Twists Feel Good

Hello and welcome to your practice, to your mat. We're going to do a practice today that has lots of twisting and I often think of Eric Schiffman's book, Moving into Stillness, and he has a paragraph about the benefits of twist but at the end, or maybe it's the beginning, it says twisting feels good. So we're just going to move into some good feeling to it. Some are pretty deep, but we're going to start mellow and just start lying down onto your back and take your feet wide, so the distance apart of your mat and bring your arms just casually overhead. And then let both of your knees go over to the right and hold on to your left wrist and pull the left arm long so that you feel an extension all the way through the left side of the body and then dropping into the breath, inhaling, feeling the breath roll down from the nose along the left side of the body, each exhalation deflating in the left side of the abdomen, softening, descending there, this first pose is less of a twist, although there's a little bit of a twist, but more of a big side body and so as opener.

Okay, we'll go over to the other side, when we move into the deeper twist, we want to have the side body long, hold onto your left wrist, pull the left arm away from the left knee, let your left knee drop down towards the mat and then watch the breath like a paintbrush going from your nose down the sinuses, down the throat and down the right side of the body, exhale, softening, deflating, I really like the feeling of the right side of the belly moving into the towards the back of the body, after your next exhalation come to the center and then we're going to take the pelvis, lift it up, shift it over towards the left side of the mat so we're crooked just for a moment and then draw the knees in and take the knees over to the right, rest your right hand onto your legs and let your left shoulder release down to the ground, left arm long, so the pelvis shifting at the beginning so that the head and the heart and the pelvis are all aligned here instead of the pelvis being kind of tucked under like a J, we want the spine to be long and then just lift your head, shift your head just a little bit, maybe an inch to the right and then look over towards your left hand, your spine starts down in your tailbone and it goes all the way up to the top bone of the spine called the atlas, it's in between your ears, so if it's comfortable for your neck by turning the head you're taking the twist through the whole spine and find your breath here and then with an exhalation come to the center, shift your pelvis over to the right, draw your knees in, take the knees to the left, rest your left hand onto your legs and right arm lengthens over to the right and then again so that the head stays aligned, first shift it a little bit to the left and then turn the head to the right so you see the right hand in that direction, however if it feels like a strain or a stress on your neck you certainly don't need that so you're welcome to put your head in any position that feels comfortable, and then inhaling feeling the breath roll in and descend into the belly lengthening a little bit through the pubic bone towards the tailbone so that the pelvis is not tucked under but it's in its neutral position, exhale releasing a little deeper into the twist. Not everything we're going to do in this practice is reclined so take advantage of being on the floor, rest what you can rest into the earth. Next exhalation come to the center and get your head, your pelvis in the center, draw your knees in, energize your feet, arms straight out to the side, take a breath in and then take your knees over to the right about three quarters of the way to the right and then with an exhalation pull the left side of the belly to the ground to bring yourself back to the center and then take the legs over to the other side two thirds or three quarters of the way to the side and then the right side of the belly pulls down to pull the legs back in, this time we're not going to worry about shifting the pelvis. We'll inhale as the legs come to the right and exhale, belly pulls the legs back to the center especially the left half of the abdomen. Inhale to the left, exhale back to the center, we'll keep going.

If you want to do this with legs extended you can do that and if you decide to do that it makes it much, much harder which is fine and if you do that the feet go in the direction of the hand so they can pike up. Jatari paravatanasana, it's an old yoga pose, means fully revolving the belly. And then come to the center, left foot down, right ankle crosses over the left knee, let's open the outer hip for a couple of breaths. So here in this figure four position drawing the left thigh in, try to keep both sitting bones still lengthening towards the edge of the far edge of the mat. So the temptation is the pelvis to curl up with the legs, we're going to work the legs independent of the pelvis, the pelvis stays neutral as the legs draw in.

