Expansive Wheel Pose

Greetings tribe, namaste. Thanks for joining. We will be flowing into a back bending practice exploring Urdhva Dhanurasana and perhaps some variations. It's going to be helpful to set your mat up close to a wall and to have two blocks. Let's begin. Please come to the front of your mat and draw your hands to your third eye. Take a very deep breath in and as you exhale, follow your breath downwards towards the earth and then rebound your energy up through chair pose all the way up to standing. And as you exhale, just drop your prayer towards the back of the heart, chin to the chest. As you inhale, reach your fingertips back up towards the sky and exhale to a forward fold. Lift the heart halfway on an inhale and exhale, release, rolling up the spine slowly and just setting the tone for your back bending practice, bringing the hands back to your third eye. Deep breath in, exhale rooting down to rise forward and up through chair all the way up to the sky. And then dropping your prayer to the back of the heart, reaching back up on an inhale and exhale to your forward fold. Holding your heart halfway on an inhale and exhale, bend the knees, rolling up, opening up the back of the heart and bringing your hands back to your third eye. Deep breath in, one more round. Exhale diving down, rooting to rise through chair pose all the way up and then dropping your prayer, reaching back to the sky. Exhale, forward fold. We'll progress right into Chondronamaskar. So step the left foot back and lower your knee to a long low lunge. And as you inhale, reach forward and up tracing the inside of a crescent moon. Exhale to downward facing dog and just really start to notice the quality in which you move as you shift forward to plank and lower the knees followed by chest and hips. Just going kind of slow and thoughtfully through your Namaskar. Lift through the heart into cobra and exhale back into downward facing dog. Step the left foot forward between your hands, lower the back knee and inhale, reach forward and up. Just moving gracefully, smoothly with the breath as you exhale to forward fold. Inhaling to rise, lift your head, your heart, then your hands up to the sky. And once again, just drop the prayer right into the back of the heart. Reach it back up to the sky on an inhale. Exhale, forward fold. Right foot steps back to a low lunge and inhale, reach forward and up. And the quality in which we move back to downward dog, the quality in which we move into any asana, shifting forward to plank really affects our experience as we lower the knees and come down. Inhale to open the heart, cobra and then exhale back to down dog. So just really paying attention to your quality of movement and your quality of breath. Step the right foot forward, especially for back bending. As you rise, there's always a sense of release of letting go through the front body. Exhale, forward fold. Inhaling to rise and exhale, just release the fingertips down. Reaching back up on an inhale and exhale, forward fold. Just one more round. Step the left foot back, lower the knee. Inhale and feel how the back body supports the release of the front body, pressing back to down dog. Inhale, shifting to plank, maybe roll through the spine. Exhale, lower the knees, chest and hips. Coming into a bit of a higher cobra on your inhale and then exhale back to down dog. Step the left foot forward, lower the back knee and inhale, reach forward and up, opening the heart. Exhale, forward fold. Inhale to rise and exhale, bowing in, reaching back to the sky on an inhale. Exhale, last half of the cycle. Step the right foot back, lower your knee. Inhale, reaching forward and up. Exhale, back to downward facing dog. Moving with grace as you inhale, shifting to plank. Exhale, slowly surrender with strength. Opening up through the heart, a bit of a higher cobra.

