Back Bend Boost: King Pigeon Peak Pose Flow

And take notice if there's any parts of your body already telling you something. Anything we need to pay attention to as we start to move into the class, into the poses, to the flow. If you're on one side with one leg then slowly switch so you do both sides. Continue to just deepen your breath a little bit so you're just trying to spread the inhale over your chest so you become wide open.

And exhale heavy, stable. Notice if you have any expectations going on in your mind of the class or for your own practice, your own body. If you do see if you can let it go for now just be completely open to everything that is coming and just willing to try to see and to let go. If you have your arms overhead just slowly let the arms come back next to you.

And if you have one leg you will slowly come out and if you have both legs definitely use your hands to push you up slowly. And then just take your time lean forward and stretch out one leg at a time, stretch out the knees. And when you're ready we're gonna come onto our backs but just take the props to the side for now. So you're just flat on your back.

So we're starting pretty slow I know but we will get into movement soon enough. So just stretch your legs, shake it out a little bit. And then we will take the right foot on top of the left thigh and first we will hold on to the back of the left thigh or front of the left chin. And just let allow the head to come back.

Maybe you want to rock a little bit from side to side or just stay still. Maybe you gently push your right thigh away with your right elbow. One more breath here just noticing how are the hips doing. And pay closely attention, release the hands, keep the legs, put the hands on top of the right shin.

So left hand somewhere over the ankle and right hand a little bit underneath or on the right knee. Push down onto the leg and push the leg up into the hand without releasing it. And pull the left knee towards you and lift your head. So almost like you're trying to do this with your leg, that you're trying to kick the leg away but your hands are holding it back.

So we breathe here pushing the leg into the hand and then we release the left leg right over the floor. We push the hands into the leg. So what a lot of people think when they think King Pigeon is just deep back bend, deep hip opening. But it also a lot of hip stability that is needed to get the body into a deeper back bend.

Without stability, we will just sink into the low back and get no lift and no length. So push, push, push, get nice and warm, feel that push. You will come back to this later. One more breath.

And then release the left leg down. Just pull the right knee towards you. Take a breath. And then scoot your hips to the right, right knee over to the left.

Twist, keeping the right shoulder towards the floor. Relaxing the belly, taking a nice deep inhale, filling all the way up. Exhale, relax. Coming back to center.

Left foot over the right thigh. First just holding behind the right thigh or over the right shin. And if you want to wiggle around a little bit or just stay still, breathe into the hips. Again, keeping the legs as they are, taking the hands now on top of the left shin over the ankle, on the knee or a little bit underneath the knee.

Just so you really can push the leg into the hand and lift the hand and really use strength in the left leg. So if I let go of with my hands, it should shoot up. So I really hold the leg back with my arms. The head is up and extend the right leg right over the floor.

Keep pushing the leg into the arms almost like I can pull myself up. A lot of strength in the left leg right now. Breathing here. And then if you think in daily life, what is most needed?

Super open hips or super stable and strong hips? We need both, but I think in daily life, it's important to have a lot of strength in the left leg. In yoga, we can use a little bit too much of the stretchy and not enough stability and strength. And we breathe.

One more. Keep the legs strong. Keep pushing into the arms and lay all the way down. Left knee towards your body.

Right leg towards the floor. Take a breath. Then we scoot the hips to the left, bring the left leg over to the right. Left elbow stays on the floor.

The left shoulder, maybe also elbow. Relax the belly. Take a deep inhale. And exhale.

Coming back to center and starting to rock and roll up and down. And rolling all the way up onto all fours. And we start to just freestyle in our cat and cow, making some big movements in the spine. Really trying to get into the low back, the upper back.

Maybe you get some movements in the shoulder. In the neck. If you go one way, go the other also. And we slowly meet on all fours, just turning the fingers back.

Rolling over the wrists and moving to the fingers. And going the other way. And shaking it off. Coming into neutral.

Right leg back, inhaling here. Exhale, pulling the right knee to the forehead, curling. Two more inhaling, lengthening out. Exhaling, pulling the right knee in, pushing the floor away.

Inhaling out. Exhaling right knee to forehead. And then just right leg out to the side and stretch the right leg out. And place it in line with your left knee.

And just walk the hands out so you're in like a puppy pose, half puppy pose. Forehead can be down or shin can be down or top of the head even can be down. Just a couple of nice deep breaths into the armpits and upper back. And slowly coming up, walking the hands underneath the shoulders.

And just step the right foot halfway forward towards your right hand. And the right foot can be like 45 degrees out to the side. You can take your left foot and put it underneath your hips. So you're kind of sitting on your left heel and the right foot slightly out to the side.

