Twist and Flow

Hey there, welcome to yoga anytime and welcome to this twisting rotational vinyasa yoga practice. Without further ado, let's begin in child's pose. I have a block here that's going to be helpful for me. If you feel like a block will be helpful for you, we're going to possibly be using it on like a revolve triangle, something like that. So if you'd like to use a block, bring it into play.

Child's pose. So we're going to take the knees as wide as you'd like or as narrow as you'd like a position that allows you to feel kind of comfortable for now. You get that nice child's pose stretch. Maybe your forehead touches the ground or maybe you stack your palms or fists and your head rests somewhere while we take a couple of grounding breaths here. This is a really nice intention setting moment.

Intention can be super personal. I invite you to pay extra attention. Listen and feel, feel, feel, especially when we're, you know, in these deep twists. Okay, let's take one clearing breath together, full breath in, maybe stretch those arms out as you do so. Exhale out, perfect.

Now lift up just a little bit. So this would be table. This would be child's pose somewhere in between. What I want you to do is take your left hand and grab hold of the right knee. Your left elbow is kind of pressing into the left knee.

This begins the rotational part of the practice. So right hand behind the head or fingertips at the temple, rotate and twist open to the right. We'll do five. So there's the exhale as you rotate up. Inhale down, exhale, rotate and up.

Inhale down, exhale, twist, engaging the core as you're doing. So let's get two more here. Exhale, we're going to be doing a lot of rotations today, so exhale five. You could take your right arm up to get that full wingspan. Look up.

Sweet. Bring it on down and reset. Right hand to left knee. Right elbow draws kind of into the right knee. Lengthen the chest or the spine.

Okay, now left hand behind the head or to temples and rotate on the exhalation because you can engage the core to rotate. Inhale down, exhale up, three, four, five, lift the left arm up, gaze up if it doesn't bother your neck too much. And bring it down. Good. Come into tabletop puppy pose, get some side bending here.

So hips over the knees, walk your hands forward and as you stretch out, start to walk your hands over to the left, stacking your right hand on top of the left, push the hips back. You can draw your right shoulder down to emphasize the stretch on the right, lift, draw the right shoulder down. Good. Back over to the right side, stack the left hand on top of the right and stretch. Left arm, shoulder down toward the ground, just a hand of explore, right?

That listening is going to help you to find the spots that really feel like full and helpful for you and opening up back over to center, push back into your child's pose. Come forward into table, let the hips drop down. Even let the shoulder sag into the ears and let this be like a real lazy up dog, sending your left hip to the left, your right hip to the right back into child's pose. Stretch out that low back back into that lazy up dog. So we're just inviting a little stretch into the back and the hips back into your child's pose, stretch it out, go back into table, step your right foot up towards your right pinky.

So a nice long low lunge, but curl the back toes and lift that left knee. So now you're in like a pretty good, powerful lunge, right foot, right side of the mat, left foot left. Now reach the right arm, right, like as high as you can. Okay. Now hand behind the head or fingertips to the temple, exhale this time on the down, exhale the right elbow down toward the ground, even in the direction of your left forearm.

Inhale, reach up and open. That's two exhale down. Inhale up, exhale down, inhale up. This is four exhale down. Inhale up, pause here, reach up, open up and switch sides via downward dog.

Step back, walk it out a little bit and step the left foot up to meet the left pinky, right? So it's up and out wide. You can bring the right knee down to begin or even just keep it down the whole time up to you. Uphand temple behind the head, your choice, inhale the left elbow up, open up, say hello. Exhale left elbow down toward the ground, rotate the elbow again, is that kind of in the direction of the right forearm.

Inhale up, exhale down, upper spine mobility, inhale up, exhale down, inhale up, exhale down, inhale up and exhale down. Now inhale one more time and expand that left arm high. Open up the chest, strong legs, breathe in, breathe out, downward dog, good. I'm going to get a rotational dog here, all right? So stabilize through the left hand arm and shoulder to reach the right hand back toward the left calf or hamstring or ankle, and then turn the body like you're gazing underneath the left arm.

Switch sides, right hand grounds, left hand reaching back toward that outer right calf, turn and twist to the right now. Back to center, breathe in nice and full here, breathe out, relax. Walk forward, forward fold, heel toe the feet out toward the edge of the mat, sit down into your squat, heels up or down, up to you, left hand down toward the ground, left elbow into the left knee or thigh, rotate the right arm high, twisting once again. Right hand down, ground the elbow, right elbow into that right knee, left arm rotates, you might notice a big difference from side to side, super normal. Bring it back down, forward fold, really nice, feet kind of walk toward hip width, soft bend in the knees, exhale the head down.

Now fingertips or a block or fingertips to your shins, half lift straight in the front leg or right leg, bend the left. Now wedge the left hand on the inside of that left calf area and turn and twist open, rotating that right arm high, then bring the right hand down, switch it up, right hand into that right calf, chin, left leg straight and strong, twist as you lengthen the spine, you rotate to the left. Say hi again, good, make sure your core center is stable and braced, exhale it down, forward fold, rise all the way up, stretch the arms overhead and exhale the hands to your heart. Now quick little intermission here, take the hands up onto your shoulders, feet are kind of like hip width, mat width, soft bend in the knees and then as you twist and rotate to the right, spin your left heel up and drop or push your left hip forward. So this is kind of comfortable little rotational movement.

You can bring the arms out like so and kind of like, like you're throwing a gentle, loving punch, but this is again just a way to rotate, bring awareness to the spine, chunk of the body. One more time to the left, one more time to the right, back to center, back to the front of the mat and pause. Take the arms high, breathe in, you're going to sit down into a chair pose. So sit down into chair, your feet are about hip width. You can bring them a tiny bit wider if you'd like.

