Flow to Fold In

(ocean waves) Hi, everyone! Welcome to your practice. Alright, on deck today, we've got a flow to fold in, so we'll move from our backs and then do a little flowing work and the whole practice is designed to help you feel better in your forward folds. For a lot of us, especially if we're really used to practicing vinyasa all of the time, coming down and doing our forward folds is not our favorite thing to do. In fact, we might avoid them sometimes and just be like, "Back bend, okay, I'm done, woohoo, good practice." So this practice is a way to use the flow to then fold, but the folding part of the sequence, when we come down to the floor, is also kind of like a mini vinyasa. So you can think about it that way.

And it feels really good. We can't always be like, "Katcha!" Like heart waves out there to the max. Sometimes, we have to draw our energy back in in order to feed ourselves, right? To take that moment to be able to stoke the fire a little bit inside so that when we do heart waves out to the max, it is real and it's from center, not from a place of frantic craziness, which I'm sure you don't know anything about. Okay, bring hands to heart center.

Let your eyes close for a moment. (inhale) Take a deep breath. (exhale) Let it out. (silence) Good. And we're gonna start out on our backs.

So come on down. Place the soles of your feet on the floor and just let your hands be down by your sides and maybe just do a couple gentle windshield wipers. Let the body know what's coming. Good. And then from here, you're gonna cross your right ankle up over your left knee and just let that right knee kind of flap open and see how things are going.

And then when you feel ready, or if you feel ready, go ahead and draw your left knee in, circle your hands back around either your hamstrings on that left leg or your shin. And then let the right knee move towards your right shoulder so there's kind of this curling in kind of feeling. Draw the belly back and then turn the leg and the hip socket so you're getting this big dynamic stretch here. It's not just the reclined pigeon variation, where you're hanging out. You're actually getting some work done here.

So your inner right thigh's moving towards your... Your right sitting bone's moving towards your inner left thigh. You know, all those lefts and rights. And then with your exhales, you're pulling in deeper and getting a big stretch. And you can use your elbow on that right arm to start to make space there.

Good. From this place, go ahead and start to release a little bit, and let your right leg cross up and over your left leg, hook the feet, and then hop the hips a little bit to the right, come to cactus arms, and twist over towards the left with the legs. Your knees don't ever have to touch the floor. More important is soft in the chest. Soft in the face.

If your right shoulder's way up off the floor, press your left elbow. I like to make a fist, like my power superhero fist, press it down into the floor, lift your left rib cage up, and turn it towards the right to get a little more twisting action there. Move your inner thighs back by sticking your butt out a little bit. Lift the belly. And then with an exhale, let the legs drop a little bit more over towards the left.

Good. Inhale, come on back up, release and unwind, place the soles of your feet back on the floor. And then we'll take the second side. So just gently take your left ankle up over your right leg. See how it feels.

And then when you're ready, pull the whole thing back in and up, catch your hands on top of your shin or in your hamstrings, and then let, again, your left knee move towards your left shoulder. Lift your left side belly up, and then turn your left sitting bone towards that inner right thigh. So you're moving the leg and the hip socket here as you pull deeper in, big active stretch here from the sides to the hips. Yeah. Sometimes with these forward folds, I think that the sides of the hips can get really tight from things like back-bending and lunges and all of the lovely vinyasa things that we love to do.

And so these things are a really good balance to a vinyasa practice. Exhale, go as deep as you can, curl that leg, and then release, take that left leg up and over the right, and then hop the hips a little bit to the left. Let the legs come over to the right, and again, the knees don't ever have to touch the floor. That's not the point in this one. And then let your right elbow, if your left shoulder is way up off the floor, press down into the floor, lift your right rib cage, and turn it towards the sky so you've got this big beautiful chest opening happening here.

Stick your booty out a little bit, find your belly with an exhale, let your knees move closer to the floor, deepening the twist if that feels possible, if there's a little bit more space. Good. (silence) And then you're gonna inhale, come on back up, start to release and unwind, and then go ahead and start to rock back and forth. And something that can be kind of fun here is if you release your hands to the floor and let your toes tip all the way back for a little halasana. If I do that in the morning time, my legs do not touch the floor, my toes do not touch the floor, so it just depends on where you're at in your day, sometimes with how much space you get.

