Steady Strength

Happy day, everybody. Welcome back to Joyful Flow, season 2. We are on week number 7, Lucky 7. I hope it's a lucky number for you. Today we're going to be working with the concept of strength. Strengthening certain body parts to help us along our journey to different postures, but also strengthening our spiritual practice. So as one of my great mentors said, focus more on the steady progress. The steady progress because you're really grounded into some deeper roots when you take the steady progress route. So we'll be tuning our inner GPS into steady progress. As you work today, be mindful when is enough for you. And if it's not enough, you can always do a little bit more than what I'm doing. I want this to be a practice that you can build on in the future and check back into. So don't feel like you have to do everything that's incorporated in this journey. Speaking of, we'll be using two blocks and I've got a little hand, I got a little yoga towel here. If you have a towel, a blanket or something that you can roll up just to keep the knees nice and safe, we'll be protecting ourselves with the blanket or the towel today. I'm so glad you're here today. Let's start lying on our back. So go ahead and get comfortable, swing the legs around, slide on down, engage the core to help you down safely. When you reach the floor, flip your palms up, straighten one leg at a time, let the toes turn out and give yourself a moment. Take a nice big inhale through the nose. Let out an ah sound. Try that two more times. Nice big inhale. Allow yourself the moment or two to arrive. Start to breathe in and out through the nose from here on. As you settle into your practice, thank yourself for creating space for this journey today. Always start off with a little virtuous quality to begin the practice with. Thank you for our space for the journey. Thank the body for showing up however it's showing up today. And let's get connected to the fuel today, our breath. As you bring your attention and awareness to the inhales, you'll notice a short pause after the inhale and an exhale and a short pause after the exhale. Let's take a moment to extend all four parts of the breath and then we'll add some movement to the journey. Lengthening the inhales nice and slow. Enjoy a pause. Enjoy silence. Let it go with the exhale. Feel a sense of softening, releasing, letting go of the exhale and the short pause again. Clear, purify your mind with the inhale. Enjoy silence for a moment or two and soften and let it go with the exhale. So we'll continue with this same connection, this deep connection to our breath throughout the journey. Just flip your palms so the palms are pressing down into the earth by the side. On your next inhalation, point your toes. As you point your toes, lift the ribs up slightly so that you could possibly slide your hand underneath the lower back. You're taking a little back bend right there and then as you exhale, flex the feet, engage the core, lift your head just an inch or two off of the floor and look towards your toes while you're engaging your core muscles. As you inhale, lower the head point, the toes, lift the ribs, maybe shrug your shoulder blades towards the midline a little bit, tiny back bend and then as you exhale, flex the feet, engage the quads, engage the core, lift the shoulders, the head off of the floor. Take two more pulses just like that. Feel your way around this. You can keep this softer expression of our reclined cat and cow tilts or you can play with extending the arms over the head as you point the toes a little bit more of a back bend and then as you exhale, arms by the side, lifting a little bit more off the floor so your shoulder blades are off the floor and the core is engaged while you flex the feet. Try three more of those pulses just like that. Make sure the breath is leading you in and out of each of these postures. Last two. Last one. The next time you engage your core, draw the knees into your chest, give yourself a nice big much-deserved hug and give yourself a little rock from side to side, massaging the muscles along the spine. You can rock a little bit more to the left and right than you normally would, just gives you a little bit more of a massaging action for the spine. Keep the knees bent, lower the feet so that they're right underneath the knees, feet are hip distance, press your palms back to the floor, lifting up a little higher on our next inhale. So lift your hips off the floor, lift your waist, your mid-back off the floor and then as you exhale, lower down, engage your core, lift the head and shoulders off the floor, maybe press into your elbows. Lower down as you inhale, lift the hips off the floor, engage the core as you lower down, massaging the back into the floor and your finale, navel to the spine, lift the shoulders off the floor. We're going to keep pulsing with