Peak Pose Class #2: Wheel Pose (77-Min Full Flow)

A lot of times when we think of backbends we think that we're bending our backs but it's actually more opening the front of the body which is really tight that gives us access to the spine. When the front of the body is tight we don't get access to any flexibility or range in the spine. Just one more time. And we meet seated down, just release the arms, take the arms overhead and now keep the right arm up, take the left hand and bend it behind your back.

Now bend the right elbow and see how close your fingers can meet behind your back. Maybe it's really far, maybe they're touching, doesn't really matter. Just make sure you're rolling the left shoulder back and lifting the chest up. Right elbow also moves up.

And now change the sides, so right arm moves back, left arm moves up, bending the left elbow and start to crawl the right hand up towards the left hand. Just take a breath, roll the right shoulder back, lift the chest and breathe. And then going from side to side just with the breath. Don't pause too long, just see how far they can touch, release and go to the other side.

And as you go notice if there's a big difference from side to side. For a lot of people one side is maybe touching and the other side not so much. So it just gives you some pointers on how your shoulders are in comparison to each other and why the wheel might feel a little unbalanced. A couple of times from side to side without trying too hard, you're just starting.

Now release the hands down and move back into all fours. So we're freestyling our cat and cow just to move into the spine a little bit more and also it's important to move into the wrists a little bit. And from cat cow here's a good place to just turn the hands so they fingers face back and maybe move a little bit forward and back into the wrist. The wrists are carrying a lot of weight in wheel, so just notice how it feels.

You might turn the hands the other way so the palms are facing up towards you. Just go wherever feels good with your body. Just creating some space and also taking time to just land in your body. So get the head away from whatever is outside and just being where you are.

And moving into our puppy cat cow. So just keep the hips over the knee and walk the hands away from you so the chest moves down and you can bring the top of the head down so you're gazing towards your own belly. And now on your next inhale gaze forward and reach the chest forward and down. And as you exhale curl back and gaze towards your own belly.

So keep going with your breath. So this is just a massage for the thoracic spine which is it's tend to be the part of the spine that is hardest to get access to and needs to be open for our wheel pose. And it also if we learn to have more if you if you bring the back bends more into this thoracic spine it takes it out of the low back which is naturally curved. So just creating some awareness in the spine where you want to open up.

And then slowly coming back to all four and moving into our downward facing dog. So lifting the hips up and back and dropping the head. And also today when we're moving we're not going to be too long in our down dog but just make sure when you're in your down dog that you're focusing on lengthening the spine and opening the shoulders. So if your hamstrings are restricting you here like Sebastian is showing you're rounding the back make sure you bend both knees lift the hips up and push the chest back towards the heel.

You want to open your shoulders and your back in down dog today. If heels down it's okay and you can keep this and go ahead and lower your heels. But on your next inhale we're going to stretch the right leg up and back and open up the hips. So bring it into our side body bend the knee and just keep breathing now into the right side.

I like sometimes to come on to my fingertips on the right hand just gives me a little bit more but keep put pushing into your left hand and left foot. Last inhale and as you exhale roll the knee forward and step the right foot between the hands lower the left knee back and down. You can just stay here and breathe into the front of your hips. And for our next exercise it's nice nice to flatten out the left foot.

So be on your top of your left foot yes and inhale both arms up. Exhale hands to the low back so thumb is facing to each other and you can have the four fingers on the outside or facing up the back. Just make sure it feels okay for your width. Roll the shoulders back lift the chest up and try to lean away from the move away from the floor.

Push through the right foot so you're moving the hips up and back. Inhale and as you exhale you drop the hips down forward and down. So inhale push into the right leg move back. Exhale lower down.

One more time. Inhale and exhale. Next inhale arms come up. Exhale hands down to the floor tuck your back toes step back into plank.

Take an inhale and as you exhale lower down to your belly. Flatten out your feet we're going to do a vinyasa I call it the floating cobra the first rounds. So engage your back body draw the hands away from the floor draw the feet away from the floor. Use the shoulder blades to pull the elbows in and to open up the chest.

Everything is lifting using the strength of your back body. And now on your next inhale push the hands and feet down and lift the chest for a deeper cobra and exhale down to your belly tuck your toes and push back through plank downward facing dog. And relax your head take a breath just find your dog. On your next inhale left leg up and back open up the hip.

Bend the knee and find your side stretch. So it can be palm down or come on to the fingertips on your left hand breathing into the left side. Again we're just starting so use this time to find out how everything is feeling today. How are the shoulders?