And then you can choose to sit here or come off and circle the hips around a little bit. Or stay seated and just walk the arms out and move the right knee out and in like so. You just want to get into your hips. If you walk away from the right foot, maybe it's less intense.

If you walk towards the right foot, it can be more intense. Just a couple of breaths more. Just feeling our way into our body. And finding our way back to all fours.

Neutral spine. Inhale, left leg back. Exhale, curling. Inhale, getting long.

Exhale, pushing the floor away, pulling the knee in. Inhale, back. Exhale, pulling it forward. This time stay and just take the left knee out to the side.

Stretch the left foot out and place it on the floor. Half puppy pose, walking the arms forward, chest down, maybe forehead, chin or top of the head. Breathing. It's creating space.

Creating awareness. One more breath. And coming back up, hands under shoulders. Pulling the left foot halfway forward and toes angled out to the left a little bit.

Right foot underneath you so you can sit down on your right heel. And then you choose circles. Or maybe just staying seated on your right heel and walking the torso. Maybe you take the left knee out and in.

No right and wrong. Just getting into your hips. And we also know that our hips and other people's hips are not the same hips. Our shoulders, our backs are not everyone's shoulders and backs.

So the practice will look different, it will feel different, it will be different and that's okay. And then slowly coming back to all fours. Making our way back to downward facing dog. So finding your way there.

Walking out your dog. Feeling into the back of the legs. Finding length in your spine. By allowing the head just to hang and the hips to lift up and back.

Even push through the hands. The weight is evenly into your knuckles, your fingertips and your palm. Not resting on one side of the wrist or the hand. And then pausing in your dog, taking a breath.

Moving through our vinyasa of the day onto your toes. Rolling through the spine into a plank with or without the knees on the floor. Inhaling here. Exhaling, just moving through the low push up onto your belly.

Inhale, hands and feet away from the floor into floating cobra. Exhale, squeeze the elbows and the inner thighs. Inhale, push down to lift up to a deeper cobra. Exhale, come back to your down dog, either to hands and knees or through plank.

Take a breath in your dog. Relax the head and neck. And again onto your toes. Rolling through the spine, inhaling in plank.

Exhale through that low push up onto your belly. Inhale, floating cobra. Exhale, squeeze. Inhale, pushing down to lift up.

Exhale, down your way back into down dog. Take a breath. And this time we start to walk the feet forward to the top of the mat. And when you get to the top, take a moment and just rest over your legs.

Allow the head to hang. And shift your weight a little bit from side to side and back and forth. And slowly roll all the way up into your mountain pose. You can take your hands together in front of the chest.

Just breathe, close your eyes if you're comfortable. And maybe you want to set your own intention for the class. Or if you will, have the intention of acceptance in your practice today. Accepting your limitations, accepting your strengths.

And accepting that the practice will be different from day to day and especially from year to year. And definitely from body to body. So accepting that it is exactly what it is today. And then taking a deep breath, filling up with acceptance.

And letting it go. And we start to flow, either hip distance or feet together. We inhale, we reach the arms up overhead. Exhale, falling from the hips and down.

Inhale, half lift. Exhale, first one, just stepping to plank, inhaling. Exhaling, lowering down through the low push up onto your belly. Inhale, floating cobra.

Exhale, connect to the back. Inhale, pushing down deeper cobra. Exhale, your way back to the top. Deeper cobra.

Exhale, your way back to down dog. Relax the head and neck. Take a breath. And on your next inhale, right leg up and back.

Open the hip, bend the right knee. Pull the right knee towards your right elbow. And inhale, right leg up and back. Open the hip.

Exhale, roll the right knee towards the outside of the right arm. Inhale, back up. Exhale, again, roll the right knee to your right elbow. This time, angle the right foot towards the left side of your mat.

You might need your blocks, you might want to come onto your fingertips. You'll see what you need here. But you want to really get your hips low. You want to make your hips now come forward.

And you want to see if you can tap the right knee to the floor. Inhale, and exhale, push into the arms and pull the right knee up. Exhale, hips down, knee down, chest up. And push up.

And inhale, you can choose inhale or exhale. And push up. So again, two more, just knee and hips down, chest up. And lift off the floor.

Last one. And this time, push into the floor and step back, down dog. Left leg up and back, open up the hip, bend the left knee. Take a breath.

And first one, roll the left knee towards your left elbow. And on your inhale, up and back, bend the knee, open the hip. This time, left knee to the outside of the left elbow or shoulder. Inhale, up and back.

Exhale, left knee towards your left elbow again and angle your left foot to the right. See if you can lower the hips and the knee down to the floor. You might want to have hands on blocks or fingertips. Try to lower the hips, chest up.

Push the floor away and just lift the knee off. And with the breath, inhale or exhale, you decide, hips down, chest up. Pushing the floor away, lifting up. Again, lower the hips, knee down, chest up.

