The Everyday Class

Hey there, welcome. We're going to work on balance, strength, flexibility, mobility, all in this kind of flow-like kind of vibe. So we're going to start seated, all right? Cross your legs if that's comfortable for you. Rest your hands on your thighs.

Sit nice and tall. So organize your seat to begin, okay? So lengthen the spine, rest your shoulders back and down. We'll close our eyes just for about three breaths to kind of really arrive and ground before our practice begins. Take a nice, fulfilling breath in through the nose, breath out through the nose.

Breath in through the nose, and breath out. One more time, breathe in. This exhale really sets you, grounds you, and prepares you. You and I, we got this together. All right.

So we're going to start with the arms overhead. Breathe in. As you breathe out, take a side bend, bring the right hand down to the mat, reach the left arm up and overhead and start to access the feels up the left side. You can lean forward. You can lean a little back.

All those little tiny movements, they all make a little difference, right? They all sort of bring up a new sensation or feeling. So the more you're curious, I find the better. Let's try the other side. Left hand rests on the mat.

Right arm reaches up, palm facing the left. Stretch first, get super long, and then get that lovely, potentially lovely, I don't know how it feels for you, side bend. A little early on in the practice moves to open up, side bend, back to center, and then hands on the knees. Let's start with some circles, like low torso sort of circles, almost like you're stirring a pot. So imagine like down in the belly moving in this like circular motion.

So we'll start with like counterclockwise. And you can start really small and gradually build it, right? It's kind of getting a little groovy with the old circles, go to the other side. So for me, I'm not sure for you, this really helps to kind of like stretch and address any like low back stiffness. Nice seated cat cow.

Now inhale, let the chest really open up, shoulders back, maybe even gaze up, arch the back and then exhale round out the back. Breathe in, arch the back, the spine, exhale round. One more time, breathe in. Just some nice little movements to get the body ready for movement, for bigger movement we'll say. Back to center, now take the right hand, turn the palm back and reach it all the way over towards your left waist and take the left hand, grab hold similar to this, right?

Like clasp the hands. Now pull that right hand across a little further, pull the right shoulder back and down and then the head over to the side, just enough to access a little stretch and you can tip the head up and back. You might even feel the stretch all the way into the jaw, around the ear, stay here as long as you'd like. It's one of my favorites. And then simply switch sides, just switch the grip now.

Okay, so the shoulders open, especially that left shoulder, you pull the left shoulder back and down and then you let that head tip over to the right. Up it down a little bit, lift it up and then, right, you'll start to feel out, wow, like right there for me. Up and over to the right, perfect. Back to center, really nice. Take a deep breath in with me here, exhale, clear it away.

Now one more of those breaths and we take a forward fold over our lap, but take the arms overhead, breathe in, exhale, reach forward, walk or crawl the fingers forward, starting to access almost what it might feel like in a child's pose. Low back, walk over to the left with the hands, walk over to the right. Back over to center and all the way up and back, hands back. Last one, hands back behind you, chest pressing upward, shoulders open, breathe all the way up in that upper chest and good release, tabletop. Head on over to your table and we'll continue with those spine movements, right, cat-cow, inhalation, exhalation.

One more, breathe in, come up onto your fingertips as you breathe out, maybe that'll access just a little more height and a little bit more roundedness in the back. Now palms back down in big circular motions through the hips. We'll go again with that circle kind of theme, two to the left and then two to the right. Always aware of the breath and then all the way forward, drop the hips just one time, a little casual up dog where you drop the right hip down, look over the left shoulder, drop the left hip down, look over the right shoulder, good, so there's that low back again. Back into table, shoot the right leg back, slide it over, slide the left foot over, open the right arm, a little side plank here.

If ever we enter side plank throughout the rest of the class and it's a little too much, set that left knee down, it's a really nice option. Take the right hand overhead, palm facing down, slide the right foot back behind you a bit and that might just open that right side up a little bit. Again right these first several minutes are all about just kind of grounding in, arriving and opening or addressing those stiff spots. Now lift the right leg up, grab hold of the foot, pull the heel toward the seat. As you're pulling the heel toward the seat, push your right knee back toward the back of the mat and then back behind you and that might add a little flavor there.