Make sure the left leg draws in, actually the right thigh falls away. If your proportions are just so your right elbow may be able to help press the right thigh away as the left thigh draws towards the chest. Collar bones are broad, shoulders descend towards the mat. And then put your left foot onto the ground, cross your right leg completely over your left leg, shift pelvis to the right and let your knees come over to the left. You might want to take your left shoulder blade and move it a little more over to the left, head lifts and turns to the right, it's a deeper twist now that we have the legs in an eagle position.

Of course if it doesn't feel, if it feels like overwhelming or too much or you can no longer breathe, go back to an earlier variation. You can also put a block underneath or a prop underneath your right knee. You breathe in, watch the breath kind of spread through your body like food coloring spreads in water throughout, exhale again dropping into the support of the ground beneath you, take advantage of the ground beneath you, feel that deep, kind of feel good twisting in the low belly. Come back to the center, get your head, your pelvis, your heart aligned, left ankle over the right knee, hold on behind your right thigh, drawing the right thigh in as the left knee falls away from the left shoulder. Collar bones are broad, shoulders drop down towards the mat and let your face and your throat be soft as you lengthen your sitting bones towards the far edge of the mat.

Inhaling and exhaling, soft, smooth breath, alright and then the eagle twist, right foot down, left leg crosses completely, shift your pelvis to the left, take your knees to the right and you might want to spread your right shoulder blade, right shoulder a little bit more to the right, shift your head to the right, look to the left and breathe here. The breath coming in, penetrating, radiating down through the spirally spine and each exhalation always throughout every moment of your life an opportunity to soften, to let go, to surrender. Next exhalation, abdominal strength pulls you back to the center, unwind, hug your knees into your chest for a moment, roll from right to left, widening the big sheaths of muscle on the back of your body and then either roll to your side to come up or roll right on up to sit and then turn and come on to your hands and your knees. From here we're going to go right into threading the needle, take your left arm underneath the right and take your left hand maybe a little further than where you usually take it and then there's lots of different ways to do this pose, you can always do the poses, this feels good to you, I like to interlace the right hand on top of the left hand and then straighten the right arm to further kind of open the right shoulder, turn the back body and this one really feels good I think on the left side of the back, the kidney is there, your little kind of walnut shaped adrenal gland is there, so widening and spreading the back body, another thing I like about this particular pose is moving my head around a little bit on the mat, giving the left side of my head a little massage into the mat, then bring your right hand right in front of your face, come up, feel it all unwinding and second side right arm threads and threads maybe an inch more than if you do this habitually where you normally go, left hand on top of the right hand, try to keep the pelvis evenly reaching back and then straightening the left arm to help turn the chest, the left collarbone turning over the right and again feel the expanse of the back, sometimes it gets a little tricky to breathe in a twist when everything is tightly wound but we do our best to pull breath into the space and again if you like to and it works out for you, you can move your head around a bit, massaging the temple on the right side of the head and then the left hand comes right in front of your face to press up onto hands and knees and come into downward dog and you want to be near a wall with the heels about one foot away from the wall, one foot maybe a little bit less than a foot but not too close to the wall and just breathe here in your downward dog for a moment, bend your knees slightly, pull your hips way back away from the rooting of your hands and we twist so that we can be more clear when we're untwisted, it's one of the reasons so feel now, we all have little twists and turns in the spine but as best you can feel that we're untwisted, just a big taut line from head to tail and then straighten the legs wide across the chest, hands are rooting down and then walk your hands back to your feet and then keep going back with your pelvis so your pelvis gets to rest against the wall, hold on to your elbows, let your head drop into the frame of your arms and I like to do Uttanasana with my pelvis against the wall because it's slightly more restorative, gives a little and one more anchor of support not just the feet and also I can feel my sitting bones into the wall and notice if one is heavier than the other and if so in yoga we work towards balance so if so just shift the pelvis a bit to try to get both sitting bones evenly resting back into the wall, switch the forearm that's on top, take a couple more breaths here and then release your hands, let your hands feel and find the mat and then walk into a downward dog that's a little shorter than your normal downward dog, maybe one hand length shorter, in a short downward dog usually the heels