these, you can play with the variations with your arms staying on the floor or the same thing we did with straight legs. When you're ready, inhale, lower down, arms over the head, hips to the sky, exhale, engage your core, maybe reach for the floor or go a little higher and reach for your knees for a little bit more core activation. Pulse with your breath. We've got about five more. Now we have four, so if you want to try a leg left each time you reach your arms over the head, shift your weight to your left leg, inhale the right leg to the sky, exhale, lower the right leg, bring the arms by the side, inhale the left leg, arms over the head, more strengthening for that standing leg, exhale, lower down. You've got two more, one more on each side, pulse with your breath, make sure the breath is guiding you into each of these postures. Good, you're riding the wave of the breath. Great. The next time you lower down, pause for a moment, draw the right knee into the chest, extend the right leg to the sky for a little hamstring stretch, point the toes towards the face and then give yourself a little traction, press the hamstring away from you, feeling that stretch in the upper back and shoulders and then lower and pulse back down. As you pulse back down, you might feel a little bit more of a hamstring release. Be kind to the muscles along the spine, supporting you all day, give them a little happy massage, especially as we go through our strength journey today. The next time you lower down, cross your right leg on top of your left, heel toe your left foot off the mat to the left. So as you walk your toes to the left, right ankle stays on top of the left knee, IT band, arms and cactus field goal, let the knees pulse to the right as you exhale and back to center as you inhale. You'll feel a nice release between the torso and the limbs, this area that's always tight for most of us, lower back, top of the glutes, sacral area, hips. The next time you pulse your knees to the right, we're going to pause right here. If you're newer to this oblique core work, place your right foot underneath the right knee, but keep the hips opening, fingertips to the base of the head, exhale, engage your core, lift the shoulders off the floor. Try a couple of pulses like that with your foot underneath the left knee. And then if you're not feeling enough resistance, place the foot on top and then lift and engage. You'll probably feel a little bit more resistance, not only in the hamstring, but in the right side of the obliques. We're going to finish off with five, whether your foot is on the knee or the floor underneath you, both are great options. And the second one's a great one to work up to. As long as you're not feeling any lower back stuff, you're probably safe here. The next time you lower down, take the arms over the head, left hand grabs the right wrist, pull the right wrist over to the left and enjoy the breath. Breathe into that side body stretch. Nice big inhales, pause, exhale, melt into it, sink a little bit deeper. Excellent. Release that arm and then walk the left foot back to center, crossing the right leg on top of the left, shift your hips to the right a little bit, drop the knees to the left. And then we'll go ahead and roll all the way over, taking the right arm across the body, straight arm all the way on the left shoulder. And then as you open cactus, feel going the right arm, rolling to your right. Come on back across the body. This pulsing sensation, we're enjoying opening the chest while we get into our thoracic twist mid spine. That shoulder will eventually start to drop a little bit deeper each time. Two more pulses. One more. Ringing out, releasing muscles along the mid spine and enjoying a nice chest opener at the same time. Nice big inhale, soften into your next exhale, enjoy the twist, and then slowly unwind the legs. Once your legs are unwound, draw your hips back to neutral, keep the right leg on the floor, hug the left knee into the chest, extend the left leg, toes towards the face, hold on to the hamstring, give yourself a little traction, press forward, head and neck, relax back, pulse back down. Each time you pulse back down, you might find a little bit more freedom for the hamstring. Last two. Pulsing our life away. Life is just one pulse really, isn't it? One more breath. The next time you draw the knee in, bend the leg, place the left ankle somewhere above the right knee, cactus, feel go the arms, walk the right foot off the mat to the right, and then give yourself a little pulse to the left, windshield wipers to the left. Really nice for the IT band, for the lower back and hip. Really nice to feel that connection between the torso and the limbs. Yeah. When we pause here, when your knees drop to the left, choose whether the left ankle is going to remain on top or you're going to slide it underneath for our pulsing.