Pushing the floor away, lifting up. Last two. Last one down and then we push the hands into the floor. Lift the left leg back to down dog.

Drop the head, relax the neck. Take a breath. On your next inhale, bend the knees. Exhale, walk or float to the top.

Inhale, half lift. Exhale, fold. Inhale, all the way up, reaching. Exhale, mountain.

One more inhale. Strong legs reach up. Exhale, fold. Inhale, half lift.

Exhale, walk or float through your vinyasa. You can add the regular vinyasa. Just inhale into your up dog or cobra. Exhale, back to downward dog.

And on your inhale, right leg up and back, open the hip. Bend the knee. Exhale, roll the right knee forward. And this time, right knee to the floor.

Point your right foot so you're pushing the top of the right foot into the floor. And see if you can come onto your fingertips. This might be enough. For some, maybe hands to the hip, leaning slightly forward.

For some, maybe reaching the arms up. See where you need to be. And then palms down, push the floor away. Inhale, right leg up and back.

And we do it in the flow. Exhale, lowering the right knee and foot. Inhale, stay or arms up. Exhale, push the floor away, lift up.

Inhale, up and back. Exhale, rolling the knee forward, placing the leg down. Inhale, stay or arms up. Exhale, pushing the floor away.

Inhale, up and back. Last one now. Exhale, lowering the leg, staying here if you need the support of the hands. Or this time, maybe clasp the hands behind the back and breathe.

So you have the same push in the leg now. Only this time it's the floor and not your hands that is resisting the leg. One more breath wherever you are. Slowly release the hands, push the floor away.

Step back into dog. Take a breath. Next inhale, left leg up and back, open the hip. Exhale, left knee forward, left leg down, stay here.

Fingertips or hand to the hips or arms up if it's available. Push the floor away. And on your next inhale, left leg up and back. Exhale, pulling the leg forward and down.

Inhale, you stay here or arms up. Exhale, pushing the floor away. Inhale, reaching. Exhale, pulling forward, lowering down.

Staying or reaching. Exhale, pushing. Last one now. Inhale, up and back.

Exhale, left leg forward and option to stay. If you were comfortable coming up, maybe you clasp your hands the wrong way. The other fingers behind you. And then you push into the legs, you breathe and you accept.

Keep reaching the chest up and push into your right foot. One more breath. Slowly release the hands, push into the floor. Step back into downward dog.

Drop the head, relax the neck. Breathe. And on your next inhale, bending the knees, gazing forward. Exhale, walk or float to the top.

Inhale, lengthen. Exhale, folding. Inhale, all the way up. Exhale, mountain pose.

Moving into more heat building and stability focused. Into our chair pose. So just inhaling through our chair. Exhale, folding.

Inhale, half lift. Exhale, walk or float through your vinyasa. Keeping the flow in the breath and the flow in the movements. From down dog into up dog.

From down dog, inhaling, right leg up and back. Exhale, pulling the right knee forward. This time stepping the right foot on the inside of the right hand. Left knee down and relax the left foot so you don't have your toes tucked.

Take a moment where you really drop the hips down. And from here, push into the right foot and the left knee. Come on up, arms overhead. Take the right arm in front of the left so you cross the forearms and grab the elbows.

And really grab the elbows and pull them up. And then use your fingers to push the elbows back as far as they want to go. And then you lift the elbows up. Inhale, exhale you pull the elbows back.

Allow the chest to follow the lift. And use your strong legs not to lean into but to push into the floor. Again lifting the elbows, pulling them back. One more time with the inhale lifting and exhale pulling.

And when you can't go any longer, you reach the arms, inhale here. And then exhale hands to the floor. And start to straighten your front leg half split. Inhale here and exhale just folding over your right leg.

One more deep breath. And then leaning into your right foot, tucking your back toes, lifting your left knee. Rocking into standing split. So just reaching through your left leg, dropping the head down just for a breath.

And then landing your left foot far back on your mat for warrior one legs. Inhale, come on up, arms overhead. Exhale, clasp your hands behind your back. Inhale, lift the chest, roll the shoulders back.

Exhale, humble warrior. Head down, arms overhead. And breathe. Strong active legs.

And relax the hands to the low back first. Then take the left hand underneath your left shoulder, turn around and circle your right arm to the sky. Just take a breath here where you reach the right arm up, the chest follows. And then we lower the left knee down.

Bend the left knee and start to pull the right hand and the left foot toward each other. If you can, you grab the foot. Breathe here. One more breath.

Releasing the left foot, right hand to the floor, stepping into plank. Inhale. Exhale all the way down to your belly. Reach the arms forward, reach the toes back.