can either root or be closer to the ground and the spine doesn't quite get the length and the benefit but the stretch of the legs is worth it for a visit sometimes to short dog and then also for what we're going to do next we're going to take the right hand to the left outer shin or outer ankle, get very stable through your legs, stable through this two sitting bones still anchoring back and then pull your right elbow to the right to twist and look underneath your left arm, right shoulder moves down and the right arm is really active and pulling to help the abdomen and the chest turn and to stay very stable and strong in the left arm, second side right hand finds the mat, left hand finds the right outer ankle or outer shin, right arm, right shoulder, stable sitting bones are pulling back and then pull into the right outer shin to peek underneath your right armpit, feeling the left ribs roll underneath the right ribs and then release and comes back and we're going to walk the hands again back to the feet this time we're going to turn stay folded forward just turn so that the back of your head comes to the wall and then lean also so that your shoulder blades come to the wall, you might need to bend your knees to do this. So if the wall went away we would do a somersault, we're going to really lean your back into the wall that much for me and other people too sometimes the head and the upper back can get really tight especially if you're doing this practice in the morning tends to get tight when we sleep so I really love this pose to make sure that I'm opening the back of the heart, the back of the lungs if you want to go a little deeper but deeper is not necessarily better you could bend your knees take your head and your shoulder blades a little bit lower on the wall and then re-extend up through the legs with the body pitched forward like this it also opens the calf muscles more so if you feel that you are not alone.

From here move your hands back about four inches away from the wall step back into again a short downward facing dog get really stable through your arms so we're going to lift the left leg up and bend the right knee and keep your arms really stable chest wide and then straighten the right leg and bend the right knee and if handstand is in your practice you're welcome to give it a little kick up and come up into a handstand reaching up through the legs it's completely fine to stay down doing your down dog split as well with the bend and the straighten of the bottom leg. All right everyone come back second side or right leg lifts up left knee bends and straightens and straightens and again if you want to give a little just a little hop or coming all the way up into your handstand you're welcome to do that okay and then come down child's pose rest your arms rest your brain find your breath and then come up tuck your toes underneath you uttanasana standing forward fold bend your knees roll up bone by bone again as even and untwisted as possible up to tadasana return to face away from the wall and let's find our mountain pose again feeling the feet rooting the legs long and the spine just trickling upwards just a light lift like a helium balloon floating upwards straight up to the sky and then as you inhale reach your arms out and up and as you exhale dive over your legs breathe in to lengthen your spine and breathe out to fold over inhale reach arms out to come up palms press at the top exhale hands to your heart your hamstrings are a little tight you could have your feet a little further apart inhale reach up as you root down through the feet exhale open fold forward let your head release focusing on the even spine lengthening forward with an inhale exhale fold back over even spine inhale come all the way up feeling your midline exhale hands to your heart and down to your side one more time half sun salutation inhale reach up exhale pour forward over your legs the inhalation brings you into the extended spine exhale take some of that length as you fold back over your legs inhale arms reach out to come up palms press at the top exhale slide your hands right in front of your heart and down to your sides inhale reach up exhale fold forward and root the hands and step back this time letting the heels find the walls the balls of the feet are on the ground the heels are a little up the wall again always nice to have more anchors in our in our lives so the heels anchoring into the wall can be stabilizing for the pose for the nervous system for the brain okay from here you take your right leg up the wall into a into a downward facing dog split tuck your toes under power up through the right leg and roll the right outer hip down take a deep breath in here long arm stable shoulders and then with an exhalation step your right foot forward to a lunge and root the left hand turn the belly turn the chest reach the right arm up towards the ceiling so feel your left heel pressing into the wall the left outer hip moving back towards the wall the right thigh hugs in the chin towards the midline and the whole spine elongates in the rotation from here bring your right hand down if you need to have blocks we're gonna straighten the right leg feel free to get blocks if you need to have blocks underneath your hands you can also come to fingertips straighten the right leg fold forward as you inhale bend your front knee take your chest forward exhale straighten and fold again really steady with the spine inhale into the