Maybe start with it underneath, fingertips to the base of the head, elbows wide, lift with the exhale, elbows stay down the same height or below the ears, inhale lower, exhale lift, working on the obliques, inhale lower, you got eight more, pulse away, you can place that left ankle on top of the knee if you want to feel a little bit more resistance. And remember today, like anything, if those first five pulses are good for you, remember steady progress is the way ahead. If you decide to do this video on the future, maybe you'll go for six or seven. So just build your way up to wherever you feel like you're creating a little progress along your path today. The next time you lower down, arms over the head, right hand pulls the left wrist over to the right, enjoy the side stretch through the left side body and invite that breath to be a little fuller, a little deeper here. One more big inhale, stretch the side body and then exhale, melt into it, walk the right foot back to the center of your mat, cross the left leg on top, shift your hips to the left, drop your knees to the right, roll all the way over to your right side until your left knee comes to the floor. Take your left arm across the body, straight arm and then bend the arm, cactus field goal as you open to a soft pulsing twist. Take it across the body, straighten it and then bend it, open it. These nice rocking movements allow our body to open up without force, without pressure, without holding and hopefully we find a new set point that feels like we're easy to melt into it a little bit deeper. When you find that spot, enjoy the twist accompanied with a soft side stretch and that chest opener for the next two breaths. Take a nice big inhale, let something go as you exhale. As you unwind the legs, you can cross the shins and hug the knees into the chest. We're going to play with a little rock and roll forward and backward, massaging the muscles along the spine in these forward and backward movements. See if you can rock all the way up just to the toe pads without bringing your heels to the floor, engage the core and then roll all the way down. Maybe you can rock up heels in without the feet touching the floor, roll all the way down. Switch the cross, take a couple more pulses. This will help fire up and engage your core muscles with the knees bent and it's going to help us on the next pose. A little foreshadowing for you. Last one, good. The next time you rock up, swing those legs around and find a nice comfortable seat. We'll be using blocks in a moment so you might want to have your block handy and ready. If you don't have blocks, there's going to be options. So we got you covered. Finding a nice comfortable seat. I'm going to focus just a little bit on the breath, doing a tiny bit of breath work, shifting our attention from strengthening the physical practice to strengthening our spiritual practice, which is our practice of concentration today. So let your right hand be free. Left hand on top of the left knee, but flip the palm. We're going to use the hands as our counters today. Samavritti is a pranayama where we try to equal the inhale, the pause, the exhale, and we take a regular short pause. So think five count, inhale, five count, pause, five count, exhale. Let's take a normal round of breath together. Inhale. Pause. Exhale. Five count, inhale, touch your thumb towards your pinky, touch your thumb towards your ring, touch your thumb toward the middle, touch your thumb toward your index, pause, touch your thumb towards your middle, touch your thumb toward your ring, ring, touch your thumb towards your pinky, exhale, touch your thumb towards your ring, touch your thumb towards your middle, touch your thumb towards your index. There's one round, pull your pinky in on the left hand, let's go for another round.

Nice big inhale, nice slow deep inhale, right thumb pinky, ring, middle, index, hold the breath, ring, middle, index, pinky, I'm getting my confusion counting, exhale, ring, middle, index, now we got another finger, take three more rounds at your own pace, you'll probably do better without me guiding you, counting, holding, and then exhaling for the same amount, summer is equal fluctuations of the breath, we finished the third round, let's go for the fourth, holding, and exhaling, finish the fourth round, let's finish that last one together on your own pace, wonderful, bring your palms together, if you have a dedication and offering for your journey today, send it out, may we find steady progress together. Alright so couple of little cat and cow tilts seated, and then we'll use the blocks here, so slide your hands to your shins, exhale round the spine, inhale lift the sternum chin and chest, maybe look up if that's okay for your neck, round with the exhale, draw the navel up and back, engage your core, inhale lift and lengthen, two more, one more, alright, so slide your hands right next to your blocks, for round one the blocks gonna be right next to the hips just behind the quads, press down into your blocks and lift your hips up, good, this could be it for five, if you need more, bend the elbows, lift your hips a little higher, four, three, two, one, lower it down, you can keep your blocks here, we're gonna do two more rounds, if this isn't working for you just bring your hands to the floor if you don't have blocks, you won't lift up as much but you'll still get that sensation, alright if that first one was easy for you pull your heels in and move your blocks forward in front of your toe pads just on either side of your knees, exhale lean forward, push into your block, lift, keep breathing, maybe bend the elbows, pull the knees up, press into the tops of the feet for four, for three, for two, for one, lower down, a little wrist stretch before our last round and might be good to take a little cross of the legs a different way so non-habitual cross, beautiful, remember your blocks can be here, here, if two rounds was enough we're almost done, stay, join us, just breathe, if you're going for the third round, palms in front of you, lean forward, press, if you're going higher pull the knees up, still feeling more, bend the elbows as you pull the knees up, you might even feel the feet hovering off the