Strengthen and Release

Welcome back to your mat. Thanks for joining me today. I hope you're ready to take a big leap. We are going to take a giant leap forward and work on our hamstring strengtheners and releases stretches today for the hamstrings and the legs and also we're going to be working with the shoulders today so you should feel really nice and open after this practice. Thanks for being with me today. We're going to use two blocks and a strap so keep them handy and ready and we're going to start lying on the back. It's going to be a lazy start but don't you worry we'll get right into it in the middle of the practice. Go ahead and find your comfortable reclined position. Line on the back. As you settle in you can bring the right hand right to your heart, dropping from the headspace, letting go of any busyness, any working, any to-do lists in your mind and really carving this time out for yourself and for your practice. Really honoring this hour that you've created for your spiritual practice or your yoga practice, whatever it means to you. As you start to breathe into the heart space notice the rise and fall of the chest and maybe even the belly as you move a little deeper into your breath. So nice to breathe into the heart space maybe with each inhale you can imagine you're breathing in loving kindness for self and with each exhale you're breathing out loving kindness for everyone around you. Inhaling, lifting the heart, the ribs, breathing in loving kindness and exhaling, sending it out through the breath. If you stop one more so you're really connected with your heart and your breath as we go on this journey together. On your next inhale slowly reach your arms over the head and we're gonna point and flex the feet. You can start slowly and then start to pick it up. You'll feel like this energetic move from the toes to the crown of the head as you pulse back and forth and then from here just flex your feet, engage your quad muscles, draw the navel to the spine, keep the arms reaching back, cat tilting the spine and then as you inhale point the toes and you'll feel that lower back lifting off the floor slightly as the ribs lift with the inhalation. Exhale, flex the feet, engage quad core, keep the arms reaching back towards the floor. If they come off that's okay, keep them reaching back and as you inhale point the toes, lift the ribs, give yourself a little bit more space to reach the hands back. One more round, exhale flex the feet, engage the core, inhale point the toes, lift the ribs, lower back lifts off the floor for a little back bend and on that next exhale draw the knees into the chest and give yourself a little hug. Little rock from side to side massaging the muscles along the spine and then we're gonna take the backs of our hands our knuckles and we're gonna place them right underneath the glutes. So just to the top of your glutes and we're gonna give ourselves a little massage as we take slow circles with the knees. So if you have a ring on you might want to take it off or you're gonna get some interesting marks on your glutes as you rock and roll the knees from side to side. This helps release the piriformis and the glutes and go ahead and switch directions. Drawing the knees into the chest as you exhale, circling the knees away from the chest as you inhale. Last round. Good. Release the arms out into a cactus feel goal or out to the side leg wings. Whatever feels easiest for you to keep the shoulders on the floor. Lift your knees and lift your heels the height of your knees. We're gonna take some slow spinal twisting rolls to the right, exhale slowly drop to your right. Take your drish to your focus to the left and as you inhale bring the knees back. Bring the head back and as you exhale drop the knees to the left and let the drish to your focus move over to the right. So some really nice core controlled spinal twists. Bring the knees back together. See if you can keep your heels the height of your knees so the heels don't drop and keep squeezing your inner thighs together as you draw the knees from side to side following the breath. Over to your left. Look the opposite way. One more round. We'll finish on the left side. Finish that last round with your breath and then when you're finished with the left side go ahead and keep the knees bent. Lower them to the floor. We're gonna do a little bridge work to firm up and activate the hamstrings. Bring your palms to the floor. Push down into the palms. Squeeze your shoulder blades together. Press down into your palms and as you lift the hips up you'll be engaging the hamstrings. We're gonna try the one-legged variation. So shift your weight into the left. Reach your right foot to the sky. As you inhale reach a little higher for the ceiling or the sky as you exhale lower. This is activating the left hamstring, lifting and lowering, pulsing with the breath. If you want to make this a little bit more challenging lift your left heel off the floor and you'll feel the calf muscle and the hamstring working together. So it's nice to fire up these muscles before we stretch them. Really warm them up. Last two pulses. Good. Lower the left heel. If it's off the floor bend your right leg. Place it on top of the left knee. Lower the hips down. Easy figure four. Draw the left knee into your chest. Nice to lift the left heel a little bit higher than the knee so you can see the foot and that way all of the stretch is focused on the outer right glute as you draw the knee into the chest. We'll finish with an easy twist to the left. So lower the left foot to the floor. Slide the right knee on top of the left and let the knees drop over to the left. Option of taking the drishti or the focus to the right. Slowly unwind. Back to the bridge variation. Heels right underneath your knees. Palms to the floor. Squeeze the shoulder blades together. Press down. Lift