lunge and exhale straighten and fold just one more time inhale to the lunge exhale straighten and fold as you inhale bend your front knee root your hands step back down dog heels at the wall take a big breath in as you exhale let the lips flutter make sure no tension is accumulated in your mouth left leg up onto the wall toes tuck under leg extends strongly the right thigh right side of the pelvis pulls back and the left side of the pelvis descends down and then with an exhalation step forward again we're gonna find the twist hand could always go into a block the belly turns the chest turns and the left arm comes up and using the heel into the wall gives little more crispness clarity through the back leg and from there the spine gets to elongate with each exhalation turning twisting open lengthens the spine exhale turn right ribs underneath left ribs inhale and exhale and then bring your hand down straighten your left leg when you straighten your left leg keep the ball the left big toe rooting down inhale to the lunge with a long spine exhale straighten and fold inhale lunge extend exhale straighten fold the spine is doing a lengthened spine to a forward fold inhale exhale keep awareness of that back heel clearly pressing to the wall inhale and exhale this one will step into dog pose so come to the lunge clearly root your hands step back into downward facing dog similar but different right leg up onto the wall with an inhale keep the left heel pressing into the wall as you step forward to a lunge from here we'll root down come up into a high lunge breathe in here as you exhale hands to the heart and twist we'll hook the left elbow to the outside of the right knee I love this variation of the pose because the back heel although it's so kind of small and simple it gives a great amount of stability and awareness to this pose okay and then look down bring your hands down scoot your left foot forward just a little so you can spin your heel to the ground the back foot on a strong angle and then take your right foot and move it back about four inches come up to stand with two straight legs now we're going to take the pelvis here and square it forward if it's hard to do that either make your stance shorter or make your stance wider two choices shorter or wider so that the pelvis can come forward and then take your arms out to the side turn your thumbs to face down and slide your hands behind your back so you have to turn your arms in to bring them behind the back they don't go behind the back any other way our arms only work in that certain way and then bring your hands either the knuckles can be together or the hands can slide up into prayer pose and then try to widen across the chest root into your feet inhale lift your chest as if the chest can lift up and over the hands and then as you exhale with tons of length come forward halfway I'm going to stay in this halfway point of the pose shoulders lift if your palms are together try to get your index fingers to press that can come from the elbows lifting and the forearms drawing towards the hands and the shoulders they really have to go against gravity here lift your shoulders up lengthen your spine and then slide your hands down your back find the mat step back downward dog inhale left leg up onto the wall exhale step forward rooting right heel back inhale high lunge and then slide hands in front of the heart take a breath in and as you exhale twist hooking the right elbow and bringing the hands into prayer so right heel to the crown of the head clear every exhalation left hand your left hand can press into the right hand to help the spine revolve and it's okay if the right half of the pelvis lowers down a little bit there's been different theories about this but it's less torque on the sacroiliac joint if we let the pelvis go a little bit with the spine alright and then from here hands meet the mat right heel spins to the ground at a strong angle so toes are closer to you than your heel scooch the left foot back about four or five inches and then come up to stand bring your hands to your hips draw the right hip forward and then as you inhale expand like big wings of a bird expand to the side roll your thumbs down and slide your hands behind your back okay pausing here feeling feet rooting and then from your roots inhale lift exhale come forward halfway feel your roots feel your anchors and then from your feet which are rooting and anchoring the legs draw up strongly left hip pulls back to help balance the pelvis lengthen your spine as the shoulders rise up elbows to forearms to hands root in and the breath keeps sailing in and out of the pose slide your hands down hands meet the mat lift your right heel step back downward dog and then look forward walk or jump your feet in between your hands breathe in to lengthen your spine and then as you exhale come all the way down into a squat with your feet together and then let your knees go apart from each other so your upper body can nestle down in between your two legs kind of think of this like has the energy of child's pose the spine much like child's pose just the toes have been kind of flipped under and you got up onto your legs but see if you can be a soft quality with the head dropping down and the heels dropping down so if you have a wrist or a shoulder thing going on or arm balances aren't in your cards for today you can stay right here otherwise take your upper arm bones and strongly press them back into your shins