Freedom in the Joints

So once we get energy flowing in the Ganga, the Rio Grande, the central river of the spine, I also really enjoy inviting all the tributaries through all the other joints to get nice and lubricated and opened. So we're going to start from the ground and work our way up the body. So first with the ankles, starting from a comfortable stance, we're going to rotate the ankle joint. There's many ways to do this. If you're comfortable bouncing on one leg, you can start by lifting the right foot off the ground and rotating it first in one direction and then in the other direction. You can also do this with the foot on the ground. So you can rotate one way and then the other and then the same with the left. You can do it with the foot on the ground. Nice easy circles, luxurious circles, one direction and the other with the foot on the ground or off. Another one that's nice is with the foot a little bit behind. So you step back just a step and the toes, you come to the top of the foot and make a nice big circle. You can go about eight to ten times in one direction and eight to ten times in the other direction. You can also do this on the toe. No need to be on the top of the foot if that's not comfortable or accessible. About eight times, ten times each direction and then we'll switch foot. We'll go to the left foot. So toe is back and you might feel this allows not just the rotation to come into the ankle joint and in the foot but we also begin to notice that it's going all the way into the hip. So it's mobilizing, energizing through the whole length of the leg. Having started with the ankles will then come to the knees. Feet pretty close together, we're going to bend the knees and take the hands onto the thighs and then we're going to make circles with the knees. Now if you've recently had a knee issue let's say, the circles can be very modest. If you're an active mogul skier you might need to make big circles but it doesn't really matter. As soon as you start to make that circular motion you start to lubricate the joint. As you do this feel a sense of lift through the ankle and the knee even as you're making this rotating movement. So let the size of the circle be appropriate for you today. It might be a very different day to day practice to practice and once we've done that in the knees a few times each direction bring their feet out about hip width and then we're going to feel the center point of our rotation now, our circular motion, is more or less the level of the pelvis and gently make a circling motion. Imagine at the center of the circle is the pelvis and go about eight times in one direction and eight times in the other direction. And then from here we can make a slightly bigger circle. You're circling the hips now and again if you practice hula-hooping a lot or if you're a Latin dancer you might make big hip circles much bigger than I do. That's fine. If your hips don't feel so open you can make more modest circles but just that simple circling motion will invite energy to flow in the body five to ten times each direction and then I'm not particularly good at this you might make a bigger circle than me. Now imagine the navel is the center of the circle so it's like you're belly dancing and if you find this isn't so accessible like it's not for me this is actually a very nourishing thing for the body because when we make motions that are not so familiar new nerve connections get fired in the body so it's very stimulating brings a lot of energy and warmth to the body these gentle movements from the spine they're very warming for the body so feel in the navel the center then we're going to go to the sternum so now feel that the sternum is the center of the circle and we make rotations first in one direction about eight times and then we'll go in the other direction about eight times you can see I'm using my hands on my hips on my thighs rather to give me a point of orientation and get into this motion that is still even I've been pressing it for a while not so familiar so having come through the spine we're getting a little bit high well I'll come to the shoulders keeping the arms straight swim the shoulders I call it swimming the shoulders anyway first forwards so the shoulder is rotating forwards but it's not just the shoulder moving you'll notice and you can begin to feel how as you make this movement the whole spine is also invited to move and once you've done let's say 12 16 movements one direction then reverse and feel how as well as opening the shoulder joints this motion invites a lot of internal warmth all across the upper back and we're also mobilizing the spine you can do these sequences anytime and more or less any place obviously sometimes you have to be careful about that and then come back to the start position we'll come to the neck so now make a gentle imagine that the neck is the center of that circle so again start off nice and modest if you're a breakdancer and you're used to doing big movements here again feel free to make much larger movements than you see me making on the screen if it's an unfamiliar movement then just start off nice and modest and notice how even with very gentle contained modest movements you start to cultivate a sense of inner warmth and allow energy to move in the body this is a very beautiful thing as soon you start to move the spine and the joints energy starts to circulate more freely in the body now we've been more or less from the toes up to the head let's get into the arms now so from here we're gonna step out a little bit wider into what's sometimes called a horse stance but if you're not particularly familiar with a horse stance we can be on quite a modest sized pony to begin with check that you feel comfortable