Detox Flow

Hey, everybody. Welcome back to Thursday's. Happy Thursday. Joyful flow every Thursday. Thanks for joining me. If you were here last Thursday, thanks for coming on back. I'm here in Chicago. Welcome to my house. My little assistant Ganesha will be joining us today. We're going to do a little detox flow today, so lots of twisting, some core activation. You can think about wringing out your long weekend that you had and also letting go of some of that energy, energetic heaviness that you might be accumulating during the week. So come join me sitting in Vadrasana on your heels. If this isn't good for your knees and ankles, go ahead and sit cross legged. Maybe prop yourself up on a pillow or take this spot right here and slide a pillow right underneath your seat between your calves and your glutes and see if you can get comfortable. We'll take the left hand on the bottom, right hand on top. Let the thumbs touch. This is our meditation mudra. Not going to meditate, but we are going to check in. So go ahead and close your eyes. Enjoy the rise and fall of the breath and let out any busyness with the next exhale. Just let it go. Imagine the inhales are helping you cleanse and purify your mind. Hold the breath for a second. And same thing that we just did. Let go of any busyness, any distractions, anything that keeps you from being present for yourself. As you expand the rise and fall of the breath, the hold after the inhale and the pause after the exhale, allow yourself to just be with the breath for a couple of rounds right here. Lengthen out the inhales. Hold the breath a little longer than you normally would. Take your time with your exhales. A short pause before you start that all over again. Try two more rounds, just like that. Just really get settled and connected before we start moving today. Long, slow, deep in those holds. Take your time with the exhales and enjoy a pause before you do one more round. Then start to bring your awareness to where your palms are. And imagine an offering, a dedication for your practice, a little present for the world. What would you like to offer as we start our journey today? Something greater than self. Good. And then you can bring the palms together right over the heart center. Little bow forward. Let's begin. Happy Thursday. Palms on top of the thighs. We're going to do a little cat and cows. If you're sitting cross-legged, you can hold onto the shins. As you inhale, lift the heart, chin and chest. Move the chin away from the chest. And as you exhale, slowly lean back, engage your core, pull the navel up and back. Navel all the way to the spine. Try that three more times. Inhale, lift the heart, chin and chest. You can push down a little bit the palms if you're sitting in Vadrasana. And then as you exhale, draw the navel up and back, round the spine. Last round.

Lift and lengthen. Extend. Create space for the front body. And then round the spine. Feel that space between each of the vertebrae and the back body. Good. Come to a neutral spine. Place your left hand on top of your right thigh. Bring the right hand to your sacrum. And as you lengthen, give yourself some space and rotate. Turn the torso to the right. Big inhale. Lengthen. Exhale. Rotate to the right. Give it one more round of breath. And then pause here. Let the right ear drop towards the right shoulder. So you get that nice trapezius stretch right there. Perfect. Inhale, back to center. Cat and cow is round two, this time with the cactus field goal arms. Lift your elbows, the height of the shoulders separate. The palms lift the heart, chin and chest. Exhale, draw the palms, forearms together. Round the spine and lean back. If you're sitting cross-legged and this doesn't feel good, go back to the first one. Hold on to the shins. Cow and cat tilt the spine. But if you're feeling this, go a little bit deeper, a little bit more core engagement and a little bit more of an upper back, shoulder back bend. Finish off with that last round, drawing the elbows into the core. And then find a neutral spine. Place the right hand on top of your left thigh, left hand to the sacrum. Lift and lengthen the spine and softly turn to your left. Lift and lengthen. Create more space for rotation as you turn to the left. And then finally, let that left ear drop towards the left shoulder. Good. One more round of breath and then come back to center. So we're going to do a modified version of Lolasana.

