Day 4: Build Some Heat

(ocean waves) Alright, welcome back. This is day four. You know me, like, this is Robert, your buddy, your pal, your friend and I wanna share this with you, so. Day four, (claps hands) let's rock and roll. I touched on it last practice, number three, and, not to sound corny or anything right, but it's the journey, right, it's the practice, by practice, breath by breath.

Don't even think about the end result, right? Let's enjoy it while we have it. That's what I'm gonna share, that's my little opening speech for you okay? Uh, so let's get started, let's have some fun. Front of the mat, and with this practice, we will begin to explore warrior two, little bit of chair pose, that'll require and incorporate a little more strength.

Right, I'll ask just a little bit more from you on this one. So, without further ado, let's begin. Front of the mat, feet hip width, our normal standing starting position. Let's go ahead and bring the palms to the chest. We'll do the heart, earth, sky breath, okay?

So, this'll kinda help bring us all together. So, palms to the chest, take a breath in, (breathing in) breath out, palms pressed down to the earth, (breathing out) as you do this, keep the body strong, strong arms, strong finish the exhale. Inhalation, arms up. And exhalation palms back to the heart. (exhaling) inhale arms up, exhale forward bend.

(exhaling) inhale lift halfway. Exhale chair pose, so this is the new addition to the half salute, so you're gonna push the hips back as you exhale, and bring the arms right out in front of you, lift the chest lengthen the spine. So, you're belly midsection is connected, embraced. Feet are hip width, pointing directly forward, kinda railroad tracks, right? Be mindful that you don't stick your butt up too much, and arch, you know, in desiring this.

So tailbone draws down, that'll help neutralize and lengthen your lower back, and also bring your core into position. I like to bring my arms straight out in front. This kinda helps, I don't know, we'll get to the arms up a little bit later, so arms out, pull the arms in, shoulders into your back. Now here's a fun one. Alright, we're gonna hold for another three to five breaths, press your feet into the mat and pull them apart as if you're trying to rip newspaper apart, and you might feel some nice little sensations in the outer hip/glute region.

Breathe. Now press through your feet on the inhalation, come up, breathe in, reach up, maybe tip back just a little bit. Palms to the chest exhale. I don't know about you, but immediately, like warmer. I'm alive, so.

Let's do two more and see how we feel from there. Alright, palms back to the chest, exhale everything, inhale arms up. Exhale fold. Inhale lift halfway, exhale simultaneously, hips back, arms out, rip the newspaper, hold it, couple breaths, brace the belly. On the next inhalation, press in through the heels drive yourself all the way up, tip back just a little bit, keep the legs strong, torso long and exhale palms to the chest.

One more time, breathe in, exhale fold, still bending at the knees, right this definitely makes a difference. Inhale lift halfway, exhale hips back, arms out, chest up heart open, collar bones breathing, rip the newspaper apart, so nice and strong. Tone the booty a little bit, strengthen the core. Now press through the feet, rise up, big breath. And exhale, palms to the chest.

Nice, good job. Standing feet hip width, step your left foot back, not too far, you know what, try this. If you lean to the right a little bit, gain a little balance, lift your left foot up off of the mat. Now, bend the right knee a little bit and step the left foot back, feet hip width, railroad tracks right? Roll the shoulders back, tuck the tailbone a little bit.

Not tuck, but extend, alright? So high crescent lunge. Once you have this position, with the knee bent, you can extend down, you can feel free to straighten a little bit more, it'll definitely add a little heat, a little stretch up through the left side. Arms up. Couple breaths.

You can even take, sometimes with the arms up, I wonder sometimes, why am I lifting my arms so I incorporate different hand positions to make it seem more useful, so you can interlace your fingers behind you head, and pull the elbows back, right away, stretch, space, open, strong in the back. Okay, hands to the hips, straight in both legs, and roll the hips open for warrior two. This little move here, so straighten the legs, spin the back heel down and get a little bit longer in your stance. Straighten the front leg, hands on the hips, so the hips are open, right? Feet strong.

