Twist and Unwind

Hello, and welcome. My name is Chantani, and we are here for your 20 minute yoga flow. For today's class, all you'll need is a mat really. And if you have blocks at home, that would be great, but they're totally optional. Now, in today's practice, I'm super excited to share it with you.

We're gonna have a lot of fun in the transitions. We'll be doing lots of twistings. Your spine will feel great and Let's get started. So we're gonna start seated. I like to sit cross legged.

If you would like to bring a block beneath your seat, you're welcome to do that as well. So just landing here, shut down the eyes, bring your hands to the top of your thighs if you haven't already And then you can place one hand on your heart and then the other hand over that hand. And we'll just take three rounds of breath just to drop in for the next 20 minutes. Inhale through the nose. Big smile at the mouth.

2 more like that. Inhale. Grounding into the heart space, release it, and one more deep breath in. And deep breath out. Now from here, you can keep your hands on your heart or bring them back to your thighs. We'll begin with a simple box breath, which is such a great way to regulate your nervous system, to tune in, and to drop into the body.

So you'll inhale for 4 counts. You'll then hold for 4 counts. You'll exhale for 4 and then you'll actually hold at the bottom for 4 counts with the breath out. So let's begin. You inhale for 4, 3, 2, hold for 4, 3, 2, exhale for 4, 3, 2, and then hold at the bottom for 4, 3, 2. 2 more rounds.

Inhale for filling up the heart, the sides of the ribs, hold for 4, 3, 2, Exhale drain all of the breath out to hold for 4 3, 2, one more round, and have a deepest breath. For 3, 2, you'll hold for 4, 3, 2, exhale, clear out all the breath, all the way down to the pelvis, release I'm on hold there for 4, 3, 2, and 1. Just take a deep breath in. And exhale. And we begin. Coming on to all 4.

So you can set your block to the side if you were using it. Hands underneath your shoulders, knees underneath your hips. And I just want you to tuck your toes and lift your knees an inch off of the ground. If it ever becomes too much, you can always pop those knees back down. But just finding this hold here, not through the breath, but through the body. I feel the strength in the arms.

You spread through the toes. Take a deep breath in. Deep breath out. Take one more deep breath in, and a deep breath out. If you can keep those knees off the ground, walk your feet back, finding your plank pose, inhale fully, exhale downward facing dog.

Just finding yourself centered in the mat. Spread your fingers wide. Spread your toes wide. You can pedal out your feet. Shake your head. Yes.

Shake had no releasing through the back of the neck. And then finding some stillness here. As you spread the fingers wide, press down through all ten of those fingers, as well as all ten toes. And you don't wanna fill yourself like, shoving your heels down towards the ground, just let gravity do the work. You've done enough work today.

I'm sure. Take a deep breath in. And exhale. Now we'll inhale shift forward. Just taking you a few vinyases here. Option to come down to the knees, we lower all the way to the earth.

Untuck the toes. Let's start with a low cobra. Elbows are in. Peel the heart up. Deep breath in, exhale lower down. Press into your palms, passing through tabletop, tuck your toes and then send your hips up downward facing dog.

Take a deep breath in. Clear it out, exhale. And we'll flow again. Inhale. Shift forward. Option to come down to the knees or keep your thighs lifted.

Lower all the way down to the ground. Maybe first up dog of the day untuck the toes. You press your arms straight and then you press into the tops of the feet. So this is one that people sometimes forget and they just kind of drop down. So think about pressing to the tops of the feet, pulling the abs up, the heart pulls forward.

It's a tough pose when you hold it. Take a deep breath in. Exhale. You can pass through tabletop or pull the abs up. Pass over through the top of the toes. Take one deep breath in, exhale, and we'll just take one more flow together. Inhale shift forward.

Exhale, maybe hold halfway, Chaturanga, untuck the toes arm straight, vyze lift. Exhale downward facing dog. From here, inhale, lift your heels. Bend your knees look forward Step to the top of the mat. Exhale. Just release over.

You can grab your elbows, little ragdoll moment for us. Shake it out. And then release the arms slowly, start to roll yourself up. Head is the last to lift. Oh, can already feel my shoulders heating up. Okay. So you can stay at the top of your mat or you can face me whatever's best for you.

We're just gonna take a moment for our favorite pose tree because it's gonna come up in our flow series. So, Hands can come to your hips, bring your feet together, and then start to shift your weight over to one side. You start to shift your weight, getting a little bit lighter, and then opposite heel, use the low abs like to press by hand to the lower belly to draw the knee up. From here, their hands can go to prayer or they can go out to a tee and then you squeeze the outer hips open up that leg. Now, the foot can find the inner thigh or the inner half.

