Hello, Side Body

Hi. I'm Patti Lewis. Welcome to today's class. We'll be opening the side body and exploring whether or not we can get some breath into our side bodies. For today, use two blocks and a blanket. Let's get started. So place the blanket underneath you and sit in a cross-legged position. You can cross the centers of your shins, have your heels underneath your knees, lightly flex your feet, and bring your hands to your thighs. Start with the palms down and draw your upper arms alongside your torso. Let the eyes close and notice where the breath is in your body. So sometimes it's deep in the belly, it's high in the chest. Notice where it is. Notice the quality of your mind right now on your mat seated. Is there a lot of movement? Does it feel steady? Is it possible to notice without any judgment? And then going back to your breath, take your next inhale in through your nose, filling up the belly. Allow your chest to rise open wide and exhale everything out. Take one more of those inhale in filling up, open wide and release. And then start inhaling and exhaling through the nose. And notice if the breath moves into the side body or not. As you take your next exhale, find some release in your face. Go ahead and let your eyes stay closed or you can open your eyes and exhale, drop your chin to your chest. Inhale, roll your right ear over to your right shoulder and then exhale the chin to the chest. Inhale over to the left. One more time each side, exhaling to your chest. Inhale over to the right. Exhale your chin to your chest. Inhale over to the left. Exhale, bring your chin to your chest. And then as you inhale, bring your chin parallel to the floor. On your next inhale, bring your shoulders up to your ears, back and down. And again, inhale up to your ears. Exhale back and down. Reach your right fingertips out beside you. Inhale the left arm up and exhale our first side bend. Come over to the right and pause here. Allow the bottom right hand to press into the floor. Let the right shoulder release away from your ear. And the opposite hip, the left hip drops down towards your blanket, opening the left side ribs. And then inhale brings you up. Exhale to the other side to the left. So your left hand comes to the floor, release the left shoulder. Allow your right hip to release down, reaching long through the top right arm and breathing into the side right ribs. Inhale, reach both arms straight up to the sky. And then exhale the arms out and down. Just check which shin is forward. Straighten your legs, flex your feet, and then switch the cross of your shin. So again, cross the centers of your shins and flex your feet. Have your heels underneath your knees.

We'll move on our breath. So bring your right arm out to the side. Inhale, the left arm up. Exhale, take a tilt over to the right. As you inhale, come all the way up. Exhale over to the left. Inhale brings you up. Exhaling to the right. Inhale brings you up. And exhaling to the left. We're twisting now. So inhale, bring the arms up. And exhale, turn to the right, left hand outside of your right leg, right fingertips behind you. Inhale, center and up. And exhale to the left. So right hand outside of the left leg, left fingertips behind you one more time. Inhaling up. Exhale turns you to the right. Inhaling out and up. And exhale turns you to the left. Inhale, reach your arms out and up. And then exhale, bring the arms out and down. Straighten the legs, flex your feet, and come on to your hands and knees. So you could have a blanket underneath your knees if you need it. Otherwise, put your blanket to the side. Have your hands shoulder distanced. Have your shoulders over your wrists. Have your knees under your hips and hips distanced. Pause here, go back to your breath. Are you inhaling and exhaling through your nose? Can the breath be even? And as you take your next exhale, let your head drop, let your tailbone drop and round. And then as you inhale, pull your chest through your arms, broaden the collarbones and arch. On your exhale, head drops, tailbone drops, and round. Inhaling, pull the chest forward to arch. Take another exhale, press the hands, lift the front of the body to the back body and round. Inhale into center, keep the shoulders over the wrists, keep your gaze forward. Straighten your right leg back. Think of reaching your heel back, send your tailbone towards your heel. Press the palms, straighten the left leg back, you're in plank. And then press the hands, lift your hips, come into our first downward facing dog, Adha Mukhasvanasana. You might bend your right knee, release the left heel to the floor, and switch sides, and switch sides, and switch sides, pedaling the feet. And then lift both heels high off the floor. And inhale, come forward into plank pose, shoulders over the wrists, the gaze is forward. Exhale back into downward facing dog. And lower down to your hands and knees.