Exhale, back to downward facing dog. Step the right foot forward, lower the back knee and inhale to rise. Feel how the body starts to open. Exhale, forward fold. Inhale, come all the way up to standing and draw the hands to the back of the heart as you exhale. Inhale, reaching back. Exhale, just return your hands to your heart. So let's transition to the wall. We're going to start to open up the shoulders right away to progress intelligently into our back bending. So you can take your mat closer to the wall and we'll come into just a little handstand prep transition here. So set up your downward facing dog so that your hands are about maybe six inches or so away from the wall and press back. And then from here you can shift the shoulders over the wrist, step their right foot forward about six inches. And with a straight left leg kicking up to the sky and to the wall, you can take several kicks or one, it's up to you, but eventually arching the lumbar spine and bringing the sit bones to the wall and allow the chest to open, allow the head and neck to relax and just spend a moment or two here feeling the strength and also the opening in the shoulders. And then when you're ready, just come back down through downward facing dog. We'll take the second side kicking up with the opposite leg, but before we do, just come down into child's pose for a moment. Couple of deep breaths into the low back and the shoulders. Without losing too much heat or focus, come back up onto your hands and knees and let's take the second side. It might feel a little early to come into handstand, but it's a really great preparation for opening the shoulders for wheel. So step the left foot forward and the right leg is going to swing up and down now. Nice straight right leg as you exhale to kick up to the wall. Once again, coming into an arced back, you can bring the spine into extension here as you let your hips press against the wall, head and neck totally relaxed, arms nice and strong, full body breath in, exhaling completely and start to make your way back down away from the wall through downward facing dog and then back into child's pose. Take two or three deep breaths here and keeping the general feel inside, very relaxed and open, graceful, smooth, slow breaths and just letting go of any of that unnecessary inner chatter that can come up with strong asana, just being in the practice. From here, let's make our way into Sphinx pose. So we'll place our forearms parallel to one another and then just walk your feet back, come through forearm plank for a moment and lower your hips down to lift your chest, uncurl the toes, lift up through the heart and while you're here, just take a simple semi circle with the crown of the head from left to right, from right to left, keeping the neck free and then coming back to center, let's curl the toes under and lift the hips coming up into dolphin pose. Dolphin is another really great prep for back bending. So take the right leg to the sky on an inhale and then exhale, slowly lower down, kick up a little bit later in the practice, inhale the left leg to the sky and exhale, lower it down and from here, make your way into downward facing dog. It can come right to your hands or through hands and knees first and let's just take a moment and move our mat a little bit away from the wall as we progress into a couple standing sequences here, we can give ourselves a little bit of space. So from your downward facing dog, inhale the right leg to the sky and as you exhale, open the hip, bend your knee, stretch the right leg out nice and long and then step it all the way through to a runner's lunge and we'll take a moment here in a twist as we open up our spine for back bending, it loves to be prepared three dimensionally, so just feel that nice rotation through the spine as you inhale and then on an exhale, let the back heel down for warrior two, lead with your left arm, come up through warrior two and let's weave our arms like we do in garudasana to open up the back of the shoulders. Take a deep breath in here, lifting the elbows slightly and as you exhale, sink down into your base, spread open from the heart on an inhale and as you exhale, reverse your warrior reaching up and back and once again, perhaps dropping the fingertips towards the back of the heart and just opening up through the inner shoulder. As you exhale, follow the right elbow down, top arm circulates and we'll just walk the hands along the left edge of the mat all the way to the back of the mat and then press back to downward dog with your left leg high, opening the hip. Stretch it out nice and long and then exhale, step it all the way through into your runner's lunge and we're in the second side, so take the left hand to the sky, feeling that gentle twist and opening of the spine, deep inhale here. As you exhale, set the back heel for warrior two, lead with your right arm, come all the way up and we weave our arms in Garudasana on the second side, just connecting the dots with some ease, lift through the elbows and exhale, sink into the base and feel the back of the heart, the back of the shoulders open here with your breath and opening up the arms nice and wide, reverse your warrior on an inhale and drop the left half of the prayer to the back of the heart. Take a deep breath, exhale, elbow draws to the knee, top arm circulates and then walk it back around to your right and step back to downward facing dog. Let's inhale, shift forward to plank and exhale as you lower down, come through Chaturanga to the belly and we'll come into Shalabhasana, locust pose. You can reach your hands back behind you, lace your fingers and extend long through the arms, through the knuckles, lift up through the heart and maybe float the legs up off the mat for a moment or two. Again feel some freedom here in your neck and if you feel any limitations in your shoulders you can take your hands wide and release the fingers or even hold a strap behind your back but let go of any perceived limitations and just allow yourself to fly here. Take a full breath in, exhale, release and make a little pillow with your hands. Bend your knees and tick-tock the shin bones from side to side to release your lower back and extend your right arm directly out to your right. Next time you take your feet over to the right just roll onto your right side and notice that I straightened out my right leg and then left knee is bent. So I can come into a simple little chest opener here. Depending on what's happening in your shoulder, your elbow on the right side you can lower that hand down to a bit of a lower angle or even flip your palm to face up but allow your chest to open. It's a simple twist with a wonderful bit of opening for the right shoulder. Take a deep breath here and exhale. Slowly come back to the center and we'll take the second side.

