Spicy Outer Hip Love

Namaste friends, welcome to your practice. Let's start on the back today in Supta Baddha Konasana. So the soles of your feet will come together, lie flat on your back and just let your arms rest alongside your body. And then maybe take a moment to inch your tailbone, your hips towards your heels just to create a little bit more length in your lower back. Throw your shoulders away from your ears, maybe move your head side to side a few times.

Close your eyes and just become aware of your body and the sensations. Notice your breath and just the simplicity of your natural breath. Notice how it moves in and out through your nose and in and out through your belly. And if you choose, maybe your energy is really needing to slow down your breath and start to calm your nervous system and really deepen into the quality of full, long inhales and exhales. Getting that to settle your energy into this space right here, right now.

One more breath and gently guide your knees together. You can use your hands on your outer hips. Push your feet on the floor, cross your right ankle over your left thigh, figure four. You might stay here, maybe you feel this already in the outer right hip, otherwise lift your left foot off the floor and pull your legs towards your body. Keep this figure four and either hold in an active stretch like this or take your right hand into that window of your legs, wrap your left arm around as well and either hook your shin or your left hamstring on your left leg.

And then come back to your breath, flex your right foot quite a bit here, make this pretty active in your legs, draw your belly in, keep the back of your neck long. And as you pull your left leg towards you, push your right knee away from you. So we'll get into this area quite a bit in this practice and you may start to feel sensations and release all the way into your lower back, even into your brain. Take one more breath, and then release your left leg long on the floor and then take your right knee all the way over towards the left and you can either just keep the knee bent or you can start to straighten the right leg out and let the right foot even come to the floor as your right arm comes out to the right. So you're in a twist, but maybe the right leg is straight and this gets a little more into the IT band and the outer hip.

Take three breaths here. So these beginning stretches are really going to serve our flow today and just finding what's going on in the outer hip and a little bit of softness before we start. One more breath and then come back to center, hug your right knee into your chest. Place both feet on the floor, knees bent and cross your left ankle over your right thigh. So again, either stay here or lift your right leg up or thread the needle.

Left hand into the opening, right hand around, hook your fingers and try to enjoy this time on your mat, this beginning part of your practice. You know we're going to move, we are going to sweat. So just enjoy this space right now and don't feel like you have to rush into anything. Actively pull your right leg towards you as your left knee moves away. One more breath, good and then gently release your right leg all the way along on the floor.

Take your left knee across your body and option to straighten the left leg out and take the left arm out to the left and breathe. It helps to maybe if you're doing the straight leg variation to push your left heel away from you to get even deeper into the stretch. For me this side is a lot tighter, that's what I find so interesting in the body. One side is usually needing a little more love than the other. Take one more breath and gently come back to center, good.

So now we'll start to build some heat, cross your right leg over your left and lift your legs up. So you've got eagle legs on the back, take your right arm onto your left, eagle arms, full eagle on the back. A little easier than when we're balancing but we're going to make it a little harder now. So take an inhale and then exhale, bring your elbows and your knees together. So lift your elbows up as high as you can and then inhale, lower back down.

Exhale lift up, inhale lower. Exhale lift, squeeze your abdominals. Inhale lower, exhale lift, squeeze in. Inhale lower, exhale lift, squeeze in. Inhale lower, stay with your breath, soften your face, exhale lift.

Inhale lower, maybe a little smile, exhale lift. Inhale lower. Can we do two more maybe, exhale lift, do your best, inhale lower. Exhale lift, squeeze, inhale lower, go ahead and release your arms out to the side like goal post, bend your elbows and just place your feet on the floor for a moment. Just take a breath.

And the good news is we have two sides of the body so lift your legs back up, cross your left leg over your right, left arm under the right. Take a deep breath in, exhale squeeze, elbows and knees together, inhale lower back down. Exhale lift, draw your belly in towards your spine, inhale lower. Exhale lift, inhale lower, exhale lift, maybe try to get your shoulders off the mat, inhale lower, last four. Inhale lower, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, exhale lift, inhale lower, last two, lift.

