Strong and Mindful Flow

Welcome, my name is Robert, you may know this already, and this is the third live one hour dynamic flow class. So if you've joined me for all of them or you're new, thanks for being here, it means a lot. This is also a part of a series that will, you know, ultimately be pre-recorded and available on the Yoga Anytime site. So it would be eight one hour dynamic flow practices. Okay. And my, before we get started, just my intention here is to get your body moving, work on, you know, accessible flexibility, good range of motion and mobility, uh, some strength. And you know, for sure, no doubt the mindset, the breath, the peace and calm that you can cultivate. So let's take about five breaths together, uh, in this seated position, whatever you've chosen. So align your spine, sit up nice and tall, take a nice fulfilling breath in. It may be the first real breath of the day. Breathe in, take it in and exhale everything out. Breathe in through the nose. Breathe out through the nose or the mouth. The exhale helping us to ground and settle in for the practice. Three more together. Breathe in and breathe out. Two more. Breathe in and breathe out. One more time. Breathe in and breathe out. Thanks for being here. Child's pose. Come on to your hands and knees and push back for a momentary child's pose. We'll do a little combination sequence that I enjoy. So get the knees about as wide as the mat, stretch the arms out as far as you can. And just a reminder now, I might say it several times, but if not anything else, if you get kind of jammed up in a pose or it doesn't work for you, stop, pause, take a breath. That's enough. Okay. So move back into your tabletop. So into tabletop and keep the arms nice and strong and straight and drop the hips down and start to create a little tension, maybe some healthy tension in your low back. Drop the hips from side to side. This will be helpful maybe in like kind of waking up and sending a notice to this area, a message saying we're going to be working in this area from time to time. So get ready, bend the arms, waistline your belly, your chest comes down a little reverse Cobra there. Now inhale back up for Cobra. You can straighten your arms if you've got that. Breathe in here, open the chest, pull the shoulders back and exhale all the way back to your child's pose. Breathe in table, breathe out, let the hips drop, bend the arms and roll down. So it's nice mobility in the spine, your hips, inhale, Cobra, lift up, lift up, gradually straighten the arms, pull the shoulders back and exhale back to your child's pose. One more time, breathe in table, breathe out, hips down, chest open, nice strong position. Exhale, lower yourself down. Good. Come back up through your Cobra, back all the way into child's pose. This is just nice little movement to warm the body up and then back into table. Turn your fingers pointed toward your thighs. If it doesn't work for you, keep your hands the way they were. And let's rock some cat cow here with this hand position. So your palms are facing down. Inhale, draw the chest forward, drop the belly, arch the back and exhale, round it out. So cat pose, push the earth away, pull the low belly up, up in there. You feel a deep stretch through those forearms. Nice counter stretch the wrist. Inhale back through your cow facing pose or cow pose and exhale cat. Nice. Just give the body that well deserved warm up. Inhale, cow pose, exhale, cat. Okay. Come back into a neutral position table and let's get up into downward dog. Curl the toes under lift the knees and press up, up in a way. Okay. Now press one heel down and the opposite heel down. So get that opening in the legs that you desire and maybe appreciate in downward dog. So all the way from your Achilles up to your calves, behind the knees into the hamstrings. Make sure you're pressing evenly and with commitment through all the fingers and knuckles. So there's an even pressing through the hands. Soft bend in the knees and you shoot that tailbone up to get a little lengthening through the low back, mid back.

