Core Tune Up

Welcome, everybody. Nice to see you. I do see you very clearly and I appreciate you being here with me today or if you're watching this later on as it's pre-recorded. So welcome to yoga anytime and welcome to me, my home, the practice that I will share with you today. So super stoked, as always, to be able to share my practice with you the best way I possibly can. All right. So come to a seated position. I have a little double pigeon going on here. I think I'll go to just a nice little seated cross legged position, crisscross applesauce. Just begin to settle in. What a gift to be able to move your body in the ways that you are going to move it. So immediately positive, positivity, positive mindset, right? That wins always. Hands on the legs somewhere, spine nice and tall, shoulders relaxed. Take a nice deep breath in through your nose, like from the diaphragm, all the way up and all the way down. Two more. Breathe in and breathe out. One more time. Inhale and exhale everything out. Close your eyes for a few seconds, sitting quietly with yourself, with me, with everyone else joining right now, everyone else in the world around us. And think about creating an intention today for your practice. What motivates you? What really motivates you to go through the whole practice or whole process of arriving here with me now? So what motivates you? What is your purpose? Why do you do this? Why do you roll the mat out? And then without getting too heady or like it's a test, maybe apply a word or a phrase, a mantra, something you can attach to your breathing. Even if it's just like, I want to focus on my breath today. Inhale, I'm breathing in. Exhale, I'm breathing out. Inhale, I am strong. Exhale, I am relaxed. Something that's personal to you. So we'll sit for about 30 seconds. I'd like you to just kind of move in that direction, thinking about a word or a phrase that you can repeat throughout the practice to yourself or fragments. You catch it, you know, you'll do it for five rounds and your mind will run off and you'll bring it back. And you know, maybe it's a sporadic mantra, which is probably the reality. That's the way it probably works with me. Breathe into it. Feel it right. Feel it in the belly. Feel it in the heart. Let it settle in and then begin to move your spine, primarily the spine. So we're gonna do some seated cat cow. So inhale, send the chest up and the shoulders back, chin up, exhale, chin down, round the shoulders forward and start to pull the belly in. So seated cat cow. Now we're in cat pose. Inhale, come through, open up, lengthen, extend the spine and exhale, round out the back, tuck the chin. You feel that stretch across the back. Inhale and exhale cat pose. One more round, breathe in, open up the throat, exhale and you round and close and spread your shoulder blades out wide. Super nice. Inhale back to a centered neutral spine. Take your right hand to the floor. Take your left arm up high and we'll take a side bend. So we're just starting to build a little awareness in the spine, your side body. Come over to the other side. So your left hand grounds or your fingertips or even your forearm, reach the right arm high and go for a nice, generous stretch and you roam around, right? Just roam around in these shapes. Feel the freedom to roam and make it your own. Okay. Side bend.

