤷🏻♀️
Long story short…won’t be saving this one! 😂🙄
CBDBAdministratorGraduate Gold• in reply toLottieMW
But did you notice (which I forgot to say) they segmented the video!? It’s the only video I remember having sections or labelled chapters. So you can scroll to the “lunge”. I think they realised it’s not as much use and this was an experiment, but I was intrigued seeing that!
Doesn’t help with lunges, but just names them. 😄👍🏽💪
Day 17 - Yoga for forgiveness: This was a great 33 min easy and slow stretchy session which I will save to my favourites. I like how it starts almost meditatively and then moves slowly into each position, staying in those positions (stretch positions) for longer than usual. It’s the first time I could move into a pigeon and hold it for the whole time (with one block under one of my hip bones). Ending in lying on your back! 🤗So: great stuff.
Day 18 - Side Body Flow: . 😮💨 medium hard, medium length (33min), medium flow speed, but I really felt exhausted by the time the side planks came along on the 3rd or 4th flow. Even my half-side planks exhausted me so much that I couldn’t hold it as long as she took with her chatter! 🥵😮💨😀
But this was quite a comprehensive practice that I will save, as doing this once in a while. I can imagine one really notices if one has improved!
Day 19 - Revolved Side Angle: wohoo, that was 19 min of stretchy goodness! My legs felt wobbly by the end but all was doable (although I didn’t opt for lifting knees in low lunges, but hovering table worked!)
At the beginning I was a bit distracted by hubby showing off his balanced tree poses and wiggling his left leg all over the place! 🌳😠😲😳 This was after I proudly demonstrated how I could take of my normal socks and put on my yoga socks, all on one leg! He put my minor effort to shame with his tree wiggling! 😂😂
Day 21 - Healthy Energy Flow: 35 min, starts very slow and gradually increases in intensity, whilst remaining quite a slow practice. The lunges are more doable as you move into them from the floor, and thus position into a lower lunge more easily.
We originally thought this was titled Yoga for Weightloss and were expecting more intensity, so this was a great surprise as it stays quite doable … for me, at least.
There are planks, but again you move into them from a lunge, and only one from cobra.
All in all, my face was all sweaty by the end of it, but it felt quite doable. (One exception for me: the hip dip on a side plank. I had to leave my knees down which makes it awkward)
Day 22 - Ahimsa Yoga: 33 min of slow mindful stretching, cat cows, seated twists and breathing. This was great to do after my morning run.
(Of course after run and yoga, I ended up in A&E with suspected food poisoning, which kind of ruined the day that had started so great. But 6pm, I’m now home again and well. oh hey, all in the life of a human)
Day 23 - Yoga for insecurity: Well I didn’t like this 23 min session at all, whilst hubby really loved it! 🤔
For me, there were two many positions and transitions that I had to amend: side planks, knees-together child’s pose, full planks from arm-based cobras, toe stands (like crow start).
So I was humphing 😤 through this one whereas nimble footed hubby (with shoulder and calf injury) felt great doing most of these, even despite being on the IC.
So I guess this was more to do with strength, and I’m not there yet. It’ll come, but I’m not saving this one! 😠
Day 25 - Yoga for Anxiety and Stress: Or….The creaky new floor episode.
Lovely easy 27 min, alternate nostril breathing, dogs and lunges combined with breathing movements, lying figure 4s and ending in Shanasava. Lovely! 🥰🥰🥰
And of course the creaking floor makes a (to her) surprising comeback, so this must have been one of her first episodes after moving to this new place!
Day 26 - Yoga for Musicians: 25 min easy, with focus on arms, wrists and bendiness.
I was a bit out of it as I didn’t sleep very well. (A wasp flew into our bedroom and the whole night I wasn’t sure were it was)
So originally this would have been a 5k run morning, but I felt exhausted by the time I managed to get up, so we just did our morning yoga before heading to work.
Hubby liked this session. I might have but as I was feeling quite lethargic, it was quite difficult to even like this easy practice.
Day 27 - Yoga for runners cool down: perfect 17 min for post-run stretches!
Annoyingly, I gave running this morning a miss, as unusually I didn’t drink very much water yesterday, and I know that that is a recipe for headaches. So my planned 5k run is now scheduled for tomorrow, which means I’ll be able to use it as a (not)parkrun.
So all through this short session, I thought how good this would feel after a run.
I really liked it and have saved it. Specifically the how she does the transition into lunges and pigeons is really like I do them, so it gave me the confidence to stick to that as it feels easier on knees.
Day 28 - No fear Yoga (37 min): Well, I exchanged this to yesterday’s cool down for runners, as I just came Home from a run.
The runner one is going to be on the top of my favourite lists, but so I skipped the one for today. Today’s No Fear Yoga looked like it was filmed outside, (I fear I prefer the ones she does at her various home studios) with lunges, down dogs and warriors.
Back with my runner’s cool down, it includes gentle stretches, forward folds, twists, squats and pigeons.
My Pigeon is getting there. Squatting with a block to sit on as well. Yey!
I did the runners practice Saturday evening. I can see it would be fab as a cool down after a run, but as you know, I do my yoga at night before bed…so I’m not a big fan of her more practical sessions as they don’t suit me so much.
However, knees held up, and I managed the squatting…but did come out of it early!
September’s calendar is out…I like the idea of a “reset”, and there seems to be some mindful, shorter practices in there! Yay!
CBDBAdministratorGraduate Gold• in reply toLottieMW
Day 29 - Core strength ritual: I fear I didn’t do this intensive looking session yesterday as I felt a bit under the weather and having done this one at some point in the past 6months, I remember it being quite hard on me. But great for core, which in my case needs a bit more pampering. 👍🏽😃
Day 30 - Lower Back Love: Gentle 23 min practice mostly stretching out your back. Child’s pose with twists, forward folds. Gentle but surprisingly heat inducing, or maybe I was just still exhausted from a run and a exhausting Sunday. But very nice stretchy session.
Day 31 - lower back love: ❤️ last day of CULTIVATE! Stretchy gently back loving practice. Both today and yesterday’s back focused sessions saved in my favourites.
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