Lizard Pose & Hip Opening: 10-Min Mobility Flow

So here it's pretty revealing for most people if they have tight hips and hamstrings. So it's nice to just keep encouraged and give options that people can actually do. So the option that will help people is bring the back knee further back. Use the hands, either come up on your fingertips, your knuckles, or walk the hands with the movement to help them find some flow.

Because when we are tight, if we move, it's easier to relax. If we stay static, it's easier to tense up. So anything you want to add to this stretch? Yeah, I remember a thing that I would like to add, which is straight is overrated.

It's a nice thing to say because people think that it only counts if you get the leg completely straight. So I usually say that to beginners that I see them struggling with getting the leg straight. I say straight is overrated. Just get it.

Just get a nice stretch. Straight is overrated. Nice. So straight is overrated.

They're doing good by just moving exactly where they are. So this is the lizard and half split flow. So we use the inhale and exhale to move. It's nice to use the inhale to find the length and then exhale to find some depth and maybe a fold.

OK, more variations on this will come. Now we're moving into the twist. So same thing here. The further back the back knee is, the easier it will be to grab the back foot.

If he has the knee too far forward and he tries to grab the foot, it's really hard. You will see this a lot, probably. I see it all the time. So he brings the back knee as far back as he can and then drops the hips and then take also the toes and the knees slightly out to the side.

This will also give him some more range and some more freedom to move. So toes and knee point the same way. The arm comes up, so the arm on the same side as the foot that turns out. And instead of just trying to reach for the foot with the arm, he lifts the chest and then turn the chest with the arm.

And when he can't turn no more, he brings the leg to the hand. For some people, it won't happen the first 10, 20 times. So one option is to just keep bringing your foot towards your hand and one day they will happily meet. But until then, keep drawing the foot actively toward the hand and keep reaching the hand toward the foot.

So this is more work, obviously, than just grabbing the foot or the ankle. When they have the foot or the ankle, they stay here and they breathe. So the twist, yes, release the face and everything that tends to tense up. So again, the lizard twist, bring the back knee further back, bring the hips down, open the foot and knee out to the side to create more space.

The arm reaches up and around and the foot is trying to find the hand. When they meet, they create some tension together to open the chest and the front of the thighs and hips. That's our twist. And from the twist, we're moving straight into our half squat.

So the foot you're holding is moving over to the other side. So in this case, it's over the left foot over to the right. And then the hips moving towards the left heel. So you want to have people sitting comfortably on their own heel.

And for some, this is easy peasy. For others, it's already a lot. So again, options to support yourself on your fingertips, option to come down on your palms and options to to move from side to side. So here it's just the transition, I think that is just important to cue that after you had the back foot.

You prepare them before they release the foot that the foot is moving into the half squat. So the foot you're holding, people probably want to just release the foot, but we want them to move the foot into the half squat. So we say that before they can release the foot, you say now we're going to bring the foot into the half squat. So bring your right foot over to the left and sit down on your right heel.

That's the hardest part. The half squat is pretty easy, straightforward. You have your forward leg is bent, toes and knees, same direction, and you're sitting down on your heel. For some, this is super intense, like I said, and for some, it's maybe they come all the way down.

I'll look at more variations, but the transition is the tricky one here. So just preparing them. Now we're moving into the half squat, right foot over to the left. And from here, just give options, fingertips, palms or left or right and breathe.

That's the important. I think it's a nice thing to bring up here that whenever I see that I lost the whole room and everybody's looking like question marks, then I take the opportunity to take all the... even if they made a completely horrible job, I still take it upon myself and I say, sorry, I'm complicating something that's really easy. So just to get everybody, I say this to get everybody back on track, I say, so we are with a kneeling position in the right leg and a squat in the left leg.

And that's a nice way to kind of bring the room back so that they feel like they know what's going on, because some things are very simple to do, but extremely hard to cue. And this is one of the transitions where you need to practice queuing it so that people can follow along what you do. So a backup can be, sorry, I make this really complicated. It's actually really easy.

Kneeling on your right leg, squat on your left leg. Perfect. So whenever you mess up and you lose everybody, that's a nice technique to bring everything back and just tell them what we're supposed to do. And yeah, I just want to add that if this is a really intense pose for people, it's really irrelevant.

So if you're not comfortable here, of course, all passing is going to be really hard. So same as the turtle, you want to you want to be able to have your hips low and be comfortable. And if that is not the case right away, well, perfect. You're in the right space.

You're practicing yoga for BJ and you're getting into your hips.