And then you'll come all the way up, take maybe a little mini vinyasa, er, navasana. Vinyasa, right now, jump switch. And lift your chest. Good. And then cross one leg over the other.

Then you're gonna turn forward towards the front of your mat, and you're gonna tuck your toes, and you're gonna walk all the way back to downward dog at the back of your mat. Good. Just a big stretch, like, "Hello, how are you? "What's it feel like right now?" And your legs and your chest, you might bend the elbows, bend the kness, wiggle it out, and then look forward, listen carefully, bend the knees and you're gonna hop right to the outsides of your hands. And your toes might turn out a little bit here depending on how you're feeling today, and then you're gonna walk your hands back behind your heels and move your chest forward.

Or wrap the hands all the way towards the tops of your feet, move your chest forward, set your hips back. This is khanjanasana, which feels like it sounds. Khanji. Beautiful. Good.

From here, release, heel-toe your feet towards one another, then fold on in. (deep breath) Let's take a couple ardha uttanasanas here. Knees can still be bent, it's totally fine. Inhale, lift your chest. (inhale) Exhale, fold it in.

(exhale) Inhale, lift your chest, extend your spine. (inhale) Exhale, fold it in. (exhale) Inhale, lift your chest, one more. (inhale) Exhale, step it back, plank pose, breathe it in here. Shift it forward, lower down, chaturanga, upward-facing dog, exhale, downward-facing dog.

Good. So we're gonna walk the dog out a little bit here. And the goal is to not move anything else in your body except for your legs. So it's kind of a little bit of core work. So wrap the triceps back, press down into the bones of your fingers, and then, as best you can, feet stay close together to start here, you're gonna inhale, your right leg up, hips don't shift side to side, exhale, bring it down.

Inhale, left leg up. (inhale) Exhale, bring it down. Inhale, right leg up. Exhale, bring it down. Inhale, left leg up.

Exhale, bring it down, just doing your best to keep it nice and still. This time, inhale, your right leg up, bend the knee, open up the hips, pop up onto your right finger pads, and then high hips, go ahead and flip your dog. Not going for the gold here, just stretching the shoulder, opening up the fronts of the hips. Good. Bottom leg can straighten, right leg can stay bent, bring it back around, inhale it straight back up and behind, and then set it down.

Second side, inhale that left leg up, bend the knee, open up the hips, square the shoulders to start, firm the belly, stretch through the femur, and then push down and forward into your right hand, pop up on the left finger pads, high hips, circle it up and around, heart to the sky, move the shoulder, onto your back, straighten into that front leg. Good. Inhale, come on back up, then exhale, set that leg down. Inhale, lift high up onto your toes, bend the knees, look forward, hop right between your hands, ardha uttanasana, exhale to fold in. Inhale to rise all the way up, and exhale, hands to heart center.

Good, okay. So we're gonna come towards ida pingala shape. That's what we call it, but it's basically like a standing baby cradle or a standing pigeon. So bring your right knee up to your chest, bend into your left knee, sit your hips back into that booty-out kinda feeling, and bring hands to heart. Good.

Let your chest move forward, right out over your shin, inhale here, exhale, soften your chest forward even more. Seat back. Inhale. Exhale. Good.

If you're feeling good here, go ahead and bring fingerprints to the floor, and then you're gonna come right down to a toe stand, which is really hard. So get your heel as kinda right in the center of your seat. And you're doing your best, it's a little bit of core work. I call this fleeting moments of bliss 'cause for a minute you might be like, "Bliss" then fall out. "Bliss, stay, oh my gosh, it's a longer bliss." And then you fall out.

And then again, moment of bliss, do your best, and then you fall out, and then you're gonna shift it back up so you have to kind of walk your hands forward, shift it back up, and then go ahead and straighten that bottom leg as best you can, fold in, and then take your right hand to your right foot, set it next to your left foot, and do take a moment and fold in here, press the top of your right thigh back, top of your right shin back, and just notice the difference between your two legs. For me, it's usually huge, the opening that comes into a tanasana for that. Good. And then inhale, bending the knees, rise up, exhale, hands to heart, okay. Moment of bliss, fall out.

