Updated May 11, 2026 04:06PM
This 20-minute morning yoga and Pilates workout is a hybrid class that includes some yoga poses and some Pilates movements to work on your strength, flexibility, and balance. It’s more of a challenge than a lot of yoga classes in the sense that there’s a strength-based core-strengthening exercise component that not only supports your body but helps motivate you for the day ahead.
A lot of Pilates moves have parallels with yoga poses but are performed slightly differently. For example, what we think of as Boat Pose and Bridge Pose each have equivalents that are practiced with more attention to spinal alignment and core strength. So rather than separating the class into 10 minutes of yoga and 10 minutes of Pilates, I intersperse the movements from each practice. That means you might find yourself doing kneeling sidekicks in between Low Lunge and Half Splits, or getting in some hip circles and Cancans to target the abs. Bring your yoga experience but also be open to a slightly different way of doing things.
20-Minute Morning Yoga + Pilates Workout
This yogalates practice is an all-levels flow, so there’s no need to have any kind of Pilates workout or yoga experience to follow along. No props are required although you’re welcome to use them anytime they can support you.
Child’s Pose
(Photo: Yoga With Kassandra)
Let’s begin kneeling on the mat, big toes together, knees as wide as you would like. Reach your hips back toward your heels and fold your chest down, extending long through your arms in Child’s Pose. There’s probably some tightness and tension in your upper body first thing in the morning, so you’re not trying to force any stretch or movement. You’re slowly inviting the body to release and open up a little more. Focus on your breath and maybe use this time to check in to see how you’re feeling right and set the intention for your day.
(Photo: Yoga With Kassandra)
Stay in Child’s Pose a little longer as you crawl your fingertips a little farther away. Then come high on your fingertips so you’re lifting your elbows off the mat and, at the same time, pushing your shoulders down to create a little more stretch.
Cat and Cow
(Photo: Yoga With Kassandra)
Come onto your hands and knees with your hands underneath your shoulders and your knees underneath your hips. As you inhale, lower your belly, lift your gaze, and take a backbend in Cow Pose.
(Photo: Yoga With Kassandra)
As you exhale, do the reverse, so push the mat away as you round your back and contract your abs in Cat Pose.
Keep repeating, breathing and moving in and out of those two poses, getting some articulation throughout the spine. See if you can place a little more weight and pressure in your fingertips and knuckles.
Kneeling Side Kicks
(Photo: Yoga With Kassandra)
This Pilates movement is almost like a dynamic version of modified Side Plank. So from hands and knees, stretch your left leg straight back. roll onto the inner edge of your left foot, and bring your left hand onto your hip. Make sure you have your right wrist directly underneath your right shoulder, and when you’re ready, find your balance and float your left leg up to hip level and flex your left foot.
First, you’re going to move your lifted leg front and back. So kick your left leg forward twice. So kick, kick, point the toes, and sweep it as far behind you as you can. You need to use your core here. So kick, kick point, and sweep. Kick, kick, point, and sweep.Stay stable through that foundation of your right shoulder. Do a couple more like that.
Come back to your starting position, flex your foot, and see if you can lift your leg a little higher. Then point your foot as you return it to the starting position. So flex and lift, point and lower. It does not take very long to feel this activate and strengthen your glutes. Repeat this a few times.
Next, keep your toes pointed and make little circles, like you’re tracing the shape of a dinner plate. Not too big, not too small, and trying to keep your toes at about the same height as your hip. Then reverse the direction of those circles.
(Photo: Yoga With Kassandra)
Low Lunge
Look down at the mat and step your left foot forward toward the top of the mat. You can always grab hold of your ankle to help it along if a single step doesn’t work for you. You want your left knee over your left ankle, fingertips framing your front foot, back knee down, and your hips sinking forward in Low Lunge. Feel the thigh stretch here and roll your shoulders down and away from your ears.
(Photo: Yoga With Kassandra)
Staying in your Low Lunge, lift your upper body a little, lengthen your tailbone down, draw your lower belly in, and then reach your arms alongside your head. Maybe you look up to challenge your balance a little. If that feels like too much, keep your gaze steady and forward. You can also press your hands together overhead in a slight backbend.
(Photo: Yoga With Kassandra)
Half Splits
Circle your arms back down to the mat and come onto your fingertips. Start to straighten your left leg, wiggle your heel a little farther away from you, and flex your foot in Half Splits. If your hamstrings are feeling tight, you can absolutely keep a bend in your left leg. Take several breaths here.
With your left hand directly underneath your left shoulder, step your right foot back, roll onto the inner edge of your right foot, bring your right hand to your hip, and repeat your Kneeling Side Kicks, Low Lunge, and Half Splits on that side.
(Photo: Yoga With Kassandra)
Downward-Facing Dog
From Low Lunge, tuck your back toes, lift your back knee off the mat, and step your right foot back as you lift your hips in Downward-Facing Dog. So your hands are shoulder-distance apart and your feet are hip-distance apart. Do whatever feels good here, maybe bending your knees and peddling your feet. You can keep a generous bend through both knees. Think of lengthening out through your arms and stretching out long through your spine.
(Photo: Yoga With Kassandra)
Plank Pose
Come forward into Plank Pose, shifting your shoulders forward over your wrists. And then slowly lower yourself all the way down to the mat with control. Take your time.
(Photo: Yoga With Kassandra)
Cobra Pose
Keep your palms on the mat and inhale as you lift your head and chest slightly to open across your chest in Cobra Pose. Exhale as you release back to the mat.
(Photo: Yoga With Kassandra)
Swimming
Reach your arms straight in front of you, palms facing down. Keep the back of your neck long. Lift your arms and legs off the mat and flutter kick your arms and legs fairly quickly here for for a count of 10. Then release everything back to the mat.
