Lower Body Power

Hey there, welcome to Yoga Anytime. My name is Robert and I have the perfect practice for you, especially if your shoulders are a little tender or even injured or you just don't feel like working the upper body. This is a primarily lower body routine, a lot of standing poses. So we're going to omit or eliminate Chaturanga, that's the low push-up, but if you're feeling ambitious and you feel like that completes your practice, you can definitely weave that in. There'll be plenty of time for that, all right?

So without further ado, grab your blocks as an option. I like to use them in the beginning and maybe even throughout, and meet me at the front of the mat. Okay, so we're going to start with our feet about hip width, so the blocks can just be somewhere near there. And I will say that this is, you know, for beginners, medium, advanced, I might not give as many super detailed slow cues. I want to kind of make this a nice energetic, let's move through this powerfully kind of class.

Okay, enough chit-chat. Okay, stand at the front of the mat, take a couple deep breaths with your arms down by your side, call this Tadasana, mountain pose. Start to feel, because we'll be on our feet a lot, you have to feel the feet really rooting and grounding in all three points, big toe mound, pinky toe mound, and heel. And then feel that like connection and rootedness draw up through the legs and through the hips, the core, the upper body, okay. Start with side bend, bring the arms up overhead, actually, yeah, bring them up overhead and grab hold of the left wrist and pull up on the left arm and bend to the right.

Send your hips to the left, explore that, and then kind of inhale back up to center. While you're inhaling, you're switching arms, and then exhale to the left, push the hips over to the right, good, back up to center, take a deep breath, look up, look up, look up, and then circle the arms back behind you for a moment, clasp the hands, roll the shoulders open, start to flirt with the sensation of the shoulders. So this is just to kind of stretch them, not to work them too much. You can do some little side bends. Press the chest up, draw the fists or knuckles down, just a little like awakening in the upper body, lower body as well as you stabilize, all right.

Now take the arms overhead, breathe in, two half salutations, fold, exhale, inhale, half lift, fold, exhale, inhale, rise up, big like reversing arms overhead, and then swan dive the arms out wide and down as you fold. Inhale half lift, fold, exhale, inhale, rise up, exhale, hands to heart. Once they pass through the heart, let the arms draw down by your side, inhale the arms overhead, exhale forward fold, inhale to your half lift, exhale, plant the hands on the blocks or the ground, step back into low lunge, bring the left knee down, arms rise up overhead, start to flirt with the hips a bit, point the left toes back if you'd like or curl them, open the chest, circle the arms back again, open up the chest while clasping the hands. You can really send the hips forward to get into the hips or you can keep it a little bit more modified or moderate we'll say. Bring the arms up overhead, right hand to the right thigh, reach the left arm high and over to the right, maybe even lean your body forward a bit, stretching out that left side.

Left hand to the block, bend your left leg, grab hold of that left foot, lean into the stretch as we flirt a little bit with that left quadricep region, slowly kind of working into the practice, release both hands onto the blocks, lift the back knee, step forward forward fold, inhale half lift, let's go right leg back, low lunge, back knee down, untuck the toes, arms rise, send the hips forward or again more moderate up to you, option clasp the hands again or keep the arms overhead. So like I said, no real effort and strength building in the shoulders, more opportunities to sort of stretch the shoulders, nurture the shoulders a bit, open the chest, reach the arms high, left hand to the top of the left thigh, side bend to the left, grab that little psoas stretch, maybe even lean your body forward, seek out that necessary opening, perfect, exit, lift the back knee, step forward, forward fold, exhale, rise up inhale, arms at reverse swan dive every time, baby back bend and exhale hands to heart, arms down by your side, inhale, reach the arms overhead, exhale forward fold, half lift inhale, exhale left foot back, this time long runner's lunge, keep the blocks nearby if you have them, again it's totally optional, especially if you're like tend to be more bendy. Now in and out of pyramid a few times, so bend into a nice deep runner's lunge allowing your right knee to draw forward over your toes and then lift the hips high and get into some pyramid action, right, stretching the hamstrings out a bit on the right, one more time into your pyramid, stay rooted in that right foot as much as you can, engaged in the core, perfect, now back into the