Twisting for Core Stability

Welcome. So today we will be doing a bunch of twists. For most of us it's been a while since we've twisted. We don't really twist much during pregnancy and when we do, we do open twists. So coming back to yoga after delivery, I found that twists were really challenging. So the twists we'll be doing today are on course stability, so really finding the length as we twist as opposed to really binding and wrapping into deep twists. So we'll start standing. You're going to need a block, so go ahead and grab a hold of a block, preferably a foam block because the cork blocks and the wooden blocks are a little heavier. So we'll start with our feet together, arms down along the body, roll the shoulders down the back, press down through your feet and as you push down into your feet reach up through the crown of the head. And pull the front ribs in only because many of us start to stick the front ribs out. So we want to find all four sides of the torso even so you can breathe into the lower back ribs, the side ribs and up to the front of the chest.

And then we'll take the arms up overhead with the block, bring the block between the hands, press the hands into the block. Now you may take it forward a bit if it's too much to keep it up by your ears, your arms up by your ears. What we want is the outer upper arms to wrap around forward towards the face and then the arms to be straight. So if bringing the arms back causes you to scrunch your shoulders up by the ears and bend the elbows, then right here is where it's at. So wrap the outer upper arms around towards your face, press the arms straight and then find length through the crown of the head.

And then if it's possible, you'll start to reach the arms straighter up towards the ceiling. And then as you push down through the feet, lift up through the crown of the head, hands pressing the blocks, all four corners of the hands pressing the blocks. Grow as tall as you can. And then with an exhalation, you're going to start to twist to your right. So inhale, lift up, exhale without moving the hips, twist the upper body to the right. And let the head and neck just be in line with the chin. So the chin in line with the sternum bone, I should say.

And find a little bit of a back bend here. And by that I mean just press the shoulder blades into your chest so you're not rounding forward to twist. Really find the height. And then we'll turn back to center. Again, find lots of length. Feel the shoulder blades pressing into the chest, outer upper arms wrapping around towards the face. On your next exhalation, we'll twist to the left. You may not go very far here. What's important is that you continually grow tall as you twist.

And then we'll inhale back to center and exhale, release the arms and we'll just set the block to the side and come to the front of our mat. Bring the feet together, the hands to prayer position at the heart, shoulders relaxed down the back. Take a few deep breaths here and then release the arms down alongside the body. On an inhale, reach the arms up. Exhale, hinge at the hips and fold. Inhale, look up and lengthen. Hands can come to the shins. Exhale, set the hands down and step back to downward facing dog.

Two options here. One is to take a twist here in downward facing dog where you bring your right hand to your right ankle and you look underneath your left shoulder. Underneath your left arm. That feels unapproachable right now. You're going to come down to your knees. Keep your hips above your knees, reach your left arm forward and we'll just thread the right arm underneath the left arm. Your choice.

And then we'll take the other side, so reset to center, either variation and then reach the left hand to your right ankle or knee or do the modification on the knees. And we'll come back to center. Take a deep breath in down dog. Everyone stretching the hips up and back and then inhale will come forward to plank and we'll just raise the right arm up. If you need to, you can bring your knees to the floor. Five breaths here. That's four.

Three. Two. And one. Release the right hand down. Raise the left arm up. One.

Two. Three. Four. And five. Release the left hand down. Raise the right leg up and back.

One. Two. Three. Four. And five. Release the right foot down. Raise the left leg up.

Pull the belly in. Push the floor away from you. One. Two. Three. Four.

Five. Release the left foot down. Take downward facing dog for a moment. Deep breath in. If you need to drop down to child's pose, please do. And we'll come back to plank. And with the exhalation we'll take the left knee to the right elbow. One.

Two. Three. Four. And five. Twisting back. Coming to downward facing dog.

And then the opposite side. Come forward to plank. And bring the right knee to the left elbow. One. Two. Three.

Four. And five. Release back. Downward facing dog. Inhale. Come forward to plank. Exhale. Lower down to your belly.

Point the toes back, separating the feet. Press the tops of the feet down. Wrists are pretty much underneath the elbows. Roll the shoulders back and inhale into a cobra. Low or high. Some of you may wish to go into a full up dog.

And exhale. Lower down. Curl the toes under. Downward facing dog. Bring your feet together. Raise the right leg up and back. And then bring the right knee to your chest. Step it forward.

Keep the left heel lifted and we'll come up into crescent pose. Reaching the arms up overhead. So the arms are alongside the ears. Again, same thing as before, you may need to bring them a little more forward. If bringing them straight up creates too much tension at the base of the neck.

Maybe soften the back knee a little bit. Lift the chest up. And then we'll start to revolve to the right with the chest and torso. And separate the arms as you do so. So twisting crescent.

If it feels appropriate, start to straighten the back leg. Pressing out through the heel. Breathing. Maybe sink a little deeper into the bend in the right knee. Right knee should stay above the ankle.

And then let's take the left arm up. Sweep the right arm up. Crescent again. Exhale, bring the hands down to the floor. Keep the left hand where it is and we'll rotate the right arm up.