You can gaze down towards the mat. And then inhale, lift the arms, lift the legs and see if you can stay here. Keep reaching the arms forward, keep reaching the legs back. And then on your inhale, lifting the arms and the torso.

Exhale, stay. Next inhale, focus on lifting the legs. Exhale, stay. Next inhale, lift arms and legs.

And exhale, down hands next to the ribs. Inhale, cobra or up dog. Exhale, down dog. Take a breath.

Inhale, left leg up and back. Exhale, pulling the left knee forward, stepping the left foot to the inside of the left hand. Right knee comes down. Take a breath here.

Just relax the right foot. Hips are low. Then pushing into the legs, arms come up, chest come up. And we cross left forearm in front of the right, grabbing the elbows.

Then using your fingers to pull the elbows up and then push the elbows back. And allow the chest to follow the arms. Inhale, lift. Exhale, pull the arms back.

Lift with the inhale. Exhale, see if there is more space. Strong legs. We don't lean down into the legs, we push into the legs.

Finding length first. Last one. And when you can't go any further, you can just push into the legs. Last one.

And when you can't go any further, you reach the arms, you inhale. Exhale, hands down. And start to straighten the left leg, half split. And maybe you fold.

Breathe here, a couple of breaths. And then pulling your weight into the left foot, tucking your back toes, lifting the back knee. Leaning into your standing split just for a moment. Dropping the head, lifting the right leg.

And then transition into warrior one legs, right heel down. Inhale, arms up. Exhale, clasping the hands again. Changing the fingers behind your back so you alternate.

Inhale, lifting the chest. Exhale, humble warrior. Inside of your left leg. Strong legs.

Steady breath. And then keeping the legs as they are, hands rest to the low back. Right hand comes underneath the right shoulder, start turning the torso to the left circle, the left arm to the sky. Take a breath here.

Then we lower the right knee and start to reach the left arm back, bending the right knee and start to guide the foot to the hand. Lower the hips, open the chest and breathe. Last breath. And slowly release the leg.

Stepping back into plank pose. Inhale. Exhale all the way down to your belly. Reach the arms back this time, bend the knees, see if you can grab the ankles or the feet.

And then start to push the legs into the hands for bow pose. And we breathe here. Inhale, focusing on lifting the chest. Exhale, stay.

Inhale, focusing on lifting the legs. Exhale, stay. Inhale, lift everything. Exhale, release hands next to the ribs.

Inhale, cobra or up dog. Inhale, lift the legs. Exhale, stay. Inhale, lift the arms.

Exhale, lift everything. Exhale, release hands next to the ribs. Inhale, cobra or up dog. Exhale, down dog.

Take a breath. And on your next inhale, bend the knees, gaze forward, walk or float to the top. Inhale, half lift. Exhale, fold.

Inhale, bend the knees, chair pose. Exhale, mountain pose. Before we move into second round, a little balance pose. So we lean into the left leg.

Take your right knee in front of you, arms overhead. One breath here. And then clasp the hands behind you. Start to bend the knee, roll the shoulder blades together, reach the chest forward.

And see if you can reach the right heel towards your hands. Take a breath. And then again, right knee up in front of you. Arms overhead, take a breath.

Again, stability and strength. So we want to activate the back right thigh now. To pull the right heel towards your hands without holding with the hands. Hold for a breath.

And slowly, one more round. Arms up, knee up, take a breath. And clasp the hands, lean forward. You can have a slight bend in the standing leg.

Really pull the right heel toward your hands. And slowly, one more round. And slowly, come back to center. Shake it off.

And we do the other side, leaning into the right leg. Left leg up in front of you, take a breath. Clasping the hands the weird way behind your back. Shoulder blades together as you lean forward.

And see if the left heel can start to pull towards your hands. Taking a breath. And slowly, coming back up, releasing the hands. Left knee in front, take a breath.

Reaching the hands back, clasping. Pulling the left heel and the hands toward each other. Taking a breath. And last one.

Inhaling up, take a breath. Clasping. And pulling the chest up and forward. Pulling the heel in, strong back left thigh.

And coming back and releasing to center. Shake it off. Except if that was a little weird or hard. Cheer pose on your inhale.

Exhale, we fold. Inhale, half lift. Exhale, walking or floating through your vinyasa. Or you skip it if you're getting enough of vinyasas for today.

That's also accepting. Taking a breath as you need in down dog. And on your inhale, right leg up and back. Open the hip, bend the knee.

Exhale, pull the right knee forward. Step your right foot on the inside of the right hand. Allow the hips to lower but keep the knee off the floor. Next inhale, crescent pose.

Bringing the torso up. Exhale, cactus your arms. Open the chest. Left arm underneath the right for eagle arms.