You can always revisit these shapes if one felt like dialed in money to you. Take a spinal twist. Now left hand to the right leg, right hand back behind you. We're going to try to get into some twisting today. So rotate, rotate. You want to rotate from the ground up. So lengthen up on the breath in and exhale, twist to the right. Don't force anything. We've got plenty of time to come into another twist. Super nice. Come back over to center and rotate to the left. So right hand is on your left leg, left hand back behind you. Use your arms to pull your chest up to lengthen the spine and rotate. Exhale as you do so. Good work. Back over to center. Take the arms up. See what it feels like to flirt with reaching your arms out in front of you, either right in front of your legs or slide them out and fold over your lap and see what kind of stretch you can feel in your low back or maybe you feel it in your hips. How's your breath? So that integration, this is the integration period from life off of the mat to your life on the mat for this practice. So we start slow. You just feel out the body, take a few deep breaths and you build the energy, you build the heat and awareness. Take it back now, hands back behind you, fingertips or the whole palm of your hand down, pull the shoulders back, chest. So it's an exaggerated version of cow pose. So extension and lengthen the spine. If you want like a hip extension, lift the hips. See what that feels like. Roll the shoulders back. Now take a good hearty breath from the belly. Actually take it down from your hips. Just imagine it. Hips lengthening, belly expanding, rib cage expanding, chest and bring it all back down. Nice. I'm going to turn. You can stay exactly where you are. Turn the length of your mat and we'll come right into the, my, one of my favorite exercises of rotation. So your legs are bent like into a like downward dog shape, right? Inverted V arms out in front of you and we're going to rotate by bringing the right hand back behind. You reach the left arm out in front of you and like you're trying to reach something all the way over and down. So this is more about like getting a twist. We'll get into the core in a few moments and then you rotate over to the other side, left hand back behind you, right arm reaching forward and over and just get those hopefully somewhat yummy. Use that word over to the left, yummy sensations that the twist can really offer you and you can get a little rounded here and find those stretch spots. Maybe you get a little crack a lack in the back, a safe crack a lack. Okay. One more over to the left. So left meaning left hand back behind you, right arm reaching over and stretching. Now bring yourself back to center. Keep the chest up. Arms reach out straight out in front of you. Now your legs are going to have to start to work a little bit. Your hip flexors lean back a little bit, hug in tight to the abdominals. Now you're just going to tap the arm back behind you. So we'll do five on each side, rotate, twist, tap the right hand back behind and bring it back forward. Now the left hand back behind, we're just warming through the core. So be patient. Right hand back, exhale, hands meet. Left hand back, exhale, hands meet. Let's go. Three, inhale, left, exhale, three, inhale, right, exhale, right, four, inhale, left, exhale, left, four. So one more on the right, exhale, one more on the left, exhale, boom, pull those shoulders back. Now lean back just enough to be able to lift those legs up. Maybe even take hold of the hamstrings or bring your hands down to the mat. Now, no doubt you're feeling this in your upper thighs, hip flexors. All right. I apologize, but let's see if we can flirt with boat pose. Okay. Bring your arms out in front of you, lean back just a little bit, but try to stay lengthen in the spine. Keep your feet active, toes up, spread out, maybe even flirt with straightening one or two legs. Boom. Keep your feet active, push through those heels, arms reach out and breathe and smile and enjoy the ride. Take a break when you need a break. Ooh, good.

Now bend, bring the feet down, hands come down to the mat for a moment. Just give yourself a little like windshield wiper from side to side. So your hands are grounded, you're upright and you're hinging and kind of rotating through your hips. So this is the recovery before we start to knock the core out of a park or in New England where I am, you knock the core out of the pack, the pack sounds kind of awesome. Okay. Now back to center back into boat. There we go. Now your hands come down to the mat. We'll do 10, what they call like V sits, right? So we're in a V you inhale, reach the legs out in front, point through the toes or the heels and exhale, pull the knees and thighs back to the body. Ooh, there's one inhale, extend out, exhale to squeeze. Again, you're going to feel it in hip flexors. Pretty normal three. Inhale, extend out, exhale for give a little crunch of the thighs moving in abdominals working. I hate that word crunch, but kind of is appropriate sometimes five, six, seven, exhale eight, exhale nine, exhale 10 feet back down and you're going to lower down to your back now. Good. Lower all the way down. Okay. A little more core play for you. Take your hands underneath your low back, right around your low back or pretty much under your bum. Now take your legs straight up. Okay. Now lift your head, lift your shoulders and come onto your elbows and forearms. So now you're sort of curled up in your upper torso. Now inhale the left leg down, not all the way, about three quarters of the way and exhale back up. Inhale the right down. Exhale up. Inhale left. This is number two. Inhale, exhale two. Inhale, exhale three. Exhale three. We're doing 10. Good. Four, four, five, lower the right. Lift the right five. Nice. Now five leg lifts, double leg lifts. Inhale lower down. Exhale, lift back up. Keep pushing through the forearms and elbows so you can get those abs nice and tight. Let's go. Exhale three. Exhale four. Exhale five. Good. Now release the arms out. Ground your back. Keep the legs active here. Legs are bent 90 degrees. Arms straight up. Dying bug, dead bug. So you have to, this is a mental exercise as much as it is a core exercise. So again, lift the head and shoulders, upper back lifting, arms straight up. Inhale the left leg out and the right arm back, but stay firm through the core. In fact, lift up a little higher through the chest. Exhale, right arm back, left leg back. Now right leg, left arm. Extend, extend, extend. Good. That's one, one. We'll go to five. Left leg back, right arm back. Keep pushing the mid back down to the mat and two. Inhale, right leg, left arm, and exhale. That's two. So three more total. Inhale, left arm, right leg. Exhale. Inhale, right leg, left arm. It's a little confusing. So just do your best. That's three. Left leg, right arm extends. You can bring your head and shoulders down.

