Day 8: Shoulder Relief

Hey there, welcome back, day eight. We have an awesome new sequence for you, but to begin, we're going to start in core integration. We did this yesterday, so bring yourself down to your back, hug those knees in, and begin to rock side to side, and slowly start to take it out a little bit. So take it out, meaning take the knees out, and option would be to bring the hands up to the ankles, maybe even to the outer edges of the feet, so we can wake up the inner thighs, the groin, maybe work a little bit into the hamstring of one leg, the hamstring of the other leg, you know, and feel around, listen, right? That common theme, where are you, how does your body feel, and how can you adjust the shapes and postures to make it feel better for you?

Okay, good, now, as you probably know, the core integration piece is kind of about to happen now. So we bring the right knee in, extend the left leg out. Start with the single leg, maybe just grab one or two more stretch-type feelings, and we slowly start to build by lifting the chest up, hugging the knee in, keep the chest up toward the leg coming in, you can option to bring the left elbow to the right knee, so now we're starting to move into more of the bicycle abdominals. You can extend the left arm way out beyond the right thigh, and then when the left leg comes in, bring the right arm, I'm going to stick to the bicycles. Good, elbow in, let's start with ten, ten, good, nine, nine, eight, eight, be sure to extend long, seven, through the opposing leg, six, good, five.

Start to feel a little bit, four, three, two, one, nice. Relax, hug the knees in, a little circle action, and then begin to rock forward and back. We'll do this three times. So a little momentum, I know it's a little difficult to rock all the way up, so do your best, always doing our best, roll back, it's like a moderate little plow. Come all the way up, say hey, what's up, how we are.

Come onto the hands and knees, push the hips back into a child's pose, take a moment, reintegrate back into your breath, back into your purpose, why you're actually doing this, come forward into your hands and knees and tabletop, curl the toes under, get a little toe stretch there as you push your hips back, and then launch up into downward facing dog. We've been here a zillion times, right, I mean that's a big number, zillion, but a lot. So maybe treat it as your first downward dog ever, maybe you can seek out a new sensation, maybe bending your knees a lot, trying to like bend the knees and stretch the mat out, push through the feet, push through the hands, and then lift the legs back up, let's walk the feet up to the front of the mat. Inhale, half lift, and exhale, kind of flush it out into a forward bend, relax for a moment. Take another breath in, fill the body up and exhale, flush it out, that feeling of just letting the breath drop out, and then rise all the way up, reach up, touch the ceiling, and exhale, palms to the heart.

Okay, we're going to move into more of a forward facing, this is the forward facing middle flow. So I'm going to grab the blocks, this is the first time we'll be doing it, and we're going to leave out some lowering chaturanga, more of the vinyasa, upward dog stuff. That's out for today, and these blocks will be a great gift for both of us. So we start with the sun B, we do three rounds. So let's begin by bringing our feet hip width, have the blocks alongside the feet, breathe in, reach the arms up overhead, as you breathe out, bring the arms in front of you and sit the seat back into a chair, right?

So draw the tailbone down without tucking, so neutral pelvis, just a moderate little chair pose here, inhale, reach all the way up and back, and exhale, forward bend. Inhale, lift the chest, stretch the spine, exhale, hands on the blocks, step back into dog pose, adjust the blocks as they feel best for you. Once you're in downward dog, let's inhale, take the right leg up, exhale, step the right foot inside the block on the right, shorten your stance a little bit, and look back at the foot. We'll spend a few moments here, make sure that foot is about 45 degrees, so it's like pointing as far forward as you can. Bend the right leg and inhale, bring the arms up overhead.

Okay, so the back foot, where your toes go, your left hip will go, alright? So really focus on that and shorten your stance a little bit. Take the arms up overhead and let's kind of warm a little bit through the shoulders. Why don't you take your right hand to the left shoulder, left hand to the right shoulder, take a little twist from side to side, maybe lift the elbows up. Take the arms out and grab that cactus position, but maybe roll through the shoulder blades a little bit.

So warrior one, inhale, bring the arms up overhead, exhale, the hands come all the way down, square off the hips, step back into downward dog. Inhale, lift your left leg up. With control, step the left foot to the block on the left, on the inside. Shorten your stance, spin the back heel down and rise up for warrior one again. Good.

Roll through the shoulders, maybe this time take your right hand underneath the left tricep and pull it over to the right for a little shoulder stretch. Try it on the other side, good. Place the arms up, breathe in, exhale, hands come down to the blocks, lift the back heel, step the right foot up to meet the left, forward bend. Inhale half lift, exhale fold. Inhale rise all the way up, exhale chair pose, bring the arms straight out in front of you again for this one.

Inhale rise all the way up and exhale palms to the heart. Inhale bring your arms out and up, keep your arms up overhead, sit back into chair pose. Rip that newspaper, I've talked about that before, you're ripping imaginary newspaper apart so your legs are super strong and connected. Now inhale reach up and back, exhale forward bend. Inhale lift half way, exhale step back into dog pose.

Inhale lift your right leg, exhale step the right foot forward, spin the back heel down and rise up on the inhalation for warrior one. Good. Inhale sweep the arms high, exhale hands come down, step back into dog pose. Inhale lift your left leg, exhale step the left foot forward, bring the back foot down, get your foundation right and then sweep up, breathe in as you do so. Now inhale lift the arms, kind of lift the chest, exhale hands come down, square off the hips, step your right foot forward, forward bend.

