Morning Smoothie

Greetings, friends. Welcome back to good morning yoga. What's in your kappa? This morning is a morning smoothie. Which is vibrant and promotes vitality and gets you ready for the day with a a long, clean burn. So let's take our feet a little bit wider than hips width apart. And simply start with a little gentle twist from side to side.

And you can allow your arms to kinda just flop against you to give a little percussion against ribs, kidneys, hips, sideways, I'm gonna be careful of my little microphone pack here. She happens to be right in the spot where I would be wrapping my arms around, but Hopefully, you don't have that at home. So just allow your arms to kinda fly like tassels as you begin that oscillation through the central panel. Kinda like when you put all your good stuff in your in your blender and mix it all together and we just start mixing breath and movement and intention. Awareness.

Let it be loose. Let it feel good as you shift from side to side. Add some breath. And then we start to pick up the pace a little bit. We'll draw the hands to the midline in a little steeple mudra and bring it in a little tighter and with a little bit of a smaller rotation, and we'll add a percussive breath. Continue rotating side to side and engage your core as you start to take your hands.

Up the midline until the arms are straight and you're simply rotating from hips wrote rib cage torso, shoulders, side to side. Keeping the knees bent start to bring the hands back down the midline. And release. Let your arms release. Open up your eyes. And start to move into some easy alternate arm circles.

So if you think about this one too much, you lose it. Just allow one arm to circle forward, one arm to circle back. And if it's not working, you can take both arms in the same direction. Or the opposite direction, but changing sides. And, again, just see about that oscillation. Kinda like the blades in your blender.

As they move from side to side, and we you can feel how shoulders, rib cage, and hips get this nice circular action. Let's change again. Arm circling forward and back, one opposing the other or both in the same direction. It doesn't matter. Just stirring and lubricating through the large joints of the body.

Let's reach both arms up on an inhale. And as you exhale, draw all the energy and breath down through the midline step to the top of the mat and come right into Tedasana for a moment. Just feel yourself steady and tall. Routing down through the soles of the feet reaching up through the crown. Fill all the beautiful ingredients that are you inside of this wonderful vibration of energy, your body, your energy, your mind, emotions, intention, and breathe into that space. Excel completely.

And let's continue with this oscillating movement as you bend your knees, come into chair pose, utkatasana on an inhale. As you exhale sweep the arms back, palms facing the sky, fingers spread wide, inhale reach forward enough. Palms face one another. Exhale press it back. So we're working with a lot of rhythmic vinyasa as we inhale lift, exhale press back.

Pomping the movement with the breath inhale. Exhale. And you can see there's a little pulsation in the legs as we energize lower body. Exale. Once more deep breath in, exhale forward fold, release. All the way through the crown of the head.

Let's inhale halfway fingertips can be on the mat or the shins, and then exhale step right back to downward facing dog. And start to bicycle pedal through the feet and knees. And as we move through this practice, we'll try to visit all the kinda major ranges of motion of the spine, all the joints, and just so we have a really full and deep mix of movement, kinda like when you make your smoothie, you wanna have a variety of things, not just fruit, but also greens and some sort of really good monosaturated fat and protein flavors and textures. Let's take the right leg to the sky on an inhale. And as you exhale step it all the way through, and we'll go right into a high lunge, we call this a pendulum non mascara.

So as you inhale sweep forward and up, And then as you exhale, drop into a twist and let the right arm swing like a pendulum, come back up on an inhale and This time, let your fingertips just touch the back of the heart and then exhale hands to the mat step back to downward dog. We'll go right to the second side, left leg lifts on an inhale, exhale step it all the way through. This can be a low or a high lunge. Inhale, come all the way up to crescent, exhale, drop swing the left arm into a twist, come back up to crescent on an inhale, touch the back of the heart, exhale back to down dog. Let's repeat that again.

Inhale right leg. Excel step it through. I'm gonna take a low lunge this time, inhale crescent, exhale drop swing the right arm, inhale, come back to crescent, fingertips touch the back of the heart, exhale, down dog. So we see these 2 different options. Left leg rises, inhale, exhale step it through, low lunge, inhale rise, Exhale drop swing left arm. And you can feel the cadence is kinda bright. Inhale.