Inhale right leg, left arm. Extend back, but stay home in the core. Boom. Nice. Left leg, right arm. Extend and back. Inhale, right leg, left arm, and boom. Okay. I think that's five, but let's do bonus. Left leg, right arm. Extend, extend, extend, and exhale. Right leg, left arm, and exhale. Good job. Bring your feet down for a moment. Take a pause. Take a deep breath in. Exhale everything out. All right. Fingertips to the temples. Okay. Not behind the head here. That way you don't yank your head. What I want you to do with your feet grounded so we get out of our hip flexors now, our legs kind of relax. It's just the abdominals. Ten times you're going to lift your chin and chest to the ceiling. So on your exhale, peel the head, peel the upper back, up off. Good. There's one. Inhale lower. Exhale two. Inhale lower. Exhale three. Inhale. Exhale four. Good job. Stay with it. Exhale five. Exhale six. Exhale seven. Good work. Exhale eight. Exhale lift nine. Exhale lift ten. Take a pause. Take the arms straight up and the legs bent 90 degrees again. Now lift your head and shoulders up a lot. Stay here or take your arms back behind you and your legs straight out and hold. So you're in this canoe pose. Lift, lift, lift for five, four, three, two, and relax. You know what's amazing about this, my friends, is that now we reverse it all the way back to where we started. Okay. And then we'll get to flowing a little bit, but it's really nice to get this area tuned up, get some skill level in there, some intelligence on how to work this area effectively. So fingertips to the temples on your exhale, go another ten. Exhale, lift up ten. We'll go down. Maybe it seems easier. Exhale nine. Exhale eight. Exhale seven. Exhale six. Exhale five. Starting to burn, definitely. Four. Exhale three. Feels good when you're done though. Exhale two. And exhale one. Hold and release. Ha, ha, ha, ha. Okay. Dying bug. You can come up with a better term if you don't like it. I'm not really encouraging bugs to die, but it does look like it if you've ever seen it. Okay. So we'll do five on each, each side. Okay. So again, lift the head, lift the shoulders, pack those abs in. Boom. Stabilization. Left leg, right arm, extend exhale, other side. Inhale, exhale. Other side, inhale. Exhale. Other side, inhale. Exhale. That's two. Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale. That's three. Inhale, left leg, right arm, And exhale, woo, inhale and exhale.

Last one on the left and right, boom. Now right leg left, arm extend, extend, extend and ha. So nice, hands underneath the bum, right around where it meets the low back, stack your palms, send your legs straight up. Left leg down, inhale, exhale, lift. You can keep your head and shoulders down or push up.

Again, get those abdominals engaged. Inhale, right leg down, exhale. Now just go, let's go for about 30 seconds. Just inhale a leg down and exhale a leg up, exhale, exhale. Keep pushing through either your toes or your heel, whatever you need to do to keep the leg muscles super engaged.

All right, good. Let's go another 15 seconds. You can do double leg if you'd rather. Stay steady, stay committed, stay motivated. Five, four, three, two, one.

Take a break, nice. Again, this is just a little tune up, right? Okay, now finisher is gonna be nice. You're gonna roll up to sit. Now, you're gonna stay right here with the V-sits and do 10 of them, right?

Bam, bam. Or you're gonna lower down right around here, right? Legs straight out, arms straight out, then pull the knees in and come up to sit for 10. So it's canoe to boat two, canoe to boat three, canoe to boat four, canoe to boat five. Five more, exhale six.

You can kind of rock it just to kind of cheat it a little bit or just to keep your back healthy. Seven, eight, nine, oh, 10. Now roll back down, push the feet into the mat and let's get a really nice big open bridge pose. Good job. So walk the shoulder blades under you as much as you can, keep your feet hip width, knees stacked over the ankles.

Breathe some love up through those hip flexors that maybe got a little overworked. Nicely done. We'll get a little flow going here shortly. But it's just an example of like yoga practice can look like anything, anything. Lower back down, roll up to sit.

Whoo, feel that. I feel that. Come onto your hands and knees, push back into child's pose. So we're gonna do our best to kind of keep a fluid. This is dynamic flow, right?

A fluid dynamic flow. That's sort of like not gonna stay too long in one pose. But do set those hips back into child's and reach the arms forward. Stretch those hips out, your low back. Take a good quality breath.

The key here as we move through all the moves that we're gonna make is to pay attention to how it feels and get like really interested, motivated. Mantra, what is it for you? Come back into table or into table, drop the hips, good, keep the arms straight. Send your left hip to the left and your right hip to the right and start to feel out the hips and the low back. Good, lower yourself down, bend the arms, waistline, belly, chest and come back through.