How are the hips? How's the back? Last inhale and on your exhale roll the left knee forward. Step the left foot between the hands.

Right knee down and just take a few breaths here where you just relax the hip maybe relax the head and neck. Engaging a little bit more. So flatten out your right foot so you can push into the top of the right foot. Inhale both arms up and exhale take your hands again to the low back where the thumbs can be facing each other or fingers on the outside or up the back.

Just make sure you're rolling the shoulders back lifting the chest and then push into the left foot you're moving slightly away from the floor. Inhale and as you exhale push the hips forward and down. Inhale push into the left leg move back. Exhale you come back down.

One last time. Inhale and exhale. And inhale both arms up. Exhale hands down and we step back into plank on our inhale.

Exhale just moving through the low push up down to the belly. Inhale floating Cobra so everything away from the floor. Just use the exhale to squeeze everything in and on your inhale push down lifting up deeper Cobra. Exhale come back down tuck your toes find plank and downward facing dog.

Take a breath drop your head. And slowly start to walk forward to the top of your mat. This was our little warm-up just to check in prepare everything. So hang-go-dangle on the front of your mat relaxing the head relaxing the arm moving the shifting the weights into the feet forward and back from side to side.

And then slowly start to roll up the spine so you come into standing mountain pose. I'm going to use our sun seas to create a little bit more heat and also connect more to the different parts of the body. So once again clasping the hands inhaling arms up chest up. Before we start to move here notice your arms your upper arms are they in front of your chest?

If they are this makes things really hard in our wheel. So you want to try to roll the shoulders back and push the chest through so the arms are behind the chest. Just make sure you don't have to bend your elbows to make that happen. You really need to work to push the arms straight roll the shoulders back and pull the chest up.

And now lengthen your tail down engage your legs so you're pushing the floor away. Inhale and exhale lean over to the right push into both legs side stretch in the left side. Inhale through center. Exhale to the left side stretching into the right side.

Again inhale through center reach up. Exhale to the right. Inhale through center lifting everything up. Exhale to the left.

Inhale to the center this time maybe gaze up and exhale clasp your hands behind your back and fold over your legs. So you're bending your knees and resting your tummy on your thighs. One deep breath here and then releasing the hands down. Inhale half lift to lengthen the back exhale place the hands down step your right foot back right knee down into a low lunge.

Inhale both arms up. Exhale take your left forearm to your left thigh and as you inhale now you push into the right leg and lift the right knee off the floor straight up. Exhale tap the knee down and side stretch to the left. Inhale move straight up use your left glute.

Exhale lower down and side stretch. Just one more time inhale straight up and exhale side stretch. Inhale both arms up gaze up. Exhale hands come down step into your plank as you inhale.

Exhale through that low push up down to your belly. Inhale floating cobra everything away from the floor just exhale squeeze everything in and on your inhale lifting to a higher Cobra. Exhale lower down push back through plank into downward facing dog. Take a deep breath and on your next inhale the right legs goes up and back and on your exhale roll the knee forward step the right foot through left knee down.

Inhale both arms up. Exhale right forearm to the right thigh left arm goes straight up and on your next inhale push the floor away and lift straight up. Exhale tapping the left knee down side stretch to the right. Inhale go straight up activating the right leg.

Exhale tapping the left knee side stretch to the right. Just one more time inhale straight up. Exhale side stretch. Inhale both arms up a little back bend strong length.

Exhale hands down step forward. Inhale half lift. Exhale forward fold. Inhale come all the way up reach up.

Exhale back to center. Moving into our twists so one more of Sun Sea. Inhale arms up. Exhale the right arm moves back left arm moves forward.

You're just twisting the spine. Inhale both arms up. Exhale left arm back right arm forward. One more round.

Inhale through center. Exhale twisting to the right maybe gaze back after the right hand. Inhale arms up. Exhale twisting to the left.

Inhale center reach up lift up. Exhale you just fold all the way down. Inhale half lift. Exhale step your left foot back.

Left knee down. Inhale both arms up. And now exhale left hand can grab the right knee. You start to circle your right arm big circles.

Just massaging the shoulder area. I mean I like to follow the arm with the gaze. Just gaze wherever feels good. And now on your next inhale bring everything up.

So arms up lifting the knee. Lifting the knee off the floor. Take a breath here up in crescent pose. And now left hand comes down to the floor.

Right arm moves up. You're twisting open keeping the left leg strong. So pushing through the left heel. Reaching through the right arm.

