Day 10: Stability and Strength

Hey there, welcome to day 10. How are you feeling? I am sore. My back is sore in a good way and my hamstrings for sure. So if you're feeling a little sore, just know that it's normal.

Today day 10, we're almost a third of the way through this. So see if you can kind of like enjoy it. Take your time. That's what I'm doing. New beginning and new middle today.

So we're going to start standing at the front of the mat. Grab your blocks and place them at the front of the mat. We'll probably end up using those. All right. New shorts.

Just saying friends. Okay, so we're going to start in what we're calling standing solutes. Take the arms up overhead, get a big breath attached to that movement. And on the exhale, fold gently over your legs. Inhale, come up halfway, lengthen the spine, kind of wiggle the hips back a little bit and exhale, fold.

Inhale, rise all the way up, kind of reverse swan dive the arms up and exhale the palms to the heart. Good. Inhale, circle the arms out and up. We'll do one more half solute. Exhale forward bend, wake up the legs a little bit, maybe the low back.

Inhale, half lift and exhale, fold. Inhale, build a little energy here, reach up, press the palms together and exhale the palms back to the heart. Let's build on that. Breathe in, reach up and breathe out, forward bend. Inhale, lift the chest, lengthen the spine, exhale, plant the hands, step the right foot back.

Let's open up the hip on that right side a little bit, sweep the arms up overhead. Just bring the arms out wide, sweep them back behind you, open up the chest for a moment. That might feel nice. Any kind of neck stretching, head movements, always welcome. Bring the arms up on the breath in, exhale the hands down to the mat, curl the back toes, lift the right knee.

Now come up high on the fingertips. Let's get a little length in the left hamstring here. Inhale straighten out the left leg, fold over the left leg for a breath or two or even three. You might even move into the lunge, get out of that intensity for a moment, breathe in and exhale, fold over the straight leg. Good.

Bend into the left leg, step the right foot up to meet the left, inhale, lengthen the spine and exhale, fold, step the left foot back. Bend the knee down and rise all the way up. Sweep the arms back behind you, interlace, open up the chest, the heart, the shoulders. Really nice. Now breathe in, reach the arms up, exhale the hands down to the mat, curl the back toes, lift the left knee.

Pause here, breathe in and exhale, get a little length in the right leg. Good, back into the lunge one more time, exhale, straighten out that right leg. Come back into the lunge, look forward, step the left foot up to meet the right, forward bend, exhale there. Now inhale, half lift, exhale, fold, inhale, rise all the way up and exhale, palms to the heart. Moving into our side facing middle, new one, new poses, I'm excited.

So from here, step the left foot back into warrior two, I'll face you, get your alignment. This will be a similar alignment for the next three poses or so. So back foot open, hips are open, right knee pointing toward the right pinky toe, working toward 90 degrees and you get those arms lengthening out that powerful warrior two posture. Once you get the setting, obviously we're breathing, focusing, maybe you move in and out of the knee a little bit, transition into side angle, side angle. So the right forearm rests on the right thigh without dumping into the shoulder, keep some space there, sweep the left arm forward all the way up high and then put an angle on it, put an angle on it so you get that nice side stretch in the left side of the body.

Good, I almost like think of this as playing tug of war with my left fingertips and my left foot. So big stretch, hug that right hip back, open up the chest, triangle pose, come all the way back into warrior two, maybe shorten the stance just a tiny bit, straighten out the right leg without locking, put a little tiny bend in that right leg, reach the right hand forward, right arm forward, a lot of length through the right side, good. Grab hold of your block, place it on the high, why not, right? Give yourself a little assistance. Right hand on the block and then left arm, sweep it all the way up, triangle pose.

Press into the ball of your right foot a lot, like almost like you're rotating the entire right leg inward toward the left. You don't have to straighten the right leg out so much, you can keep it soft, keep it bent, nice, okay. Grab hold of the block, come all the way back up into a little warrior two, we're gonna move into half moon, so place the left hand on the hip, shorten your stance a little bit, why not. Now when you're ready, when you find your focal point, that dristi, bring yourself up onto the right leg, bring the block down out in front of your right foot, underneath your shoulder, okay. Now from here, put a tiny little bend in the right leg, open up the hips, remember this is side facing, so a lot of the side facing means hip open, release the left arm high if you'd like, push through the ball of the left foot, maybe the heel, there we go.