It's like snake-like, right? I mean, it is called cobra. Inhale, cobra, a little gentle upward dog and then back into child's pose, good job. Back into table, that reverse up dog cobra maneuver. Yes, good mobility for your back.

Inhale, lift, straighten the arms, pull the shoulders back, drop the left tip, drop the right hip and then all the way with your exhale, back into child's pose. And you take that groovy movement into downward dog. So curl the toes from table, lift up, up and away and begin that movement exploration, the exploration of you, your body. So downward dog, you've got the, your fingers spread out nice and wide. You wanna rotate your forearm bones out away from the midline, elbows point down toward the floor, chest draws toward your thigh, your toes.

And then you send the hips as high as you can. We're looking for a good position in your spine. Neutral, neutral, neutral. Keep pedaling it out, right? If you're looking, you're seeing that I'm bending one leg and straightening the other.

I want you to, I should share that information with you. Bend one, press a heel down heavy. Good work. Now let's keep on moving, walk to the front of your mat. Stay low though, when you get there, you're in a forward fold, right?

Half lift, breathe in, stay here as you breathe out that ever so familiar rotation. Right leg straight, left leg bent, long spine, abdominals engage and you rotate, twist. I told you there'd be more twists and more to come. Bring the right knee, bend it, straighten the left and twist open to the left. Beautiful.

Now this is a different one. It's a rotation, but it's in a little kind of mini chair. So push your hips back, like you're gonna sit down in the old imaginary chair. I'll start with this side. Take your right hand on your left knee and your right forearm on your right knee.

Try to keep your hips level, knees hip width. Now take your left hand behind your head and rotate and twist open. And as you're twisting open, you're really pulling that left knee and keeping it toward the midline. So another twist while sitting in chair. Good, now we rotate from side to side.

Try not to change the dynamics of your chair or the lengthening of your spine. Left hand, right thigh, and you grip on that and keep that right knee honest and right arm reaching up and opening or the hand behind the head. Good, strength, mobility, all of it. Left hand behind the head. Good, on a spine here, twist and rotate.

Oh my goodness. Right hand behind the head, twist and rotate open. Oh, yummy, yummy, yummy. Forward fold, exhale. Like I just can't express it.

Maybe you need to do it a little longer for you to like get the yumminess of it, but oh, get there, man, it feels nice. Okay, walk it out a little bit in this forward fold. Now, what I want you to explore in forward fold is coming on like you're almost trying to like peel the inner arches of your feet up to come on to the outsides of your feet and ankles, right? So there's a big stretch down the sides of your legs. You lean a little bit and it's again, it's just exploring it out.

See how those different movements of your feet affect the rest of your leg, let's say, right? Everything's kind of connected. Now we're gonna walk the feet out toward the edge of the mat. Heels stay on, toes off, drop down to a little squat. Let's begin to kind of like open up the hips.

And a lot of cues are keep the spine neutral, but sometimes it's nice to really like round it out like you're in a child's pose, like a deep hip open child's pose. So you can reach your hands forward and round your back out, but keep dropping the hips down. So it's like cat pose in squat. Now here would be cow pose and squat, length and spine. Lift the seat back up, forward fold.

So you walk those feet back toward hip width, half lift, inhale, it's a lot on the low back. So be mindful, inhale here. And then as you exhale, bring the hands down and step your right foot back. Let's get long, long, long in a lunge, okay? So you can even send that right knee all the way down as you take your left hand on top of your left thigh.

Now make sure your left foot is out toward the edge of the mat. And you focus on exhaling that right hip down, like exaggerate it, throw the right hip toward the floor, lean your body a little bit, nice. And then you're gonna push the hips back and straighten out that left leg a bit, see what that feels like. You can even take your hand, your left hand to the hamstrings of that left leg and just kind of like feel it out, little self massage is nice. Good, back into the left leg, that lunge deeply.

It's okay to let the knee go forward, there's no weight on it, safe, okay? Now curl the back toes and lift that right knee, make sure the left foot is out wide, more twist. Told you, left hand behind the head, post up strong on the right arm, you can bring your right knee back down if you're fatigued. Now take that left elbow up to the sky, up to the high, the ceiling, that's it. You can stay here or take the left elbow as you exhale down toward the mat.

Inhale, extend and rotate open. Such an amazing posture and series of movements. Exhale the elbow down toward the mat, we'll do five. Inhale, open up and exhale. Inhale, test yourself a little bit, stay with it when it gets uncomfortable.

