Build Your Wheel Pose

Welcome, yogis. Today we're going to be developing a relationship with full wheel pose or upward facing bow. We're going to be opening our hearts and even our organs to the sky and we'll be using that outer alignment that really lifting our hearts up in this victorious triumphant gesture of our physicality to then perhaps take that outer alignment and have it mirror itself internally because as yogis what we're working towards is being able to live spaciously, to live more kindly and to also act in love and more than any other pose full wheel for me embodies these aspects of the yoga practice. So let's begin on our backs. We're going to lie down.

You also today will want quite a few props, two blocks of blanket and a strap. So have those nearby. Okay. So come on down to your backs and you're going to let your left leg extend long and take your right leg up towards your chest and draw in for a moment and you can take it to the side of your rib cage and just starting to find some nice hip flexion there and reach out long through that left foot and then begin to transform this into a twist. So taking the left hand to the outer right knee and reaching that leg across the body and you're, you're going to take the pinky toe edge and this is kind of hard to set up here, but you're going to take the pinky toe edge of that right leg with your left hand and hold it and then bend your bottom leg and see if you can take the big toe edge with your right hand and hold it.

So palm is to the sky shoulders open and then here's the magic. You're going to reach the legs apart from one another. I call this Hanumanasanizing the legs or splitting the legs apart and turning the chest towards the sky and you're beginning here with a quad stretch and then also an opening to the IT and then the side of the hip on that top leg and we'll just take a couple of breaths here and it's active so you're pressing the feet into your hands. The top leg does not have to be all the way straight if that's not happening for you so don't worry about it. And also if you can't grab the bottom leg you can just simply take the heel in towards your seat and you'll get some opening to the front of the hip in that way.

Let's take one more big breath here inhaling fully. Exhaling completely and then starting to bend into the top leg release the hands and come on back up to center. Center your hips they probably went a little bit off and stretch the right leg long and take the left knee up towards your chest and again drawing it out to the outside of the rib cage just gently pulling the shin maybe a little shaky shaky here and there and reaching along through the right leg and then again beginning to transform this into a twist of taking the right hand to the outer left knee crossing it over the body and then your right hand is going to take the pinky toe side of that top foot and your bottom leg is going to bend and see if you can kind of get it reach down there and make an effort see if you can grab the pinky toe side of that bottom foot. So then your palm will be facing the sky and then there's a splitting of the legs apart that happens here it feels really kind of like gross and lovely all at the same time and the chest comes towards the sky if your left shoulder doesn't hit the floor or if your right shoulder did it last time don't worry about it we're not going for a rocket surgery here this is just starting to warm up the body and let it know that some back bends are coming twisting the spine and then split the legs apart actively as you're doing this and so you're really using the hands to find some traction there a couple more big breaths good and then release that bottom leg release the top leg rebend and come on back up place the soles of your feet onto the floor roll to one side and we're going to set up some props here so take your blocks and you're going to place your blocks on the lowest setting towards the top of your mat and then you're going to take your blanket this kind of is the cushy like sweet way to do this shape rather than like putting cold hard blocks into your back we're going to cushion it with a blanket put the blanket over the blocks and then take your strap and you want to make your straps so that when you put it around the tops of your elbows that the strap makes a shoulder width distance shape here and set the strap to one side and we're going to lay down on the blanket block scenario first so you want the bottom tip of the block to be on the bottom tip of your shoulder blade and the way I was shocked the first time I realized my shoulder blade was so high but a good way to find where the bottom tip of the shoulder blade is just to move the arm like this and you can feel where that is and then lay down so that bottom tip of the shoulder blade is on the block soles of the feet on the floor and then take your strap and place it around the bottoms of the elbow so it's towards your chest as arms reach up into the sky lift your chin slightly fingertips to the sky pulling the shoulder blades away from the block let your chin run towards the front of your throat take your head back as you reach actively through the hands and some of us the thumbs might come to the floor for some of us they might