The inner calf is a great place to start. Just make sure that the foot is not directly on the knee because it's not good for your knee joint. So finding your place, either on the lower calf or up on the thigh. Hold your core. Then the arms can go out to a tee now, listen closely because as people get tired, they start to sit into that standing hip and it throws off their ballot. Right? So think about pressing your foot into your leg as you pull your abs up.

This is gonna come up later. Okay? Arms are still out to a tee, take a deep breath in, and release, shake that out, and we'll try it on the other side. Feeling that heat and the ankle so good for you. So bring your feet together. Hands can come to the hips. You'll shift over to the opposite side.

Lift your heel off, If you like to the hand on the lower abs, you're welcome to do that. And then you pull up, exhale, float it out. And then before you reach down for your ankle, maybe just see whoo, she got it. If you can get your thigh without touching your foot. It doesn't happen today, just come back tomorrow, you're fine. You can place it on the calf. Good. Now, remember we're not resting in that hip, press your foot into your leg so it's almost like they're pushing into one another and that allows you to find that stability. Take a deep breath in, And the deep breath out, one more, let's get that ankle nice and hot, one more deep breath in.

And carefully release the arms down, and you can just shake that out. So we'll start to get into our flow, which I'm so excited to share. Just remember when we think about pressing that foot into the leg, it's gonna come up later in our sequence. Okay? So just Keep that in mind. Alright. Let's start at the top of your mat. Bring your feet either hip width or big toes to touch.

Inhale sit low into a chair. Weight goes back into the heels. Feel the low abs pull up to support your lower back. Feel the fire in the legs. Take a deep breath in.

And then we'll take a twist. So drop your right arm. Back into a tee. Inhale. Reach your arms up. Other side, exhale big twist.

Inhale reach up. And then as arms go up, can you sit a little lower? Right? We're gonna go for a little more fire here. Exhale. Drop the right arm, big twist, inhale, arms rise, exhale, other side, inhale sit lower arms up and release this heat forward fold. Good job. Inhale halfway lift and pause here for just a moment. Sometimes people shift their weight back into the heels especially after chair pose What happens if you shift your weight to the balls of the feet?

I'll tell you what. You lengthen out the hamstrings a little bit more. You're much more on top of this pose and get a lot more of the benefits. Take a deep breath in, spine a little longer, exhale, hands, and come to the ground. From here you'll step your left leg back.

Drop your back knee down. Take a moment. Let's find a crescent. Untuck your back toes. Hands can come to the top of your thigh. Then from here, press your hands down into your thigh as you pull your abs up. Okay? So a lot of times as we're doing this pose, sometimes people think It's about getting as low as you can go. It's actually about getting into the right position for your body.

So press into the top of your thigh, pull your abs up and you'll feel the stretch all the way through. Now, inhale reach your arms up. Exhale. Your right arm comes back behind you. So my right foot's forward, and my right arm comes back big twist. Inhale, reach up.

Let's just take one more like this, exhale twist. Inhale, reach up. Hands will come to frame the foot. Staying on this side, tuck the back toes lift the back thigh off. Let's try this in a full crescent. Inhale.

Reach the arms up. Before we begin, feel the lower abdominal wall pull up Lots of stretch in that back hip. It's good. Get high up on that back heel, right? So make sure you're not just dumping back. Inhale here, exhale, right arm drops, twists once again.

Inhale, reach up. Committing to that lunge, exhale twist, inhale reach up. Listen for the change, exhale hands come to frame the foot. Now, we're going into a side plank. I'm gonna give you some options. First, let's start just finding your plank pose.

Okay? You can use your, your hand to your foot if you need. You can come down to the knees if you need all good. We start to find plank. Bring your feet together. Your right hand is going to start to get a little bit lighter as you stack your feet. Arm comes up. Easier said than done. Right? If you would like to bring your knee down, you can just use your leg like a kickstand.

There's no problem there. Take a deep breath in wherever you're at, bring that top hand through to your pocket and inhale reach up. One more exhale. Inhale. Reach up. And exhale.

Thanks, Job. Reach the arms up sky, we're pressing through the bottom hip then from here, you're going to float that top leg up. If you want more, if this is enough, it's all good. And then we'll find tree pose here. So maybe it's on the calf, maybe it's on your thigh, you choose, press your foot into your leg, press your hips a little higher for 3, take a deep breath in, Exhale. Whoo. Find your plank. Let's take a flow. Inhale. Ship forward. So proud of you.

Come down halfway or all the way. Upward facing, arms go straight, thighs lift off the ground. Exhale downward facing god. So that was quite the adventure to take a deep breath in. Deep breath out, and settle in.