Exhale, let's go one more. Open up, open up and then take that left arm and really bring it high. Let's see what it feels like to straighten out the left leg, maybe come up onto your fingertips and you open up with like a triangle kind of pyramid twist. Ooh, nice. Left hand back down, step back into squat, hips are like, yay, like opened them up enough, probably don't even need to do any more of that, but drop down into your squat.

Now here's what I wanted to kind of play with in between sides is crow, right? Always a worthwhile endeavor, hands to the mat, thumbs are about three to four inches wide. Now lift the hips and kind of hop your feet a little closer together like crow feet, right? Your heels are lifted, back is probably rounded. Now bring the knees up onto the triceps or your elbows are up by your shoulders.

Now look forward a little bit and don't really think about it, just lean into it and lift. Both feet are one. And maybe if it's one, you alternate, right? You're here and you just go, oh yeah, feeling it. Up, working towards something.

I'm motivated. You can rest and you can pop right back in and hold and breathe. Use that core work that you've done. Good. Ah, yes.

Right foot forward, left foot back. So now we get this side. So left hand down, right hand on the thigh, right hand on the right thigh and you drop into those hips, hip flexors. You drop that left thigh or left hip down, kind of lean, exaggerated over to the side. Feeling it out.

And then we can drop the back knee, push the hips back and straighten out that right leg a bit. So with the half split, you're gonna either find yourself all the way down and sitting on that back heel and folding like so, or it's a little more hips over the knee, slide the right foot forward, kind of shape. Two options there. Okay, wherever you were with that, come back into the lunge. Open to get the other side of the twist.

Right elbow down toward the floor as you rotate and you engage that core. Inhale, bring it up. Lift the back knee if you prefer. Rotate and twist. Exhale, elbow toward the floor.

Inhale, rotate up and open. That's two. Exhale down. Inhale up. So much going on here.

Do your best. Inhale up. Exhale down. Now inhale that right elbow up, up, up, up, up. Straighten out that right arm.

Maybe come up on your left fingertips. Straighten out that right leg a bit as an option and rotate, twist. It looks like maybe a little triangle or pyramid, but you're reaching, twisting. Super nice. Right hand back down.

Step the left foot up to join the right. Squat pose again. Okay, now from here, take the chest up, arms forward, drive through your heels. Make sure your knees are nice and safe and rise up. Man, hips are like, what?

Okay, now we're gonna do these little sun salutations, but they're through a squat, all right? So see how they feel for you. Exhale everything out, ground yourself. Inhale, bring the arms out and up. Take a nice, generous stretch here.

Exhale down into squat. Plant the palms, step back into plank. Good job. Bring your knees down. Let's do a pushup and push back up, nice.

Pause here, inhale. Exhale, halfway down. Inhale, pull yourself through that upward dog position. Arms nice and strong. And exhale, downward dog.

Take a clearing breath. Yeah, good work. And you're gonna lift your right leg up. Inhale, the transition is right foot to right pinky. Look, and when you do that, you can really like, oh yes, got lizard going on again.

And then the left foot steps, squat pose again. Inhale, rise up and exhale the hands to your heart. Inhale, bring the arms high. Exhale, squat. Now check it out.

You can have a little fun here. Maybe bring the hands down and flirt with not stepping, but actually jumping. And if you jump back, try to bend your arms as you're landing in plank. Upward dog, breathe in and breathe out downward dog. Nice.

That jump back kind of spring loaded thing is a little more of a tutorial, but just see what it feels like for you. Play around with it. Inhale, the left leg up and exhale, step it to the left pinky. Remember when you land it there, you can really like, oh yay, play around in that shape again. Then you step the right foot up, squat pose.

Mobility, strength, flexibility, breath work. Inhale, arms high and exhale, hands to the heart. Inhale, bring the arms high. Exhale, squat down, palms, step or jump back. Good.

Inhale upward and exhale downward. Don't sweat the jump back right now. It's just an offering to, you know, if you're kind of feeling it right now. Right leg up, inhale and exhale, step it. Step the left foot, exhale, squat.

Inhale, rise and exhale. Inhale, bring the arms high. Exhale, squatty time, palms down, step or jump. Add a push up or two or three. Why not?

And meet me in up dog and then down dog. Good work. Left leg lifts, breathe in. So here it is, right? It's an inhale, left leg up, the exhale steps.

Pause long enough for a breath in. Use your exhale to step the right foot up and squat simultaneously. Inhale, rise and exhale, hands to heart. Inhale, we'll add to it. Exhale, squat, palms down, jump back maybe.