Inhale lower and lift. Go ahead and release your arms alongside your body, see I told you we built some heat, feet on the floor, just a gentle bridge, lift your hips up towards the sky, stretch your belly. One more breath, lower back down, hug your knees into your chest. Gentle rock side to side, massage your back and then grab behind your knees and start to rock and roll forward and back a few times. So maybe you just do little rolls, maybe you come all the way to your hips, hover for a moment and then rock back and do two more and then maybe play here and see if you can come to a forward fold, so you'll come all the way to your feet and fold at the front of the mat.

It may not have been that graceful so you could roll to the right and just press yourself up as well, okay? And then pause here in a forward fold, grab your elbows, bend your knees if you need and just let your body hang forward, sway gently side to side, nod your head yes and no. From here bend your knees and just gently roll yourself up to stand, count to three, slow for two and then come all the way up for one, roll your shoulders up to your ears and down your back and then bring your palms to prayer at your heart. Pause here and just maybe think about what you need from your practice today and take one more breath and we'll move through a few rounds of Surya Namaskar B to warm up the body. You can either have your feet hip distance or big toes together.

Inhale for chair pose, exhale fold forward, inhale half lift, exhale either hop to chaturanga or maybe step back to plank and lower slowly, inhale cobra or up dog lift your chest and back to down dog exhale. Bend your right leg up and back inhale, step your right foot forward as you exhale, spin the left heel to the floor, inhale warrior one, exhale hands down to the floor, inhale plank pose and then slowly lower chaturanga, cobra or up dog inhale, down dog exhale, left leg back inhale, exhale step your left foot forward warrior one, spin the back heel down rise up inhale and exhale hands down, vinyasa or you can skip if you need and go to downward dog, inhale up dog or cobra, down dog exhale, hold for three breaths, root through your palms, strong arms, scoop your belly in, send your heels towards the floor, look forward and either walk or lightly hop feet to hands, half lift inhale, fold exhale, chair pose inhale, straighten your legs to stand, exhale your prayer to your heart, inhale chair pose, inhale forward exhale, inhale half lift, exhale chaturanga or maybe step back to plank, you can always lower the knees as well and come down, inhale cobra or up dog, exhale down dog, right leg back inhale, exhale step your foot forward warrior one, inhale rise up exhale hands down to the floor, plank pose chaturanga exhale, inhale lift your heart cobra or up dog, exhale downward dog, left leg back inhale, exhale step your foot forward warrior one inhale reach up, exhale hands down chaturanga or maybe skip and go to down dog it's up to you, once you find your downward dog hold and breathe soften your face, relax your jaw, look forward little bend in the knees as you hop or walk feet to hands, half lift inhale, exhale fold, chair pose inhale, rise to stand, exhale prayer to heart, one more round chair inhale, exhale fold, inhale half lift, exhale chaturanga or plank and lower slow, inhale cobra or up dog, down dog exhale, right leg back inhale, exhale step forward, warrior one rise inhale, exhale hands down vinyasa or down dog and hold, left leg back inhale, step foot forward exhale, warrior one rise up inhale, exhale hands down vinyasa exhale, inhale cobra or up dog, exhale downward dog, hold and breathe, feel your inhales match your exhales, feel the heat you're creating in your body, notice how your vibration starts to shift as you warm up internally, look forward, walk or float feet to hands, half lift inhale, fold exhale, chair pose inhale, straighten to stand, exhale bring your hands to prayer at your heart pause, close your eyes, reconnect here, reach your arms all the way up as you inhale, fold forward as you exhale and you can either vinyasa back to down dog or you can just step back to down dog as well, send your right leg up and back as you're ready and hold for a three legged dog, push back through your right heel, strong arms, take an inhale, knee to your chest as you exhale, round your spine, pause and hover and then slowly step your right foot through to meet your right thumb, so you want your right foot right between your hands, you can come to your fingertips for a moment and then slowly rise up inhale, crescent pose, you're in the ball of your left foot, a little bend in the left knee might feel nice, one more breath here and then you're gonna come halfway down and hover over your right leg, your arms can either stay alongside your ears or reach back alongside your body then bring