your hips. Big inhale and then engage the core muscles as you exhale. Inhale the left leg to the sky. Push up with the toes as you inhale. Exhale lower down a little bit. Each time you inhale and lift up you're contracting that hamstring. If you're adding the calf stretch go ahead and lift the calf strengthener. Go ahead and lift your right heel off the floor. Keep the right heel off the floor as you lift and lower. We got three more. Keep breathing. Keep reaching. Last one. Lower the heel. Place the left ankle on top of the right knee. Lower down. Easy figure four. Draw the right knee into the chest. Lift your right heel just a little higher than the knee at this downward angle. All of the focus is on the left piriformis on the back side here. Drawing the knee in. Opening up the hip. Great. Lower the right leg. Knee slides over. Drop it over to your right for your twist and then open the wing. As you unwind get ready because we're gonna use our strap for this one. Try to loop your strap so it's the biggest loop that you can create here and press the toe pads into the strap. Strap just below the toes around the toe pads and make sure that the buckle of the strap is not where your head may go. So this is option one. If you feel like your heels are still in line with your hips and not too far forward then you can stay right here. If you feel like your heels are too far back put a blanket underneath your seat. Pausing and holding with this with both hands is nice easy variation but the opportunity to use the strap is to put it right behind the head just above the ears and you get this great neck traction as you push forward with your toes and lean back with the head. You get a nice stretch the cervical spine as you're working through the hamstrings. This could be a nice restorative pose but we still got lots of work to do so just give yourself three more rounds of breath here really waking up the hamstrings. Good. We're gonna keep the strap on the right foot so release it from your head. Let the left leg drop to the floor. As you pull the right toes towards you you can decide if you want to stay here and keep things nice and soft or if you'd like to take the pulses reach up with the exhale lower down with the inhale reach up with the exhale lower down with the inhale increasing by lifting and hovering your left leg off the floor. We've got five more. Keep pulsing with your breath. Last two. Last one. Good. Keep the strap in your right hand we're gonna open the foot out to the right and then when you feel your left hip fall lifting off the floor that's your place to stop. Flex your right bicep and draw the toes towards your bicep. Great. Keep that bottom leg that left leg really active. We're gonna take the right leg across the body for a soft twist. Slide it over to your left hand. Extend the right arm. If you want to go deep or you can bend the left leg grab onto your foot with the right hand and roll the right shoulder the floor for a deeper twist. Keeping the strap around the right leg draw the right leg back to center. Slide your left foot in. Push up with your toe pads. Release the right leg. Bend it. Bring it to the floor. Hang out right here for a more restorative hamstring stretch or if you did your pulses on the other side. Exhale lift. Inhale lower halfway. Keep pulsing with your breath. If you want to feel more hover the right leg off the floor. Exhale reaching for the toes. Inhale lowering down. Exhale reaching. Inhale lowering down. Try not to lower all the way so that you're keeping the core engaged and not relaxing onto the back. Last three. Two. One. Hold on to the strap in your left hand. Keep your right leg nice and active. Really flexed with the quad and toes. Take the leg out to the left and fire up your left bicep. Draw the toes towards your shoulder. Two more rounds of breath. Getting a nice hip opener while we work with a hamstring and then bring the strap back to neutral. Strap into the right hand and we'll take that leg all the way over to the left. You can give it a little pull and if you're reaching down right left hand grabs the right foot. Nice shoulder roll down to the floor. Beautiful. And that's our floor series. We got nice and open in the hamstrings so we're gonna get ready to fly as we rock and roll up to our table. You can move the strap to the side. Come on up and swing around. Palm is underneath the shoulders. Knees right underneath your hips. For this variation of our cat and cow tilts I'd like you to just take the cat tilt right into the sacrum. Right into the lower back. Localize it right there and then take the cow tilt just the belly. Don't move the mid or upper back. Cat tilt, sacrum lower back. Then just the belly as you drop and soften. Now we're gonna invite the mid spine, the thoracic spine, to join us. So cat tilt, sacrum lower back. Mid spine don't move the head. Don't move the neck and then let the belly drop and slide the heart forward. Look straight down. So we're isolating the two compartments of our cat and cow tilts and then finally we're gonna add the movements of the neck. Keep it in a nice rolling fashion as you drop the belly. Guide the heart forward. Now you can look up and then as you exhale start your tilt at the sacrum, mid spine, push down with your palms, chin, and chest. Last round. Really nice way to really feel all up and down the spine and the areas around the spine, the muscles that hold the tension. Good. Come to a neutral spine. From here extend your right arm. Straight forward. Shift the weight to your right knee. Extend your left leg back. Take an inhale. As you exhale draw the right elbow and left knee into the chest. As you inhale send it back. We're going to the side with the left leg and the right hand. So take the leg out to the side. Nine o'clock with a leg. Three o'clock with a hand. Inhale it back. Exhale pull it to the midline.

Inhale it back. Exhale it out to the side. Keep pulsing with your breath. Exhale it. Draw it into the midline. Inhale extend. Exhale it out to the side. Give it one more round. Inhale lengthen. Exhale pull it back. Inhale extend. Take it out to the side and pause right here. Lift your left hip. Lift the right hand. One more breath. Lower the foot to the floor. Draw that energy all the way up. Right palm starts to reach towards the sky with the inhale. Thread under and through with your exhale. Inhale guide it back up. Maybe reaching a little farther back each time you open up. Threading under with the inhale. Also threading up with the inhale and under with the exhale. Last two. Last one. Pulse under and through. If the right shoulder comes to the floor go ahead and bring it all the way down. If not keep your left hand and keep hovering here. If it comes to the floor you can push the floor away or you can take the palms into prayer and move into a deeper version of this twist. Come back to your table. Keep that left leg right where it is and we're gonna lift the left leg off the floor. Take it all the way behind us. Go as far to the right with the left foot as you can behind your right foot. Slide the pinky toe side of your left foot to the floor so you're getting an IT band stretch and then look over your right shoulder. Side stretch to your right. Try to look at your left foot so you get this line of energy all the way. Outer IT band. Side stretch all the way over on that left leg. Come on back to your table pose. Come up to your fingertips. Two rounds of the cow and cat tilts nice and slow. Exploring the movement of each section of your spine.

Last round. Lengthening forward with the inhale. Lifting the heart. Rounding the spine with your exhale. As you come to your neutral table you can place the palms back on the floor. This time we're gonna extend the right leg back. Toes the height of your hips. Left arm forward. Take an inhale as you reach. Exhale draw to the midline. Inhale extend. Exhale left arm out to the side like a wing. Right leg out to the side. Three and nine o'clock. Bring it back to center as you inhale. Exhale draw it in. Inhale extend. Take it out to the side as you exhale. Inhale back to center. Exhale pull it in. Take three more rounds pulsing with your breath. Inhale back to center. Exhale pull the knees and elbows into the chest. Inhale extend. Exhale take it out to the side. Last round. Really nice to open up the hip and hamstring at the same time. Pause with your left hand out to nine. Your right hand out to three and try to lift your right heel away from the floor. Really fire up your outer glute. One more round of breath. Lower your right foot to the floor. Inhale the left palm to the sky. Exhale thread it under across and through. Inhale back up. Push down with the right hand. See if you can go a little farther back with your left hand side stretch. Exhale pull it under and through. Two more pulses. Last round. Inhale reach it up. Exhale thread under and through. Hang out. Reconnect with the breath. Press down with the right hand if you want to feel more or bring the palms into prayer. Getting long inhaling and exhaling. Rotating deeper into the posture. Keeping the legs as they are.

Come back to your table pose. Palms underneath the shoulders. That right leg is going to lift up and swing all the way behind the left leg. Keep going. Keep going until you can't take it any farther and then slide the pinky toes out of your right foot to the floor. From here we'll take our side stretch looking over the left shoulder towards our right foot. Filling that line of energy all the way up from the IT band all the way through the ribs to the side body. Inhale back to your table. Give yourself a little wrist stretch. Flip your right hand back so your right wrist is moving forward. Fingertips facing back and then back up your seat. The more you back up your seat the more you feel. Great. Shake out the right hand and then flip the left palm. Left wrist facing forward. Start backing up your seat. Good. Shake out the left hand. Good. We're going to press up to our first down dog. Spiral your biceps forward. Tuck your toes under. Press all the way back. Draw the ribs up and back. Draw the navel up and back. Spiral the biceps forward. A little space. Shrug the shoulders down. Keep drawing your heels to the floor and then pedal it out one leg at a time. The hamstrings should be nice and open for our first down dog. Great. We're going to take a tippy-toe walk all the way forward. Slowly come forward but keep your chest pressing towards your thighs. Keep the hips high and anytime you need to start bending the knees, bend the knees but just keep pressing the chest towards the thighs so you feel this core engagement as you walk forward. Great work for the core. We'll hang out in a forward fold. Relax and bend the knees. Let the head drop. Grab onto the elbows. Let the elbows drop. If you want to pedal out the legs feel free. If you want to drop the hands to the floor, practice leaning forward and backward and feeling that center as you move into your forward fold. When you're ready, go ahead and bring your palms to your shins, lengthen the spine. As you lengthen the spine for your flat back, really engage your core. Nice stabilizers for the core muscles and as you exhale bend the knees. Engage quads and core and roll it all the way up. Inhale, reach the palms to the sky. Nice little side stretch to the right. Right hand grabs the left wrist. Inhale, back to center. Left hand grabs the right wrist. Take it over to the left. Keep breathing into the right side body. Inhale, back to center. Palms into prayer. Reconnect with your breath. Going on a nice fun flow. I hope you're ready. I'm excited. Inhale, reach your palms to the sky. Hinge at your hips forward fold. Lengthen the spine. Palms to the shins. Flat back. Exhale, bend the knees. Walk or float back to plank pose and stay in your plank pose here. We're gonna play with some taps here. Take the left hand, tap your right shoulder. Release it. Take the right hand, tap your left shoulder. You can continue on just with the hand shifting your weight or lift opposite leg and opposite arm. Right leg lifts as the left hand taps. Left leg lifts as the right hand taps. These are really nice core stabilizers with or without the opposite leg on the floor. Last two. Are you still with me? Keep tapping. Keep pulsing. Come on back to your plank pose. Lower the knees down. Lengthen forward. Bend the elbows. Come all the way down to your first sphinx pose. Elbows underneath the shoulders. Draw the shoulder blades down and back. Move the heart forward. Press down into your feet to keep the legs active. Core lifted. Stretching through the front body. One more round of breath.