So you can take your right hand behind your head for a tendency for a lot of people is to just twist the shoulder. So if they have the hand behind the shoulder there they really have to turn the whole chest and twist the whole spine. Last inhale you can release the arm. Exhale hand down.

Inhale move through plank. Exhale through that low push up all the way down to your belly. Floating Cobra as you inhale. Exhale you just stay and connect.

Inhale you push down to lift up deeper Cobra. Exhale lower down and find your way through plank into downward facing dog. Take a breath and relax your neck and hand. And on your inhale left leg moves up and back.

Exhale roll the knee forward. Step the left foot between your hands. Right knee moves down. Arms smooth up on your inhale.

Exhale right hand can grab the left knee. You start to circle your left arm. So just a feel good pose now. So just however it feels good to move that arm and move the head.

Just get some circulation in there. And then on your next one bring both arms up and also lift the back knee. Inhale into your crescent. Just take a breath here.

Find balance through your legs. And then we're moving the right hand down to the floor. Left arm to the ceiling. So we twist open here.

And again a tendency for a lot of people is just to bring the arm back. So what can help is to have the hand behind the head and push the head into the hand and reach through the left elbow. Gaze through the right leg. Breathe.

And on your next inhale left arm can come up. And exhale hand to the floor. Step forward. Inhale half lift.

Exhale fold. Now we're bending the knees moving into chair pose. Both hands behind the head. So moving into our B variations to create even more heat.

So inhale lifting the chest. Exhale curling in. So elbows towards the knees. So really dropping your hips.

Inhale lifting the chest. Exhale closing in. Just one more time. Inhale opening up.

Exhale rounding. Next one. Inhale to chair. You can release the arms.

Exhale forward fold. Inhale half lift. And now we're moving through the full vinyasa. So low push up on your exhale.

Walk or float. Choose between cobra or up dog as you inhale. And just your own way back to down dog where you keep connecting to your core on the way back. Inhale right leg up and back.

Exhale roll the right knee forward. Place the right foot between your hands. And now if you have a belt you grab the belt. If you don't have a belt it doesn't mean one.

Come up into crescent and take your left hand up. Bend it behind your head. And like we did in the warm up the right hand behind your back. Crawling up either the belt or just crawling up as close as it gets.

So you keep reaching the left elbow up rolling the right shoulder back. And you have to now stay strong through the legs and keep connecting to your breath for balance. Keep reaching everything up through the torso but drop the left knee to the floor. Just tapping the floor.

And then pushing through the right leg connecting to the glute and lean forward into warrior three. So you're reaching through the left elbow and you're reaching through the left heel. And now slowly with control lowering the left foot. Inhale into crescent.

Exhale tapping the knee down. Up Sebastian. Can't follow instructions. Inhale back to crescent.

Exhale warrior three leaning forward. Inhale through crescent. Exhale tapping the knee down. Inhale through crescent.

Exhale warrior three. Slowly moving back through crescent. Slowly releasing the belt if you have it. Releasing the arms.

Both arms up. Inhale. Exhale left hand to the floor. Right arm to the ceiling.

And now side plank strong through the left shoulder and move through side plank into your flip dog. So right foot behind you. Push into the legs. Push the hip forward.

Reach the chest through. And again you can put the hand behind your head or you can reach to the floor. Just open the chest and breathe. And then slowly find your way into plank.

Inhale. Exhale all the way down to the floor. Reach your hands back and clasp your hands together if you can. If not just keep reaching them back.

Inhale lift the legs. Lift the chest and just find an even lift of the front. So even stretch of the front too. Engaging the back.

You're engaging the inner thigh. And you're reaching back and up through the leg. Reaching forward and up through the head. And on your last breath in give it your all.

Lift everything a little bit more. And exhale release down. Choose between cobra or up dog on your inhale. Exhale your way back to downward facing dog.

Take a breath. Relax your head and neck. Next inhale left leg up and back. Exhale roll the knee forward.

Step the foot through and bring your belt if you have one. Move on up into crescent. So this time the right arm is up and behind your head. Left hand comes behind your back and find the belt or your hand or as close as you get.

And just stay here for a few breaths. You keep reaching the right elbow up. Keep reaching the chest. Breathing connecting through the legs into the floor.

Now just tap the knee down to the floor. Keep reaching the chest up as you reach the right knee down to the floor. And slowly push up into crescent and lean forward into warrior three. So keep reaching through the right elbow.

Keep pushing through the right leg. And now as slow as you can tap the right foot down. Lift the chest. Inhale.

Exhale lower your right knee. Inhale push back up into crescent. Exhale warrior three. Lean forward.