the weight into your right foot and lift off into warrior three, send your left leg up and parallel to the earth as best you can, flex your left foot here so your left leg is nice and active and reach your heart forward, good, few more breaths, so listen carefully, keep your right foot on the floor, feel your breath, feel your balance and just hinge upward but let your left leg stay off the floor, bend the right knee, bring your hands to prayer and then cross the left ankle over your right thigh, figure four, breathe, sit the weight back into your right hip, good, one more breath here and then come all the way to stand, feet on the floor, arms up, inhale, fold forward, exhale, inhale, left lift, exhale Vinyasa or again maybe just step back, down dog, send your left leg up and back as you're ready, pause for a breath, take an inhale and bring your knee to your chest as you exhale, pause for a breath, really round your shoulders here, lift through your belly and slowly step your foot forward, good, wiggle the left foot over by your left thumb, high to your fingertips for a moment, engage your legs, slowly rise up, crescent pose, little bend in the right knee might feel nice, hug your legs towards each other, then start to hinge forward about halfway down, pause here, again arms can stay forward alongside the ears for an extra challenge or maybe come alongside your body, belly draws in, weight in your left foot, lift off, warrior three, find a focal point out on the floor, just steady your gaze, root through your left foot, flex your right foot, find one long line from your right heel through the top of your head, take one more breath, listen carefully, root through your left foot, slowly start to come up right, hands come to prayer, bend the left knee a little and cross the right ankle over the left thigh, figure four, sit down into your left hip, so it's like a one-legged chair, stay with your soft focal point, if you come out just come back in, our balance is different every day, so just being really humble about that and acknowledging it for what it is, two more breaths, feel this in your outer right hip and then feel your left outer hip working, so your right outer hips being stretched, your left outer hips working, one more breath, rise up, feet to the floor, reach your arms, inhale, dive forward, exhale, half-lift, inhale and however you want to get to down dog, exhale, vinyasa, step back, from here send your right leg straight back, three-legged dog, inhale, exhale, knee to chest, hold for a breath, feel the transition and step your foot forward slowly, good, from here rise back up, crescent pose, bring your hands to prayer, right at your heart, take an inhale, exhale, revolved crescent, take the left elbow over the right thigh and twist to the right, if this is too much maybe the left hand's on the inside of your foot and the right arm is straight up, okay, feel that out, feel your breath, push into your palms if they're in prayer and spin your heart towards the right, squeeze your feet towards each other, engage your legs, one more breath, look down, lower your hands to the floor, lower your back knee down, shift your hips back, art ahanuman, then bend the right knee and just reach forward with your chest, inhale, exhale, hinge back and straighten the right leg, inhale, reach forward with your chest, exhale, pull back, inhale, come forward, now pull back and hold and this time walk your hands to the right side of your right leg, keep your right toes pointing straight up and flexing back towards your face and walk your hands as far as you can to the right, so the idea here is to feel a little bit of an outer hip stretch or maybe a lot of an outer hip stretch depending on what's going on in your body, keep your right toes flexing towards your face, breathe and you can either stay here or plant your left hand down to the floor and take your right hand to your right hip and revolve your chest open to the right, so it's like a half revolved triangle, maybe the right arm even comes up, take one more breath, release your right hand down to the floor, slowly bend the right knee and step back to down dog, if you want to take a vinyasa to get there, feel free, let your left leg rise, take an inhale, exhale, bring your knee to your chest, hover for a breath and slowly step your foot through, good, from here rise up full crescent, arms come alongside your ears, put a little bend in the right knee if you need and bring your hands to prayer at your heart, take an inhale, exhale twist towards the left, wrap the right elbow over the left thigh and you can either stay here if you want to modify right hand to inside of foot, open through your heart, squeeze your feet towards each other and stay with your breath, go ahead and release your hands down to the floor, lower the back knee down, shift your hips back to straighten