This helps us really feel our core. So come into table pose with your palms right under the shoulders, knees under the hips. We have a couple of rounds of these. So this is the modified round. So make sure you know how to do this one so that on round two or three, you don't have to do the harder version. Lift your knees off of the floor about three inches and then draw the right knee up into the chest, round the spine, pull the heel up, lower the right foot. Keep the knees hovering off the floor. Exhale, round the spine, pull the left knee, left heel up. You got two more. Really waking up the muscles in the arms, the core muscles and the hip flexor. Firing up the hip flexor. Last one. Good. Come back to your seat. Back to Vajrasana. Awesome. If you're sitting cross-legged, you can join me with this variation. Walk the right fingertips out. Inhale the left palm up and over the ear. Place the left hand behind the head and lean back and breathe into the left side body. If you want to feel a little bit more, shift your hips to the left a little bit or bend the right elbow. Make sure you're going big with a breath on your left side body. Great, everybody. Go ahead and free the left arm. Walk your right hand forward about a foot. Line it up with the right knee. Shift your weight to your right knee. Extend your left leg so you're in easy side plank. Reach the left palm to the sky and slowly circle that left arm. Explore a little range of motion in your side plank. Press strongly down with your right hand. Give yourself two more circles. We're going to windmill all the way up with our momentum to gate pose. Slowly windmill it all the way up. Rise up. T the arms. Left hand, left IT bend, right palm to the sky. Breathe into the right side body. Push into the pinky toe side of your left foot. Feel that stretch through the right ribs, lats and your costals. One more big inhale and then exhale. Reach the right palm back to the floor for side plank, but lift your left leg off the floor for a little half moon pose. Bend your left leg. Find the front of your left shin with your left hand. Take the quad stretch. Pull the heel in and then flip your palm so that your biceps facing up, you're grabbing the big toe side of the foot and move the heel away from you. Let the right ear drop towards the right shoulder. Push strongly down with the right hand. Nice so I'd stretch opening up the front of the hip. Great guys. Slowly lower back down to your seat. Good. Remember the table version that we did earlier. Feel free to start in that variation. One knee off the floor while the other pulls into the chest or try the little bit more challenging one. Low lacena, sitting on your heels, palms next to the knees. Lift the knees. Draw one heel off the floor at a time. Pull the toes up into the seat. Whichever you've got, see if you can do six rounds. Finishing with the left side if you started with the right. Last two. This will wake up your core muscles right here. Last one. Go ahead and lower back down. We'll take the side stretch out to the left with the left hand. Walk it out. Right arm up and over the ear. Place the right hand behind your head and lean the head back. Now all you have to do is breathe. Invite the breath to be slower, fuller and deeper into your right side body. If you want to feel more, slide your hips to the right just a little bit or bend the left elbow. This will give you a little bit more resistance. Enjoy the breath. One more big round. Good. Take that right palm to the sky. Slide your left palm forward about a foot. Line it up with your left knee. Lean into your left palm, your left knee. Free the right leg. Side plank. Easy side plank. Right arm to the sky. Reach the right hand back for your right foot. Let it drop in front of you and circle that arm. Explore your range of motion in the right shoulder. If you want to feel a little bit more space, let your left ear drop towards your left shoulder, opening up the trapezius muscle. We've got two more on that last windmill. Windmill yourself all the way up to gate pose. Push right hand, right IT band below or above the knee. Inhale the left palm to the sky and once again creating space through the left side body. Going big with the breath today. Enjoy the inhales, the pauses and the exhales. Great guys. Reach back to the floor with the left hand where you started. Simultaneously lift the right foot off the floor. A little half moon pose. Bend your right leg. Reach back for your ankle.

Feel the quad stretch and then flip the palm so that your palm is facing up, your biceps facing up. Move your heel away from your seat, opening up the psoas. Maybe letting the left ear drop towards the left shoulder. One more big inhale. Draw the heel away as you exhale and then finish up. Slide the right knee back next to the left. Last round of Lalasana. Remember you can do that in your table pose with your knees off the floor or you can slide your hands back. Hug the elbows to the midline. Draw the knees into the chest. One heel lifts off. One foot lifts off at a time. You've got three more. Finish on the side that you didn't start with. Last one. Great. Come on back to your table pose. Palms under your shoulders. Knees under the hips. A little counterclockwise torso circles. So start by leaning to the right with your torso and your hips. Guide the shoulders, chest forward and then all the way over to your left and then all the way back. Like you're kind of following the clock counterclockwise. Three, two, one, twelve, eleven, ten. It's a lot easier.

It's a lot harder counting backwards. Stay with this movement. Feel the weight distributing into the palms and the fingers. If you want to feel a little bit more, we've got three more. You can bend the elbows as you come forward. A little chaktaranga and then straighten the elbows as you push back. Another way to create a little heat in the body. Remember this is optional. All of these second and third options are just if you need to take your practice a little deeper or you need to feel a little bit more resistance. Finish with your last one. Back up your seat close to your right heel. Good. Walk hand over hand to your left and then feel the side stretch as you back up your seat. Slow the breath down. Lengthen it. Enjoy the side stretch. Cleanse and purify the mind with the inhale. Take your pause and let it go with the exhale. Great, guys. Come back up to your table. Minus the palms so you're on just your fingertips, building a little strength in the fingers. Guide the heart, chin, and chest forward. Cow tilting the spine, pushing down, rounding the spine, tailbone draws to the floor, chin towards the chest. Two more before we start our torso circles clockwise this time. Last round. Come to your neutral spine. Palms under the shoulders. Lower those palms down clockwise this time. Lean torso and hips to the left. Guide it forward. Keep leaning forward all the way over to the right like you're drawing a circle with your shoulders and your hips.

Take one or two rounds with straight arms and then if you want to add the bent elbows to fire up the muscles in the arms, the chest, feel free. If you are bending the elbows, try not to let the shoulders drop below the height of the elbows. Give yourself two more. Finish off that last one. The next time you back up the seat, back up the seat over your left heel and then walk your hands to the right. So you get that big side stretch on the left side body and invite the breath to be longer, slower, fuller, and deeper. It's like you're stretching the muscles that give you more space to breathe. Two more rounds of breaths off and into it. One more. Great guys. Slowly come back to your table pose. Let's go for that first down dog. Walk your hands and palm print forward. Push strongly forward. Index middle and thumb. All fingers tuck the toes under. Lift the hips to the sky. As you press the hips up and back, strongly press forward with both hands. You can bend one leg at a time and pedal out those half muscles and the hamstrings. Give yourself a little explore. Wake them up. See how they're feeling today. Shoulders, palms are shoulder distance, feet are hip distance. Good. Pull the navel up and back. Your ears are by your biceps. Yay. One more round of breath. Guide yourself forward to plank pose. We'll take a slow lower here. Five count. Bring the knees to the floor if you need to. Bend the elbows. Lean forward for four. Engage your core for three, two, one. Touchdown.