not and then for many of us the shoulder blades have started to pinch together we don't really want that to be happening here so lift your shoulder blades off the block slightly wrap them towards the sky and then re-reach as best you can if you can straighten the legs go ahead and do so you can take a little bit of distance between your feet let the tops of the thighs move down towards the floor and reach it's a big beautiful balanced back bend here and the strap helps us to maintain that external rotation in the shoulders by giving us a little bit of feedback the breath gets a little bit short here so do your best to keep the breath into the top of the chest thighs down reaching through the legs and coiling over the blocks staying just a little bit longer than is comfortable two more big inhales and exhales and then to come out bend your elbows take the strap off of your arms place fingertips down by your sides draw your feet and let them be a little bit beyond your knees and then do your best to sit up to push up and let the head come last use your hands on the floor set the blocks to the side set your strap to the side and we're going to come into child's pose so let the big toes touch towards the back of the mat walk your hands out in front of you and then look up let your chin sort of reach forward towards the front of the mat and then drop your seat back down to your heels your chin is still lifted press the palms of the hands onto the floor and broaden your shoulder blades onto your back let the belly lift and take your seat back towards your heels so that it's as close to touching or touching as possible and then walk your hands out one inch or two inches further reroute your sitting bones towards your heels and then finally drop your forehead towards the floor breathe into the back of the heart space maybe creeping the hands out one or two more inches rerouting the sitting bones to the heels with your core and then inhale rise on up towards hands and knees tuck the toes separate your feet back behind you lift the hips up and back for downward facing dog and just greet your dog here feeling that lift of the belly the reaching of the outer shoulder blades towards the hands the lifting of the back of the heart up towards the heavens and then stretching the back of the heart up towards the hips keeping the shoulders steady inhale your right leg straight back up and behind you and step to the outside of your right hand turn your back heel down walk the hands over to the left and coming to downward facing dog lunge do this a lot in my classes so you want the right knee to be over the right ankle the toning of the inner left thigh is happening but then wrap your outer right hip towards the back of the mat so you get more of your right thigh parallel with the edge of your mat feel lift of the right side belly drawing the right hip back pushing into the left foot toning the inner left thigh head is between the upper arm bones very much like child's pose inhale here and then as you exhale walk your hands forward towards the front of the mat lift your back heel drop your back knee turn the left fingers out slightly turn the right toes out slightly and bring your right hand to the top of your right thigh bend both elbows draw your shoulder blades onto your back and turn towards the back of the mat keeping the left elbow bent reach the right arm back kick up your back foot and then pull the heel in towards your seat getting a quad stretch we call this the all in one in Portland because you're getting the twists you're getting a back bend and a big hip opener as well so all the yoga in one pull the heel and the knee towards one another lift the side belly drop both shoulder blades onto your back and turn big lift of the heart bent elbows you're not locking out breathing in and then exhale release hands back down to the floor turn your right toes so that they face forward and then drop down first onto your left elbow if that's going well come back down onto your right elbow as well for lizard shape and think about it like more like a crow pose drawing the right knee in towards your shoulder for this one rather than letting the knee come out let the gaze be a little bit beyond your fingertips gently pull the heart forward to increase the stretch in the groin here and then we'll press back up on the hands you're going to tuck your back toes and then lift your back knee and push yourself forward to roll over onto the top of your foot redrop the back knee and then back the hips up so that your left hip and left knee are on top of each other and then again let the elbows come down to the floor this time your head can drop keep tucking that right hip back whole sole of the right foot is on the floor it wants to lift up but we do our best not to let it this is our second variation of lizard this one's always harder for me so it may be for some of you too and you might just stay up on hands here good let the gaze lift press back up onto your hands and step back to downward facing dog please and just notice here see if yoga works if there's a lightness to the right leg that you just worked on compared to the left leg and there probably is some discernible change which I always think is really fabulous to check