Waking Up, Standing Tall

Good morning. Welcome to our yoga practice. In today's practice, we're going to work on opening the shoulders, chest, stretching the hip flexors. You can pretty much think of this practice as a nice antidote to what happens when we are living our lives. If we are driving a lot, hunching, you know, rounding the upper back. If we are just simply walking a lot of sitting in a chair, the hip flexors will tighten. So hopefully you leave this practice ready to take on your day. So let's get started and welcome again. We'll start on our backs please and have some props ready. So have a couple of blocks by the top of your mat and also have your strap nearby for the end of the practice. So once you come on to your back, bend your knees and bring your feet a little bit wider apart than your hips and turn your feet in slightly and let your knees rest together. Place your hands on your belly and just take a moment to close your eyes. We'll be here just for a little bit, just arriving here onto your mat and into your practice. So allow your body to settle and start to notice your breath. So notice the air flowing in and out through your nose and also notice the rising and falling off your belly. So if you can consciously breathe down into your belly, allowing your belly to be relaxed and soft so that there is movement as you're breathing in and out. And just gradually when it feels right for you, start to deepen your inhalations and lengthen your exhalations. And as much as you can, soften your facial muscles, adding a brief pause at the top of the inhale and a brief pause at the end of the exhale. So just a couple more breaths like so. And feel free to keep your eyes closed. You want to walk your feet in a little bit closer about hips width apart and then bring your right knee into your chest and interlace your fingers around your right shin. Unless you have a knee issue, you can hold around the back of your right thigh and then straighten the left leg out onto the floor and bring your left leg to neutral so that the toes and knee points straight up towards the ceiling and actively press your left heel in the back of the left leg into the floor as you move your right knee closer towards your chest. Relax your shoulders. Come back to your breath, feeling the air flowing in and out through your nose. On your next exhalation, start to firm your belly in and lift your left foot about a foot off the floor. Press your lower back into the floor. You're more than welcome to stay right here. On your next exhalation, you can also lift your head and upper back, moving towards your right knee. You can continue holding around your right shin or reach your fingertips towards the wall in front of you. We'll be here for two more breaths. And as much as you can, flex your ankles, spread your toes. Let's just be here for one more breath. And then when you're ready, slowly lower back down and then set your right foot down and hug your left knee into your chest and straighten the right leg out onto the floor and bring your right leg to neutral so that your toes and knee points straight up towards the ceiling. And actively press the back of your right leg, right heel into the floor as you move your left knee closer towards your chest. And relax your shoulders, soften your facial muscles. And on your next exhalation, start to firm your belly in and lift your right foot about a foot off the floor until you can press your lower back into the floor. And again, you're welcome to stay right here. On your next exhalation, start to lift your head and upper back towards your left knee or lifting your chest, your forehead towards your left knee. You can also reach your fingertips towards the wall in front of you. Draw the chin in slightly. A couple more breaths here, but just attending to the abdominal muscles a little bit. Just one more breath. And then slowly lower down and then just simply straighten your left leg out onto the floor. And half your feet about hips-width apart. And again, bring your legs to neutral, knees and toes pointing straight up towards the ceiling. And then reach your fingertips up towards the ceiling, firm the triceps, outer upper arms in. You're also welcome to grab a block here and place the block the long way between your hands. And if you're doing that, especially press the little fingers out of the hand against the block. And then please, as you inhale, reach your arms overhead towards the floor behind you. And just notice the tendency to lift your back ribs up off the floor. So see if you can draw your belly lower ribs in, feeling the back ribs in contact with the floor. Relax your throat, breathing smoothly in and out through your nose. And once again, actively pressing the back of your legs and heels into the floor, flexing your ankles, spreading your toes.