The beginnings of the practice, right? Sort of slowly moving toward the body with patience and kindness. Knees back down into table. Shoot your right arm. Do this bird dog, right arm, left leg. Try to keep your hips nice and square spine long and try not to dump into the left shoulder, right? So push the earth away. Lift the chest a little bit. Feel the muscles along your spine engage. That's nice. And we'll kind of bring into play cat cow, but with this bird dog knee in, elbow in move. So on your exhale, bring the left knee in toward the center and your right elbow in toward the center and pull up through the low belly and push the earth away. Inhale, extend all the way out. Exhale. Number two of five. Inhale, extend. Exhale, contract. Two more. Inhale, extend. Exhale, contract. One more. Inhale, extend. Exhale, contract. Great core work. Now extend out one more time. Right hand down, left toes down. Slide both your right foot and your left foot over to the right and then lift that left arm nice and high. Ground heavy into that left foot. So a side stretchy plank here. Left arm reaches up nice and high. And then get that side angle kind of move here. So the left arm reaches overhead. You get that big stretch up to the left side and then you can circle and circulate some blood flow in that left shoulder. Breathe some life across the chest, right? Typically we're a little rounded in the shoulder. So open up like a bridge or wheel here. Nice. We're bringing the left hand back down, left knee back down and then right away, shoot the left arm, right leg. Breathe in bird dog, hip square as best you can. And exhale, right knee in, left elbow in. Extend out, inhale. Exhale, number two of five. And remember, push the earth away. Pull up through the low belly. Get some good core action there. Inhale, extend, exhale, contract. Inhale, extend, exhale, contract.

One more time. Breathe it in, lengthen the spine, push through the heel. Exhale, core, core, core, core, core, core. Now extend out one more time. Left hand comes to the mat, right toes, left toes. Both slide over. Ground that right foot like crazy. And then get that right arm nice and high. Okay. So make sure you're stable, grounded. The right arm reaches up and extends overhead so that right shoulder is reaching up over your right ear possibly. And then again, some circulation, some life through that right shoulder. And then really like pull that right arm back and open the chest like a back bend kind of feel. Do this like, I mean, not to sound cheesy or anything, but each and every breath and movement, do it like you're like absolutely in love with your body and your life and your breath. Unconditional love and care. I find that just hard to resist to be fully engaged if you are fully in love. Good. Back into your table. Okay. Curl those toes under again, lift back up into downward facing dog. We're going to fire up a little, little core. So both feet and hands are down. This isn't a leg up movement. Okay. So what you're going to do is as soon as you draw yourself into plank, begin drawing into plank, lift your right foot up and draw your right knee to your right elbow into plank and pull the low belly up, up and embrace the abs. Don't send the right leg up. Send it right back to ground. Push up into downward dog.

And then the left side. Good. Step back and then the right side. That's two, two, all the way to 10. So right three, inhale, exhale, left three. Good job. You can do this from your knees if that's more available. Four, right. Good job. Four, left. This is commitment here. Five, right. Halfway on the right. Five, left. Strong plank. Good. Six, right. Exhale seven or six left. Sorry. Exhale. Seven, right. Exhale. Seven, left. Three more each side. Work through it. Eight. Exhale. Eight on the left. Good. Nine on the right. Nine on the left. Ten on the right. Ten on the left. Downward dog. Arms getting a little tired. Lift your right leg nice and high and send the right foot to the right pinky. So it's nice and out wide. Bring the left knee down. Very nice. You can take whatever wrist stretch you need on that left side, but for now reach the right arm high and drop that left hip down and then circle the right arm back behind you. If you can reach it, grab hold of the left foot. Once you grab hold of the left foot, pull the right shoulder open, chest open again with that kind of back bendy feel and then safely draw the left knee in the direction of your seat while dropping the hips and find your way. Again, be patient, be kind, unconditional love and so interested in the present moment and what's going on. Extend that left foot. So release that and then a little half split action to open up the hamstrings on the right. So go ahead and frame the right foot with both hands, square off the hips and push your hips back, straightening your right leg a bit. You could even cycle in and out. I find that to be really helpful. Instead of staying stuck in a pose, you're in and out and you're coordinating the breath with the in and out. So exhaling toward the hamstrings. Inhale back into your lunge. Lift the chest a little bit and exhale. Straightening out the leg.

