Superhero Flow

Hey yogis, welcome back to the mat. Today our theme is superhero, inviting the superhero in you to rise to the surface. So maybe this means strength, power. Maybe this means strength of character to you. Maybe this means a strong heart.

Whatever that is for you today, we're going to try to bring a little bit more of that out through playfulness and some strength movements. Heart openers, are you ready? Close your eyes. Connect with your breath. Bring one or both hands to the heart.

Check in here, home base. Out from the mind to your heart. Invite the highest expression of you to the surface and let that be your guide today. Let go of the character, the role that you play. Let all of that dissolve right here and bring the highest expression of you, your superhero, to the forefront for your practice.

Slow and lengthen the inhales. Enjoy feeling the breath of the heart space and then take your time with the exhales. Slow deep inhales, feeling the breath on the front side and the back body. Re-drying the navel up to the spine as you exhale, helping to move the breath out of the body. Give yourself three more of these breaths.

Expanding that prana, that fuel for our journey. Good, take a moment or two, enjoy the eyes being heavy and slightly out of focus as you slowly open them and sliding your palms down to your knees. We'll take a couple of cat and cow tilts, drawing the navel up and back with the exhale and then inhale, lengthening forward, lifting the heart, squeezing the shoulder blades, lifting chin away from chest, exhale, draw it up and back, lean back, really nice mobilizers for the spine, exploring the extension and flexion of the spine. Two more rounds, exhaling it up and back and your cat tilt, leaning back, inhale, pressing the knees to the floor, lifting the heart, chin and chest. Finish up with that last round, good, and then we'll come to a neutral spine.

You may want to use two blocks for this variation. We're going to move into reverse table pose with the blocks behind our seat. Make sure your fingertips are facing forward on top of your blocks. Try to line up the blocks together so they're even. Feet are hip distance, press down strongly into both hands, lift your seat, knees are over the ankles.

Try to lift your hips, the height of your chest, and then we're going to slide the seat through as we straighten the legs. So move the seat back, move the heart and chin and chest forward. We're already getting to our superhero poses right now. Lift the chin and chest, exhale it through. On this next one, send the right leg to the sky, keep it off the floor, and then slide it through.

One more time with the right leg. Lower the right leg to the floor, inhale the left leg to the sky, exhale, slide it through. Lift and lengthen, and then lower and pause just for a second. Take out the wrists, maybe give yourself a little wrist stretch. We're going to try this one more time, and then see if you can lift off one foot off the floor at a time.

So one more reverse table pose. Slide your legs through, keep the seat back, just lift one foot off the floor at a time. If you're feeling your superpower strength, lift off both, channel your inner gymnast, and then lower those legs, slide your seat next to your heels, move your blocks to the side, and we're going to walk our palms back for this one so that we get a nice shoulder stretch here. So walk the fingertips back, your shoulders will tell you when to stop, with the head release back, little side to side, opening up in the trapezius muscles. You can stay right here, or you can extend the legs.

We're going to press forward for our Navasana. You can keep your hands on the floor for this variation. Keep lifting your heart, your chin, and your chest. Draw the navel up and back so that you're starting to balance on your sit bones. Stay here, or send the palms forward.

The arms are parallel to the legs. Lift the toes, lift the palms, draw the navel up and back. Three more breaths. You can do the thumbs up, two more, one more, and then cross your legs. We're going to try a different variation of table pose.

You can take the natural, normal version of table by swinging the legs around, or for the shin ankle stretch, slide your heels in, walk your palms beyond your knees, press to the tops of the feet, cat tilt, lengthen forward, cow tilt. Cat tilt, lengthen forward, cow tilt. Switch the legs, cat, and cow. Last round. Remember this isn't working for you.

Keep working in your table pose. We'll meet you there. Walk or float back to your table pose. Pause with your palms right underneath your shoulders, knees underneath the hips. Walk your hands a palm print forward, spiral the biceps forward, push down, tuck your toes under, and pedal out that first down dog.