My dristi is right at you, almost fell, you helped me out there. Okay, good, let's bend the right leg, left hand on the hip, leave your block there, step back into warrior two. Reverse warrior, breathe in, bring it up and back and now on the exhale, windmill those arms down, I'm gonna square up my blocks, step back into plank pose, let's pause in plank for a moment here, hands below the shoulders, legs are nice and strong, feel free to bring your knees down if you'd like, neck is long, tailbone extending toward your heels, really nice. I know we've been here for a couple of breaths but we're going to move into side plank, so the right hand, switch it over toward like left, or right center of the mat, slide the heels to the right and draw the left arm nice and high, feel free for some support to bring that right knee down, open up the chest, good, stacking or staggering the feet, left arm comes down, square up, left hand, left center, heels over to the left, my back is now facing you, but I'm still here with you, you can bring that left knee down, your shoulders bothering you, if it's just too difficult, good, now bring that right hand back down, on your exhale, lower down, I'm gonna move through upward dog on the breath in, and on the breath out, all the way back to downward dog, grab a few breaths here, transition to the front of the mat, look forward, step both feet all the way up, fold over exhale, inhale lengthen, and exhale fold, inhale rise all the way up, and exhale palms to the heart, nicely done, I'm gonna grab my block, I'm gonna step my left foot out wide, turn both sets of toes toward you, and then put the block at the back side of the mat, turn the left foot to the back side of the mat, and open up into warrior two, so warrior two facing the back side of wherever you are, arms open, level with the ground, remember that left knee, track it toward the left pinky toe and ground down evenly into both feet, you can draw the shoulder blades together, keep that back nice and strong, opening up through the chest, extended side angle, sweep the arm, right arm forward, all the way up, and then grab that angle, right, now focus on your feet, how are your feet grounding, how are the legs supporting you, it's going on with the left hip, maybe draw that left hip back, but as you draw the left hip back, open up the chest, get nice and long through the right side of the body, come back up into warrior two, shorten the stance just a tiny bit, straighten the left leg, now pulling the left hip back a little bit but keeping the hips open, triangle pose, reach, grab the block, place the hand on the block, and then open that right arm nice and high, that's the quality of the breath as you hold the pose, quality of the mind, are you continuing to listen, pay attention, good, right hand on the hip, bend the left leg, this time I'm going to stay low, half moon from here, so right hand on the hip, bend the right leg and all the way up, so I'm bending into that left leg, so I'm not locking it out, I'm still in the muscle of the left leg, finding a focal point, focal point will be you again, now my right leg is really strong, it's not just hanging there, I'm pushing through the heel, I'm pushing through the ball of the foot, reach the right arm high, find some ease here, if you fall out, you fall out, you just work on coming back in, it's not a big deal, alright, bend the left leg, I'm going to leave the block right there, step back, land in warrior two, straighten the front leg, wide leg forward bend, so put a soft little bend in the knees, keep your feet wide, hinging at the hips, bring your chest out forward, begin to feel the hamstrings open up a little bit, then bring the fingertips down to the mat, maybe even grab your blocks and place the hands up on the blocks if folding forward doesn't feel quite right for you, you can push the hips back, lean your body forward with that flat back, some of you out there, some of you out there might fold forward a little bit more, doesn't make it better, just makes it a different experience, now come back up, turn the right foot out 45 degrees, now lean into that right side, now come back over to center, turn the left foot open and lean into the left side, so it's a little side lunge movement here, over to the right and over to the left, you can go so deep that you're actually lifting the left heel up and getting a little bit more into the knee or you keep the heel grounded and you minimize the knee flexion, okay, maybe like one more side, left side, right side, good work, good, now come all the way back over to the right, square off the hips, step back into downward facing dog, from downward facing dog let's come into plank and close this middle sequence out with a lowering down, upward cobra dog whichever one you choose and downward dog on the exhale, place the knees down on the mat, soften your way back into a child's pose, okay, good work, so let's come up, move your blocks out of the way so they do not get in your way, release and relax, we've done this a few times, so this will be the last, we'll close out here, roll down to your back and we do exactly just that, we relax and release, so draw the knees into the chest and bring the feet back down to the mat underneath the knees and we'll flow right into those bridge roll ups, so lift the hips, bring the arms up overhead, stretch through the thigh bones, reach your knees forward, forward, forward, lift the hips and then exhale roll down, really nice, inhale lift up, lift the hips, sweep the arms all the way back so that the palms are actually facing up and exhale slowly down, upper back through the middle to the low, one more time, lift the hips, reach the arms up and back and exhale lower it down, draw the right knee in, extend the left leg out, good, so release any tension that you might find in the hip, switch over to the left, good, while finding moments and pockets of relaxation, okay, lift the chest, extend the left leg out, draw the right knee in, good, extend the right leg out, bring the left knee in, so for this version we're holding on to the shins to sort of really get that deep stretch but at the same time integrating the core a little bit, maybe the more of the focus is when you draw the knee in, right, get that opening, get the release in the hip, let's do two more on each side so that was one, left leg, two, or one, good, now two, and two, right on, take a breath, bring the feet down, now slide the hips over to the right, extend your left leg all the way out and draw the right knee back in using your left hand, draw the right arm out beyond the shoulder, spread your back out and twist to the left, maybe a little release in the low back, maybe there isn't necessarily a release, maybe it's just another shape to move in and out of because it feels nice, bring it back over to center, good, both feet down, slide the hips over and we slide the hips to the side of the mat, extend the right leg out so that when you do slide the hips over and in this case you're bringing your left knee in, when you twist to the right your spine is aligned on the mat, your spine is aligned on your spine, we hope that's the case, alright so twisting that left leg across the body toward the right, left palm is either up or facing down, your breath is in and out, one more breath, good, bring it back over to center, undo the shape, maybe take one more knee, double knee to chest pose, try bringing the knees out as wide as you can, bring them in narrow, I know some folks like them a little bit wider, a little more narrow so you have to decide, good, bring the feet down to the mat, arms alongside the body, let's take a full breath together as we prepare for final relaxation, so fill it up, belly, rib cage, all the way up into the chest and collar bones with the breath in and exhale everything out, straighten out the legs, wow day 10 coming to a close, so let's soak this up for a few breaths at least together, use the exhale to really send your body into this momentary place of relaxation, I'm not sure where you are practicing now but I hope that you're able to set yourself up in a nice space in your room, your house, outside, right now the sun is just perfectly shining on me here, it's a really nice moment for me so thanks for sharing that, being here with me. Let's stretch the arms up and overhead, take that big gratitude stretch, carry this energy and this ease into your day or into your night, roll to your right side, bend the knees, rest your head on your right arm, take a pause, take a breath and push yourself up, up to this familiar place where you and I have connected nine other times, so this is the 10th time, so fun, thank you guys so much, namaste.