Good job. Back into your lunge. Chest up. Good. Quality in the neck and face is calm and relaxed. Back into your lunge and let's take three breaths in low crescent lunge. Okay. So here you go. Find the position in your right leg, left leg and then take those arms nice and high. Bend the arms into that cactus style position and then open up the chest again. You could even like cactus and then thumbs underneath the armpit kind of area around your chest and then push with the thumbs, the chest up. Vulnerable on the front side of the body, alive. Release the arms high. Find your threshold and interest in the posture. Right and left hand comes back down to the mat. Curl the back, toes lift the left knee and then twist open this revolve lunge twist. Left hand grounded. Full commitment of the right foot grounded into the mat. Then open up that chest and shoulder. Really nice. Right hand comes back down. Shoot it back into downward dog. Take a deep breath because you have it and you can. Come into plank pose as you inhale. Exhale our first lowering down. Chaturanga. Inhale for your upward facing. Hips lifted, thighs lifted if you can. Cobra is a nice alternative. Downward facing dog. Okay. So to earn the left side stretchy feels, we're going to come back into plank pose on the breath in and then on the breath out, you're going to stabilize that left arm like crazy and reach your right fingertips to your left toes. Okay. A little cross. You can reach beyond as well. Good. Back into plank both hands and then left side, left hand, right toes. Good. Doing five. So that was one, one. Here's right hand to left toe, two. Exhale left hand to right toes, two. Exhale right hand to left toes, three. Good job. Exhale left hand to right toes. Sorry if it's confusing. That's three on each side. So let's go right hand, left foot. Good job. Left hand, right foot. And last one. Right hand, left foot and left hand, right foot.

Now come back into plank. Come back into downward dog and reach your left hand to your left or right hand to left calf. Ankle somewhere around there and then turn your chest open like you're trying to get underneath the left arm and armpit. My gaze is toward you. Hello. And you're really committed to making sure that left arm is connected to the rest of your body. Release back into plank and the other side. So ground through the right hand, left hand over toward that right calf and then a little twist and rotation. Look underneath your right arm. Good. Back into plank, back into downward dog, left foot to the left hand. Drop it up and out wide. So now you bring your right knee down. Maybe you shake your right wrist out a little bit or do a nice counter stretch for the wrist. Maybe you stay on the fist, drop the hips, left arm reaches up nice and high. Good work. So you have a little bit of a rotation in the spine. You're dropping the hips forward. So your hip flexors opening up your groin and then to add, you can bend the right leg, reach back, take hold, try to take the hold on the outside of the foot. That way the right left shoulder can really open up and it's not rotated inward. Okay. Now that left heel, right heel draws toward the seat. Hips come down. So that stretch in the quad possibly. Right. Am I right? Open up the chest a little bit. So good. Right. Release that. Good. Now walk that left foot over just a little bit more toward the center. Square off your hips and then arms up. Curl the back toes or flatten out the back to the back foot. Hips forward, low crescent lunge arms, reaching again, maybe just cactus arms, thumbs go into the hour edges of your chest, right? Just as a little grip. And then you lift up, encouraging the heart to open, lungs to expand a bit and finish it with one big breath of arms overhead and exhale the hands back down, curl the back toes. Same thing on this side. Level hips, left leg, 90 degrees, plow down through the left foot and then twist open. Good. Now I'm going to turn to my, my rear is going to be facing you, but I'll try to gaze straighten out the left leg and the right wide leg forward fold. Boom. Howdy. How are you? Ground your feet. Legs are straight with a tiny little bend. So you don't get too deep of a bend behind your knees, right? I'm going to get into the heart of the hamstrings, the calves, exhale, big release might create some space in some of the tender spaces or spots in the body. Loosen up the neck and shoulders. Absolutely unconditionally in love. Give that kind of love, right? That's just so natural. Come so easy. Don't pick yourself apart. Back up into a flat back. Come on to the left fingertips and turn and twist open while maintaining the legs in the same position. Try not to move your hips too much. Right arm reaches job, right hand down. We'll do about five on each side. So inhale the left arm high, exhale the left arm high. Keep the chest up. Long spine. Inhale the right arm high. Exhale. Inhale left. Feel it out. Make it your own. Inhale right. Exhale right. Inhale left. Open up the body. Create space. Get out of the head into the bod, into the breath. One more on the left. Nice. Good work. Okay.