Now draw the right knee toward the right pinky toe, something like that, now straighten it a little bit, extend the tailbone down, alright so you don't come into it, like so. Extend the tailbone down, neutral spine, braced core, as always, you can find it in almost every pose. Good, warrior two. Arms out, you can try to place the palms up, to encourage the biceps, shoulders open. Just turn the wrists back over, good.

Maybe even try to close your eyes for a breath or two. What I talked about before is that building of the house, right? Build it to your liking, and then live in it, inhabit it, and breathe in it, it's kinda nice and you get to that point where you find that sweet spot, just enough effort, just enough ease, (breathing) feels good. Okay, so hands on the hips, straighten the front leg, so this kinda like, reduces the compression. Spin the back heel back up, and set the back knee down.

Ninety degrees here, ninety degrees here, palms to the chest, take a breath in, and exhale, twist to the right, don't let the knee move, the right knee stays tracking directly over the foot, twist, twist, twist. Left hand the the right thigh, right arm reaches back. So now you have, you're in two very functional movements, you have your lunge, and the rotation and twist of your spine. Nicely done, bring it back to center, take a breath in, reach up, and exhale the hands down, step the left foot up to meet your right, exhale. Inhale lift halfway, exhale fold.

Come up one more time, breathe in, and exhale chair. Inhale. Exhale. Good. Okay, with the hands placed together at your heart, lean to the left a little bit, lift the right heel up, maybe even the toes, create a little bit of a balancing position here, so we're gonna step back with control, with as much control as possible, little soft bend in the left knee, transition the right foot back, feet are hip width, good, little adjustment in the tailbone, pelvic region, okay?

Arms up, I'm gonna go for the interlace behind the head, hips are nice and square, if you wanna try to like draw the left hip back a little bit more with the right hip forward, you might feel a little bit of an adjustment there. I'm gonna open up the chest, open up the heart, open up the collarbones, a little more space to breathe, while strengthening the upper back, by pulling my elbows back, back, back, back, back. Feel free to straighten that right leg as long as it feels okay for your lil' back, capture a few healthy breaths here. Good, now bend both knees, or bend the back knee a little bit, straighten the left and kind of unlock the posture to roll the back foot down, warrior two. Straighten the front leg.

Draw the tailbone down. On your exhale, draw the left knee in the direction of your left pinky toe. Good, extend the arms out, this one here, I know I'm talking to your, you know all you can see is my back, but I'm all with you, okay? What I'd like you to do for about three to five breaths is hold and sustain the pose, make sure you've got equal pressure in both feet, your legs are properly situated, tailbone down, core braced, arms out, palms up, shoulders back, you know, get those shoulder blades drawn toward one another so there's stability everywhere, palms down, take the gaze over the left middle finger, and close your eyes for a few moments. Feel the breath, travel in, travel out.

Breathing in, breathing out. And there's this sense of like, I got just enough effort and strength to hold the pose, but I'm super relaxed and comfortable. Palms to the chest, straighten the front leg and kinda unlock, again unlock the pose, bend the right knee a little bit, kinda shift the hips back towards square, set the back knee down, palms to the chest, breathe in as you exhale twist to the left. Notice how my spine is long, I'm upright, twisting, twisting, twisting, right hand to the left thigh, left hand reaches back. Shoulders drawn down, good job.

Good job, good, now bring it back to center. We're gonna make a little transition here, instead of coming all the way back up, you're just gonna step the left foot back. Table top. Take child's pose, so enter child's pose with an exhale, now anytime you kind of enter some of the poses that bring up certain tensions or resistance, and you can practice this, right, when you have more time you breathe in, you move away from it, you breathe out, cycle back in. Try that again, breathe in you move away from the pose, and you breathe out, back home.