Second side, pick your left knee up, bend into your right knee, sit your hips back, bring hands to heart. You move your sitting bones back behind you. Keep curling that sitting bone towards your inner right thigh. If the right hip pops way out to the side, draw it in as best you can, and then move your heart straight towards that shin. That's it.

Breathe in here. Exhale, sit back. Good. Breathe in here. Exhale, heart towards your shin.

Fingertips can come to the floor if you're feeling good. Come down, bend into that standing leg, come down through your toe stand. You're like, "What's gonna happen, I don't know." And then see what you can get. This one's really wobbly, which is totally fine, and maybe it's just for a moment. Hands up, hands down.

Hands up. Maybe one hand up, other hand up, and then fall out. Good. And then walk it forward, straighten into that standing leg, fold it in, don't let the right hip pop out, and then gently place your left foot down onto the floor, push both tops of thighs and shins back, fold it in. Feels better.

Good. Bend the knees, look forward, hop back, vinyasa. Inhale, upward-facing dog. Exhale, downward-facing dog. Inhale, out right heel, straight back up and behind, bend the knee, draw it in, come on up for your high lunge, inhale, arms up.

Lift that back thigh, nice and strong, pull the right hip back, stretch your chest up to the sky, hello, and then exhale, fingertips down to the ground, and then you're gonna hop your back foot in, and you're gonna take your knee and smoosh your calf like crazy on that right side. Then get all the way down to your ankle so that you get the soleus muscle, too. It feels good, but it's also hard work. And then, place the top of your foot down on the floor, your knee right back behind your right ankle, and then you're gonna take your right leg on top and also put the top of that foot down. And what you wanna do here is see if you can get both shins and feet pointing straight back behind you as best you can.

And then this is another balance. So you come up, and you see what you can get. The first time I did this, it was impossible, which is totally fine. You're gonna take your arms, open wide, and you're gonna cross your left arm on top and make eagle arms, and pull. If you're moving, that's fine, that's part of it.

A little bit of instability. Your elbows down as you lift your chest up. Good. And then you might bow it forward a little bit. (playful roar) Instability monster comes back.

Good. Then release your arms up into the sky. Exhale, sit heavy, and then bring hands down to the floor. Good, and then you're gonna unwind, right foot will come forward, left foot will come back, inhale, that right leg straight back up and behind. And then, this is fun, you ready?

Bend into that standing leg, look forward, and then you're gonna hop your left foot right between your hands. And then step the right foot back, then you're gonna bring your hands to the inside of that left foot and walk the hands over towards the right. So this is one of my favorite poses, downward dog lunge. Curl that right hip back behind you, lift your belly. Your arm bones can move up to the sky, head can come down.

You're curling, just like in that first pose. Okay, now rest in that hip back behind you. (deep breath) Good. That's it. Release.

Come back to center, bend the inside of that left foot, and you're gonna come to a lizard pose here. So back knee's gonna stay lifted, and you're gonna stay up on your hands, and with an inhale, you'll move your chest forward, and with an exhale, you're gonna bow right to the inside of that foot. And in an inhale, you come forward. Exhale, bow. Inhale, come forward.

Exhale, bow, stay in the bow. That's it. Curl that left tip back, strong back leg, push down and forward onto the fingertips. Awesome. And then bend into that knee, start to shift to the back of the mat, lift your left toes up to the sky, and walk your right hand out and see if you can keep your right heel on the floor.

Toes are pointed out. And then maybe reach the left hand up, flip the palm, and then maybe make a bind here, turning up and over that left shoulder. Good. Mhm. Release, come back forward, flow it through.

Yup, and then look forward, start to draw your right knee up into your chest, and then you're gonna step it through and come all the way down onto your back, bring your left knee up to your chest. Take a second, maybe a little happy baby, maybe just a wiggle on your mat, and then eventually your right leg's gonna stay long and you're gonna curl the same shape that we've been working with, the left knee away from you, sort or this reclined pigeony shape. And here's the best part, which you're welcome to do or welcome to not, you can totally stay just like this, or you're gonna come up, catch your right elbow right underneath your ankle there, then bring your left hand back behind you, and you make this big beautiful bind, and then you lay back onto the floor. We call this forklift for obvious reasons. And you're getting some nice big hip opening here.