So come back into tabletop. Your hands are shoulder distance, your shoulders are over your wrists, and your knees are under your hips and hips distance. And then as you inhale, pull the chest forward to arch spread across the collarbones. As you exhale, you can press your hands, press the tops of the feet, lift the front of the body and round. Inhaling into the arch. And as you exhale, round. Inhale, lead you into center. Exhale, straighten the left leg back. Pause, send your tailbone towards the back heel. Straighten the right leg back. Pause. Shift into downward dog. And then come back forward into plank. Lightly put your knees down. And then shift the shoulders. Exhale, bend the elbows behind your wrists, go all the way down to your belly. Bring the tops of your feet to the floor. You can press the centers of the feet down so the legs are really strong. Draw your upper arms towards each other. And then inhale, lengthen, come up to a low cobra and exhale back down. Let's take two more of those. Inhale, lengthen and lift. Exhale, back down. Really reach the legs back as you move your chest forward. Lift to low cobra. Lift the front of the shoulders away from the floor. Allow the knees to soften, press the hands and knees. Tuck your toes, shift back into downward facing dog. Exhale, let your knees bend. Walk your feet towards your hands. Keep the feet hips distanced. Allow your knees to bend a little and hang over in soft uttanasana, forward fold. Spread your toes here. Press down through the base of your big toe, your little toe. Either side of your heel. Allow the knees to bend a little. Tuck your chin towards your chest. Let's roll up through the spine. One vertebrae at a time. That is the last thing to come up. Again, reaffirm your foundation. Base the big toe, little toe, inner and outer heel. Draw your shoulders up to your ears, back and down. You could rotate your arms so your palms face forward. Come into tadasana. Your chin is parallel to the floor, gazing softly. Take a breath in here. Feel the breath. Lift your chest. Exhale out. Then inhale, hook your thumbs and reach your arms forward. Then inhale, reach the arms up to the sky. Root down through your feet and lengthen up. Exhale, take a little tilt over to the right. Open the left side ribs. Come up to center. Exhale over to the left. Open the right side ribs. Come up to center and interlace your fingers behind your back. You could also hook your thumbs. Take a breath here and then take a little bend in your knees. Fold over your legs. Hands can stay by your hips. Or maybe you reach your hands a little away. Then release. Drop your arms towards the floor. Again, roll up through your spine. Come up one vertebrae at a time. Find tadasana. Find your foundation, your feet. Draw your arms alongside your torso. Rotate the palms forward and parallel to the floor. Switch the thumb hook. Reach your arms forward. And inhale, lift the arms up. Rooting down, inhale, lengthen as if you could lift your ribs away from your hips. And then exhale, take a little turn to the right. Come back to center. Lengthen and exhale. Take a little turn to the left. Come back to center. Release the arms. Interlace, switch the lacing. Switch the index finger, all the other fingers. Take a breath in here. And then exhale, bend the knees a little and fold over your legs. Reach your hands away from your hips. Release the hands to the floor. And roll on up through your spine. Chin parallel to the floor. Find tadasana. Going on. Inhale, your arms overhead. Exhale, fold up and over your legs to the floor. Fingertips on the floor, maybe. Inhale, lift your chest. Ardha uttanasana. Exhale, bend your knees. Step your left leg back. Pause here. Deep bend in your front right knee. Flatten your left palm to the floor. Inhale, turning to the right. Reach the right arm up. Exhale the hand down. Step into plank. Find your tailbone going towards your heels. Take a breath here. And then shift the shoulders forward. Exhale through chaturanga to your belly. Inhale, lift your chest. Come into low cobra or press the palms. Press the tops of the feet. Come into upward dog. Exhale into downward dog. Pause here. Downward facing dog. Press your hands into the floor. Settle your breath even in and out through your nose.

And then exhale, let your knees bend. Walk your feet towards your hands. And bring your big toes to touch. Inhale, your chest lifts. Exhale, fold into your legs. Root down as you inhale all the way up. Reach the arms. Touch your palms. Lift your chest. Look up. Exhale the arms down. Inhaling, your arms lift up. Moving on your breath as you exhale, fold up and over to the floor. Inhale, lifting your chest. Exhale, bend your knees. Step your right leg back. Pause. Bring your right palm flat to the floor. Inhale, reach the left arm up. Exhale the left hand down. Step into plank pose. Bring your gaze forward. Lift the shoulders forward. Exhale could take you all the way to your belly or to chaturanga. Inhale to low cobra or to up dog. Exhale into downward dog. Gaze back between your toes. Between your knees. Press the hands. Reach your hips away from your shoulders. Let the knees bend. Walk the feet forward. Inhale your chest up. Arda uttanasana. Exhale, fold into your legs uttanasana. And then root down and rise all the way up. Arms overhead. Chest lifts, gaze goes up. Exhale, find tadasana. So come into the middle of your mat and take your blocks. Leave a block on each side of your mat. And start in tadasana. In the middle.