strong runner's lunge, left hand stays on the block, right hand behind the head, let's actually take a little bit of a wider stance, just a little bit, right hand behind the head, leading with the elbow, lift the right elbow high and let's grab a twist here, we're going to rotate up and down about five times, so inhale, lift, open, twist, exhale the right elbow down in the direction of the ground kind of rounding out the upper back, getting down into the hips, then you inhale, reach up and open, exhale down and in, two of five, inhale, find your pacing, your breath pacing, exhale, breathe in, open up, breathe out, down and in, contracting core, one more time, breathe in and breathe out, let's come back up one more time because we can, right hand down, step the left foot forward, forward fold, every time we're here, we have that opportunity to really stretch the legs long, half lift, breathe in, breathe out, fold, hands to the blocks, step your right foot back, so you've got that long runner's lunge bending deeply into the left knee and ankle, straightening out the left leg, so deep runner's lunge almost flirting with a low, low lunge into your long pyramid pose, right, feel it out, add any of your own personal positions, little like groovy movements, right, alright, let's come back into the lunge, little bit of that wider stance to make room for the elbow coming down, ground the right hand, left hand behind the head, now twist open, try to keep your hips level as you do this, it's a different experience when you twist and open like so, right, so twist open, open, open, open, now exhale, left elbow down toward the ground, inhale up and open, exhale elbow down toward the ground and you can really like dip into the hips and bend your right arm as you do that, inhale up and open, exhale, inhale, exhale, last one, breathe in, breathe out, okay, bring that right knee down, now grab the back foot, forgot this on the other side, so I don't want to make you uneven for the day, so this was that foot grab, low lunge in the prior sequence, so I got you, you may have already done it, but why not do it again, okay, release there, lift the back knee, step up, forward fold, inhale, half lift, fold, exhale, reverse swan dive, strong through the legs, rise up, inhale and exhale, hands to heart, arms down by your side, inhale, reach up, exhale, forward fold, inhale, half lift, exhale, left foot back, high lunge, good, get yourself set in the high lunge, maybe a little bouncing here and there, arm position, maybe wide or maybe you're like the interlace your hands and go powerful and strong overhead, twist, open arm twist to the right, hey, there you are, all right, so like driving and twisting through the midsection, opening, expanding the arms, breathing, back to centre, reach the arms high overhead, inhale, exhale, hands to the ground, step the left foot forward, forward fold, half lift, breath in, breath out, step the right foot back, once you get grounded there, high lunge, inhale, find the arm position that suits you, open arm twist to the left, you can always take your right hand to the left knee to get the little bit more opening and twist, back to centre, arms rise, inhale, exhale, hands to the ground or block, step forward, forward, fold, half lift, inhale, fold, exhale, rise up, inhale, exhale, hands to heart, hands down by your side, inhale, arms overhead, exhale, forward fold, inhale, half lift, exhale, left foot back, high lunge, rise up as you breathe in, rocket lunge, start rocket lunge, so you have this powerful position in the legs, hands to heart, now you're keeping, you almost want to like draw the right hip back and your torso just levers forward without rounding, so maybe keep the thumbs into the sternum to encourage that lengthening or lift in the chest, but what this does is immediately puts more work in the core and that right leg, keep extending back through the left leg, now extend the arms overhead, now everything changes now, right, pinkies draw toward one another just like you know the typical arms overhead, create some space in the shoulders, track the hands to the heart, breathe in, breathe out, right hand to the outside of the leg, hook the left elbow across your right thigh, take a few moments to get that kind of wiggled in, nestled in, then maybe palm to palm, elbow, right elbow kind of like even or level with the right, right and left elbow even, let's say, chest opening, core like really super active here, breath, slowly back out, perfect, hands come down to the ground or blocks, breathe in, breathe out, step forward, forward fold, inhale half lift, exhale right foot back, now you get that long stretch in that right leg that was just working, high lunge, high lunge into rocket lunge, rocket lunge with hands to heart, leaning the body forward feeling this, still you have this like sense of extension and integrity in the spine, breath, drive through the left heel, the big toe mound, pinky toe mound, now extend the