Replace your palms with your elbows. Sphinx pose. I always have trouble saying sphinx pose. Guide your ribs forward towards your thumbs. Press to the tops of the feet. A little internal spiral of the thighs. Guide the ribs forward so you feel that nice stretch of the front body. This is a nice prep for our first back bend. Good. Forearm plank pose. Tuck your toes under. Press down into those toes. Fire up the muscles in the legs and lift your hips off of the floor. So we're going to take a little, a little walk here. Just bend the legs one at a time like you're taking a walk. Good. If you want to create a little bit more heat, you can pick up the pace a little bit. Like something's chasing you that you don't want to catch you. Try a couple more rounds. One more round of breath and lower back down. Replace your palms with your elbows.

Press back up to your table or straight up to plank pose and all the way back to your down dog. So we're going to focus on one arm and one leg. Go ahead and bend your left leg. Push strongly forward with your left arm. Feel the hamstring stretch on the right leg and then walk the right hand back halfway to the right foot. So you're really strengthening the muscles in your left arm. If you feel like you can lose that right arm, send it to the sky. Give yourself a little wrist stretch. Multitask here. Good. One more round of breath. Side plank to your right. Move to plank pose. Pivot your feet to the right. You can stack or keep that left knee on the floor like that first side plank that we were working on before.

Push forward and down with your right hand. Good. Come back to your plank pose. Lower down nice and slow. Bend the elbows. Either come back up to your sphinx pose. Guide the heart ribs, chin and chest forward or replace the elbows with your palms for a low cobra pose. Press to the tops of the feet. Heart moves forward, elbows back in space. Go big with your breath. Right to the heart center.

Good. Isolating down dog. Lower back down. Press up to table or plank. Send it back to your down dog. Good. This time, bend your right leg. Push forward strongly with your right hand. Walk your left hand back. You can keep it on the floor. A little tripod as you push forward strongly with the right hand. Feel the hamstring calf stretch on the left side. You're going deeper. Send the left pinky to the sky. Maybe give yourself a little wrist stretch as you strongly press forward with the right hand.

Building up a little strength through the upper back shoulders and that right arm. Side plank on the left hand. Move forward to plank. Pivot your feet. Remember you can always bring that left knee down to the floor. Option of stacking. Your variation of side plank. Push forward and down with the left hand. Great guys. Move forward to plank pose. Lower all the way down. One more time in sphinx pose. Elbows under the shoulders. Good. Guide the heart forward. Press to the tops of the feet.

Feel the ribs moving towards the thumbs creating space for the lower back. You want to do another forearm plank? I felt like I heard somebody say they did. Let's do it. Tuck your toes under. Lift. Forearm plank. Pivot your feet to the right. Stack the left foot on top of the right and replace your left elbow with your left palm. Stay here or push strongly down with your right forearm. Send the left palm to the sky.

If you're feeling it, send the left arm over the head and lift your left leg off the floor as you slowly, strongly push down into your right hand. Good. Forearm plank. What we do to one side we better do to the other side. Pivot your heels to the left. Stack. Replace the right elbow with the right palm. Stay here. Send the right hand to the sky or celebrate. Right leg up. Right arm over the head. Feel the left ribcage lifting. Lower the forearms. Lower all the way down. Back bend of your choice. Stay in sphinx pose or replace the elbows with your palms. Guide yourself up to cobra or enjoy a little up dog. Three breaths. Slow and lengthen the breath. Press to the tops of the feet in whichever variation you're doing and we'll meet back in down dog. From down dog, take a slow walk forward to your hands. Slow, slow walk. So you start to feel the hamstrings and the caps. Bend the knees if you need to. When you get your feet behind your hands, bring your palms to the shins, lengthen the spine, flat back. Exhale, bend your right leg. Keep the left leg straight. Inhale, send the left palm to the sky for a nice soft hamstring stretching twist here. Take the left arm up and over the ear. A little side angle. Lower the left hand to the left shin and bend your left leg. Straighten the right leg. Send the right palm to the sky. Take the right arm up and over the ear. Turn the torso to the right. Big inhale. Exhale, rotate.

Bend both legs. Right hand to the right shin. Lengthen the spine. As you straighten the legs, slide your palms up just below the knees. As you exhale, bend the knees. Round the spine. Engage your quad and core muscles. Roll all the way up. Inhale the palms to the sky. Exhale and ride into prayer. Close your eyes for a moment and reconnect with the rise and fall of your breath. Slow and lengthen the breath out. Cleanse and purify your mind with inhalation. Let something go with the exhale. Try that one more time. Nice big cleansing inhale. Let it go. And then feel free to join me for an om as we bow to the floor. Inhale the palms to the sky.