check that your legs are still underneath you in the sense that your tail can still gravitate downwards front of the hips can come forwards and there's that sense of length and space in the lumbar spine we'll do the same spine we've already practiced so the backs of the hands face one other in front of the waist and then we'll lengthen the spine as the hands reach up and ever so slightly forwards keeping that length the hands come forwards and downwards so we invite that lovely sense of forward bend and then the hands come further down and they point back they come through the love of the floating ribs and their hands stretch out to the side the arms are high above the head inviting the back bend in thoracic spine then the hands come to the opposite elbows we climb out of the area of the navel lengthen the right side of the body without shortening the left and the two hands stretch away from one another check and move the fingers feel that sense of length in the side body feel how the hips are stable then at the left hand reach up to match the height of the right take the hands to the opposite elbow same on the left side now so the left side lifts out of the navel and then the two arms lengthen away from one another feel the space in the body and then gather the energy with the right arm it rises up to reach the height of the left arm then the hands come down but the spine stays long and spacious hands coming down to the level of the upper chest and then from the navel smoothly begin to rotate towards the right keeping the hips facing forwards staying here or perhaps opening the arms wider check in all the way you can move the fingers the belly can breathe you're relaxed and easy and stable then gather the energy with the right arm bring it underneath the left glide the elbows out hands face in front of the chest and rotate from the navel towards the left side now as before you can stay here with the elbows bent or perhaps straighten the arms opening that greater space across the upper chest and perhaps the other back then gather the energy with the left arm and then glide the elbows out fingers facing one another in front of the chest or face and then gently let the hands come down towards the level of the navel and from here we're going to go into the wrist and the elbow joint so first just bring the hands forwards and then take the arms out in an arc so they reach out to the side more or less parallel with the ground bend the fingers and press the palm out and then turn the fingers and thumbs down stay point down towards the ground and back towards the body and then reverse press the palm out with the fingers pointing down and the thumb out and then bring the thumb and the fingers together pointing down towards the ground we'll do this three more times the palm of the hand presses out to the side but the fingers bend downwards and then the thumbs and fingers come together and point down towards the earth palm pressing out fingers down and then the fingers and thumbs down towards the earth feel the energy through the legs through the arms to the whole body press the palms out and then bring the fingers and thumbs down and then bring the hands they face the ground and let the hands come back in front of the body more or less the level of the navel and then from here we're going to come into the elbow joint and to do this we're going to fix the wrist in space and fix the shoulder in space more or less we're going to use the left hand as a kind of anchor point and then imagine that there's a little ball and we're going to roll the right elbow around that ball of course the shoulder and wrist will move to some degree but we're just minimizing it so we're really getting into the elbow joint and then the other direction around the ball and then we'll try the left elbow so we'll anchor the left wrist with the right hand and then imagine there's a ball here and we're going to roll the elbow around the ball minimizing the movement in the shoulder so I've still got plenty of practice to do on this you can see my shoulders moving more than I'd like it to but even so I'm able to start to articulate that elbow in an interesting way and really invite Ennish to move there we're going to do something similar for the wrist but also before we do that once you get familiar with this you can do both hands both arms at the same time elbows moving around the ball and then we'll come to the wrist so if we just first rotate the wrists in space and there's probably quite a familiar movement we can rotate the wrists one direction and then the other we can have both wrists going one way both wrists going the other way both turning in both turning out lots of variations but we can also fix the fingers more or less in space and then rotate the wrist around an imaginary ball and this closed kinetic chain movement invites a sensation in the wrist that's quite different so you can also do it by creating an anchor point to get into the feeling so the elbow gets fixed the wrist gets fixed excuse me the fingers are fixed and the wrist can move around that imaginary ball you can do this with the wall as your anchor or a friend's hand as the anchor and once you get into the feeling of it you can also do it in space rotating the wrist around a ball you can do it with the hands in different positions out to the sides above the head and you may notice it feels quite different to when we rotate the fingers and very nourishing and then bring the hands back to that start position and gently step in and notice how once you've done a little bit of joint freeing the whole body feels quite alert and spacious so there's a lovely preparation to go into other practices you can also do as a standalone practice any time of the day thank you