Twisting Flow

Hey there, welcome to this vinyasa yoga class with a strong emphasis on twisting and rotating. All right. So I'm really excited to share this, this one I've been having some fun with, so hopefully you enjoy it. We're going to start here in this kneeling position. And why don't we ground for a few moments.

So if it's comfortable for you like this, sit like this. Otherwise find another comfortable position, cross legged, bolster, block, rest your eyes, tune in. The outside distractions are definitely there, but maybe you can kind of pull away from them just a little bit and make this next bit of time a real priority this time for yourself. Move your body to breathe. One more breath.

And exhale, eyes open, okay. Let's twist from this position. So if you take your left hand back, reach your right arm out in front of you. And you can even lift your right hip up a bit and just get a little, little twist, a little twist there. Who knows?

Maybe you get a little, little release, okay? Back over to the other side. Always adding little, you know, extra little movements for different feels. One more time to the other side and to the other side. Okay.

Let's get off of the knees or out of kneeling and we'll come into table. So tabletop Cat-Cow, right, it's the old standard, but it works so well to move your spine into these two main positions, this flexion and extension. Back bend one way, good round and arch into cat pose. We could also add a little rotation here if you come into neutral, send your gaze all the way to the back of the mat, a little side stretch for the neck and the side, and then over to the right, gazing over to the right, get back to center. From here, take the right arm high, rotate and open, take the left arm high, rotate the chest open.

One side might be tighter than the other, let's do the right one more time. Tapping for the twisting, we'll gradually work into the twisting and rotating. Okay, perfect, downward dog. So plug the hands down, secure the ground, curl the toes, feel the stretch in the feet, right? Take nothing for granted, lift the knees.

You know, when I say take nothing for granted, it just means like we roll the mat out often, we move through the practice, but sometimes it's nice to just pay attention to the smaller details, you know, the way you might crunch your toes under and roll an ankle and take that extra level or extra layer of interest and self-care, we'll say. Dog pose with a twist. So secure the left arm into the shoulder, into the body and reach the right hand back toward the opposite leg, towards your left leg, grab hold of the outer edge and begin to kind of pull and rotate underneath, gaze toward underneath the left arm. Super nice. Now plug in the right, make sure right because you're on one arm now, so it's got to be safe.

Reach the left hand to the outer right calf or ankle depends on what's most available. Good now pull on the leg a little bit and gaze underneath like a little rotation. Sneaky good pose with the strength that it works on it back to neutral. Now we're going to get into what's called like a little crouching dog pose. So bend your knees quite a bit, round out the back like you're trying to bring your forehead to it toward the ground, but we're going to do a couple times is come into a lunge so you're going to launch forward and ring the right foot to the right pinky.

Inhale the right arm high, open up. Good. Bring it back down back into crouching. Dog pose, pause, left foot, left pinky. Inhale left arm high, rotate, twist open.

Good work. Okay, one more on the right, one more on the left. So step back, crouching, crouching, breathe in, use your exhale to step to the right. So you have an inhale now open up, bring it back down, crouching, nice and powerful through the legs. Breathe in buoyant in the knees, breathe out, step, inhale, twist, open, try not to drop the hip too much because it becomes less of a spinal twist and more of a hip stretch.

Open up twist, good back to your downward dog, crouching. Now step the right then the left, boom, nice and wide for the first one forward fold. Let's bend a little bit through the knees, straighten. Bend the knees, wide stance, just about five breaths. What I want you to do is push your hips back, way back like you're, you know, sitting way back and reach the arms forward, get really long through the torso, powerful in the legs and fold exhale.

Bend the knees a little bit, come up halfway, nice and strong, like a half lift. Keep this position, brace the core and come to rise. Lift the arms overhead, complete that sequence hands to heart, heel toe the feet to hip width, got a nice little flow here. So bring the arms overhead, inhale as you do, exhale forward fold, half lift, breath in, step it back, jump it back into plank, lower yourself down through your chosen Chaturanga upward dog, inhale, nice and open across the chest, downward dog, exhale. Lift the left leg, open the hip for a moment, explore that, maybe even lift up on the left fingertips.