Lower all the way down. You can press up through that table with your knees on the floor or you can tuck the toes under. Press all the way back to your plank pose. Step back to your down dog. Bend your right leg. Push forward with your right hand and walk your left hand halfway to your left foot. So tripod with the left hand. Shift your weight. Right leg to the sky. Keep the right toes pointing down. Keep pushing forward with your right hand so you get the hamstring stretch. We're gonna take five pulses. Lift your left heel off the floor. Keep the right leg high. Lower it down. Lift and lower. If you want, take less weight on the left hand. Maybe come up to the fingertips. Two more rounds. Keep the right leg high each time you lift. One last round. Beautiful. Keep the left heel drawing towards the floor. Walk the left hand forward. Side plank to the left. You can always bring the left knee to the floor. Left forearm to the floor. Vashishasana. Send the right palm up. Step the right foot behind the left. Bend your right leg. Press into the right toe pads and fire up that hamstring on the right leg. Right hand reaches for your left big toe. Lower the hips. Inhale. Lift the hips. Reach the arm over the head. Exhale. Lower. Same power that we were using in our bridge pose earlier. Fire up your hamstring and lift. Last one. Lower the hips. Lift the hips. Look forward with or without the help of your right hand. Step your right foot to the front of the mat. Lower the palms to the floor. Lower the left knee to the floor. This is where you might want to use two blocks. An either side of your right foot. The blocks can be low, medium, or high as we pulse into our low lunge. Opening up the back of the hip. Moving the heart forward and then straightening the right leg for the half-split Ardha Hanuman. Pulse back into the low lunge. Lift the heart. Stretch the back hip and then as you straighten the front leg you can either have the toes on the floor or flex the feet and draw the toes towards the shin to go deeper into that hamstring stretch.

Three more pulses. Low lunge. Hamstring stretch and so as stretch. Last round. Next time you straighten the leg pause and then guide your heart forward as you pull the toes back. You'll feel that in the calf and the hamstring. Bend your right leg for a soft twist. Keep your left hand on the block. Reach your right hand back for your left foot. This is going to be the exhale and then as you inhale start to straighten your right leg and send the right arm up and over the ear. Exhale. Bend the right leg. Reach back. Pulse with your breath. Inhale. Side stretch. Up and over the ear. Keep pulsing with the breath. A little bit deeper. Each opportunity that you have to move into the posture. The next time you reach your right hand back, keep reaching back. Let your left ear drop to the floor. Flip your right palm as if you're going to reach for your left heel to take this trapezius stretch right here. Great. Reach the right arm over the head straight in the right leg. Forward fold. Bend into the right leg. We're coming up to standing splits. So give yourself a little room here. You might back up the foot a little bit. You can flip the blocks up to a higher notch. Lean forward. Give yourself a little bend in the right leg so you can focus on drawing the crown of the head to the floor and lifting your left heel. As you exhale, bend the right knee. Draw the left knee into the chest. And as you inhale, extend the left leg hopefully a little higher with each round. Pulsing and straightening. Last round. Reach the toes to the sky. Try to keep the toes turning inward instead of outward. So try not to turn your toes to the left. Straight down to the floor. So it's all the hamstring and not the hip. Lower the left foot to pyramid pose. So step it back. Not a full stance but about three-quarters of stance back. Line up your left heel with your right heel. Lengthen the spine forward. You can move the blocks up higher if you need to. And from here, engage your core muscles. Lengthen, engage, bring your palms to your your side body, your hips, and slowly rise up. We're gonna play with a couple of core stabilizers as we bow forward and come back up. You can keep your hands at your hips or you can try the interlace behind the back. Lift the heart, chin, and chest. Keep the thighs squeezing together.

Pulse forward. Try not to round your spine. Keep lengthening forward with a flat back. Inhale, lift. Reach a little farther back. Lengthen forward with your exhale. Keep pulsing with your breath. Pulse with the inhale rising up. And then on this next exhale, find that spot with your flat back where you can't go any farther and then you can round the spine and fold wherever the body wants to be here. Keep squeezing in your inner thighs towards each other so that you're really active in the pose. From your forward fold, go ahead and bend the right knee. Look forward, lengthen forward. We're gonna step into warrior three so feel free to bring your hands to the blocks or out to the side like wings. Turn the toes, lift the foot, lift the heart. Fly yogi, fly. Great. We're stepping back to our high lunge. Release the arms. Lift your palms to the sky and then go ahead and bring the palms to the floor inside of the right leg. We won't use the blocks for a second so you can move the blocks out of the way unless you need them for your crouching tigers. Pivot your left heel to the floor. Pivot the right foot to join. Go right into bending your left leg. See if you can keep your right toes on the floor. The straight leg side of the foot, toes stay down as you bend and shift from side to side. Keep the side of the foot on the floor for right now so you get that real nice inner adductor stretch. Good. Now if you want to lift the toes off the floor of the straight leg, lift the toes and go a little bit deeper into the bent leg. As you shift from side to side, you'll know how deep to go on this one. It's a nice stretch for hamstrings, inner thigh, hip, adductors. The less weight you use on your hands, the more weight you'll feel on the thighs. Let's come to a neutral variation. Palms right underneath the shoulders, toes pointing forward, lengthen the spine, and fold wherever the body folds. If the head easily comes to the floor, you might want to walk the feet in a little bit so that you can find the full expression of the pose. The head doesn't come to the floor, just let your body hang wherever it hangs and keep drawing the inner thighs towards each other. Give yourself a little bend in the knees, bring the hands to the hips, engage your core, lengthen, and come all the way up. Good. From here we're gonna bring the hands behind the back, grab onto your elbows, or make fists like this with your hands behind you, or if you're able to do reverse prayer, you're gonna send the fingertips together and slide them up the spine. With a nice shoulder opener here, roll the shoulder blades back, bend your left leg, guide your chest over the left thigh, bow forward, bend your right leg, and slowly rise up. Circumduction of the spine rising all the way up, circling the spine, exhale bending the left leg, folding inside, start to bend the right leg, lean the right ribcage towards the right thigh, and all the way up, maybe even lift the heart for a little back bend. Pulse with your breath. Finish off that last circle, rise all the way up, pause here, keep your right arm on lockdown, release your left arm. Take a side bend to the right and you can use your left hand to guide the right elbow closer to the spine so that maybe you can touch fingertips. If not, this is a great area to use your strap. Put the strap in your left hand and find the right fingertips. Lengthen the spine, going back to our forward fold. Hinge at the hips, be strong with your core. Forward folding, this active forward folding here really helps you pull and open up the right shoulder. Let gravity do all the work. Keep the right arm where it is, bring the left hand to the floor, flat back, lengthen the spine, walk your left hand over to the right calf, ankle, or foot. Take a soft twist to the right. If you want to feel more resistance, bend your left leg. For most of us, straight legs find, but bending that left leg you might feel a nice stretch through your left side body. Keep the right arm on lockdown. We're almost done. Pivot your feet to the right. Good news, you get to lower your left knee all the way down to the floor, but don't move your right hand just yet. Inhale the palms all the way up. See if you can find the fingertips once again. Maybe use the strap. Open up the front of your left hip by dropping deeper into your foundation here. Once you drop into the foundation, make sure the heart's lifting and the chest is lifting so you don't feel this in the lower back. And now we're gonna lower that left hand all the way to the floor. This is my favorite part here. Walk your right foot off the mat, turn the toes out to ten o'clock, and then look over your right shoulder. You get to slowly free the right arm, reach for the back, reach for your left foot, flip your palm to the sky, and let your left ear drop to the floor. So the left ear is dropping towards the left shoulder, trapezius stretch. Stay here or bend your left leg. You can take the quad stretch here or the psoas stretch the front of your left hip by kicking the heel away. Even dropping that left ear gives you that nice trapezius stretch that we were working with earlier.

Great. Release the leg. Heel to your right foot to the center of your mat. We're gonna take a diamond shape with just the right leg. So make sure the right foot is in front of your right knee. You might have to back up the left foot a little bit. Your right heel is in front of the right knee, and let the right foot open to the right. Most of you will feel right here. You can use your blocks if you need to. If you need to feel more, take a little cow-tilt to the spine. Lift your heart. This finds that perfect spot between hamstring and hip, opens up the area really nicely. Good. And then from here you get to straighten the right leg. Last split on this side. You can keep it nice and soft and flex the foot, or if you're moving deeper, bend your right leg and start to heel-toe that right foot forward. You can put a block underneath your hamstring if you start to get low and you want to take a little bit weight off the hands, put the block underneath the hamstring. The giant leap, Hanamanasana. This sets us up for a really nice finale, our arm balance, Kundanyasa B. So you might want your blanket for this one, or something that can be your crash pad. So back your right leg up, walk your right foot off the mat to the right, back to that 2 o'clock. You can keep your crash pad towards the left corner of your mat. And then from here we're gonna take our right palm and bring it right to 12 o'clock. Back up the left knee, bring your left hand to your hip, go straight down, and walk it out to 9 o'clock, about 6 inches. Hug your left elbow in. We're gonna lean towards our crash pad and we're gonna bend the left elbow and the right elbow. The right knee's gonna drop onto the tricep, the left elbow is gonna hug right under the hip, and we lengthen forward. This is the kickstand variation of Kundanyasa B. Did it work? We've got lots of time to practice. If you want to go into the traditional variation, the right hand slides under, the hand moves forward, lengthen and lean, and come on out. You deserve a child's pose. Knees a little wider than the hips. Bring the forehead to the floor. Enjoy a couple of breaths here in child's pose. Invite the breath all the way to the belly and feel the expansion of the side body there. Right on your inner thighs you'll feel the breath moving all the way three-dimensionally, front, side, body, and back body. Reconnect, refuel, get excited about side too because it's coming, and then go ahead and look forward towards your palms. Bend the elbows out to ten and two o'clock, slide forward, hug the elbows in as you inhale, come up to your version of the back bend. Sphinx, Cobra, or Up Dog. Press back to your Down Dog. A long time ago we bent the right leg. Now we are going to bend the left leg and push strongly forward with the left hand. Walk your right hand halfway to the right foot. Lift the left heel to the sky, toes pointing down. Lift the right heel off the floor, bow towards your right shin, and keep the left leg high as you lower the right heel to the floor. Lifting, taking the left leg a little higher and lowering. Two more pulses, less weight on the right hand, maybe come up to your fingertips. One more pulse. Great. Lengthen forward, bring the right hand forward to Plank Pose. Pivot your feet to the right for side plank on the right arm. Stacking. From here we're gonna step the left leg behind the right, kickstand side plank, stay on the toe pads, and fire up that hamstring. Lift your hips, inhale the left palm to the sky. As you exhale, lower your hips, keep the left leg bending, reach for your right big toe with your left hand. Inhale, lift. Exhale, lower. Keep pulsing with your breath. One more and decide if you're using your left hand to help you step the left foot to the front of the mat or doing it arms-free. Look forward, step forward. Lower the left hand to the floor, lower the right knee to the floor, and this is where you might use your blocks for our low lunge pulses. Blocks on either side of the left foot, low, medium, or high with your blocks. And as you press down, draw your hips forward, lift your heart, nice inhalation. As you exhale, move your hips back towards your right heel, straighten your left leg.

Inhale, bend the leg, lift the heart. Exhale, straighten the left leg. If you want to flex the left foot, draw the toes towards the shin. As you straighten the left leg, that's a nice variation. Keep going with your pulses. You got three more. Pulling the toes towards the shins or keeping the toes to the floor as you straighten the leg. Last one, really releasing the back hip. When we release the back hip, it's gonna help us move deeper into the hamstring. Great. Rebend your left leg. Left leg stays bent, right hand reaches back. This is our exhale, and as we inhale, we send the left arm over the head, straightening the left leg. Rebend the left leg, reach your left hand back. I think I said right hand before, don't get that confused. Keep going with your left hand. Straighten the left leg, left arm over the head. Pulse with your breath. Reach back with the left hand. Exhale, bend the left leg deeper. Straighten the left leg, left arm over the head. Last round. Reach back for this one. Flip your palm so it's facing down. Let your right ear drop towards your right shoulder. This act of reaching for your right heel with your left hand will stretch the trapezius muscle. Good. Inhale the left arm over the head, straighten the left leg. Bring the left palm to the block. Little forward fold. Lengthen the heart forward. Setting up for our standing splits. Good idea to keep these blocks right here. Bend the left leg. Shift your weight forward. Keep the left leg bent as you allow the crown of the head to start to draw to the floor. Inhale the right leg to the sky with your toes pointing down. Start to straighten the left leg a little bit more and then bend the left leg. Hug the right knee into the chest. Three more pulses just like this. Maybe dropping a little bit deeper on each exhale.