arms out and add a little extra oomph, keep your breath going, hands to heart, then the left hand to the left thigh, this just helps you kind of get a little more like leverage as you bring that right elbow across the left thigh, try to hook it, once you get hooked, pull the belly in also right, then palm to palm, inhale through the nose, really broad and open and spacious across the chest, I'm doing great, slowly back out, hands down, breathe in, breathe out, step forward, forward fold, inhale half lift, exhale fold, inhale rise up, exhale hands to heart, arms down by your side, before we continue, keep the left hand by your side, reach the right arm up and side bend to the left, sort of address the spine, just getting the spine back to neutral and back to this like lengthened position, at least that's what it feels like for me, right hand down by the side, left arm extends up, bend over to the right, push the hips to the left, back up to center, okay, keep the feet, if you like them together, bring them together, maybe the heels out just a tiny bit, I for chair pose prefer hip width ish, a little more space, I'm gonna start off by bending my knees, I'm gonna move the blocks forward, I like to bend the knees in a way where I'm pushing my butt back, reaching down to the outsides of my pinky toes, once the hips are back, knees are level, spine working towards sort of like neutral core engage, then like maybe bring the arms straight out or overhead, so you're sitting strong in the legs, now heel toe while in this position, the feet together, hands to heart, left elbow over the right thigh, tuck the belly in, keep those knees nice and level, palms together, little chair prayer, if you feel like adding left leg back, do that, good, can you step back up, work that all right, let's come back to neutral, extend the arms forward, straighten the legs, reach up, inhale, hands to heart, sit back down, twist to the left, right elbow across the left thigh, now that right knee wants to come forward, pull it back, wiggle in, if you want to step back, lean to that left side, stable, stable, stable, step, twist, let's try stepping back up, that's always the hard part for me, twisting, undoing, reaching, rising, inhale overhead, exhale hands to heart, arms down by your side, side bend, right arm reaching up, left arm reaching down, switch sides, left arm up, right hand down, one more time, right arm up, left arm down, perfect, left arm up, right arm down, back to center, inhale the arms overhead, exhale back down, as you're here, grab those blocks again if you've been using them, inhale half lift, exhale step the right foot back so I'm kind of facing you warrior two, what I like to do with warrior two is keep the left hand grounded, reach the right arm forward and kind of power up and back, so heel to heel, heel to arch, all those fun things, so settle in, tailbone down, shoulders over hips, gaze over the left middle fingers, breathe, peaceful warrior, extend the left hand high, maybe palm facing back, right hand can slide down the leg or to your low back, breathe in up and back, extended side angle, left forearm, I'm gonna keep the forearm on the thigh, reach the right arm high to begin and with that right palm facing down, begin to extend the right arm long overhead, similar hip position as warrior two but you might be kind of like pulling the left hip bone in and then the right down just a bit, reverse warrior again, reach up and back, straighten the front leg just for like a little relief, back to warrior two, interlace your hands, a little more of the shoulder stretch option, humble warrior, stay here or breathe in, breathe out, dive down, keeping the hands at your low back or reaching them up and back behind you, now be mindful as you rise back up, reverse warrior, inhale and then like a cartwheel, kind of cartwheel the arms all the way down to the blocks or ground, square the hips and step the right foot all the way up to meet the left, forward fold, inhale half lift, fold exhale, step the left foot back, good warrior two, circle that left arm, it's kind of like a big half rainbow circle almost and then you get rooted and strong in the legs, extend the arms out, gaze over the right middle fingers, fingers can be spread wide or together, there's so many different ways that people express themselves in the practice, reverse peaceful warrior, inhale, right into your side angle pose, right forearm lands, make the little adjustment, just a slight little adjustment in the pelvis, it's like, it's kind of like open and then it slightly angles, then you get that nice long extended feeling from the outside of your left foot all the way through the fingertips and you try not to dump into that right shoulder, keep some space there, back uptown, reverse, maybe a big reverse triangle, oh yes, back into the powerful position, clasp the hands back behind you again, open up the chest and shoulders, humble devotional warrior, dive down, this one's, it's a