Rejuvenate the Legs

Hey, everyone. Welcome back. This class will be a session to rest and nourish and regenerate your weary legs. So whether you have tired legs or you'd like to work from your hips down towards your feet, this class is for you. I also love doing this class when I'm upset.

It's just something that really nourishes me to spend that much time on my back. So grab some props. You can start by sitting on a blanket. There's an optional placement of a ball today. You can grab a rolling ball, or a tennis ball will work, and have a strap or something you can use as a strap at home.

So we'll begin by taking a few breaths in a comfortable seat. You could roll your shoulders, maybe close your eyes, tune into your breath. And you might imagine there's a a ball between your belly button and the back of your pelvis, your sacrum bone. And as you breathe, you might feel that ball sort of growing with your in breath and shrinking with your out breath. Dialing into any spaces in your hips that feel congested or tight.

Nice. So now we can stretch out our legs and you might sit upright here or you could take your hands out back behind you. We'll begin with our attention in our right leg. So let's begin with just the toes. So you can start with just curling your toes in, like you're trying to pick something up with your toes, and then releasing them out. Curling in.

And releasing out. Then take that into a pointer position with your whole ankle and foot, a dorsey or a plantar flex, and then a dorsey flex by pressing your heel away and pulling your toes towards your shin. You can do that a couple times. If you want, you could also forward fold a little bit and do the same thing. Up to you.

Even widen your legs a little more. And then let's take this into an ankle circle. So you can carve out a big circle through your ankle. And maybe your whole leg is moving with this, or maybe you're keeping your knee pointing sort of straight up and really isolating the movement in your ankle. You can switch directions there. Just noticing where you're initiating movement where it feels easy to move from where it feels a little more difficult and sticky and try to do something new.

Okay. Then we could use a ball for this. If you have it, we could even use a rolled up blanket in placement of the ball. Let's take that ball into the back of the knee or the blanket. And kinda in between the two ropey bits at the back of your knee.

You can place that there. And then if you're sitting upright enough, you can take your hands and interlock them around your shin, and then draw your, lower leg towards your upper leg. And I'm kind of squeezing in, and it's pretty sensational there for me. You might take a breath. And if it's too much, you could always have a rolled up blanket in between your upper and lower leg as well.

Okay. So I'm gonna take this whole thing option with the ball onto my back. So if you can keep the ball there, sometimes it doesn't always work with slippery yoga clothes, you can always take it out and put it back in. And before you roll back, I'm going to remind you to have your strap nearby so within arm's reach. Then you could do this with the ball or not. Could be there and interlocking hands around the shin and then tuck tail round spine and roll on back and take your knee in towards your chest or armpit. It's a different way of doing this.

Maybe you rock into your hip a little bit. You could always move the ball a little bit around. I'll take a moment with this. Okay. So you could take the ball out, and you could use your strap for this, or you could interlock your hands behind the back of your hamstring.

And wherever you are with that, pushing your hamstring away from your chest. So pressing your right side of your low back away from you a bit wherever you are with that. And then with your leg either bent or straight up into the ear, let's again go into the point and flex of our ankle and our foot. Little flossing for the ankle joint. And then a circle, big circle through your ankle one way and then the other.

Of course, your leg would be quite bent here. And then we could turn the sole of the foot all the way towards the middle line. And then turn it away from the midline and roll out through the bones of your feet. Notice if your other foot's doing it too. See if you can uncouple them and just do it with your right foot.

Yeah. And then let's bend our leg, soften it, and stretch it out towards straight. You might even kick your heel up into the air. Bend. And straighten out.

Bend and straighten out. Okay. So let's explore taking our leg a little across our body. And for this, you might wanna use your strap. You could take your strap around the sole of your foot and hold it mostly with your left hand. So opposite hand and bring it across. Maybe you bounce it a little bit there. Here, my pelvis is still flat on the ground.

Take a few breaths. Another option is to point the sole of your foot away from your face. And you might feel that in your outer ankle and your outer calf. Maybe even your IT band. Let your eyes soften.

