Yoga on a Plane or Train

(ocean surf) We're going to do a practice that works when you're travelling. Especially if you're on a train or a plane. And personally, what I always like to do is I wear clothes that are really comfortable to move in. And that means, in this case I'm wearing jeans, but these are jeans that stretch just a little bit and the shirt gives a little bit. So picking an outfit, of course, that's going to allow you move freely when you're taking a long trip on a plane or a train is important to be able to do what we're about to do.

So imagine you've walked back into some area, where you have room to stand up, move your arms, and what not. And then, the first thing we're going to do is step your feet out a little wider than your shoulders, and then slide your hands down onto you knees, so you're in a nice, stable squatting position. And for a moment just sort of savor that, just enjoy the feeling of that. Now this is a little twisting action, so with your first exhalation, start your Yoga breathing by exhaling and twisting your left shoulder towards your right knee. You can place your neck in any position that's the most comfortable.

And then you inhale back to center, square you head and shoulders with your legs, and then exhale, and twist the other way. And now keep that breath rhythm going, where you're inhaling to the center, into this kind of squat with your knees bent, but your arms straight, and you're just gently twisting the spine, and really, you can tuck the tail, you can tuck your chin as you go into it. Find your way into making it as pleasurable as possible, because that's the most important thing, is that actually your body will give you really clear pleasurable signals for what's the right way to do it. So let's do, like, another round and a half. So coming with the right shoulder toward the left knee, you'll finish with one more round.

Exhale, left shoulder toward the right knee, inhale, feel your breath down into your belly, and then exhale over the other way. And then come back to center and kind of roll up slowly and then shake your hands out. It's nice just to, you know, I always like to take a little break, actually, between postures when I'm on a plane or a train. Because it's just more natural to be able to check in to the environment that I'm in. So the next one, what I'd like you to do is step your feet together, and then you're going to turn your palms to face forward, and with an inhalation, start to raise your arms with your palms facing forward as you lift up on your toes.

Come up slowly, and then exhale down and see if you can time the movement of your arms with the movement of your heels, with the movement of your breath. So again, you're going to inhale, we'll do this about five more times. Inhale up, the top of your inhale is when you reach the top of the lift with the heels and the arms are at their highest point. And then exhale down, slowly but surely, this is really strengthening for your ankles, it's great for pumping the circulation through your feet, and your calves, which is extremely important when you're having to sit for long periods of time on a train or a plane. Just a few more times now.

You want to rest your gaze sort of, I often do something that's straight in front of me, because I'm often in a confined space, so I'll pick something where I don't lower my head down, I keep my head more neutral. I'm coming up, and down with a smooth breath. Two more. Inhale. Exhale.

It's nice to really feel the sensations in the balls of your feet, because just noticing your feet, as you balance, has a grounding affect too. Uh huh, and then exhale down. Try to be graceful with your hands, you may want to spread you fingers out as your hands are lowering. Feel into each of these in a way that you're really responding to what your body is calling for. And when you've been sitting, your body often has very clear ideas about what it wants.

Now this time when you come up, you're going to interlace your fingers, and we'll just take a few breaths up on our toes, with the arms up straight too. So you're hanging out there, it's like wobbling is a sign of life, don't trip out. And then exhale, come on down. And you lower down. And then the same thing, kind of stretch that out a little bit.

This next practice is kind of like a Swiss Army knife, like it does everything at once, and it is one of these things that we practice in the style of Yoga that I do called Shadow Yoga, but it really does so many things at once, that it allows you to actually get many needs met all at the same time. So what you're going to do is you're going from having your feet parallel, step one foot into the middle, the other foot behind, and then you're going to drop down into this kind of twist where your back heel is off the ground, you're front heel is grounded, and you place the opposite elbow on top of the knee. So in this case, my left elbow is to my right knee, and then I'm going to come back up with an inhale, and I'll actually to like a little spin. And so turning in space actually has a really important effect on the inner ear and a lot of things that help you to keep from light headed or ungrounded when you are travelling as well. So I exhale down, inhale up, spin, exhale down.