I find that when you lift up on the opposite fingertips, or the same fingertips as the left leg, it might give you a little more lift, a little more space to explore, square the hips, left knee tracks toward the left elbow plank, inhale that left leg back up. Now bring it toward the center, towards your nose, push the ground away, push the ground away, pull the knee up, inhale it high, now exhale, step it through, perfect, high lunge. Breathe in as you fly high here, and nice and kind of like buoyant or soft or get some movement in that left knee, straightening and bending, and then on the exhalation, straighten out the left leg, bring the hands down to the mat. Now when I say straight, it doesn't mean lock, put a little micro bend in there, that way you're in muscle and not in joint, let's say. All right, so we got a couple little options here, first one is this long pyramid, find your breath, we're going to explore triangle from here, so go ahead and spin that right heel down, bring the left fingertips on the inside or keep them on the outside of that left foot and peel the right arm high, opening across the chest, the shoulders, strong and rooted in the feet, bring the right hand back down, keep the feet as they are, turn now to the left, a little long triangle, revolve triangle pose, turning primarily through the chest, lengthening through the spine, gaze to the high or to the side, beautiful.

Left hand down on the outside of the left foot, now spin that right heel up, bend the left leg, twist again, left arm high. Left hand back down, side plank, left foot shoots back, I'll have my back to you for a moment, stack or stagger your feet, press the hips as high as they'll go, take good care of your right shoulder and lift the left arm high. You can take that left hand and reach it overhead, palm down if you'd like, adds a little extra stretch, left arm back up, beautiful. Bring the left hand down, find plank pose, but bring the left knee like as if it's hovering in space in the direction of your knee or in the direction of your nose, now push the ground away, maybe even lift your hips a little bit higher, breathe, strong midsection, step the left foot forward, high lunge again, off the arms, we're going to open arm twist to the left. So begin to twist toward the left side, opening your arms, if you want a little deeper, take the right hand on the left thigh, that'll give you a little leverage to turn a little bit more fanning out the left palm fingers.

Beautiful back to center, spin the back heel down warrior to you know, so we're kind of moving around in the hips, strong legs, extend the arms wide, always active in the fingers always alive in the feet. And the breath of course, roll your wrists a little bit, and we're gonna do a little flow here, right, so you're going to come out of the left leg so straight and turn the right toes open a bit, bend into like a little side skandhasana action. So your seat goes way back, then the left hand can kind of go across the chest and the right arm reaches out. Nice and strong through the legs, you can point your left toes up or ground left foot. Okay, now back into warrior two, so you have to shift the feet as you do this.

Nice. Another rainbow warrior. That's how I learned it anyway. Warrior two. So total leg strength, flexibility involved here, some coordination, let's do one more is that may feel kind of nice for you.

You can go a little lower possibly back into your warrior to set it wide forward fold straight in both legs, maybe even like point your toes in a tiny bit heels out, soft bend in the knees, hinging at the hips, come forward, maybe about halfway down, feel the hamstrings become alive, left fingertips to the mat or the floor and turn the right arm high, start to turn the chest first, then the arm flies high, twist again. Good, right arm back down, lengthen to twist. Beautiful, left hand back down, horse stance slash goddess pose, seat goes way back, knees, you can even fan them out with the forearms as you lift the torso up, cactus arms. So cactus arms, pull the arms back to engage the upper back. And then we're going to do this is almost like a cow pose, right, so you're extending the spine.

Now let's round the spine by reaching forward, exhale, pull the belly in, tuck the tailbone. Good cactus arms inhale and exhale, round it out. One more time, breathe in, breathe out, back to cactus arms, straighten the legs, reach the arms overhead, big breath in, stretch everything you've got. Exhale, high lunge, spin the hips or spin the toes. Arms rise overhead.

You may have done this with me before rocket lunge or arrow lunge. Arms remain overhead or alongside your body if your shoulders are cooked. This is more of like a core lunge. Breathe. Palms to heart on your exhalation, take that right elbow across the left thigh.

So twisting once again. Arms together, pull the belly in safe, effective, strong. Make sure you can breathe well. I'm right here with you. Beautiful.

Come back out. Let's get some length on that lunge. So lift, lift, lift, lift, lift that left leg's gonna be a little cooked now half moon. Let's see what we got. So lift off of that right leg, maybe bring the toes down for a reset.

Right hand on the hip. Peel the right hip open. Bring the left fingertips to the ground or a block or a couch or a table nearby. Half moon. Steady relaxed gaze.