Inhale here. Exhale, leaning forward. Bringing legs into full eagle. Thigh or thigh, maybe you wrap the leg behind the calf.

Breathing here. And slowly taking the left leg off. Oop, maybe you lose your balance or not. Release the arms and slowly land back into crescent.

Landing on your left toes. Inhale here. Exhale, left heel down. Open the hips, warrior two.

Inhale, reverse warrior. Exhale, both hands, keep the legs as they are. Both hands to the inside of the right foot. But only start to walk your hands slightly to the left.

The right knee probably wants to follow. So maybe you want to turn the right toes slightly out to the right. Keep pushing the right knee out to the right. Maybe you want to walk the hands further onto your fingers.

Feel a nice little burn in your hips. Breathing here. One more breath. Slowly walking the hands back.

Back, knee down. Taking the weight into the right leg. And then bringing the weight into the right foot. Coming up, hands onto the right knee.

You can allow the hips to move forward. Couple of options here. One is to stay here. Other one is to rest the right elbow onto the right thigh.

And then you pull the left foot into the hand. Maybe this is plenty. If you have more space, you allow the hips to go lower. And you do the turn of the hand on the left foot.

And face the finger forward. And left shoulder forward. If you don't need the support of the elbow, maybe the right arm moves up. And we breathe wherever we are.

We also accept our body the way it is today. And the way it shows up in our practice. If you have the foot, slowly release. And we take both hands to the floor.

Maybe use your blocks. We either do half split. If this is plenty, stay. If you want more, tuck your back toes.

Lift the back knee and just slide a little bit deeper. But you want to stay active. You don't want to go toward your full split. So just stay active.

Push the floor away so you can be really light on your hands. One more breath. And then vinyasa or skip it. If you move through vinyasa, bring your breath.

And then we take the left foot into the hand. And we take the right foot into the hand. And we meet in our down dog. On our next inhale, left leg up and back.

Open the hip and the knee. Exhale, pull the left leg forward. Take a moment, lower the hips. Keep your back toes tucked.

And on your next inhale, push into the legs. Come up into crescent. Exhale, cactus your arms, open the chest. Right arm underneath the left, this time eagle arms.

Inhale, pull the arms forward. Exhale, right thigh over left. Maybe wrap. Stay here, breathe.

And slowly taking the right foot off. Releasing the arms, landing slowly into crescent, back toes. Inhale, arms up. Exhale, right heel down, open up, warrior two.

Reverse warrior inhaling. Exhale, both hands to the inside of the left foot. Keep the warrior two legs. Walk the hands slightly to the right and forward.

Your left knee wants to come with the hands so it can help to angle the toes slightly to the left. Breathe into the hips. Maybe come onto your fingertips. More weight in the legs, more heat in the legs.

Breathe. One more deep breath. And walk the hands forward. Take the right knee down.

Take some weight into the left leg and come up with the hands onto the left thigh. You'll notice if maybe this is plenty just lowering the hips staying here. Left elbow to the left thigh. Maybe you bend the right knee.

Maybe you can hold the right foot. Maybe this is plenty. If you want more, turning the fingers forward, pulling the heel in. Making sure the chest is forward.

Maybe lift the arm if you don't need support. Breathe wherever you are. And slowly release if you're holding the leg. Both hands down.

You can do your half split if this is plenty. You stay here, you breathe. If you want a little bit more you stay active here but you lift your back knee and slide the left leg slightly forward. Stay light on your hands.

Strong legs. One more breath. And you do your vinyasa or you skip it. And we meet in down dog.

And take a breath in your dog. And on your next inhale, bending the knees, gazing forward, walk or float to the top. Inhale, half lift. Exhale, fold.

Inhale, tiny chair pose. Exhale, mountain pose. Okay, continuing with our hip work. Finding out if we are really strong in the hips or if we tend to lean on them.

First things first, funky chair. Flexing the right foot over the left thigh. Making peace fingers with your right hand, left hand can stay on the hip. Grab your big right toe with peace fingers and sit down in your funky chair.

And on your inhale, push into the left leg and open your right leg to the side. You can have a bend in the knee or not. Exhale, come back to your funky chair. Inhale, push off the leg.

Open the right leg to the side. Exhale, funky chair. One more. Inhale.

And exhale. Keeping the legs, letting go here. You can have your hands in front of the right chin. Do the same as we did on our backs, if that's enough.

Or you can bring your right foot to your left bicep and wrap around your right leg. Push the foot into the arm and the right knee into the right arm. Breathe, three, two, and one. Wherever you are, keep the leg, right leg over left.

You can fold here, hand to the floor. If you need to rest your left leg a little bit now, you can in an arm balance. So it's the same thing in flying pigeon. In flying pigeon, the tendency for a lot of people is to lean here into the arms.