in with before we go to the other side so inhale your left leg straight back up and behind and exhale step to the outside of your left hand turn the back heel down heel is it's heel to heel alignment with the feet and then walk the hands over towards the right for your downward facing dog lunge draw the heels of the legs towards one another slightly tone your inner right thigh and then wrap your outer left hip back lifting the left side belly so again getting as much of that outer left hip parallel in thigh parallel to the edge of the mat as you can mm-hmm it's child's pose in the upper body belly's lifting center the weight on your left heel joint and then exhale walk the hands back over towards the left lift up your back heel drop the back knee turn the right fingers out place your left hand on your left thigh turn the left toes out and then turn bend the elbow so you're not locking out in the arms so you can move the shoulders onto your back and then reach the left arm back you can totally stay here or kick up your back foot take the pinky toe side of the foot and pull the heel towards your seat draw the knee back knee on the front heel towards one another lift the belly and turn taking the head back the heart through big quad stretch mm-hmm inhaling exhale release hands down towards the floor turn your left toes back forward come down onto right elbow first that's how we learn to come down onto elbows and then left elbow second pressing the palms together tuck that left knee in towards your shoulder and let the gaze move a little bit forward as you dry your heart forward stretching the groin slightly more I found in my own personal practice that when we open the groins that there's a greater capacity to feel comfort in the backbends and if you look at light on yoga mr. Iyengar has this huge laying down split happen right before wheel pose and so I think there's something to that good still doing data research though great press back up to hands tuck your back toes if they're not already lift your back knee and then roll forward onto the top of your foot drop the back knee and back the hips up again coming down onto right elbow left elbow this time the head can drop notice if the left hip wants to wing out to the side or if your foot wants to do any funny business and see if you can keep that left hip tucked in in the center of the weight being on the center of the left heel joints there and then pressing back up to hands tuck the back toes and step back downward facing dog you're gonna grab your blocks now and set them on either side of your mat it's graceful as you can and then inhale your right leg straight back up and behind once more and exhale step between your hands drop your back knee place your right foot on the mid setting so this is baby bear setting and this is mama bear setting and this is daddy bear setting we're gonna use mama bear setting so you're gonna back up and place your right foot on the block and then bring hands to your front thigh this is angina asana with the foot on the block so low lunge with the foot on the block let the pelvis turn a little bit towards the left so your right sitting bone comes closer to your right heel mm-hmm reach from the top of your left pelvis out through the back leg soften your right hip crease and then maybe start to bring arms up and wide and over your head touching palms and then stretching up and out of your low back as your pubic bone moves down towards the floor and see if you can find the top of your heart and lift it towards the sky big breath in and then exhale hands down to the floor good carefully step off your block place hands on the floor and step back down dog reach the sides of your chest towards your hands sitting bones up and back back of the heart lifts towards the shoulder blades and then stretches up towards the hips mm-hmm inhale lift your left leg straight back up and behind and exhale step between your hands drop the back knee come to fingertips and then as gracefully as you can place your left foot on the middle setting of the block and bring hands to your front thigh let the pelvis move forward and then also let it shift a tiny bit to the right so there's a natural sort of bouncing and floating of the sacrum between the pelvis the ilium the pelvis bones and then reach from the top of your right pelvis out through the back leg soften the left hip crease let the pubic bone move down your knee might come a little bit beyond your ankle that's okay and then bring your arms up into the sky press palms and reach and stretch up as you let the pubic bone shift down and feel that top of the heart move up towards the sky big stretch to the right quad keep all of those actions happening more big breath inhale and then exhale hands down to the ground carefully remove the block from underneath your foot set it to the side we actually won't need the blocks for a while so you can set it all the way to the side and then step back downward facing dog inhale your right heel straight back up in behind and exhale draw your right knee towards your wrist and then lower the knee down and come all the way down to your pigeon pose so let the right heel be close to your left hip point see if you can balance the weight on either side of your