powerful pose, you know you have to use those legs evenly, you know you've got the strong hips, shoulder opening, loosen up the head and neck, releasing exhalations, slowly rise back up, be mindful about being dizzy, take one more reverse, inhale, exhale the arms, a big circular motion all the way down to the landing zone, square the hips, breathe in, breathe out, step forward, forward fold, half lift, inhale, fold exhale, rise up, inhale, exhale hands to heart, arms down by your side, okay let's explore a couple straight leg standing poses, bring the arms overhead, inhale, fold exhale, half lift, inhale, step the right foot back, triangle pose, so it's almost warrior two but not, let's straighten out but not lock the left leg and let's enter it by rising, okay so triangle, trikonasana, there's like for me it's not wide open in the hips, I like a little angle, right so you kind of pull the left hip in a little bit, the right hip rolls forward just a tad, little angle on the right foot, that's all you're getting, no more cues, little tiny bend in the left knee, now let's extend the left arm, extend the left side of the body while pulling the left hip back, right there you go, there's that angle I was talking about, I'm even going to bring the block into play, I'm not afraid of the block, left hand to the block, right hand now peels up and open, now it's important I find in triangle to have those three points of each foot firmly rooted right, just for your balance but also for the activation of the leg muscles, see if you can really push in, maybe even lift your toes and push into big toe mound, pinky toe side and heel, okay now bend that left knee a little bit more, use your core to rise up, revolve triangle, this one I think even adds or requires more work but now we want to kind of like square the hips a little bit more, work towards square, turn your right foot forward more, that'll like where your toes go, your hip will follow, okay, bent leg, little tiny bend in that left leg, now pull the left hip back but kind of like now as you're pulling the left hip back, reach the right arm forward, reach, reach, reach, twisting the upper body, I'm going to keep the block on the inside, you can put it on the outside of the left foot, so I'm twisted here and I'm starting to twist a little bit more to the left as I expand or extend my left arm high, now that three-pointed pressure down through each foot is super important, twist and be super mindful your body and your breath, okay now slowly exit, take both blocks if you're using those, square off your hips, shorten your stance a little bit more, pyramid, exhale half lift, fold exhale, if you can find the right tension, it's a very calming pose, doesn't mean it's a lesser than, it's still a very strong pose, okay now we're going to explore a little standing split which for me will not look like a split at all but we're going to give it our best shot, I'm going to put a block out in front on the flat, you put both there just in case, I'm going to use both hands to lean forward lifting the right leg up off of the ground and then I'm going to still sort of like work on that like forward bending over the left leg as I extend that right leg high, if you want to implement balance into it, take one or both hands to that left ankle, hands to the blocks, right foot down, forward fold, half lift, inhale, bring those blocks back to that specific spot we had them, exhale fold, step the left foot back, okay, now use your leg strength and upper body strength to rise up, we'll build triangle from the up down, straighten out the right leg, put a little tiny bend like a micro bend in the right leg and that angle in the hips, reach long through the right arm as you kind of hug that right hip socket in let's say, block I like on the inside of the foot personally, find the tension in the hamstring, the rootedness in the feet and then maybe even bring the left hand down toward the ground but then peel open into your expression of triangle. Open the right leg, core up town, prepare for revolved so there's that little back foot shift that helps to bring the left hip forward, right hip kind of kicks in as well so you're almost square, same thing, now take the left arm, reach it forward, reach it forward while you're still pulling that right hip back, staying strong in the legs, I like the hand on the inside, you can put it on the outside, I'm gonna bring the right hand down toward the block or my foot or ankle, I'm already working on turning toward you actually, turning toward the right, now twist a little bit more as I bring my right arm high, find a steady gaze, keep your breath as part of the experience, slowly exit down, both blocks sort of available for you, shorten your stance a little bit, pyramid, you can come out of that straight leg for a moment just to give yourself a little relief, we'll take a few breaths in pyramid pose, maybe come up halfway, breathe in and breathe out, let it go, start to prepare