(Photo: Yoga With Kassandra)
Child’s Pose
Press yourself back into Child’s Pose and give yourself a little stretch.
(Photo: Yoga With Kassandra)
Spine Stretch Forward
Lift your chest, swing your legs in front of you, and take a seat. Widen your feet toward the edges of the mat. Think of anchoring and pushing down here as you lengthen up. If your hamstrings are tight, you can absolutely keep your knees bent and lifted off the mat. What’s important here is you want to keep your spine long with your arms reaching forward, palms facing down, and your feet flexing and pushing down through the heels, whether the knees are bent or straight.
Keep this shape as you inhale to lengthen through the spine, and exhale as you tuck your chest, almost as if you’re trying to bring the crown of your head down toward the mat. This is not a forward fold. Instead, you’re rounding through your spine while keeping your arms lifted and parallel to the mat. Then unroll and come back to the starting position of sitting upright. So exhale, curl, and reach, reach, reach, reach, reach. Then inhale, scoop and lift all the way back upright. Do this a few more times.
Even though this might not feel like a core-strengthening exercise, there’s so much abdominal engagement happening. Slowly come all the way back up to sitting.
(Photo: Yoga With Kassandra)
Spine Twist
Bring your hands behind your head and keep your elbows wide. Inhale as you lengthen through the spine, exhale as you twist toward the right and then see if you can twist a little more and exhale again. So inhale and then two exhales before you come back to center. Do that several more times.
(Photo: Yoga With Kassandra)
Seated Side Body Stretch
Bring your left foot to the inside of your right leg, and widen your knees away from each other. Reach your left arm overhead and toward the right in a big side body stretch. Keep rolling your left shoulder back as if you’re leaning against the wall behind you.
(Photo: Yoga With Kassandra)
Baby Wild Thing
Bring your left hand down to the mat and swing your right arm up and overhead as you shift your weight into your left foot and right shin and lift your hips in Baby Wild Thing. Keep lifting your hips.
Then set your hips back down and repeat the Side Bend and Baby Wild Thing on the second side. Bring yourself back down to the mat.
Cancan
(Photo: Yoga With Kassandra)
Extend both legs straight in front of you and come down onto your forearms but keep your back lifted. Bend your knees, lift your feet off the mat, and point your toes. You don’t want to draw your knees and thighs toward your chest. Keep your feet parallel to the mat. Slowly lower your knees as far over to the right as you can, and then push into that left hip to come back through to center and then lower over toward the left. Repeat this several times. Keep your chest lifted.
(Photo: Yoga With Kassandra)
Next time you’re over to the left, hold here and straighten your legs. Push down into your right hip to slowly come back through center over to the right. Do several rounds here.
Then repeat several rounds each with bent knees and then with straight legs.
Leg Lifts
(Photo: Yoga With Kassandra)
Come back to center. Keep your chest lifted as you straighten your left leg in front of you at a high diagonal or you can lower it and hover above the mat to intensify the work in the lower abdominals. Then tap the left leg down to the mat and come back to starting and then alternate legs. So tap and return. You can also just hover and return. The lower the leg goes, the more you’ll feel this through your lower abdominals. So you want to maintain lots of integrity through the abs. Repeat several times.
Bridge Pose
(Photo: Yoga With Kassandra)
Then straighten your legs in front of you and roll all the way down onto your back, inch by inch. So first your lower back touches down, then your mid back, and then the upper back. Stretch your arms overhead, bend your knees, and bring your feet flat on the mat hip-distance apart. Shrug your shoulders down and away from your ears. Push your heels into the mat, squeeze through your seat, and lift your hips as high as they can go in Bridge Pose. Press into your big toes and hug your inner thighs toward each other. Inhale to lift a little more. Then exhale and slowly roll back down to the mat, inch by inch. Really control that descent. Do that one more time.
Reclined Pigeon Pose
(Photo: Yoga With Kassandra)
Still lying on your back, cross your right ankle over your left knee and stay here or reach your arms on either side of your left thigh and hug it in with Reclined Pigeon Pose. Give yourself a big stretch here through that right glute. Try to keep head and shoulders on the mat. You can rock a little side to side. Stay here for several breaths.
This is a good time to ask yourself what your intention is for the day, what matters to you, what you want to focus on in the hours ahead. I like to focus on a one-word intention as I find that a little less overwhelming. It can be literally the first word you think of, something you want to remind yourself of throughout the day.
Reclined Twist
(Photo: Yoga With Kassandra)
Keep your right knee toward your chest as you straighten your left leg in front of you and bring it to the mat. Take a twist here by guiding your right knee over the body toward the left. You can extend your right arm out to the side to help your right shoulder blade stay in contact with the mat.
Untwist back through center and take Reclined Pigeon Pose and Reclined Twist on the other side.
Savasana
(Photo: Yoga With Kassandra)
Stretch out on the mat in Savasana and give yourself just 10 breaths here as you close the eyes and breathe deeply. I don’t like to leave you in this pose for too long during morning classes as I don’t want you to accidentally fall back asleep.
This is your time to notice how you feel now as opposed to when you first came onto your mat. Relax your arms and your legs, relax your facial muscles, and simply be here.
Closing
When you’re ready, stretch your arms overhead and get really long here. Take your time as you turn onto one side, and then use your arms to push into the mat and come all the way up to a seat. Sit in any way that is comfortable for your hips and low back, close your eyes, and focus on your breath. Linger here for a few more moments before heading backtoyour day.
Thank you so much for doing this 20-minute morning yoga and Pilates workout with me.