Bring your hands to your hips. Bend your knees. Step your feet apart. Reach your arms out. A lot of times we have the ankles under the wrist, but for now a little narrower stance. And then bring your hands to your hips. Inhale, root down through the feet, lengthen up through the crown of your head and exhale. We're hinging over. If it's possible, keep the legs straight. Bring your hands to the floor, fingertips. And then first we're going to walk to the left leg. Take your right arm. Think of reaching way beyond your left leg, opening the right side ribs any amount you can. And then walk yourself back to center. Hands to your hips. Inhale, come all the way up. So deepen your right hip socket. Rotate your right leg open 90 degrees and allow the back leg to shift. Hands are on your hips. Keep your left hand on your hip. Reach your right arm up. Inhale towards the back of your mat. So again, opening the right side ribs. And then as you exhale, shift your right hip back towards your left leg. Reach long on the right side of your body. We're coming to Utthita Trikonasana.

Bring your hand to your block. Right hand on the block. Reach the left arm directly overhead. You could look all the way up at your top thumb. But notice your feet on the floor. Pressing down. Keep finding Tadasana in your feet. Lifting the kneecaps, lifting the thighs. And then can you find length on the bottom side of your body? So the top left ribs drop down. So you still have length on the bottom side of your ribs. Send your shoulders away from your ears. Take a breath here. Exhale, look down at your right foot. Use the top arm, the back leg. Inhale, come all the way up. And then turn the right leg in. Hands to your hips. Inhale here. And exhale, fold over your legs. So again, bring your fingertips to the floor. And then walk towards that front right leg. Reach your left arm beyond the right leg. Move the left hip back so you open the left side ribs. Bring your hands back to the center. Bring your hands to your hips. Inhale, come all the way up. Deepen the left hip socket. You want to rotate the left leg open 90 degrees. Allow the back foot to shift. Keep your right hand on your right hip. And reach the left arm up. So we'll reach towards the back of your mat. Opening the left side ribs. And then as you exhale, send your left hip back towards your right leg. Reach long. Take your left hand to your block. And reach your right arm overhead. Looking all the way up at the top thumb. Pressing down, finding Tadasana in your front foot, your back foot. Maybe you can draw that left buttock bone under. Keep that external rotation. Find the opening in the bottom ribs by dropping the top ribs down. Find length. As you take your next exhale, look down. Use your top arm, your back leg. Inhale, come all the way up. Bring your hands to your hips. Turn the left leg in. Bend your knees. Step your feet together. Tadasana. All right. One more here. Bend. Step the feet wide this time. Bring your arms out. This time have your ankles under your wrists. So we're going towards warrior two. Take a band in your right knee. Rotate the right leg open 90 degrees. And then allow the back foot to shift on an angle. As you exhale, bend your front right knee. You want to bend your knee so it's over the ankle if possible. And keep that front side shifting back, drawing the right buttock bone under. Press the back side straight. Keep reaching the outside of the back foot to the floor. Inhale, reach your arms up and hook your thumbs. So root down through your feet. Inhale, lengthen up as if you could lift your ribs away from your hips and open a little more. So the left ribs go back, right ribs go forward. Release your arms. Reach. Look out at your front right fingers. There's openness across your chest. Your feet are grounded. Your legs are strong. Inhale, straighten the front right leg. Bring your hands to your hips. Turn the right leg in. And then rotate the left leg open 90 degrees. Allow the back leg to shift. Reach your arms out. Exhale, bend your front left knee. So again, the knee is over the ankle. Your thigh shifts back, finding the opening in the left hip. And then inhale, reach your arms up.