for your half split or if I'm really keeping it real, for me I always feel like it's like a rusty scissor, you know, like it just barely opens up but hey, I'm here doing my best, so ground the right foot, use those blocks out in front or the floor and begin to find that kind of single leg action as you powerfully lift that left leg and fold toward the right, if you want to work on that balance, right hand, left hand to that right ankle, so many things happening, balance, flexibility, stability, strength, motivation, holy moly and let's exit, from here take your feet out toward the edge of the mat, you can keep your blocks there if you'd like and let's drop into malasana, elbows to the inner thighs, press the palms together at your chest, your heart, giving yourself a little bit of like a lift in the chest, a little relief in the legs possibly, okay, now hands to the ground or blocks, lift the seat, heel toe the feet back toward hip width, blocks back to their spot, half lift inhale, fold exhale, rise up inhale and exhale hands to your heart, okay, let's do some specific balance, let's move one block out of the way and we'll come keep the block, we'll come to like sort of like the middle of the mat let's say and what we'll do is I'll face you for the first one will be half moon, I'm going to keep the block up on the medium and out in front of the left foot, so what I like to do, so if we're going to do the left foot forward first, let's start in like this little mini like warrior two pose, right, it's like a little pose and what you do, take the left arm, reach it forward, bend the left leg, right hand on the hip and start to flirt or you can keep the left arm bent, flirt with just lifting off a little bit through the right leg and you see down would be the placement for the hand, right, the block, the ground and you can eventually start to open up that right hip and extend the right leg long, if you feel stable here, well first off push through that right heel or point your toes up to you, right arm high, half moon, gazing downward for me gives me better balance, I'm going to keep that for now, if you want to look to the side or look up, up to you, hold for as long as you'd like or let's explore the other side, so put a little bend in that left leg and like balance your way back out, there we go, let's try the other side, so move the block over to the right side, I will have my back to you, nothing personal, it's just how we're rolling here, okay, left hand to the hip, bend that right leg a little bit and you just start to flirt with lifting off the left leg, the right arm is kind of like wherever it helps you to balance until you start to reach down to the block floor table, whatever you've got there, okay, so you've got your right foot, your right hand is grounded, you start to peel the left hip open, find your gazing point, extend the left leg, oh man, balance feels so good when you nail it, I hope you've got that going on right now, left arm expands up, extends up, open the chest, wibble, wobble, there's an old commercial or old toy, weebles wobble but they don't fall down, we may fall down though, bend the right leg, step back as graciously as you can, good job, step forward, shake it out a little bit, we're gonna try to work with one more because we're in this like balancing mode, right, we're feeling good, you and I, I got you, I see you over there, let's work with some dancer, keep the blocks wherever you'd like, so we just balance on the right side, let's do the left, so what I like to do, I've never been a dancer but this is my expression of dancer, alright, right hand down, turn the palm open, bend the right leg, grab hold of the top of the right foot, I kind of like to grab the ankle or the foot, somewhere in between, now keeping the hips relatively square, this could be it, this is just like money, I got my balance, I'm good, I got this quad stretch or you take that left arm out in front, let's do a little like index finger to thumb action and begin to lean forward while you push the foot into the hand, opening the shoulder, soft little bend in that left leg just so you don't hyperextend the knee, push the foot into the hand, push the foot into the hand, oh, keep reaching long through the left arm, we got this, don't, don't, no, it's okay, keeping it real baby, keeping it real, no editing this, push the foot, push the foot, push the foot, open the chest, open the chest, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, exit, out, shake it out, good job, let's try the other side, take a breath, start fresh, whether you were successful on that side or you completely failed in your mind, let it go, boom, you'll get it next time, left palm open, bend the left leg, grab hold of the foot, feel the quad stretch, soft little bend in the right knee and begin to put pressure, foot into hand, foot into hand, reach the right arm out in front of you, so your body starts to lean forward and you start to open up that left