floor for three, two, one, and go ahead and release, excellent, so we're gonna swing our legs around for table or you can use your blocks and this technique to help you walk or float back to your table, the blocks have to be in front of you if you're doing this one, lean forward, press into the top foot, step the back foot back, slide forward, re-cross and lower back down, try that one more time, re-cross, lower back down, the idea is to get a little bit of momentum so you don't have to bring your feet to the floor and take a little float back, and then lower down into your table pose, I hope you had fun with that, let's take a little wrist stretch with the right hand, flip your right palm so the right thumb is turning out, wrist facing forward, back up the seat, enjoy the rise and follow your breath, give yourself a moment or two here, take out the wrist, and we'll switch sides, flip the left palm, left thumb turns out, take a little back up of the seat until you feel that little stretch of the forearm, a little pull on the wrist, great, now's the chance for us to use our blanket or our hand towel, take the blanket or the hand towel across your mat right in front of your knees, as you come into table pose, place the right knee on top of your blanket and inhale the left leg to the sky for scorpion tail, tuck your right toes under, we're taking a cat tilt, drawing the left knee into the chest and as you draw it into the chest, push down into your toe pads, lift the right knee off the floor, pull the left knee up into the chest, carefully lower the right knee to the floor, inhale back to your scorpion tail, cow tilt, these are our pulses for the day here, pull in as you exhale, lift and then guide the heart, chin and chest forward, a little back bend as you inhale, if you need more work, untuck your right toes, press to the tops of the foot, make sure this is okay with your ankle as you lift the knee off the floor, we're going to take three more pulses, press like that, the breath needs to be with you, inhale the heart guides forward, exhale round, pull the knee up, engage the core, last two, beautiful, last one, great, lengthen the spine, extend your left leg nice and long, straighten the leg, press the toe pads of the left foot to the floor, shift your weight into your left hand, inhale the right hand for a supported, it's almost like a plank pose with a twist, a side plank with a twist, lengthen the spine, rotate, lift, lengthen and rotate, one more round of breath just like that, spiral your left bicep forward, squeeze to the midline with the inner thighs, bring the right hand to your sacrum, look forward, lengthen the spine, come back to that scorpion tail with your left leg, guide the heart forward, this is a great spot if you're reaching back for the foot, pinky toe or big toe side of the foot, glide your heart forward as you lift your left knee away from the floor, two more rounds of breath, connect the breath to the movements, stretching forward with inhalation, great, release the scorpion tail, keep the leg off the floor, slide your left knee outside of your right calf, give yourself enough space for a nice little cross-legged child's pose, walking the palms to the right, hips slide slightly to the left so you feel and breathe into that left side body, enjoy the breath, two more rounds, breathe into the side body, create space, one more, great, press the right knee back to the floor, walk your hands back, shake out the left leg and then lower the left knee next to the right, give yourself a little wrist stretch on both hands before we do side two, move that energy out, okay, setting up for a scorpion tail with the right leg this time, so lift the right leg, look forward, great, tuck your left toes under, draw the right knee into the chest, lift the left knee off the floor, round the spine, cat tilt, carefully lower the left knee, look forward, cow tilt, heel high, chin towards chest as you round, we've got four more if you want to try these without your toes tucked, untuck the left toes, press to the top of the foot as you round the spine, engage, press down, two more pulses just like that, one more, the next time you are lifting that right leg, extend it, touch the right toes to the floor, inhale the left palm to the sky, push forward and down with the right hand, lengthen and rotate, lengthen and enjoy that spinal twist, left palm to your sacrum, guide the heart, chin and chest forward, bend your right leg once again, scorpion tail, reach back with the left hand, if you don't have the foot that's okay, if you've got the foot that's okay too, guide your heart forward, lift the knee away from the floor, enjoy the front stretch, the ribs heart moving forward stretching the front of the body, slide your right knee outside of the left calf, give yourself a little space between the heels, cross-legged child's pose, walk your hands towards the left corner of the mat, back up your seat a little bit, maybe slide it to the right if you really want to feel on that outer hip, oh that feels good, two more rounds of breath, one more, beautiful, come on back to your table, bring your knees right behind your blanket, we're going to leave the blanket here, grab a seat on your heels, broken toe pose, a couple more wrist stretches, interlace the fingertips, little figure eights with the wrists and then switch the index finger on top, alright we've got our first down dog, we'll leave the blanket here, table pose, walk your hands and palm print forward, tuck your toes under, press the hips up and back, pedal the legs out one at a time, as you push actively forward with both palms, give yourself a little pedal of the legs, draw the navel up to the spine, ears or by the biceps, enjoy that hamstring stretch, beautiful everybody, lengthen the spine for your first plank pose, your knees should come right behind the blanket, lower all the way down, bend the elbows so you get a little bit more elevation here, bring the elbows forward into sphinx, squeeze to the midline, invite the shoulder blades to soften, lift the heart sternum, lift the chin and chest, two more rounds, ribs move forward, elbows heart lift, great, replace your elbows with your palms, back bend of your choice, you can