Turn across the upper body. Revolved half moon. Nice difficult pose. Right hand down, squaring the hips, point your right toes toward the ground, lengthen the spine and turn now and twist to the left. Left legs like what?

Okay. Left hand back down. Step back, runner's lunge. From your runners, rise up again. High lunge.

Still with that left leg. You got this. Twist. Open arm twist. One more time.

Right? So we're twisting one way. We're twisting another. Now take that left hand toward the back leg, graze that back leg and reach the right fingertips, the right palm up, up, up, up, up, up and away. Beautiful.

Breathe in. As you breathe out, square the hips, exhale, downward dog. Inhale plank pose. Exhale lower yourself down. Upward inhale and exhale downward facing dog.

Land here. Five breaths. Reset. And on the other side, the right side. Full cycles.

Breathing in. Breathing out. Two more. Lift the left leg up. Let's start a little bit of work here.

Exhale, knee toward the right elbow. Push the ground away. Lift that right knee. Nice. Inhale it high.

Toward the nose. Exhale. Push the ground away. Lift up high on those back toes. Inhale lift it.

Exhale high lunge. Set it to rise. What do they say a lot? Right? Root to rise.

But that's what you're doing, right? You're kind of rooting and setting so that you can lift up and assemble the rest of the pose. Good. Breathing in. Breathing out.

On your exhale, bring your hands down to the mat and pause. Inhale. Exhale. Use your exhale to start to straighten out that right leg. Feel it out.

Listen to what the body communicates. This is super accessible. Work with that. If it's not, work with that, right? Anything in between.

Okay. Now you're here in this long pyramid. Let's spin the back heel down for that position of triangle. Right hand on the inside of the foot or up on the shin. Left arm rises up.

And again, make sure that those feet are super rooted, creating the stability for the rest of the pose. Revolve triangle, left hand down, pull that right hip back a little bit, lengthen through the spine and turn through the chest first. You're like, okay, that might feel nice to lift the right arm high. Perfect. Bring it back down.

Similar just with the back heel up. So now you can level out the hips, reorganize the spine, runners lunge with the twist, peel the chest open, reach the right arm high, follow the right hand with the gaze possibly. Keep rooting that entire right foot down. Inside plank transition, right hand down, plug the left hand in, step back, land it, stick the landing. Okay, stack the feet or stagger, bring a knee down if that's more suitable for you.

But lift those hips, those obliques on the side there, those fired up, fire up the breath. Back. Right knee hovers and kind of tracks toward the midline nose area, push the ground away. You kind of feel a lot of different muscle groups working here. Pull the belly in.

Step the right foot through. Perfect land, catch your breath if you need it. High lunge. Open arm twist to the right. Last time I was away from you.

This time, I see you. Left hand on the right thigh. That gives you that leverage to pull the belly in, twist from the core, rotate open. Super good. Back to center, warrior two.

Take a few moments, right? You got to be aware of the position of your hips and pelvis in this little flow here because it's always shifting. Warrior two. So as you straighten your front leg, you're going to turn basically of just both feet. Turn your right foot square.

Left foot opens about 45 degrees. Bend your hips back and down to a place where you feel supported. You can lift your right toes up. Right hand goes across the chest, left arm reaches out. Keep that knee stable and strong over the ankle somewhere safe.

Warrior two. So push out of that back leg. Warrior two. Over to that rainbow warrior. Warrior two.

Back one more time. Seat goes back. Seat goes back. It doesn't matter what you do with your arms. Push now strong to that left leg.

Land in your warrior two. Land pause, breathe. Now wide forward fold, point the toes. Heels wide, grip down through the feet, softer, generous bend in the knees. Fold this time.

Let's leave the twists out and go for what might feel like a nice forward fold. Let the head relax. The breath long just to kind of like give you that moment to reset everything. Let's change the rotations a little bit. I said we weren't going to do it, but walk the hands over to the right.

Maybe the left hand touches the right foot or somewhere in that direction and then twist and rotate open with that right arm. Good job. Walk the right hand over to the left, lengthen the spine and twist. Exit. Good job.

Full fold. Okay, one more horse stance. Watch the walk the feet a little closer together. Heels in, toes out, seat back, push the knees wide. Rise up.

I'm going to come back to this point, but just feels better for me to see you there. Make sure you've got some good positioning, all right? So horse stance, which is just really good for that like low base of your body. Arms cactus style, pull the arms back, but make sure you don't flare the ribs, but maybe now flare them a little bit, get a little back bend, and then round, exhale. Exhale.