If your right leg's coming up off the floor, really do try to root it down, the whole leg as much as you can, and you lay back. Mhm. Beautiful. Release, listen carefully, hands are gonna come to your heel, your head and shoulders are still lifted. Turn so your knee moves towards your armpit, kind of like crow pose, and then you're gonna straighten into the leg, find your belly, and push your heel and your hands together to make more space, and then bring your head towards your leg and come back and see what you get.

Sometimes it's like, "Woohoo, there's more space than ever! "My belly and my thigh touched." And sometimes it's like, "Not today." Good. Release, bring both feet to the floor, find a little inhale, lift to the hips, soft, bridge pose, and exhale, roll it down. See if you can get your whole back pressing to the floor. Inhale, lift it up. Exhale, lower it down.

One more, roll it on up, inhale, stretch out through your thighs, press into your heels, exhale, lower it down. Good. And then find those rocks again, maybe toes come back and do a touch and there's more space, and then come right up, find the vasana. Beautiful. Maybe heart lifts, maybe your legs extend, and then one leg crosses over the other, and you hop back and find your downward-facing dog.

Let's take a vinyasa together. Inhale, roll it on out, shift forward, chaturanga, shift forward again, upward-facing dog, exhale, downward-facing dog. Good. Second side, dear hearts. Let's inhale that left heel straight back up and behind, then exhale, step between your hands.

Rise up, high lunge shape, a little homage to a tiny back bend here in this practice, hug the legs, lift your heart, breathe it in, and then exhale, fingertips to the floor, step forward, and then get this left calf muscle, it'll feel really nice, like, "Hi, buddy. You deserve a little bit of attention." Go all the way down to where the calf turns into the upper ankle. Good. And then set the right knee right back behind your left heel, cross your left foot over, and point as best you can both feet straight back behind you. Come back to sit.

This side feels a little bit more stable. Maybe or maybe not for you. Hug the legs, and then it's eagle arms, so you're gonna do right arm over left. You pull down, lift up. You let there be a little bit of instability.

Find your belly. Good. Gorgeous. If you can bow in, for goodness sakes, go ahead and do so. It's not my path today.

And then inhale, arms up. Exhale, touch it down. Good. You'll step your left foot forward, step back, lunge right side, inhale, that left heel straight back up and behind, bend into that standing leg, keep that left leg lifted high, and the hop your right leg right between your hands, little brief visit toward your three, and then set your back foot down, come to the inside of that right foot, turn your back heel down, it's about heel to heel alignment, then walk the hands to the inside of your right leg. Curl that right hip back, anchor through the back leg, so you're trying to parallel the outside of your thigh with the edge of your mat here.

Right side belly lifts, in come the finger pads on your arms, let the head go. Beautiful. One more, squeeze the heels of the legs together, and then walk it back in, skandasana, back of the mat, your right toes lift, see what you can do. Sometimes you have to adjust to be able to get your left heel down, and then it's left hand walks around, right arm comes up. Good.

Then maybe you take the bind, or half-bind on this side for me, look up and over that shoulder. Nice. Good. Walk it forward, come back to the front of your mat, turn forward for lizard pose. So the toes are pretty much facing forward on that right foot.

Hands down, back leg stays lifted. Inhale, move your chest forward, split the legs apart. Exhale, bow. Inhale, forward. Exhale, bow.

Inhale, come forward. Exhale, bow. Inhale, come forward, and go ahead and start to bring that left knee up into your chest, and then you'll shoot it through, then sit down, take your right leg in, all the way to your back. Find right away that baby cradle kind of shape. You're like, "Oh, it's my leg that is a baby." My son said that to me once.

He walked into the room and I was doing this seated and he was like, "Mom, your leg looks like your baby." It was very sweet. I was like, "It is." And then you're gonna hook your left elbow right up around your ankle, and the right hand comes back behind for the bind. Remember to stay as rooted as you can in that left leg, and then you lay back. Forklift. Keep curling that right sitting bone towards your inner left thigh as best you can.