keep it there in sphinx pose or keep the toes on tuck, heart lift for low cobra, or start to lift up a little bit more, heart move forward, elbows soften down, we're going to play with a little walk or jump over the blanket, tuck the toes under, down dog, walk your feet forward about maybe 6 inches, about 11 or 12 centimeters and then step your left foot in front of the blanket and then the right and then step it back, so you can either do these quick step forwards and back or play with a little hop, bending the knees at the finale of your exhale, float to the other side of your blanket, take an inhale, bend the knees and exhale, float back, take a couple of these little hops, building a little strength in the muscles of the arms, the core, think of that pelvis tilting to the sky to help you get the hips up for a little bit more of a lift, walking or floating, you got two more, last one, let's see what happens, good, we'll keep the blanket there, we're going to ease it again, walk your hands forward, palms to the shins, lengthen the spine, flat back, nice big inhale, you choose your soft forward fold, knees bent, maybe grab the elbows for a little sway, whatever feels intuitively right for you right now, slow and lengthen the breath, bend both knees, supported chair pose, palms on top of the quads, a little finale cat and cow just to make sure our spine is happy and moving freely front to back, flexion and extension, and then use that next exhale to round the spine and roll all the way up, alright, so we're going to play with a little standing core and a little balance, so I want you to step on either side of your blanket, good, it doesn't matter if you use the blanket on this one or not so don't get attached to it, just make sure the feet are hip distance, take your left arm out into a little cactus field goal, bring your right hand to your hip, we're drawing the right knee to the midline and the left elbow to the midline, shift your weight to the left leg, exhale both to the midline, step the right foot out, maybe just the toe pads or bring the whole right foot to the floor if you need to, shift your weight to the left leg, pull it back in, the idea is to get lighter and lighter on that right foot, so we're getting stronger and stronger with the left leg, the balancing leg and we're playing with a little twist and a little core, so I'm even going to play with just not even touching the right foot to the floor or maybe just the big toe touches, remember find your steady progress today, where do you need to be, maybe the whole foot's coming down, maybe just three toes, take two more pulses just like that, we're almost there, one more the next time we pulse, we're going to hold that right knee to the midline, you can bring your left hand to the outer right knee, if you want take a little twist, look over your right shoulder, step your right foot to the other side of your left leg, so you're crossing it over the left leg, line up your toes, right leg stays bent, left leg straight, big side bend, inhale the left arm to the sky, right hand reaches up for the left wrist and go big with the breath through the left side body, the more you lean to the right, the more you'll feel, bending that left elbow sometimes is nice, variations of the arms having the wrist or going for the elbow itself, just make sure you're breathing and enjoying the breath, good, bring the right hand back to the hip, left elbow back into the cactus field goal, draw the right knee back into the chest, see if you can hold it just for a breath or two, maybe turn to your right, if you're feeling crazy extend the leg, just for fun and then step it out, shake it out, alright so the left leg got to do a lot of work, now we're going to switch over to our right leg, so the right arm is in cactus field goal, left hand to the hip, maybe give yourself a little pulse from side to side so you can shift and feel the weight of the body moving, left elbow midline, left knee, right elbow midline, step the toes out, practice full weight on the leg first and then steady progress, maybe not full weight on the left leg, maybe less weight, maybe just the toe pads, you'll feel that right leg strengthening, press down into all four corners of the right foot, rooting and a soft squeeze to the midline so you don't lean over to the right, maybe the last three the left toe is not even touching the floor, maybe it is, try two more, I hope you're having fun with this, one more, we can't take ourselves too seriously right, left knee into the chest, right hand around, lift and softly twist to your left, give yourself a nice big inhale, left leg crosses the right, left leg stays bent, right leg straight, straight right leg, follow the straight right ankle, all the way up to the hip, all the way up to the armpit, side bend to your left, left hand pulls the right wrist over, if you want to take that elbow behind the head, right elbow behind the head, you'll feel more side flexion, if you're reaching up for the elbow with the left hand, go for it, just keep breathing, enjoy the breath, the breath is our fuel, we need fuel for our strengthening journey today, all right, left hand back to your hip, right elbow back into cactus field goal, left knee back up, soft twist to your left, maybe extending the leg and stepping back for your tadasana, all right, so if you turn towards me, come to the front of the mat, this is the last time we're going to use the blanket here, I promise, so feet hip distance, give yourself a moment in prayer, feel the balance and strength that you just achieved in those moments right there, the grounding opportunities, if you'd like to share your good energy with an om as you bow to the floor, share your voice, inhale the palms to the sky, lift the heart, chin and chest, exhale, hinge at the hips, palms to the shins, lengthen the spine, flat back, walk your feet so they're just in front of your towel or your blanket, bend both knees, bring your palms to the floor, either practice your step back and step forward, really engaging the hip flexors, keeping the core active or lift up to the toe pads, bend the knees, a little float, hips up, float to the outside of the blanket or behind the blanket and then forward, try