Exhale, hinge the hips. Slide your palms to your shins. Flat back. Nice big inhale. As you exhale, bend both knees until you can bring your fingertips to the floor. Shift your weight to the right foot. Extend your left leg long. Don't let it touch the floor. Try to keep the heel the height of your left hip. Bend your left knee into the chest. Bend your right knee. Go a little bit deeper like you're trying to UPS yourself out of wherever you are. Somewhere nice. Inhale straight in the right leg. Extend the left and then lengthen forward. We're going to play with five more of these pulses. The less weight you have on the fingertips, the more strength you need for that quad and core on the right side. If you feel like playing with a no hands version, wrap your arms around the knees as you pull them in and extend them out to the side like a plane as you inhale and straight. One more round. Great guys. Last one. Hands back to the floor if they were up. Step the left leg all the way back. Left palm stays on the floor. Right hand to the top of the right side. Guide the knee right over the ankle. Lift your rib cage up and over the right thigh. Push strongly down into the left hand and extend the right arm over the head. Push back into your left heel. Maybe a little forward with the right knee. Make sure you're breathing. Two more rounds. You got it. One more. Lower the right hand inside of the right leg. Pivot your left heel to the floor. Stay right here so your heels are lined up. If you want to feel a little bit more on that right quad, start to bend your elbows a little bit. For my binders, if you're liking binding here, wrap the right arm under and around. Reach for your sacrum.

Left hand reaches for the fingertips. Around of the head comes to the floor, towards the floor. I know you're feeling this right quad. We just got two more rounds of breath before you straighten it. Stay with it for one more round. Lower the palms to the floor. Walk hand over hand to your left and let the right foot turn to join the left. Pasarita padottanasana. Bend your left leg. Feel that nice stretch on the inner right thigh. Good. Then walk your hands to the right as you bend the right leg. Straighten the left. If you'd like to go a little bit deeper, turn the toes out to the left and right. Ten and two o'clock. You might be able to lift the toes of the straight legged side of the foot off of the floor. A little skandhasana, a little crouching tiger. Really nice to open up that ankle joint, the knee joint. Explore a little flexion in the hips.

Perfect guys. One more full round. Lots of pulsing today. The pulsing and the twisting really helps us to move that stuck energy in the body. The limp helps detox and purify the organs, the liver. Straighten both legs. Turn the toes forward. Walk your hands forward. Flat back. Pasarita. Good. Then as you exhale, just start to bend your elbows. Maybe the crown of the head moves towards the floor. If you want to go deeper, you can walk your hands between the legs and bow a little farther forward. Enjoy this inversion where the head's below the heart. Press into the big toe sides of the feet and the pinky toes ground into both but squeezy in your thighs towards each other. Great everybody. Walk your hands back so that they're right under the shoulders. Walk them forward a little bit so you can really lengthen and extend your spine. Inhale the left palm to the sky. Place the left hand behind your head. Bend the elbow and we're going to do a little elbow tap. Left elbow to right. So just take a little soft one first. Left elbow to the right and then the big twist right here is the opening part. So see how far you can open and turn to your left as you press down with the right hand. Pulse with your breath. Exhale. Draw left elbow to right. Inhale. Lengthen forward and then lean the head back to open up that left shoulder.

Give yourself two more taps just like this. Doing a nice little massage for the liver. One more. The next time you lift the left elbow to the sky, send that left palm to the sky. Deepen the twist and then exhale. Thread the left arm under and through. Grab onto the right leg somewhere. Inhale the right palm to the sky or drape it around your waist for a soft twist to your right. The more you draw the left ribcage towards the left thigh, the more you'll feel. Nice side stretching twist here. Great. Pivot both feet to the right. Good. So you're framing the right foot with both hands. Inhale the right palm to the sky just how we started. Spiral your left bicep forward. Press into that left heel. Sink forward with the right knee. Bigger twist. Lower the right palm to the floor. Lower the left knee to the floor and go ahead and straighten the right leg. Now if you're tighter in the hamstrings, just start to walk your hands back. That'll take a little pressure off. If you don't have any blocks, just walk your hands back or bring your hands to the hips. If you're moving deeper, walk your hands forward and instead of rounding the spine, guide the heart, chin, and chest forward. Move the crown of the head forward. So make sure you find a spot that feels right for your body, especially if you don't have props at home. Be really mindful of those hamstring and calf stretches especially.

Rebending the right leg. Right hand on top of the right thigh. Left hand to the sacrum. A little soft. Tilt to the tailbone. Straight down. Counterbalance by lifting the ribs up. You keep the hands here for support or extend the palms to the sky. Little biceps behind the ears if that's okay for your body. Lift the chest. Maybe look up if that's okay for the neck. Melt into that right thigh. One more round. Breath. Big inhale. Exhale the palms to the floor. One-legged dog. Right leg to the sky. We are keeping with our theme with our little taps here. So right knee. Left tricep tap.