Add a push up, two, three, four, five. Upward dog, we meet. We don't feel like we're in a rush. We feel stoked with how we feel. Even if it's a little difficult, downward dog.

All right, it's work, it's effort. Gotta put it in. I want your body to feel a certain way. Right leg up, breathe in and step it up. This time you're stepping it to like right center.

All right, so it's like right center of the mat. I gotta slow down. I'm getting excited here. But that's what it does, man. It's like you get moving and the blood's pumping and the energy's moving and the hormones and it's just like, yes.

So I hope, hope, hope that some aspect of my energy can come through and sort of, you know, you know what I'm saying. High lunge, so we can rise up into high lunge. I'll calm myself down a little bit. That's all it takes. Breath in and breath out.

Okay, take the arms high. We'll take about three or four breaths here in high crescent lunge. I like to take the cactus arms, pull the arms back, throw the chest through, get the direction, the front body and that strength in the back. Now bring the hands back to the heart. Straighten your front leg, shorten your stance just a bit.

Pyramid pose, okay? So we've got pyramid pose. Straighten your right leg, but put a tiny little micro bend in it. Push the hips back and fold forward over the right leg. So we've opened the hips quite a bit.

Let's get into the hamstrings. Drive very deliberately into your back foot, into the big toe mound of your front foot. Loosen up the tension in the neck. So we're gonna flirt with just a little revolved triangle. So if you do have a block or something, you could lift your hand up onto, which would be to the left of your right foot, do that.

Otherwise, if you don't, you don't wanna take the time for it. Take your left hand over to your right ankle or shin. Push the right hip back. Make sure your right leg and left leg are strong as can be. And then you start to just flirt with turning the chest to the right.

Turning the chest to the right and maybe right hand stays on the right hip to keep pushing that right hip back. Or you maybe take that right arm high. Hug in, tighten up through those abs. Big and tense stretch for that right leg. Keep pushing through the left heel.

Oh my goodness. Now you're going to come back out, but come out with like a good long spine. Good work. Hands to the mat. Slide your left foot back like a six inches of foot or something.

Straighten out that right leg again. Little micro bend. And then the right hand now goes on the right shin or ankle and you open the left hip. Open that left hip and shine. Literally like shine open into triangle poles.

Yeah, that's it. Good clean long lines. Oh, now you're going to bend the right leg and we're going to reverse peaceful, exalted warrior. Now windmill the right arm and the left arm down. Step it back into plank.

Momentary side plank. So let's go those heels over to the right. You can bring your right knee down. Left arm high. If you don't want that knee down, shoot the right leg back staggered or stacked.

Lift up through the hips. That's it. Take the left arm and stretch it up over your head. I'm right here with you right here. I'm doing it.

I'm feeling it. Other side. Let's see what that feels like. Up and over heels to the left. Left knee can come down.

Make sure if you do that, your knee is right below your hip and you can just have maybe a more pleasurable experience, a more stretchy kind of like, yes. That's what I'm in the mood for kind of moment. Step it back if you'd like. Lift the hips or do both, right? You're here long enough.

Right palm is facing down toward the floor as it extends over alongside your right ear. And you are strong here. Strong. Good job. Back into plank.

Lower yourself halfway down or all the way. Your call always. Upward dog, breathe in. Downward dog, breathe out. Okay.

Take downward dog here to kind of readjust. Readjust those hips. Get a little jiggy with it. Isn't that a Will Smith song? Get jiggy with it.

I don't really know what that means except maybe just get a little groovy with it. Soften the joints, right? It doesn't have to be super rigid all the time. And then we'll get jiggy with it in the high lunge. Left leg up, step it up.

Oh, yes. And then rise up. And settle. Here's where you have to be serious. Really take it serious, okay?

Come this around. Open the arms, open the chest, open that beautiful heart of yours. Nothing but love, nothing but love. So that internal dialogue, love, positivity, kindness. All of your like the best, best aspects of you come through through your practice.

Hands, heart. Right foot forward a little bit. Straighten out your left leg. Hips like perfectly square. Exhale with a softly bent left leg, forward and down.

80%, 70%. Something that allows you to actually kind of be here without suffering when it is gonna be over. How's your breath? Pyramid pose, hamstring stretch. That's about what it is.

Keep grounding the back heel, the big toe mound of the front foot, releasing the tension in the neck. I had to do that just now, man. That's a habit worth changing. Okay. Now come up halfway, right?