Start to notice if one shoulder is a little bit hotter than the other, should be. So just experiencing that heat on one side before we go to the next. Under next inhale, lift your heels, bend your knees, look forward, travel to the top of your mat. Exhale, just finish your fold. Inhale halfway lift shifting your weight forward.

Exhale. Lower down. We begin again to going straight to chair, sit low, arms rise, big breath in. Second side, left arm comes back behind you. Big twist.

Inhale reach a exhale other side. Inhale. Sit lower. Pull those abs up. Exhale twist. Inhale, lengthening through the spine, exhale, spinning the heart around, inhale, reach the arms up, Exhale fold.

Inhale halfway lift. Weight is forward. Exhale. Bend the knees Step your right foot back, drop the back knee down. Hands can come to the top of the thigh, opening up this hip, press into the top of the thigh. Pull the abs up.

Untuck your back toes if you haven't already. And then from there, we'll reach your arms up towards the sky. Left arm drops behind you. Nice big twist. Inhale. Reach up.

One more commit to that lung as you spin the heart around. Inhale. Reach up. Hands frame the foot. Tuck the back toes of the back by off. We'll just find it here.

Full crescent, two twists on your own with your breath. You exhale. You've got it in an exhale quieting the mind. Exhale. Here we go. Hands come to frame the foot.

Find your version of side plank. Okay. So feeling the hips press up. Feel the underside of the waist the best you can. Remember, you can come down to the knee. If you need, it is all good, you can use it as a kickstand.

Now from here, floating the arm up thread the needle pulling it through, inhale lift up. Exhale. Got inhale lift up. Exhale. Shoo. Inhale. We float the top leg up, find your version of this tree.

Good enough pressing your foot into the leg. We're here for 3. For 2. And when carefully make yourself to plank, take a flow to downward facing dog. Good.

Beautiful. Now listen for this change. You're gonna inhale your right leg high to the sky. Exhale need to nose. Step your foot through.

From here, walk your hands to the long side of your mat finding your version of Skandasana so you can turn the toes up. Take a deep breath in, exhale, shift it forward back to the top of the mat, cleopatra. We're getting fancy. You're gonna take that right arm, take it all the way around and allow your foot to come into that side plank pose. I'm turning the leg out.

Take a deep breath in. And a deep breath out, pull it back through center, and we'll play on the other side. Step it back to plank, downward facing dog. Inhale your left leg high to the sky. Exhale. Need to know, step your foot through.

Good. Then from here. You'll find yourself working that Skandasana on the second side. So you'll walk your hands all the way over, turn it out just for a moment. Get those hips a little loose. Inhale here.

Exhale. Walk your hands back. They come to frame the foot. From here, your left hand, it's a big circle. I'm coming onto the outer edge of my right foot, keeping that hip off the ground open up Beautiful. Inhale. Reach up.

Exhale. Coming back. Plank pose. To downward facing dog. Take a deep breath in, and a deep breath out One more deep breath in. And exhale, bring the knees wide on the mat, Toast to touch in the back, arms go long overhead.

So just taking a moment to really land into the hips, You might be feeling heat in the shoulders. If it's a little much, you can bring your arms along by your sides. Just hanging out there, feeling the breath coming back to neutral. One more deep breath in. Exhale.

Slowly. In whichever way feels best for your body, you start to roll yourself up. Head is the last to lift. And we'll finish seated today. So finding a comfortable seat, if you prefer cross legged, you're welcome to do that, kind of finishing how we started can grab a block as well.

As you bring your hands to the top of your thighs, first of all, really beautiful job today. We'll just seal our practice with a simple box breath. Right? So just imagining that box, right? It was inhaled for 4, hold for 4, excel for 4, hold for 4. Just three rounds together. Eyes can stay open or they can fall closed.

Cleansing exhale, let your last breath go. Inhale for 4, 3, to hold for 4, 3, 2, exhale for 4, 3, 2, hold at the bottom for 4, 3, 2. Inhale. Big breath for 4. Filling up the ribs, the hips all the way down to your mat. Hold for 4.

3, 2. Exhale release. 3, 2, hold for 4 counts. 4, 3, 2. Last one. Take a deep breath in for 4, 3, to hold for 4, 3, 2, exhale, release anything you're holding on to. And then hold at the bottom for 4, 3, 2, 1, Hands can come to prayer, thumb tips come to your heart, bowing to your heart space.

Thank you so much for showing up today. For being open to receiving yourself on the mat, for moving in community with me, I'm so grateful. Sending you peace in, and peace out. Beautiful job today. My name is Chantini, and we'll see you back here next time.