Leg Launch
Balance, Legs, Hips
This flow will challenge your legs through squats, balancing poses, and lunges. Have fun and strengthen as you launch through this sequence.
Chair (Utkatasana)
Start from standing with your feet hips width distance apart. Sink your hips and send your weight back into your heels. Extend your arms straight out in front of you and flip your palms to face the sky. Find a slight tuck of your tailbone.
One Legged Mountain (Eka Pada Tadasana)
Using your right foot as your base, begin to stand into your right leg as you lift your left foot off of the floor. Bend your left knee at a 90 degree angle, and flex your left toes. Extend your arms straight over your head. Pick a gaze point that is steady.
Keeping your gaze steady, begin to hinge the chest forward as you kick your left foot straight back behind you. Your torso and left leg should become parallel with the ground. Sweep your arms back behind you and each through your fingertips and left heel to create energy and lift in the body. Keep your right leg active.
Warrior III (Virabhadrasana III)
Broken Airplane (Virabhadrasana III Variation)
Maintain your warrior III shape, but begin to bend into the right standing knee. See if you can keep the rest of your body parallel with the earth, even as you lower. Bend as deeply into the standing leg as you can. Engage the core and keep the gaze steady.
Low Crescent Lunge (Anjaneyasana)
Staying low in the right knee, start to reach your left toes to the back of the mat. When your toes make contact with the mat, lower the left knee all the way down to the mat. Keep the left toes tucked. Right knee should stack directly over the right ankle. Sweep your arms up to the sky as you sink your hips. Breathe here.
Thunderbolt Lunge (Anjaneyasana Variation)
Press into both feet evenly and lift the left knee off of the mat. As you do this, sweep your arms back behind you, pulling your shoulder blades together on your back. Hover your belly so it is just an inch above your right thigh. Gaze down towards the right foot.
Warrior II (Virabhadrasana II)
Begin to lift the chest as you spiral your left heel down to the mat and open the hips and chest to face the long-edge of your yoga mat. Keep the 90 degree bend in the right knee. Extend your arms out to the sides and relax your shoulders away from your ears. Gaze over your right middle finger.
Low Runner’s Lunge (Anjaneyasana Variation)
Cartwheel your arms down so that your fingertips frame your right foot. Peel your left heel up to the sky, so you are on the ball of your left foot, returning to a low lunge in the legs. Press into both fingertips evenly. You can rock forward and back slightly, massaging into the hip joints. Then, gaze forward and steady your stance.
One Legged Mountain (Eka Pada Tadasana)
In one movement, take a big step forward into your right leg and lift your left knee into your chest. The shoulders stack over hips and arms reach up towards the sky.
Standing Figure Four (Ardha Utkatasana)
Bring your hands to heart-center. Place the outside of your left ankle on the top of your right knee. Begin to sink the hips. Keep your left toes flexed and encourage your left knee to open to the side. Keep sitting the hips back and keeping the core engaged to lift the chest. Press through the heels of the feet and keep your gaze steady. Breathe here before lifting out of the shape.