Pull the shoulders down the back. Reach the sternum forward. And even though you're working to open up the chest, try not to break in the rib cage. Keep the front ribs pulling in and the lower belly pulled in. And then release the hand.

Right hand to the floor. Step back to downward facing dog. Bring the feet together again. Raise the left leg up and back. Step the left foot forward.

And come on up into crescent. You need to bend the right knee a little. Wrap the outer upper arms around to the face. Lift up, lengthening out of the waist. And then as you exhale, start to twist to your left.

And then separate the arms as you twist. If it feels appropriate, straighten the back leg. Breathing. Relax the shoulders, the jaw, the cheeks. And we'll raise the right arm up.

Sweep the left arm back up. And exhale. Release the hands down to the floor. Keep the right hand where it is. And start to twist to the left.

Either bringing the left hand to the waist or up to the ceiling. Open up the chest by pulling the shoulders back. But keep the belly contained. Front ribs pulled in. And breathe.

And release the left hand down to the floor. Step your left foot back to downward facing dog. Inhale, come forward to plank. Exhale, lower. Inhale, cobra or up dog.

Exhale, downward facing dog. From there we'll walk the feet to the hands. Inhale, look up and lengthen. Exhale, fold. Inhale, come all the way up.

And exhale, hands to prayer at the heart. Hands to your waist. Bring the weight to your left foot. From the outer left hip in, keep the sternum nice and lifted. Chest open.

And let's interlace the fingers around the right knee. Option is to stay with your left hand to your right knee. And then reach the right arm back. As you do so again, lift the chest up, pull the shoulders down, and maybe you start to turn the head to the right and start to look towards your right thumb. Keep pressing your left leg nice and straight.

Another option is to reach down with your left hand for the outer edge of your right foot and start to straighten the right leg out and then reach the right arm back. And then look back to the front and slowly release it. Good. And we'll take the other side, so we'll take the weight to the right foot, hand to your waist, grab a hold of your left knee, lifting it up, and then either stay with the right hand to your left knee and turn to your left. Maybe straighten the arm or reach for the outer edge of your left foot and straighten your left leg out to the front.

Either variations, lift the chest up, shoulders back, and maybe start to gaze towards your left thumb. And then we'll look forward and release it. On an inhale, reach the arms up overhead. Exhale, hinge at the hips and fold. Inhale, look up, lengthen.

Exhale, step or jump to chaturanga. Inhale, cobra or up dog. Exhale to downward facing dog. From downward dog, we'll jump through to seated. We'll look forward and either step or jump through.

So a few options for this next posture are the matandrasana. One, if your hips are open enough that it doesn't put pressure on your knee, then you're going to fold your right leg back so your right toes are pointed and your right knee is facing straight forward. Then we'll take the left foot to the outside of the right knee, interlace the fingers around the left knee, lift the low back, lift the chest, and we'll start to turn to the left. Your right elbow to the outside of the left knee. Another option is to start to bring the right shoulder to the outside of the left knee, hook the right hand to the arch of the left foot and then bring the left arm around behind you and hook it onto your right hip.

Another option is to keep the right leg straight, especially if that puts any pressure in your right knee and we'll just interlace the fingers and take the twist from here. Now, if you're finding that you're really sinking into your low back, you're not able to lift, then you'll use your blanket and you're going to sit up on one or two blankets and this will be the posture. We want to be honest here. The hips are fairly stable and what we'd like to do is not just twist at the neck, but rather keep that length that we've been working on the whole time and start to revolve like a spiral staircase, one vertebra at a time, opening the chest as we twist. And if you do start to work towards the wrap or the bind, notice it's not coming from the shoulder where you start to see this collarbone popping out.

You want to keep the shoulder blade pulling back. So it's really happening from the spine. And then we'll release and we'll take that the other side. So either just bending the right knee and sending the right foot to the outside of the left knee, interlacing the finger, first finding upright and then twisting. If you're taking the other variation, then the left knee bends, left toes point back.

The right heel comes to the outside of the left knee, interlace the fingers, lift upright and then start to twist to the right. Maybe take the left elbow or shoulder to the outside of the right knee. Again, continually pull the left shoulder back so your collarbone isn't popping out. And maybe take the left hand to the arch of the right foot. Maybe grab your left hip.

All variations continue to inhale and lengthen through the crown of the head. Exhale and twist. And then we'll release that. And just straighten out your legs. Shake them.

And then we'll take Shavasana. So I'm going to use a bolster for Shavasana underneath my knees. You're welcome to do the same. So lie down on our backs. Palms open to the ceiling.

Take a moment to just bring the shoulder blades underneath you so that the chest can be open, the heart space can be soft. Scan the entire body. Looking for tension. And then guide the breath to any area that is tense or dull. Breathing awareness into the entire body.

Once you're comfortable, you can just completely relax and let go. If the mind is wandering, guide it to the sound of the breath. We'll be here for five minutes. Thank you. Thank you.

Stretch through your fingers and your toes. Reach the arms up overhead. Take a deep breath in. Now bend the knees. Roll over to your right side.

Bring your left arm forward. Press the left hand to the floor to come up to seated. I'll bring the hands to prayer position at the heart. Gently bow the head. Thank you and Namaste.