WEBVTT

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Hey, welcome to 
Yoga With Adriene.

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I'm Adriene and 
today we are going to learn

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one of my favorite poses,
the Bridge pose,

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Setu Bandhasana, as part of
our foundations of yoga series.

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So hop on the mat 
and let's learn Bridge.

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(upbeat music)

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Okay, so we're going to 
begin flat on our backs today.

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Letting the soles of 
the feet come to the mat

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and the knees 
point up towards the sky.

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Let's tuck our 
chins into our chests

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and lengthen through 
the back of our necks.

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And then maybe just take a
second here to open the palms

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and breathe letting the 
back relax into the mat.

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(breathing loudly)

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Then I'll bring my 
awareness to my heels,

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I'm gonna draw my 
heels up towards my sit bones

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and keeping my knees
in line with the hip points,

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I'll reach my finger tips down

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and kind of use 
this as a gauge here.

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So where my finger tips land

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is pretty much 
where the heels can be.

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Sometimes we bring them 
a little bit closer in yoga

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for a more deeper approach,

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more deeper 
opening in the front body.

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But I would 
recommend as a beginner

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using this little cheat here,
finger tips to heels.

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All right.

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So, from here I'll press into
all four corners of the feet,

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so I really 
wanna spread awareness

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through all four 
corners of my feet,

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particularly the inner arches.

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Sometimes we go, tend 
to let the knees widen,

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and go to the outer edges of
the feet, that's the tendency.

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So I wanna keep my 
knees in line with my hips

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and my awareness spreading

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through all four 
corners of the feet, right?

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I wanna pay 
attention to my alignment,

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set up my pose just right.

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So from here, I'll 
press into my feet,

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take a nice deep 
breath in (inhaling loudly),

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and on the exhale, 
I'll scoop my tailbone up,

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drawing my navel 
down towards the mat,

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hugging the navel to the spine.

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I'll continue this journey,

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scooping the tailbone up,
pressing into the feet.

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I begin to lift 
my hip points up,

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palms pressing flat into the mat

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for a little bit of support,

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tailbone scooping up.

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You notice here I'm 
going nice and slow,

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traveling up the spine.

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Kind of getting a 
yummy massage here.

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(inhaling loudly)

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I continue lifting the 
hip points nice and slow.

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(inhaling loudly) Pressing into
the spine (inhaling loudly).

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I can release 
my palms open here,

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(exhaling loudly)

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I can grab onto the 
outer edges of the mat,

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or I can just keep pressing all
10 fingerprints down strong.

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So there's a couple different
options here (loud inhale).

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As I continue to lift the hips.

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(inhaling loudly)

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(exhaling loudly) Bridge pose.

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Neck is nice and long here.

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Again, the tendency 
is going to wanna come

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to those outer edges 
of the feet to support,

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but remember your 
alignment, stay stacked,

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working with integrity,
toes pointing forward.

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Couple of action 
points and safety precautions.

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I'm not looking at 
you on purpose right now

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because I don't want to 
ever turn my neck, my head,

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to look at somebody else's mat

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or to look at you, my friends
out there watching this now.

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I wanna keep the 
neck nice and long,

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not move it side to side,
so we don't injure it.

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Keep it nice and 
happy and supported.

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This pose is tough,

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but I don't wanna 
create any tension in the neck

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or in the face or in the tush.

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There's a tendency to 
really squeeze the tushy here,

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I don't say tush or tushy,

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(chuckling) I don't 
know why I just said that.

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The bum, the buttocks,
the glutes.

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Keep 'em soft.

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So that's the 
beauty of this posture,

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is marrying that strength,
that activity,

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with a calm, with an ease.

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(inhaling loudly)

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Another action point, I 
wanna press my hips forward,

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really reaching my knees towards
the front edge of the mat.

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So I'm not just 
lifting up towards the sky,

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but imagine 
scooping your tailbone

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to the backs of your knees
or often, I tell my students,

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sit bones to the 
backs of the knees.

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So I'm lifting the hips,

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but I'm really thinking 
about drawing my sit bones

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to kiss the back 
of the knees there.

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We can take a 
couple breaths here.

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Perhaps you've 
already fallen out

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and you're like why is she
still up there? (chuckling)

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But I encourage 
you on the journey down

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to move with the breath.

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I often go down on an exhale,

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but, as always, I 
encourage you to experiment

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with your breath, 
finding what feels good.

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I don't fall out of the pose,

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but rather I take this nice,
slow journey down.

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Feels yummy on my spine here


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as I slowly release the hips,

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the pelvis, back 
down to the earth.