You gotta get into this revolved triangle with a good strong spine. Right hand, left shin. So stay higher than you think. Don't feel like you have to go to the floor because that's just not a true thing. Left hip pulls back.

And as you pull the left hip back, keep rotating your left shin bone in toward the midline and push into the big toe mound. That's your stability, okay? Now you twist and take your chest, maybe toward me. I don't know which direction you're in, but I am facing you now and that feels nice. I feel connected.

Left arm high, lot going on here. So be very mindful, mindful, always mindful. Open up and breathe. Oh man, look up if that feels all right. And then the exit, right?

The transition's important. Left hand to the hip, put a little bend in that left leg, lengthen to undo. Take your hands back down, slide your right foot back, straighten the left leg, slide the left fingertips up the shin and open gradually into triangle pose. That may or may not feel relatively spacious and open and maybe a little relief. How's your breath?

Okay, now bend the left leg, reverse that warrior, reach up and back, take a big breath up the left side and exhale, windmill the arms to the floor, spin the back heel up, step back, downward dog. Okay, get a little groovy with it again. So when I say that, like maybe take both heels over to the left and your hips over to the left, like you're trying to kiss the left hip down on the floor, you might feel a little stretch there. You can send that, try to kiss the floor on the right with your right hip, good. Back up, bring the knees down, push the hips back, child's pose, stretch those arms out, but then once you get them stretched out, maybe take the arms, the hands back towards your feet and your forehead down toward the mat.

So the key word with all of that, so find your sweet spot, and there's nothing to see here right now, is toward, toward the floor, hips toward the heels, heels in the direction of the floor. Don't feel like they have to land in these spots. It's honor where your body is, breathe your body, whatever given part, breathe it in the direction, move toward that space with like, again, with that love and kindness and patience. And that's not like yoga, sweet talk. That's just what it takes, I think, so you're in child's pose.

And we're gonna get into puppy pose, another one of my faves. So you just literally draw the hips up over the knees, stretch your arms out, and again, forehead or chin in direction of the floor, one of those might meet, and the chest, heart toward the floor, elbows can draw down, your forearms can draw down to the floor. A little surrender moment. Maybe in the surrender moments, right? The easier, quote unquote, easier moments, you can come back to the mantra if you lost it.

Motivation, purpose. Come through onto your belly, which is going to ultimately look like Sphinx pose. Elbows below the shoulders, chest up, little gentle stretch in the low back. That might be enough. If you know you're kind of cooked right now in the low back and you just wanna kind of hover around here or even take your elbows a little bit wider and forward to minimize the extension in the low back, that hyper extension, do that.

Otherwise, and it's totally fine to do that, right? You're not missing anything. Lower yourself down, reach back behind you, clasp your fingers, reach your knuckles in the direction of your heels, and as that's happening, your shoulders begin to lift and pull back and your chest opens and your breath is alive and maybe your feet lift, tuck the chin a bit and feel the muscles in the backside of the body, light up, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing. Oh, hit the jackpot. Come on down, rest your forehead on your stacked hands.

Doesn't matter which one's on top. And rest your low back. I'm gonna slide over. This is really just for like camera purposes, right? So that I can slide my arm, my left arm, palm facing down as far over as I can.

Left shoulder grounds, chest grounds. Use your right hand, which is alongside your body like it would be for cobra and push and roll yourself over gently onto your left shoulder, left arm. But as you're rolling your body over, keep walking that left hand over further. Rest your head. So you get that nice stretch through the upper left side of the body there, your shoulder, your bicep, chest.

Let's see what it feels like on the other side. You can of course stay there as long as you want. That one can feel pretty nice. I'm gonna move over a little bit because I've got the wall in my way. Gotta adjust, you might have to do the same thing.

Right hand down, and then you push over. So when you're pushing over, I said it on the other side, but see if you can really understand that. As you're pushing over, you can probably walk that hand further and further so that you get more of a flush landing on that shoulder. And then the left foot, left leg is bent, left foot behind your right knee. And you hover around here.

You place your head down. Locate the sensation. See for me, right, and this isn't necessarily about me, but I'm gonna share, like my association, my relationship with these deep, intense stretches and like the work and effort is all really incredibly positive. I absolutely love it. And so if that's not for you, this is something over time that might be worked on or cultivated.