Good, downward dog, table, curl the toes under and exhale down dog. Good, this is kind of like the equalizer pose you know it just sort of brings everything into play. A little bit of strength, flexibility in a certain amount of focus and stamina, your breath, a little bit of an inversion, your head is upside down. Okay we're gonna get into a little core here, so what I want you to do is set the knees down, take a breath, we're gonna get into forearm plank. So the way we'll set it up, is you'll set it up like so, okay, grab your, take your right hand on the left bicep, left hand on the right bicep, kay.

Elbows underneath the shoulders, then bring your palms right back out. Now here, notice that my butt is quite high, what I want to do, by having it high, my belly is not engaged at all. So I'm gonna walk my knees back a little bit, and then draw the tailbone back toward my heels, and then my belly all of the sudden becomes much more engaged. Now we're gonna do six rounds, okay, you gotta stay with me, it's about five seconds hold with a one breath rest. I'll talk you through it as we go, here we go so, lift the knees and powerfully press the elbows into the mat and pull the elbows toward the toes and the toes toward the elbows, to the point where you're almost shaking.

Now breathe in, as you exhale bring the knees down, inhale, exhale forearm plank. For five-four-three-two-good, exhale the knees down, inhale, exhale for number three. Again, so elbows pull back toward the toes, toes toward the elbows so you're really firing all muscles so get to the point where you're shaking for two-one- exhale, knees down, breathe in. Breathe out. Good, work the core, that spine strengthening pose, I think is what it's also called for two, and knees down.

Breathe in, breathe out, go time. Shake, tremble, work, you know you're doing it right, when you're working like this, you're shaking and trembling, you're here, you're showing up, making a difference, pushing beyond those boundaries and exhale. Let's go one more, so breathe in, and go time. It's not meant to be fully comfortable here, alright you wanna make some of those changes, see some of those results, you gotta push. You gotta work for two, and knees down, thighs down.

So actually bring the knees down, and then scoot back a little bit and the resting point will be sphinx pose. Good job by the way. So sphinx pose, I like to have the elbows below the shoulders, some of you might feel immediately low back discomfort, so that might mean you take your elbows a little wider, or even farther forward to reduce the low back discomfort. Find your area, your structure. Lower down, slide the hands underneath your shoulders alongside the ribs, come up for a gentle little cobra, then push back into child's pose.

Bring your knees pretty tight, so knees and thighs to touch, and when you do this, you'll feel a significant difference than if the knees were wide. With the knees close, it really helps to create this long stretch in the back, the low back. Take the hands alongside your feet, forehead down as far as you can. Good. Good, go ahead and come up, well done.

Spin around, come onto your seat, we'll finish off with a few different poses, alright. 'Kay from here go ahead and roll down to your back, once you land on your back, hug the knees in, why? Because it feels good, I think, right? I don't want to assume, but I think it feels pretty good, it's a lying on your back child's pose, might be more accessible even. Alright, bring those feet down to the mat, keep them bent, keep your knees bent but bring your feet about as wide as the mat, okay.

Lie your arms out, and I'd like you to approach this as like, ah, I just finished this, another twenty minutes, number four done, right? So with relaxation and ease, criss-cross or windshield wiper your knees from side to side, so going to the right, you go to the right. Then you kinda casually move over to the left, and then you can sync the breath with it, so if you bring your knees up, take a breath in, exhale over to the right, breathe in, breathe out. Feel free to continue this, and feel free to continue with, you know maybe there's a bridge, maybe there's a deeper twist, but for now, I will make this official, I will come on up to sit, if you're still lying on your back and you can hear me, I'm right here, sitting cross-legged, good job today, good job. Number four, that's it, that's done.

I'm really sad, but I'm really happy at the same time. Number five, we'll see you tomorrow, or whenever you show up, whenever you show up for number five I will see, I will be here because I wanna, you know make this very clear, I'm doing this just as you are, I've never done a thirty day challenge, ever, but I'm doing it now with you. So thanks for joining me once again, I appreciate it, namaste, have a blessed, beautiful, awesome amazing day, peace.