Mhm. (deep breath) Good. (silence) For the release, you're gonna do it slow and deliberately. So release the hands, bring the hands to the heel, curl the right knee towards your armpit, and then start to press the heel and your hands together as you straighten the leg, lift your head and shoulders, point your toes, forehead towards your shin, exhale, belly back, take the leg with you as best you can. Really strong and straighten.

Good. Then release, maybe a little stretch here, touch your hands back behind you, do a little rock it out. Mhm. And then you're gonna come right up to seated. (deep breath) Okay, so we made it here to the floor.

Hopefully you feel like you've made some space in your legs, you got a little bit of your flow on, you flipped your dog, you're like, "I'm still a vinyasa practitioner. It was awesome." And now you're gonna come to virasana. So we prepared for that really well with the gomukhasana shape, that position of the feet pointing straight back behind you and the calves machine. So go ahead and come, with your knees very close to one another. If you have a block, you can grab it and use it and put it right underneath your seat, but you might try, if you feel like you have some more space, to bring your hands right back to your calves.

We also did the calves machine in Warrior 3. And then pull your calves back towards your ankles in a tiny bit, not too much out to the side, and see if you can get some landing with your sitting bones there. For me, a lot of this work is in my feet. I have kind of weird feet, and they have changed over time by practicing this posture. And we're just gonna settle here for a moment.

You're getting some nice opening on the fronts of the knees. If it's too much, you can grab with your hand and pull the fascia on the front of the knee up and towards you, and do that each side. If your sitting bones are up off the ground, you might wanna put something underneath you. We're just here for a moment. Settling in.

Moving the femur and the hip socket in all different directions so that the folds might feel a little bit more comfortable. Good. Shift it forward. Extend your left leg straight back behind you, tighten at the kneecap, and then switch sides. Right leg straight back behind you, tighten at the kneecap, and then come back.

You're gonna sit back down on your seat, and you're gonna take the soles of your feet together. This is a wonderful place if you have a hard time in baddha konasana to go ahead and grab a blanket, and it's nice if the blanket is folded in thirds like this. You can also use a towel or even roll up the edge of your mat at home, and then you're gonna place the blanket right underneath your sitting bones, but you're not gonna sit way up on the blanket, you're gonna let yourself move forward. It actually grabs the skin on your legs and pulls them back up and behind you, which is a nice bonus, and then the inner edges of your feet can come together, separate your knees nice and wide. And I like to bring my hands back behind me.

They can sit on the blanket. And you press the inner edges of your feet together, open through the inner thighs, and then close your eyes, and imagine the sides of your hips, the muscles on the sides of your hips. I call them the Jane Fonda muscles very often. And see if you can fire those guys, see if you can get them to wake up a little bit, and then maybe the femur pulls deeper into the hip socket. So it's an extension out through the legs, and then firing the sides of the hips to open here.

You might eventually find that you can sneak off of your blanket and still keep that wonderful opening depending on how things are going that day. And then go ahead, you can stay with the blanket or let it go, it can just be safely back here behind you, and then you're gonna open one leg out to the side, and then the other leg out to the side. Take the sides of your thighs, roll them back. If you notice that your pubic bone is way out in front of you like this, it's a good indication that you need to be back up on the blanket, so go ahead and head in that direction. Hands can stay right back behind you, extending out through the legs, feeling big and awesome, or start to walk it forward, you can come to elbows.

(deep breath) If you have your block handy, you can grab it and put it right underneath your third eye, or if you've got lots of space, you can go ahead and extend your arms and let your forehead come to the floor. Keep moving your sitting bones back behind you, keep the legs active, pressing the tops of the femurs down as best you can. Then reach out. (deep breath) Good. (deep breath) If you feel a lot of roundness coming to your back, you can do whatever you can do to soften your heart towards the floor like we did with that toe-stand preparation, so with exhales letting this heart soften, then move down.

