Sebastian Brosche · 68 min · 6,580 words
Previously titled: Strengthen The Back and Lengthen The Front
Hi and welcome. Today's class will focus on stretching our back body, especially opening the hamstrings and back of the legs and also strengthening our front body, connection to our core. All you need is your belt or something similar and we are starting on our backs. So just lay down and have the belt close by.
Just start by grabbing your own feet. So put your feet together and take your hands around your feet, knees out to the side. Just take a moment and notice if your back is lifting off the floor, your low back, and then start to push your hips down and try to lengthen and flatten out your low back. Start to move your knees a little bit from side to side and just notice how you feel in this position.
Does any parts of your body already let you know that they're kind of stiff or sore? How is your neck and shoulders feeling? Maybe you can roll your head from side to side. You're just slowly starting to lose up.
I guess it's called loosen up. And then keeping the feet in your hands and just slowly start to stretch your left leg out to the left. Maybe you have to keep a bent knee. Maybe the leg stretches all the way out to the side.
Just take a breath and slowly bring that left leg in. Take the right leg out to the right. Just pay attention to where it stops and why it stops or maybe go straight. Take a breath here and then just move like this from side to side.
Maybe you also can pull the opposite foot in towards your body. Just noticing where in your body do you have resistance right now. Is it your hips? Is it your hamstrings?
I started to run a lot more so I noticed my hamstrings are getting real tight. Also noticing what you're doing in your daily life and how it affects your body. If you do play a lot of guard you might have really tight hip flexors. First of all just getting to know your own body and then this class maybe will show you some weak spots and maybe we'll show you some strengths.
Okay so feet to the floor, grab your belt. Take the belt around your right foot and start to push your foot into the belt. Notice if you have to keep a bend in your knee or if you can straighten the leg. It is better to to bend the knee to get the foot over the hip.
If your foot is all the way forward it's better to bend the knee a little bit and try to bring the foot over the hip. If it's available for you you can straighten out the left leg. Also get a nice hip flexor stretch. Push the left heel into the floor and also here try to lengthen the low back so push the low back into the floor.
Relax your shoulders and stay a little bit active in the right legs. You're pushing the ball of the foot into the belt. You can choose to flex where you push the heel up. For me that's more calf or you can push the ball of the foot into the belt.
For me that's more back of the thigh. You can alternate between those two. Just breathe, try to stay relaxed. If your leg is shaking just move the leg around a little bit.
Bend it, straighten it, try to not tense up too much. That's very easy in the beginning when you start to work on your flexibility that you try to just stick it and you start to shake because all your muscles are getting scared, doesn't know what you're really doing so they're just working against you. So just try to loosen up, stay relaxed. And then take your right leg out to the side.
You can have a bend in the knee or straight leg. Try to keep your left hip on the floor. If you have your left foot on the floor you can bring your left knee out to the left. Just take a nice few deep breaths into your hips and hamstring.
And bring your right leg up. Switching legs, right foot to the floor. Bring your left foot into your belt. Start to push your either ball of the foot into the belt or flex your heel up.
And notice here if the same thing is that your leg is way in front of your hip. Try to bend the knee, bring the foot over the hip. If the leg is shaking just move around. Try to breathe deep into your belly.
Just convince yourself and your body that this is good. You can do this. The more time you spend doing things like this, the more your body will start to be on your team. So try to not fight yourself too much.
Like if you want to have a stretch on the front of your right hip and if it's okay you can push the right heel into the floor, straighten the right leg. Try to relax your shoulders. Like you would do in maybe a competition somewhere you're usually nervous, you also tend to tense up when you're nervous. Try to breathe.
Even though you're maybe not nervous right now you're tensing up if you're really tight. So use your breath. Notice what happens if you push the ball of the foot into the belt. What happens if you push the heel towards the ceiling?
Where in your leg do you feel it the most? And one more deep breath here. All the way down into your belly. And slowly taking the left leg out to the left.