So it's a relationship with all of these sensations that is part of the practice. So if you find yourself frustrated by certain sensations and certain efforts and stretches, be patient. I think it will come with your motivation and willingness and interest in taking good care of yourself. Okay, that's enough of that side. Whew, okay.

Whew, now push back up through a little cobra and all the way back into a very momentary child's pose, just enough to kind of stretch out the low back. Super nice. Come up onto your seat. I don't care how you do that. You can fly there.

Let's see what a double leg forward fold feels like. So pull the flesh of your bum back. When that happens, your pelvis is sitting forward, giving you more of a positive experience with reaching forward, okay? So be mindful with how your low back feels, put a little bend in your knees and exhale, reach to your location, shins, ankles, toes, 10 feet out in front of you. I don't know.

I don't know how long your arms are. Go for that gentle stretch. This is a nice pose if you can lock into a good feel as you're kind of like really coming into yourself. You can surrender, come home, welcome yourself, breathe. So I tapped into it just a bit ago, but there is no one sequence or way to do it.

There are amazingly produced and put together sequences that work toward peak poses and are like incredible. There's also freedom to move. Freedom to move in and out of shapes of all sorts. So don't ever feel confined to a box. Come up, bend your legs.

The counter pose for this may or may not feel good. You can do it with straight legs. I like it with bent, fingertips pointed forward, press the hips up, feet are below your knees. Try to rotate the heads of your shoulders back. So the chest opens.

Big stretch up through the forearms and biceps, looseness in the neck, then lower yourself back down. I'll try one more, but this time you're gonna turn your hands back. So your fingertips are pointing back. Shoulders open, hips thrust up. You have an easier time probably rotating the shoulders open.

And then you lower yourself down. Good work. Shake the arms out, lower down to your back. Hold your knees in, rock a little side to side. Now I'll be completely honest with you.

I'll get to it next week. How about that or the next practice? But I'm just gonna introduce plow pose and shoulder stand. If you are one of those folks who already know it and you can safely do it, go for it after we move into twist and final poses, okay? So, but for now, just being honest, transparent.

Both legs over to the right into a spinal twist. Reach your left arm out wide, palm facing up with all that twisting and rotational stuff. It might feel nice to loosen up the back a little bit. So, both legs are over to the right, left arm and palm. Reaching out long to the left.

Soften the breath into the body. And then mindfully over to center and both legs now over to the left. To the left, to the left. And when you go, when you bring those legs over to the left, you counter it by reaching the right arm out as wide as you possibly can. Left hand can rest heavy on your right leg just to encourage that like heaviness, that counter twist.

Okay, back up to center and maybe just take the feet, right? About as wide as the mat. These little mini windshield wipers. Something that sort of communicates with your low back like, I got you, I'm aware, I'm aware that there may be some sensitivity there with all of the stuff we did. Some of the move in ways that take care of you.

And then one final pose, happy baby. Reach up, take hold of the outer edges of your feet, your ankles, or maybe your shins. Whatever allows you to tuck your chin and ground your spine, your back body. Good. This is like a three breath pose.

Open up those hips. We really tackled the hips earlier so you probably don't need much more here. And release, bring the feet down. Take your feet as wide as the mat and let your knees drop toward one another. This is gonna compliment all the hip opening and rotation stuff we did.

Take a deep breath in. Exhale, clear, clear, clear your breath out. Lie down, close your eyes. Take a few moments here with me as we close this practice out today. Take a few deliberate long exhalations that to me is medicine.

That is key to my health in a lot of ways. Reminds me that I can't control the storm. I can't calm the storm, but I can definitely calm myself. Minimize the stress the storm is causing, right? And the storm will pass.

This too shall pass. This too shall pass. Whether it's a high or a low, things move on. No need to hold on too tight to any high or any real low fluid. It's all good.

So I invite you to rest as long as you'd like. I'm not sure what time of day it is for you, what day of the week ultimately. I'm gonna come up to sit, you can roll onto your side and kind of push up. I wanna honor your time here today, your one hour with me. So as we sit up nice and tall or lie down, up to you.

Once again, hands to that place, to the heart, right? To the heart, the light, the soul, the place that contains all of our best aspects. I wanna tap into that space as much as I can. And I want to move my body and express myself and be as healthy and present and live as an intentionally, sort of an intentional life as possible, all right? So this practice helps me to do that.

And I hope that some of what I share with you helps you as well. So we'll finish off with a take it easy. It's all good. See you next time. Peace, namaste.

May the force be with you. Big smile. Goodbye, see you next time. Peace, namaste.