Inhale lift the chest, lift the heart and exhale fold. Inhale rise all the way up, keep the arms up overhead and chair pose, tailbone draws down, pull the low ribs in, rip that newspaper apart. Now inhale reach up and back and exhale palms rest at the heart. Inhale bring the arms back up overhead, exhale sit back into that chair pose again, maybe sit a little, little, little lower, good. Inhale rise all the way up, exhale forward bend.

Inhale half lift, exhale downward dog, inhale the right leg up, exhale step it up, finish the grounding to rise up for warrior one. Take your right arm, sweep it underneath the left, reach the right fingertips toward the left palm, find that eagle arm bind, lift the elbows up a little bit, maybe even point your fingers forward. So maintain the structure of warrior one by bending into the right leg, firming down through both feet. Maybe even lift the elbows a little bit higher for a gentle little back bend, good. Release the arms, sweep them up overhead and exhale come forward all the way down to kind of grab your blocks.

Bring them up on the middle or the highest height, lift up half lift and then shorten your stance just a little bit more and point your left toes forward for pyramid pose. Now put a little bend in the right leg so you don't have to lock it out. So a little bend, fingertips up on the blocks, pull the right hip back, push down into the ball of the right foot, lift your heart, lift the chest, breathe in. Let's take three full breaths in pyramid pose either lifting the chest or folding forward. Relax your head, breathe in and breathe out.

Stay active in where you're pressing and holding and engaging. Let the breath flow and relax the areas of the body that you can relax. Bring the blocks down onto the medium height, lean forward, slide the left foot or step the left foot as far back as it makes sense for you. Now you get a little relief, you get out of that right hamstring and take the arms up overhead, maybe hook the thumbs, draw the index fingers together, kind of action, lift the chest, perfect, beautiful. Now bring the hands down to the blocks, curl the back toes and lift the left knee.

Both sets of toes forward, hips are nice and square, begin, take the left hand on the rib cage on the left side of the body like you're trying to actually manipulate the trunk of your body into a twist to the right. You can place your right hand at your low back for now. Pull the right shoulder open, make sure you're nice and steady and strong in that left arm. Come back out of that twist, good. Step back into downward facing dog, three times, we're gonna inhale into plank and exhale downward dog.

Inhale plank, exhale dog pose. Inhale plank, exhale dog pose. Lift your left leg up on the breath in, exhale, step it all the way up, place the back heel down, get your alignment right, arms up overhead on the breath in. Left arm sweeps underneath the right, left fingertips reach toward that right palm, find your alignment and eagle arms, lift the elbows, maybe reach the fingertips forward and then up. Bend a little stronger into the left leg without allowing that left knee to go beyond the toes.

Eagle arms generally is a stretch for the shoulders and upper back like shoulder blades, so where is that for you? How can you minimize it or increase it? Release the arms, sweep the arms up on the breath in, exhale, reach forward and down to the blocks, bring them up on the highest level, shorten your stance, square your hips, both sets of toes are directly forward. Now lift your chest, really like pull the left hip back, lengthen through the spine, breathe in, stay here or exhale, fold your body forward over that left leg. One more breath, breathe in and breathe out, step your right foot back, bring the back knee down, inhale, sweep the arms up overhead and now exhale, bring the hands down, lift the back knee, roll open once again but this time to the left, left palm at your low back, take the left shoulder, peel it open and stay strong and supportive in that right arm.

Bring your left arm back down, bend your right leg, step the right foot up to meet your left, forward bend, inhale, lift halfway and exhale, we'll take the feet back into downward dog, bring the knees down and pause in child's pose, good, from child's pose come up, let's move the blocks out of the way, spin around onto your seat and we're going to move into hip relief, it's going to feel so good, I know it's going to feel good for me because I wrote it out and created it so let's see if it feels good for you, let's bring the right knee in, extend the left leg out, we start with the knee to chest, then we move into half happy baby so you can hold on to the outer edge of the right foot, if that's just not available, hold on to the shin or even closer to the knee, it's the same exact sensation really, good, starting to slow down, kind of enjoy some of the stretchy sensations, bend the left leg, place the right ankle on top of the left thigh, guide that hip open so the right thigh moves away from you, lift the left foot up off the mat, interlace all ten fingers around your left hamstring or the shin, find this reclined pigeon, focal point of the stretch, generally is the outer right glute, this whole side, you might be feeling some intensity, okay, bring the left foot down, slide the hips over to the right, take the arms open, find the spinal twist, release any low back funk you might get going on, I know that wasn't correct, might got going on but I think you got the gist, okay good, let's come back out, oh man, it feels so good to move the body, let's switch legs, switch the right leg out, hug the left knee in, extend, move slowly into the half happy baby, grab hold of that and you know if ever I'm moving too fast in and out of poses, take your time, put it on pause and bring the left ankle to the right thigh, grab hold of the reclined pigeon, really nice, bring the right foot back down, slide the hips to the left, find a little relief in the spinal twist, left knee crosses over, you can extend long through the right leg or keep the right leg bent, good, bring it back out, align yourself on the mat, nice and centered, squeeze the knees in one last time, bring the feet down, slide it out, take a big breath, reach your arms up overhead, arch the back a little bit, breathe in and exhale, day eight beginning to come to a close, good job, allow the breath to fall in and fall out, focusing on the exhalation as the exhalation provides that sense of ground and relaxation, calming effect, and as I'm always encouraging you to do, stay as long as you'd like here, if you're ready to come up, draw the knees in, rock up to sit and do that, my friend, it's day eight, we did it once again, so without further ado, we'll close out by simply saying namaste and thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank