Get Bendy

Happy Day Yogi! Thanks for joining me today and I hope you are ready to get bendy because that is the theme of our practice today. Really elongating the side bodies, finding that stability through the core and the back body while we lengthen and we expand. We're going to do some expansion from the inside by really focusing on the breath as we work through the side bodies. So let's give ourselves a moment to connect with the rise and fall of our breath. Let's first start to breathe into the chest. I always like to start with the hands at the heart because this brings me back to home base. So start bringing your breath right here to your palms and notice if your inhalation is helping you expand only the front body or if you're feeling it in the back body as well. Take your time with the inhale, short pause and then exhale let it go. You should feel the front of the chest inflating, inhale and invite the breath in, breathing in and out through the nose. Give yourself two more rounds and slide your left hand down to your stomach and see if you can feel the breath where your right palm is and where your left palm is. So invite the breath all the way down to the left palm inflating the belly and then the chest and then exhaling from the chest and the belly. So we start to get this full yogic breath. Nice big inhale inflate the belly, chest and exhale the chest and the belly. Try one more round the breath. Let's try to feel the breath on the side body because we're working with that a lot today. Bring your palms right where the rib cage is and as you inhale see if you can expand outwards with your breath. Take your time and then take your time with the exhale. Lengthen the inhalations, feeling the breath in the side body, holding the breath a little longer than you normally would and taking your time with the exhales. Try two more rounds breathing into the side body. Great last round. When you're releasing your hands see if you can experience the breath in all of those three areas. Chest, belly and the side body. Great so keep flowing with that full breath. It'll shorten in certain times but we'll keep coming back to it and as we get that let the breath be our anchor today the breath always precedes the movement. So let's play with a couple of circular kundalini rising. Let your left shoulder drop towards your left shoulder, left thigh and then lengthen and lean forward as you exhale. Roll it all the way back. Inhale lengthen forward. Exhale start to draw the navel up and back as you roll. This one's nice with just the torso but if you'd like to let the upper body the neck and the shoulders become involved with these rolls you'll start to feel a little bit more of an opportunity to release at the shoulders and maybe stretch at the neck. Good. One more round pause when you're leaning over bent legs and then start to exhale the other way. Inhale lengthen forward. Exhale round the spine and lean back. Two or three more pulses with your breath and same opportunity getting the cervical spine involved. It's nice to feel that connection between the lower body and the upper body moving freely creating more space of those two attachments. Good. Find a nice comfortable seat. Switch the cross of your legs. Bring your palms to your shins. Lift the heart, chin and chest. Inhale lift up. Drop the shoulders. Exhale round the spine. Pull the navel up and back. Lean back. Inhale lift your heart, sternum, chin and chest. Exhale round the spine. Lean back. Make sure the core is really active so that you're not putting the lower back in danger at all each time you round back. The next time you inhale and lean forward pause. Walk your hands forward as far forward as they'll go and then we'll take a little journey over to our left. So we're getting bendy on the right side already. You should feel the stretch from your right hip all the way up to your arm. Breathe fuller, slower and deeper into the right side body. If you want to feel more use the left palm to push the floor away and you can get a little twist along with your side stretch. Good. Walk hand over hand back to center all the way over to your right. Really reach across with your left hand so you get that full stretch from your hip all the way out through the shoulder and then make sure the breath is very full on the inhale. Big, full inhalations. We tend to shorten the breath when we're in this side stretch so see if you can exaggerate it. Also the option of pushing the floor away with the right hand to take a soft twist here.

Great. Come on back to center. Roll it up. When you keep the right leg right where it is, cross legged. Extend your left leg. Flex the foot. Draw your right heels close to the seat as possible. Externally rotating the right leg. We take a soft twist. Keep the left leg really active. Toes pointing back. Left fingertips walk back. Lift the sternum, chin and chest. Exhale, start to rotate. Because we have more range of rotation in our upper body, especially our neck, we tend to just turn around with our neck. See if you can start to turn from the torso, the shoulders and then the neck last. Good. As you turn back to center, walk your left fingertips out. Give yourself a nice little opportunity to stretch through the right side body. Try and anchor the right quad down. Keep the left foot flexed. Inhale the right arm up and over the head. You feel a nice side stretch all the way through the right side body and then pulse back. If you feel like you can go deeper, walk that left hand farther out or just start to bend into your left elbow. Each opportunity you get with your exhale rising back up with the inhale. Finish off with one more and see if you can hold right here. Invite that right shoulder back in space. Right bicep sliding back in space. Shoulder down and then the palm is right over the head drishti straight forward or start to take it up to the sky and breathe into that right side body. Good. Come on back to center. We're going to take the right ankle over the left knee and play with a little reverse table. So if you're on your blanket, move it off. You may want two blocks underneath your hands. Figure four first and then lift your hips. I'm going to do it facing this way so you can see what my hands do. Figure four, lift the hips and then exhale. Slide your seat through as you bow forward. Lift and lengthen and slide through. If your bum is hitting the floor as you slide through, you should have two blocks under one block under each hand. So use both blocks. Great way to fire up the core. Roll the shoulder blades back as you lift. Last one. Lift up. Pause. Squeeze your shoulder blades together. This one's all about the back cleavage. So go for the back cleavage. Squeeze the shoulder blades together. Lift the hips and then when you lower down, lower your seat as close as it'll go to your left heel. Flip your palms. Nice shoulder stretch. Walk the fingers all the way back. The farther back you walk, the more you'll feel. Great. From here we're gonna walk the left foot off the mat to the left. We're gonna get a little IT band stretch and it's gonna focus and isolate the shoulders here as well as that IT band. So as you drop the knees to the right, getting a nice deep shoulder stretch. I like to let my head drop from side to side to release the muscles, the base of the neck. And then the right hand's gonna stay. The left hand's gonna swing all the way around and we're gonna take a nice side stretch, walking the left fingertips closer to the right hand. If you want to feel more, you can bend the right arm, push the floor away and really accentuate the side stretch but make sure the breath is really full and really active. Start to walk your hands back but keep the legs dropping over to the right and come on to your right form so your right elbows lining up with your hip. Lift the left knee, swing around. We're gonna do a little side core crunches here. So bring your left hand behind your head and then we're gonna draw the elbows in and extend. So we're leaning on the right hip, we're focusing on the obliques, the muscles of the left side body as we pulse and draw the knee in. Last one. Good. Press yourself up and we'll swing back around and do that on the second side. So this time we'll straighten the right leg. We'll keep the left leg bent, little side stretch here, little thoracic twist, left hand on top of the left thigh, lift and lengthen the spine and start your twist to the right.

Let the head follow the shoulders. Our cervical spine can rotate a lot more than the thoracic spine. So instead of turning your head all the way back, let the head move with the shoulders and then when the shoulders won't move anymore then you can start to gaze back. Great. One more round of breath and then as you come back to center, we'll keep the legs just as they are. Walk your right fingertips out to the right, working on that side stretch, lifting the left arm to the sky, a little pulse, inhale back to center, exhale. Maybe bending into that right arm if you're able to move deeper into the side stretch. These pulses here are a real nice way to arrive at a deeper stretch without forcing things, without feeling too challenged. Finish with that last pulse and hold and breathe. See if you can roll the left bicep slightly back behind you, shoulder down, palm over your head and then reach up and over, lift your right side body. Three more breaths. And then we'll come on back to center. Figure four, left ankle on top of the right knee. I'm gonna swing around and face this way. If you're using your blocks, put them underneath your hands, reverse table, lift your hips, squeeze your shoulder blades together, slide your seat through and bow forward. Engaging the core, lifting, extending, exhale, pulsing forward. Three more rounds, pulse through the breath. Last two. The next time you lift, pause, start to squeeze your shoulder blades towards each other, externally rotating the arm bones, lifting the ribs, lifting the left hip. Breathe into it. When you lower down, lower your right heels close to the seat as it'll go. And then second opportunity to go deeper into that shoulder stretch. Flipping the hands, walking your fingertips back. The farther back you walk, the more you'll feel. Letting the head and neck release. And then we'll take that right foot on a little journey off the mat to the right. And then the knees drop to the left with the IT band stretch. Oh, you'll feel this one in your shoulder. This is the eye surrender pose. Try to go deeper with the breath. Your left hand's gonna stay. Right hand's gonna swing all the way around. Going for that side stretch again. The closer you get your right hand to the left, the more you feel. If you want to take the little twist, slide your left hand back, push the floor away. Lengthen and rotate. Breathe deeply into your right side body. Really feel the inflation there with each inhale. Good. Walk your hands back. And we're gonna keep the knees swinging over here to the left and lower on to our left forearm. Draw the knees in so that they're both bent. Bring the hand behind the head. We're gonna focus on the right side body, the obliques. Exhale anyways as we draw in. Inhale as we open the right side of the body. Three more. Good. Rocking back to center. Swing the legs around for table or you can float the legs through, drawing the heels close to your seat, hands in front of the knees. Knees right into the hips, palms right underneath the shoulder blades. Let the belly drop. Lift the heart, chin, and chest. Always moving from the pelvis and the sacrum. Start to tilt around the spine. Head moves last. Two more rounds of breath. Last round. Good. Find your neutral table.

We'll keep the knees under the hips, palms under the shoulders. We're gonna lean the hips and the shoulders all the way over to the right as one unit. Keep them leaning to the right and start to move forward to center all the way over to the left. We're doing torso circles. Full lean, getting into the side body. If you want to go deeper on the last three rounds, you can always bend the elbows. Chaturanga style. Lean forward. Don't let the shoulders drop below the height of the elbows as you press back. So you can really start to fire up the triceps, the muscles, and the arms. One last round. The next time you guide your seat back and over your right heel, pause over there to your right with your seat and walk hand over hand to the left. Staying right here for this side stretch or losing the left hand and putting a little bit more weight into the right side body so you feel a little bit more resistance. Great. Come up to your table pose. Between sides, we're gonna do a couple of cat and cow tilts on the fingertips. No palms. Really strengthening the muscles in the hands. Let the chest guide forward as you inhale. Round the spine from your pelvis all the way up to the crown as you exhale. One more round. Good. Neutral table. Palms down. Lean torso and hips to the left and then slide forward full circle over to the right. Keep leaning with shoulders and hips working together in one unit. We got three more if you want to add the chaturangas now is your chance. Lean forward, bend the elbows, and start to pulse back. Keep breathing. Exhaling as you come forward to bend those elbows. Last round. This time we're gonna guide the hips over to the left and we'll walk the hands over to the right so we get that big side stretch on the left side body. You can keep the right hand where it is or you can bring it by the side or drape it around the waist for a little bit more intensity. Good. Coming back to your table pose, give yourself a couple of wrist circles with your right hand. That's a lot of work on the wrists. Flip your right palm so it's facing forward, fingertips facing back. If you don't feel anything here, start to back up the seat. Put the reverse lights on. Beep, beep, beep. Back it up. One more round of breath here getting a nice stretch for the right forearm and then shake out the right wrist. Right hand to the floor, left palm. Flip the wrist. Start to back up the seat. Great. This one's really nice especially if you're working on the computer a lot or you do manual labor with the hands. Make sure you give yourself lots of wrist stretches especially after a lot of weight-bearing in your yoga practice. Good. From here we're gonna keep the right knee on the floor. We're gonna swing the left foot around. Easy side plank and we're gonna let the right leg swing behind us right behind the hip. Big side stretch right here. Reach the left arm up and over the ear. Push down with the right hand. Good. From here, bend your left leg. Lift it off the floor and draw the heel into your seat. Quad stretch right here pulling the heel right next to the glute and then moving the heel away as you inhale.

Exhale, draw it in. If you want to feel more flip your palm. Big toe side of the foot. Move it away as you inhale. Pull it in as you exhale. Great. From here you can go ahead and release the leg back to the floor. Push down into the right hand and rise all the way up. Slide your left hand down your left IT band. Inhale the right palm to the sky. As you're stretching lift your left side body up as well to move deeper into side flexion. Enjoy the inhale. I know we want to shorten the breath but try to inflate it. Good. Bring the arms to shoulder height. Turn the left toes out. Point the left knee in the direction of the toes. We've got one more really nice side stretch. You can bring your right hand to your IT band and stretch the left arm over the head or if it comes all the way down to the floor. Fingertips and then press into that left knee. Move back into your side stretch. Great. Back to your fingertips. Swing the legs around. Cat and cow are two. Clearing energy along the spine. Replace your fingers with your palms. Left knee stays. Right foot swings around. Push forward and down with your left hand. Inhale the right arm. Up and over the ear. Each opportunity we're moving into a deeper side stretch. We're taking it today. Even in side plank. Up and over. Spiral the right shoulder back. Push into the pinky toe side of the right foot. Swing the left toes around behind you. Tuck them under so that you can easily lift the right leg off the floor. Bend the right leg. Reach back. Draw the heel in towards your seat as you exhale and then move the heel away as you inhale. If you'd like to feel the chest stretch as well, flip your palm bicep to the sky. Inhale it away. Exhale draw it in. Pulse with a breath. Great. Release the right leg back to the floor. Push with your left hand to rise all the way up to a variation of gate pose. Right hand down the right IT band. Lift your right ribcage. Create space so that you can side flex a little bit deeper.

Remember the breath needs to be full on the left side body. Try not to resist. Arms out the height of your shoulders. Bend the right knee. Turn the toes to the right to open the hip. It's kind of like a mini variation of Peaceful Warrior. Stay here or reach your fingertips to the floor. Encourage the side stretch first and then start to bend into the opposing leg. Lower down. Swing the legs around. Palm stay on the floor this time. Knees off the floor. Table pose. Knees the height of your ankles. Let the belly drop. Cow tilt. Round the spine. Cat tilt. Inhale, lengthen forward. Cow tilt. Exhale, round the spine. Cat tilt. One more time. Come on back. Opportunity to flip those hands one more time. One wrist at a time or you can try both at the same time. Back up your seat. Press forward with your wrists. Press forward with your palms. I actually like to do down dogs like this. See what happens. This puts pressure on your wrists. Back off. We're gonna do regular down dogs in just a second. Good. Shake out one wrist at a time. Now you have the feeling around the area of your wrists so that as you move into your first down dog it'll be a reminder to really push forward and down with your hands. It's almost like you're stretching them out forward away from your knees. Biceps move forward. Press forward. Lift your hips. Press the chest back towards the thighs. Pedal it out in your first down dog. If you were to rock your head from side to side, your ears should be right next to your bicep. Your head shouldn't be too far back. Ears right next to your bicep. Draw the navel up and back and enjoy the breath.

Lengthening forward to plank pose. Lower down. Bend the elbows. Lean forward. Guiding yourself all the way down. Setting up for sphinx pose. Rolling the shoulder blades down and back. Moving the ribs and heart forward. Pressing to the tops of the feet evenly. Did you say you wanted to do some core work? Okay, we'll do some core work. Tuck your toes under. Big toes together. Lift your hips off the floor. We're gonna do a little windshield wiper from side to side. So we're going back into the obliques. Two more rocks on each side. If this doesn't feel good on your feet, you can always take your feet hip distance. One more. Come on back to center. Lower down. Either go back to your sphinx pose or if you can keep that energy moving forward and up. Cobra pose. Shoulders rolling down. Ribs, heart moving forward. Active through the leg. Tuck your toes under. Press back to your down dog. I'm gonna do a little side stretch down dog rise to the tops of the toes. Pivot your heels to the right. Bending one leg at a time. Keep your left leg bent and right leg straight and see if you can walk your right hand closer to your left. Push forward with your left hand. Deep side stretch through the right side body. Walk your right hand back tops of the toes. Pivot to your right. One leg bends at a time. Keep the right leg bent. It accentuates the side body on the left. Stay here pushing actively forward with your right hand or walk your left hand over. So good to experience all this space on the side body. Come on back to your plank pose. Lower all the way down. Don't worry you have one more chance to move into forearm plank. Come up to your sphinx pose. Good. Tuck your toes under. We're really gonna work the obliques here. Walk your big toes together. Pivot your feet. Stack the left foot on top of the right. My left elbow stays on the floor. Lower your right ribcage hip. Lift your right ribcage hip. Lower and lift. If you need to swing the right hand around to make this easier, feel free. Last one. As you lift, push forward with the right hand all the way up to your forearm side plank. Because we're stretching the side body, take it up and over the ear. One more side. Lower down. Forearm plank. Pivot your heels. Stack the right foot on top of the left. Keep the right elbow down. You can always swing the left hand around. Left with the inhale. Lower the exhale. Next time you lift, press your weight into your left palm. Squeeze the inner thighs towards each other. Keep pushing forward with your left forearm. Go ahead and lower down. All the way down. Replace your elbows with your palms for your back bend. Good. Back up the seat. Back to your down dog. And then we're going to slowly walk the hands all the way back to the feet. A little hang time. A little resting time. Reconnecting with the breath. You can have the hands at the shins. Behind the calves, you can grab onto the elbows. Relax the muscles of the face. The jaw. From your forward fold, bend the knees. Use your quad and core muscles to rise all the way. Inhale the palms to the sky. Right hand grabs the left wrist. Exhale it over to your right. Stay right here or bend your right leg to really feel that stretch through the left side body. Good. Come on back to center. Switch sides. Take the side stretch to the left first and then the opportunity to bend your left leg. Maybe the biceps move back in space. Keep lifting the rib cage. Good. Inhale back to center. Hands right in prayer. Inhale reach the palms to the sky. Take a little flow. Exhale forward fold. Inhale lengthen the spine. Exhale walk forward to your down dog. Pedal it out. Go ahead and bend your left leg and walk your right hand halfway to your right foot.

We're going to try to lift that right arm to the sky. So reach it for the back wall or send it all the way up as you push forward actively with your left palm. Isolating stretching and strengthening that left shoulder at the same time. Move your right palm forward. Plank pose. Vashti stasana are full. Vashti on this side. If you need to bring the knee or elbow to the floor as you pivot and stack your feet, set up, push forward and down with your hand. Inhale the left palm to the sky. Take the side stretching Vashti if that's calling you or if you want to try tree pose or big toe grab. All the great variations building off the foundation of Vashti stasana. Great. Come to your plank pose. Vinyasa lower down. Inhale to your swings. Cobra or up dog. Exhale to your down dog. Bend your right leg. Push forward with your right hand. Walk your left hand halfway back. Stay here or reach back or to the sky. The more you reach that hand to the sky, the deeper you can bow. Strongly press forward with the right hand. Isolating, stretching and strengthening. Plank pose. Pivoting to the left hand, the strong arm. Pivot your heels to the left. Stack. Remember you can bring the left knee down or the left forearm down. Push forward and down with the left hand to lift the side body. Option of side stretch. Tree pose. Lift your hips or big toe grab. Back to your plank pose. Lower down. Cobra or up dog. And then we're going to take a little child's pose with the interlace behind the back. So you have a couple of options here with your forehead on the floor. Either just grab, take the interlace or grab onto the elbows. Keep it a little bit more passive here or keep the interlace and as you move the wrists over the head, start to take a cat tilt of the spine, rabbit pose, round the spine. It's a nice stretch after a strengthening pose like Vashishasana. Release. Return to the child's pose. Reconnect with your breath. As you've reconnected with the breath, remember let that breath guide you through all these movements. Let the breath come first. Come on back up. We'll meet in down dog. We're gonna pick it up a little bit and take it for a little flow now. Inhale your right leg to the sky. Bend the knee. Open the hip. Press the chest back evenly. So both sides press back evenly. Take a big inhale and as you exhale step the right foot to the front of the mat between your hands. Pivot your left heel to the floor so the heels are starting to line up. Back toes slightly forward. Windmill your hands up to warrior two. Bring your hands to your hips. Try to even out the hips and then bring your palms right into prayer. Guess what we're doing? Some side bending. So you can keep the hands right here in prayer as you pulse with your side bends. As you go to the left, you're straightening the right leg. As you pulse to the right, you're bending the right leg. Now if you feel like moving deeper here, inhale the palms over the head and let the arms be an extension of the side body. Try to keep that left shoulder rolling back. Inhaling it up.

Exhaling. Reach. Keep the left shoulder rolling back. Try two more. Really nice stabilizers for the side body. We're still very active here. We're strong in the core but lifting the navel up and back. The next time you pulse forward, pause right here. Bring your right forearm on top of your right thigh. Let the left arm drop to the floor. We're going to take three back strokes. Imagine you're swimming through air. Inhale it up. Circle it around. Inhale it up. Circle it around. On the third round, we're going to use the momentum to rise us all the way up to peaceful warrior. Here we go. Rising up. Peaceful warrior. Breathe into that. Take a pulse here. Straighten the right leg. Bend the right leg. Straighten the right leg. Reach. Bend the right leg. One more round. Right forearm to the thigh. Left arm circles up three times. The more each time you circle, see if you can roll that shoulder a little farther back in space. Really open up through that shoulder. Round three. Here we go. Rise it all the way up. Use the momentum. Come all the way up to peaceful. Straighten the right leg and this time we're going to keep the side body lifted and we're going to bend into the right leg. Reach up with your left hand and give yourself a little pull over to the right or to the left. One more round. Breath. We'll meet in warrior two. Warrior two. We're gonna bring the right hand just behind the hip. So you should be able to see the front at the back of your hand right here and we're gonna pull the elbow in. Internally rotating the shoulder, helping us with a bind that we're preparing for. This might be your spot or you can bring the elbow inside of the knee, lengthen, spiral the ribcage, and send the arm over. Sets us up really nicely for our bind. We get the internal rotation of the shoulder. Let's see what happens. Rise up to warrior two. Peaceful warrior. Straighten the right leg. Exhale the right hand inside. Wrap the arm under and around. Hand towel if you need it or strap if you need it in your left hand. Drop it behind you. Lengthen the spine and spiral the left ribcage to the sky. Lengthen and spiral. We're gonna try to step that left foot forward. You have two opportunities here. So let's see what happens with the first one. Look forward. Step the left foot forward and keep your right leg bent. Option one. Stay right here. Right leg bent. Left leg straight. Lengthen the spine and turn. This is a great pose. If you're working with bird of paradise with me, look forward. Bend your left leg. Start to shift your weight to your toes.

Use the power of your left leg and the muscles of your hip flexors to help you lift up to bird of paradise. The leg can stay bent or can be extended. One more round of breath. Lower it back down. Step your left leg back. Go back to your sweet little bind. Good. And then lower your palms to the floor. We made it. Lower the left knee down to the floor. Straighten the right leg. Give yourself a little pull back with the toes. One of our peak poses is a nice hamstring stretch. So if you're feeling it right here, stay right here. If you'd like to go deeper, bend into your right leg. Stretch the back hip first. Then you can slide that right heel forward. Half hanuman, three-quarter hanuman, or starting to work towards your full split. The back leg needs to internally rotate as you lift. Good. Walk the right leg back. Keep the right leg bent. Walk it off the mat to the right. I'm going to cheat and swing around and do the other side so that you can see this. But you're walking your foot off the mat to the right. I'll meet you there. Foot's off the mat to the right. You're going to need your strap here. We're going to take the lazy reclining version of compass pose. Come down to your left forearm. Reach back for your strap. We're just going to loop the foot as we reach that right leg to the sky. So you can stay on your forearm. Bend your right leg like you're going to go into happy baby pose. Try to bring it right behind the shoulder. Bring the strap to the toe pads and hold on to it with your right hand. Extend the right leg to the sky. So this is one version right here. The foot's outside. We're in a variation of compass pose. If you'd like to go deeper, you're going to have to lower your left shoulder to the floor. Take the strap, bring it behind your head, and reach your right arm across, under and through. Opportunity to bend the left leg. Lazy man's compass pose, but it's not much easier. If you're going into the full expression of the pose, you're going to grab the leg first. Bring it behind the head. Make sure your neighbors are around in case you get stuck in this pose. Call for help. Good. Come on out of it. Come back to your seat. Good. And we'll see what happens on the other side. Rock and roll vinyasa, or swing the legs around. Take your 10 breaths, either in down dog, child's pose, or dolphin. Whatever feels like the way for you to connect with your breath before you do the second side. You know what's coming on the second side. So either conserve your energy, or keep it up with a down dog, or open the shoulders with a dolphin. Great. Make your way to down dog if you're not there. Inhale the left leg to the sky. Bend the knee, open the hip, but see if you can keep pressing back equally with both shoulders. Nice big inhale. Exhale, step the left foot to the front of the mat. Pivot your right heel to the floor. Line up the heels. Windmill up to your warrior two. Check your hips. Drop the back hip. Line the knee over second and third toe, and then we'll bring our palms into prayer to start out with. Straighten the left leg and take your side bend to the right, so lean to the right. As you exhale, bend the left leg. Take your side bend to the left. Lean to the left. Keep your shoulders on the same line as your hips.

As you inhale, straighten the left leg. Take your side bend to the right. As you exhale, bend the left knee. Take your side bend to the left. Keep going right here, or inhale the palms. Extend them to the sky. Reach back take your side bend to the right. Exhale. Bend the left leg. Side bend to the left. Pulsing with the breath. Two more rounds. Reaching back with the inhale. Exhale. Reaching forward, rolling the shoulders back even with the torso. Last round. When you're ready, lower that left forearm on top of your left thigh. Keep the left leg bent. Reach for the floor with your right hand and we're going to circle backstroke the arm three times. Reach for the wall behind you. Reach forward and down. All the way up. Full or slower circles. More space for the shoulder. Round three is going to help propel us all the way up to peaceful. Rise all the way up. Straighten the left leg. Bring the right hand to the right IT band. Inhale the left palm to the sky. Stay right here. Exhale. Pulse into the left leg. Inhale. Rise up. Exhale. Pulse into the left leg. Inhale. Straighten it. Rise up. Last one. Exhale. Pulse into the left leg. Stay there. Inhale. Lift and reach back with your left hand for peaceful warrior. Right hand reaches up and gives yourself a little pull back with the left wrist. Good.

One more round. Left forearm on top of the left thigh. Right hand drops to the floor. Reaches forward. Full circle all the way back. Two more full circles. Rising up with the inhale. Circling down and back with the exhale. Last one. Come all the way up. Peaceful warrior. Right hand right IT band. Lift the sternum and chest and just bend into that left leg. Keep the peaceful warrior or add the side stretch. Right hand reaches for the left wrist. Warrior two. Bend your left arm. Bring the back of your left hand just behind your hip. Still very forward towards the front of your hip but just the top of your glute. Right hand reaches around. Pull the elbow forward so you get that nice internal rotation of the shoulder. This is a great spot to stay or slide your left elbow inside of the left thigh. Reach the right palm to the sky. Variation of parsfakonasana. Bent side angle. Rise all the way back up to peaceful warrior. Straighten the left leg. Give it a little break here.

And then we'll swoop it on down and see if we can bind. Bend the left leg. Reach the arm down, under, around, and through. Send your left hand up to the top of your glute or the top of the hip. Right hand drapes around the waist. Feel free to use that strap. Top hand, drop it down. Once you have your bind, lengthen the spine forward and then rotate the right ribs to the sky. Lengthen and rotate. Look forward. We're going to step the right foot forward to meet the left. Once you've got that right foot forward, keep the left leg bent. Some of us are staying right here. Straightening the right leg and looking over the right shoulder. Lengthen and rotate. This is a great spot to stay. If you're going into bird of paradise, bend into your right leg. Lift up to the toes. Look forward. Engage and lift your core and rise all the way up. Possibly extending the left leg for the full expression of the pose. Lowering it back down. Stepping the right leg back. And then freeing those arms down to the floor. Yay. You can bring your right knee down. That's the treat after this side. Straighten the left leg. It's a lot of work for the left leg. You might feel that tomorrow. So this could be a nice spot right here. Just the hamstring stretch. If you're feeling right here, stay right here. Pull the toes back. Move the heart forward. Move the crown of the head forward. If you'd like to go deeper, bend into your left leg. Stretch the back hip first by moving your heart forward, moving the hips forward. We get a nice, so-as stretch on the left side before we go deeper into the half split. Maybe we stop at the three-quarter split. Check here. Make sure your hamstring's okay here. And if you're going deeper, rebend and just slide it forward. Take your time here. Wherever you find your stopping point, see if you can settle and ease the breath. Internally rotate the back leg so that the kneecap is on the floor and you're not turning the right leg out to the right. Good. And then we'll come on back. Bend your left leg. Heel toe the left foot off of your mat. And we're going to play with that variation of compass pose once again. So you're going to need your strap. Bring your right forearm to the floor. Heel toe that left foot in. Reach back for your strap. Right elbows on the floor. Loop it around the toe pads. And then we'll first start like we're moving into happy baby pose.

Knees behind the elbow. So try to get that knee behind your shoulder and behind the elbow. Feel free to stay right here. This is a great spot. Otherwise, you can start to extend the leg. If you start to get that leg moving farther back in space and you want to try the full expression of the pose, keep the strap there. Come on down. And then bring the strap over your head. You can lean that elbow back. You're using the elbow to move the inner thigh away. Bending the right leg is an option. Or full expression. Lose the strap. Wiggle yourself in. Hang out here. Or bend the leg. Reclining compass pose. We're going to escape this. We did get bendy today. Now we're going to slow things down. Slowly release. Come on out. Come up to your seat. Keep the strap handy. We are going to slow things down but I'd like you to grab a block. Lower on down. And we'll take a little windshield wiper of the legs. Just release before we set up for our reclining bridge pose. For this bridge pose, we're going to start at the lower variation. And then we'll see if we want to lift up from here. So we can stay right here in bridge. Squeezing the shoulder blades together. Lifting the heart. This is the posture we're going to end up in. So this could be your spot to hang out. If this feels like a nice release for your lower back, you can stay here. If you've got a really strong block like I do and you're able to flip the block and lift it up a little higher for your bridge pose, then you might be able to balance here. But make sure this is okay for you and your block. Okay? So set up in your bridge pose. Choose the variation that's right for you. Give yourself a couple of breaths here. Soft little back bend. We're going to be here for three more breaths. If you want to take it up a little bit, you can lift off of your block and support yourself. Good. We'll lower down to our block and extend the legs. If this is easier for you with just the legs extended, feel free. If you want to play with the variation with your feet, strapped around the toe pads, this could be a nice spot. Nice restorative pose. Plus you get a nice space for the lower back. Sometimes these postures are nice to hold for like five minutes. We're going to hang out for another five breaths or so. But at any time you want to stay here longer and stay in some of these really nice restorative poses to really enter Shavasana with a peaceful mind. That might be a perfect equation for today. Great. So once again, feel free to stay right here or bend the knees, lose the block and the strap, push down, lift up, lower down and then give yourself a little windshield wiper side to side. We're going to finish with an easy twist. So as you windshield wiper back to center, straighten your right leg, draw the left knee across the chest. This could be a great spot to stay. If you want to do the little yogi pretzel, bend your right leg, reach back with your left hand and roll that left shoulder to the floor. Slowly come back, extend your left leg, keep the right leg drying in, bend it and then take it across the body. Same opportunity, stay here, reach down with your right hand, roll the right shoulder to the floor, a little yoga pretzel. And slowly unwind, settling in with the sweetness of Shavasana. We focused a lot on the power of our inhalations. Let's use the power of our exhalations to help us surrender. Take a nice big inhale through the nose, audible exhale through the mouth. Nice big inhale through the nose, audible exhale. Let the breath rise and fall organically, but with each exhale move deeper inside, letting all outside noises and activities fade, listening for the pulse, the tingle of energy throughout the limbs and the arms. All of that wonderful energetic work you did to lighten the body up, free the mind from stress. Use a couple more exhales really to surrender, surrender and to bliss.

There you go. Start to invite the breath to be as a little slower, fuller, and deeper, as you're really coming back to the body. Intuitive movements with the arms, the legs, whatever feels right as you start bringing that energy back to the limbs. If you feel like a stretch, arms over the head, or a hug of the knees into the chest before you roll to the right side, give yourself a couple of breaths to do that. Move slow and enjoy the space that you've created in your mind from your Shavasana.

Rolling to fetal pose and keeping the head and neck relaxed, using the left palm to help you up to your seat. Give yourself a moment with your eyes closed to really absorb and receive all the effects of your practice. Let it take you two or three breaths before the eyes open fully. Thank you for joining me today. Thank you for your adventurous spirit with Gittin' Bendy.

Share some of this adventurous spirit with somebody else that you meet today and be the yogic messenger. Namaste.