Lean forward to plank. Tap and then send it back. One more time. Right knee. Left tricep tap. Maybe a little bend in the elbows. Send it up. Instead of the tap this time, we're taking the right knee across the body towards the left tricep, straightening the right leg, sliding the right foot to the floor and inhaling the left palm to the sky. This is our finale. Celebrate it. Right leg can stay down or you can lift the foot off the floor or you can grab the pinky toe side of the foot and send it forward. Whatever your celebration is of this finale, come back to plank pose. Lower down. Guide the heart, chin and chest forward. Inhale cobra up dog. Good news. Exhale. Either your 10 breaths in child's pose. Knees wider than the hips. If you're enjoying keeping the energy up, dolphin, which is forearms, replacing the palms. Down dog with your forearms on the floor. Or if you'd like your inversion, now's a great time. You still got about seven or eight breaths. If you're taking an inversion, whichever you decide to do slow and lengthen the breath, bringing that mind back to the present moment. Don't let it wander off. Enjoy being present for yourself for your practice. If you're in an inversion, now's a good time to start to work your way back down to child's pose. We're going to meet in down dog. Choose whether you're taking the optional vinyasa or starting in table pose and I'll meet you in down dog. Optional vinyasa, bend the elbows out to 10 and 2. Slither your way forward to cobra pose or up dog. Send it all the way back to your down dog. Option of walking the feet to the hands or taking a little bend of those legs, floating halfway or all the way to the head. Whenever you get to those palms, lengthen the spine, flat back, palms to the shins, pull the navel up and back and give yourself a nice soft forward fold. If you want to grab the elbows or the big toes, whichever you're doing, see if you can lean a little farther forward into your toes so you're not sitting back into your heels. One more big inhale and on that next exhale bend the knees, engage quad and core, roll up to your stand, inhale the palms to the sky, exhale them right into prayer. Give yourself a moment to check in once again.

You might feel a little heat going through the body creating a little bit of that heat atop us. Join me with that om on the way down. Second side's ready for you. Inhale the palms to the sky, lift the heart, chin and chest, into the hips. Palms to the shins, lengthen the spine, flat back, a little lean forward. As you exhale, bend both knees, fingertips to the floor, shift your weight to your left leg, extend the right leg long, keep the foot off the floor, try to keep at the height of your hip. Bend the left knee, draw the right knee into the chest. We got our little pulses here, you got five more. Lengthen the spine as you inhale and extend the leg, bend that left knee, draw the right knee in, small little ball. You've got four more. If you're playing with less weight on the fingertips or you're playing with hugging as you draw the knees in and airplane, arms out to the side like wings as you inhale, give yourself one more round. The next time you bend the legs, bring the palms to the floor, extend the right leg all the way back, straightening the right leg, pushing to the back of your mat. Right hand lines up with your left foot, left hand on top of the left quad, press back with your right heel, forward with your left knee and use the inhale to lengthen the spine and lift your ribcage over the left thigh. Left palm to the sky if you're feeling it. Deepen the twist by pressing further back into the right foot and drawing the left inner thigh towards your right bicep. One more big inhale and then use that exhale to softly rotate. Left palm inside of the left leg, right heel pivots to the floor, heels are lining up, right toes turn slightly in. If you want to feel a little bit more in this lizard pose variation, bend your elbows, binders here's your choice, wrap the left arm under, around, right hand, reaches over for the left. The more you drop the crown of the head to the floor, the more you'll feel. I know this is a lot for that left quad muscle, the left glute, but we're almost done. I promise it's going to feel so good. Release your palms to the floor, walk hand over hand to your right, let the left foot follow you, yay. Bend directly into your right toes, right foot, turn the right toes slightly out as you bend into it. Good, now bend into your left foot, turn the left toes slightly out and we'll just move softly back and forth, crouching tiger, shifting our hips left and right, maybe less weight on your hands.

You might even do some hands-free variations now that you're feeling that openness in the front of the ankle and knee and hip. Yours to explore, make sure it feels fun. Straighten both legs, palms under the shoulders, lengthen the spine, bend both knees, take the crown of the head towards the floor with your knees softly bent, taking the interlace behind the back this time with the knees bent, grab, interlace the fingers, move your wrist forward over the head and give yourself a little wiggle from side to side with the shoulders. Once you find that stretch upper back and shoulders, if you feel like straightening the legs and moving a little deeper, go for it. This must look really interesting. Happy Thursday. One more round of breath, good. Bring your palms right back under your shoulders, flat back, good. Right palm to the sky and remember our little taps here, right hand behind your head, so place the hand behind your head, lean the head back and lift your right elbow to the sky. This is your inhale, exhale, tap the right elbow towards the left, inhale, see if you can lengthen forward and lean the head a little farther back, opening up through that right side body. Exhale lower. This is the side the liver's on. We'll give some nice pulsing movements in this area. Last two, last one. The next time you send the right elbow to the sky, pause here, straighten the right arm, reach for the sky, straighten the arm, lengthen forward, big twist, exhale, thread the right arm under, across and through, grab onto the left leg somewhere. Left hand can release and come to your sacrum or you can wrap it around the waist. If you're going deeper, draw your right ribcage towards your left thigh so you get this nice side stretch and spinal twist at the same time. One more big inhale and then exhale, turn both feet to the left. So pivot your feet to the left, frame the left foot with both hands, lift your right heel off the floor. Same pose we started in, left palm back to the sky. Should feel a little bit more space in your twist here. Left knee forward over the ankle, right heel presses back, right bicep spirals forward. Big inhale and then finish off that twist with your exhale, lower the left palm to the floor, lower the right knee to the floor, straighten the left leg. Remember you can walk the hands back towards your right knee softer on the hamstring or bring your hands up to the hips. If you're going deeper, walk your hands forward and instead of rounding the spine, take that towel tilt to the spine as you pull the toes back. Crown of the head moving forward, enjoy the hamstring stretch. Great guys, finishing off with our low lunge, bend the left leg, left hand on top of the quad, right hand to the sacrum, invite the tailbone to point down as you counterbalance and lift the ribcage up. Stay here with the palms or create another shape. Reach the palms to the sky, biceps moving back behind the ears if that's okay for your shoulders. Spiral the biceps back but turn your palms forward towards each other. That makes more sense. Nice big inhale, exhale, lower the palms to the floor, left leg to the sky, celebrate the finale here. One-legged dog, left knee, right tricep, tap, boom, send it back up, tap it one more time, maybe bend the elbows, send it back up. Instead of tapping, draw it across the body, slide the left leg to the floor, pivot, right heel to the floor, right palm to the floor for your variation of this fallen triangle. You can hover the left foot off the floor or grab the pinky toe side of the foot and create this other shape of variation of Vishuddhi matrasana. Guide yourself back to plank pose, good news, lengthen forward, lower it all the way down. Guide yourself forward to cobra, up dog, take your 10 breaths in either child's pose, knees a little wider than the hips, dolphin or your inversion. This gives you the option to go as deep as you need to go for your body. Slow and lengthen it down. Wherever you are, give yourself about three more rounds of breath. Take your time with the inhales and the pauses. Great guys, last two rounds.

Last one, I'll meet you back in table pose, palms under the shoulders. Yep. And then tuck your toes under, walk your hands a palm print forward, lift your hips to the sky, press back to your dog, shift your weight to your right foot, inhale the left leg to the sky and exhale, step the left foot to the front of your mat. Lower the right knee to the floor, bring the left hand to your sacrum, look forward, extend your right palm straight forward, lift and lengthen the sternum and rotate to your left. So you're taking the twist to the left. If it feels okay for your left shoulder, extend the left arm out. As you exhale, bring the palms into prayer and straighten the right leg. As you inhale, extend the arms back to the beginning position. We've got four more pulses just like this. If you want to make it a little bit more challenging, tuck your right toes under and lift the right knee off the floor. Squeezing the legs to the midline is that little key that helps you keep the balance. Give yourself two more, you're almost there. One more, pulsing away, extend the arms, left hand to your sacrum, right hand to the floor. If your right knee's still off the floor, come join me here. We're all stepping the right foot forward about a foot. Slide your right hand forward about a foot, come up to your fingertips, half moon with a twist, lengthen and rotate. Remember all those little wonderful taps that we did? We're finishing with a tap. Right knee taps the left calf, left hand comes to the sacrum, slowly lower yourself down. You can keep both hands on the floor to lower all the way to your twist or just keep the right hand down as you slide the right knee outside of the left ankle. Setting up for Matsyandrasana, we made it. Wrapping the right arm around the left knee, left hand to the floor behind you, fingertips facing back, lift and lengthen the spine. The more you lengthen, the more space you're creating for your twist. If you're going deeper, you can hook the right elbow outside of the left knee. Lots of arm variations here, threading through, grabbing the big toe. Only important thing is that you're still breathing.

The inhale is a lengthening breath. The exhale is a softening, passive breath where you're just melting into the space that you created with the breath. Bring it out. Anger said as you squeeze the organs, you're helping to move out that bad energy, the dukkha, and then you're bringing that fresh blood back in when you release. As we release, maybe you'll feel something. Turn back to center, fingertips behind you, release the legs. Navasana. Tricked you, didn't I? Lift the heart, chin, and chest. Bend your knees, pull the knees in, exhale, extend the legs a little bend of the elbows. Exhale, draw the knees in. Try to keep your heels high. You've got three more of these. If you want to do these without the hands, you've got two more versions. Reach for your ankles. Extend. One more. Reach, extend. This time when you draw the knees into the chest, cross the shins, roll all the way onto your back. Have a little fun with this.

Be a little playful with your massaging, rocking forward and backward. Hopefully, I don't knock my elephant over. If you're comfortable with taking the rock and roll vinyasa, pull the heels in towards your seat, slide your hands forward, press, and float back. If not, just swing the legs around for table pose, and I'll meet you in down dog. Vinyasa cobra or up dog. Send it back to your down dog. Shift your weight to the left leg, right leg to the sky. Draw the chest towards the left thigh. Big inhale. Exhale, step the right foot to the front of your mind. Lower the left knee to the floor. Bring the right hand to your sacrum, fingertips facing down.