a couple rounds, pulse with your breath, there you go, last two, wonderful, last one, bend the legs, move your blanket out of the way, thank you blanket, walk or float back to plank pose, lower all the way down, untuck the toes, glide forward for your easy back bend, good, find a spot where your back bend is easy and then soften and lower down a little bit, find a spot where your belly's on the floor and stretch the ribs, move forward just like a little slithering cobra, press to the tops of the feet, come up to your fingertips, lift the chest without the palms on the floor, back strengtheners, lower back down, inhale lift up, exhale lower, if you don't need the fingertips, palms, fingers off the floor, inhale lift, exhale lower, three more, choose the version that's right for your body, for your back, last one, lower, press the palms into the floor, celebrate the space, inhale lift it up, wonderful everybody, I'll meet you in down dog, tuck the toes under, press the hips up and back for your down dog, pedal those legs out, one at a time, alright, shift your weight to your right leg, inhale the left leg to the sky, toes pointing down, three legged dog, push forward with your left hand, walk your right hand closer to your right foot, maybe halfway, maybe a quarter of the way, great, left knee is journeying towards the left elbow, maybe it's a little bit bend the left knee, lean forward, it's like a one arm plank and then press back, take a couple of breaths, three legged dog, left knee moves forward, for some of you you'll get close enough to touch the tricep, for others it'll just be a little bend and a little lean forward, be kind to your wrist, push actively forward with the left hand, one more, send the left leg to the sky, slide your right hand forward, side plank to the right hand, step your left foot behind for kickstand side plank, left palm to the sky, another little core workout, lift your left foot off the floor just a couple of inches and then lower back down, send your left arm over the head, take a little side stretch and the next time you lift your left foot off the floor, draw your left elbow towards your left knee and lower back down, see if you can do two more of those, maybe you're not lifting all the way up, maybe you're not touching, one more, lift, lower, beautiful, plank pose, lower back down, cobra, up dog, give yourself a moment in child's pose, keep the forehead to the floor, release the arms by the side and just shake out the wrists, let the arms be by the side, give them a little break, reconnect with the rise and fall of your breath, alright, let's see what the other side has in store for us, come up to your table, walk your hands to palm print forward, tuck your toes under, lift the hips to the sky, shift your weight to your left leg this time, right leg to the sky, push so strongly forward with your right hand that you can walk your left hand closer to your left foot, right knee, right tricep, lean forward, maybe it's halfway and then send the right leg back, maybe each time you pulse you're coming a little farther forward, really nice shoulder and arm strengthener as we get into some nice core and hip flexing work, last pulse, right leg to the sky, nice everybody, you've got this, plank pose with the left hand, pivot to side plank on the left hand, step the right foot behind, kickstand side plank, send the right hand to the sky, reach the right arm up and over the ear, bend the right elbow towards the right knee and see if you can lift the right foot off the floor a little bit and then lower the foot down, send the right arm over the head, pulse back again, right elbow, right knee, lower it down, two more, push forward with our left hand, last one, plank pose, lower down, cobra up dog, back to your child's pose, child's pose with a nice soft releasing twist, right arm threads underneath the left, fingertips of the left hand so don't use the wrist, don't use the palms, push the floor away, that gives our wrists a little break here, helps us work into the fingertips, soften the breath, engage your core, pull the navel of the spine as you exhale and maybe twist a little deeper, two more rounds of breath just like that, one more, ring it out, let's try the other side, right hand comes forward, left hand is the threader, take it under across and through, walk the right fingertips closer to that left form, push the floor away just with the fingertips, building the muscles in the hands, saving the wrists, exhale, soften into the twist, wonderful everybody, come on back to your table, alright, one more for the arms, you got this, let's do it, palms of palm print forward, tuck your toes under, hips to the sky, chest towards the thighs, down dog, pedal those legs out, good, shift your weight to your right leg, inhale the left leg to the sky, three legged dog, walk your hands halfway to your right foot, good, so your three legged dog gets a little taller, bend your right knee, lift the right heel off the floor and then straighten the right leg, lean forward, press into your fingers, get a little bend in your knuckles, lean forward, bend into the knee, back up, lean forward, so you get this handstand prep opportunity, you can keep the right foot on the floor as you lean forward and back or you can take a little hop off of that right foot as you send the left leg to the sky, hop back to where you landed, if you're newer to handstand, try this on the wall, be kind to yourself, leaning forward tops the toes, bending the knee a little hop, hop back down, engage the core, play with two more pulses, one more. The next time you lower, left knee on top of the right calf, left toes behind the left heel like you're on a tightrope, walk your fingertips back, bring your hands to your outer IT bend, press to the midline, wobbly chair. We're giving our arms a little break here, if you want to play with wobbly chair with your left foot off the floor, a little balance on the right leg, beautiful. Bring your hands back to the floor, walk the hands forward to one legged dog, take a nice big inhale, step the left foot to the front of your mat, make sure your feet are hip distance, bring your hands to your hips, setting up for high lunge, straightening the left leg.