Make sure you're actively pressing the mat forward, drawing the navel up and back, inviting the seat to the sky, inner thighs back, ears are right next to the biceps. Three more breaths here in your down dog. From your down dog, let's go ahead and lengthen forward to plank pose. Nice big inhale. Knees are always an option.

Bend the elbows. Forward all the way down, engage your core muscles. Replace your palms with your elbows, swing pose, inviting the shoulder blades back, moving the ribs forward, pressing down into the toes. We'll go into our forearm, knee to tricep movements. We're going to be doing this a little quicker.

So move into forearm plank, left knee, left tricep, right knee, right tricep. You've got 10 more. You can do these slow or you can do 20 and pick up the pace. It's like you are the superhero running to save somebody. Come on, let's do this.

Two more, one more, pause, take side plank over to your right. You can keep the left hand on the floor for support, flexing your feet, pushing forward and down with the right hand or send the left palm to the sky. Good. Come back to your forearms, lower down, replace the elbows with the palms. Easy cobra, lifting with the breath, pulsing back as you exhale, lifting with the inhale, pulsing back with the exhale, keeping the legs active, tops of the feet pressing down.

We'll meet back into our forearm, sphinx pose, setting back up for our forearm plank. If you didn't get that visual, maybe we'll do a different one. Maybe we have a giant dog chasing us and we're trying to run away from a rabid dog. Move a little faster. You got three, two, one and then pivot to your left, left hand on the floor, right palm to the sky, press forward and down to the left arm for your forearm side plank.

Lower back down, replace your palm, your elbows with your fingers. We'll do our cobras and our fingertips, strengthening the muscles and the hands so we're not relying on the wrists. Feel one more round of breath and then lower your palms to the floor, tuck your toes under, pause for three breaths in your child's pose, but keep the knees hip distance apart and your toes tucked under. From child's pose, look forward, press forward and down with both hands, lift your knees a couple of inches off the floor, press your chest towards the thighs and then as you straighten the legs, move forward to plank pose and then as you press back, bent leg, down dog, plank pose, bent leg, down dog, pause right here and just straighten the left leg, pressing the left heel to the floor. Inhale the right leg to the sky, toes pointing down for this one, squeezing her thighs together, push forward with both hands, find your breath, look forward, step the right foot to the front of the mat, lower the left knee to the floor and we're just going to take our pulses here.

If you want to use your blocks under both hands, great opportunity pulsing into the psoas and the hamstring, releasing the front of the quad, pulling back on the toes, getting into the hamstring and hip. We'll pull back into a half split, Ardha Hanuman and we'll see if we're going to move into the arm balance today or not. If you're not moving into the arm balance, pause and just enjoy five breaths, twisting with the right palm to the sky. If you're moving into the arm balance, heel to your right foot to the edge of your mat, bring the right hand inside and back up your left knee a little bit so you're lower to the floor. Moving into Kundunyasa with this elbow as your kickstand on the hip sometimes helps people that are newer to the pose.

So if you walk your right hand to the center of the mat, 12 o'clock, left hand over to 10 o'clock, you can hug the elbow in and this will become your kickstand. As you lean to the left, the right foot comes off the floor. You've got the kickstand and you just lean forward from here, balancing on your left elbow. Also, you can set up a little crash pad right here. The traditional variation, right arm goes under and through, swing it out and around, no kickstand and float back.

Great one to use the kickstand until you're ready for that full variation. Go back to down dog, connect with your breath. Bend your left leg and really sink into that right hamstring, that right hip, that right calf muscle, inhale the left leg to the sky, toes pointing down for this one, squeezing her thighs together and push forward with both hands, active in the core. Two more breaths, exhale, step the left foot to the front of the mat, lower the right knee to the floor and we'll move back into our pulses. You can still use those blocks underneath your hands, straightening the left leg, bending the left leg, moving that right hip forward in space.

Winding up hamstring, opening up the quads. You may want to visualize your favorite superhero on this next one so that you can have some mentor to help you in this kundinyasa if that feels right for you, make it playful a little bit, pull the toes back, have your hamstring stretch first. I always think an Aquaman but I don't know how he's going to help me in this one. Maybe Spiderman with his flexibility would help you. Bend your left leg, heel toe your left foot off of the mat or just to the edge of the mat, bring the left hand inside, think about 12 o'clock with the left hand.