hip, push the foot, lift the leg, extend, extend, breathe, oh my gosh, I'm going to fall, I didn't, this is it, this could be your dancer also, it's my dancer, we got this, stay with it, push, push, lift, lengthen, smile, breathe, ah, ah, yes, woo, good job, that's so fun, it's just fun to like play with the poses also, like be light, sometimes you nail it, sometimes you fall, it's all good, good job, all right, let's come back to the front of the mat, we played with that enough, enough play time, let's get serious, all right, we'll transition downward now, so bring the arms overhead, inhale, exhale, bring it down, you can actually move the blocks completely out of the way, half lift, inhale, downward dog, so if it's too much on your shoulders and you signed up for no shoulder work, come out of this, this is the only one though, if it feels okay in your shoulders, stay in dog pose for a few breaths, let's lengthen the legs out, stretch, hips from side to side, bring the knees down, press up into like a camel pose position, toes curled under, tailbone down, glutes locked in place, reach up and back, inhale, exhale, inhale, right arm, exhale, inhale left, exhale, inhale right, exhale, let's take both hands to the low back or the bum, push the hips forward, if you feel like grabbing hold of the right heel, maybe the left heel, pull up on the heels, press the chest, the heart, breathe in, breathe out, okay, now use your belly muscles, maybe back out of the back bend a little bit, core, kneeling, from kneeling take a couple cat cows, sort of like rinse out the back, when I say rinse out the back, I kind of just mean like bringing the back into like a neutral position, not overly bent or extended and nor rounded, okay, let's move to the seat, walk the feet in toward the seat preparing for boat pose, so lean back, let's grab hold of the backs of the hamstrings, we'll give yourself a little assist, lift the feet, so now you're just like all right, here we are, I got a little balance, where's my, where are my sit bones, where's the flesh of my bum, balance, okay, once you've got that, make sure, you know, ensure the lengthening of the spine and maybe release the hands and that could be your shape or you can straighten one leg or maybe both, good, rotate your thigh muscles in toward one another a bit, I think they like to roll out, keep your feet active, arms extending, breathe, now here, try to with control, roll down to your low back, keeping your legs lifted and your shoulders lifted, now your tummy muscles are really working to hold this like low boat slash canoe shape, good, can you with control come back into a bent leg boat, I know you made the same sound, don't judge me, I got you, I see you, there we go, one more time, boom, boom, boom, low boat canoe, strong core, maybe a little momentum, so you lower down and you go up that way, I'm not saying I needed that, I was thinking on your behalf, so here you are in boat and bring the feet down toward the edge of the mat, hands back behind you, one of my faves, little hip rotations, as you're rotating from side to side like right now as you lift your knees up to center, you might want to lift and push your butt to the left a tiny bit otherwise you're gonna roam from side to side a lot and now you shift it to the right as you go to the left, pigeon to the left, lean your upper body over the inner left thigh, now it's not probably your biggest pigeon ever but it is a little pigeon action, press up, pivot hips to the right, fold over the inner right thigh, beautiful, come back up, good, back to center, take your right leg straight out, left foot inner right thigh, breathe in, breathe out, equal calming relaxing breath, so maybe air on the side of longer exhalations here as we stretch in toward the hamstrings, rise up, kick that right leg out to the side a bit so you have an angle, turn your torso to the left, reach the right hand to the right foot, left arm reaches up and then you gradually side bend your way reaching toward that right foot or hand or wherever you can grab hold of, take the reverse left hand back behind you, ground your left knee and your right foot as you press the hips up and reach back with the right hand, okay bring it down, send the left leg forward right foot inner left thigh, breathe in and calm your way forward, good bring yourself back up, put an angle on the left leg, right foot inner left thigh, turn the upper body a bit, you can even grab like a little twist to the right, now reach the left hand toward the left foot, big toe, index finger and middle finger might wrap around the big toe, reach the right arm high, palm facing down let's say or pinky down and begin to reach and reach and reach as far as you can, maybe your hand meets the foot, good let's do the exit, come up, ground the right hand, right knee left foot are your placements and push up and really what you're looking for is that hip extension, that hip opening, lower down, make sure you're placed on