Touch the back of the heart. Exhale. Downward dog. Let's take this again. Right leg. Step it through. I'm gonna take the first lunge high. Inhale.

Drop swing into the twist. Exhale. I'll take the second lunge, low inhale. Touch to the back of the heart. Exhale. Downdog, working with variety. Left leg rises in here.

Step it through exhale. Inhale crescent. Exhale drop swing. 2nd lunch, I'm taking low. Inhale. Touch the back of the heart.

Exhale. Down dog. One more time. So you can probably feel your heart rate increasing right leg rises. Step it through, inhale to crescent, exhale drop swing, inhale, maybe a low lunge, touch the back of the heart Exhale, down dog, left leg rises, inhale, building your energy, step all the way through. Crushing on and inhale.

Exhale. Simple twist. Back knee comes down. Inhale. Touch the back of the heart. Exhale downward dog and hang out and breathe. Notice how you feel.

It's a really bright, vibrant warm up. We skipped any type of plastic of Vinyasa in between right and left side and just kept it moving. So couple breaths here as you recover a slower rhythm in breath and heart rate. Holding steady, building strength, and stamina. I'm taking 2 more breaths here in this down dog. When we hold postures, it gives us this opportunity, not only to build strength, but to build patience, stamina, perseverance, and to really start to feel into kind of the deeper inner workings of these shapes.

So let's go ahead and lower down to our knees and then cross the ankles behind you or swing your legs around one side and have a seat and we'll move into a little bit of core cultivation here. So leaning back into your sits bones and to the base of the sacrum, starting to come up into Navasana boat pose. We'll start holding on behind the knees. And if we leave our feet down and hinge back, There's already some work happening. So this might be where you hang out to start to feel into your core.

If you're tender and your tailbone, place a folded blanket under your hips. You can option to lift your shins. If the hip flexors are grabbing a little too much, feel free to open up the knees. Make this fit for your body. And then you might float the arms.

Full expression of the posture would be to stretch the legs long. And any one of these brings core cultivation strength right into the center of the body brings focus eyes steady on one point and taking a moment or 2 just to feel this shape. And then exhale. That was plenty. Nice come in rock down onto your back.

And then lace your fingers behind your head. And we go back into this oscillation side to side with a little yogic bicycle. So elbow to opposite knee and just starting to churn right at the center of the body. Inhaling deeply for a few rotations. Exhaling.

And a lot of these strength building asanas and creas when we move with repetition. It's kinda like taking your vitamins a little bit, eating your kale. So let's enjoy. Opportunity because we get to. And just continue if you need to take a break, take a break. If you can stay in the rhythm, go for it. Feel free to slow it down.

Feel free to speed it up and keep it tighter. Sometimes I even like to bicycle pedal through the space right above my mat. I'm working with some stamina, staying with it just a little bit longer. With enthusiasm, that's the key ingredient is enthusiasm. And then let's pause, knees to chest.

So feeling into the vibration of what you've already accomplished. And let's go ahead and rock on up to seated. You can toss the feet towards the heels. And did I mention blocks would be handy for this practice if I didn't grab your blocks? And we'll and if you don't have them, it's okay because you can do this next little pattern with or without.

It just makes it a little more doable. If you do, So we'll set the blocks next to the hips on, second position height is what I like to do. And coming up into a little table pose. So we'll press up through the hips, lift through the heart. This is a fantastic chest and shoulder opener.

It's not necessarily easy, but it's so good for the heart center for the front of the bodies. You might open up through the chest here pressing into the feet. And then as you exh hail start to dip the hips back down and through. I like to rise up on my heels, press into the arms, and then inhale lift up. And if you remember in our namaskars, we did not do anything. Yes. So no Chaturanga because this was coming.

So we moved back and forth a few times. And this is actually one of the 5 Tibetan exercises. If you've ever, heard of them, They're all re very repetitive kind of quick creas that you do for a certain amount of time designed to be done quickly. So you're welcome to move through this quickly for a few rounds and see how it feels or smooth and slow. What's your flavor?

Do you want a little spicy ginger in your smoothie this morning or keep it a little malower? It's up to you. But feeling the action of the shoulders and that relationship between the back core working to lift the hips and the front core pulling in. By now, your wrists are probably wanting a little break. So let's listen and lower the hips down.