Keep reaching. Inhale landing the foot down. Crescent. Exhale tapping the knee down.

Last one. Inhale crescent. Exhale warrior three. Inhale back to crescent.

This time slowly releasing the belt or the arms. Both arms move up. Inhale. Exhale right hand down.

Left arm up. So again make sure you have a strong connection through the floor and stable right shoulder. And you move through side plank into flip dog. So push both legs down.

Reach the hips up. Reach the chest up. And the left hand can go behind your head or just keep reaching away from you or even down to the floor. Deep breathing.

And slowly come back through plank. Inhale in your plank. Exhale all the way down to your belly. This time reach the hands back and bend the knees.

Grab your feet or your ankles. Whatever you can find. And then use the legs. Push the feet into the hands.

The hands into the feet. And push the feet up towards the ceiling. And then push them away from you. So they're helping to really lift the chest up.

You breathe here. And on your last breath in give it your all. See how high you can get. And on exhale release everything down.

And choose between cobra or half dog on your inhale. And exhale find your way back to down dog. Take a breath. One time I was in that pose for 35 breaths.

The teacher didn't find it useful if we were not there for a very long time. Okay so on your next inhale bending your knees. Gazing forward. And on your exhale jump or float to the top of your mat.

Inhale half lift. Exhale forward fold. Inhale chair pose again. Our second round with B.

So another heat building sequence with twists this time. So like we did standing twisting inhale. Exhale twisting to the right. Right arm back.

Left arm forward. Inhale through center. Sit back and down. Exhale left arm back.

Right arm forward. Inhale through center. One more round each side. So make sure you're really moving into the legs.

So like I said this is a heat building sequence. So you really want to engage the big muscle groups. On your next one inhale through center. And exhale forward fold.

Inhale half lift. Exhale move through your vinyasa. So the low push up. Cobra or up dog as you inhale.

And exhale down dog. Take a breath. Just connect to your arms to your breath. And inhale right leg up and back.

Exhale roll the knee forward. Step up into crescent. Now cactus your arms. So bending the elbows.

Chest reaches through. And take your left arm underneath your right for eagle arms. So just bind wherever you can. If you can grab your thumb or your sleeve or something.

Just bring the elbows away from the floor. Not the floor your chest. And now on your inhale reach the elbows to the ceiling. Lift the chest.

And exhale you're going to bring your left knee up to your elbows and your elbows towards your knee. So rounding. Inhale try to do a soft step back into crescent. Lift the chest and elbows up.

Exhale bring the knee and elbows toward each other again and curl up. Inhale again back to crescent. One more round. As you exhale bring everything in and up.

Slowly come back to crescent. Keep the arms. Just find your balance. And on your exhale just twisting to the right without using the arms.

And now see if the left elbow can hook on the outside of the right thigh. If the eagle arms feels awkward for you here you can just open the arms. If it feels okay it feels good. You just keep the arms the way they are and you breathe.

Keeps you reaching through the right heel. Use your gaze for balance. Use your breath to connect. And just gaze down.

Keep the arms where they are. Just gaze down and step the left foot forward to a twisting chair pose. One breath here. And you release the arms into chair.

Inhale. Exhale sit all the way down to your butt. Moving into boat pose. You can have your knees bent.

You can have them straight but make sure your spine is straight. Your chest is lifted. And your face is soft. So just a subtle connection to your core.

So wheel pose is obviously stretching the front side but we also need this subtle connection to our core to have the stability in wheel. Last inhale. And on your exhale you can just roll down to the floor. Place your feet close to your hips.

Hip distance. Hip distance. And I like to do here is a lot of times the hips go really high in half bridge but the chest is low. So I like to start with the chest.

So you can lift the forearms and just plug the upper arms into the floor. Push into the floor and then puff the chest up. And from here you engage the legs and you roll the hips off the floor into bridge or half wheel. And see if you can puff the chest up even more and then walk the elbows more underneath the body.

You can stay like this or you can try to clasp the hands together underneath the back and even wiggle the shoulders even more behind you or underneath you. So good connection to the floor through the feet. So sometimes I like to lift the feet just to feel like the whole foot and I lift the toes so I feel like the whole foot is actually pushing down. So just the toes lifting.

Let's finding this even arch in my back or in your back. And also noticing how your breath is. Last inhale. And on your exhale just slowly release down.

Release the hands and lower the whole back down to the mat. Just take a moment. That was a nice moment. So let's move on.

Start to rock and roll up and down. All the way up into our chair pose. Inhale arms up and again we twist right arm back left arm forward. Inhale both arms up.