rise onto the balls of your feet squeeze your legs in like a nutcracker squeezing in to a walnut and then lift think about lifting the middle of your back up not your butt but the middle back widen your chest as your knees keep squeezing in and then shift your weight towards your toes and then you can try to bend your knees so that your heels come up to your sitting bones bring your hands to your hips inhale halfway up and all the way up okay so we're going to move to use a wall for parvita trikonasana I recommend that you use a block and we'll stand with the right side of the body against the wall and the right foot forward and the left foot back and you want to have um let's say a foot it's like I had a ruler when I designed this class I have lots of measurements about a foot between your right foot and the wall if you're tighter you'll be further away if you're more loose you can get a little closer okay and then we'll put the block down again it's a little easier if it's on the inside of the foot a little harder if it's on the outside of the foot so you decide it's a little deeper on the outside of the foot you can decide how you want to play that hand onto the block bring your right thumb right into the right hip pull the right hip back so this is very similar to the pose we just did with the hands behind the back it's exactly the same so far but now we're going to add the twist we're going to turn the chest towards the wall put the right hand onto the wall I love doing this pose this way because the I get to use the hand pressing into the wall to turn the spine feel so incredible and a little bit less effortful than not having the wall you can have your arms straight I like to keep it a little bit bent so that it can press into the wall to turn inhale feeling heels root legs strong spine long exhale turning look down unwind come up we'll just swivel around to the other side so set up your feet good heel to heel alignment or a little bit wider block inside or outside the foot and bring your right hand onto the block left thumb into the left hip pull the left outer hip back to balance the pelvis and then begin to turn so you see the wall you're happy that you have a wall and then the left arm can go up onto the wall again you know I spent most of my yoga career trying to keep the pelvis even which was both challenging and then as it turns out from things I had more recently learned not so great for the low back so we can let the right hip not too much but a little bit dip down that really helps the twist evolve to shoulders go down the back and feel the whole experience of roots strong legs long spine and then pressing into the wall to help the turning of the guts and the diaphragm and the lungs and the heart alright look down get your bearings and then come all the way up okay so now we're going to take um take a blanket for pashasana most people need to have a blanket so that the heels can be rooted we're gonna again be a but a foot away from the wall and come down into a little malasana squat now the feet together knees together lift your left arm up turn turn deep turning of the belly hook your elbow to the outside of the leg and then bring both hands onto the wall kind of like a down dog hands or chaturanga more like chaturanga hands with the elbows bent and then lean a little bit into the wall so you lean your right leg into the left arm and that creates a little a block and then the whole rib cage and the whole spine turn especially here the right hand is pressing and you know this is quite quite a lot don't overdo anything you can always go a little more mild a little more gentle and I encourage you to do that at any point we need gentleness in this world alright look down we're gonna come through utkatasana powerful pose reach up push into your feet come all the way up to stand and then release second side you'll want to do the second side after the first side come down into your squat right elbow hooks to the outside and you need to experiment with how far away you need to be from the wall right hand touches the wall left hand touches the wall and the heels root down ankles soft and then watch the pose notice anything especially how the breath touches it and then before you come out of the pose you're gonna foreshadow for a moment the following next pose we're gonna do is side crow and really I'm side crow feels pretty much identical to this with a little bit more weight bearing onto the arms put side crow if the if the wall was the ground you'd be inside crow right now look down unwind reach the arms up come up through utkatasana and release alright as promised side crow will come down into a squat hook the elbow here we were familiar right but instead of the hands going to the wall bring them down to the ground I'm gonna have my fingers and my toes pointing the same direction although you can also do it the fingers point away from the toes I like it both ways and begin to shift your weight just a little bit over to the right so here we are the leg and the right arm touching widen your chest shift your weight forward a little it's fine to stay right here it's wonderful to stay right here or if to bring your feet up off the ground the knees just tip down and then the feet come up only two sides it's an old yoga joke okay right right elbow to the outside of the left leg you get your your twist going you find the mat you shift over onto your hands by the way I often get asked is it cheating to put weight