10-Minute Yoga Series for a Strong Body
The traditional poses get a muscle-strengthening twist.

Traditional yoga is a great way to strengthen the body (as well as the mind). Holding those challenging yoga poses builds up muscles, balance, and flexibility. Along with the fact that yoga is a low-impact exercise, these qualities make yoga perfect for maintaining strength and mobility in the joints while you age.
While any type of yoga will strengthen the body to some degree, some yoga poses will give you more power than others.
In this episode of Flow, yoga instructor Elise Joan guides you in variations of traditional yoga poses that are specifically designed to challenge the muscles and build strength. By incorporating balance poses and deep lunges, for example, the core and legs have to work extra hard to stabilize the body, giving you a more challenging, muscle-building yoga routine.
This yoga routine for strength includes the following yoga poses:
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Forward Fold
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Chair
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Plank
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Chaturanga
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Downward Facing Dog
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Downward Facing Dog Split
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Warrior 1
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Devotional Warrior
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Upward Facing Dog
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Triangle Pose
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Half Moon Pose
Many of these yoga poses are given a dynamic variation that will keep your body moving and your muscles working. If you fall from a tricky balance pose, it’s NBD. Just forgive yourself and jump right back in.
For more strength-building yoga, try this 10-minute routine that tones the core.
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[MUSIC]
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Hi, Elise here with HealthiNation.
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Today's practice is going to be
strengthening, elongating, and balancing.
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So we'll get all components
of a full body workout.
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And the important thing when we strengthen
our body is to stay strong in our mental
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focus as well.
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Let's begin with a nice stretch
at the front of our mat.
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So on the inhale, reach the arms up.
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Let's interlace fingers
turning the palms at skyward.
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Always stay strong in the core,
but allow the heart to open.
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Sticking a nice big stretch skyward and
on the exhale soften the knees and
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a gentle forward fold,
as you drop the head also empty the mind.
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And on the inhale lift
up to a nice flat back.
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And we're gonna begin our
strengthening in chair pose.
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So let's hit the hips low.
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Fire up the core and reach the arms high.
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Now today's practice is all about
variations on traditional poses.
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So we're gonna take our traditional
chair pose, and add a little flow.
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Let's start off by just
lifting the left heel, and
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establishing balance on the right foot.
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From her, engage the core and
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see if you can lift the knee up in
toward the chest, so we add core.
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And then we'll take this
to a straight leg, and
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then we'll extend the lifting leg,
and then we'll meet standing.
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Let's try that two more
times on the same leg.
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Drop the hips low and inhale into chair.
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On the exhale,
bring the knee into the nose.
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On the inhale, stand up tall.
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And on the exhale, a full extension,
keeping that core strong.
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Stand on both feet.
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One more flow.
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Drop the hips low, lift the heart.
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Bring that knee up.
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Straighten the standing leg.
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Straighten the lifting leg.
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And stand up tall,
let's come back to that nice stretch.
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So balance, strength, and
flexibility in that round.
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We're gonna follow it up with side two.
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Stay low here in chair, get into
those abs, drop into those hips, and
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start off just by lifting the right heel
and establishing balance on one foot.
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From here, try to bring that knee in.
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Straighten the standing leg and
you'll start to feel that glut kick in.
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Extend the leg and come to stand.
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Two more rounds together.
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We drop it low, reach the arms up
on the inhale, engage in the core,
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bringing the knee and on the exhale.
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Lift through straight leg,
and then full extension.
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Both feet down.
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Last round on our second side.
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Drop the hips low, keep the heart high.
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And remember to keep your
mental focus as well, right?
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Engage the core, extend both legs,
and come to stand.
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Great, let's take a nice forward fold,
exhale.
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And on the inhale, lift up to your flat
back and we'll roll through a vinyasa.
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Hands down, step it back to plank,
lower Chaturanga.
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You remember level one, you can always
take those push ups on the knees.
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Fire it up to downward facing dog,
enjoy a breath here.
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Part of being strong is
knowing when to take breaks,
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when we can come back to a reliance on
the breath, when we can quiet the mind,
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because there is a lot of strength and
stillness.
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Let's take the right leg up.
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[MUSIC]
And on the exhale, step it forward and
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through.
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The left heel pivots down and we reach up,
so we're in a traditional warrior I.
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But this all about variation, so
we're gonna open the chest and
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lace fingers behind the back.
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If you're tight in the shoulders,
you just go ahead and take a strap.
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So what we're getting here is
Devotional Warrior, where the heart rises,
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the core strengthens, and
then we add a surrender.
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So let's draw the right hip back and
just begin to fold.
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So as you engage the core,
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your legs are strong, your thighs
are activated, yet, your heart is opening.
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It's a great metaphor for life.
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When we're going through challenge,
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sometimes the best solution is to
keep the heart lifted and open.
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So now we're in a bit of endurance, so
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give it two more breaths here,
let the thigh fire up.
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Let the core activate.
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Let the back leg be strong.
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[MUSIC]
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And then on the inhale, reach all the way
up back to our traditional warrior I.
