Cleaning House: Detoxify

Welcome to today's practice. This practice is focused on detoxification. So the body is constantly detoxing. It was built to do that. But some of us have a more difficult time detoxing, especially phase one detoxification. And when there's back up in the liver and our body isn't able to detox well, then some of the hormone metabolites actually get stuck in the body. And a lot of women have a hard time with detoxification. So this practice is designed to help the body, all of the organs, which are mainly located in the torso in this area. Of course, they extend up to here, the heart. But the liver is a major organ for detoxification. And then of course, the colon. So in yoga practices, poses like twists are known for detoxing, but also anything that kind of creates pressure in the abdomen and then space. So we'll be focusing today's practice on those kind of postures. So to start, we're just going to lie down on our backs and bring our knees into our chest. So you'll just dry your knees into the chest and you can cross your ankles. As you bring the knees into the chest, just kind of roll around a little on your low back and let the thighs put a little bit of pressure in your abdomen. Just kind of imagine them ringing out those organs, putting pressure there, getting things loosened up, moved around. And building heat is another way of helping detoxification so that we promote sweating. So we're going to try and do that too today. And then you can switch the cross and the ankles if you had your ankles crossed and just do that a little more. Just kind of rocking back and forth. And then we'll release the feet to the floor. Take the arms out to the side for gentle recline twist. Take the right knee over the left. Just lift your hips up a little, scoot the left hip to the right and then drop the knees over to your left as you turn your head over to the right. And this is gentle but effective. So start to breathe into any areas of tightness along that right side body. Some slight compression through the middle of the torso. And then we'll take that over to the other side. So uncross the legs, move the hips back to center. And then we're going to cross the left leg over the right, press the right foot, lift the hips up a little and scoot them to your left. Then drop your knees to the right and start to stack the hips and see if you can keep the left shoulder down on the floor and we'll turn to look over the left shoulder and breathe. And also another little anatomical tidbit is that the ascending colon rises on your right. Then we have the transverse that goes right below the rib cage to the left. And then the descending which goes down the left side. So we'll be starting all of our twists on the right side today. Just to keep that in mind. The descending colon is what then evacuates for a bowel movement. And then we'll come back to center, lift the hips up and center them, uncross your ankles. And then we'll come up to standing. Either rock yourself up to standing or roll over to your side. So roll over to our side, press up to seated and come to the front of your mat. And let's just separate the feet, hip distance apart, take the hands to the hips or waist, inhale, lift your chest, exhale, hinge at the hips. First forward fold, the backs of your legs may be a little stiff, so if you need to keep them bent. And we'll just reach down, you can grab a hold of your big toes for Padangusthasana. Inhale, lift the chest, bend in the front body and then exhale, fold. This is just to create a little bit of compression through the mid body, the torso, all of those organs. Maybe even just pull the belly in a little bit, especially with the exhalation. Let's do that one more time. Inhale, really create a lot of length through the front of the body and exhale, pull your lower belly in, compressing the belly. Each exhale just kind of hollow out the belly area with the intention of just breaking up anything that's stuck in there. Keep breathing. And then inhale, look up and lengthen, exhale, pause, bring your hands to your waist and inhale, come all the way up and exhale. We'll take feet together and hands to prayer position at the heart. Suriya Namaskar A, release the arms down alongside the body. Inhale, reach the arms up. Exhale, hinge at the hips and fold forward. Head and neck, relax. Inhale to look up and lengthen. Your fingertips can come to the floor or hands to shins. Exhale, bend the knees, set the hands and step back to the top of a pushup. Take an extra breath here to inhale and press your hands flat, legs nice and straight and strong. Then shift forward. We're going to exhale and lower down. If you need to, bring your knees to the floor, bend your elbows, keep them close to your side bodies as you lower. Roll your shoulders back, lift your chest. Inhale, come into a cobra, lifting the chest forward, upper arms back, maybe an upward dog. And then exhale, we'll come back to downward facing dog. Pedal the feet out if you'd like for your first down dog, just bringing a little movement into the backs of the legs. Head and neck, relax. And then take one more breath, reaching both heels down to the floor, pressing the hands, creating lots of length through the side bodies. And with exhalation, we'll look forward and step your feet to your hands. Inhale to lengthen. Exhale and fold. And inhale. We'll come all the way up to standing. Reach the arms up overhead. And exhale, arms down alongside the body. And again, inhale, we'll reach the arms up overhead. Exhale, hinge at the hips and fold forward. Inhale and lengthen the spine. Exhale, bend the knees, set the hands and either step, or if you're comfortable jumping right to Chaturanga, feel free to do that now. And we'll lower down.