the mat so that your whole body is on the mat as you roll down, use your core as your legs are bent or straight up to you to roll down slowly, slowly, slow, nice, push the feet underneath the knees and push through the elbows and upper arms to come into your bridge pose, good, press through the heels, extend the hips, let the belly open up and breathe, let the heart shine a bit, those shoulders, upper back, mid back, low back transition down, ground, bridge or we'll flirt with wheel here so take your right hand kind of like in line with your right shoulder with your fingers pointing toward the shoulder so this is a lot on your wrists, elbows, shoulders, back, it's kind of an intense pose so this isn't a real tutorial or clinic on it but if you're familiar with it give it a shot, I like to come up gently onto the top of the head really gently just to get a real alignment so really gently there then I adjust the hands and elbows, tailbone draws down or sort of in through my knees and then press ups trying to straighten the arms out, I like to lift my heels, lift the heels that gives me a little more space, push the chest through, be mindful of the low back, mid back, see if you can breathe and open up here, slowly down to the upper back shoulder area, arms reach back behind you, heels still lifting, see if you can like lower one vertebra at a time like you're placing one down and then extending and tractioning and lengthening the next and the next. Arms out wide, knees hovering over the hips, shins level with the ground, knees to the right, right hand graces the left thigh and you reach long through the left arm, gaze towards the left hand, relax and rinse out the midsection, the low back, good, bring the knees into the body and then like push through your right elbow so you're not using a lot of your low back to exit out of this, so what we'll do now is we'll flirt with the other side, let's see what the other side feels like, so arms out, legs bent, the knees drop over to the left, left hand rests gently on the outer edge of the right thigh, reach long through the right arm, see if you can also like decongest the upper back and shoulders so you really feel kind of flush and open across the upper back, gazing upward or toward the right, peace, as you're coming to close out your practice, I hope you're feeling kind of accomplished and fulfilled, content with the choices you've made to assist yourself throughout, pull the knees in, use that left elbow to kind of like push yourself back up and then roll a little bit to the right, little bit to the left, ground your feet, draw the bottoms of your feet together, open up the hips for just a moment and then the last and final pose because I feel like through the years it seems like the pose that you might naturally go for, that would be happy baby, okay so you can do it this way where you take your hands on the insides of your thighs, wrapping your fingers around your shins just below the knees and then with your arms straight, they're almost just like these support levers, you let your knees open out wide, let your shins and feet and ankles dangle, that could be a really lazy happy baby which is super, super comfortable.

If you desire more, all you do is slide the hands up to your desired location which might be the outsides of your feet, make sure your back stays nice and flush so this might feel relaxing to you as well, so many different ways, some easy breathing patterns, almost just letting the breath fade and you don't need to do too much with it, okay release that, maybe slide the hands back to that initial spot, rock a little left and right, preparing to embrace the much and well-deserved relaxation Shavasana, extend your legs out nice and long, maybe as wide as your mat, arms alongside this body that you've just worked so intimately with the body keeps giving and giving and giving so this yoga practice is a nice way for you to give back, if it serves you to take some deliberate long exhalations to enter, I would encourage you to do that otherwise continue to let the breath just kind of fade off and your body slowly dissolve and relax, relaxing all the muscles of your face, especially around your eyes, I mean we're essentially like caretakers right caretakers of this beautiful machine that has been created for us and it doesn't ask too much, in fact you can treat it pretty poorly for a while but there does come a time and maybe that's your time now is to give back and to build a new positive healthy relationship with your body, your mind, your life, okay wiggle around a little bit, stay longer if you'd like, stretch your arms overhead, stretch your legs, it's a new day, a new moment, arch the back, bend the knees, grab a hold of those shins, we'll rock up gently to sit, yes okay, take the arms overhead as we close with the hands to Anjali Mudra at the heart, forehead to the fingertips, nothing but gratitude and appreciation for all you have, thank you for joining me, namaste.