If you are not a newbie in the yoga world, you probably know what “Yoga With Adriene” is. If you don’t, here is your chance to get to know the hero that is Adriene Mishler. Adriene has been posting Yoga videos on Youtube to her 10.4 million follows since 2012. In recent years, she has been posting monthly calendars, each day has a different yoga video to complete. Here’s the thing, she does it all for free. You heard me right, for free. As a college student, I love free stuff and getting a yoga workout schedule and videos sounds too good to be true.
The month of November is titled “NOURISH” and if you sign up for her emails, she will send you the entire November Calender. Now I’m not a yoga expert, but I’ve done my fair share of downward dogs. My main problem is consistency, I will go to yoga a few days a week, but then give up pretty quickly. This week gave me the perfect opportunity to be consistent.
Monday, November 1: YOGA FOR COMFORT & NOURISHMENT 26 Minutes
First day. It was a Monday and the first day of a month, what a perfect setup. My workouts usually consist of weightlifting, so I consider myself pretty stiff. It was Leg Day, so I was already pretty sore. Thankfully, this day was lots of sitting and slow stretching. I FELT it in my lower back, as we did this weird shoulder twist. Lots of sitting, and slow movement. I did this before bed and it was the perfect end to my night.
Tuesday, November 2: GROUNDING INTO GRATITUDE 34 Minutes
I’ll be honest, I did not want to do this today. It was late, I was tired, and this video was 34 minutes long. One thing is for sure, my muscles are tight: everywhere. I don’t think anyone has less hip flexibility than me. Once again, Adriene did not rush me, and I took the liberty to really go with the flow here.
Wednesday, November 3: YOGA FOR ABDOMINAL WALL 13 minutes
Today was probably my favorite day this week. It was an abdominal workout, and I felt it. The movements themselves were slow, but boy did they reach into the depths of my core. In only 13 minutes I was a bit damp and very ready to be done. Its like Adriene knew I needed a short session for the middle of the week. I went to bed happy and honestly looking forward to tomorrow.
Thursday, November 4: YOGA PARTY 28 minutes
As always, we started off with some slow movements. I had a midterm today and I needed a good stretch to finally de-tense my jaw and shoulders. Very soon I had to hold my foot in my hand as I stood on one foot. Not a very good description. It was a dancer pose or a standing bow pose as Adriene called it. It was a very balanced practice, and many times I fell over. But did I get up each time, absolutely I did. Adriene constantly offers opportunities for adjustments. If you can’t do a pose there are modifications you can always do, and Adriene always encourages freedom to move as your wish. So inspirational.
Friday, November 5: FUNDAMENTALS OF EASE 33 minutes
Today was my last day, and I was actually sad to see it come. While Adriene and I are no strangers, I had grown comfortable in my little nightly practice. We went slow today, focusing on Ease. I was never someone who really stretched. I would do my workouts and then pretty much immediately leave the gym. Which was not good for my muscles or my mind. I stretched parts of my body I didn’t even know could be stretched. When we said our little “namaste” at the end, it was bittersweet.
Overall Experience 9/10
The best part of this week was I did each of these videos from the comfort of my little dorm room. The convenience of these videos is incomparable. I don’t think the point of these videos for me was a workout, but rather a chance to set aside time for just me. I didn’t have to think about my assignments or what I had to do in the next minute, I just got to sit with myself, and I think that’s something we all need.