Point the toes. Inhale, upward facing dog or cobra. And exhale to downward facing dog. So take any modifications you need to during these sun salutations. Press the hands, push the hips up and back and breathe in and out through the nose. End of your next exhalation, look forward and bring your feet to your hands. Inhale to lengthen. Exhale to fold. And inhale to come all the way up. Exhale, arms down alongside the body. Inhale, arms reach. Exhale and fold. Inhale, lengthen. Exhale, set the hands, step or jump back and lower to Chaturanga. Inhale, cobra or upward facing dog. And exhale back to downward facing dog. Deep breathing, pressing the hands flat, pushing the hips back. And pressing the in breath on expanding the rib cage in all directions evenly. And the exhale really focus on pulling the lower belly in, hallowing out the whole abdominal cavity. End of your exhalation, look forward and either step or jump your feet to your hands. Inhale to lengthen. Exhale to fold. And inhale to come all the way up to standing. Reach the arms up overhead. And exhale, returning to Samasthiti. Surya Namaskar B, first one will modify. Bend the knees, sit the hips back and reach the arms up overhead. Hands can be apart or together, depending on your mobility and range of motion in your shoulders. With your next exhalation, we'll start to straighten the legs as we forward fold. Release the hands down alongside the feet. Inhale, we'll look up and lengthen. And exhale, set the hands, forward jump back. And we'll lower to Chaturanga. Inhale to cobra or up dog. And exhale back to downward facing dog. You can bring your feet together. With an inhalation, we're just going to raise the right leg up and back. And with exhalation, we're going to swing the right knee into the chest, bringing the shoulders forward over the wrists. And then set the right foot down on the floor. If you need to, you can use your hand to bring your right foot forward. From there, keep the left leg nice and straight and strong. We'll stay in this high lunge for a moment. Pull your right hip back, left hip forward. Reach your chest forward. You can always elevate your hands to blocks if you need to here. Then set your left hand down flat. And on an inhalation, we're going to reach the right arm up to the ceiling, twisting to the right. Pull your shoulders back, keep your chest nice and open. Either just look straight to the right side or turn your head and look up to your right thumb. Back leg stays strong and straight. Breathe deeply into the chest, side bodies, lower back. Exhale, twist a little deeper. And then we'll release the right hand down to the floor. Step back to plank pose. Shift forward. And with your next exhale, we'll lower down, taking the knees to the floor if you need to. Inhale to cobra or up dog.

And exhale back to downward facing dog. You can bring the feet together. With inhalation, we'll take the left leg up and back. And then bring the shoulders forward over the wrist, the left knee into your chest, and then step the foot down to the floor. Stay here in your high lunge, keeping your back leg straight. Your left hip back, right hip forward. And then we'll twist to the left. So start to stack the left shoulder over the right and raise the left arm up to the ceiling if that feels okay for you. Pull your shoulders down your back, chest nice and open, and breathe. With inhale, expand. And with each exhalation, twist a little deeper. Contract. And then we'll release the left hand down to the floor. Step your left foot back to plank. Shift forward and lower to chaturanga. Inhale cobra or upward facing dog and exhale to downward facing dog. End of your next exhalation, we'll look forward and bring the feet to the hands. With inhalation, we'll lengthen. Exhale and fold. Bend the knees, sit the hips back. Inhale to chair pose. And exhale, standing up tall. One more time. Bend the knees, sit the hips back. Inhale to utkatasana. And exhale, forward fold to utkatasana. Inhale to lengthen. Exhale, set the hands. Step to plank or jump right to chaturanga. Lowering down. Inhale cobra or up dog. Exhale downward facing dog. And we'll step the right foot forward, pivot the left heel down. Keep your back leg straight from your right hip back. And on an inhale, we're going to come right up into warrior one. Right knee over the ankle. Press the outer edge of your left foot. Arms can either be shoulder distance apart or hands together. Take one more deep breath in. And with exhalation, we'll release. Set the hands down to the floor. Pick up your back heel. Step back to plank. Shift forward and lower. Inhale cobra or up dog. And exhale downward facing dog. And we'll step the left foot forward, pivot the right heel down. With inhalation, we'll come up. Warrior one. Wrap the outer arms around towards your face. Press your back leg nice and straight, pushing the outer edge of the right foot to the floor. Lift up out of your waist. Reaching the fingertips to the ceiling. Maybe touch the palms together. And with your next exhalation, we'll release. Set the hands down to the floor. Pick up your back heel. Step back. Shift forward and lower. Inhale cobra or up dog. And exhale back to downward facing dog. A few deep breaths here in down dog. And with the end of your exhale, look forward and bring your feet to your hands. Inhale to lengthen. Exhale to fold. Bend your knees. Sit your hips back. Inhale chair. Utkatasana. And exhale. Stand up tall. Samastitihi. Let's take the hands to the hips. We'll keep the right foot where it is, pointing straight forward. And step the left foot back. A little bit less than one leg's distance back. And your left foot is going to be turned out at an angle. Start to square your hips to the front so you're pulling the right hip back, left hip forward. And again, keep your left leg nice and straight. We're just going to keep the hands at the hips. Roll the shoulders back. Lift the chest up and tip the head back.