Let's take one more full breath in here, breathing into your side ribs, back ribs. And then inhale, bring your arms back up, place the block by your side, then bend your knees and now bring both knees into your chest. And you can have your knees and feet about hips width, maybe rock a little bit from side to side, gently hugging your knees into your chest. And just another breath or two here, just allowing for a gentle stretch to your lower back. Okay, so go ahead and bring your feet down, and then roll over to either side and sit back up. Find your way onto your hands and knees into a quadruped position. And have your wrists beneath your shoulders, have your knees beneath your hips, have your knees and feet hips width, and have your hands about shoulder width apart, index fingers more or less parallel to one another. And then as you inhale, start to open up your chest, lift your sitting bones, stretching the front of your body. And then as you exhale, curl your tail bone under, round your back, and just let your head dangle. And then again, as you inhale, open up your chest, cow pose, pausing at the top of the inhale. And as you exhale, round your back, cat pose. Inhale, open up your chest. We're going to do two more rounds here. And as you exhale, round your back, maybe finding your own pace here. Go slowly, and really sensing your body, sensing your breath. And then in a moment, we'll meet in a more neutral position of your spine, so that your back looks rather flat. Granted, there are curves in the back, lower back arches slightly, upper back arches up a bit. But see if you can firm your belly, front ribs towards your back body. And as you press your hands and mounds of the fingers into the floor, broaden across your collarbones, and look about a foot or so in front of your fingertips. Now you're going to tuck the toes under of the left foot and slide the left foot back until the left leg is straight. Pin the right hip in and continue firming your belly, front ribs up. And then start to raise the leg, the left leg up off the floor until the leg is about parallel to the floor, toes pointing straight down. And notice the tendency to hinge into your low back. See if you can keep firming your belly, front ribs up. You're welcome to stay right here. You can also reach your right arm out in front of you as if you're shaking someone's hand. Align your right ear with the right inner upper arm, and with your left hand push the floor away from you. Two more breaths here. Keep firming your belly, front ribs up. Now go ahead and bring your right arm out to the side. Palm of the hand facing straight ahead, thumb pointing up. One more breath here. And then bring your arm behind you, reaching your fingertips towards the wall behind you. Now thumb pointing down, but lift your right shoulder up. Take one more deep full breath in, and then as you exhale bring your right hand down. Bring your left knee down and pause for a moment. Looks deceptively easy, right? But it's a lot of work. Now tuck the toes under the right foot and slide the right foot back. Pin the left hip in, firm your belly, front ribs up, and then slowly start to raise your right leg until it's approximately parallel to the floor, moving in that direction. Keep firming your belly, front ribs up, and then reach your left arm forward. This is optional. Imagine you're shaking someone's hand. Align your left ear with the left inner upper arm, and with the right hand push the floor away from you. One more breath here. Now bring your left arm out to the side, thumb pointing up. One more breath here, and then reach your arm back, thumb pointing down, but lift your left shoulder up. Two more breaths. Keep firming your belly, front ribs up, and then back to the quadruped position all fours, and come into child's pose. Just for a moment bring your big toes to touch, knees slightly wider apart than your hips, and just for a moment fold your hands underneath your forehead and take a few breaths here. Really get a sense of breathing into your lower back and your back ribs. Now please go ahead and come onto your hands and knees again. Find that quadruped position, and now strongly root through your inner palms and firm your triceps in. Find that neutral spine again, firm your belly, front ribs in, and then tuck your toes under, and then slide your left foot back, and then slide the right foot back. You're in plank pose. You're in plank pose. Keep firming your belly, front ribs up towards your back body, and as you press your heels back reach the crown of your head forward. Take one more deep full breath in here, and as you exhale lift your hips, move into Downward Facing Dog, Adho Mukeshvanasana. And then from this Downward Facing Dog, you're going to lift your heels, doing a variation, going to pedal your feet. So bend your left knee, extend the right heel down, stretching your calf muscles, and then alternate. Bend your right knee, extend the left heel down, and just go back and forth a few more rounds here, attending to your calf muscles. One more round, and now just simply walk your feet up to your hands, coming all the way to the top of your mat, and just half your feet about hips width. Bend your knees, and then grab a hold of your elbows, and let your head dangle. Uttanasana, soft Uttanasana.