Left arm reaches out, the left leg straightens. Roll onto your left side and gently press against the floor with your right hand to support the twist. So we try to open up the shoulders in all directions as well as open up the hips, specifically the front of the hips, to prepare for back bending. One of my first teachers, Saul David Ray, talks about the shoulders and the hips being the gateways to the spine. Slowly come back to neutral. Set yourself up in sphinx pose once again. Bring the elbows underneath the shoulders, lift your chest and then curl your toes under and press back into your dolphin pose. And this time bring the left foot a little bit further in. Come onto the ball of the left foot. Lift your head so you're looking forward and start to lift and lower through the straight right leg, starting to exchange the weight from your feet towards your forearms and towards a pinch of myarasana balance. You might catch a balance or you might work on kicking. If you go to the wall, you're welcome to rest your feet on the wall or balance from there. Just taking a moment to open the shoulders and then we come down and take a little rest in child's pose before going to the second side. And keeping tending to the fire, let's come right into the second side. Curl the toes under this time, step the right toes in, lift your head to look forward and start to sweep the left leg up and down. And whether you're kicking to the wall or not, inside the effort, inside the work, there's benefit. So whether you're balancing or kicking, just stay with it and breathe. And then when you're ready, come on down and we'll meet back up in downward facing dog. Bring the feet a little closer together. Inhale the right leg to the sky. And as you exhale, open the hip, bend your knee. This time let's go ahead and turn our down dog into a half back bend. So roll to the outer edge of the left foot, place the ball of the right foot on the floor and then turn your chest and heart open towards the sky. Full breath in here. As you exhale, circle back to down dog, right leg high, and then step it all the way through into warrior one. And we're again just preparing for Urdhva Dhanurasana, taking little pieces of the posture and bringing it into the body. So as you come to warrior one, let's take a variation here with Gomukhasana in the upper body. So left hand reaches behind the heart and the right hand reaches behind the back. And you might like to take a strap and dangle it between your hands or hold your own hair. You're sure to be like, but just feel the wrap of the left side of the body pulling towards square and let your head just rest in the cradle of your upper body and your arm. Full inhale. As you exhale, release your hands down to the mat and lower your back knee down. Circulate your right hand back to take the big toe side of your back foot and open your chest towards the sky. Exhale bowing in. You can keep your hand on your mat or come down to your form and allow your wonderful quads to breathe here. If your knee is sensitive, you can always put a blanket into your knee or use a strap to hold your foot. Give yourself a little bit of space there, but see if you can let go of any, whatever it feels like is in the way of your hips and your quads. Just try to let it go with your breath. Opening your heart towards the sky. Stay very relaxed inside. And then exhale, release. Plant your palms flat and lift your back knee. Let's walk our hands to the left all the way around to the back of the mat and then step back to down dog with the left leg high, opening the hip and we're onto the second side. So we roll to the outer edge of the right foot, bring the ball, the left foot down and turn your heart open, coming into your half back bend. From here, slowly make your way back to down dog. Left leg is high and then exhale, step it all the way through warrior one base. Coming on up with your inhale and then just taking another moment here for the shoulders, for the upper back as we release into Gomukhasana arms, the right hand reaching behind the head, the left hand reaching behind the low back, opening up through the chest. Allow your upper body to just drape over the architecture of the back body and relax here inside of the work. As you exhale slowly release down, lower the back knee and sweep your left arm behind you to catch the big toe side of your back foot. Open your chest, kind of lean your head back into the waterfall and then exhale bowing forward. Taking three deep breaths. And with each exhale letting go any amount. Knowing that opening the front of the body, the quadriceps in particular can take a little bit of extra time for certain, a lot of extra patience.