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Let's take a vinyasa between,
step it back.
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Lower Chaturanga, and inhale through
up dog or cobra, if you're level one.
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And exhale, downward facing dog.
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A moment to quiet the mind and
deepen the breath.
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[MUSIC]
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Side two, let's lift the left leg up.
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Step it all the way forward,
right heel pivots down.
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We come to our traditional Warrior I.
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And then we add our fun
HealthiNation spin.
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We're gonna open up the heart,
interlace the awkward index finger on top.
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Lift for that heart opening,
front shoulder stretch.
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And on the exhale,
draw in the left hip back, just fold.
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So on the inhale we find space, and
on the exhale we find surrender.
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And in yoga, we practice
something called a non-attachment.
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So as we're taking these next few breaths
in surrender, it's about surrendering our
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expectations of what we think
our life should look like, or
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what we think this pose should look like.
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And make our life and
our pose our own instead.
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So one more exhale.
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And then confidently, reach up,
channel your inner and outer warrior.
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Bring the hands down, step to plank and
we'll take our last vinyasa of this flow.
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Heart raises, bring it back for
that moment of stillness and
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our breath downward facing dog.
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Heels up, bend the knees.
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Level one, you just step to the front.
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Level two, you can add that little hop.
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And then let's take a big stretch skyward,
as we begin opening that beautiful heart.
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[MUSIC]
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Hands to center and
we're gonna take a big wide step out.
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So we're gonna be moving through
some challenging, strengthening and
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balancing poses here.
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I'm gonna have you angle your feet
to your right and extend the arms.
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You want to keep a softness
in this front knee, and
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reach forward with the right arm.
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And I want you to keep your
heart following our rule,
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which is, heart always open,
and turn upward.
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From here, we're gonna move to triangle.
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So, your right fingertips
come down to the shin.
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Your left arm reaches up.
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Your core stays strong, and
you turn the chest upward.
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So, when in doubt in yoga,
the heart is always rising.
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Now, this is plenty challenging,
we're working on endurance.
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But again, we're gonna go for
variations on triangle.
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So, here's the first one.
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Bottom arm reaching forward.
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Getting a lot of work for the side waist,
the outer hips, the legs, and
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of course, the front abdominal wall.
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And if you're feeling like a level
three advanced yogi today,
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you can try the next option,
which is both arms.
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Full side body engagement,
and one deep breath here.
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See if you can smile
through the challenge.
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And then let's sweep it up to warrior II,
and come to stand.
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Always a moment of stillness to regroup.
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And then we try that
same feet on side two.
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So strong core, long legs, big wingspan,
and then start to reach forward.
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And as your left arm reaches forward,
your heart turns open and upward.
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Left hand down, right arm up.
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So in triangle, you think about
activating the front abdominals and
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lengthening the tail bone
toward the back heel.
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And what that does, it gives us great
support for that fragile low back.
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So it'll prevent low back injuries and
help stabilize our core.
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From here, if you're feeling
strong in that low back area,
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you reach the bottom arm forward,
a lot of side waist work.
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And then if you dare, here's your most
advanced level, which is both arms.
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And remember, it's only advanced if
it comes from a place of integrity.
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Which means the spine is long,
the core is strong, and
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there's no hunching in the shoulders.
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And then if you can smile,
you've really nailed the pose.
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Bring it up to center.
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Take a moment of stillness.
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So we have one more pose to learn.
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And I always like to save
the most challenging poses for
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the end in our intermediate flows,
so give yourself permission to fall.
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Same muscles, just adding a balance.
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So we're actually gonna start
almost as we do in triangle.
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We're gonna find a little bit of a lunge,
right finger tips find the mat,
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and the left leg lifts.
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And again, our rule, the heart
center is open and turned upward.
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So the pose called half moon.
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So of course, this is traditional half
moon and today's about variations.
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So we're gonna add some lunges for
a little fitness flair.
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I'm gonna shift my gaze down,
it's helpful for
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balance, add a lunge to the standing leg,
and press it straight.
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Try two more.
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Inhale, lunge, exhale, press.
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And on the last one,
we're gonna try adding a lunge, and
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lifting up to the balance, and
then find our way back to warrior II.
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Tricky, that last option,
I tip over all the time.
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We're gonna go ahead and spin our toes the
other way and check it out on side two.
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So, same thing, we begin like triangle but
we add the lunge, so the left hand can
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come down, we press our weight into
the left leg and engage the core.
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Heart turns up, heart opens and then we
shift our gaze down to assist in balance.
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And just for a little extra strength,
we're gonna add those lunges.
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Press the leg straight.
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We remember that all movement originates
from the strengthened stability of
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our core.
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Last one here.
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And then if you wanna join me,
you try to balance, and
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[LAUGH] you sweep it back up to center,
hands to the heart.
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I think we deserve a little
internal round of applause for
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all that strong balancing alignment work.
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I hope you enjoyed today's variations
on traditional yoga poses, and
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I'll see you back here on the mat,
with HealthiNation.
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[MUSIC]