Now go ahead and bring your fingertips onto the floor, and then inhale, lengthen your spine. You can always bend your knees more here to find length, and then exhale, bring your hands to your hips, firm your belly in, lift your shoulders, inhale, rise up into Tadasana. Now from Tadasana, you're going to take your block and place the block the narrow way between your thighs, midway between your thighs, and then just gently squeeze the block. Inhale, raise your arms overhead like you were doing lying on your back earlier, and then as you exhale, bend your knees, coming into chair pose, Uttanasana. So shift more weight into your heels, and then notice as you're shifting the weight into your heels, you end up with this hyper sway back. So to reduce this arch in your low back, lift your hip points, draw your belly, lower ribs in. We'll be here for three more breaths, just warming up the thighs and the buttock muscles. And then next time you exhale, go ahead and lean forward so you're more in a tabletop position. Maybe you can bend your knees more, more weight in your heels, and then send your arms back behind your fingertips, reaching straight back, lift your shoulders, keep firming your belly, lower ribs in. Now as you inhale, reach your arms forward and up over your head one more time here, and then as you exhale, fold forward, bring your hands down, and slowly straighten your legs. Inhale, lift and open your chest, Ardha Uttanasana. And I know this is awkward, but you're going to take small steps back into down dog without dropping that block. And then from downward facing dog, inhale, come forward into plank pose, and you might realize that you need a bit more space between your hands and feet so that you end up with your wrist beneath your shoulders. We'll be here just for a few more breaths, gently hugging the block, firm your belly, lower ribs in, just like you did in that quadruped position earlier.

Take one more deep full breath in, and as you exhale, downward facing dog, Ardha Uttanasana. We'll be here for just two more breaths, and if your hamstrings are tight, of course, you bend your knees, feel free to do that to more easily lengthen your spine. And then again, a little bit awkward, take small steps, walk your feet up to your hands, and then inhale, Ardha Uttanasana, reach your sternum away from your navel. You can also slide your hands up the sides of your legs, and then exhale, fold. Inhale, Uttanasana chair pose, also called fierce pose, and then exhale, Tadasana. Now move the block out of the way, bring your hands together in front of your chest, take a deep full breath in, allow your gaze to be soft, and then exhale, lower your arms. Inhale, chair pose, still with your feet, knees about hips width, and as you exhale, fold forward, Uttanasana, forward fold. Inhale, open your chest, lengthen your spine, and as you exhale, go ahead and step your left foot back into a high lunge, and then step your right foot back into downward-facing dog. Inhale, plank pose, and exhale, downward-facing dog. Inhale, raise your right leg behind you, and as you exhale, bring your right knee to your chest, come forward until your shoulders are above your wrist, look in front of your hands, inhale again, three-legged down dog, exhale, knee to your chest, look in front of your hands. One more, inhale, three-legged down dog, exhale, knee to your chest, and this time, step your right foot up between your hands. So check that your right knee is above your right ankle, so the weight is in the heel. Pin the right hip in, press the left thigh up. It could be today you want to stay right here, or you reach your fingertips towards the wall behind you, lift your shoulders, gently firm your belly, front ribs in. We'll be here for two more breaths, breathing smoothly in and out through your nose. Now go ahead and bring your arms out to the side, palms of the hands facing straight ahead, thumbs pointing up. Two more breaths. And then please bring your hands down, bring your left knee down, and bring your hands on top of your right thigh. If this is at all uncomfortable for the left knee, you can put a blanket underneath the left knee and left shin. Back out of the pose a little bit, bring your hands to your hips and square the pelvis, pull the right hip back, left hip forward, and then draw the lower belly in and up. Now, interlace your fingers behind your back, lift and open your chest, lift your sternum, now maybe bend the right knee a little bit more. So as you bend the right knee, imagine that you have a little zipper from the pubic bone to your navel, so continue drawing the lower belly in and up. So if you have tight pec muscles, you can use a strap between your hands, or just simply hands to your hips, take your shoulders, elbows back. Just take one more full breath in here, and then inhale, reach your arms forward and up over your head, maybe look up, lift your sternum, maybe arch back a little bit, only if this feels good. And then as you exhale, bring your hands down, straighten the back leg, step into down dog, walk it out a little bit. Now let's do the second side. So inhale, raise your left leg behind you, leading with the inseam of the leg, and as you exhale, bring the left knee to your chest, come forward until your shoulders are above your wrists. Inhale, three-legged down dog, exhale, knee to your chest, one more inhale, three-legged down dog, and exhale, knee to your chest, and step the foot up between your hands. So again, checking that the left knee is above your left ankle, pin the left hip in, press your right thigh up, and then you're welcome to stay right here. You can also reach your fingertips straight back, firm your belly, front ribs in, lift your shoulders, two more breaths here. So this is a great kind of workout for your buttock muscles and your thigh muscles. Now bring the arms out to the side, point your thumbs straight up, broaden across your collarbones, two more breaths here.