You need to keep a bend in the knee or if it's a little bit more tight, you can just push the ball of the foot into the belt. And then take the right leg out to the left. You need to keep a bend in the knee or if it's okay to straighten it. So if you have a bend in the knee of course that's fine.
You just want to work towards straight. It will give you more options with your body. But take your time. If it's a lot to have the right leg straight you can put the right foot on the floor and bring the right knee out to the right.
Just breathe. Stay heavy in your shoulders and your right hip. Also relax your face. You don't want to create more tension when we practice yoga.
We want to get rid of some of the tension. Just notice if your jaw is tightening up. Try to relax your jaw. Just breathe a little bit more.
And bring the left leg up. Take your belt out to the side. Okay so we're going to start to work a little bit. It's just nice to free up the back body a little bit first.
First just grab behind your thighs. Bring the legs straight and as close to your body as you can. And then start to rock. Rock all the way up.
Find your balance and rock all the way back again. Just do that a couple of times. Find your balance and roll back. Just give your spine a little massage.
And just slowly warming up the core for our next drill. But first we're going to work into our neck a little bit. So next time you roll up come into a comfortable seat. Just cross your legs and take your right hand on the top back of your head.
So push the head into your hand so you already feel like you're pushing into the floor. You're getting long in your upper body. And then start to roll your head. At the same time you're pushing into your hand so your head is not just loose and rolling.
You're actively pushing into your hand and just moving the head around. And maybe you find a sweet spot where you want to stay. You can also try to move the hand more to the back of the head and push the head back into the hand. For me I feel it a lot on my left side of my neck.
And then I can use the left arm and pull it away from my body to get a deeper stretch. But I want to stay active here. I just don't just want to relax the head and pull the head down. So active pushing the head into the hand.
Moving wherever you want to go. And then changing hand. Left hand top of the back of the head or the back of the head. Pushing the head into the hand.
Moving the head all directions. Just figuring out where you need to be, where you need to breathe. You can take the right arm away from the body for a deeper stretch. And then you can move the head to the side.
Take the right arm away from the body for a deeper stretch. At the same time you're pushing your hips into the floor. Breathing into your neck. And one more breath.
Slowly release both hands to the back of the head. Push the head into the hand. Maybe try to gaze up. And then start to pull your shin to chest, elbows forward and down.
Keep pushing the back of the head into the hands. Push, push, push, lift up. And one more. Keep pushing the back of the head into the hands.
Slowly roll down. And slowly roll up. And release. I'm going to keep rolling now, but we're going to use as little momentum as we can.
So we want to try to stay in control of the pace of our body and not just allow the body to kind of fall back and forth. So we're going to start by activating the legs and the feet. Inhale, arms up. Try to reach up and exhale.
Just lean forward as much as you can. Inhale, roll up. Exhale, engage your core. Push the legs down and start to roll.
Roll down your spine. All the way to your shoulders, hit the floor. And then arms overhead. And again, try to lengthen your back.
Draw the ribs in, engage your core, squeeze the inner thighs, and start to lift your legs off the floor. And then bring the feet right above your hips. Stop here so you don't use any momentum. Flex your feet.
And start to draw your feet towards your own hands without using any momentum. Maybe your toes can tap your own hands. And then try to keep the legs close to your body. And slowly start to roll the hips down.
Keep reaching your toes towards your fingers. And keep engaging your inner thighs and your core. And slowly bring the hips down to the floor. And keep reaching the feet up.
Start to reach your hands towards your feet and roll up the torso with the legs. Inhale, exhale. Bring the feet down. Roll to the front of your hips.
Inhale, length. Exhale. Keep reaching for your feet. Inhale up.
And exhale again. Squeeze the center of the body and start to roll down. So if this was hard, just notice what is hard. Is it lifting the legs?
Is it my core connection that makes this hard? Or is it the tight back body that makes it hard? Maybe my legs start to shiver and shake. So try to find your way to work this.
Keep the legs close to the body. Keep connection to your core, your breath. And see how slow you can move between these. Lowering the hips down.
And as the hips are coming down, you start to reach for your feet. Roll the torso off the floor. Lift both toes. And bring the legs down as slow as you can.