Exhale twisting to the left. One more round. Keep the hips low. Inhale.

Exhale twist to the right. Inhale through center. Exhale twist to the left. Inhale into chair.

Exhale we fold. Inhale half lift. Exhale vinyasa. So low push up push up walk or floats.

Inhale cobra or up dog. Exhale your way back down dog. Just take a breath. Connect.

Exhale. Wipe your nose. Inhale left leg up and back. Exhale roll the knee forward.

Step the foot through the hands. Push down to lift up into crescent. And also here we do the cactus arms. Just open the chest and then bring the right arm underneath the left for eagle arms.

So you grab the right hand wherever you can on the left hand. Take a few breaths. Moving the elbows away from the body. And now when you inhale you start to reach the elbows up and gaze up.

Exhale bring the right knee toward your elbows and your elbows toward your right knee curling in. Inhale landing the right foot softly back lifting the chest lifting the elbow. Exhale bringing everything close again rounding. Inhale slowly back.

Last round inhale. Exhale curling everything up. Inhale landing softly and now keep everything just exhale twisting to the left. Yes so we try to do the twist while up and then we can't when we can't go further we start to lower the right elbow on the outside of the left thigh.

If this feels awkward depends on your proportions maybe it feels better to open the arms please do that if not you can stay in eagle for Sebastian's proportions it feels really good to stay in eagle. If you have really long arms and torso really short thigh bones this is for you. One more breath. And then gaze down for balance and step your right foot forward to meet the left.

So sit here in twisted chair pose just for a breath. And on your next inhale release the arms for chair pose. Exhale all the way down both pose. Bend your knees or legs straight.

And then lower the torso for half both. So again you're just connecting to your core for three or two four one lower all the way down bend your knees place the feet behind your hips. So on this exercise it's really really important that you have balance in your feet so not too wide feet is going to make this exercise really hard so make sure the hip feet are hip distance. Do the same thing plug your upper arms into the floor puff your chest up.

And on your inhale now you're pushing to the legs roll the hips up and you walk the shoulder underneath. So you can stay here with the hands this time or you can clasp them you will figure out what you want to do with the hand. Lean all weight into the left foot and lift the right leg towards the ceiling. Make sure your hips are not dropping the tendency here is either to collapse the chest or drop the hips or both.

So stay strong inhale keep the hips lifting exhale straight right leg reaches down towards the floor. Inhale come back up so everything is lifting. Exhale just lower the right foot straight leg inhale lifting two more exhale reaching away from you and down keep pushing into the left leg inhale up. So last one push into the upper arms and the left leg as you reach and tap and inhale exhale right foot down use the right foot lift the hips and lift the left leg off the floor.