So just being with it, smoothing out the breath and then slowly release the back foot. Plant your palms and lift the back knee. Walk your hands over to the right and step back into downward facing dog. Let's shift through our vinyasa, shifting forward to plank, lowering down to the belly and coming into Dhanurasana. Bend the knees, reach your hands back to the outer edges of your feet or your ankles and start to lift up into an easy bow pose and notice that the knees sometimes like to go wide but in all backbends we try to hug the thighs to the midline and direct the tailbone down away from the low back. So as you lift, see if you can feel those actions in the legs, in the pelvis. Heart open, neck kind of free here. And just keep it kind of mild and mellow. It doesn't need to be the Dhanurasana for the cover of Yoga Journal. It just needs to be your beautiful Dhanurasana. So be there fully. Take a deep breath in and as you exhale, release. Make a pillow with your hands, windshield wiper through the shins. And then pressing back to child's pose. Walk your hands in towards your knees and roll up your spine. And we're about ready now to take our mats to the wall to start workshopping Urdhva Dhanurasana in a couple of different ways. We've had plenty of preparation to open up the shoulders and the quadriceps and hip flexors and the spine three-dimensionally. So let's see how it feels as we come into our full wheel. So please take your mat to the wall all the way up to the wall. And if you don't, we're lucky here we have this wonderful baseboard that we can rest our blocks against. But if you don't have a baseboard at home, then you can set your mat up a little closer to the wall so that it gives you some traction here so that your blocks don't slip. So the last thing that you want when you're in a wheel is for your blocks to slip out from underneath you. So set up your blocks so they're on a diagonal towards the wall. Some students like to set them up lengthwise. I prefer sideways personally. So just adjust your blocks so that you have enough space for your head to go right between the blocks. And then let's come onto our backs. And as you roll down, you can just make sure you've got a little connection there of your crown chakra to the wall and bring your hands to your blocks. And you'll start to feel right away as you turn your fingers and start to plant the heels of your hands down that relationship with the blocks. Instead of with the floor, it changes it slightly. So it actually gives you a bit more of an advantage to come up into the pose. Bring your feet close to your hips and we'll come up in three steps. So just go slow with me here. Let's inhale to lift the hips first. Exhale there. Press down into the blocks. Inhale to the crown of your head. Exhale there. Hug the elbows to the midline. Lift the chest and then inhale to start to press your arms long, rising your chest up and towards the wall. Exhale there. Notice the knees and the feet. See if you can turn them a little more parallel and hug the midline and the action of the body is to press the chest towards the wall. Take a very deep breath in here. Stay for the exhale. One more full breath. Exhale slowly lower down to the back of the head, shoulders, and then release your hips down. And let's take the feet wide, knees touch and release your arms into a little bit of a hug. As they say you're supposed to have eight hugs a day to balance your dopamine. So give yourself a little hug here. And then we'll come up again. So go ahead and set up your feet hips-width apart. We'll use the blocks once again here. Bring the crown of the head a little close to the wall and just go slowly. Inhale to lift the hips. Exhale there. Inhale, lift up to the crown. Exhale there. Inhale to rise up to your wheel. Exhale there. And just be here for a few breaths. See if you can start to integrate the strength of the back body to open the front body. Let go of what you feel is in the way. And just feel yourself in this shape as this full body offering, this full body mudra. Chest towards the wall and then slowly lower down. Take the feet wide, knees touch. Release your arms into a hug. Couple breaths here. Now from here as we start to go into our third round, maybe you'd like to take your blocks to one side and see how it feels to move into the shape with your hands flat on the mat and with a block between the inner thighs just to help you get that action of the thigh bones hugging the midline. The reason that we do that, that we want to hug the thighs to the midline and draw the tailbone away from the heart is to lengthen the low back and to distribute the back bed equally throughout the whole spine. So give this a shot and it might work better for you to have the block narrow or even a little bit wider. Make sure that it's not necessarily at the knees, but kind of halfway midway on the thigh bone here. And let's bring our hands flat to the back. Lift the hips up on one. Exhale there. Same process. Lift up to the crown of the head. Two. Exhale there.