on the left arm also no you can do that that's fine and shift shift shift widen the chest maybe knees tip down feet come up parjvabha kasana side crow ideally collarbones even to the ground okay it's exciting in there inside deep inside so the next pose that we're going to try is a revolved bound twist so back to downward dog with the heels at the wall find your even steady dog pose right leg up onto the wall breathe in exhale step your right foot forward let's lower the back knee and then hook your left elbow very familiar here we were at the wall there we were with side crow and here we want to get this space underneath the armpit to go away so really drop your left outer arm as I said earlier your arm only moves in one direction so it has to sort of roll in here to come underneath the legs and then the right arm sneaks back you may or may not find your fingertips from there if you can find your fingertips easily you can find your wrist perhaps from there straight in the back leg heel gets to find the wall spine lengthens you might look over your right shoulder with that extra anchor release dog pose feel the whole internal landscape opening like a park getting bigger inhale left leg goes up exhale step forward right knee down and then come up hook your right elbow close off the space between the right armpit and the right leg extend your right arm roll it in so that it can sneak underneath your legs and the left arm comes behind the back from there find the wall with your back heel by straightening the back leg lengthen the spine any amount out of the bowl of the pelvis if you have the range pull your hands towards the wall as your heart moves away from the wall downward dog one more twist this I feel like it's setting us up for a good day all this twisting inside okay heels onto the blanket again so we can come into where we've been this version with the wall just for a moment and then get the armpit a little lower take your left arm if there's only one way that arm works to turn it in so that the back of the hand can come to the feet and slide your hands your left hand across your feet put your hand into the wall turn the belly a little more reach your right arm behind you maybe you find the clasp if not you can I like to sometimes let the knees separate just a little and the left arm can just come to the left leg turn chest opens okay release chair pose and Tadasana second side last time give it a whirl stick with me right elbow to the outside of the left leg it's it's great so you can stop anywhere along the way always tell my students there's many good cappuccinos in between Rome and Florence you don't have to go to the big the big cities to find joy along the way right arm comes lower and then the right hand comes in front on top of the feet and then twist a little more when you twist a little more it'll make your left arm long a little longer to perhaps where are they very fine the hands and you can do this with a belt that I find a little hard to find the belt unless you have a buddy around who can hand it to you and again you can slip your right arm to your right inner knee which makes it more less twisty a little more doable feel what your experiences unwind reach your arms up again like a helium balloon the spine like the string the head like the balloon float up and then release put your hands on the wall we're done twisting for now down dog nice simple downward dog with the hands at the wall feel the magnificence of space around the spine and there's gonna finish this practice since we have the wall with the with the legs up the wall and I'm gonna this is one of my favorite ways to do viparita karate just with a block because it's simple and doable so we start with the hips right at the wall and then roll onto your back and for this the pelvis starts right right at the wall and then we'll start with the block the lowest height but then you can turn it medium high you can another thing that you can just explore and it may change from day to day you lift your put your feet on the on the wall lift your pelvis slide the block under turn the pelvis and then place your sacrum down onto the block and then the legs go up and the shoulders just a bit roll under after that standing and twisting and arm balancing gentle inversion here and untwisted upside down pose and the twisting builds so much awareness and openness in the organs that instead of me telling you what to feel just notice what it is that you feel after that that big extravaganza inside and if you're happy here you're always welcome to stay longer otherwise we'll bend the knees lift the pelvis move the block lower down and then roll to the side and come into shavasana you're welcome to put a blanket underneath your knees especially if there's any back tenderness or a little blanket underneath your head and lie down to a very neutral position the arms and the legs evenly releasing and radiating from the center let your whole self drop and release surrender soften and let it go and if you have the time in your day to stay another five ten minutes I do recommend that if you need to get along with the other parts of your day you can very slowly and calmly roll to your side and come to sit and then just sit for just a moment feeling the effect of your practice as you move through your day maybe there can be a continued sense of sort of space and openness inside of your body and mind from this practice I thank you so much for joining me namaste