Day 24: Bring the Heat

Hey there, welcome back to Yoga Anytime. Welcome to day 24 and welcome to your body. Let's do this. So this is the core integration. I believe we've done this for two prior days to this, so it's time to mix it up a little bit.

For starters, come on down to your back, meet me there. Let's draw the knees in. Prepare for a little core love. Extend the left leg out, draw the right knee in. Draw the left leg in and extend the right leg out.

As we begin to build this, feel free to keep the back and the head on the mat. If you're going to lift it as we've been doing in the prior core integration sequences, begin to lift up so the shoulders are lifted, core is nice and engaged. You're hugging the right knee in, extending long through the left leg. Now place the hands behind the head, bring the left elbow as up and as close to the right knee as you can, fan the right arm out, good. Let's switch sides, so right elbow to the left knee, extend the right leg out and keep on going.

Good, two, we'll go to ten, two, three, three. Try not to rush through it, four, four, five, five, good. Each one, get that extra little lift and rotate. So left to the right, right to the left, six, seven, good, eight, good work, nine and ten. Awesome.

Just a little bit of heat in the belly. So let's rock forward and back a few times. Hold onto the hamstrings and rock up to sit. You can rock back, bring the arms up overhead, legs overhead, rock back up to sit. Here's where we're going to change it a little bit.

We're going to come back and forth. So when we come back, bring the arms up overhead and come into like a kind of a relaxed little plow pose and then come up, bring the heels down. This is the first variation, so boat pose. First time we've done this. So the heels are down, hands kind of gripping onto the hamstrings.

Lift the chest, keep the spine nice and long, okay? So maybe the next time we come, we'll come up and simply balance on the seat in this same shape. Let's try that. Bring the legs back behind you, arms back behind you and with control, roll up, nice. Now use those hands if that's helpful for you to keep your chest up, long spine.

Let's try it again, roll back and up, boat pose, nice. Now let's stay here for a few breaths, refine it, find your way. I like to keep the legs nice and tucked in. As soon as I straighten the legs out, it might feel a little bit more in my low back. You might feel the same.

Check it out. Good. Keep your chest strong in the core and roll back one more time and all the way up, nice. Now stretch your legs out, let's build onto this. Stretch the legs out in front of you.

Take the arms out, tuck the chin and slowly roll down from the back, mid-back, upper back, reach the arms up overhead and on the exhale, you can arch your back a little bit here, on the exhale, begin to engage the core, tuck the chin, reach up to the ceiling and kind of curl all the way up and find a little gentle forward bend. Let's do two more of those. Roll slowly down, inhale the arms up overhead, exhale, roll all the way back up, good. It's not easy, just bringing it into the practice today to see how it feels. Nice.

Now breathe in, begin to engage the core, ground the back, tuck the chin and roll, roll all the way up, nice, okay, good. So from here, let's come onto our hands and knees. We push back into a little child's pose, inhale into table and exhale, downward facing dog. Pedal it out, walk it out, stretch it out. You've been here in dog pose several times, so it's really up to you to figure out where it is, what it is and why it is.

All right, let's walk up to the front of the mat, inhale, lift halfway with those soft knees, right, soften up the knees, lengthen the spine, exhale, fold it out, let's rise all the way up on the breath in, preparing for that spicy core balance. Bring the palms to the chest as you exhale, nice. Okay, so we're gonna keep the hands at the chest, we're gonna mix this little sequence up a little bit as well, see what might stick or what you might leave behind. So to begin, lean to the right leg, lift the left leg up as high as you can, clasp the fingers around the shin of the left leg and hug it in, just like as if you were lying on your back with knee to chest, good. Release the hands, bring the hands back to the chest, put a bend in the right leg, step back into high lunge, good, find a little balance there, maybe in and out a few times and then hit, like not hinge but come back up into balancing on the right leg, lift the left leg up high, good, we're gonna do two more of those, so we're just mixing it up a little bit, step the left foot back, lunge, we'll sink in a little bit and then step back up, lift the left knee nice and high, good, now let's build onto that, step the left foot back, high lunge, inhale, on the exhale, palms to the heart, warrior three, good, balance might be a little questionable to begin but that might have a lot to do with where your focus is, so refined focus, make sure you're breathing, let's bring yourself all the way back up, we'll do one more like that, left knee up as high as you can, kinda strong through the core, stabilizing through that right leg, inhale, step the left foot back, bring the arms up high, good, find the sensation in the lunge that makes you feel like it's worthwhile being there, palms to the chest, step up into warrior three, not an easy transition so figure out how to do that best for you, good, all the way back up to stand, right leg probably feeling it quite a bit by now, I know mine is, good, lift the knee up nice and high, high, high like you're trying to step over a small fence and relax, okay, good, take the arms up overhead, breathe in and exhale, palms rest back at the heart, lean to the left side, begin to find your focal point, lift the right leg nice and high, interlace on the hamstring or the shin of the right leg, pull it up, pull it, it being the right leg up high into the body, good, release the grip but try to keep that knee up as high as you can, good, step the right foot back into a lunge, you can keep the hands at the chest and kind of dip in and out a little bit, you might feel the stretch a lot through the right hip flexor, the right quad, okay, all the way back up with the knee high move, right knee up core strong, one more time back into the lunge, sink a little lower, good, all the way back up, bring the knee up as high as you can, now full expression of the lunge, right foot back, arms up overhead with a full inhale, on the exhale palms to the heart, warrior three, focus, balance, commitment, modifying as you need, good, bring the right knee all the way back up, core strong, another round, step the right foot back, lift the arms up overhead, good balance, very good, palms back to the heart, step up warrior three, maybe let the arms fly a little bit, good, all the way back up with the knee high, move, step the right foot up as high as you can like you're stepping over that fence and bring it back down, little burn in the left side now, sweep the arms up overhead on the breath in and exhale palms to the heart, lift the left knee high on the inhale, good, step the left foot back, bring the arms up overhead, exhale the hands come down, open up into the lunge twist that we've done several times, you can take the right arm high, maybe the hand, the right hand to the back of the head, fan that elbow up and open, nice, bring the right hand back down, left knee comes down to the mat, inhale, bring the arms up overhead for low crescent lunge, hands come back down to the mat, pigeon pose, walk the right foot to the left side of the mat, right knee down, find the shape of the right leg that's accommodating you can bring your hands to the mat, you can walk onto the forearms, good, so day 24, not assuming but maybe by now you're really starting to figure out what poses work for you, what poses don't work for you and trusting, trusting, trusting the feelings and sensations that thing we keep talking about, right?