Inhale here exhale left leg reaches away and down keep reaching left leg up hips up exhale left foot taps down keep breathing inhale exhale keep lifting the chest keep lifting the hips two more inhale stay strong breathe exhale last one inhale keep lifting exhale tap it down and I don't know if that was a bonus but inhale left leg up and touch the left foot down lift the hips just for one breath and exhale hopefully you are more connected to your legs and glutes and also maybe that the back was working just let it soak in deep breath through the nose out through the mouth and let's rock and roll all the way up and through our vinyasa walk or float or fly or jump or crawl and take a breath in your down dog let's get ready for our standing sequence so inhaling right leg up and back exhale roll the right knee forward step the right foot between the hands left heel moves down circling the arms up for warrior two let's take a breath here in warrior two landing on two feet and then reversing the warrior left arm back right arm up couple of breaths here just staying strong in your legs and from here right hand to the right thigh left arm behind your back or the inside of your right thigh so you can either rest the forearm on your right thigh some people might even reach the right hand down and touch the floor just make sure your chest is not closing you really want to roll the left shoulder back and open the chest that's the whole purpose of what we're doing now is to to open the chest and the front of the shoulder so breathe here keep the legs strong and the neck long and free and then gaze down and now take your right hand slightly in front of your right foot lean into your right foot and right hand lift into half moon keep the half bind so keep rolling the left shoulder back and if you feel like there's a possibility you might even grab the left foot with your left hand you can bend the left knee and then lift your right foot and then lift your right foot possibility you might even grab the left foot with your left hand you can bend the left knee and see if you can find your foot behind you here if you do you can push the hip forward and find a nice stretch in the front of the hip and thigh if you don't find that foot don't worry about it just take a breath find your balance then we slowly release come back with the left leg take both hands on the inside right hand on the inside of the right leg and just move your toes on your right foot the same way as the toes in your left foot so you're in a straddle the right hand comes right underneath your face the spine moves straight out of the hips and now we roll the left shoulders back even more and then at the end we just release the left arm to the ceiling if it's better for you to gaze down gaze down maybe to the side maybe up just do whatever feels good for your neck one more deep breath and slowly both hands down walking both hands to the inside of the right foot you want maybe want to heel toe your right foot out to the side so you come into lizard left knee back and down and right arm up and back and bring the right foot or ankle to the left foot or ankle to the right hand and use that to open up the chest and from a bit couple of nice deep breaths here here now keeping the pose exactly like it is just releasing the foot with the hand see if you can keep the foot pulling in and keep the shoulder and arm reaching back but without cheating using the strength of the back of your leg and using the strength of your back three two and one release both hands down step back into plank take a nice inhale exhale all the way down to your belly moving into bow again with a different variation so bring the heels in grabbing ankles or feet inhale lift away from the floor this time exhale roll to the right see if you can rock your bow over to the right yes and just keep reaching the hips forward breathing into the whole front of the body and again inhale through center rocking through center exhale see if you can flip your bow over to the left if you get stuck doesn't matter then you're just in regular bow breathing using gravity next inhale back to center lift everything up away from the floor and exhale slowly release finding your way back to downward facing dog so this is our last last standing sequence before you move into the peak pose so on your next inhale left leg up and back exhale roll the knee forward step the left foot between the hands right heel down circle up into warrior two give yourself a moment to just stay connect to the floor connect your breath just figuring out where you are where your head is at compared to the rest of the spine where's your hips where's your knees and then reverse your warrior breathe into your left side moving into side angle so left hand or forearm to left side right arm into that half bind behind your back or the inside of your left side the left hand can move down to the floor but just make sure you're not closing your chest so the right shoulder is rolling back chest is opening spine is long breath is steady maybe even the mind is calm sometimes the standing sequence helps with that to just calm the mind balance poses not so much so let's just try it out gaze down move the left hand slightly in front of the left foot and lean into the left leg for half moon so rolling the right hip on top of the left staying here or bending the right knee and maybe even grabbing the foot with the hand if you find the foot you can push the foot into the hand like we did in bow and find nice stretch for the front of the hip and thigh most importantly you're just breathing using the pose to to stay in the present and if you grab the foot just slowly release the foot so you're back into the half bind into the half bind landing the right foot down and turning through half bind with the right hand and turning the toes on the left foot forward same way as the toes on the right foot making sure the spine comes out of the hips left hand underneath the head rolling the right shoulder away and then slowly releasing the right arm up towards the ceiling so again head can be wherever that feels good on the neck strong legs strong left arm deep breath slowly both hands to the floor walking both hands to the inside of the left foot maybe toe heel the left foot out to the side move the right knee back and down for lizard left arm circles back and you're bringing the right foot towards the left hand holding the foot or the ankle and breathing and keep everything as it is just release the foot use the strength of the leg to pull it in use the twist in your spine to reach back and three two and three two and one and release release both hands down step back into plank inhale here this time just lower the knees bring the hips over the knees so you're scooting the hips over your knees walking the hands forward taking the palms together like you're praying and putting the hands behind your head and just wiggle the elbows forward and as close as you can so they're not splaying too much open but try to wiggle them into about shoulder width and then dropping into your version of puppy pose breathing into your shoulders and upper back notice how it feels now after all that you've been doing for the last i don't know about 40 minutes 45 minutes yes hopefully some more heat hopefully more connected and then one more deep breath and slowly release the arms and walk back to all fours and push back downward facing dog walk or float the feet to a squat take a breath and let's start working on our wheel so rolling back down i'm going to show you what you can do if there's not the corona situation where you are if you have a belt you can use the belt to to assist the person you can also offer your ankles this helps especially if the person have a hard time just straightening the arms any wrist problems or shoulder injuries this takes a lot of weight out of the arms just make sure your Sebastian has