Pulsing. Last one. Extend the right leg to the sky. Start to shift your weight into the toes a little bit more instead of the heel. One more breath. Stepping back to pyramid pose. So three-quarter step back, not a full step back. Turn your toes in about 45 degrees. You can keep your hands at the blocks. Energetically squeeze your thighs together. That'll help you engage the core. Bring your hands to your hips and then rise all the way up with a flat back. So we're gonna do our core stabilizers here. If you were working with your hands at your hips before, feel free to do the same. If you were doing the interlace before, do the non habitual interlace, the opposite index finger on top. Move your hands away from the wrists if you're doing the interlace. Flat back as you exhale and forward fold. Inhale, rise up. Remember, lengthen and engage the core each time you exhale. Pull the navel up and back so that you're not hurting the lower back. Inhale, rise up. Last one on this forward fold. Keep lengthening as far as forward as you can go. Keep the core gauged and then you can start to fold deeper into the posture. Reconnect with your breath. Bend your left leg. Look forward. Lift your right heel off the floor. Lift your chest the height of your seat and the hands can stay interlaced at the hips or bring them to your block for your warrior three as you get ready to fly. Step back to your high lunge. Reach the palms to the sky. We made it! And then go ahead and lower your palms inside of your left leg. You probably won't use your blocks here. Keep them handy if you do need them. Pivot your right heel to the floor. Pivot your left foot to join the right. Bend right into your right leg. We're gonna pulse from side to side. Moving into Skandhasana, Crouching Tiger. Your toes are slightly turning out as you bend one leg and straight in the left. The lower you keep your hips as you move from side to side, the more you'll feel. If you'd like to start to pull the toes, flex the foot of the straight leg, going a little bit deeper. Less weight on the hands, more intense on the legs. You're in control. You decide. And then come back to a flat back. Bring your palms to the floor. Lengthen the spine. Forward Fold. The hamstrings might be a little more open on the second round. If you want to walk your hands through, pull yourself a little deeper into this. Feel free. If you'd like to take an inversion, you can always set up for your inversion. But we have the opportunity to do a headstand a little later. So save it if you're not ready right now. Great. Bring your palms to the floor. Lengthen the spine. Bend your knees. Engage your core. Rise all the way up. From here, reach back. If you had the elbows last time and you're ready to go a little bit deeper, tighten up your grip. You can always bring the fists together or try. Fingertips pointing down. Roll your shoulder blades forward and start to send the palms up the spine for your reverse prayer. Great. Bend into your right leg. Bow over your right leg with the exhale. Fold to the center of the mat and start bending your left leg. Inhale. Rise all the way up. Squeeze your shoulder blades together as you lift and take a little backbend before you fold to the right. Bending the left leg. Helping you rise all the way up. Connecting with that connection between the upper body and the lower body. Bending the right leg.

Folding inside. Last two rounds. Pull us with your breath. The next time you rise up, hang out right here. Lift your heart. Lift your chest. Good. The left arm stays. If it's not up the spine, get it up the spine or as close to the spine as you can. It's easier if you take your side bend to the left. That way you're able to slide the elbow closer to the midline. We find those spots that we can never put lotion on or sunscreen on by ourselves right into that little area right there. You can use your strap on your right hand. Drop it behind your head. Maybe find fingertips. Toes pointing straight forward. Legs engaged. Heart lifts. Hinge at the hips. Engage your core. Forward fold. Relax into the posture. Reconnect with your breath. Don't forget about your loving kindness, especially in some of these postures that feel a little bit more challenging, right? Always nice to remind ourselves. This is usually when we need it the most. When our arms falling asleep, left hand stays. Walk your right palm to the floor. Flat back. Walk your right hand over to the left calf, ankle, or side of the foot. And as you bow towards your left quad, roll your left shoulder away from you. If you need to feel more, bend your right knee in the direction of your right foot. It'll give you a little bit more resistance. Straighten the right leg. Turn your toes of the left foot to the left. Spinal twisting lunge. Lower the right knee all the way to the floor. Heel to your left foot off the mat. Turn your toes out to ten o'clock and roll your left shoulder blade back. Let your right ear drop towards the right shoulder. This is the favorite spot right here. Slowly release your left arm. Flip your palm about the same height as your shoulder. And then either reach back with your left hand or bend your right leg. Quad stretch opportunity. Pulling the heel into the seat or moving the heel away, opening up the chest. Two or three breaths right here. Slow it down. Enjoy opening up the front of your right hip. Once we get that right hip open, it's easier to go deeper into our hamstrings. We're almost at our finale. Release the right leg. Heel to your left foot to the center of the mat. Make sure your left heel is in front of the left knee, not right under. So you might have to back up the right knee a little bit. And the left foot, roll to the pinky toe side. Lift the big toe side. Your hands are there for support. If you don't feel anything, move your heart. Lift your heart. Cow tilt the spine. Great. Go ahead and straighten your left leg and start to press your heel forward. You might use your block underneath the hamstring or you might slide all the way into your split. A celebration of all your hard work here. Hanamanasana. Hard Hanamanasana or full Hanaman. Great. So we'll set up and see how the arm balance works on this side. This could be your good side. Bend your left leg. Heel toe it off your mat. Turn the toes out to 10 o'clock. Crash pad. The right corner of your mat. Left hand right at the center. When you lean to the right, the left knee is going to drop onto the left tricep.

