Shiva's Shoulders

Welcome, this is another special attention practice for shoulder flexibility. Let's begin in plank pose. Hand shoulder width apart, feet together, legs straight, knees off the floor. Keep your head in line with your neck, pull the navel up a little, tailbone down a little. Keep your legs engaged, pressing through the heels, slow, smooth, even breathing.

And now bending your legs, drop your knees one inch off the floor, rolling onto the tips of your toes. Keeping the knees one inch off the floor, slowly press back into squatting dog pose. If you can, rest your forehead on the floor, and slowly straighten your legs, come into dog pose, feet hip width apart, slow, even breathing. Each inhale, let the fullness of your breath move into the back body, the full length of your torso. Each exhale, hips and shoulders soften, they sink a little, lengthen the arms, lengthen the legs.

Slowly coming down onto your forearms, slowly lower your belly to the floor, sweep your left arm across your chest, drop the left shoulder to the floor, chin to the floor. Place your right arm straight beside you, palms turned up. Keep your belly and butt soft. Each inhale, breathe into your left shoulder. Each exhale, top of the lungs softens, heart drops, gently press the right shoulder down into the left elbow.

And now slowly bending the left arm, take the hand behind your head, bend your right arm behind the back. If you can, you're going to hook your fingers. If that doesn't happen for you today, keep the back of the right wrist flat on your spine, release the right elbow towards the floor. Breathe and inhale, slowly release, change arms, sweep the right arm across your chest in line with the shoulders, drop your right shoulder to the floor, chin to the floor. Place your left arm beside you, palms turned up.

Keep your breathing slow. Each inhale, breathe into your right shoulder, each exhale, soften the top of the lungs, heart drops a little, press your left shoulder down into the right elbow. And now slowly bending your right arm, hand behind the head, bend your left arm behind your back, if you can, hook the fingers. If you can't hook, keep the back of the wrist flat on the spine, release the left shoulder towards the floor. With an inhale, slowly release.

Take your left arm straight out to the side in line with your shoulder, palm down, right hand next to your armpit like a push-up, tuck your toes forward, walk your hips three to four inches to the right, and then walk your feet over in line with your hips. Inhale slowly, on the exhale, slowly roll to your left, lift your head off the floor, turn your face, look up. Breathe into your left shoulder, on the exhale, soften the diaphragm, abdominal organs drop, turn your waist more. Those who want to go deeper, bend your right leg, foot flat, drop the right knee behind you. And now taking the right arm vertical, turn the palm to face behind you, curl the wrist down, slowly lowering the arm, fingers pointing down towards the floor.

If you find your left hand, lift the fingers up, and with your right hand, bend the left wrist backwards. Each exhale, release the diaphragm, organs drop, knee drops. With an inhale, slowly coming out, change sides, right arm straight out to the side in line with the shoulder, left hand next to your armpit like a push-up. Tuck your toes forward, walk your hips three to four inches to the left, and walk your feet over in line with the hips. Slowly roll to the right, lift your head up a little, turn your face, look up.

Bend into the right shoulder. On the exhale, diaphragm softens, organs drop, turn your waist more. If you're going deeper, bend your left leg, drop the left knee behind you. And then taking the left arm vertical, turn the palm to face behind you, curl the wrist down, slowly lowering the arm, keep the arm straight. If the left hand finds the right, lift the fingers, and with your left hand, bend the right wrist backwards.

Keep breathing into your right shoulder. Exhale, soften the diaphragm, organs drop, knee drops, twist deeper. With an inhale, slowly coming out. Place your left elbow on the floor next to your hip, forearm right angle to the body. Right hand comes next to your armpit like a push-up.

Drag your left knee forward onto the forearm, turn your face, gaze at the right hand, resting your head on the floor. Breathe into your left shoulder. On the exhale, top of the lung softens, heart drops, press down into your right hand, lift the right shoulder away from the floor, release your left shoulder into the floor. Keep your belly and butt soft. Keep your breathing slow.

With an inhale, slowly release. Place your right elbow on the floor next to your hip. Have your forearm right angle to the body, left hand next to your armpit like a push-up. Drag the right knee forward onto the forearm, turn your face to the left, resting on the cheek. Press down into your left hand, lift the left shoulder away from the floor, release the right shoulder into the floor.

Breathe into your right shoulder. On the exhale, top of the lung softens, heart drops, press down into the left hand, left shoulder higher, right shoulder lower. With an inhale, slowly coming out. Keep your left elbow across your chest, drop the shoulder to the floor. With the arm bent, place the tip of your chin on the outside of the wrist.

Place your right arm straight beside you, palm turned up. Breathe into your left shoulder. On the exhale, top of the lung softens, heart drops, press your right shoulder down into the left elbow, with your chin, press the thumb side of the wrist towards the floor. If you want a little more in this pose, slide the left knee forward on the mat, 90 degrees to the body. Soft belly, soft butt.

With an inhale, slowly release, change sides. Sweep your right elbow across your chest, drop the right shoulder to the floor. Place the tip of the chin on the outside of the wrist. Left arm straight beside you, palm turned up. Breathe into your right shoulder.

On the exhale, top of the lung softens, heart drops, press your left shoulder down into the right elbow, press the chin into the wrist. If you want more, slide the right knee forward on your mat, right angle to the body. Laying butt soft. And slowly release. Slowly roll to your right, onto your backs.