Exhale. Goddess. Hello, horse. Straighten the legs. Reach the arms up, five pointed star, something like that.

So many names for these poses, but this here is just like a really nice big stretch. Okay, I must return to my other side. Okay, let's spin back into the high lunge. Pause here for a moment. Reach the arms high.

Rocket lunge, this sets up the prayer twist or you stay with this position. Hands to heart as you're already lengthened through the spine, left elbow, crosses the right thigh, wedge it, press the thumbs toward the chest, pull the right shoulder open. Slowly back out. Let's go right into half moon from here, okay? So if you need to shorten your stance, do so, otherwise, little leg kick out there to catch my balance, you may do the same thing.

The transition into half moon can be challenging sometimes. Half moon, left arm rises. You got this. Takes a little focus, a little determination. Left hand down, revolved, squaring the hips, maintaining a lengthened spine and turning the torso to the right and maybe reach that right arm high, little smile there, nice.

Right hand back down, step back, prepping for the final lunge. Reach up, open arm twist, definitely a lot of twists here. Hopefully you feel a little wrung out toward the end in a good way. Now the lean back, right hand to the left hamstring area, left arm reaches up. This is a little bit of a balancing pose in and of itself.

Beautiful. Now exiting, kind of like come out of it, square off the hips, the spine, hands down, we're dug. Let's kind of close that little sequence out with a like a slow vinyasa, a slow transition here. Plank, lower, upward inhale to the knees, momentary child, just to say hello. Camel pose seems to be my favorite these days, we're going to add a little twist to it.

So reach the arms up, tailbone down, set, lengthen the spine. Now reach the right hand back, but not to the right heel, but reach it over toward the left heel so there requires a little bit of a rotation, a twist, left arm reaches up and reaches over toward the right, push through that left hip, good, and then switch it left hand to right heel, right arm high, rotate it, twist, maybe push the right hip, left hip forward, perfect, reach back, grab hold of your heels, heels up or down, up to you by this point, pull on the heels, pull on the feet. As you drive safely your hips forward, heart lifting, rib cage expanding with every breath, and slowly exit back to table, take a little cat pose here, rounding slowly the counter pose, child's keep the feet or the knees relatively close, stack your hands or your fists or really personalize this for yourself, a little wiggle from side to side, wiggle, wiggle, okay, you're always welcome to stay here as long as you'd like, that's a given right seat, let's twist. So let's take the left leg out straight, if you'd rather have it bent, you can make that call, I'll go straight because it helps to keep those sit bones plugged in, take the right foot across the left thigh and knee area, pull that leg in toward the body, that leg meaning your right, flex through the left, hook around that right knee, give yourself a little hug, pull that belly in, twist to the right. So this is nice, it's a nice twist, it gives you, you feel a little more supported rather than in a lunge or a revolve twist kind of position.

Try hooking the left elbow across the right thigh, that will give you just a little more of a push, okay, over to the left, counter pose, okay, back to center, shoot that right leg straight out, very active, left foot across the right thigh, plug the sitting bones downtown, wrap the right arm around that left shin, pull in, lift the chest, lengthen the spine and twist to the left. If you'd like, stay here or hook that right elbow on top of the left thigh and give yourself a little more leverage to twist it out, little gentle pelvic floor lift, a little low belly squeeze and twist, twist, twist, slowly out, over to the right, counter pose, kiss the ground, all right, come back out, I'm gonna lie down and as not always, but let's hug those knees in, it just sometimes feels like that nice little closer, you can take the knees a little wider or narrow and then gradually bring the feet down and start to make these little very gradual decisions on how you want to assemble your body for relaxation as we spend a short period of time together, allowing the body to completely kind of feel out, let it go, you can let your head drift a little side to side, become more aware of your breath, feel the fingertips and start to stretch your toes out, point your toes, roll your ankles and wrists around, a little extra attention to detail, a little bit like almost fascinated with the body and how it works, how you're able to move the way that you are, bend the knees, roll to your right side, maybe even take a little twist on the way there, push yourself up, wow, we meet again, so I just want to thank you for being here, thank yourself, I think that's always important and valuable, bring the hands to your chest, to your heart, a little gentle smile on your face, ready for whatever is to come, namaste.