Look forward. Extend your left palm the height of your shoulder as you lift your torso. Look over your right shoulder. Squeeze to the midline with your inner thighs. Extend your right arm back for the twist. As you exhale, straighten the right leg. Bring your palms into prayer. Keep the torso twisting to the right. As you inhale, bend the right leg. Extend the arms again. You've got four more of these. If you want to try them with the toes tucked under, lifting the left knee off the floor, squeezing to the midline as you pulse here. Two more. One more. Great. The next time you bend your right leg, bring the left hand to the floor.

Right hand to your sacrum. Slide your left foot forward about a foot. Slide your left hand forward about a foot. Come up to your fingertips. Lengthen forward, half moon with the twist. Lift the left leg off the floor. Right hand to the sacrum. Turn to your right. Your hand at the sacrum, you'll feel that the glutes are even. Maybe it's on the right hand to the sky. Keep lifting your left heel. Keep lengthening the torso so you can move deeper into your twist. Our final tap. Left knee, right calf, bend both legs. You can use your right hand to help you lower all the way down. Or you can just do it by squeezing your inner thighs together really strongly for your twist.

Careful of the knees on this one. Left hand wraps around the right knee. Right palm to the floor or fingertips to the floor, whichever helps you get the length that you need for your rotation. Stay right here or take that left elbow. Give yourself a little space with the inhale. Hook the left elbow outside of the right knee with the exhale. Use the inhales to grow taller and the exhales to give you that opportunity to really wring it out. Last round of breath. And then slowly turn back to center. Don't worry, I'm not forgetting. Navasana, boat pose. See if you can balance on the sit bones and the tailbone, that little triangular space. Bend the knees, lift the sternum, lift the chest, squeeze the elbows to the midline. Inhale, straighten. So the lower back's not touching the floor, just the sacrum.

Exhale, draw in and lift and lengthen. Keep the heels hot. You've got four more. You can do the hands-free version if you're creating a little bit more heat. Last three. Keep it lifted. Two. Last one. The next time you draw the knees into the chest, you can take your little rock and rolls forward and backward, massaging the muscles along the spine. Little playfulness into your practice. Remember, when you could do this for like a half an hour, you never get bored. Why do we have to be so much in our adulting world? Last round. Give yourself momentum if you're taking your rock and roll vinyasa. Pull the heels towards your seat, reach forward with your pump, press to the tops of the feet, float back, lower all the way down. Ah, stay on your belly. Right hand out to the side like a wing. Let me do the left hand so you can see. Let's do the left arm. Left arm out to the side like a wing. Extend the arm, push down with your right, roll to your left. So we're getting a nice opening for the chest. If you're going deeper, you can bend one leg at a time. Still getting that nice twisted quality, but we're really opening up the left shoulder, the front of the chest. Great guys. Come on back to center. Right hand out to the side, right ear to the floor. Roll it on over. Legs straight. Perfect. Left leg bent, right leg bent. Anything that helps you feel that a little bit more resistance, opening up the front of the chest, that good resistance, go for it.

Wonderful. And then we'll slowly come back, take the back bend of your choice, and I'll meet you in table pose. Maybe it's a sphinx, maybe it's a cobra, maybe it's an up dog. Come into your table pose. Okay. So we're going to isolate the right shoulder. This one's such a nice feeling for the right side body after the twist. Walk both palms forward and to your left. So you're going to feel the stretch on the right side body. Back up the seat for the side stretching child's pose. Now this might be perfect for you. If you want to go deeper, drape the left hand around the waist or up the spine, reaching for your shoulder blades or for the base of the neck. If you're going deeper with the right hand, bend the right arm, reach for your left fingertips. If you pull on those fingertips, you'll feel a little bit more resistance. Two more rounds of breath. Wherever you find yourself, the more you back up the seat, the more you'll feel. One more. Now you can release the arms to grab a seat on the heels or you can just slowly rise up. Golmakasana arms in Ustrasana. Knees are hip distance. Feet are hip distance. Left arm around the waist or up the spine. Maybe the right hand's not grabbing. Maybe grab onto fingertips. Either way, lift the sternum, lift the chest. If you're going deeper, lean the head back into that right forearm. Such a nice way to feel some space in the shoulder. Left hand stays, right hand releases.

Bring it to your sacrum. Lift the sternum, lift the chin, lift the chest. Stay here. If you like going deeper, tuck the toes under, reach for your left heel. Or if that's easy for you, untuck, keep lifting the sternum, keep lifting the chest, relax the muscles of the face, relax the jaw, and slowly come on back to your table. You know what's happening on the next side. Walk your hands over to the right, towards the right corner of your mat. Guide your hips over towards your left heel. So now that big stretch is on the left side body. This could be enough right here. If you're going deeper, right hand around the waist or guide it up the spine. If you're going deeper, left elbow bends, reach for your fingertips. Backing up the seat, turning the left ear to the floor will help you feel that shoulder opener.