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Keeping my knees in line,

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now I can turn my 
head and smile at you.

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Okay, so, to go a 
little bit deeper in the pose,

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we're gonna go up 
one more time here.

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I'm gonna just 
show you one more thing

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to go a little bit deeper.

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I'll inhale, again,

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pressing into all 
four corners of the feet.

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Let this movement, rather
than just hiking the hips up,

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let's enjoy this journey, right?

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You get a nice, solid back
massage out of this, as well.

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But let it start 
from the tailbone,

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like we do in our Cat-Cow.

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It starts here, the 
movement starts here.

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I'll scoop the tailbone up,

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lower back becomes 
flush with the mat.

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And then I'm slowly 
gonna travel up my spine

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as I lift up 
into my Bridge pose.

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And actually for this one,

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I'm gonna draw my 
heels a little bit closer,

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in case you wanna try 
that to go a little bit deeper.

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So heels draw in 
towards the sit bones,

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toes pointing forward.

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Knees up towards the sky 
and in line with the hips.

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Pressing into the palms

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or, again, sometimes it's nice

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to grab the outer edge of the
mat for a little stability.

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Or if we're really going for
the ease, the grace today,

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I'll go palms up.

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So you can experiment with that.

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Inhale (inhaling loudly)

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and on an exhale 
(exhaling loudly)

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scooping that tailbone up.

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Moving with your breath.

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We don't have to do 
this all in one breath,

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we can breath in 
and out nice and easy.

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Slowly lifting 
the hip points up,

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but thinking about 
drawing these sit bones

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to the backs of the knees.

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Knees really moving forward,
energetically even.

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(inhaling loudly)

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Pressing into the 
inner arches of the feet,

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pressing into the 
ball joints of the big toe

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will really help you figure out

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what the hell 
(chuckles) I just meant

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by drawing your knees 
energetically forward.

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(chuckles)

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(humming)

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Now to go a little bit deeper,

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I'm gonna continue, nice,
strong in the legs here,

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continue pressing into 
the inner arches of the feet.

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Continue to scoop my 
tailbone up toward the sky.

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But this time I can walk my
shoulder blades in together,

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one at a time.

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And perhaps 
interlace the finger tips

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underneath my bridge.

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Walking the shoulder blades in

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and really stretching 
through the front body,

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neck is nice and long.

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I find that 
softness in my face here.

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(loud breathing)

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Can take a couple breaths here.

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Sometimes we can 
also use the thumbs here,

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the hands to support.

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Or if we have blocks,

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we can do a more restorative 
version of this posture.

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But this is a 
great heart opener here.

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I'm still really 
strong in my legs here.

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(inhaling loudly) 
Breathing into my belly,

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lifting those hip points up
towards the backs of the knees.

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(inhaling loudly)

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(humming)

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To come out of this posture,

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I'll release the 
fingertips with grace

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(exhales loudly)

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and then let that be my 
cue to slowly release down.

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Walking down the 
spine nice and slow.

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And then pelvis releases.

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As a quick counter-pose,

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I'll hug my knees 
in towards my chest,

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wrap my arms around my shins,

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and just take a 
couple seconds here

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to rock a little back and forth.

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Careful you don't get too tense

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in the shoulders 
here as you do that.

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Remember, (loud 
inhale) to relax them down

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and away from the ears.

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We can do this a couple times,

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we can even draw a 
couple circles with the knees,

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just massaging the lower back.

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And then I can release the
soles of my feet to the ground

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and sometimes it feels 
great to do it with a thud.

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(exhaling loudly)

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And then I'm here 
for another Bridge pose.

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(inhaling loudly)

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We can do this as 
many times as feels good

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or often we'll 
begin or end class

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with a couple different 
variations of this posture,

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which we'll do at a later date.

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(humming)

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Okie doke, so that was Bridge
pose, super yummy posture.

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I love bridge because 
it's active and relaxing,

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and so we can 
practice balancing those two.

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Also, really 
great for the ladies.

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(clicking tongue)

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Really 
therapeutic for the women,

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but really 
therapeutic for everyone.

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I'll list all the 
benefits on the blog,

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so visit the blog 
at yogawithadriene.com.

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Make sure you subscribe, leave
comments, questions below.

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And enjoy your Bridge pose.

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Thank you and namaste.

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(upbeat indie music)

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A really awesome 
pose for the ladies.

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(clicking tongue)

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In terms of therapeutic 
relief for lady problems.

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Not problems, I 
can't say problems, dammit.