Now what you're going to do is basically step the right foot up to meet the left into a forward fold. So turn your left toes forward. Your body swivels forward. Step up. Fold gently. Half lift. Inhale. Stay here. Favorite, favorite movement. Right leg straight. Left leg bent. Left forearm into the left calf and knee. Push the right hip up and back. Lift the chest and rotate open to the right. Reach the right arm high. Good. And then the same thing, right? Consistent movement. Bend the right. Straighten the left. Wedge the right arm in. Open up. Right arm high. Right arm or so the right leg is straight. Left leg is bent. And then you're twisting and rotating open to the right. And then over to the left. So right leg bends.

Left leg straight. Pull the belly in. Brace the abs and rotate and feel it out. And down. Lifting your heels. Bend and straighten your legs a couple of times. Like you're trying to kind of like juice up the knees and the ankles. So when I say that it's like bending the knees and as you're bending them, you're lifting your heels. Good. This time we're going to take your feet out toward the edge of the mat. Open your feet up. Sort of like toes are off the mat. Drop down into like a partial squat. Like you're kind of like in the woods and you got to go, if you know what I mean. Place the hands down. Thumbs are about three to six inches apart. And then lean forward, placing your knees up on your triceps or your shoulders or your elbows and just get a little momentary play with the little crow pose. Boom. Nice. If you're at home, take a moment, right? You can grab a couple pillows key that I find helpful with this is palms down and then try to pull the, pull the hands together. It's going to ignite all the muscles up the arms into the shoulders and chest and then grip through the core. It's some confidence. Have some fun. Nice. Even if it's like a fragment of a second or even it's just, if it's just your overall interest and enthusiasm, it doesn't matter what happens. One more time. Encouraging and supportive to yourself. Good job. Heels down, butt down, and then that rear end up. Heel toe your feet toward one another and exhale forward fold. Let's bend the knees a little bit and rise up. Big breath in as you do so. Palms up overhead. Reach up, reach up, reach up. Standing little gentle back bend and exhale the hands at your heart. Inhale, bring the arms out and up. Exhale the hands together at the heart. 100% committed always to take good care of yourself. Sunny. Inhale, arms high, reach up, reach up, breath in, breath in. Exhale, forward fold. Inhale, half lift. Exhale, walk back into plank. Lower yourself down. Take good care of your arms and shoulders. Inhale, upward facing dog. Exhale, downward facing dog. Good. Walk your feet forward to the front of the mat. Inhale, half lift. Exhale, rise. Exhale, hands to heart. Inhale, arms up. Exhale, fold. Inhale, half lift. Exhale, walk, jump, float, whatever you'd like. Plank. Lower, exhale. Inhale, upward. Exhale, downward. Good. It's time to lift your right leg up and try to get it up there with one step. Right foot to the front of the mat. Left foot to the front of the mat. Exhale, fold. Inhale, half lift. And fold, exhale. Inhale, rise. Exhale, hands to heart. Inhale, arms up. Exhale, fold. Inhale, half lift. Exhale, plank pose, pause. With your knees down or lifted, five quality push-ups. So you breathe in as you lower. Keep and brace your core like crazy.