Let the floor hold you. Land and locate into your back. And we can take the leg up. And then you might switch your hands. Right? So take your strap in your right hand. Your left arm could go up to the side.

And you could let the leg come out to the side. Now if it feels like a little too much to suspend it there, you could always hold your outside of your leg and put your elbow down. So you have a little support, more support. Take it wherever feels right for you. And here, I might even try to turn, again, the sole of my foot away from my face, getting perhaps a little more stretch and floss and pull through the inner ankle, inner calf inner line of the leg. A couple of breaths there.

I'm bringing that leg all the way to center. You if you have the strap, you can take it off. Bend your knee. And then cupping your knee with your right hand, give a little circle into your hip. And when you're cupping your knee, can you get a good grip so that you can kind of tell your leg muscles to relax and manipulate your leg from your hand? You could close your eyes and if you're imagining that breath ball in your belly between your belly button and sacrum, you might imagine that it's rolling into your hip, and the ball is dilating and opening into any places that feel stickier stuck. Using your visualization to repair and regenerate and put the pieces back together.

Nice. And then you can lie out flat. And take that magic moment to notice both sides in somatics. We really like to take the pause and record the data. Okay. So we're gonna roll back up to a seat. Same thing on the other side. You can draw and give yourself a hug.

It might make sense to roll to one side or hold but below your knees and roll on up. And if you like that blanket underneath your seat, you can do that. And keep your ball nearby, stretch out your legs. We'll start with just our left toes. So just curling into the toes and releasing.

And you could do this with a forward fold as well if you feel like that. Notice if your right toes really wanna do it. And can you point your toe and then flex your heel away from you? Point and flex. And then we go into the ankle rolls. So getting into the ankles, maybe your whole leg is a little more involved in this orientation in a seat.

You could also try to keep your knee pointing up and isolate your ankle. And little sounds coming out of your body. Totally normal. Let your body talk. Alright. And then we'll roll or bring our foot in.

And here's where you could take your ball and place it there or a blanket rolled up. And you can interlock your hands on your shin and draw in. And maybe you're kind of encouraging your heel to come closer to your seat. You can always move the ball around. Take a few breaths. Maybe pulling your spine a little more upright with the strength of your arms.

And then we'll take this to lying down so you could take the ball out. You can take your strap and have it nearby. I'm just gonna roll over so you can see me there. And you might tuck your tail and roll all the way down. And this is just another way to get in here.

So you could wobble into your hips. You could move the ball around allowing yourself to enjoy that pressure work, that sweet pain. I like to call it, or pleasurable intensity. Could unhinge your jaw and follow your curiosity here. Okay. And then you might play this out a bit more or take it out. And you could use a strap or your hands behind the back of your leg, let your leg go skyward, and then work with that point and flex planter and Doricy movement of your foot.

Can you leave your right leg to relax and really isolate this left foot and leg and ankle and roll your ankle? Carve out a big circle, switch directions. And then you can point the sole of your foot in towards the midline, and then away from the midline. Maybe a couple times. Yeah.

And then we can bend our leg and then make it go towards straight. Bend, and I'm pushing my hamstring into my hands, my back of my legs so that there's a little decompression in the left side of my low back. And you don't need to go all the way towards straight. Go to where you go. There's no endpoint here.

Okay. And then we can take this leg across. So my sacrum pelvis is still on the floor. I'm taking it across. I could use maybe more comfortable to loop a strap and take that strap in my right hand. And then hold it there and take a few breaths.

It might be interesting to turn the sole of your foot away from your face. And for me, that gives a nice pull through the outer line of the leg. Could balance it there. Who close your eyes and locate that breath ball at your lower belly. You can bring the leg back to center and you could switch your hands on the strap so you're holding it with your left hand and let the leg come out to the side.

