Day 2: Dynamic Go-To

Hey, what's up? Welcome back. Day two of the challenge. We're going to start in spinal wake up. Let's do this.

So as you already know, child's pose. So knees wide, push back. We're going to like cycle in a few times. So instead of it being static, we're going to move. So you stretch out, find your length, and let's take about three or four rounds.

So breathe in, come forward. Breathe out, push back. Breathe in, come forward. And breathe out. Push back.

Two more. Breathe in. And breathe out. One more time, inhale. And exhale.

Trying this one. Stay back in child's pose. Walk the left hand over, stack the right hand on top of the left and see what this feels like pushing the hips back and reaching as long as you can through the side body. You can even kind of like walk the hands over a little bit further to the left. Again, focus is on the right side of the body.

Let's grab it on the left side now. So stay back in child's pose or up in table. Right hand over, left hand stacks on top of the right or somewhere near it, right? Push the hips back. It's almost like you're playing a little tug of war with the left hand and the left hip.

Just enough to wake it up. Obviously breathe into that space. Walk back over, full child's pose. Come up into tabletop. Adjust yourself on the mat.

Walk the hands forward. So go about halfway into puppy pose and then grab a breath. So breathe in. On your exhale, come into your full expression, elbows lifted or grounded, chin touching or forehead, you might feel some intensity, muscular tension. Let's say in the upper back, that might feel really nice.

Belly is kind of relaxed, beautiful. Let's move right into Sphinx pose. So plant the forearms and elbows, hinge forward, slide the knees back. Find your degree, right? It's different for everybody.

So this challenge is really about finding your practice, finding your range of motion, your set up. So I like the elbows directly under the shoulders. You take them a little bit wider or farther forward, good. Let's bring it all the way down. Slide the right hand alongside the body, cobra light position.

Left hand reaches out. Push over onto the left side. Begin to feel that stretch through the left shoulder. Place the right foot wherever you feel it's supporting you. The head does not have to come down to have it be a successful experience.

If we were holding it longer, we'd want the head to be down, but we're going to flow right over onto the other side now. So slide the right arm out directly from the shoulder. Left hand kind of aids in the push over, the guide over to the right side. Place the left foot again where it's supportive, nice. Front of the shoulder, maybe the bicep are the main focal points right at the stretch.

Let's bring it back over to center. Slide the hands alongside like the upper ribs, lower shoulder. Lift the chest up for a little cobra pose. Exhale, push back into table. Align yourself in table, inhale, lift the chest, arch the back, like look to lift the sit bones up as high as you can.

You don't have to wrench the neck out, right? You can have a casual gaze forward. Inhale, cat, pull the low belly in, draw the tailbone down, chin toward the chest, spread the back out really wide. Inhale, cow pose, arch the back. Nice little flow into cat pose, flexing through the spine, tucking through the tailbone.

One more time, inhale, cow pose. Inhale, cat, inhale, table, exhale, dog pose. Pedal it out, walk it out. This one, once you get the stability in this pose, where the hands are, where you're pressing into the knuckles, how your arms are supporting you, then really it's up to you. There's no real perfectly prescribed position or style of movement.

How can this pose, this shape, really add as a pose to serve you, help you, be useful, stretch tight body parts, whatever the case may be. That's always in your back pocket, like how is this useful for me? Let's bring the knees down, find table top pose. From here, let's take our blocks, did this yesterday, bring the blocks up onto the medium height and we'll move into the dynamic go-to flow, one of my faves. Place the blocks in where, in the direction or placement where the hands would be for downward dog.

Curl the toes under and find dog pose. Always personalizing, always searching it out. So let's begin by taking, let's lift the right leg up a little bit higher than we did yesterday. Lift it up, maybe even like peel the hip open just for one breath. Bend the right leg, full inhalation and then on the exhale, you square off the hips, pull the low belly into support and step the right foot up to the outer edge of the block.

Let's focus the breath pattern differently today. So what we're going to do is you're going to inhale, let the hips come down, lift the chest and on the exhale, focus on straightening out the right leg. Point into the ball of the right foot as you meet that extreme stretch in the hamstring. Inhale, hips down, chest up, good. Exhale, hamstring stretch, this long pyramid style pose.

Two more, inhale. Let the hips come down, get that little flavor of stretch, exhale, up, up and away, good. One more time, think about all the little joints in the body, your toes, your ankles, each pose you're in, there's an opportunity to move and stretch and explore, good. Come back into the lunge, upper two thirds of your spine. Think about that range of motion here.

So you lock the hips in, you rotate open to the right. Let's exhale, pull the low belly in like you would in cat pose and draw the right forearm toward the right elbow to the left forearm. Two more, inhale, rotate, open it up, exhale, elbow to the forearm, inhale, right elbow lifting up, rotating open, exhale, right elbow toward your left forearm, inhale, send it all the way up, exhale, bring the right hand down to the block, lift the right foot up, step back into dog pose, pause, realign yourself, catch your breath, lift the left leg up on the inhale, bend it and maybe peel the hip open a little bit, just see what that feels like. And on the exhale, support through the core, square off the hips and step, kind of like glide the left foot all the way up, good. Same thing, inhale, let the hips come down, lift the chest, exhale, long pyramid pose, push into the ball of the left foot, inhale, bend the left leg, send the hips down, exhale, maybe lift the toes up, lift the ball of the foot up so you're just on the left heel, that's something to explore.