Go a little slower than you think. Exhale, brace and push. Inhale, exhale, brace and push two. Doing five. Exhale, brace and push three. Exhale, brace and push four. Exhale, brace and push five. Downward dog, lift your left leg up. Inhale, one step if you can to the front of the mat. Right foot to the front, forward, fold, exhale. Half lift, breathe in. Breathe out, fold. Breathe in, rise. Reach, reach, reach, reach, stretch, stretch, stretch. And exhale, hands to the heart. Good, keep going. Breathe in, arms reach, stand tall, exhale, fold forward. Inhale, half lift. Exhale, try jumping back and lower. Push up one and then exhale, lower yourself down. Inhale, upward. Exhale, downward. Nicely done. So ground your left heel quite a bit. It doesn't have to touch, but just the effort and grounding will create strength in your left leg. Inhale your right leg up. Let's take that hip open a bit. Good. Maybe even come up onto your right fingertips. It'll give you a little more space to play on that right side. Good. The work, the mastery of the self is in motion. It's happening right now. This breath in, this breath out, this thought and that thought as it drifts away, right foot to the front of the mat, spin the back heel down, point your left toes forward or at a 45 degree angle, mount the feet strong in the legs and rise for warrior one. Take your arms up overhead. All right. Take it like a generous width in the stance and look back for a moment with your eyes. I see you look back and make sure your left foot isn't pointed out, right? Because in the hip flares open, turn your left foot forward more. This will like make it easier for your shin, your thigh and your left hip to actually draw forward and center and square better. Okay. That's my tip of the day. Arms reach up, cactus arms, heart open, breath expansive. Take a moment to actually bring your hands up to the top of your chest and close the eyes if it doesn't mess with your balance too much and focus deeply on your breath. If you came to the class with intention, some real meaningful purpose. Pick your hands like you're trying to open and crack that chest wide open, slide the hands across, open, open, open, open, open, and then sweep the arms nice and high. Breathe in straight in the front leg, not all the way. Maybe even shorten your stance a tiny bit and then reach forward with your arms while pushing your right hip specifically back. Hands rest on your shin blocks, or maybe you go to the floor for a little pyramid fun. Make sure your back foot is grounded fully and by pushing a lot of pressure into your big toe mound and your heel, you're going to create a nice strong safe environment. Now we're going to continue with the stretch in that right side. Lean forward and lift your left leg up. Could be lifted an inch, six inches, a foot. Maybe it's like fully in a split. You can take your right hand on your right foot, your left hand onto your left foot for a balancing standing split. Don't worry about how high your left leg is. It's a lot on that right side. I get it. And then when you're ready, bring the left foot down to join the right. Half lift, inhale and fold, exhale. Yes. Walk back into plank pose. Lower yourself down. This time, actually, let's go all the way down for a moment. Point your toes back, slide your hands alongside your ribs, lift your hands, lift your elbows, and then lift your chest. A little no hand Cobra action. Feel for a moment that strengthen your upper back. And if you don't feel a lot of strength, know that you're developing it and it will come. Reach back palms facing down, pull the thumbs out and up, open the chest, the rest of your spine getting some good effort here. And then stay lifted hands back into cobra position. Push to lift the chest, belly, thighs, maybe back into downward dog as you feel your back kind of lengthen back out, kind of counter pose it. Now take the left leg, lift it up, push the right heel toward the floor and open that hip on the left side. Come up on the left fingertips, possibly. Good. Take a gaze underneath your left arm, your underarm. We can say hello to one another. Stay here for another couple of breaths and can you for a moment, even if it's a real struggle, just be so grateful for whatever it is you're able to feel right now. Your commitment to yourself, warrior one, square off and step. Back foot down. Remember that angle. Ground the right foot, ground the left foot, strong in the leg, strong in the core, warrior one. Good. So remember that back foot is at an angle. You have a generous width in your feet. Right hip is drawing forward safely and in those arms, reach up, reach up, stay neutral or maybe cactus arms opening the front of the body. You could take the hands to the belly or you can take them up on the heart. Feel the life kind of pulsing through you right now, maybe a little perspiration, maybe a more rapid heartbeat. Reach the arms out and up and exhale, pyramid pose. So what I like to do is I like to reach up with both arms as I straighten out the left leg a bit and I'm going to turn my right toes a little farther forward. So my right hip comes more square and then with planting my feet down like crazy, I'm giving myself the security and confidence to reach forward over that left leg and let go. Pyramid, pyramid pose. Don't worry about your forehead touching of, you know, your thigh or knee. Go with the stretch. How does it feel for you now? Honor it, embrace it, stay here if you know standing splits not in your toolbox today based on your experience on the right or give it a shot on the left even if it was bad on the right. Okay, now come up onto those fingertips, put your right leg up and maybe already that left leg is like saying no, no. Just say yes, yes. It's going to happen for another five breaths or so. You can take both hands or one hand on that left ankle. This will help bring your focus into play a little bit more. Focus into a real balancing pose which is kind of nice and then we bring the right foot down to join the left. Feel some relief. Good. Exhale, forward fold. Inhale, half lift and push the hips back and fold forward over your thighs and then rise up, breathe in, breathe out, hands back to the heart. We're going to move through a standing series on the right and the left. Okay, so let's do this. Arms up, breathe in, breathe out, forward and down. Breathe in, half lift, breathe out, go through your personalized transition. So plank, lower, maybe a push up, upward dog, exhale, downward dog. Right leg lifts, inhale, exhale, send it through.