Bend your right knee back so that you're lower to the floor and walk your right hand over to two o'clock. Hug your right elbow in and then you're leaning out towards one, two o'clock. You've got your kickstand right there on your elbow. Left leg can stay bent or you can straighten. With your elbow here, you can stay there for quite a while because you're using it as your kickstand.

It's a traditional variation, left arm inside, lean forward, swing it around, load it back. Great time for a Child's Pose. Walk your hands back, walk your seat back. We're going to take a nice side stretch in our Child's Pose. Walk both hands over to your right.

Really reach across the mat with your left hand and breathe deeply into the left side body. If you want to feel resistance, you can press the floor away with your right hand. Walk back to center all the way over to your left. Right hand reaches across. If you want more resistance, push down and forward with the left hand so you feel the lats and acoustas, that deep stretch on the right side.

Go big with your breath here. Think about inflating the breath, creating more space around the lungs. Good. Come back to your Child's Pose. Connect with your breath and get ready for the second part of the journey.

From our Child's Pose, we're going to look forward towards our thumbs. We'll bend our elbows out to 10 and 2 o'clock. Exhale, slide forward. Inhale, squeeze the elbows in towards the midline. Press up to your version of Cobra or Up Dog.

Send it back to your Down Dog. Inhale the right leg to the sky. Bend the knee. Open the hip. Press actively forward with both palms.

Enjoy that hip opener in the right side body. Exhale, step the right foot to the front of your mat. Lower the left knee to the floor. Take a little psoas stretch on the left leg and we're going to increase it a little bit by pressing the top of the left foot to the floor. Don't tuck on this one.

Press the top of the foot to the floor. You can use your blocks here until the knee comes off. For most of you, this is enough, especially if you're a runner or you play a lot of sports with this ankle inflection. If you want to feel more, right hand on top of the right quad, left palm to the sky. This will set us up nicely for a high lunge.

Keep the right leg where it is. Tuck the left toes under. Straighten the left leg. Rise up for your high lunge. Straighten your right leg.

And as you exhale, cactus field goal arms, lift the sternum, lift the chest. Inhale, extend, exhale, open, squeeze the shoulder blades together, heart lifts. Last round. It wouldn't be a superhero flow unless we at least did one warrior three. We're going to try to keep our arms open here, open heart here.

Step your left foot forward and bow. Squeeze your shoulder blades together. Lift the palms, find your drishti, let her fly. Like you're looking at the world below you. Step it back.

High lunge. Good. And bring your palms to the floor. You can have fun with the superhero stuff, you know? Right leg to the sky.

Lower both elbows to the floor for your one thin dolphin here. This is where I get to channel Aquaman. Push forward and sink back into your left heel. Nice shoulder stretch right here. Lower the left knee to the floor, keep the right leg high, bend your right leg, reach back with the left hand, grab either big toe easier or pinky toe side of the foot and kick the heel away from you.

Press forward with your right hand for a little more extension. Lower the left forearm to the floor, slide forward, cobra up dog. Knees hip distance, press back to your child's pose. After reconnecting with our breath in child's pose, once again we'll look forward, sneaky up dog. Slide those elbows forward, exhale forward, inhale all the way up.

Exhale to your down dog. Inhale the left leg to the sky, bend the knee, open the hip. Push actively forward with both palms so the shoulders are even in the height. Take a nice big inhale and exhale, step the left foot to the front of your mat. Lower the right knee to the floor, release the right foot so the top of the foot is on the floor, no tuck on this one and then press down so that you can lift the knee off.

Feel free to use blocks here, stay right here if this is where you're at. If you're going deeper, left hand on top of the quad, right hand to the sky, lift, breathe into that space. Lower the palms back to the floor, tuck your toes under, high lunge, you get to straighten that left leg right away. Inhale in your palms to the sky, exhaling cactus field goal, squeezing the shoulder blades together, lifting the heart, inhale rising up. Exhale squeeze, bend into that left leg, inhale lift.