Great. We'll meet kneeling in Ustrasana. Feel free to release those arms like a normal person unless this is easy for you to rise up. Sometimes it's fun to play with a little challenge. Make sure the challenge is safe. Right hand around the waist or up the spine. Left hand behind the head, reaching for fingertips. Draw the elbows to the midline, lean the head back, lift the heart, sternum, chin, and chest, and enjoy the breath. Wonderful, guys. Right arm stays, release the left hand, maybe bring it to the sacrum, or if you're going deeper, tuck the toes first or untuck. Make sure you're not compressing on the left side body. Lift the left ribcage up. Relax the muscles in the face and the jaw. Keep lifting the sternum to the sky like someone's got a rope wrapped around your upper back, and they're lifting you right behind the heart. Good. And then release the arms. Slowly lower down. Roll over to your back. We're going to slow this practice down so that we can just slide into shavasana. As you lie on your back, keep your knees bent.

Open up the palms. Place the right ankle on top of your left thigh, easy figure four. Start by pressing the navel down to the spine, engaging the core muscles, just to release some of that little back bend safely. And then without using the hands, lift the left heel off the floor, the height of your left knee. Press the sacrum down to the floor. Good. So this is kind of like giving us a little neutral spine before we reach through and draw the knees into the chest. If you're going deeper here and it's okay on your knees, reach through, grab onto the left hamstring, and then you can start to draw the knee a little bit deeper. You'll start to feel the rounding of the spine. Just make sure we do a nice neutralizing posture before we go from back bends to folds. If a deeper variation of figure four is available, you can wrap your arms around the right leg and lose the left leg. If your head's still staying on the floor and you want to go deeper, you can straighten the left leg.

Start to slow and lengthen the breath out. Relax the muscles of the face. Relax the jaw. Good. You know you've had a good practice when you can fall asleep in a posture that usually is not comfortable. All right. Re-bend the left knee if it's not bent. Take your feet hip distance. Lower that right foot to the floor. Shift your weight to the right foot. Place the left ankle on top. Same thing. Press down with the core. Press into the right foot.

Guide the left inner thigh away. Keep the left foot flexed. We're just giving ourselves a little neutral spine here. Now draw the right knee towards the chest. Without using your hands, lift the right heel, the height of your knee. Keep the sacrum pressing down to the floor. After you feel like, oh, lower back's feeling okay. I can pull that knee in a little bit deeper. Go for it. Figure four is a great spot. If you need to feel more resistance, just keep pressing your sacrum down to the floor while you draw the knee into the chest. If you're still not feeling resistance with that one, wrap your arms around the left leg. Lower the right foot. If the head's able to stay on the floor, you can creep that right foot away from you. Reclining pigeon pose. Sometimes contracting your left glute and releasing it helps you to let go of some of that tension in the outer hip, the glute. Relaxing the muscles of the face and the jaw is always nice. Let's keep the left leg drawing into the chest and we'll pull the right knee in as well for a little happy baby pose finale. As you draw the knees down, press the sacrum down. Maybe a little massage right to left. As you're massaging yourself to the right, maybe straighten the right leg.

You always see little kids doing this. Maybe do the same thing with the right leg. You always see little kids doing this. Maybe do the same thing to the left. Just coming back to that idea that we can still be proper adults in our life, but we can have a little fun. We can have a little playfulness in our yoga practice as well. Bringing in that feeling of lightness, that feeling of kind of going back to that innocent version of self. If there's a finale that feels perfect for your body before you move into Shavasana, now is the perfect time to do it. Anything that feels intuitively right for you. Everybody's body is a little bit different and you might need something before that Shavasana. Give yourself a little time to feel your way through that. Maybe it's a little massage. Maybe it's a rock. Maybe it's an actual posture that you like to end your practice with. Whatever feels right for you, make sure if you're doing one side, you're evening the sides out. If you want to be like me and just take a little extra credit for Shavasana, you can set up already. Feet a little lighter than hip distance, turning the toes out, sliding the elbows. The shoulder blade's a little closer as you flip the palms.

This opens up the heart area. As you're bringing your awareness to that heart area, you can drop from your head space right into the heart space. Allow yourself to be free from all doing, all workings of the mind. Even letting the breath go. Letting that feeling like you have to control the breath go. You'll see patterns of thoughts in the mind. If they're not serving your Shavasana, just let those patterns dissolve into peace and be really present for yourself. Enjoy the stillness here. Of course, feel free to stay longer in your Shavasana. Just tune me out. Otherwise, you can join me. Bring some movements back to your body intuitively and slowly. Give yourself a moment or two to relax into fetal pose, drawing the knees into the chest and rolling over to the right for a couple breaths.

Using your left hand to help you press up to your seat with the eyes closed and the neck relaxed. Just like we started, place the right palm on top of the left. Let the thumbs touch. Remember your dedication you're offering today, like the gift that is in your hand. Send it out into the world. Enjoy the effects of your practice.

Thank yourself for creating this time and space in your day so that you can make deeper connection, connection to deeper layer of self. Exhale your palms into prayer. Thank you so much for celebrating your practice with me today. Namaste. Keep celebrating this peace that you're experiencing and share it with everyone you meet. Happy Thursday.