Ground, build the platform, exhale, and then inhale, rise up for warrior one. This time open up, extend your stance, warrior two. Here we are. Okay, right heel to roughly left heel or right heel in line with the left arch. Neutral pelvis position, neutral spine, open in the chest, strong in the arms and back. Extended side angle. So you keep the same position of your legs and just drop that right forearm on the right thigh. Hug that right hip back so you can feel your left hip come forward and then left arm high. You can stay here. You can bring your right fingertips to the floor. This is like a bikram triangle. Extended side angle might also look like left arm reaching overhead. Whatever you do, breathe. Try not to fall into that right shoulder. Now we'll come into triangle pose. So come out through peaceful warrior first. As you're coming back through peaceful warrior, you're going to gradually straighten out the right leg, reach up to the right side, keep the right leg relatively straight, little micro bend, reach long through the right arm, through the right side of the body. Maybe bring your fingertips to your shin or ankle and maybe floor. And then like your hips are pretty wide open in this one. Left arm flies high, long lines, space breathe. Bend strong back into the right leg, reach up and back, breathe in, breathe in, breathe in. Everyone's favorite, half moon. I'm going to adjust this a tiny bit. Bend the right leg, lift off of the right leg, lift off of that left leg, left hand on the left hip, reach, hover the right hand, ground the right hand, but definitely push hard through that left heel. Left arm can fly high, gaze is downward or to the side. And you're just doing your absolute best to breathe and keep a healthy mindset. Good job. Back into warrior two, wiggle around, settle in, right? Reverse warrior inhale and exhale, windmill the arms to the mat, step back into plank pose, drop down to the left forearm, pause, and I'll face you for the first one. Right forearm is parallel with the front of the mat and you shift your heels over to the right. Stagger or stack your feet, lift your hips, left arm high, stay here, or we'll add some thoracic spine, T spine mobility stuff. Left hand behind the head, left elbow draws down toward the right fist, rotating, inhale, left elbow up for four more, exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. Last one, open up, open up, exhale and switch. Try to stay lifted the whole time. If you need to bring yourself down, do so. Right hand behind the head, hips lifted, left shoulder over the left elbow, right elbow toward the left fist. Sorry, I'm going to make a little adjustment on your exhale. Try to rotate just the upper back.

Inhale, open up, reach the elbow high and exhale, inhale and exhale, inhale and exhale. Last one, lift those hips, rotate, beautiful back into forearm plank, hold for a few moments. Keeping your thighs engaged, bracing the abdominals. Come back up onto your hands, plank, come through a transition or just push back into downward dog, it's your choice. Breathe in, upward dog, pull shoulders back, open that chest again and downward dog, exhale. Left leg lifts, breathe in, warrior one as you breathe out. Okay, so you ground both feet, finish the exhale to inhale rise. Open up into warrior two, as you exhale, nice. Can you close your eyes or at least commit to feeling for a moment how strong you are and how capable? Remind you of the positive attributes of yourself rather than focusing on the negative and take that attitude right into extended side angle. So left forearm, rest gently on your left thigh, right arm high, sorry, adjustment to make friends.