And then with exhalation, we're going to fold out over our right leg. Keep lengthening the front body. We'll just pause here. You may need a block for this next variation. We're going to take it into a twisting triangle. If you're working with a block, you'll bring the block first to the inside of your right foot and then potentially to the outside of your right foot as the posture starts to open up. Without a block, we're going to reach the left fingertips to the floor inside of the right foot and start to revolve to the right. With a block, you'll bring the hand onto the block next to the foot. And we start to rotate the right shoulder over the left and possibly raise the right arm up. And maybe some of you will bring the left hand to the outside of the right foot or the block outside the foot and possibly bring the hand flat on the floor. All variations. We breathe deeply, lengthening the entire torso. And then with exhalation, we're just going to release that twist a little and inhale will come up and exhale. Let's step to the front of our mat and we'll change sides. Step the right foot back about one legs distance back a little less probably. The right foot will be angled at 45 degrees. Left foot stays straight forward hands to your hips. Square the hips off to the front. Inhale, lift your chest up, back legs straight. Exhale, hinge out over the left leg. Careful not to lock out that left knee. You may need to keep a small bend in it, especially if you have a tendency to hyperextend. So we create lots of space, lots of length through the torso. And then setting up your blocks if you need them. And we'll bring the right hand to the floor or a block inside of the left foot. Start to revolve, raising the left shoulder up over the right. Maybe raising the left arm up to the ceiling. And then possibly moving the right hand to the outside of the left foot or on the floor. Finding your posture, your edge. Continue really reach the sternum forward and pull the left hip back. And then we'll exhale and release that. Press the feet. Inhale, come up and exhale. We'll step to the front of our mat. Hands to prayer. Inhale, reach the arms up overhead. Exhale, hinge at the hips and fold forward. Inhale, lengthen. Exhale, bend the knees, set the hands, step back or jump to Chaturanga and lower. Inhale, cobra or up dog. Exhale, downward facing dog. From downward dog, we'll either step or jump through to seated. Vermarichasana, C. Okay, so straighten the legs out in front of you. And take your hands next to your hips, lift your chest up. And then we're going to bend the right knee and set the right heel in front of the right sitting bone. Toes pointing forward. We'll take the right hand behind you and at first just wrap your left arm around your right knee, twisting to the right. And just press your right hand so you lift yourself up out of your low back with inhale. And with exhale, you twist a little deeper. You may be able to take the next variation on this pose where you inhale, lift the left arm up and exhale, bring the left elbow or shoulder to the outside of the right knee. You can stay here and start to turn to look over your right shoulder or possibly let the left arm spin in and reach for your right wrist, binding. We'll stay here a few breaths. With each inhale, find a deep breath in and lift up through the head. And with each exhale, again, you'll twist a little deeper. And then we'll release, letting go of the bind if you were fully wrapped. And then carefully straighten the right leg and we'll go right into the left side. Bring the left foot back, left heel in front of sitting bone. Wrap your right arm around your left knee and use your left hand for support behind you. Lift your low back, lift your chest and exhale, twist.