your left leg any amount, inhale bend the knee, reach your heart forward, exhale pull back, inhale bend the knee and reach forward, exhale pull back, inhale come forward, pull back and hold this time, flex your left toes towards your face, walk your hands over to the left side as far as you need to to feel this in the outer left hip, breathe and hold, you can stay here or maybe plant the right palm to the outside of your left leg, left hand to hip and rotate your chest up and open, maybe take the left arm out, breathe, gently release, open the left knee, palms flat, downward dog, press back or maybe another vinyasa, take a deep breath in through your nose, out your mouth, deep breath in, let it go, good, from here, put a little bend in your knees and cross your right ankle just above your left thigh, so you got that figure four and downward dog, then walk your hands back like half a foot or so and bend your left knee even more and press your hips back to feel the stretch in your outer right hip, so for me to feel this stretch, I almost get my chest to my right shin, but for some of you, you might be backing out of it a little bit, so take two more breaths, flex your right foot strongly, strong arms, and gently release, the right foot down, switch sides, cross the left ankle over, bend the right knee, maybe walk your hands back a little bit more, keep your arms strong, they may be talking to you, they may be burning, but keep pressing down through your palms, stay with it, two more breaths, relax your head, your neck, and just gently release your left foot and come to a child's pose for a moment, just rest, take your arms alongside your body, and just reconnect here, from here just start to come back into downward facing dog, send your right leg up and back, bend your knee and open your hip, you can stay here or start to take a flip dog, take the right foot all the way over and reach up through your heart, and then come back right hand down, pivot on your left foot, bring your right knee to your chest and just hold for a moment, then cross the right knee all the way towards your left tricep and take your right leg straight out towards the left, so the outer edge of the right foot touches the floor, pivot your left heel flat, so your left foot comes to the floor and take your left arm up, fallen star, you can stay here for a little extra challenge, maybe hover your right leg or even grab the bottom of your right foot, one more breath, and then slowly release your right foot down to the floor, take your left hand back to the floor, pivot back to your left foot, you're on the ball of the foot, and lower yourself down so that your outer right hip comes to the floor, so for some of you, you might bend the right knee a little to modify, this might be quite enough just where you are, otherwise you're going to come down to your forearms and go deeper, and then you can flatten the top of your left foot on the floor if you'd like, and just feel this really somewhat intense juicy stretch on your outer right hip, take a couple more breaths, let it in, slowly walk your hands up, a little funky move here, you're going to walk your hands over between your legs and find a wide leg forward bend, feels good, so maybe your knees are bent, that's fine, take a few breaths, and walk yourself back to the front of your mat, plant your palms, tuck your left toes under, and then lift that right hip back off the floor, and bring your right knee to your chest, step your right foot between your hands, and come to warrior two, spin the left heel down and circle the left arm up and back, right arm forward, pause here and breathe, root through both feet, from here reverse your warrior, reach up and back with your right hand, left hand is light down your left leg, straighten your right leg and pause, find one long line from your right toes to your right fingertips, take an inhale, exhale, take the right hand down to your right shin, maybe wiggle the back foot in a couple inches and come to triangle, left arm stacks, open up through your chest, strong legs, one more breath, and from here look down at your right toes, bend the right knee, take your left hand to the floor, pivot on your left foot, so now you come to the ball of the foot and then to the outer edge of your left foot, keep your left arm strong, hook your right big toe with your piece fingers on your right hand, and then just start to lift your right foot off the floor any amount, okay, stay here or straighten the right leg up for full Vashi Stasana B, one more breath, release, Vinyasa, exhale to lower, inhale Cobra Upward Dog, Down Dog, exhale, feel your breath, send your left leg up and back, open your hip and bend your knee, and flip your dog if you did that on the other side, root through your right palm, lift through your heart, come back through center, left hand down, hug