So you control the movement. Inhale up. Exhale, reach for your feet. So inhale, rolling the spine up.
Exhale, squeezing everything together. Lowering down. Inhale, arms overhead. Exhale, squeezing the legs, lifting them up over the hips.
And again, squeezing. Bring the legs back towards your hand. You can stop the movement whenever you want. You're in control.
Take a breath. And slowly try to keep the legs close to your body. You start to roll the hips down. Just notice that you can stop any time you want.
If that doesn't happen quite yet, perfect. Then you have something to work on. When the hips are on the floor, start to reach your hands towards your feet. Pulling yourself up.
Both pose. Inhale. Exhale, flex the feet. Start to lower the feet down.
Push the legs down. Inhale. And exhale, fold over your legs. I'm going to keep going now.
So inhale, arms up. Exhale, connect your core. Roll all the way down. Arms overhead.
Squeeze the legs. Pull the legs up. And this time, bring the legs overhead. Take your right arm to the side of your body.
Just wherever you feel it can fit. And take your right knee towards the floor. And you're going to roll over your shoulder and come on to the top of your mat. So left on the outside of your left hand.
Lift your right knee up. And now stretch your chest forward. Maybe gaze up. And exhale.
And lift your chest up. And exhale. And inhale. Try to lengthen your back.
Maybe your hands come to your shins. And exhale. Maybe you bend the knees and you fold. Again, inhale, lengthen.
Exhale, fold forward and down. One more. Inhale. And exhale.
This time, down. Down. Exhale. Breathe.
Put your legs out in front of you. Inhale. Rock forward onto your hips. Exhale, forward and down.
Inhale. Everything up. Exhale, squeezing everything together. Rolling down onto your back.
Inhale, arms overhead. Exhale, squeezing the legs together. And from here, bring the legs overhead. Taking your left arm down next to you, wherever you feel it can fit.
Taking your left knee down. Forward, hands forward, right foot to the outside of the right hand, lifting the left knee. Inhale, chest up. Exhale, straightening the right leg.
Maybe fold over the leg. Inhale, hips forward and down. Exhale, try to stretch the right leg and drop the head. Couple more.
Inhale. And exhale. Inhale. Inhale.
And exhale. Last one. Inhale. And exhale.
Rocking forward, stepping the left leg on the outside of the left hand. Inhale, lengthen the back. And this time, exhale, drop. Chest forward.
Long spine. And exhale, fold forward and down. Inhale all the way up. Standing.
Exhale, hands to the chest. Take a breath. Inhale through the nose. Maybe exhale out through the mouth.
Next, inhale, arms up overhead. Engage the legs. Exhale, forward fold. Inhale, half lift, so straight back.
Exhale, stepping into your plank pose. Just take a moment, connect to your core. Engage your legs. Find your breath.
Take a nice inhale through the nose. Exhale through the nose, all the way down onto your belly. Flatten out the feet. Inhale, lift the chest for Cobra.
Active back body. Exhale, lower down. Push up onto all fours. And downward facing dog.
Lift the hips up and back. Take a moment here. Just to walk out your dog. Maybe your hamstrings feels a little bit more open than usual when you are in your down dog.
Hopefully. And then roll forward. Knees down onto all fours. Release the toes.
Inhale, right arm up. Exhale, throw the right arm underneath the body over to the left. See if you can come down into your right shoulder. Again, push into your left arm.
Inhale, arms up. Or arm up. Exhale, right arm over to the left. Try to touch the right shoulder down.
One more inhale. And exhale. Now stay here. You can walk the left hand forward onto your fingertips.
Lean into your right leg. Step your left foot forward to your right hand. Grab your foot. See if you can pull the foot away from you.
And you pull with your right hand back towards you. A little bit of traction. And breathe. Can you get comfortable in this awkward position?
One more deep breath. And slowly release. Back to all fours. Inhale, left arm up.
And exhale, left arm over to the right. Try to touch the left shoulder down. Inhale, push into the floor. Left arm up.