You can look over your right shoulder as you go down to the right side. Or you can look over your left shoulder. If you don't have a lot space, you can spin with your hands down. And then again, in this case, right elbow to left knee, and this time I'm going to look over my right shoulder, so the head's turned out of the twist. And again, I come up, we'll do this two more times to each side.

As you inhale, make space in your belly for the breath, so as the body rises up, the breath is descending down. You finish spinning on that inhale, and then the exhale begins as you begin descending into the shape. Again, allow your neck to go wherever it wants to. There's no set place, other than the place that feels the best. One more complete round, nice, deep exhale.

Nice long inhale, draw the breath into your belly. And exhale again, last time, turning towards the left leg. And inhale up. And this time, as you turn, you're going to step out, and then widen your feet, bring your hands down, and again, take a moment just to stabilize, get yourself feeling neutral. So bring your hands onto your thighs, and as you exhale, begin to fold forward.

As you do this, keep the weight balanced on your feet, that's the gentlest for your low back, and if you need to, of course, bend your knees as much as you need to to be in this safely. The first few breaths, what I'd like you to do is, place your fingertips or hands on the ground next to your feet and then just relax the full weight of your head down, so the weight of the head is tractioning the neck and your spine. Be sure to pay attention to the balance of the weight in your feet. Nice, long breaths. Long, relaxing exhales.

Long, deep abdominal inhales. And then you can nod the head yes, and shake the head no a little bit, just to loosen up any neck tension. Then, with your next inhalation, bring you hands behind your back. And I'm really a fan of not doing this overly intensely, so first, keep your elbows kind of bent as you bring your fingertips together and interlace your fingers. And be very patient and gradual about the way that you may or may not stretch your arms out.

If you're in a really tight spot, you can do this with your hands on your mid-back and just relax your elbows down, and you'll still get a really nice opening for your shoulders and the top of your chest. But if you have room, of course, you can bring the hands back behind you. This feels really great when you've been sitting for a long time. So take two more breaths there, allow your neck to relax, keep your breath smooth and keep your weight balanced on your feet. Then your hands come back to your waist, and you're going to bring your hands on next to your shins and run your hands up your legs as you roll up.

One vertebrae at a time. And then the last thing we're going to do is you're going to step out wide, and you actually bring your hands onto your waist, and you'll do a gentle back bend by dropping your elbows down, you can turn your gaze up if its comfortable and appropriate, you can bring your head back. And as you go into the back bend, keep your weight balanced on your feet. Keep your breath smooth, keep everything feeling comfortable. And take couple more breaths with that.

I usually, this is often the one that feels the most needed or it's the thing my body is the hungriest for is just to have a little back bending going on after I've been sitting and I've been in that flexed position in the seat for so long. With your next inhalation, bring yourself forward and your head back to neutral. Step your feet hip-width, and once again, kind of shake it out. Okay, so now for the very last thing, and this sort of just really integrates everything, is I will do these kind of standing spinal waves. So the technique is very simple, you're going to bend your knees and flex at your hips so your tailbone comes back, and then you curl your tailbone under as you tuck your chin, and you roll the wave up through your spine.

The place you put your attention, other than feeling your knees and your hips flex, is you want to keep the weight balanced in your feet. Because by virtue of this movement, the spine will move in a wave-like motion, but the thing that you may not notice is the balance of the weight in your feet as much. Keeping your attention down on your feet as you do this, guarantees that the spine receives this in a really balanced and gentle way. And then as you come up, you can do some shoulder rolls, you know, some kind of a intuitive kind of stuff with your hands and your feet, and you might even imagine that you're a dog who just jumped in a pond and is really happy. Do kind of a, because that also feels really good, you kind of shake out the cobwebs from sitting.

So I hope you enjoyed that. Namaste.