Pushing the hips back, same thing as we did earlier on in child's pose. Left hand grabs hold of the right knee, left elbow sits heavy into the left knee. This ensures that the knees are level, hips are level. Twist and turn open to the right as you're lengthening your spine, embracing your core. Lots of twisting here, lengthen the spine, come back to center, switch arms, right hand, left knee, twist, rotate, take good care of that back.

So good. Back to center, forward fold, and then walk back into downward dog. Back in here, neutral spine, soft bend, generous bend in the knees, push the chest back toward the knees, long spine. Take a couple moments here for yourself. Okay, from downward dog, bend and straighten like we do in down dogs, right?

We just kind of feel it out, stretch the legs and the back. If you put a little bend or generous bend in the knees, you can really push the chest back toward the toes, open up that upper back. Downward dog's awesome for bringing the spine back to neutral. We're going to take the left leg up and send it up to high lunge. All right, more rotations.

So once you get your feet grounded, rise up for your high crescent lunge. Okay. Now feet are about hip width, relatively neutral pelvis core engaged. Now take the arms up on the breath in. You may even like straighten the front leg a little bit, so you're like kind of coming up and out of it.

Then exhale, twist and rotate to the left as you sink back into your lunge. Okay. Inhale, rotate back to square, reach up, exhale, twist and rotate. Inhale, might challenge your balance a little bit, exhale, back to center, inhale the arms high. I'm going to exhale, reach down and grab hold of the block.

Take your time to grab your block, place it up near where your left foot is, maybe on the outside of your left foot, come back into high, high lunge. Now we're going to flirt with revolved triangle. So we're going to keep the back heel up for this one. So here, come back into your twist, entering from a twisted position. So rotate the arms out.

Now reach up and back like a revolved peaceful warrior. Right hand reaching to the ceiling, left hand kind of grazing the back leg. Now come forward, reach your right arm as far forward as you can straightening out that left leg a bit. Reach the right hand down toward the block on the inside or outside your choice. Make any adjustments in your feet.

Keep your spine healthy, strong and long. Left hand guides the left hip back or and or left arm rises up. Oh, this pose gives me so much challenge, but I love, love, love working on it. So let's work on it together here. Get twisting and rotating open.

Super nice. Make sure the breath is still flowing. Now try this, right? Revolve half moon, who really hard for me, especially with a fatigue left leg, but we're still twisting from that revolve triangle pose, leaning into that block with the right hand. Maybe walk the right foot forward a little bit more.

Reach your right foot up an inch, two inches, six inches, right hip stays down and then turn and twist open. Oh boy, whoo, left leg is smoking right now. Maybe the left arm high done with meticulous care. Oh boy, good. Bring it back down.

Step back. Notice that that left leg is probably worked a lot. Reach the arms up, inhale, exhale the hands down to the mat. Move back into your plank pose. Whoo.

Give yourself a little inhale into plank. Exhale a little vinyasa inhale, upward dog. Inhale downward dog, perfect. Right leg lifts, inhale, step the right foot through. You know where we're going.

High lunge. Arms reach up as you inhale, set, inhale, lift the arms, lift the body a bit. Exhale sink into the lunge and twist. I apologize for turning away from you. It's not you, it's me.

Exhale back to center, get long and open, kind of like a reset. Exhale twist and rotate to the right. Arms extend out. So open arm twist back to center, reach up, exhale, twist. Okay same thing, revolved, reach the left arm high, right hand back to feel that left channel kind of opening up and we're still staying rotated.

Now gradually start to straighten the right leg. I'm going to shorten my stance just a tiny bit. Straighten the front leg, reach long through that left arm, pull that right hip back, grab hold of your block however you need to. Place it wherever you'd like. I'm going to place it on the inside on this side to see what that feels like.

Okay. You can stay right here, intense stretch, or begin to turn the chest open to the right, reaching the right arm high, possibly revolve triangle with the back heel lifted. It's kind of nice because the hips stay pretty square, which is pretty important. Okay, now stay twisted here, bend the right leg, bring that block out in front of that foot, you know, about a foot or so. Walk the left foot forward a bit.

Okay, keep it generous or micro bend in that right leg and stay twisted and rotated as you lift off of the back leg, push through the left heel. Right hand can kind of guide that right hip back or right hand can open the chest just a little bit more. I know you're with me. I'm with you. Let's do this.

If you need a little help from a wall, take it. Oh boy. Yes. Okay. Now super mindfully back to square step back.

Use the wall. It's okay. Breathe in, reach the arms high, breathe out, hands down, downward dog, reward yourself for the, the effort you put into that. Inhale into plank, exhale, lower down, inhale, upward, exhale, child's pose, stretch out those hips, the glutes that may have been working pretty hard there. Great job.

Come onto our seat and onto the back. All right. So you're done with your rotations for now. Roll on down and push into bridge pose. Push into the feet, walk the arms and shoulders, shoulder blades under you, really push the hips up.

This might feel kind of nice after all the work you've done in the rotations, clasp the hands possibly as we're closing out, right? Coming to an end here, I just want to thank you for joining me and thank yourself more than anything for once again, showing up, doing the work, undo the arms, slowly come on down, give yourself a little hug and bring the feet down to the mat, bottom of the feet together and let's breathe in together here. Feel everything out, breathe in, breathe out, stay here as long as you'd like, we'll roll up to sit and we'll say our so longs, come to sit, cross your legs and let's make it an effort here to close like nice and intentionally, right? So bring the hands to the heart, forehead to the fingertips, once again, acknowledge, acknowledge your effort, making this time for yourself, gratitude, big time. And namaste, thank you, thank you, thank you.