Hands back down to support you, curl the back toes, lift the right knee up, take it up into a big three-legged dog with the hip open, good, square off the hips, step the right foot to the front of the mat, left foot to the front of the mat, fold, exhale, inhale, it's halfway and fold, exhale, inhale, rise all the way up and exhale, palms to the heart, let's try the other side, balancing on the left side, lift the right leg high on the breath in, pause, breath out, maybe squeeze it up a little bit more, now inhale, step back, high lunge, full expression, you're always your, when I say full, it's your full expression on the exhale, bring the hands down to the mat, good, good, foundational support in the feet and the legs, open up into the twist, so rotate the trunk of the body to the left, reach the left arm high or place the left hand at the low back or even behind the head, there's three options there for you, good, left hand comes down to the mat, bring the right knee down, good, find your placement, inhale, bring the arms up overhead, let the hips come forward, biggest sensation might be in the right hip flexor region, maybe, good, hands come down, pigeon pose, left foot to the right side of the mat, in that shape of the left leg that feels right for you, extend the right leg back, good, prop yourself up to begin pigeon, stay here or forearms, option would be also to bring your forehead, like stack your fists or use a block or a blanket or whatever you have to place your forehead down, so that you can actually kind of rest here in this pose, figure out where you don't need to work so hard, this is a nice opportunity because it stretches out that area that may have been burning quite a bit from all the balance, let's walk back up onto the hands, begin the transition into three-legged dog, so that means curl the back toes, lift the right knee, good, engage the core to lift that left foot up, lift the left leg up, open up that hip, good, that might feel nice, let's square off the hips, bring the left foot down, come forward into a plank pose and exhale all the way down to your belly, good, lift the hands up off the mat, reach them back behind you, interlace your fingers, lift the chest up for a little cobra slash locust pose, legs can stay grounded or you can lift your legs, I prefer in this case to let my legs draw down, down, down, good, slowly lower all the way down, place the hands back into that cobra position, inhale cobra, inhale child's pose which will finish up that spicy core, stretch the hips back, walk the arms forward, let your forehead rest somewhere, mat, forearms, wrists, let's begin to transition into relax and release, come out of child's pose, let's meet on the back, roll on down, hold the knees in, stretch it out, like shift gears, shift gears into more of a relaxing sort of mindset, bring the feet down, bridge roll ups, push through the feet, lift the hips, roll through the shoulders, arms reach all the way up and back behind you and then slowly all the way down, inhale lift the hips, reach up and back on the inhale and exhale slowly all the way down, one more time, lift through the hips, push through the heels and the ball of each foot, reach your arms back, palms facing up, good, exhale all the way down, take the right ankle over the left thigh, we're going to revisit pigeons so this is another version of pigeon, we've done this before, hands interlace around that left shin or left hamstring, you can press that right forearm into the inner thigh to get that hip open, that right side and then draw the legs in toward you a little bit, you can even lift your chest up a little bit more toward the legs, good, you know one option you can play with it's not totally resting and releasing but you could always do this shape hands free, you can maybe even try it now is keep the left foot lifted, breathe in, arms alongside your body, breathe out, draw the legs toward you, lift the chest up toward that right calf, you might feel it in the abdominals, let's do two more, so you still get the benefit of pigeon while grabbing a little core, love, one more time, lift, lift, lift, lift, lift, get the stretch, keep working that right hip open, point the right toes up, good, draw them in one more time, get that big stretch and release, go ahead and just switch ankles, ankle, left ankle over the right thigh, grab hold, good, so find that combination of getting the good stretch, getting the good release that you deserve and that you might crave, it might be really helpful for your back in some way also, begin to lift the chest up, good, so core is working as you release your arms out, good, move the legs away from you a little bit, breathe in, exhale, lift the legs toward the body, lift the chest a little bit more, really good, exhale for number two, we're doing three, exhale three, so keep working that right leg in, left leg out, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, take the right hand on the right shin, left hand on the left knee and safely draw those legs in, good, release, this version today will be arms out wide, feet out wide with your legs bent, let's take a little windshield wiper, a little relaxed movement from side to side, this will be the substitute for the spinal twist, giving you yet another option and another way to close out, what feels best for you, good, bring it back to center, draw the bottoms of the feet together, open up the thighs and the knees, take a full breath here, exhale, release, letting everything go for this short relaxation, breathe in and breathe out, one more time, breathe in and a forever long extended exhale out, draw the knees into the body, take a very controlled and relaxed roll up to sit, draw the bottoms of the feet together or sit cross legged, so I can't emphasize enough, if you feel like resting longer please, let's close out together, rest, do that as much as you'd like, for now let's close together one more small 20 minute chapter, you and I, day 24, namaste, have a great day.