Elbows hug the midline. Lift up on three. And you'll notice it might be a little harder to move your feet with the block in between your knees. So maybe you experiment with moving your hands a little closer to your feet, but keep hugging the block and breathe chest towards the wall. Breath active, thighs active. One more full breath and then exhale to lower down and give yourself a little hug here. As you release, let's roll to one side for a moment and come on up. And you might decide that that particular practice of wheel at the wall is plenty. And so you want to stay with that maybe two or three more rounds, especially if you're practicing in the morning. It can be super energizing to move in and out of wheel anywhere from five to seven rounds. It's like a wonderful organic natural shot of espresso for your day. If you'd like to go into the backbend practice just a tiny bit deeper, we can experiment with moving from our pinch of myarasana, our form balance that we already did, into a backbend on our forearms. It's called viparita dandasana. So if you're interested in that, set yourself up to measure the length of your legs from the wall. So hips at the wall, legs long, and then just give yourself a little marker to the side of your mat to show you where your heels are in space. Okay, so let's play around with this with a sense of humor and an open heart for sure. If you have your mat up against the wall like this, go ahead and pull it back so that you don't trip yourself on the way down. And remember to keep that block or whatever marker that you choose to use to measure the distance from the wall. So line up your forearms with your block and you can kind of approximate the distance when you start to kick up and feel your way into the pose. But the closer your hands are to the wall, the deeper the backbend will be. So I like to line up my forearms, the middle of my forearms with the block. And we have already measured the length of the legs. So when you prepare to kick up into your Pinch of Mayurasana, just know that if you overshoot your balance, the wall will catch you if you keep reaching through your legs. So step one foot in, keep the head up off the mat and we'll kick up through our Pinch of Mayurasana to the wall. And you can start to feel your way down one foot at a time. So bending the knees, allow the chest to come through the shoulders and bring your feet down to the mat. Lining up the thigh bones parallel, press the heart open, the head is off the mat. Some free, easy movement through the neck and enjoy a couple of breaths here. It's a very deep backbend, wonderful shoulder opener, wonderful heart opener. Try to let go of anything that feels like it's in the way, particularly in your mind. And to come out of this, we release down to the crown of the head, place the palms flat. And now when you come up into your Urdhva Dhanurasana, it feels so light, so easy. And then we lower down back of the head, shoulders and hips. And it's like dessert to take the legs up the wall here. So just take your legs up the wall, relaxing for several moments, bringing the left hand to the heart, the right hand to the tummy, and just feeling the effects of your wonderful back bending practice. Bending your knees, slide your feet down the wall. And let's come into a couple of counter poses to balance our body on our way to Shavasana. So draw the knees into the chest and then come into happy baby pose here, holding the outer edges of the feet and drawing the knees down towards the outside of the ribs. Tailbone reaches long, breath is full and deep. And releasing the feet, draw the knees back to the center of the chest. Let's roll over to one side and make our way back into downward facing dog. Just for a moment, curling the toes under, pressing back and setting up for pigeon pose. We'll step the right foot forward, heel toe the right foot across to the left edge of the mat and then lower your right knee down, sliding the center of the left thigh back and lowering down into a very relaxed and restorative pigeon pose. Taking five deep slow breaths here. And with each exhale, melting down, releasing down.