Exhale, left arm underneath the body over to the right. One more. Last time, inhale. And exhale, left shoulder down.
Maybe walk the right hand forward on your fingertips. Lean into the left foot. Bring your right foot to your left hand. Again, push the right hip and foot towards the right.
And use your left hand to pull back. And breathe. Just trying to have the least amount of resistance in our bodies in these awkward poses. Buying as much freedom as we can.
Last breath. Inhale, left hand over to the right. Last breath. Slowly release.
Back to all fours. And into our downward facing dog. Drop the head, relax the neck. Take a breath.
And then walk the feet slowly to the top of your mat. So step by step. Notice the back of your shins. Hamstrings, feet, ankles.
And then when you're on the top of your mat, inhale, long back. Exhale, forward fold. Inhale, all the way up. And exhale, hands in front of your chest.
Inhale, arms overhead. Exhale, forward fold. Inhale, halfway. Exhale, stepping into your plank pose.
Take an inhale here. Exhale, low push up elbows towards the body. Inhale, cobra or upward facing dog. Exhale, downward facing dog.
And then start to walk or start to lift your right leg out behind you. Try to keep your right toes pointing down. Walk your hands towards your left foot. And take your left hand behind your left ankle.
And maybe you're on your fingertips, on your right hand. Just inhale, try to lengthen your back. And exhale, use the left hand to pull you towards your own leg. Keep pushing through the right leg.
And breathe. And then walk the hands forward again. Lift the right leg high, inhale. And exhale, roll the right knee forward.
Step the right foot behind the right hand. Lift the left leg up and back. So you're in standing split on the top of your mat. You take the right hand behind the right leg.
Flex and push out through the left foot. Inhale, lengthen the back. Exhale, pull yourself towards your right leg and breathe. Active left foot, active left leg.
Doesn't matter how high the leg is, just active pushing out. Inhale, half lift. Exhale, left leg next to the right, forward fold. Inhale, all the way up.
And exhale, hands to your heart. Inhale again, arms up. Exhale, forward fold. The microphone is escaping me.
Inhale, half lift. And exhale, move back into your plank pose. Take a nice inhale in your plank. Exhale, lower down, low push up.
Inhale, cobra or upward facing dog. And exhale, downward facing dog. This time, left leg up and back. Take a breath and walk your hands.
Back towards your right leg. Right arm behind your leg or you can have more balance. Both hands around your ankle. Keep pushing through the left leg.
Keep reaching the top of your head forward and breathe. If you want to, start to pull yourself down. The head goes down, the leg goes up. One more breath.
Hands come down. Walk back into your three-legged down dog. Lift the left leg, inhale. Exhale, left knee forward.
Left leg. Keep reaching the crown of your head forward. Hey, here. One more.
Exhale, both legs to the floor. Fold. Inhale, all the way up. And exhale to your mountain pose.
Inhale, everything up. Exhale, fold. Inhale, half lift. Exhale, walk.
Float to your low push up. Inhale, cobra or upward facing dog. Exhale, downward facing dog. So we're going to step our right leg behind our right hand.
Left heel down. Inhale, arms up. Exhale, clasp the hands together behind our back. Draw the shoulders together and lift the chest.
Take a breath. And then fold down, humble warrior. So drop your head, relax your neck. And breathe here.
I'm going to create some warmth. So next inhale, come up again, arms overhead. Exhale, hands down. Roll your toes on your back foot.
Straighten the right leg so you're in a super long, what we call pyramid pose. Take a breath here. Draw the right hip back. And then draw the right leg slightly back.
Push into your hands. I'm going to change sides on your legs. So your left hand is going to come back, land on the floor behind your left hand. So do a little jump on your right leg.
And left leg down. Inhale, arms up. Inhale, up. Exhale, clasp the hands maybe the other way behind your back.
Breathe in here. Exhale. Relax the neck. And then inhale, come back up.
Exhale, hands to the floor. Leg, left hip back, take a breath. Now we're going to float. Hands.
Straight legs, land on your right foot. Left heel down. Inhale, arms up. Exhale, clasp your hands.