your left knee to your chest, pause there, bring the left knee towards your right tricep, then send the left leg straight out towards the right, outer edge of the foot touches the floor, pivot your right heel down and take your right arm up full and star, you can pause here or hover the left leg, or maybe grab the bottom of your left foot and kick it out, one more breath, slowly bring your right hand back to the floor, outer edge of the left foot to the floor, lower yourself down so the left hip comes down to the floor, pause here, maybe this is enough, feel it in your outer hip, or maybe you come to your forearms, oh my goodness, good stuff here, deep breaths, so it's a little bit of a twist as well, for me I have multiple areas in my body that are feeling sensation right now, do your best to breathe into those little crevices that need some space, walk your hands back up, crawl yourself around to the right between your legs, a little bend in the knees maybe, forward fold between your legs, slowly rise back up, crawl yourself back to the front edge of your mat and just tuck your back toes, push into your palms, find that lift in your hips and bring your left knee to your chest, step your foot forward, warrior two, spin the right heel down, cartwheel the arms up, ground into your feet, ground into your breath, reverse your warrior, reach up and back, right hand is light down your right leg, start to slowly straighten the left leg and just keep reaching up and back, push through your left foot and then hinge your hips towards the back of your mat, left hand down to your left direction, triangle, maybe walk the back foot in a little bit and then reach your right arm up, open through your chest, look down, bend the left knee and plant the right hand to the inside of your left foot, maybe hit your nose and then grab the left big toe with your piece finger, slide to the outside of your right foot and just lift the left leg off the floor, find a side plank here or full Vasisthasana B variation, lifting the left leg in the air, could be bent, fine, breathe and release and come back to plank and either take a vinyasa or just shift back to down, dog. You may feel like you need a child's pose again, feel free to take it for three breaths. From here, walk or lightly hop your feet up to your hands, come halfway up on your inhale and fold on your exhale, good, you can just rise all the way to stand, inhale, arms above your head, exhale, bring your hands to prayer, your heart, inhale, chair pose and then just hover your right leg in the air, so root through your left foot, hover your right leg, find figure four, cross your right ankle over your left thigh, so we've been here before, this time maybe going a little deeper, you could bring your hands to prayer, maybe even bring your elbows to touch your right leg, just very lightly or you could take your fingers to the floor and give yourself a little support or you could play with the arm balance, Galavasana flying pigeon, so you'll hook the outer, the right foot on the outer right arm, there's like a little hook here, I'm literally flexing my toes back to hook on, bend the elbows, palms down, chaturanga arms look forward and then lift your left foot off the floor, play with that or send it straight back into the air, breathe, come back down when you're ready, we'll meet in figure four and then straighten your legs, release your right foot, shake out your left leg a little bit, you shake out your arms, okay, chair pose again, bend your knees, we've got to do the other side, so just lift the left leg up, cross the left ankle over and breathe, this is such a good active hip stretch here, maybe palms to prayer, maybe go a little lower, maybe the fingers to the floor, maybe Galavasana second side, sometimes one side's easier than the other, so just listen and breathe, find that little hook on your left foot around your upper arm, look forward, feel the shelf on your arms, belly in, right leg extends back, this side is not my best but we try and then you'll come back as you're ready, back into your figure four and come to standing, release, shake out your left leg and shake out your arms, hands to prayer, smooth out your breath. From here just bring your hands to your hips and step your left foot back about three to four feet and then square your hips off, so in your inhale lift through your chest and on your exhale hinge forward at your hips about halfway down and pause, take your left hand to your right shin, just kind of place it there, moving towards your evolved triangle, draw your right hip back, you can even use your right hand, it's right there and twist your chest open towards the right, maybe take the right arm up for full revolved triangle, you can always have the right hand to the outside of your right foot but make sure you have length in your spine and that your