Cross the ankles and give the wrist a little love, a little rotation. Drawing the top of the hand down, flipping it over, stretching through the fingers, through the thumb, and then the second side. And continuing to stay focused to the breath. Even treating the this little moment as its own asana because it is. You might even turn the palm down to the mat and the opposite one.

And then let's continue. So we'll set the blocks to one side. Come on up through hands and knees and into your downward facing dog. Walking home back. Curl the toes under lift your hips.

Notice how your shoulders feel after that table pose, Korea. Usually, The residual effect is this amazing openness through the underside of the shoulders, through the chest, in the upper back. So enjoy the that feeling here. And dropping back into the breath, back into that connection, of all the layers of you, your body, all the ingredients, right, body, mind, spirit, emotions, energy, Just the word itself yoga means to connect, join together, all those layers of who you are. Let's take one more breath here. Excel completely.

And then taking the left leg to the sky. Let's inhale. Reach up through the left side. As you exhale step all the way through runners lunge, And then walk the hands to your right coming into a wide leg forward fold. Prosserita will inhale to lift the chest. And then exhale melts all the way down, relaxing through head, neck, and shoulders.

Hands can walk back to be on the same line as the feet. So we have a classic cross burrito pottontanasana a. We inhale to lift the heart. And then exhale bend the elbows and release crown of the head towards the mat, eventually on the mat. Inhale lift the heart. Excel activate the legs, maybe lift all ten toes for a moment as you ground down through the crown, and then spread and release the toes.

Let's take the opportunity here to reach back. Lease your fingers or take a strap and send the knuckles up and over. Rotating through the torso a little bit. Lots of oscillation in this practice, kind of wringing things out and releasing And then start to release your hands and slowly come up with a flat back, lift your head, lift your heart, circle the arms wide, strong legs as you rise. Good morning.

Exhale. Hands come to the heart. Let's open up to our warrior 2. So we turn the right toes out, the left foot in a bit, sink down into a ninety degree lunch, which sometimes we think is up here, but it's it's pretty deep. So we go into that depth, right, when we're up a little higher, that's kind of iceberg lettuce. We wanna go into the kale, get our vitamins here.

Obviously, if the need doesn't like it, stay a little higher. Still building strength. Let's reverse our warrior in, how up and back, opening up through side waist. Feel this beautiful shape, and then exhale fan through the space coming into partial konasana, extended side angle. And I love to find opportunities to open the shoulders.

We can take that top arm behind our back. That might be where you hang out. You can slide down a little deeper. Or reach underneath and look for the bind. Now for me, I'm a little tighter in my shoulders and hips, so I always kinda have to bow forward to make the bind, but we wanna re upright, pull the hip underneath you, open the chest, and turn your gaze towards the light.

Full body breath in. Stay for the exhale. And then my favorite part of this pose is coming out of it. So we straighten the front leg. Keep the bind and turn right toes in. So we're back in Proserita with a half bind.

And we can turn rotate our chest open away from that right foot. So really feeling both a release and inversion through the spine and through the crown and rotation twist and opening in the shoulders. Really beautiful posture. Let's release our hands. Right hand to the mat, left hand to the sky, open the chest, exhale, release it down, inhale, right arm reaches up, Excel, release it down, inhale, left arm, back into this kriya oscillation, kind of blending these shapes with breath side to side, inhale.

Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Pause come right up through the midline, inhaling to rise. Exhale hands to the heart. Let's take warrior 2 on the second side adjusting your feet and your pants. And then open everything up.

So we find that right angle, ninety degree lunge. Go into it. We're not here for too long. Full body breath in. Exale completely. Reverse your wire opening up through sideways.

Nice little compression on the opposite kidney. Good for digestion. And then as you exhale, side angle, Parshful Kanasana designing that long diagonal line from the outer edge of the back foot to the top hand. We'll take the top arm behind us. Maybe you stay here.

Maybe you come a little deeper. Or inside the hip to make the bind. And I always like to slightly shorten my stance here, opening up through the chest The hips, the shoulders. Whoo. Full body breath in. Stay for the exhale.