Nice now stretch that right leg all the way back out, drive through the heel, lift the right arm up and hold here like really super active through the right fingertips, through the right heel. Beautiful switch sides, good. So that combination of muscular engagement and a little stretch, good. Grab plank on the right side, slide that right foot over for a little balance assist, slide the left foot over, reach the left arm overhead, palm facing down, it's almost as if you're reaching with the left fingertips and the left toes and everything in between is getting this like this length and space. Great lift the left leg once again, grab hold of that foot, pull the heel safely toward the seat, knee back behind you and then push the foot into the hand so that'll just increase that opening through the shoulder.

Shoot the left leg back super active meaning like drive through the heel, spread your toes, lift the left arm up, engage all of those fingers like nothing lazy, everything's active. Great back into table, into downward dog, maybe even spread those fingers out before you come up, set the arms, the shoulders, lift the knees up and back for your first downward facing dog, maybe even take a wide stance so your feet are about as wide as the mat, just kind of like offers a little relief in the hamstrings maybe or your back, walk it out. Let's put a bend in the knees so we can create a little freedom in the pelvis, right? So send the tailbone high and when you do that you might feel a little stretch through the hamstrings, push the chest back toward the toes but not too much, find a nice little middle ground there so you're not too back bendy and then begin to walk those legs out again, heel down, opposite heel down, walk to the front of the mat. Take a slow stroll, don't rush, right?

That way as you're coming up your palms stay down and you take little steps getting really long stretching going on in each leg, good. Come to your fingertips if that adds a little assist as it does for me. Keep the heels where they are, turn the toes out, now lift the heels and set the seat down into a little heel lift squat, walk the hands forward, push the seat back, you might feel a little stretch through the groin, breathe in, exhale, forward fold, hamstrings. One more squat, so again just turn the toes open, lift the heels, sit low, it's a little user, a little more user friendly or just a different feel, another forward fold. From here let's roll all the way up reaching the arms high overhead preparing for some movement, a little flow, exhale the hands to your heart.

Inhale the arms out and up, exhale, forward fold, half lift, breath in, walk back into plank, pause, heat up a little bit here, screw your hands into the mat, put a tiny little micro bend in your elbows, pull the shoulders back, lengthen the neck, pull up through the belly, push the heels back and I think that's enough cues for you right now. Hold, maybe close your eyes, feel for five, four and as you're doing this make a choice, you're going to put your knees down or low full chaturanga, whatever is most effective. Last one here, now exhale, lower yourself down all the way or halfway, choose your backbend early on in the practice, up dog inhale, that's what I'm doing, down dog exhale, wander around maybe your feet are a little more hip width now, step the right foot and the left foot to the front of the mat, exhale fold, inhale half lift and fold, exhale, inhale rise up, let's keep going, exhale that swan dive all the way downtown, half lift inhale, exhale plank lower down, upward dog or cobra, always an option, downward dog exhale, lift your right leg up, exhale high lunge, inhale takes you into the high lunge, stick the landing for a moment, maybe exaggerate the left arm high by getting like reaching the left arm high and you might feel a little extra love up the left side, warrior two, so now my back will be to you, I apologize, warrior two, maybe spread the stance out a little bit, look down, really get your ground, lift your toes, feel the stability in the legs as we enter warrior two for the first time, let's roll the palms up, soften the shoulders down, I'm going to take a reverse and as you reverse straighten the front leg, breathe in, reach up and back, so reverse or peaceful, triangle pose, lengthen the right side of the body, fingertips toward your desired location, left arm high, triangle, same thing, really grip and root the feet down, warrior two, so a little flow here, right? Breathe in, warrior two, pass warrior two, reverse, then begin to straighten that front leg and assemble triangle pose. One more time, pass through warrior two, nice and slow, long enough to say hello, peaceful, reach up and back, exhale, triangle, reach the right arm out, you'll see it better on the next side, but the palm facing up, so there's no assist with your arms, it's legs and core only, for five, four, three, two, beautiful, reverse it one more time, inhale, exhale the hands all the way down like that big cartwheel motion, spin the left heel up, find runner's lunge, inhale the right arm high, try to keep your hips nice and level, reach the right arm high, inhale, nice, feel it for a moment, right hand to the mat, step back into three legged downward dog, lifting the right leg up, open the hip, drive that left heel toward the ground.