Bend your knees, feet flat. If you're off the side of your mat, come back to the center. Slowly place your right hand under the waist, palm down, and make sure it's just the hand, not the wrist or the forearm. And slowly straighten your right leg to the floor. Shift your hips to the left a little.

Then place the left foot on the right thigh and slowly roll to your right. As you roll to the right, sweep your left arm across your chest, grab the elbow, lift your head off the floor, turn your face, look down. Breathe into your right shoulder. On the exhale, soften the top of the lung, heart drops, soften the diaphragm. Turn your waist a little further.

With an inhale, slowly coming out, change sides. Place the left hand under your waist, palm down. Again, making sure it's just the hand, not the wrist or the forearm. Straighten your left leg to the floor. Right leg bent.

Move your hips a couple inches to the right. Place the sole of the right foot on top of the left thigh. Slowly roll to the left. Lift your head up off the floor, turn your face, look down. Right arm coming across, holding onto the left elbow.

Breathe into your left shoulder. On the exhale, top of the lung softens, heart drops, diaphragm softens, organs drop, waist turns. With an inhale, slowly coming out, both legs bent. Take the arms over the head to the floor, extend through the fingers. Slowly slide the arms double shoulder width apart, turn the palms over flat to the floor.

Lift your head up, press down into your hands and sit up. Move the hands in shoulder width apart, shoulders dropping forward, chest dropping down. Walk your feet away from you a little. Bring your hips off the floor, move the hips towards your heels and try and lay down on your back. Shoulders dropping forward, chest dropping down, head dropping back, neck supported in the trapezius.

Each inhale, breathing through the back body, the full length of the torso. Each exhale, top of the lung softens, heart drops, collarbone softens, shoulders dropping forward, head dropping back. If you want to go deeper, move the hips closer to the heels. Be mindful of your elbows if you hyperextend. And now coming up with the head, lift your hips up off the floor and slowly straighten your legs.

Slowly bend your legs, cross your ankles. Pull the heels into the pelvis, wrap your arms around your legs, hands in namaste. Make sure your feet are turned out 45 degrees and then you're going to rock forward onto standing on the outer arches of your feet. Use your arms to squeeze the knees in. And then slowly inhale standing, keep squeezing the knees in as you stand.

Standing on the outer arches of your feet and then slowly spin facing forward. Hands in namaste. And release. And now take the feet wider than hip width with your feet turned out 45 degrees, bend your knees, hands resting on the thighs. This next sequence is known as Dansa Shiva and I honor Andre Lapa who created this sequence.

You'll bring your arms up, elbows as high as your shoulders with your palms facing up, fingers pointing out. I'm going to ask you to memorize four positions of your hands. This is position one, fingers pointing out. Position two, the fingertips come together right at your navel. From two to three, the fingers point back as you spin the wrists out and in the perfect world your palms are up, your elbows are bent 90 degrees.

This is three, position four, the fingertips come forward and up over the head, they touch with your palms up. And then swinging the fingers back, coming back to one. So four positions, one, two, three, four, one. Now just to check, I want you to close your eyes. Show me position three, keep your eyes closed.

And open your eyes, look at the video, make sure you did it correctly. If you didn't, fix it. Close your eyes again. Show me position two. Again open your eyes.

If you're matching me, you're doing it right. If you're not, fix it. Close your eyes. Show me four. Open your eyes.

If you're not matching me, fix it. Close your eyes. Show me one. Open your eyes. All right, so now we're going to move with the hands and let's just see if you can follow.

So hands come to two. Three. Four. Keep your eyes open. One.

Again, two, three, four, one. Okay, without numbers, slowly. And one more set. And now reverse from one to four, three, two, one, again, four, three, two, one. Without numbers.

One more. All right, now going forward, we're going to speed it up a little bit. Two, three, four, one, again, two, three, four, one. Reverse four, three, two, one, again, four, three, two, one. Forward again without numbers.

One more. And reverse without numbers. And now just to see if your brains are working, right hand to two, left hand to four, right hand to three, left hand to three, right hand to four, left hand to two, right hand to one, left hand to one. And I'm doing mirror images in case you're wondering which makes it even harder for me. Let's try it again.

Right hand to two, left hand to four, right hand to three, left hand to three, right hand to four, left hand to two, right hand to one, left hand to one. And now simultaneous movement, 2, 4, 3, 3, 4, 2, 1, 1, 2, 4, 3, 3, 4, 2, 1, 1. And now continuous simultaneous movement, 2, 4, 3, 3, 4, 2, 1, 1. Again, 2, 4, 3, 3, 4, 2, 1, 1, and without numbers, again. And now we'll reverse, left hand to 2, right hand to 4, left hand to 3, right hand to 3, left hand to 4, right hand to 2, left hand to 1, right hand to 1.

Again, 2, 4, 3, 3, 4, 2, 1, 1. And now simultaneous movement, 2, 4, 3, 3, 4, 2, 1, 1. Again, 2, 4, 3, 3, 4, 2, 1, 1. And now simultaneous continuous movement, slowly, 2, 4, 3, 3, 4, 2, 1, 1. Again, 2, 4, 3, 3, 4, 2, 1, 1.

And now without numbers, slowly. One more set. Good, and release. Feel your arms, feel your shoulders, feel your legs. Thank you for practicing. Namaste.