One more, setting up for our warrior 3, lengthen forward, slide the right foot forward, squeeze and lift, keep the core active, right leg off the floor. You can keep it steady or you can play with some movements here. I need a cape, step back to your high lunge, inhale the palms to the sky, good and go ahead and lower the palms to the floor, left leg to the sky, dolphin, squeeze the biceps together, bend the elbows and lower them down. Keep reaching up with the left toes, press actively forward with your forearms. Keep the left leg high and just lower your right knee to the floor, keep the left leg high, reach up with your right hand, big toe or pinky toe side of the foot and then invite the heel away from your sit bones.

Push forward and down into the left hand, breathe into it. It's a really nice one to open up the front of the hip, keep the leg high, forearms back to the floor, slide forward, press into your palms, go up. Sing back to your child's pose. You're going to move into a little bit different variation of child's pose to open the shoulders. So flip your palms so that your thumbs are turning out, keep the backs of the forearms on the floor, roll your thumbs so they're trying to touch the floor and then as you back up your seat, try to keep moving the thumbs to the floor so you feel this big stretch in the outer lats and your costals, muscles of the upper back and shoulders.

And then we'll slide on back to our child's pose. You're going to work our way to the front of the mat, we'll hang out a little forward fold there, so press your palms into the floor, tuck your toes under, spiral your biceps forward, down and out. You can walk your feet to the mat or you can spring load the legs and at the finale of your exhale, float forward. Feet about hip distance, little bend in the knees, let the head, the neck relax, interlace your hands behind the back and start to move your wrists away from the seat. Keep the knees bent right now and just let this shoulder opener happen with the knees softly bent so you can focus here, moving the wrists from side to side as you fold.

Finding a little bit more space, the crown of the head is dropping towards the floor. When you find that space, keep the wrists moving forward and then start to slowly straighten the legs. Bend both knees, release the arms. Use your quad and core muscles, roll it up vertebrae by vertebrae. Inhale the palms to the sky, exhale interlace behind the base of the head, lift the heart chin and just, and we'll take a little side stretch to the right, squeeze the inner thighs together, drop your elbows to the right, inhale back to center, exhale to your left.

Exhale back to center, exhale palms right into prayer, reconnect with your breath. So let's take a nice shoulder opener in our standing pose to the asana today, go ahead and slide your left hand around your waist, let your left shoulder drop as if you're taking a side bend and start to guide your left hand up the spine. Your right hand, keep the side bend, your right hand can draw the elbow towards the midline to help you get a little deeper up here. And then either a hand towel or fingertips for a Gomakasana arms. Both elbows start to squeeze towards the midline and when you find whatever interlace you have, start to sit into your chair pose, squeezing your inner thighs towards each other, drawing the navel up and back, dropping the seat and inviting that right shoulder to move back in space.

Keep the right leg where it is, step the left leg halfway back because we got another Warrior Three coming ahead, flat back, lengthened forward, if you're done with your Warrior Three's just stay here, otherwise left leg off the floor. Going back to flight, our little rescue mission, good. Step the left leg a little further back, straighten your right leg and we'll set up for Warrior One. The heels are lining up, back toes are turning in about 60 degrees, square your left shoulder forward towards the right, lift your heart and each time you exhale sink into that right thigh. Each time you inhale lift the sternum chest, each time you exhale sink.

You might have to move that right foot forward if your stance isn't wide enough. Make sure you're putting a lot of weight into the back left foot, pressing down, lifting up into this nice variation, the shoulder variation, opening variation of Warrior One. The left hand staying on lockdown here, right hand releases, bring it on top of the knee and slowly lower your left knee to the floor. You can always double up your mat or use a blanket here, press your right quad forward and then lift the sternum away from the right quad, roll that left shoulder blade back, squeeze the right shoulder into the left. Stay right here or you can revisit the Gomakasana Arms.