Start to straighten your left leg. Turn the left toes in. Maybe shorten the width between feet a little more and let the crown of the head and spine dangled down and slightly rotate Way from the left foot. Emptying out through the breath. Let's excel release.

We'll walk our hands to the right. I'm gonna take a block with me just in case and bring it over to the opposite edge of the map Come to a runner's lunge to the back of your mat. And then let's come into standing split here. So lift the left leg up. Can place your hands on your block for a little more height and feel that opening of top leg away from bottom leg.

And feeling the extension from that rooting energy through the bottom foot, up rising energy through the top foot As you exhale, take a long low lunge. We'll descend back and down. Lower the back knee and lift the chest. Let's ground into left hand. Reach the right hand back.

See about grabbing that back foot, finding a little quadricep opening. And drawing your heel towards your butt. You can always rest your hand on your sacrum. You can always use a strap. Make sure that the knee's comfortable.

If you're feeling sensation in the quad, that's normal, but we want the knee to be happy here. Now from here, we'll release that foot. Walk your hands to the long edge. And then we come up into party gassana. So our left hand will go to the back of the mat, the hips, press forward, and the heart lifts. So this beautiful, long, open line of energy from right toes to right fingertips.

Deep inhale as you exhale turn to your left, and we meet up in everybody's favorite pose. Form plank. You're welcome. So back to the core cultivation here. Hang out. Try not to let the pelvis drop.

Pull up through the naval center, relax your jaw. Can you be in this shape willingly? Pressing through heels, pressing through crown, and now start to walk your feet in towards Dolphin. You'll notice if your hands are starting to collapse towards one another, come on down to your knees and use your front of the block here. You can place it right between the index fingers. Tips of the thumbs at the back edge of the block. Right?

Then we come back up into our dolphin pose. And this is a great place to open shoulders and to start to prepare the pathway for pinching myarasana. So that beautiful inversion that we're probably gonna go into in our later practices in this show is an option. This is where we just feel the pathway, lifting one leg to the sky, exhale lower, inhale lifting the opposite leg as you lift your head. And lower. And this is with not without effort. Right? It's a huge shoulder opener.

It's an inversion. The head is off the mat. It's a hamstring opening shape. Bring it down. So just this preparation has a lot of work involved in here. And then exhale.

Let's take a moment in child's pose. Oh, yes. And relax. 3 deep breaths right here. And just, again, feeling that residual effect of this practice of what you've experienced already. Notice how it makes you feel.

It's an interesting thing in our morning cup of whatever we choose, how it kind of powers our morning and our day. Our yoga practice is the same way. Last breath here. Let's come back up to hands and knees. Curl the toes under.

Lift the hips back downward facing dog. We'll inhale to the toes. Ben the knees, take a light hop to your hands, lifting the heart halfway, exhale, release into your forward fold that's come all the way up, inhaled arrives with enthusiasm. Exhale hands to the heart back into your forward fold. Standing split on the second side, lifting the right leg.

You're welcome to use your block. Give yourself a little extension. You're welcome to leave it. Hands on the mat. There's even a balanced component here.

You can wrap your forms around the shin of the standing leg, if you like, one or both. Stretching up through the sky, down through the earth. And then a nice slow, long step back to your low lunge. Let's lower the back knee and heeltoe left foot to the side. We'll ground in the right hand, sweep the left arm back, see about sacrum, foot, opening the quadricep, enjoying that flavor.

Staying with it for a breath or 2, taking care of the knee, And then we release, walk your hands to your right. Let's come up into that beautiful kneeling Parigasana shape. Right. Grounding through the left foot, reaching up through left fingertips, breathing through the left side of the heart here, left lung, and then exhale. Everybody's favorite pose. Forum plank. I'm gonna I know where I'm going, so I'm grabbing that block.

I'm setting it up. Coming into forearm plank, you can stay here if you're toast right here. Foundational backbend smakes pose. And if you like the preparation for pinch of myrasana, we come up through Dolphin, and we lift and lower one leg at a time. Option to add a tiny little hop.

Just take some weight off of the bottom foot. Literally a quarter inch. Once more each side. Head is off than that. And then come back down into child's post. Yay.

And rest. Enjoy. Take one more deep breath into the back of the heart. And exhale come completely, sliding your hands in. Let's roll up.