Okay, so left forearm, left thigh, extended side angle, open up, left hip draws back, right hip draws forward a bit and then reach that right arm, reach, reach, reach. And as you're reaching through the right arm and right side, try to press with a little extra enthusiasm in that outer edge of your right foot, bracing through the core as always. A peaceful warrior into triangle. So you come back up, left arm reaches high, breathe in, you start to straighten out the left leg a bit and lengthen through the left side, left fingertips to the desired location, right arm high, gaze up, gaze to the side or down. Bend back into the left leg, see if you can flow right into half moon. So as you're coming up through peaceful warrior, starting to realize you've got your breath, you're starting to develop a still point, the dristy, right hand rests on the right hip and lift right leg, hover the left hand for a moment, find your gaze, find your spots, lift the right leg, push through the right heel, squeeze the right glute, right arm can come up nice and high, bend the left leg, step back into warrior two, reverse warrior our last little pass here, reverse all the way down, step back into your plank, lower yourself down, come to a nice upward dog position or cobra, downward facing dog, good job, time passes so fast when you do this, go ahead and bring the knees down, take a momentary child's pose, push the hips back, stretch the arms forward, forehead draws to the floor or a pillow or your stacked hands, and you focus on your breath for a few moments, stay here or draw your knees a little closer together, reach back to your heels, draw your forehead towards your knees, kind of like getting into a tight little ball here, top of the head to the mat and lift your hips while pulling on your heels, you kind of round out the back, stretch out the lumbar, chew on your shirt a little bit, hopefully you can hear me, nice, come back out of that and onto our seat, so come on onto the seat, just like so, ah, it also just feels, I mean I know I'm trying to teach and get some points across but at the end of the day to be able to feel good in our bodies is just such a gift, right, and there's moments where we tend to slack off and we don't give ourselves the care we need and hopefully this is a reminder and other practices that you do to stay steady with it because it really does work, be patient, okay, boat pose, so I like to pull the heels as close to the body to the rear as possible and that's either with your toes down or maybe that's not possible and you keep your toes up, what I want you to do is pull your thighs in like you're trying to like sit in this little pike position, take the arms straight out in front of you, you're going to feel it in your thighs a little bit, hip flexors, you can stay right here, this is a very strong boat pose, right, or you can take the hands behind the hamstrings, lean back a little bit and pick the feet up, there's a nice boat pose for you, you can keep the same shape of the legs but reach your arms out on the outsides of your legs, keep the core nice and active, if you feel like you want to straighten your legs, straighten your legs, stay active in your feet and rotate your thighs inward toward one another, stay here or reverse it back or stay with me here, fingers down, these little v-sits, so pull the knees in and then extend the legs out, 10, knees in, 9, extend out, 8, in, 7, 6, 5, good job, 4, 3, 2, 1, bring the feet down for a moment, okay, good, now wrap your arms if you can around the backs of your hamstrings and try to grab hold of opposite wrists or elbows and pull in, sit up nice and tall in your spine if you can, okay, the next will be the canoe v-sit, okay, so if you know right away that's not for you, maybe like work on your boat pose a bit, right, whatever level that was for you or layer or progression, but join me if you feel like it in taking the arms out, straighten those legs and then ground down into your low back and you can hold right here in canoe or you can come up and draw the knees in as a knee bent boat, nice, 10, 9, 8, 7, good job, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and lower back down into canoe and hold, if you want a little more emphasis, take the arms overhead, ouch, oh, ow, ow, ow, lift the shoulders higher and relax, so important to keep the core nice and alive, okay, last little hit here, so draw the right leg in, extend the left leg out, you can stay right here and work on your core and hip mobility with these handheld bicycles, which is super, super sufficient and perfect if that's all you're feeling right now, or you can do the same thing with the shoulders up, okay, so now you got your core just a little more engaged, you can do this hands-free or then even fingertips to your temples and rotate and rotate wherever you are, 5, 5, 4, 4, 3, 3, 2, 2, 1, 1, one more, 1, 1, and ah, nice, so of course you know you can do as much core as you'd like, one of these days I think I'll do a primarily just a core class, I think that would be wonderful, bridge pose to help stretch and open, always a favorite of mine after core, so feet below your knees, shimmy those shoulder blades underneath you, push the chest up, open up your hip flexors, you can interlace your fingers if you'd like, I prefer not to, breathe some nice full breaths into your body, imagine your lungs, so grateful, starting to slow