pretty wide shoulders so i will have my feet wider than i would if he has more narrow shoulders so just try to have your feet wide enough take the belt underneath their shoulders and not their low back the shoulders the upper back and then have them lift the hips first use the legs active and then come on to the top of their head and from here so the four fingers are on the outside sorry i forget to mention and the thumbs are on the inside the thumbs on the inside four fingers on the outside of the ankles and from here you're together as when we inhale he pushes into my ankles and i straighten up and i i pull him towards me because a lot of times the people are so much in their legs so i need a little help to come over their arms and it's easier for a lot of people to straighten arms when they have their hands on either a person's ankles or yoga blocks so just have them breathe here if you can offer offer this for the person that is tightest in the room maybe and then slowly come back down if you don't have anyone to do this with or you have 20 people in the room you can't do this with everyone of course it's just a nice thing to do if you if you can and we always try to do two at least two hopefully three wheels just because the first one always feels really bad so when you want to you want to have them place their fingers in a way so the whole palm can push into the floor there's many rules for wheel i tell the more i've been teaching wheel the more i figure out that the rules don't apply the same to everybody so i will just have them place their hands wherever they can push the whole palm down and they feel like they really can connect to the floor and then lift the hips and come on to the top of their head just so they can feel a strength in their arms before they lift the head and then inhale i prefer inhale maybe you prefer exhale i don't think it really really matters just on a breath come up reminder of using the legs actively so maybe lifting the toes just to feel the push into the feet especially the inner foot and also having air between each finger if people have the palms together it can be really hard so air between each finger pushing evenly through the hands and also breathing many people tend to hold the breath when the pulse gets very intense helps to breathe when they come down chin into the chest or like sebastian did top of the head can be nice to just take the chin in and roll down and just have allowed them to have a few breaths um after each wheel before you come up like i said at least two like we did now if you have time for three and then maybe even four or five after a while that's perfect so it usually feels better and better and better okay let's do three even though we're out of time let's just do three just so i can get a few more pointers in so again just placing the hands wherever they can place the hands and feel connection to the floor feet hip distance and then engaging the legs lifting the feet hips move on to the top of the head just so you can feel the power in your arms first and then when they lift they want to lift the chest toward their arms and not push away from the arms if you've been to yoga classes you probably and you're done wheel you probably heard the toes are going to point forward knees in line with the toes maybe even the second toe and there's so many rules but give them some freedom to explore what feels good on their body maybe allow them to open the feet and hands a little bit wider than shoulder and hips maybe allow them to rock forward and back and just figure it out how it feels because we are very different and a lot of people had different injuries going on a lot too that maybe the teacher doesn't know of so give more freedom and not so many rules that's my advice as long as you warm them up well and you're taking all the all the important things like where to engage and where to put the weight okay so we're down just taking in the pose like I said we're so used to leaning forward so this can be pretty intense can be a lot so just observing just observing and just give it time so if you're not used to very many deep back bends don't think that this is something that happens in one class just give your body time needs time to open up and then we move the other direction every day all day always leaning forward okay so counter the back bends just stretch out your left leg draw the right knee in and hold on to your right shin or knee and pull the knee towards you and lengthen the left leg away from you just allow the head to drop heavy and now you can just kind of drop the breath just allow it to come and go as it wants maybe feel like you want to inhale through the nose and release any tension through the mouth and just giving the signals to your body that now it's time to relax release and twists is always nice after deep back bends so you can do a little hip escape to your right and bring the right knee over to the left the right arm can be wherever it feels good just breathing down your whole spine noticing how the body has received all the poses you've been doing big inhale through the nose and release release on your exhale and slowly come back to center just change the legs left leg in stretch the right leg out and as you bring the left knee close you're lengthening the right leg away from you allowing the body to be heavy down on the floor and then moving into the twist again hip escape to the left bring the left knee over to the right left arm wherever you feel like the left arm wants to be allowing the breath to be soft calming so learning the body and the mind that there's a difference on being on and ready to go and done ready to relax so we're not always one place or not always in between big inhale through the nose relax and release and just finding your way up to a seat where your legs are either straight out in front of you or butterfly feet together knees out to the side just choose whichever pose that gives you access to to the back the legs back of the legs are not so important so just find a way that you're comfortable seated and inhale just lift the spine and exhale just allow yourself to move forward and down you're allowed to round the spine in this forward fold and then try to find your breath in the back of the body maybe especially the low back it's common to to tense the low back when we start to do deeper back bends but we try to remind ourselves to bring the back bend up higher just bring your breath all the way down to your low back through the main back and thoracic and all the way up to your neck allowing the head to be heavy and the face to be heavy allowing the head to be heavy and the face to be soft and then last deep inhale filling all the way up exhale release slowly rolling up the spine all the way down to your back and I like to just give options even so for some people plow pose maybe feels really good after deep back bends for some this is really accessible it's like an up upside down forward fold this doesn't feel good happy baby instead where you just stay on your back bend the knees grab the outside of the feet bring their knees to the outside and just push the hips down to the floor so either plow or happy baby whatever you prefer just push the hips down to the floor so either plow or happy baby whatever you prefer so last deep breath here inhale through the nose and maybe release through the mouth and just let go plow pose you just roll everything down just do whatever you need to do to find a comfortable place for Shavasana if it's resting the knees together or stretching the legs out relaxing the back relaxing the hands relaxing the arms relaxing the face and then just dropping with all your weight down into the floor so witnessing yourself relaxing receiving all the benefits from this practice do And then with your breath slowly coming back into your body. Emptying the belly. Emptying the belly. Wiggling your hands.