Now square off your hips, option to do a single leg chaturanga, plank, inhale, exhale lower, inhale, come through, upward dog and exhale, downward dog, well done, lift your left leg high, inhale, exhale, pass it through to the front of the mat, good, finish the exhale to rise into high lunge on the inhale, as we did on the other side but this time the right arm, reach the right arm up a little bit higher so we can access this loveliness potentially, maybe even a little side stretch, warrior two, spin the back heel down, spread that stance out a little bit, there we go, now we're talking, you and I here, add my back to you for a while there, that felt bad, now we're here, warrior two, root down, like lift all of your toes up, ground through the feet, right, so you feel stable and strong from the ground up, now we'll do that little flow we did, right, so reverse and as you begin to reverse it, maybe start to straighten out the front leg, triangle, open up, stay here for a moment, bend into the left leg, pass through warrior two, say what up, but keep going, keep going, peaceful, peaceful, peaceful, into triangle, inhale, get that full expanded kind of version or expression, one more time, reverse, reverse, triangle, now here you might be able to see it a little bit better, left arm reaches straight out like holding a nice little platter there, right, so again it's all core and lower body strength to hold the shape, little smile, okay, triangle, reverse, inhale, inhale, inhale, bring it up and back, exhale the arms all the way down, set yourself with that runner's lunge, so feet hip width, level hips, inhale the left arm high, rotate, open, twist, breathe, bring a little extra exhale to the belly, so squeeze and pull in and the left arm down, three legged dog with the left leg up now, so open the hip, feel that out, single leg option, plank pose, inhale there, exhale lower, upward inhale and downward exhale, so nice, let's keep going, we'll just add on to what we've just been building, so right leg up inhale, exhale high lunge, inhale high lunge ultimately, now if we're moving with our breath, warrior two, set it, peaceful warrior reach up and back, triangle pose, kind of flow right into that, nice, bend back into warrior two, we're going to enter half moon from here, but I invite you to shorten your stance for a moment, like a little warrior two position, start to find some balance on that right leg, what we're going to do is lift the left leg up, so you're kind of now balancing on the right, grab hold of the left foot, that might be where you stay, or begin to bend the right knee again, extend and push the left foot into the left arm, so a little foot grab half moon, hover the right hand over the floor, use a block or bring your fingers to the floor, up to you, good, keep that left leg strong and pushing into the hand, hey it's a break, it's okay, we'll reset, all right, I fell, you may have fallen, let's come back into it, grab hold, find that focal point, stay long enough to kind of like stick the landing, so to speak, if your hamstrings allow, you can bring the fingertips down to the ground and then push off from there, good, release, step back, bring the left knee down to the ground, reach your arms back behind you, clasp your hands and now open the shoulders and chest and a low crescent lunge, lift the chin, maybe drop the head back just to get a little stretch through the front of the neck, good, release the arms up high, breathe in, hands down to the mat, downward dog, plank, side plank heels to the left, pause here for a moment, you don't even have to stack your feet here, stagger the feet, remember I said earlier you can bring the knee down, feel free or build up as you'd like, if you'd like to lift your right leg up, lift your right leg up, lift your left leg up, float, I don't know, you've got options, let's try the other side, right hand down, heels to the right and lift, perfect, plank pose, chaturanga, drop dog inhale and down dog exhale, so lift the left leg on the breath in, step it through on the breath out, high lunge on the breath in, breath out warrior two, reverse warrior inhale, triangle pose, kind of exhale to kind of like set it and root it and then inhale to expand up and out of it let's say, back into warrior two, peaceful inhale and now set that half moon foot grab up, so shorten the stance, right, so it just gives you a little bit better stability and ground, find your focal point, lift the right leg up, grab hold of the foot, right there is enough or begin to now kind of get into a bigger expression of it let's say, push the foot into the hand, open that right shoulder, open the right hip, you can bend that left leg, the hamstrings allow just like I did before, bring it down, nice, I caught it, okay, play with it if you're at home, right, so you can pause and kind of come in and out of it a few times, open the right shoulder