Inhale, lift the chest. Exhale, drop the head. Inhale, come back up. Exhale, pyramid pose.
Straighten the legs. Take a breath. And then keep going. Draw the right leg back.
Lean into your arms. Switch. Inhale, arms up. Exhale, clasp the hands.
Inhale, lift the chest. Exhale, come back up. Inhale, come back up. Exhale, pyramid pose.
Leg. Just keep going with your breath. Just creating some heat. We're going to need when we are moving into the deeper poses.
Keep following your breath. Try to not take more than one breath in each pose. And when you finish on your left side, last time, stepping back into plank. Taking a breath.
And moving through low push-up, cobra or upward facing dog. Back to downward facing dog. And finding your way into child's pose. You can try to make your child's pose or your legs as wide as possible.
So knees out to the side. And just stay down in child's pose. Breathe. Notice the heat that hopefully is starting to build in your body.
Trying to breathe into your low back. Into your hips. And trying to breathe through your nose. Even though you're maybe starting to get a little bit warm.
You're tempted to want to breathe through your mouth. Try to breathe through your nose. Control the breath and hopefully our movements. And maybe one day control our own minds.
One more deep breath in. And long breath out. And then rolling back up. Force.
Making your way into downward facing dog. Right leg up and back. Bend the right knee. Lift the right knee.
Take a breath. And roll the right knee to the outside of the right shoulder. Push the floor away. And right foot to the outside of the right hand.
So now we're going to see if we can hook the right leg on the top of the right arm. So bring your right thigh over your right elbow. See if we can hook your leg and slide the left leg through. If that was hard, try again.
If that was hard, try again. And we meet in a seat here. Taking the right foot to the inside of the left thigh. Pushing into our hips.
Inhale arms up. Push the foot into the thigh. We're going to roll back and roll into our vinyasa. So rolling all the way back.
Rolling forward. Draw the feet as close as you can to your body. Inhale. Into your low push-up.
Cobra or upward facing dog. And back to your downward facing dog. Inhale, left leg up. Open up the hip.
Knee towards the ceiling. And then bring your left knee to the outside of your left shoulder. Exhale, up. Green broccoli hair jump.
On your right soak your thumb and index finger, and Branch of your right elbow. And we meet here one step toward the end of cross. Either we build good flow, forward over your right leg. Maybe you grab the shin, the foot or if it's available you grab your own right wrist with your left hand, push the foot into the hand and you breathe.
And stay heavy in your hips, you anchor the hips down and you lengthen the chest forward. And then slowly come on up one more time see if we can roll straight into the crow now. So come into a tight little ball and keep that tight little ball all the way onto your hands. And float through what we call a vinyasa and meet back in our downward facing dog.
Deep breath through the nose, maybe out through the mouth. And then right leg up and back. Roll the right knee forward, step the right foot on the inside of the right hand, left heel down, triangle pose, circle the left arm up. So you can bring your hand towards your shin, push the shin into your hand so you're not leaning down on your right leg.
You're lifting up through the left arm, if your neck is fine with gazing up you can gaze up on the left arm, engage your inner thighs, push your hips forward and roll your chest around so you try to not hide the right ribs but you try to bring the right ribs through. And then next inhale come all the way up, turn all 10 toes towards the left, inhale arms up, exhale you fold down and here inhale lengthen so flat back, exhale start to walk, not just walk the hands back though because then we tend to round our back. Just keep leaning forward, hinge from the hips and then your body to come forward and down and from here you walk the hands back. For some there's a big gap between the floor and the head, that's pretty normal I think, but try not to stay like this and round the back.
Maybe bend your knees, keep going for that long flat back and then forward and down instead of going back and down like this go forward and up. If your head is touching the floor very easily just notice if your legs are really far apart, so walk the legs further in if you want to have more space between your head and the floor. And keep pushing into the outside of your feet, lift the arch of your feet. One more deep breath.