sacrum and then we'll walk the hands back towards the hips let the shoulders draw back as the pubic bone drops down towards the floor and lifting the heart towards the sky reach from the back of that pelvis out through the back leg gorgeous I tend to shift towards the right so if you notice that you're shifting right or left see if you can find center even if it means you lift up off the floor big full breath in and exhale bringing hands down to the floor tuck the back toes and step back downward facing dog inhale the left heel straight back up in behind and exhale draw the left knee towards the left wrist let the top of the foot come to the floor and again the left heel is closed towards the right hip point and then settle the weight so it's balanced on your sacrum softening that left hip crease and begin to walk the hands back and then it's just a gentle broadening of the collar bones a lifting of the heart up to the sky reaching from the right pelvis all the way down through the foot into the back leg lifting the heart inhale exhale one more inhale pubic bone drops down exhale hands to the floor step back downward facing dog sides of the chest reach sitting bones up and back centering the weight on the heel joint inhale here exhale start to walk your hands back towards your toes at the back of the mat bring your hands to your hips point your elbows to the sky inhale extend halfway reaching from hips towards ground to the head and then exhale stand all the way up and bring your hands to your heart center okay I'm going to turn to face you so you can see this next part you're going to need a wall and you're going to bring your right hip or whichever hip that you would like actually but well no let's do right so that I can give you the correct cues so that it hits the wall and then you're going to reach your arms up overhead and take Vira mudra which is basically like your charlie's angels action happening here but you cross your thumbs and as you reach up into the sky you're going to keep your hip connected with the wall as best you can inner edges of the feet stay together lift the belly and for today's purposes for what we're doing we're going to get a little so as stretch here so move your inner thighs back to the wall back behind you or behind you let the sitting bones drop down feel lift of the belly and then as you exhale go ahead and side bend away from the wall but keep your right hip in the wall it keeps you very honest and then re-engage that inner thighs back sitting bones down feel the stretch move to the inside of your right hip point breath gets a little short here so inhale exhale inhale exhale and then inhale come on up and exhale hands back down to your heart and then I'll flip it around so you can see the back place the left hip on the wall whichever hip no do the left like I said bossy and then reach your right or your up arms up into the sky inner edges of the feet are pressing down onto the floor inner thighs move back so it sticks your butt out a little bit but then with that space you found there draw the sitting bones down to the floor lift the belly inhale exhale release over towards the right pushing the left hip into the floor and then re-engage that leg leg work so inner thighs back sitting bone down belly lifts you might find a little bit more space pulling your hands towards the center of the room breathing in breathing out breathing in breathing out inhale come on up and exhale hands to heart center good okay so we're going to come into extended side angle if you like to use a block for that shape bring your block place your right foot on the wall and place your block right next to your left foot and again we did this in another practice together you're going to bring your right hand to the wall so that you've got a straight arm and extend your left arm and then we're going to take our arm up and over our head and I want you to listen very carefully to the directions as we go in here so breathing in as you exhale sit deep into that left knee you've got your downward dog lunge leg there so getting the outer part of that left leg parallel with the mat and then let the hip shift to the back wall bring the hand down to the block take the right arm up into the sky and then externally rotate that arm so let the shoulder blade move away from the spine as you take the arm up and over your head which might mean your bicep is in your eyes that's okay here and what I want you to do is then reach from your right pelvis out through the fingertips and then use the strength of your belly to draw the navel back and turn your heart up into the sky good really push your back foot into the wall get length along the side body using the side bends that we just did inhale and then exhale let's transform this into trikonasana so reach the right arm up into the sky triangle pose push into your left foot and then straighten into the leg let the very top of the inner right thigh release you might lower the block down a setting if that feels good and then again we're going to take the arm up and overhead so reaching externally rotating moving the shoulder blade away from the spine and stretching here strong belly reach perhaps lean back a little bit good reach out through your left big toe and