up a bit, super good, let's see if I can come out nice and smooth, not too bad, work in progress always, right, back knee down, low lunge, reach the arms back behind you, clasp, shoulders open, chest open, heart open, breathe in, nice, inhale the arms up, exhale the hands down, step back into downward dog, good job, bring that spine into what might feel like a natural neutral position, soft elbows, soft knees, plank to lower, exhale, use your exhale to lower down, down all the way, land, feel the body just completely release, reach the arms back, palms facing down, you can keep your palms down, I like to lift them, push through the feet, push through your hips, lift your chest, lift, lift, lift, roll those shoulders back, clasp your hands if that's on the menu for you, if not keep them out wide, reach the knuckles back toward the heels, maybe even rock a little left, rock a little right, lift one more time and relax, transition through cobra, lift up, breathe in, table top, pass through table, landing in a child's pose, getting that little stretch in the back there, walk your hands to the left, when you walk your hands to the left, reach your right hand on top of the left and push the right hip back a little bit more, that little counter stretch, lift the right shoulder up and down, walk the hands over to the right, stack the left hand on top of the right, pull the left hip back, so you get that tug of war kind of thing going on, then lift the left shoulder up and drop the left shoulder down, great, back to your sort of neutral child's table to transition onto your seat, let's use our core, so keep the legs bent, arms out, lower from like first by like tuck the belly in, round the back a little bit, arms out and slowly down using all of those nice core muscles you've got, hug your knees in, squeeze gently, bring the feet back down, take the left ankle over the right thigh and grab hold of the right shin or hamstring for a little reclined pigeon, that outer left hip stretch that might feel nice right about now, as you're beginning to close your practice you may extend your exhalations a little longer, that might be a nice thing to add, bring the right foot down, keep the leg shape or cross it over a little bit more like an eagle or partial eagle, shift your hips to the left, arms can go out nice and wide and as you're doing that spread your shoulder blades wide, get nice and grounded there and twist the legs to the right, if you want a little extra assist take your right hand onto the outside of your left thigh and pull down gently in coordination with your exhalation, so breathe in, when you exhale belly muscles engage, pull down gently, let's add this little extra flavor grab hold of the left, no the right foot with the left hand, okay now pull that right heel in toward the seat a little bit and draw that left knee down, try to get both shoulders grounded, this might feel nice, you may disagree with it, okay let's slowly release that, bring yourself to the center of the mat, maybe you can take a little pause, feel it out, okay take the right ankle over the left thigh knee area, make sure that right foot is active it always protects the knee, it genuinely does, grab hold of the shin right below the knee or the hamstring and again to pull gently that leg frame toward you, the framing of the legs, you might feel the outer right hip as the dominant stretch, exhaling nice and long and it's like a soothing exhale, sort of close out, let's twist now, bring the left foot down, keep this shape or cross it over a little bit more, slide the hips to the right and twist to the left, make sure to keep the shoulders grounded you can use your left hand to assist for a deeper twist, you can option to grab hold of the left foot with the right hand and exhale, relax the shoulders, pull the shoulders down away from the neck and ears, sweet, come on out, back to that center position in the mat, palms facing up, arms alongside the body but give your arms some room to breathe, draw the bottoms of your feet together and let your knees fold out away from the midline, let's take a deep breath you and I together, breathe in, maybe even hold it for a moment, open the mouth breathe in deeply, hold, open the mouth, exhale, let it all go, relax, relax, relax, relax, stretch your legs long, stretch the arms overhead long, that full body stretch, reach to the fingers, the toes, arch the back a little bit or a lot, bend the knees in and use a little momentum to rock up, oh man sometimes I feel like I can just rest for days but life must go on which is amazing right, so to close hands to heart to chest, forehead down toward the fingertips, for me this represents just stoked gratitude, appreciation for being able to move exactly how I moved, falling not falling, feeling good not feeling good, all of it, so with that said, namaste, have a beautiful day and I hope to see you again.