One of the muscle groups that we don't get any work on in our yoga asana is the biceps, so we're going to play with a little bicep work. In the future if you had some cans with you or little weights with you, you could use them in this variation, so bring your arms by the side, as you bend the left leg, bend the right leg, take a bicep curl, make a fist, draw the fist towards your shoulder. As you straighten the arms, flex the triceps and straighten your legs, pulse with your breath, tailbone lengthens down, heart lifts up, straighten the legs, squeeze to the midline, flex the arms, flex the triceps, flex the biceps, inhale, straighten the legs, flex the triceps, you got five more, pulse with your breath, last four, feel like I'm doing a fitness show today, last three, last two, great. The next time you straighten your arms, interlace your hands behind the back, move your wrists away from the sacrum and then slowly, slowly bend into your left leg as you press your right heel in the direction of the floor, lift your heart. If you want to feel more, bring your knuckles to your sacrum, squeeze to the midline, lift the heart sternum, lift the chin, lift the chest, great.

Breathe those arms, high lunge, bring the hands around the left foot. We're going to play with a little finale posture that we worked on in our version of wobbly chair. Tap your right knee next to your left calf, good. You can have a block in front of you underneath your right hand and then squeeze to the midline, send your left palm to the sky. Starting with a little version of flamingo pose, lift your right heel off the floor.

This could be it, this is great. Or left hand reaches for the right foot. This is fun too. If you can't get enough, look forward, find your focal point and hook the right elbow outside of the left knee. Balance your little flamingo, right hand back to the floor, right leg steps.

All the way back, lower the right knee, straighten your left leg, thank you left leg. Nice little hamstring stretch, hang out right here. We're releasing all of that contraction in the quad, giving that quad a little break and stretching the hamstring. If you want to take that foot a little bit deeper, take it nice and slow. Even steady progress when you're working into deeper postures, especially when you're working into deeper postures, taking some time to just be in the posture wherever you need to be.

Take some time with it. One more round of breath and then as you back up your left leg, slide it off the mat. A little bent left leg, right hand to the floor. Back up your right knee just a little bit, open up your left hip. Opening variation of lizard pose.

We're going to open the hip to the left and walk our hands to the right. You want to bring the forearms to the floor, feel free. Lean to your left and enjoy the hip release, a lot of standing, balancing, quad work. Two more rounds of breath, lean to your left. One more, wonderful, palms back, tuck your right toes under.

Left leg to the sky, give it a little freedom, shake it out, move it around, thank you. Plank pose, lower down, cobra up dog. I'd like to give you a couple of breaths in child's pose if you want to slow things down or dolphin, which is down dog with the elbows on the floor, if you want to keep the effort up. You choose for the next five breaths, clear the mind with the inhales, enjoy stillness, let go with the exhales. Two more rounds just like that.

Take your time, one more, wonderful. If you're in child's pose or dolphin, come up to your table, are you ready for side two? All right, let's go for it. Walk your hands and palm print forward, tuck your toes under, hips to the sky, chest to the thigh, down dog, right leg is the lifter this time. Walk your hands halfway to the left foot, good, bend your left leg and then straighten your left leg, lean forward, heel off the floor, handstand prep, play with a couple of bends, leaning back and a couple of straightenings, leaning forward, a little bend in your knuckles.

Stay here for the next three or four or kick the leg to the sky and then lower it back down. Both playful pulses, steady progress, no expectations, last one. Sometimes you get stuck upside down and it feels good, lower your right knee behind the left calf, squeeze to the midline with your inner thighs, wobbly chair pose, right toe stay on the floor while you're on your little tight rope or right toes lift. Such great strengtheners for the muscles that support the knees, hips and ankles. Lean forward, extend the right leg to the sky, walk your hands forward, three legged dog, look to the front of your mat, step to your right foot to the front of the mat, set up for your high lunge.