As you're ready, start to bring it back up. (sigh) Grab one leg, park it in, grab the other leg, park it in, bring your hands to the outsides of your knees, give a little press here, this helps to re-stabilize the muscles that are good for walking. Then the other one. Nice. And then turn back forward, then you're gonna go ahead and take your left leg either into janushirasana shape, kind of a closed variation, or if you feel pretty comfortable in lotus, you're gonna go ahead and lift up that whole leg, you'll close the knee joint, move the hip back for a moment, and then that same motion of moving that sitting bone towards the inner right thigh, so left sitting bone towards inner right thigh, and you'll bring the heel of your foot right up into that hip point.

If there's lots of space here, you can grab your blanket again and go ahead and put the blanket here, or just really extending, finding that rotation of the hip to get the leg down as best you can. And then you'll inhale, there's a big foot in your way, and go ahead and fold in. (deep breaths) If your left chest is floating up, go ahead and move those ribs away from your spine and let it come down a little bit more. (deep breath) Good. Inhale, lift your gaze.

Exhale, start to walk it back in. Gently remove the foot, come back to janu sirsasana shape, and then extend both legs out in front of you. Tighten the kneecaps, lift your chest, dandasana, and then switch sides. So close the janu sirsasana shape, heel turn towards the leg, and your fold will come right from here. If you're moving towards lotus shape here in this leg, you're gonna lift up your right foot, the knee will move out to the side, the joint stays close the whole time to keep your knee nice and safe, and then pull the hip back, lift it up a little bit, and then turn right sitting bone towards inner left thigh to get that leg up.

And then again, if there's lots of space between the floor and the knee, you can go ahead and put the blanket there. Maybe I will for this side. It seems a little high, so I wanna protect my knee and keep it nice and safe. Then inhale, lift up, exhale, fold it on down. Good.

And then stay with it here. I like to release one hand and do a little pushing down and forward to help my spine lengthen. And then again, if your right ribs are floating up away, kind of wanting you to twist open towards the right, drop them down away from your spine. (deep breaths) Good. (deep breaths) (silence) Inhale, extend up, lengthen, exhale, walk it back up.

Gently release, come back to janu sirsasana, move your blanket to the side if you had it, and then straighten both legs out in front of you. Tighten the kneecaps. Okay, here we go. We're gonna come towards a big, beautiful, maybe best possible tanasana of your entire life. It's gonna be awesome.

So no pressure. It's gonna be great. So one thing that I really like to encourage is if you're having a tough time with the forward bends, and sometimes just in our practice we do, it's just hard, it's hard to go inward, you might want to just bend your knees, and you can totally take it just like this. Letting the head be soft, you might walk the feet out a little bit. If you're feeling really open today, you're gonna come, legs extended, move the sides of your thighs back like we practiced, adjust your pants, get ready, you'll inhale, lift up big dandasana shape, move your sitting bones back behind you as you start to fold in.

My feet like to externally rotate, so I work out really hard to keep my big toes moving forward. And then extend with my in-breath, and with my out-breath, I'm gonna go ahead and put my head close to my legs as best I can. (deep breaths) Then use your breath to find space here. Eyes can stay parallel with the floor. Press the legs down.

Keep the spine extending long. (deep breaths) Good. (silence) Start to come up, inhale, find some extension there, exhale, come on back up. Bring hands back behind you, let your fingers turn out, place the soles of your feet on the floor, inhale, lift right up into alter pose, and exhale, come on down. Two more like that.

Inhale, lift up, offer yourself up to the sky. You're like, "Thank God, a back bend finally." Then come down. Last one, broaden your collarbones apart as you do this, head can come back if that feels okay, and then release back down to your seat, come sit cross-legged, take a second, let hands come to your heart, palms open. (deep breath) The process of shifting our practice in a way where there's a little bit more friction, where we might feel a little bit less fluid or comfortable, is really important, right? If we always stay where we feel comfortable, then we're a lot less likely to have to encounter change, right?

The things that might change us aren't gonna show up. Those teachers in our lives, if we just never take risks, if we're always doing exactly the same thing, then the teachers are gonna look a lot different than when we're moving towards a place where we're testing our limits, moving beyond the comfort zone. Good. Thank you for sharing practice today. I hope that you were able to find a little bit of space.

Bowing down to that big bright light inside of your heart. Namaste.