right hamstring is long, so push into your right foot, two more breaths, a little bend in the right knee is always nice too, good and then look down and frame your right foot with your hands, so you can either pause here in a hamstring stretch or you can start to lift your back leg in the air, walk your fingers forward and so you're in a modified warrior three or you're going to go towards revolved artachandrasana, keep your left hand on the floor under your left shoulder, take your right hand to your right hip and twist open to the right, maybe take the right arm up, feel your breath, lower the right hand down, bring your left foot to meet your right foot, inhale halfway lift, exhale fold, pause here in an active forward bend, you can grab your calves, you can grab your two big toes, maybe bring your feet more hip distance, draw your elbows out, pull your shoulders away from your ears, one more breath and then slowly release, bend your knees and roll yourself all the way up to standing, bring your hands to your hips and step your right foot back, about three to four feet, hips stay square towards the front of the mat and hinge at your hips to fold forward, pause about halfway down, find length in your spine from tailbone to top of head, right hand to left shin, twist your chest open towards the left and then maybe take the left arm up, revolved triangle, so this is the more modified version, you can bend the left knee, you can always place the left hand on the hip or full version, the right fingers come to the outside of your foot and you just continue to find length through your torso, twist open through your chest, one more breath, lower the left hand down, hands frame your left foot and then you'll walk your fingers forward as you lift the right leg in the air, so again you can stay in the hamstring stretch as well otherwise right leg in the air, keep the right fingers under the right shoulder and then take the left hand to your left hip for stability and twist your left rib cage up, open your chest, breathe, maybe take the left arm up, one more breath, left hand down, feet together, fold forward, this time maybe slide your hands under your feet, so your toes touch your wrist creases, padangustasana, elbows out to the sides, draw your chest towards your toes, touch your head and neck, one more breath and then just gently start to release your arms if they're under your feet and then go ahead and bend your knees and sit all the way down onto your mats, from here we'll come to Gomukhasana, so you'll bring your left heel towards the outer right hip and your left knee comes to the floor and then just cross your right ankle over your left thigh first and see how that goes and then if you can wiggle the right heel back a little and get the right knee on top, beautiful, otherwise you can kind of hold right here and just pull your knee towards your chest, you'll feel a little outer hip stretch as well, so if you're in full Gomukhasana you can even go deeper and wiggle your heels away from you a little and the toes flex out and then take your left arm up and bend the elbow and grab the elbow with your right hand, either hold here or take your right arm behind and grab your fingers and full Gomukhasana, root your tailbone down, bottom ribs pull towards your hips, belly in, lift through the top of the head, you can either stay here or fold forward, getting even more into the shoulders and the hips, if this is too much on the shoulders then just feel free to even release your arms and completely round over your legs. Take three more nice full breaths. Gently roll yourself up and switch sides. So first just bend with your knees, start with bend knees and then bring the right heel to the outside of your left hip and then cross your left leg over, maybe pause here, see how that goes, maybe wiggle it over a little more, maybe get the knees on top. Heels out to the sides a little if you want more, toes flex out, keep the right arm up, bend your right elbow and either grab the elbow with your left hand or reach back with your left arm, full Gomukhasana arms, grab your fingers or maybe a shirt and breathe, bottom ribs pull down, long spine here through the top of your head, maybe lean your head back a little into your left forearm and stay here or fold, maybe release your arms as well if that felt better for you. Take three nice long full breaths. Gently start to walk your hands back up and then we'll just make our way onto the back. So go ahead and roll yourself down, hug your knees into your chest, give yourself a little squeeze and then just relax your body onto the earth for your final rest. Legs play out, palms come alongside your body, palms up. Close your eyes and just let every muscle in your face melt and soften. Allow yourself to soak in this place of rest, this opportunity to just do nothing. I give you permission.