And here it's super hard to take flight, right? So exactly the same thing as you've been doing. You're going to push the leg into the arms. Push, push, push the leg into the arms.

Push, push, push the leg into the arms. And maybe you fly. Except if you don't. But be willing to try.

And if you're in your fold and you're happy here, relax the head. Breathe. One more breath wherever you are. And we can release the right foot to the floor.

Shake it off. Next inhale, all the way up. Exhale, mountain pose. Weight into the right foot.

Flexing the left piece finger with the left hand. The right hand can stay on the hip. Finding the left big toe sitting down into your funky chair. Inhale, pushing off.

Opening the left leg to the left. Exhaling, funky chair. Inhale, open to the left. Exhale, funky chair.

Last one, inhale. Exhale, keeping the legs there. Holding in front of your left chin. Pulling or pushing the foot into the leg and pulling the leg back.

Or taking the right foot to the right bicep. Left arm around the left side. And you push the leg into the left side. Push the leg into the arms and arms into the leg.

Three, two, one. Wherever you are, come back to funky chair. Hands to the floor, fold. Or if you need to rest that right leg.

Good motivation now to try the flying pigeon. Remember not to lean the hips down. Push the leg into the arm. Put the left foot on the outside of the right hand.

Left knee on the top of the left arm. Not sinking down. Pushing into the arms so much that you can lift the right leg off the floor. Maybe you stretch it back.

Maybe you just stay on your toes and you push into the arms. Wherever you are, if you're in the fold. Drop the head, relax the neck. As you breathe, you accept wherever you are.

One more breath. Release both legs to the floor. Take a breath, take it off. Slowly come back up.

Arms overhead, inhale. Exhale, mountain. Take a moment. Just notice.

Maybe somewhere in this flow already you met a limitation. So we can accept it, which is today's intention. Or we can be mad about it, angry about it. Which one do you think will feel better?

Which one will give you more joy from the practice? So we choose wisely and we continue our practice. We might bump into a few more challenges. So we inhale, arms up.

Exhale, we fold. Inhale, half of the way. Inhale, half lift. Exhale, vinyasa or down dog.

From down dog, just take a breath. Find your gaze. And on your next inhale, right leg up and back. Open up the hip and the knee.

If you have flip dog in your practice, you slowly start to move into flip dog. Open the chest, lift the hips. And then we meet both hands to the floor, rolling the right knee forward. Left heel down, circle up, warrior two.

Reverse warrior with a half bind, so left hand behind your back. Maybe on the inside of the right thigh. Right arm overhead. Take a breath.

And then side angle, either with the half bind or if you're comfortable here, full bind, right arm underneath, finding the left hand or left wrist. Breathing into the hips. If you have the bind, slowly release so the right hand comes down. Left arm comes up, triangle.

You can keep your hand. I just really prefer my right hand on the outside. So wherever you need to have your right hand for your triangle. Just going to stay here for a couple of breaths.

And then we meet both hands to the floor. And then we meet both hands to the floor. And then we meet both hands to the floor. Just going to stay here for a couple of breaths.

And then listen carefully again. Both hands to the floor. Start to come onto your edge on your right foot and turn the right foot slightly to the right. We're ending up in cow face facing the right side of our mat, bending both knees.

And coming seated into cow face legs with the right knee on top. If this is not available, sit up on a block or just do whatever you need to do with your legs. Left arm up, bend the left elbow, maybe right hand, pulls the elbow in place. Right arm behind the back.

Maybe you catch the left fingertips. This is my tight side. So if you need the strap, you use the strap. Breathe.

One more deep breath. Once go to release the arms. Once go to release the arms. Take the right arm to the right, just a nice little side stretch.

Left arm overhead, heavy hips. Both hands forward. Tuck the back toes. And start to walk the right foot over to the left.

Right knee down. If you want, you can have the bolster underneath your hips here. Or if you're comfortable here, just right hip down. Stay on your fingertips.

Breathe. And if you want, down on your forearms. And release. Just noticing how is the hips.

And then one big inhale through the nose. Exhaling through the mouth. Using the hands, pushing them into the floor. Stepping into plank.

Inhale here. Exhale, lowering down. Getting your strap ready. Bending your right knee.

And strapping up your right foot. Taking your right elbow close to the body, so you're on your left forearm. Pushing into your left foot. And then start to pull your right elbow up.

So you can always climb as close as you want to the foot. And for some it's available to use the left hand slightly more out to the left. And then push into the arm here. To have a straight arm.

If that's not comfortable, come down. And then slightly in front and stay on the forearm. Use the power of the right leg to pull the leg off the floor and stretch the shoulder. Front of the chest.

Breathe. Slowly release. Elbow comes down. Releases the strap.