then inhale right arm comes up bend into that front knee reach back and stand up and we'll switch sides so take the black right next to your right foot left foot comes to the wall make a strong straight arm scenario inhale and then as you exhale bend into the right leg bring the hand down onto the block find your downward dog lunge leg so outer right hip draws back reach the left arm up and then again from that external rotation so letting you can see it nicely here letting the shoulder blade move away from the spine so you get length on the side body mm-hmm good draw the low ribs down slightly gentle turn of the right chest towards the sky and then reach from the left side pelvis out through the hand I call it side pants where your pants meet your side a couple more breaths and then transforming it into your triangle pose reach the left arm up into the sky straighten into that right leg letting the hip shift back to the back wall and again if you gently release your inner left thigh you might be able to lower the block down a setting and then we'll take that arm up and over the head again leaning back letting the right ribs twist through stretching getting lots of space here good mm-hmm and then bend into your right knee reach the left hand back and stand all the way up placing the soles of your feet together and removing the block to the side okay grab your blanket and you're gonna take your blanket and place it right at the base of the wall I have to warn you this is not very popular but it's totally changed many students and myself my own backbends we're gonna open up the front of the quads doing something called ninja death star so your hands are gonna come forward and you're gonna take well do my right side first so you can see properly you're gonna take your right foot up the wall so that your right heel is gonna land to the outside of your right hip and then your left leg is gonna come into that anginaesana shape that we already did earlier that lunge and then you're gonna stick your butt out so that drops your pubic bone down and you're gonna booty bump yourself to or towards the wall for some of us our seat will not hit that's totally fine and you can stay down low with hands on the wall that might be enough opening some of us will bring hands up towards our thigh and then you're gonna continue to reach your seat back and then some of us will start to come all the way up and I like to take my hands and do little kiddie paws on my hip flexors to get them open and then this is the ninja death star part well the whole thing really toes up the wall arms up inner thighs working good and then last step if you feel really spicy you can take your right hand onto your right heel and press it down whoo it's nice you guys it's gonna be great good and you reach actively from your right femur down into the floor great and then release come forward pause here for a moment on your knees for me my whole right leg is awake and open and we'll so we'll do the left side so that you do not want to do one side of just that pose trust me lean forward good take your left toes up the sky they're untucked your knees on the blanket and then you're gonna push into your hands so you can lift your sole of your right foot on the floor and then again you back it up taking your seat as close as you can towards the wall mm-hmm and some of us will bring hands to the front thigh and stay here some of us will come all the way up taking kiddie paws yeah I don't even really like cats I'm a dog person but I think it's cute to do this good and then keeping the seat against the wall you'll notice one leg is very different than the other for most of us you're gonna bring hands to the wall mm-hmm and take ninja death star in my studio we have toenail polish along the whole wall from doing this pose it's annoying and kind of funny good and then take your left hand towards your left heel push down reach from your left femur down into your knee and you'll feel some additional spiciness happening there mm-hmm great release bow forward come to your knees for a moment find center all right let's set the blanket to the side for a moment and we're gonna turn to face the wall with our hands in handstand shape so you're gonna take we practice this in another practice if you're curious about handstand but you're gonna take your hands one handprint away from the wall you're gonna tuck your toes and lift your hips up and back to downward facing dog and the reason why we're putting handstand into this wheel pose practice is because it's the same arms that we use when we start to push up from the floor into our wheel and so this helps us to develop stamina and also get the external rotation happening in the arms and build strength step one foot in lift the other leg look right between your hands and then take a step and come all the way up with heels on the wall and then what we're doing today we're gonna separate the heels draw our sitting bones toward our heels to lengthen the belly like we did in those side bends and then draw the heels together and then push and stretch your heels further up the wall mm-hmm we'll just stay for a couple moments we're not like blowing it out here it's not a go big go home situation we want to keep going good keep