down, undo the shoulder blade work to try to connect to the center of your back and lower down, right ankle over the left thigh, so recline pigeon, figure four, I wonder if you'd like to call it, okay, point your right toes up just like you've been doing throughout class, right, when your feet are on the ground you're pushing into the ground to create stability in the leg, it's the same thing here but it's meant to protect the knee on the right side, lift your left leg up, left foot, weave the right hand underneath your right calf, left hand comes all the way around to grab the shin or the hamstring, breathe in and exhale, pull the legs toward you as you draw your head and your shoulders back down to the mat, you play around here with what might feel like a nice pigeon pose right about now, I hope I haven't forgotten anything, I feel like it's one of those things, you know, you're always bound to forget one side of something or a variation but if you caught that you were able to even it out for yourself, I think we've been pretty good, okay, why don't we just go ahead and just release your hands and like stay right here but just crisscross the legs, right, so we just went from the right ankle over the left, undo and left ankle over the right, find your hold and pull in, we have about six or seven minutes at the most left together here, this is such a treat for me, I look forward to these Tuesdays quite a bit, so okay, let's undo that and then keep the knees out wide, let's open up into happy baby, so knees out wide, slide the hands, if it's just not accessible to meet the feet, take your hands out wide and hold on to your knees and your shins where they meet or take them on the inside actually, right where the shin meets the knee, arms will be straight and you just let your legs drop into your arms, so you have a little kind of hook hold over the shins, if you want more emphasis, reach up, take hold of the outer edges of your feet and find your this version of happy baby, there's no better version, it's like this version, that version, this option, that option, for me it's like it's really more about the connection I have with my overall self, the relationship I continue to develop and work on and hone, I'm not looking for a quick fix or a hack into anything, I want to really understand what I've been given, that takes time, stay there or release and we can take the arms out into a field goal shape and let the knees kind of cross from side to side, as if you're just like listen man, I'm done, it's that kind of effort, as is this real lazy yet probably feels nice, windshield wiper from side to side, so your feet are about as wide as the mat or wider even and you let your hips swivel and switch sides very easily and you could take even your arms overhead like you've just found a perfect position at the beach or in your bed or you're comfortable, and when you come back to center, drop both legs in, you might have to change your arm position but let's drop both knees over to the right, shift your your hips over to the left before you do that, so both knees over, right hand as a weight drops on the outside of your left thigh, and you reach long through the left arm so you get that counter twist, with everything going on it's just nice to almost like just use this as an escape inward, switch sides, not to ignore what's going on but just to kind of give yourself a break, a much-needed break, so legs are over to the left, right arm reaches out wide or even just like to refuel and re-shift your perspective or that's a longer conversation I guess, you can stay and twist from side to side if you'd like, we can come back out, draw the bottoms of your feet together, knees open, bound angle, and place your hands up on your heart or left hand up on the heart, right hand on the belly and feel the breath draw in and out, a reminder that you're devoted to doing your absolute best and taking care of the people you care about and beyond, that there's no they, it's just all of us, so all of us doing our best, figure it all out, and yoga practice is a nice way for us as individuals to to begin rewiring ourselves, stay here because that just feels kind of nice or stretch your legs all the way out and take a full body stretch, reach your arms up overhead, point through the toes, go through your heels, roll your ankles, and as you're doing this know that it's it's enough, you've done enough for now and you can rest, so we'll lie here together for about a minute or so, and then you can choose as I'm closing out in a seated position to stay longer, you're in your own space, you can do whatever you'd like, take a deep breath all together, so join me right now, breathe in fully and exhale it all the way and allow your entire body to relax for your legs heavy, your back grounded, your arms heavy and face relaxed stay here, soak it up, give yourself the gift of relaxation if you'd like to close now with me seated it's up to you if you're sitting with me or lying down we're going to take a couple breaths just like we began so we'll close out as we began, breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, and breathe out and finally take the arms overhead, breathe in, take a full long stretch, inhale, inhale, inhale, inhale, hands rest at your heart it's been a gift to be able to offer this again so thank you for being here now today or if you're watching this pre-recorded namaste