And putting the strap to the side for the other side. So inhaling cobra or up dog. Exhale, downward dog. Take a breath.

Drop the head to relax the neck. On your inhale, left leg up and back. Open the hip and you can stay. Or if you're comfortable in your flip dog, you start to go there.

Open up the chest. Push the hips up. Breathe. And we meet with both hands to the top of the mat.

Left foot forward, right heel down. Warrior II. Reversing with the half behind the right hand behind the back. Or to the inside of the left thigh, left arm back.

Breathe here. Left hand to the inside of the left foot or full bind if you have it in your practice and it feels available today. Wherever you go, breathe. Be present.

Observe. Take notice. One more breath. Slowly release.

Right arm up. Left hand can be where it is or you can place it wherever you want to be for your triangle. Just here for a couple of breaths in our triangle. So enjoy it.

And now paying attention, both hands to the floor, bending both knees and starting to angle the left foot on the edge, pinky toe edge on the left foot to the left. And everything comes open to the left side of the mat. Left knee on top, right knee underneath, cow face legs. Or do whatever you want to do.

Right arm up, left hand can be on top of the elbow, pull it back. Or you can grab the right hand behind your back or your strap. Breathe here. Last breath.

Slowly release. Taking your left hand to the left, right arm side stretched to the left, heavy hips. And coming back up, both hands to the front of the mat. Tucking your back toes and then walking the left foot over to the right just for a short little pigeon just to check in into our hips.

So you can use the bolster underneath the left hip. Or if it's okay here, you stay here on your hands or onto your forearms. Just to check in. Breathe into your hips.

That's been working pretty hard in this class. One more deep breath. Good and easy, and then you're finished. Do your squeeze102 one hour left.

Good, let's take a break. Thank you. One more. Great.

Bring your inventory into your corner, and then this push it down. Back to your bucket. One more deep breath into your hips. That's slowly coming onto your hands.

Tucking your back toes, stepping into plank, inhale, exhale onto your belly, grabbing your strap, bending your left leg, taking the strap around the left foot and you choose obviously how close you want to be to the foot. If you want to stay in your right forearm, pushing into the floor, lifting the chest, taking the left elbow up or if it's available for you to use the right hand, push into the corner of the mat and lift here. Wherever you are, breathe, keep the right leg active, think of length and strength, stability and openness of course. Last deep breath.

And slowly coming down, taking the strap to the side. Inhale either through cobra or up dog and exhale, downward dog. Bend the knees just to drop the head and stretch the back. One deep breath.

And we start to play and move into our pigeon. So right leg, you can angle it with the toes pointed, the knee forward and back or if you're really comfortable in the wider pigeon, flex the right foot, right knee to the right so you're more in a 90 degree angle. If that's too much, point the foot and put it back. So you will just find a way where you feel most stable and connected to your hips, not thinking that if you have 90 degrees in your legs, it's going to make it much better.

If it gives you less strength and lift, it's not better, then it's better that you have the foot a little bit back. So just place it however you feel most stable and you stay here and breathe on your fingertips. See how it is if you let go of of the floor. If that's available for you, if it's not, then we start with one hand, right hand in front.

You bend the left leg and you see if you can hold the foot with one hand. If both are available, then you take both hands back to the foot and you see if you can use the foot to kind of pull you up like in bow pose and breathe here for a little bit. This might be plenty, maybe this is your king pigeon today or forever. If you want to try a little bit further, you can use your strap again and take it around your left foot and do the same as we did on our belly.

Take as far out or in as you want on your strap, elbow forward and up. You can use your right hand to support or you can take the right hand up and then you can start to walk down but try not to do like this that you just lean and you twist. You try to stay forward, try to push into the leg. You want to have that push, you want to have that lift of the chest as you start to move deeper into your pose.

Notice if your elbow really go out to the side, try to draw them in and up instead. Pretend you have your hands pulling your elbows up and pushing them back. Breathe in your variation here and when you feel like it's enough, you take the strap off and you take a little fold over your right leg when you feel it's enough, when you just rest over the leg. Some people also really like after deep back bends to take the opposite arm which is now the left arm underneath the body.

Some people also like to take the right hand, find the right big toe and do a little wrap. If that's not available to you, it means that you will never become enlightened or happy and you are doomed. Or maybe that's not the case. Maybe it's just accepting that we're all different.

We have our strengths, we have our weaknesses but luckily we have our practice and if we just allow it, it will help us to become more resilient, stronger, happier. But not if we get attached to the wrong ideas. Then it might even do the opposite of that. So just stay aware, take a breath and when you're ready, slowly release yourself from the pose, shake it out a little bit.

Maybe you want to open the right hip, just shake out the right leg. And when you're ready, left leg into pigeon. So same here, you just angle the left leg however you feel more stable. So take your time, figure it out.