Going back to the bicep, tailbone lengthens down, arms by the side. When you bend your right leg and left leg, flexing the bicep. When you straighten both legs, flexing the tricep, moving the wrist back in space, bend and flex, pulse with your breath, lift with the inhale, flex with the exhale, maybe sink deeper into the quad, last five, let's do five, feel like we did at least eight on the other side, good, last three, get some nice strong arms from this practice today, last one. The next time you straighten the arms, interlace your hands behind the back, non-habitual index finger on top, move the wrists away from your sacrum, push slightly back into your left foot as you bend into the right leg, really lift the sternum, really lift your chest, possibility of bringing the knuckles to the sacrum for a nice chest opener, releasing some of the pecs strength work we just did, great everybody, free the arms, plant them around that right foot and we'll play with our last pose, this variation of flamingo pose, slide your left knee right behind your right calf, put a block underneath your left hand, great, take the twist to your right, this is a great spot to be, if you can lift the left toes off the floor, squeeze to the midline with the inner thighs, if you're going deeper, reach back with the right hand for the left foot lengthening the spine, especially if you're taking the left elbow outside of the right knee, this is a hard one, this is the challenge, two more rounds of breath, one more, step the left leg all the way back, lower the left knee, thank the right leg by straightening it a little bit or slide the heel forward, do you guys feel that one? Melt into it, enjoy releasing the opposing muscle, the hamstring, take your time here, soften into it, slow it down, two more rounds of breath, hug that left inner thigh towards the midline, relax the muscles of the face and jaw, and then when you back up that right leg, slide it off your mat, the farther back your left knee is, the more you're opening up the hip flexor, we did a lot of work on that hip flexor, so we want to release that, let your right knee open to the right a little bit, turn the right toes over and open them, and then walk your hands to the left corner of your mat, a little hip lean to the right, if you turn the right toes to the right a little bit safer on the ankle, if you know that you can lean to the pinky toe side of the foot without turning the toes that's fine with me, just a little safety precaution, relax the jaw, wonderful everybody, thank you for side two, we did it, walk your hands back, tuck the toes under, right leg to the sky, shake it out, move it around, wonderful, slide forward to plank pulse, lower all the way down, glide forward to cobra, up dog, and then grab a seat on your heels, swing your toes around and grab a comfortable seat, so we just rode that wave of energy, if you want to use your block to sit up on it so the hips drop and you get a little hip opener while we connect with our breath, and turn our attention inward for a little meditation today, feel free, so we're getting this nice hip opener in our cross-legged seat, we did a lot of hip closing, let your indexing thumb touch, place them on top of the knees, soften the shoulders, relax the muscles of the face and give yourself a little smile, you completed the journey today, as you turn your attention inward, maybe drop the chin slightly towards the chest as you extend the spine, watch the breath without guiding it, notice the beating of the heart, a little bit more rapid than normal after the challenge, enjoy the steady progress that you made today, give yourself a little love for the push that you gave yourself, a lot of the times we beat ourselves up for not doing enough, but in our society we usually do more than enough, so thank yourself for showing up today, and just be present for yourself wherever you are.

If you want to take this peaceful beautiful mind in Shavasana, you can, if you'd like to practice this idea of steady progress, stay with me and let's meditate just another minute or two, trying to find more space between the thoughts and letting the thoughts that do not serve us dissolve into peace. Redirect your efforts just for this last 10 or 15 seconds, just be really present for yourself. If you're in Shavasana and you'd like to join us for a comfortable seat, feel free or stay in Shavasana and soak up all the nectar of the practice, if you're in your comfortable seat bring your palms together and give yourself a nice little rub of energy between the palms, place the palms over the eyes, we are all healers, we all have minor chakras in the hands, and as we place the palms over the eyes we see that beautiful indigable blue of Anya chakra, our intuitive center, we invite ourselves to make steady progress here, may we keep the intuitive centers open, may we listen, may we be present for ourselves for the rest of the day, evening, as you bring your palms back into the front of the chest, let it take you a moment or two to fully open the eyes, let them be heavy and relaxed, slightly out of focus as you come back to your physical shape and form. I hope you remember your divinity today, I hope you remember that spark of light within you and I thank you so much for going on this little journey of steady progress with me today, stay connected, I hope to see you for our last joyful flow season two together, namaste.