And next inhale half lift, exhale walk forward and walk the right foot out to the right and lower the hip down, maybe the left arm comes down, maybe both forearms come down. If this is a lot you maybe want to stay on your on your knuckles but try to release the hips down as much as you can. Two more deep breaths. And then slowly come up onto your hands, step back into your plank, inhale, exhale low pushup, inhale cobra or upward facing dog, exhale downward facing dog, inhale left leg up, exhale.
Inhale triangle pose, so if the floor is far away and you kind of close your chest to be here, left hand to your left chin, push into the hand and vice versa. Keep reaching through the right arm, length through the crown of the head and turning the chest around, active length. Next, steady breath. Last breath.
And come all the way up, turn all toes towards the right, inhale arms up, exhale fold forward and down. So again see if we can drop the head down and maybe walk the hands back. For some people they come the head goes towards the floor, for some people it's pretty far away, just try to figure out where you are and why you are there. Is it the legs, is it the back, is it your head, what's wrong with you?
Nothing is wrong, so just try to work out and figure out your own body. What can you do? Is it better for you to move a little bit from side to side to not tense up here? Maybe for some it's better to walk the arms forward to keep that length in the back.
Few more deep breaths. And then next inhale, half lift, exhale walk forward. And come down, maybe both, but try to stay active through the legs, lift the right knee up into the thigh and breathe into your hips. Are you tensing up your face or in your shoulders?
Where can you relax? And then moving back onto your hands, stepping back, plank inhale, exhale low push up, inhale cobra or upward facing dog, exhale downward facing dog. So one more round with right leg up, right knee up and then draw the right knee to the outside of the right hand. Maybe this time you don't put the right knee down, right foot down, you just kind of slide through, maybe put the foot down.
I don't know, I can't look at you through the screen, but if you could, if you couldn't just try again. So this time we're going to take our right leg take the right foot, pull it towards our own body. So try to not lean back, try to lean forward onto your hips, straight back as much as you can and slowly start to rock your right leg. Maybe you can hold around the right arm on the outside of the right thigh and the fingers can clasp together in front of the right shin.
Just try to relax the hip, breathe and then we're going to see if our hamstrings feel any better. So you might want to use your belt if your arms don't feel like they're long enough, but the left hand is going around the right foot. The right arm can push the right shin up and the right knee back. Right hand in front of your right hip and then see if you can push the foot into the ham.
So if that is a lot, which it is, you use your belt and you hold your belt and you push the foot into the belt and you see what you need here. Maybe this happens, you curl up and you can't really straighten the leg. For some it can help to bend the left knee, kind of lean a little bit forward and cheat a little bit just to get that stretch in the right leg. But if you can you anchor down into the left leg, you reach up through the crown of the head and you push the foot into the ham.
That might be a lot for now, but maybe if you do this and work on your hamstrings, work on your flexibility for a while, it might become easy like everything else we practice. So release when you're done, take a breath. Other side, so bring the left foot towards your upper body and just start to rock, loosen up the hip. Maybe you take your left arm around the left thigh and clasp the hand.
Try again, right hand on the outside of the left foot, left hand scoops underneath the left leg to lift the left foot but also the back. So it's hard when the leg is in front of you, you want to pull the knee back. Try to get it to the side, lift the leg, and then you can go back. It's hard when the leg is in front of you, you want to pull the knee back.
Try to get it. So a little bit, it's in the left leg. One more. One else.
Release, shake it off. And we have one more, so we're going to roll into it. So coming onto your back, this time instead of legs together, just open the legs, arms back, see if you can roll the feet back to your hands with open legs. Try to grab your big toes with your peace fingers and then just take a breath where you bend your knees or your ears and just kind of squeeze your knee towards your own face.
And then open the knees away from the face and then see if you can roll up and find balance in both pose from here. So rolling up, finding your balance here, so you push the big toes into your hands, maybe with a bending knee, maybe with straight legs. And this next one is just if you want to try, it's actually a yoga transition, it looks really stupid, but for some people it can be fun to try. You can also release the legs and just push them down, but if you want to see if you can keep leaning back, push the hands into the hand, see if you can gaze up and then slowly just drop the legs down.
