Yoga Stretch is the first yoga workout done in Jessica Smith‘s 5 Day Yoga Challenge. If you go to this workout on YouTube, not only does Jessica talk about the challenge at the beginning of the workout but below the video she gives you the 5 Day Yoga Challenge schedule with links to each of the workouts. So if you decide to do the challenge, this would be the jumping point to go to each day to find out which yoga workout you are doing that day. Also, all of the workouts in the schedule have been reviewed on this blog.
This was an excellent yoga workout. It is not an aggressive yoga-strength routine nor a cardio yoga routine, but neither is it as gentle/easy as some of Jessica’s other yoga workouts. It stretched me out very nicely and deeply. Jessica has a lot of short, excellent yoga and flexibility routines that are free on YouTube. With this routine I think I have come to the end of Jessica’s YouTube yoga workouts that I plan to try–but I have tried a lot of them and will return to them all. And just FYI for the Peanut lovers (including me)–Peanut looks dead during this workout. But you know she is still with us because you can hear her snoring during corpse pose.
Yoga Stretch is 34:30 minutes long. The first 30 seconds is Jessica talking about the challenge. The video is actually 36 minutes long but the last 1:30 minutes is Jessica talking more about the yoga challenge. Since this is a basic yoga flexibility workout I am not doing a detailed breakdown but below I will list the poses/stretches done in the order they appear. You begin just standing in mountain pose, taking deep breaths with eyes closed. Deep breaths raising arms overhead. Wrist stretches. Dynamic arm swings, stretching shoulders. Side stretches. Standing spine extension (arch spine and head back). Forward fold then roll spine up to standing. Plank pose. Cobra. Child’s pose. Down dog. Walk hands back to feet and hold in forward fold then roll spine up to standing. Repeat this flow but when you get to down dog, lift one leg to ceiling (3 legged dog). Runners lunge. Side angle. Triangle pose. Reverse warrior. Down dog. Repeat this flow on other side of body. Repeat flow but this time after runners lunge you come up into crescent pose. Warrior 2. Flow back and forth between side angle pose and reverse warrior. Wide forward fold with hands laced behind back and arms reaching up and to ceiling. Lizard pose. Lean hips back to one heel, the other leg extended straight in front of you for hamstring stretch (half split pose). Pigeon pose. Repeat flow on other side of body. Butterfly pose. Lay on stomach, one arm extended straight to side of body and w/ other arm, press torso up onto side, stretching out shoulder of extended arm. Still laying on stomach, reach back and grab one foot, stretching quads. Grab both heels and arch up chest, lifting thighs off floor (bow pose). Child’s pose. Spinal twist while lying on back. Bridge pose. Corpse pose.
For more info on JessicaSmithTV and other (free) streaming workouts I’ve sampled and reviewed, check out my Streaming page.