And we'll turn on over and come onto our back. And hoping you already feel pretty accomplished. And that's one of the, I always when I have a a smoothie, when I start my my day with, you know, whatever warm drink I like. And then I have a smoothie. I feel really good because I know I've gotten my fruit, my vegetables, and all the the important elements that make my body feel really good for the rest of the day.

Come on down. And same thing with this practice. Let's go ahead and extend the left leg long and the right knee to chest, and then we'll extend our right leg to the sky. You can hold on anywhere that it suits you. Right? You can even take a strap or a towel, grab onto your foot.

I'm gonna just grab my big toe here. So when we give ourselves this opportunity every morning. It's nutrition. It's nourishment. Right? And And when we practice in the morning, I mentioned this many times and I learned this from my arabatic doctor, yoga is great to practice any time of day. When you practice in the morning, it gives you the most return for the whole day.

So congratulations. If you're practicing at all and if you're practicing in the morning, you get more return and you get to enjoy the benefits all day long. Let's take it out to the side. Little Soupta Padagustasana b. Yeah. Feeling that opening through the adductor, through the hamstrings, and then turn it into supta, Pattagustas in a sea, we bring it all the way across into a twist.

Breathing here. Option to bend the bottom knee. Sometimes I do a little curl and crunch so I can reach my foot and then release shoulder back down. So it feels like a twisted herdlers, Asana, but it's a version, believe it or not, of Daniel Rasana of Bo Pos. We have opposite hand to foot.

Opening up through the heart. So much happening in this shape. Super complex shape. Your top hip, can you draw it down towards the front of the mat? One more breath here.

And then to come out of it, relax into the fetal position on your left side. Just let your feet go and roll into fetal position. Snuggle into yourself for a moment. And then as you exhale, open back up into baby Shavasana, you're opening up to the day. Get yourself centered, and then let's bring the left knee to chest, second side.

Extending left leg to the sky, supta Padagustassana, a, holding on wherever it suits you. It doesn't matter the degree of where your leg is in space, but what matters is the sensation that you're feeling. Is there a little bit of effort and a little bit of ease, and can we balance those 2? So equal amount of ease and effort of sweetness and saltiness We're all different. Some of us have I have very open hamstrings, but the front of my body, not so much.

A little tighter. Some of us are the opposite. So let's open it out to the side, finding our Soupta, Pataguestasana B, enjoying the breath here. And then on your next inhale, bring it back to the center all the way across into the twist changing hands. You're welcome to bend the knee here as well.

Suppta Padagustasana c option to bend the bottom knee. A little bit of a crunch. Can you grab that foot? And then let it go, or skip it. If it's not working for you, if it's not what your body is asking for or needs, skip it.

Relax your chest. More is just more. It's not always better. Right? Shoulders open. Enjoy the breath.

Oftentimes, and we all know this, less is more. Last breath here. Rolling into field position. Let your feet go. Talk on to the right sides.

Snuggle into yourself for a moment. And then let's enroll, unfurl into our Shavasata Center yourself, Feel the shoulders, aligning with the hips, the legs, nice and released, feet wider than the hips. Palms face up. Deep inhale through the nose. Pause at the top.

Hold your in breath for a count of 5. 4321. Relax the exhale. Hold the out breath for a count of 5, 4, 3, 21. Inhale.

Hold. Exhale. Hold the out breath. Just one more like that. Hold.

Exhale. Hold. Let your breath return to a natural easy pattern, slow and released. Enjoy a moment or 2 here in your Shavasana. Absolutely. Start to bring your awareness back into your body since the movement through the fingers and toes, ankles and wrists, elbows and knees, hug everything into a nice embrace.

As you exhale, tip on over to one side, come through that fetal position, press up to a comfortable seat. Any comfortable seat that you like and bring the hands right to the heart center. You can rest the palms one on top of another, right on top of your heart. And feel that the beautiful energy right here at the center of your body. Take a deep breath into the heart space.

Exay all through the mouth. Open up your arms like you're opening up for an embrace. To greet this beautiful day. You did it. Thank you so much for being here. For sharing your enthusiasm and your energy, and we'll see you in the next practice.

Noah stay.