Putting the elbow behind the head will give you a little bit more resistance here. Release your right hand on top of your right thigh and then turn your torso to the left so that you feel that nice shoulder opener here. Let the right ear drop towards the right shoulder and this is the best part, slowly free that left arm. Flip your palm to the sky so you get that external rotation of the arm. Moving into the quad stretch, feel free to stand up here or double up your mat, reaching back with the left hand, pulling the heel in towards the seat.

As the left heel moves in, you can sink deeper into the psoas. If you want to try to bring all of these movements together, you can try this King Crescent variation, sliding the foot towards the elbow, pressing the right knee forward and reaching back, similar to the Gomakasana Arms that you were doing before. Carefully free the leg, you did it. Right leg to the sky. Now, extend the leg, bend the knee, open the hip, stay here or flip your dog.

Both knees drawing towards each other. Find the breath, press forward into the left palm, flip your dog back, take a Vinyasa. And give yourself a couple of breaths, either in child's pose, if you'd like to keep the energy up, dolphin, or for those of you that would like to go into an inversion, interlace the hands, walk the feet forward, lower the head, squeeze the elbows in, and start to lift. Setting up for that dolphin will help you in future headstands, so if head standing isn't part of your practice, keep working on that dolphin, maybe practicing dolphin with your head off of the floor. It'll all meet back in child's pose, whatever variation you're working with.

Looking forward to the front of your mat, slide forward, Cobra Up Dog. Press back to your Down Dog. And either taking that slow journey forward, walking one foot at a time, or taking a couple of hops to the front of your mat. Give yourself a little hang time in your forward fold, reconnect with your breath. When the knees head comes up last, roll it up vertebrae by vertebrae.

Inhale the palms to the sky, exhale right into prayer. So we're setting up, second side, right hand slides up the spine. I'm going to turn and give you the visual here so you can see how the side bend, dropping the right shoulder to the right, helps facilitate bringing that right hand farther up the spine than keeping the spine straight. Dropping helps you get the right elbow towards the midline, and you can use that left hand to help guide it up. You will never need anybody to put sunscreen on your back if you keep doing this.

Big toes together, keep the right hand wherever it is, hand towel in your left hand, or fingertips. Your HD focus, elbows squeezing towards the midline, chair pose, utkatasan. You can use the head to press that forearm back going a little bit deeper into the pose. We've got our last warrior three of the day. Superhero warrior three, step the right leg back, lengthen forward, engage the core muscles to help you lift, left elbow lifts, fly, fly, fly.

Step the right foot back, straighten your left leg, pivot your right heel to the floor about 60 degrees. As that left foot moves forward, ground into the back leg, lift the sternum and chest, and then exhale, sink into that front leg just a little bit. Each time you inhale, lift the sternum and chest, exhale, sink a little bit deeper into your foundation. Find that spot where you feel your warrior one happening, maybe drawing the shoulders forward if that's okay on your back leg. Keep the inner lace, just the right hand stays, left hand slides down to the quad, lower the right knee to the floor.

You can always double up your mat or put that blanket underneath there to soften, cushion the knee. Left hand presses forward, you get a nice, solid stretch on the right side. Lift the sternum, lift the chest, stay right here, inhale the left palm to the sky, or if you can't get enough of that Gomakasana, go back in for round two. Right hand stays, left elbow on top of the left thigh, and we're going to turn the torso slowly to the right so that we get that nice shoulder stretch happening. I like to drop my left ear to the left shoulder, give yourself a little trapezius stretch on the right side, and the best part, slowly free the right arm, flip the palm up, externally rotate, create some more space here.

Going for the quad stretch on the right side, feel free to do the standing up, less pressure on the knee, pulling the heel in towards the seat. If you kept this variation, stay right here. If you're going into the second variation with the interlace, it helps if you move a little bit deeper into the psoas so that you can catch the foot into the elbow. If you have sweaty arms, it may not be as easy to get the interlace. Carefully release, send that left leg to the sky.