You might want to practice a few times before you do that, but if you feel open and strong in your legs today, you might want to try. When you come down, push the hips down, push the legs down, inhale, exhale, see if you can bring your toes up. Some might be on your fingertips. If you are like this, like it's hard to get anywhere, have your hands behind your hips, push into the floor to lengthen the back and then walk your hands closer and just try to stay upright instead of going down.
It's better to stay here, push down, lengthen, than to be here. But if you can, straight back and walk. So, rolling spine up. So this time we're rolling back and rolling up into a squat.
Rolling up. Don't you walk. And moving into, I know Sebastian calls child's pose turtle, but this is the actual yoga turtle. So we are moving into one of our final poses that will be quite challenging.
So you want to have feet pointing to the side, move to the front of your palms and then twist. So maybe you are here. Just take a moment, hands behind you, feet hip distance and roll the hips up, just slowly stretch it out. And final pose, again see if we can roll straight up to a squat.
To the arm pressure pose that we did, it's just we're going to add something to it. So fingers behind your hips, chest up and just allow the knees to go from side to side. So our last poses will be inverted in the yoga way. See if we can feel more comfortable there now after this class than before.
Okay, so when you're ready, we're going to roll back into the plow pose, arms back, core connected, legs together, bringing the legs back. This time see if you can start just to lift the leg just a little bit. So you're on your shoulders, your core is engaged and you lift the hips and the legs up. So notice how much in control you are from your fingertips to your toes and then you bend the knees and slowly bring the knees to your own armpits.
And cross your ankles, knees out to the side and bring your hands to your knees. So you want to balance here. So you're crossing your ankles, hands to your knees and you're kind of just lifting the hips. You want to try to keep your balance here.
So you want to feel a connection to your core when you're on your shoulders. One more breath. And then last one, knees try to bring that spot. Of course you don't push your knees towards the floor.
Or maybe they're towards your ears and you can slowly and carefully push the knees to your ears and the top of your feet to the ground. And then you're going to bring your hands to your knees and you're going to bring your feet to the ground. One more deep breath. And then slowly release.
And then we are going to cross either our shins. If you do lotus you can do it in lotus but you can also just cross your shins and try to bring your arms around your own legs and just squeeze everything together. Now if you do lotus you do it from here. Don't do it if you don't usually practice your lotus because of your knees but if you do lotus you do it from here.
Breathe. Shins crossed. Two more deep breaths. And then slowly release the legs, arms down and rolling the spine down, rolling the hips down, bending the knees, placing them on the floor.
Just take a moment and breathe. Move your head slowly from side to side. Notice how your neck feels. You want to have the body both stable and limber enough to be in those kind of positions because if not they're going into the weakest spots.
Our neck, our low back. So you want to have the core strong. You want to have the openness and freedom in the back body to move without going into the neck. Okay so we've been into a ball quite a lot so rolling the hips up and walking the shoulders underneath the body.
Clasping the hands together if possible. If not just push the arms into the floor and then lift the chest, lift the hips and breathe into the front of the body. Try to reach the tailbone forward towards your knee and roll the inner thighs down just to create more space in the low back. And one more deep breath.
Slowly release, lowering down just allowing the knees to go from side to side. And last one to stretch the front of the throat and chest. Fish pose. So taking the hands underneath your hips, the inside of your palms facing down towards your mat and then lifting your chest up, walking the elbows in.
You can straighten out the legs, point the feet, walk the elbows in a little bit more, puff the chest up. Sort of gaze up, gaze back and maybe the top of your head comes towards the floor. Keep pushing into the hands, keep reaching through your toes, lift the chest and breathe. One more deep breath and slowly push into the hands, into the chest and slowly roll down and low back to the floor.
You can rest the knees toward each other if you want to. Arms next to your side and one more time, inhale through your nose. Try to feel all the way up and hold your breath at the top and then sip in a little bit more. And release.
And just rest here in what we call Savasana. Allow yourself to just witness yourself resting on the floor and just observing your own efforts and how your body is receiving your time on your mat today. And stay as long as you can and want to.
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