reaching the heels up the wall and then go ahead one leg at a time and then the other resist the child's pose come back to sit on your heels till your heartbeat settle and then we're gonna come back to our blocks and our strap situation but this one is a little bit less cozy than what we did at the beginning of class so I hope you set it up you're gonna take your blocks and you're gonna put them towards the top of your mat and you're gonna make a little bit of space between them imagine that your spine could fit between these blocks here and then place them mm-hmm and they're totally on the big grandma setting and then take your strap and it's already set up you used it once before and you're gonna place it again actually let's put it around our wrists this time so we're gonna have the strap around our wrists so have it next to you and one block is gonna go on each shoulder blade so soles of the feet on the floor and reach back and I like to use my fingertips to sort of align the blacks with my shoulder blades and then the chin is lifted to start take the strap place the strap around your wrist so that palms are facing one another and you'll notice then the shoulder blades can lift off of the block nicely lift your chin dry your chin in towards the front of your throat and then start to take the head back reaching through the arms lifting the shoulder blades blades away from the block until the very last moment and the head looks back eyes look back thumbs reach down towards the floor and then we can do a little bit of work here drawing the naval black back you're gonna start again lift the shoulder blades away from the block reach from the side chest and then maybe come down a little bit lower shoulder blades away from the block reach to the side chest maybe come down a little bit lower reach come down reach come down floor is so close right there hold on to it for a couple more moments good and then start to lift the arms back up place the strap to the side bring fingertips down by your side use your hands push yourself up to seated and let the head come last kind of doing a sit-up whoo yoga drugs take a second pause and then set your strap to the side we're gonna need it in a moment and set the blocks to the side as well we'll also need those in a moment okay we're gonna come to our first wheel pose and we're gonna use our hands on the wall and so you need to look at me for a second because this is maybe something you haven't done this well has a baseboard but I actually prefer to use the floor so you're gonna make Spock hands and then you're gonna close the Spock part of your hands just so that you have these like beautiful L's and then you're gonna keep the beautiful L's and you're gonna pretend you're coming into wheel right now and reach the hands back behind your head so this is our setup here L's hands reach back behind the head elbows to the sky all right so let's lay down come on to your backs you want a little bit of distance between your head and the wall and then make your L's like you did so it's like when you're trying to understand which way is left which way is right and then turn your hands towards the floor and then your thumbs rest towards your head and your fingers point away from your head soles of the feet are on the floor toes pointing forward for me I tend to externally rotate my legs when I go into backbends so I'm gonna gently pigeon toe them and let the groin soften back we're gonna stop on the top of our head so you're gonna push your hands down into the floor feel the shoulder blades lift away from the floor like they did on the blacks press into the feet let the groin soften back lift the hips up up up up up up up as high as you can using that hip opening that we did and then push to the top of your head and pause from here wrap the shoulder blades towards the ceiling you're gonna lift your hips even more so that you come more to your forehead elbows magnetized towards one another and then push all the way up for your Urdva Dhanurasana shape some of you might walk feet in I like to come to my toes press the inner heel down and then reach the chest towards the wall maybe a scooch wrapping and reaching good bend the elbows come back down to the top of your head the best part about back bending is not back bending is when you have done it and you're like oh my gosh that feels fantastic and you're really you've like lifted your organs and your heart to the sky and there's sort of this feeling of evaluation that comes just as what in life when we're able to really act from our highest place that it feels right and true and we're listening to that softer voice that has our back rather than to the external things that tell us what to do okay we're gonna do that one again because it's worth it sometimes if you're not feeling like the backbends are going well if you can do a couple of these then you can maybe start to move on to different variations and also using the wall is like I don't props are for pros that's a hashtag for a reason using the wall is fantastic and it feels good and it's really great for people who have limited rest wrist flexibility as well so again soles of the feet on the floor I'm turning my feet lightly pigeon-toed so that when the external rotation