And then possibly raise the right arm up, take the elbow or shoulder to the outside of the left knee. Deep breath in to lengthen, exhale to twist, maybe going for that bind on the second side. Staying very aware of the breath, letting expand through the rib cage, contract through the middle body. And then release that bind, untwist and just straighten out the left leg. Ardhamatsyandrasana will be our next twist. Just slightly bend the right knee and we're going to bend the left knee and point the left toes and set the heel just in front of the right sitting bone or to the side of it, to the right side of it. See what feels good in your body. And then we'll take the right foot across the left knee. You can stay here and interlace your fingers around the left knee, the right knee rather. Pull the right hip back forward, lift your chest up and then we'll do the same thing. Either wrap the left arm around that right knee and twist to the right or we have an option to bind here as well. Take the left shoulder to the outside of the right knee and possibly thread the left arm through that hole and reach back for your right wrist and look over your right shoulder. And then we'll release that. And then we'll take the left leg straight for a moment or slight bend in that left knee. We'll fold the right knee back and just finding that proper placement for that right foot and then crossing the left foot over the right knee. And for some of us just staying here upright, that's enough. And others will go a little deeper into the twist bringing the shoulder to the outside of the knee and possibly threading the arm through and twisting to the left. Inhale lengthening exhale and twisting. And then let's release that. And we'll lie down on our backs for bridge pose and possibly Urdhva Dhanurasana. We've spent a lot of time compressing this area, twisting it out. Now we're going to do the opposite. Give it lots of space and bring blood flow to the abdomen. So we'll come down onto our backs and we'll take the arms alongside the body. Pull the shoulders under your back, lift the chest up, press the feet flat and just start to push down into the heels and lift the hips up, draw the knees forward and start to let the inner thighs drop down to the floor as the knees press forward and possibly interlace your fingers under your back or you can just hold on to the sides of your mat. With each inhale we're going to lift the chest up and exhale just kind of pull the lower belly in a little bit, find the strength in the pose, press the feet down. Deep breathing, expanding the chest, expanding the abdomen. One more deep breath in, lift up a little higher and exhale, release and lower down. So if you're staying with bridge you can go on into that on your own. I'm going to cue through Urdhva Dhanurasana as an option for some of you. So we'll set the hands up by the ears, fingertips pointing to the shoulders, squeeze the elbows in and start to drop the shoulders down the back. We'll press the feet and the hands and we're just going to lift up to the crown of the head. So as you press the feet, lift the hips up and find that same action. Knees pulling forward, inner thighs starting to soften down towards the floor and then we'll press up to the head, squeeze the elbows in, pull the shoulders back. You may want to stay here or lift all the way up into Urdhva Dhanurasana. Keep squeezing the elbows in as you lift up.

Take a few deep breaths there, expanding the front body. It's really a front body stretch. One more deep breath in and then exhale. If you came off your head, you'll look to the ceiling as you slowly lower down and just take your hands to your belly for a moment. Let that settle. And then we'll just bring the knees into the chest, wrap your arms around your legs, starting to counter the back bend. Just roll around on your low back a bit as we did in the beginning of class. Letting the knees kind of sway from side to side. If you like switching the cross and the ankles now. And we'll flex the feet, grab a hold of the outer edges of the feet and start to draw the knees towards the armpits for happy baby pose. Maybe start to press the sacrum back down towards the floor. That's available to you. Take deep breaths, cooling breaths, winding yourself down. And then maybe just start to bring the soles of the feet together and take the knees apart. A few more deep breaths here. And then we'll release the feet, straighten the legs. If you need to put on some extra layers for Shavasana, please do so. A blanket. We'll take the palms open to the ceiling, pull the shoulders underneath your chest. Let the shoulders are lying flat on the floor. Let the belly rise with inhalation and fall with exhalation. So completely relax your stomach. No holding, no tension. Relax the jaw, the face, the cheeks. Let the breath get softer. Start to feel a little more still.

Relax the jaw a little bit. Relax the jaw a little bit. Relax the jaw a little bit. Relax the jaw a little bit. Really deep in the breath. You're welcome to stay here in Shavasana for longer if you'd like. But if you're ready to come out, we'll start to bring small movements into the fingers and toes. Reach the arms up overhead. And then we'll bend the knees and we'll roll over to our side, our right side. And press the left hand down to the floor and come up to a comfortable seated position. We'll cross the ankles, bring the hands to prayer position. And thank you all for joining me today. Namaste.