Last breath here. Lifting through the heart, walking your hands in towards your shin and let's ease off onto the right hip and swing the back leg around, coming into Janu Shrasasana, which is a really wonderful asymmetrical forward fold, super balancing for the spine. So sole the right foot to the inner left thigh, reach your arms up to the sky on an inhale and exhale to your forward fold. And you can always take a strap to your foot or elevate your pelvis on a block if you like. Let's add a very subtle twist to our Janu Shrasasana. So pitch a tent with your left hand, slightly turn your spine to the left and allow your right ear to melt down towards the earth. And slowly come on up on an inhale. Collect the right knee to the midline, cross it over and let's come into a seated twist, tucking the left foot in. You can also leave your left leg straight if you like, reaching up through your left arm on an inhale and then bringing the elbow tricep to the outside of the knee or the hand to the knee to turn into our twist. And twist and hip openers, sole balancing to the body after back bending. As you inhale, grow a little taller through your spine and as you exhale, you can use your fingertips here to just gently turn the heart center, ease yourself into the twist. Slowly unwind, come back to the center, sitting tall. And as you exhale, just rounding down, draw the forehead towards your knee. Sitting up tall once again on an inhale and swing the right leg behind you and make your way into downward facing dog for the second side. Deep breath into the back of the heart. As you exhale, step the left foot forward, walk it across towards the right edge of your mat and then lower your knee down coming into pigeon on the second side. Five deep, slow breaths, really taking your time here. We take our time in these counter asanas. It really allows our nervous system to come into a very deep state of balance. We give so much emphasis to the standing asanas and even the flashy looking advanced asanas, but the ability to be steady, to be still, to relax and to drop in and down is equally as important. See if you can let go and release an extra layer or even two. Just allow this shape to kind of melt and morph into the next one as you walk up on an inhale, roll to the outer left hip, swing your back leg around and coming into Janhir Shrasasana on the second side. Soul the left foot to the inner thigh, reach your arms to the sky on an inhale and then exhale, forward fold over the long leg and let's just take that subtle twist like we did on side one, maybe reaching across even and turn the spine, bring your ear towards the shin bone. I'm taking several breaths here. On your next inhale, sitting tall, reaching forward through your heart, rising up. Collect the left knee to the midline. Let's tuck the right knee in if you did that on side one, evening out your weight in your sit bones and then reaching up through your right arm on an inhale. Exhale, either hand to the outer knee or elbow to the outer knee, sitting tall here and I like to bring my hand to my heart and just turn the spine gently with each exhale, growing a little bit taller creating space in the spine, space in the breath, exhale to turn. One good friend of mine used to talk about the symbolism of twists and how it gives us an opportunity to look back into our past and see our path and all the people that have helped us along the way and feel gratitude for our path, but also for us to look back and see perhaps maybe what we're still pulling along that we need to let go of. Last couple moments here. Slowly unwinding, coming back to center, release the fingers around the top knee and sit tall on an inhale. As you exhale, just bowing in for the subtlety of release, the openness of the back body, even the back of the neck. Inhale to sit tall. Let's stretch the legs out in front and coming into our last seated pose before Shavasana, little Paschimottanasana, seated forward fold. So reaching up to the sky for the long length in the front and the back of the body. As you exhale, a nice surrender and bowing in, lifting through the heart just to create a little more length and exhale softening. Sometimes we come into these Siddhanaasana's with a lot of attentiveness, but for today, for this practice just allow it to be very much a surrender. You can turn the palms to face up and even relax the feet a bit here, relax your head and just be in the essence of the shape. Letting go of a layer or two or three. Last breath here. Slowly rolling up the spine to sit tall and let's prepare for Shavasana. So as you lower down, if there's anything close to your mat, any blocks or straps or anything that might be touching you, just take it all out of the way. Give yourself plenty of space. Maybe even if you have a bun or a ponytail, take your hair down so you can relax and then just come on back and spread out. Let your feet roll away from the midline. Let your palms be face up. Closing your eyes and just practicing the art of stillness, the art of non-doing, letting go, consciously letting go. Letting the mind rest and the body restore. And Okay.

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Slowly start to bring a little awareness of what's going on in your body. Simply bring a little awareness back into your body. Send a little bit of movement to your fingers and your toes. As you inhale, reach your arms over your head and reawaken. As you exhale, draw the knees into the chest.

Give yourself another bear hug, and rolling off to one side, take your time to come on up to a comfortable seat. Maybe spend a moment here lingering on your side, and slowly, when you're ready, press yourself up. Come into a comfortable cross-legged position, and bring your hands together at your heart. Feeling that sense of deep, calm, peaceful stillness inside, and that wonderful release that we get to experience through backbending of letting go. It's a wonderful quote by a woman named Barbara Thompson.

She says, letting go of what gets in the way is a loving practice all in itself. Letting go of what gets in the way is a loving practice all in itself. Namaste. Thank you so much. Have a great day.