comes I'm not going all crazy with it my Spock hands L's are on the wall I'm gonna lift the hips up up up and then I'm gonna push up to the top of my head good adjust the hands if needed find the line from the inner knee up to the groin and lift the hips up up up so you roll more to your forehead and then you're gonna push into your hands wrap the shoulder blades towards the sky and lift all the way up to your word Vadhi and then walk the feet and those of you who can find that inner knee inner heel down wrap and bring the chest towards the wall good bend the elbows place the head down drop down onto your back knees knock in feet are wide hands just rest on your belly feeling your heartbeat mr. Iangar was asked once what his favorite not his favorite what's your favorite color mr. Iangar wonder what it was I have no idea but he was asked what he feels one of his greatest accomplishments and yoga is and his answer was being able to do backbends in a way that left the heart feeling not overstimulated but buoyant right so sometimes we can do back bends back bends back bends back bends and feel like a crazy person but we want to do is be able to approach our backbend practice so that the heart feels buoyant and uplifted and not anxious we don't need any more anxiety okay so rolling over to one side and come to sit for a moment we're gonna do a couple more but we're gonna move away from the wall if you want to you can totally keep doing the hands at the wall variation and we're gonna add a little bit of support for the legs using our strap so most of us will need to widen it we're gonna take this strap around the tops of our knees like this and just make sure that your hips are not your feet are not close to one another but rather our hip width distance apart and when you press on the strap that you can feel that it's gonna support you there and then come back down onto your backs we do this a lot or I do this a lot in my practice and in my teaching practice to be able to save a little bit of energy if you want to do a little bit more of the back bending practice without feeling totally exhausted so again feet are on the floor hip width distance apart this time the hands are gonna come back by your ears mm-hmm and you're gonna turn them out just slightly for many of us we have a tendency to start to turn them in when we come up and you're gonna wrap again hollow your armpits out by wrapping your shoulder blades towards the sky and magnetizing the elbows towards one another begin to lift the hips up up up up up as best you can lift them as high as you can that's really helpful for getting up and then push down into your hands and once again come to the top of your head walk the hands back maybe a little bit towards your feet keep them turn out press your feet down into the floor lift the hips more more more and then wrap your shoulder blades towards the sky it automatically moves them away from your ears and then push down and come all the way up it's harder to walk in with the strap here but please go ahead and do so if you would like and keep that wrapping action happening that pushing happen and reach your chest beyond your hands couple breaths good tuck the chin come on down to the back of your head release your hips and let your knees knock in hands rest on your belly you'll notice today that we didn't do any traditional surya namaskar action one in order to help our wrists feel really ready for this back bending practice since it's the focus and then two so that again we're not exhausted that we have a lot of energy to be able to engage with the back bends okay we're gonna do a little adding on here so stay with me you can always move back a step that's part of the intermediate practice is knowing what props you need and where you need to stop or where you need to go back so that you can take care of yourself and really be your own ally so toes point forward hip width distance apart hands come back by your ears turn them out all the same steps lift your hips up up up and then wrap your shoulder blades towards the sky keep the hips lifted push towards the top of your head the strap is so nice here lock the hands back towards your feet again re-wrapping the shoulder blades to the sky and pushing up up good from here you're gonna drop back down onto the top of your head and take your hands around your head like headstand if you have hair it's always an issue especially those of us with ponytails elbows are close push down into your elbows to lift your chest and move it beyond your armpits then drop your head back down my feet are sliding a little bit place your hands back and push all the way back up to our urdvadana or wheel pose and there's sometimes a little bit more space there good and then tuck your chin and drop your seat and come all the way down let the knees knock in rest your hands on your belly let's go ahead and release the strap set it to the side and then scoot yourself back on your mat and take your right ankle and cross it up over your left knee let the the right knee fall open slightly and then use your transverse abdominals that's nice and important actually to after you've been back bending to engage the abs so engage them hug in 360 degrees around your waist and then start to