Maybe giving yourself a nice stretch. Throwing up into a ball. Finding a way up to a comfortable seat. Just again, just rest your hands.

Maybe keep your eyes closed. Just take a moment. Just recognize how you feel about the practice you just did. It might not just be the funniest practice.

It's hard work. It's unnatural, but it's very, very healthy in the long run to do this type of work that counters what we do every day. That is not so beneficial for our posture or even our game if we're thinking about that. So thank yourself for doing the work and showing up.

Big breath in through the nose. Exhale through the mouth. Good work. So, like I said, it's not the funniest maybe practice for most people because it can be really challenging.

But it's the back, I've been teaching backbend classes for a long time now. And it's the class, I've been teaching inversions, arm balances, playful classes, yin classes, and the backbend classes in our studio. And what I see the most benefits from is the backbend class. And also where I hear the best feedback from people and how they have had their backs getting stronger, their posture is getting so much better.

And people with hip problems fixing their hips doing this type of work in class. So even though it can be slightly boring or frustrating, it's very, very beneficial to do this on a regular basis. Sebastian is not as happy about backbends as I am, so I'll let him have a word too. I just want to add to your classes.

They are very popular with a small number of people that can put in the work. Because it's so much hard work that very few, you know, most people drop off before they start reaping the benefits because they don't want to do a tough, boring class. Yeah, no, it's a full class. It's always been a full class.

But it's always the same people. Very few new people come and it's much more enjoyable to just come to a in class where you just can relax and don't really have to do a lot of work. So, yeah, it's a lot of the same people that come back to this. But it's also where you can reap the benefits.

Yeah, and for defending myself that I don't like backbends is usually because the backbend classes that are generally out there are tailored towards people who are already very banded backwards. And the jiu-jitsu is mostly about squeezing your elbows and knees in and curling up into a tight ball because then no one can pass your guard and nobody can submit you if your tight is a ball. So it's very unlikely for your average jiu-jitsu person to just enjoy backbends because everybody has so tight hip flexors and are so crunched up and so much back pain. But like Stig and I said, it's where we can reap the most benefit in a short amount of time.

If we just put in and build the heat and put in the work to open up, it's going to open up your mind as well as your tightness. And you're going to feel happy, maybe for the first time in a long time, because you feel like this all the time. And when you finally get to open up, it's like lifting a beam from your face. So I think backbends has a lot of possibilities and it's really an overlooked part of yoga for BJ because I haven't taught backbends because I'm not that comfortable with them.

But I enjoy doing it when I have a great teacher. So this is a great yoga for BJ class that everybody can benefit a lot from. We also have, I have another same peak pose wheel with just another way to sequence it. It's also up on the Yoga for BJ library.

So there's you can see there's not just one way to wheel, of course, this was just one that we picked now. And so it's just there's so many ways to sequence up to a big post. This was just one. But I try to have in mind that most people that can benefit from this type of practice are not the ones that already have open shoulder, that already have a bendy back.

So if you already can put your feet on your head, you're not going to benefit too much from this class. But most people can. That's probably the hardest sell to teach yoga to Jiu Jitsu people is that the people who says they're too stiff for yoga and like I can't, this is my backbend. When they like when they're that stiff, then they can reap so much benefit if the teacher are good enough to finding the right starting point and not be demotivating by being too far high level.

So that's the big challenge to get people to do something they really don't want to do, but get them over the threshold when they realize, wow, this is the reason I hate it because I'm doing it wrong all the time. And just getting back from extreme state to a normal state is hugely beneficial. You don't have to do a full Scorpion post to enjoy the benefits of a backbend. It's just, you know, maybe after a class like this, you feel more like this and less like this.

And then we have done our job and the world is a better place. Yeah. And we will talk much more about this when we're in person because there's so many details that makes a huge difference. But it's much easier when we're together.

So this will be much more focused on when we are meeting live. Yeah. And I'll add that class you talked about the other version of the people's wheel. I will add it in the curriculum so that you can take it.

Thank you for today. Thank you. Thank you for a great class.