Shake it out, yogi, shake it out. Bend the knee, open the hip, maybe flip the dog if you did that on the other side, even it out, knees drawing towards each other, lift the right side body, extend. Then go ahead and release, come on down, all the way to the floor, bring your right ear to the floor, create a little cushion for a second, slow the breath down. From your little resting spot here, you can bend your legs and just let the heels move from side to side. Feel free to stay right here if you'd like to move into dhanurasana, reaching for the pinky toe sides of the feet.

I like to move my ribs forward first, create a little bit more space, engage the core muscles, pull the navel up to the spine, big toes drawing towards each other, take an exhale and lift on your inhale. Draw the heels away from the seat to find a little bit more lift and a little bit more space. And go ahead and release. We're going to flip it over, so just choose, roll to your left or roll to your right. Lie on your back and keep your knees bent, elbows pressing into the floor.

We did a nice work opening up the lower back, so we can take advantage of that space with either a bridge supported with your block underneath your sacrum or you can support by bringing your palms underneath the sacrum, pressing into the arches of the foot. Hang out here for your next five breaths or if you'd like to go into wheel pose, flip your palms, place them by the ears, squeeze your biceps towards each other and rise to the crown of the head first. From here squeeze your elbows in towards each other and press strongly into index and thumb. Pressing into all fingers and then into the feet, superhero back bend day. And slowly come down.

Now if that made you happy and you want to do a couple more, knock a couple out. Otherwise we'll just take our feet hip distance and we'll do some windshield wipers. So if the heart is open and you want to take two more and that opened you up, you should do it. Feet are as wide as your mat. The next time you drop your knees to the right, pause, right angle on top of the left thigh.

Give yourself a couple of breaths here. We're going to keep this right hip opening and we're going to walk the left foot across the mat for a recline double pigeon. This is the lazy version of double pigeon. Imagining you're stacking up two logs right on top of each other. If your knees weigh up here, that's fine too.

It's wherever you're inviting that hip opener to happen and then you can start to settle your mind preparing for your shavasana, letting go of some of the stories, the commentary. And then release your feet back to the edges of your mat, knees bent. Last round of windshield wipers and we'll drop the knees over to our left and pause. Right hip, right knee alignment, left ankle on top, feet stay flexed. We get to release that lower back from our backbends and then the right foot is going to walk across the mat.

Keep on walking and then the left knee still drops to the left, right knee drops to the right. It's like a recline double pigeon variation. That way we get a nice hip opener as our finale for the practice. And then you can straighten one leg at a time. What I'd like you to do is just take one big inhale, let something go as you exhale.

The next time you inhale, I want you to contract the muscles in your body, hold them and let everything go. Nice big inhale, make a fist, legs, core, chin, chest, exhale, release, let everything drop. Enjoying this space, this connection. Take your awareness and your attention all the way down to your feet. Thank you, feet, for all that you do for me, for taking me on this journey, not only today, but every day.

Bringing your awareness to the calves and the quads and the glutes and thanking the legs for all that they do for us. You take them for granted, they're balanced, they're stability. Bringing your awareness up into your hips, your belly, and your chest, thanking all the organs that function without us even thinking about them. Sending love and light and gratitude to this area and the space. Bringing your awareness to your fingers, think about all the things the hands do for you.

Thank you for all the embraces, for all the handshakes. Bringing your awareness up to your forearms, your shoulders, the chest, bringing that attention to the heart. Inviting that the heart is the home, authentic self, inviting the authentic self to shine. Move it to the surface. Bringing your awareness to the throat, maybe speak our truth from our heart.

Bringing your awareness to the face, the brow, and the crown. Bringing intuitive messages to be received in this space. Let everything go and just be in each perfect moment that's unfolding before you. As you start to bring your awareness back to the fingers and the toes, give them a little wiggle on your next inhale. Reach the arms over the head, take a nice big stretch, and as you exhale, hug all of that goodness in.

Pull the knees into the chest and give yourself a soft little roll to one side. Very slowly help yourself up, come back up to your seat, give yourself a moment to reflect on your practice, to receive all the benefits of your practice. Thank you for being on this journey with me today. Keep inviting that superhero, that authentic you, to shine to the surface because everyone needs to see and experience that. Namaste.