One more time, breathe in and breathe out, lift up, up and away. Nice, back into the lunge, left hand behind the head, push the head into the hand, rotate open to the left, find that twist, exhale, left elbow to the right forearm, inhale up and open, rotating, twisting, exhale, left elbow to the right forearm, let's go one more, right open, find some good stability in that right arm and exhale, left elbow, right forearm, inhale, send it up, exhale, left hand to the block, put a little slight straightening on the left leg, bend the right, step up into squat pose, good, from here, push the elbows into the thighs, lift the chest, try to lengthen the spine, inhale, reach all the way up, come to stand, press the palms together, pull the belly in, exhale, squat pose, hands on the blocks, left foot back, right foot back, downward dog, lift the left leg up on the inhalation, exhale, step it up and out wide, inhale, lift the chest, exhale, right foot out wide, coordinate the exhale with a squat, inhale, all the way up, press the palms together, one more time, exhale, squat pose, step the right foot back this time, then the left for downward dog, inhale, lift the right leg up, exhale with control, step it to the front of the mat, finish the exhale, inhale, lift the chest, exhale, step wide, squat, finish the exhale to inhale all the way up and rest the palms at the heart on the exhale, inhale, bring the arms out and up, so you get that full stretch, exhale, come on down for the squat again, step back into downward dog, left foot back, right foot back, take the right leg, we'll add something here, take the right leg, lift it up, only hip height, on the exhale, stack the shoulders up over the wrists, keep the hips up though, right, draw the right knee as high up that right arm as you can with the exhale, now inhale, send it up and back, same motion, knee toward the elbow or higher but then continue the foot to the outer edge of the mat, finish the exhale, inhale, lift the chest, exhale, squat, inhale, rise all the way up, full expression of the standing pose, exhale, let's do the other side, squat down, step the right foot back, left foot back, downward dog, lift the left leg up, exhale, left knee toward the left elbow or higher, inhale, send it up, exhale, same motion, left foot to the outer edge of the mat, finish the exhale, get a little relief, inhale, lift the chest, get that hip stretch, exhale, squat, inhale, rise all the way up and exhale, palms to the heart, good from here, let's take the arms up overhead, breathe in and come down one last time into the squat, really only as a transition, so grab your blocks, place them wherever you're going to place your blocks, meanwhile you're in the squat, right, now bring your seat all the way down and let's transition onto our back into what I call like hip relief, alright, okay from here roll on down to your back, draw the knees in toward the chest, sometimes it's nice to bring them in toward the center like a child's pose, right, knees together or you can even take them a little bit further out wide, each shape presents a new and different sensations, so check that out, okay bring the left foot down and so this is called hip relief, so we're really focusing on opening up those hips a little bit, so first portion or first move would be to draw that right knee in, you can extend your left leg out if you'd like, okay you can keep it here, begin to build into what would be the half happy baby, now half happy baby can be right hand on the inside of that right knee and shin and let that hip open, right, you can slide the right hand up toward the shin or the ankle or even the outer edge of the right foot, left hand resting maybe on that belly or the heart, good, as always when you meet that really tough spot, take time to kind of nurture it and breathe calmly into that space, so let's build now, keep the hip open bend the left leg, now place the right ankle on top of the left thigh, start first by pushing gently the hip open, so the right thigh away from you, pay attention to how your shoulder blades are situated, your neck, that's going to recline pigeons, so keep the right foot really active, toes pointing up, lift the left foot up off of the mat and you can take hold of behind the hamstring, the left hamstring or maybe even reach up, interlace your fingers around the left shin but make sure that you're not feeling stuck, right, so if you're going to hold on there try to lengthen through the upper spine, through the neck, rest the head and then draw those legs in toward you safely, maybe a little rock from side to side, bring the left foot down, push through the left foot to slide your hips over to the right, and we can do this like figure four twist, so arms reach out to a nice big T and rotate over to the left, we're not looking for our biggest most wild twist, if that's interesting to you, you search that out, good, a little low back relief here combined with the hip relief, let's come back up to center, situate yourself, release that right leg, good, both feet grounded on the mat, extend the right leg out, hug the left knee in and start to build slowly right as it becomes sort of cued by me or your own pacing, you want to stay here or you start to open that knee out a little bit wider, holding the left hand on the inside of that shin or knee, slide that left hand up toward the ankle or the outer edge of the foot, bring that left foot up over the knee joint, make the adjustment in the spine, it tends to get a little bound up there, so always looking for some space in the back and the neck, every so often taking a deep breath when and if that feels suitable or needed really, good, now bend the right leg, place the left ankle on top of that right thigh, take a couple moments to guide that left thigh away from you, there's a subtle little hip opener there, you can lift the right foot up, take hold of the right hamstring or interlace your fingers around that right shin, you can stay here or begin to use a little arm effort, a little muscular effort to draw those legs in toward you, this is only because when I do this, I feel more stretch, more sensation in my outer hip on the left side, bring that right foot back down, slide the hips over to the left, take a nice little spinal twist, so it's like a figure four spinal twist, a little low back relief just like the other side, let's take another breath here, so take a nice full breath from the belly into the rib cage, up into the chest and let the full breath exit, bring it back out, situate yourself to center, both feet down, maybe a little slide left and right to ground the low back, draw the bottoms of your feet together, take a full breath in, exhale, arms alongside the body, relax, stretch the legs out, stretch the arms up overhead, take a big breath here and roll over to the right side, push yourself up to sit and let's exit together today, so come up to sit, ground in easy seat, upright spine, press the palms together, as always thank you so much, we'll see you tomorrow for day three, boom.