For me the left hip is also much tighter than the right so it's also this that we have to consider in our practice. The differences from side to side, the unbalances. When you find your place, notice if you need both hands as support or just one. Maybe you go and you find your right foot with the right hand and this is plenty.

This is your king pigeon. Maybe you want to search back with both hands and that the foot can pull you up and this can be your king pigeon. You can breathe here for a little bit. Maybe that's plenty.

If you want to go further, strap up the right foot. You choose how close you want to be with the hand of course and instead of just leaning and trying to go back like this thinking that it's the head to the foot that matters. Try to face forward, push into the left leg, feel the lift, feel the strength in your hips and lift from here. If you are comfortable there then you can start to walk the hands down.

Notice your elbows, pull them in and up. Think up and back instead of down and back. This is not so comfortable. Okay and notice if your breath disappears.

It means that you maybe went somewhere you shouldn't be. Come back to your breath and when you feel it's enough then you slowly release and you fold over your left leg. Breathe into your back, breathe into your hips. And notice how short time that was, that peak pose.

It was just a couple of minutes max. So it's really not about the peak pose. The peak pose is just there for motivation, for something to focus on but everything that we did up to this peak pose is good for us. We stretched and opened our shoulders, we strengthened, stabilized and stretched our hips.

We did balance, we did strength. So know that if you were able to do the deepest variation of the peak pose or not, it really, really does not matter. But that you showed up and you did your best, that actually matters. One more breath.

And slowly pushing back up. Down dog. And come onto your knees and now you have the option to press pause and do pigeon one more time. If you want to try and go deeper one more time or if you want to do it on one standing leg and do it in dancer, same thing.

But just a little play time on your own to experiment without me talking in your ear. And when you're ready to cool down, you press play again. Okay, so we're back. Hope that was a nice little play time.

So we will come forward to the top of the mat and just squat down. One of my favorite ways to release the low back after a lot of back bends and also allow now the shoulders to roll forward for a change and really round the whole back. You can use your hands to support you but really push the back around the back. You can take the chin to the chest and just breathe into the whole back side.

And it's also normal to feel a little bit sore if you're not used to doing shoulder stretches and a lot of back bends and a lot of hip work. It's normal to feel sore like you would after any new physical activity. One more deep breath into the whole back. And then slowly allow yourself to come down into seated.

Butterfly your legs, have the knees out to the side. You can sit on your bolster or adjust so you feel comfortable. Inhale here and then on your exhale just allow yourself again to come forward and also round. You can have your knuckles in your feet and rest your head if that's available.

If so, let me know in the comments below. If you're a little bit too far down for that you can use your block or two blocks. Just find a place to really relax the belly, relax the back, relax the legs. Just allow the breath to help you with relaxing any areas.

So so taking one more deep breath in. Slowly coming back up, releasing the left leg in front, taking the right leg to the outside of the left and just hugging your right leg, sitting up tall and then slowly twisting to the right. You can also do left elbow outside the right leg and push the leg and the arm toward each other for a little bit more. Again just releasing into your back and the outside of the hip.

Last inhale, exhale slowly release the arms and just follow the right leg and move the torso to the left. You can stay on your hands, just drop your head or come all the way down to your forearms. Take a deep breath here. Slowly coming up, just changing the legs, touching the right leg out, left leg on top, pulling onto your left leg and growing tall, turning to the left or if you want the right elbow outside and then pushing the elbow or the arm and the leg toward each other and breathe.

Last inhale exhale andФ release and just turn to your right. You can stay on your hands just around or come onto your forearms. Take a deep breath. Slowly come back up, finding your way onto your back.

You can either just hold your knees towards your chest. I like to just hold my feet knees out to the side and just wiggle the knees from side to side like a little massage for my back. And also of course happy baby available here to push the feet into the hands and push the hands down into the feet. Maybe you rock the baby a little bit from side to side.

If there's anything else you feel like doing before Shavasana, you add that now. Take a minute. Take a minute. Anything your body is craving to feel really good after this practice.

Take a minute to relax and try to have it to be something soothing and not something that will just invigorate you and get you all pepped for Shavasana. Just take your time, no rush. But when you're ready, you will find your way into your final resting pose. The place where you lay down and you just take in everything that you've been doing throughout the practice.

You feel the practice in every cell of your body. And you really feel the investment you just made. So find a comfortable Shavasana, maybe a bolster under the knees or a blanket over your body. Maybe a pillow over the eyes.

And give yourself the time you've got, preferably 10 minutes or more, but at least between 5 to 10 minutes to just rest here. Last breath in, filling up the whole body. And releasing, letting go. And staying here, just being your own witness.

Shavasana.