draw your left knee up towards your chest catch the hands underneath your calf muscle against your hamstring and then press your right ankle into your left knee to draw the right sitting bone towards the inner left thigh tone the left thigh to pull in rather than like making your biceps do all the work and stretch the outer hip here should feel really good gaze can be soft eyes can be closed we're starting to wind down good as you exhale letting the belly draw back and as the legs come closer really toning that left quadricep to pull the legs in and then release and we'll switch sides cross the left ankle up over the right knee tone the transverse abdominals and then lift the right knee towards your chest bringing the left leg with you catch the hands underneath your right calf muscle on the hamstrings and then rather than really using your biceps to pull in push the left ankle on the top of the right knee and tone the right quadriceps the front of the thigh to draw the legs closer oh that's nice let the left sitting bone move towards the inner right thigh pulling in if we want to keep doing back bends until we're old ladies it's really important to do the work afterwards to create space in the hips space in the low back we're going for sustainability release start your legs out long for a moment and then rebend your knees catch your hands underneath your hamstrings rock yourself up towards seated and you're going to extend your left leg out long and take your right foot into your left groin and this is not going to be a ham about hamstring stretching we're just letting the spine roll forward right between the knees so fingertips will come down to the floor and you'll just bow forward coming to elbows or maybe coming with your head all the way onto the floor you can even stay up on fingertips not over efforting here centering the weight on the left heel joint pressing the big toe of the left foot away and then from inside your pelvis right between the pubic bone in the back of the sacrum reach out through that right knee start to come back up to hands if you went down lean the way into that right hip and then swing the left leg back coming back to the pigeon pose we visited earlier but this time we're going to come down onto the ground resting the forehead on the hands using a block or a blanket if you need it underneath your right hamstring and as we did before balancing the weight on the center of the sacrum so you're not leaning to one side or the other but there's a steadiness a buoyancy at the blowback reluctantly begin to lift up sit the weight into the right hip and you're going to cross the left leg all the way up and over lean forward so that you can stack the knees the feet are wide and come to go mukasana shape getting both sitting bones down on the floor here for many of us will stay upright for some of us you'll come forward and let the head drop away from the spine this is one of my favorite poses to do before shavasana starting to use your hands push up to seated lean back take your left leg bring it back around and then reach your right leg long place the left foot in your right groin you can always sit up on a blanket here balancing the weight on the right heel right big toe presses slightly forward and then it's a simple bow between the knees coming towards your elbows hmm letting the heart be soft again go inside your pelvis right between the pubic bone in the back of the sacrum and then reach out through the inner left thigh and many times we can find more length for the spot through the spine with that kind of precision and press back up to hands if you went down swing lean into your left hip swing the right leg around and find your pigeon pose on that left side balancing the weight pointing the right toes straight back behind you and then again letting your forehead rest on your hands be sure not to lean more to one side or the other so so and walk your hands back up towards your shin and then you'll swing that right leg back forward and then lean forward so that you can stack your knees as best you can mostly the leg that's on top the foot will be a little bit forward of the back foot that's fine and then nuzzle yourself in you can also sit on a block here nuzzle yourself in so that you can come to Gomukhasana either staying upright hands resting on the knee or letting the head release away from the spine forearms rest on the floor start to walk your hands back up towards your knees good lean back unhook your right leg unhook your left leg pause in Dandasana for just a moment and then lower all the way down to the floor coming to your Shavasana shape letting the feutes play apart palms to the sky and rest so and tune your senses back in keeping the body quiet simply letting the breath deepen feeling that central channel running from your pelvis all the way up through the crown of your head and as you're ready beginning to shift over onto your side letting your head rest on your hands pause there that beautiful moment beginning shape and then use your hands and push yourself up to seated letting your head come last bring the hands to heart center here bowing down to that seat of expansive love that resides within each of your hearts namaste okay thank you for practicing together