Right hand goes right underneath the hip out about six inches. Turn the right hand towards two o'clock. Bend your right elbow as you lean forward. Think chaturanga all the way forward. Trying to rest your ribcage, your hip, on top of your right elbow. The left foot can come off and if the left foot comes off, maybe the right foot comes off. The kickstand variation of Kundanyasa B. The traditional variation. Left arm slides under. Lean forward. It's a good one for homework. Great. You deserve another child's pose. Left leg to the sky. Shake it out. Draw the knees a little wider than the hips. This variation of child's pose. We're going to turn it into rabbit pose. Interlace your hands behind the back and then as you start to roll to the crown of the head, move your wrists forward. Drawing the fingers, the pinky side of the finger, forward over your head. Don't turn your neck on this one. Just enjoy the stretch for the back. Go ahead and release the arms. Come into table pose. Alright, from your table top you can walk your knees hip distance and grab onto your blocks here. We're going to tuck our toes under, sit on our heels and put our blocks right next to our heels. We'll bring our hands to the sacrum. Lift to camel pose. Oostrasana. Squeeze your shoulder blades together. Make sure you lift the ribs. Lift the chest. We're going to play with some pulses here. So take your right arm around in front of the body and all the way up. Slow circle. Bring your right hand to your sacrum. Take your left hand around. Slow circle. Bring the left hand to the sacrum. If you're feeling like you're moving deeper, bring your right hand all the way up around and to your block and bring the left hand all the way up and around and to your block. And we'll keep those circles moving. If you happen to end up on your heel, great. If not, find the spot where you start to feel like you're energetically opening up the front of the chest, the shoulders, and getting a nice counterbalancing pose from all of those forward folds. Pause and stay in Oostrasana wherever you're feeling it. Lift your ribs. Lift your heart. Really breathe into the heart center and the ribs. Wonderful. Slowly come down. Move your blocks out of the way. Grab a seat on your heels. Swing your legs around and we're going to lie on to the back for a windshield wiper or two. Letting your knees drop from side to side, helping to release the glutes and lower back from our back bend. Good. Give yourself one more round, neutralizing the spine before we draw the knees into the chest. As you exhale, draw the knees just a little wider than the chest. Reach for the pinky toe sides of the feet. Happy baby pose. And from happy baby pose, bring the bottoms of your feet together. Interlace your hands around the pinky toe sides of the feet. Draw the heels down towards your seat. Now press your toes forward into your hands like you're trying to break the grip of your hands and this will help lift the head and shoulder off the floor. You get nice traction for the upper back and shoulder. And then as you exhale, lower back down. Move the heels away from the feet. Create that diamond shake with the legs, feet over the chest, or even over the head. Lower back starts to lift off the floor. You got one more nice massage for the back before we drop into our shavasana. Press forward with your toes, lift the head and shoulder off the floor, and then roll it all the way back.

Finishing with the diamond shape as you press the sacrum to the floor and then slowly release. Shake any little bits out, anything that needs to move. Rolling the shoulder blades together, flipping the palms up, letting the legs relax, turning the toes out, relaxing the muscles of the face, relaxing the jaw, letting go of any control that you have over your breathing or the muscles in your body. Surrendering into loving kindness, back to the heart center, back to home base. Start to bring a little bit of movement back to the body. Slower, fuller, deeper breaths. Maybe reach the arms over the head and point the toes one more time, just like we did when we started the class. And then as you exhale, hug the knees into the chest. Give yourself a nice, big, much-deserved hug. Rolling to the right side for fetal pose. Take a moment here and help yourself up with your left palm. Coming to your seat. Receiving, absorbing all the effects that we practice. Let it take you a breath or two before the eyes are fully open. Thank you so much for taking the leap of faith with me today and I hope you can keep cultivating the loving kindness that we were working with together and share it with somebody else in your life today. Namaste.