Reach the thumb hook if you remember. Root down through your feet. Lengthen up. Lift the ribs away from the hips. And then as you exhale, let your left ribs go back, right ribs go forward. Actually, right ribs go back, left ribs go forward. Right and left are hard for me. Release your arms. Gazing out at the front left fingers. So you're open across your chest. Exhale, bend your front left knee. Inhale, straighten. Exhale, bring your hands to your hips. Turn your left leg in. Bend your knees. Step your feet together. We're coming back to the top of our mats. And we will put our blocks, the top of our mats, come into Tadasana. Feet together. Pause here. See if you can feel breath in your side body. So your blocks are next to you at the top of your mat. And we'll flow from downward dog into a couple of standing poses that we already did. Interlace the fingers behind your back. Inhale. As you exhale, bend your knees. Come into chair pose, Utkatasana. And then fold on over your legs. Inhale, lift your chest up. Arda, Uttanasana. Exhale, your hands are on the block. Step your right leg back and then your left into downward dog. Inhale, the right leg lifts up off the floor. Three-legged dog. Exhale, bring your knee towards your nose. Go back to three-legged dog. And then this time, exhale your knee towards your nose. Look forward. Step your right foot between your hands. Lower the back. Feel to the floor. Bring your right forearm to your right thigh. Bring your left hand to your left hip. Pause here. Root down through the feet. Inhale. Lift your shoulders over your hips. Come into warrior two. And then straighten your front right leg. So reverse triangle. Again, the left hand comes to the left hip. Reach your right arm up. Find the opening in the right side of the body, reaching the right arm towards the back of the mat. Stay here and exhale. Bend your front knee into warrior two. So the knee moves out over the middle of the foot, reaching the right arm back. And then exhale. Bring your right forearm to your right thigh. Reach your left arm alongside your ear. Pause here. Take your right hand. Bring it to your block. Find length on both sides of your torso. Reach long from the back heel to the top arm. And then exhale the top hand down back heel. Lift. Press off the back foot. Step the back foot up to meet the front. Lift your chest as you breathe in. Fold in as you exhale. And then bend your knees. Press your heels. Bring your hands to your hips. And press all the way to stand. Tadasana. Interlace the fingers behind your back. Switch the lacing. Inhale. Exhale. Bend your knees. Utkatasana. Chair pose. And then fold on over your legs. Inhale. Lift your chest. Exhale. Hands are on your block. Step your left leg back and then the right into downward facing dog. Inhale. Lift the left leg off the floor. Exhale your knee towards your nose. Inhale. Back to three-legged dog.

Exhale. Your knee comes towards your nose. Look forward. Step the left foot between your hands. So lower the back right heel to the floor. Bring your left forearm to your left thigh. Bring your right hand to your right hip. Pause. Pressing your feet down. Reach your shoulders over your hips. Reach your arms out. Virbhadrasana two. Warrior two. And then inhale. Straighten your front left leg. So the back right arm comes to your hip. Reach your left arm up to the sky. And then reach it behind you. And bend your front left knee. Feeling it move out over the middle of your front foot. Feeling the opening in the left side ribs. Exhale. Bring your left forearm to your left thigh. Reach your right arm alongside your ear. And then take your left hand. Bring it to your block. Reach long from the back heel to the top arm. Exhale the top hand down. Lift the back heel off the floor. Pause here. And this time let's step back into downward facing dog. Pause. Pressing your breath here in the final downward dog of our class today. And on your next exhale, lower down to your knees. And rotate so that the blocks are behind you. Your feet are flat on the floor. Bring your hands onto the blocks and have the fingers hanging off the front of the blocks. Looking forward, draw the upper arms towards each other. Press your feet.

Press your hands down. Inhale. Lift the hips. Your hips might come higher than your knees. They might come knee height. And lift your chest. Look up. Exhale. Lower down out of Purvottanasana. And inhale one more time. Press your hands. Press your feet. Lift the hips. Inhale. Look up. You might let your head drop back. And exhale out of the pose. Come all the way down onto your back. And you can leave your blocks just for a moment. Walk your feet wider than your hips. Release your arms to the side. And as you exhale, drop those knees to the left. And then maybe reach the right arm alongside your ear and drop your head to the right. Inhale. Bring the knees back up. Exhale. Drop them to the right. And reach your left arm alongside your ear. Turn and look towards the left. Bring your knees up. And exhale. Just swish your legs over to the left. Let them drop. Inhaling up. Exhale. Let them drop to the other side. And go ahead and roll to your right and come all the way up. For Shavasana today, we'll use two blocks. You'll set your blocks up. And we'll take the blanket on top of the blocks. So we've created a little surface to bring our legs on top of and come all the way down onto your back. For Shavasana, let the legs be a little wider than your hips. Release the arms down by your side. Let the eyes close.

So notice seeing the breath in and out of your body. You might notice the up and down of the belly. Seeing where the breath can move in and out of your side body. Releasing the back of your head, your upper back to the floor. Let the belly go. And rest in Shavasana. Start to bring some movement into your fingers, into your toes, into your wrists and your ankles. And then bring your knees in towards your chest. Rolling to your right side. Use your top left hand. Press yourself up. We'll come back to where we started. So sitting on your blanket can move your blocks to the side. Coming into Sukhasana to finish. Hands on your thighs, palms down or maybe palms up. Let the eyes close. And again, noticing your breath. Maybe you found some space in your side body so the breath moves out. Maybe there's been a shift in the quality of your mind. Bring your palms together in front of your chest, Anjali Mudra. You can set an intention here for the rest of your day off your mat. And as you take your next breath in, let your chest lift. Keep that sense of lift as you exhale. Bringing your chin to your chest. Thanking yourself for your practice, for your effort. And I thank you for joining me. Have a great day.