Bring your hands down, bring your right knee down. You can point your toes, bring your hands on top of your left thigh, and back out of the pose a little bit. Bring your hands to your hips, pull the left hip back, right hip forwards. You do the best you can to square your pelvis. And then interlace your fingers the non-habitual way behind your back, draw the lower belly in and up, lift your hip points, lift your chest, and once you have all of that, then maybe bend the left knee a little bit more. Find that zipper action again, draw your lower belly in and up. And then please inhale, raise your arms overhead, lift your chest, maybe look up, maybe arch back. Only if this feels good. And then exhale, bring your hands down, straighten the back leg, step into down dog, and then inhale, come forward into plank pose. Look about a foot or so in front of your fingertips. Start to come forward with your chest, you're welcome to set your knees down, slowly lower down. Point your toes, and stretch your arms down alongside your body. Cup the foot with your fingertips, lift your shoulders, and dynamically stretch out through your legs. Lengthen the buttocks to your heels. Inhale, lift your chest, lift your feet and legs, press out through the balls of your feet. Lift your hands, turn the palms, press out through the balls of your feet, turn the palms of your hands to face one another. You're welcome to stay like this.

You can also grab a block between the palms of your hands, lift your shoulders, and I'm grabbing, I'm holding the block with my fingers. Three more breaths, tuck your chin in a little bit. One more breath, set the block aside if you're using a block, place your hands by your lower rims, wrist beneath your elbows, feel free to stay here in low cobra, belly is on the floor, or you might lift your belly but the pelvis remains down and your elbows are bent. Drag your shoulders down and back, so I call this high cobra. For some of you, this is plenty, and for some of you, lift your whole body up off the floor, minus your hands and feet. And then exhale, downward facing dog, and just walk it out a little bit. And then please come on to your knees, come into child's pose, and just for a moment, fold your hands underneath your forehead. Now let's come up, so press your hands into the floor, and sit up, and we're going to make our way onto our backs again. And then once you're on your back, bend your knees and have your ankles underneath your knees, feet about hips width apart, feet parallel. And then make robot arms, you press your elbows into the floor, fingertips pointing up, and then just lift your chest to wiggle the shoulders under, lengthen your tailbone forward and up, press your feet into the floor, and then slowly lift your hips, coming into bridge pose. Stay with robot arms for a few more breaths here, pressing your elbows and shoulders into the floor to lift your sternum towards your chin. Press a bit more strongly through the inner edges of the feet. If you have a tendency to display the knees apart, you can always put a block between your thighs, like we did in chair pose earlier. So just a few more breaths here, one more breath, and then slowly lower down, and just take a breath here. I'm going to go up one more time. So again, robot arms, lengthen your tailbone forward and up, and lift back up into bridge pose. And now you have the option to interlace your fingers underneath your back. So if you have tight pec muscles, again, you can use a strap between the your hands, keep your hands shoulder width, or you can just simply stay with robot arms. But pressing your arm bones into the floor to further lift your chest, relax your throat.

So a few more breaths here, and pressing a bit more firmly through the inner edges of the feet to keep your thighs parallel, and then very slowly lower down. And then once you're down, hug your knees into your chest, you can cross your ankles, separate your knees a bit apart, and just make circles up on the ceiling with your knees. So your hands are on your knees, and you're just simply massaging the area around your sacrum. You can change the direction, let's take a gentle happy baby pose, you don't have to grab your feet, you can grab your lower legs behind your knees, just a few breaths here, keeping the back of the pelvis on the floor. And then bring your knees back together, sit your feet down, and bring your feet as wide apart as the width of your mat, knees bent, and bring your arms out to the side like cactus arms. You're going to keep the feet where they are, but just very gently let your knees fall over to your left, the windshield wiper pose. Stay here for a few breaths, just nice and easy, we're unwinding now. Inhale back to center, and exhale, let the knees tip over to your right. Just one more breath.

Inhale back to center, walk the feet in closer, and then one more time, bring your knees into your chest, you can cross with the other foot on top, and then bring your knees back into your chest, top, and then you can either come into a shavasana if you have time, or you can rock back and forth until you get enough momentum to sit up, and cross your legs. Thank you so much for joining me in this morning's practice, I hope you have a beautiful rest of your day, and that you feel nice and open in your chest and in your hip flexors. Namaste.