And again, if it's strenuous to do that, Make a little kickstand with your elbow and hold your leg with a bit more support. Your right arm can go out to the side, allowing your shoulder to peel open. Take a couple breaths here. If you imagine the ball of breath in your low belly and your pelvis, can you move it into your leg, into your hip, and anywhere you need to roll that ball to open up space. Okay. You can bring it all the way center.

Unhook your strap if you have that. Cup your hand around your knee and start to circle. And get a good grip on your knee so that you can tell your hip to relax a little bit and manipulate your own hip from your hand. Your hand is giving here and your hip is receiving. And stir it up.

Take a breath. Notice what you notice. And then you can slide your leg out and take that magic moment of noticing an awareness through the two sides. Okay. We'll come back to that. But for now, you can bring your knees in, give yourself a hug.

However, it makes sense. You can roll. Up or roll to the side to come up into a tabletop at the front of your mat. And we'll work into our wrists a little once you come into your tabletop shift into your fingertips, then back into your hips. And you can make this into like a rocking cat cow. So when you go back, you can round your spine tuck your tail. And then when you come forward, so you can slide your shoulder blades down your back and arch your spine.

Even bending your elbows a bit through the rocking motion, and use your breath. Come to neutral there. You can walk your knees in. Take your hands around maybe one wrist at a time and circle around your flipped wrist fingertips towards your knees, switching sides. Doesn't have to go all the way around.

You could have it halfway around or three quarters. And then let's lower down onto our forearms and hold our right forearm and then make a fist and make a big circle. Through your wrist. And then if you want to knock your knuckles down towards the floor and then switch sides, holding your forearm up a little bit. And then curl in and down.

Nice. Then hands flat into tabletop, and we'll start to circle through our right hip. So right knee in out to the side, back behind and in. And I'm giving some attention here to keeping my pelvis fairly neutral instead of really opening it up. So my belly button's facing the floor and I'm giving a little more attention into the hip. So they could be smaller movements.

Explore it. And then bring that down. Same leg. Right leg. Let's lift the leg straight out to the side. And then lower it. Five times. One, two, doesn't have to go so high.

Three, but I'm bringing some attention here into keeping my pelvis fairly level so I can really feel my outer hip muscles work. Four. Five. Nice. And then switching sides. So left knee into that big circle.

Again, follow your curiosity in these movements. Simple movements, but can have really, really big after effects, really delicious afterglow. You can switch directions. Can keep your right hip instead of popping it out, keep it into the midline a little, and then one pause. And then five of those, lift and lowers. One.

Two, even weight into both your hands. Three, four, nice active feet. And then five. Alright. Let's lower onto our forearms again. And from forearms, try to do some closed chain shoulder rolls.

Rolling your shoulders up around your ears, squeezing your shoulder blades together, drag them down your back, and open up. Switch directions. It's a little challenging, a little weird, maybe. And then come to neutral there. And we'll think about drawing our lower abdomen a little into closure. So the two frontal hip bones squeezing together at the front and then lifting your right knee up and try to do that without arching your low back.

So a little closure of the abdomen and the little knee pulses up with your foot in that dorsey flex position. And can you lift from your inner heel? We'll do five more. Five four. Really working your backside and your hamstrings, three.

Two. One, and then knee in and go for those closed chain, shoulder rolls again. Maybe you let your head hang. Use your breath. And we'll try the other side, so tuck toes can help sometimes. Well, Find that closure of the abdomen at the front and then lifting your back leg without arching so much in your low back.

So little lift buoyancy away from the floor and those pulses upwards with your foot that in that Doricy flex position lifting from your inner heel. Five more. Five. Four. Three. Two.

And one. Nice. Let's shift back into your version of child's form. Keter breath. We'll go into a downward facing dog. Press up and back.

Downward facing dog pedal at your feet. Stretch your hips up and back. Get a yawning sensation through your spine. Find that breath ball in your belly and roll it through. Your spine and back down to your pelvis.

Let's walk our feet towards our hands. And you can come up halfway and forward fold. Maybe big knee bend, dangle, your head. And up to you, you can come up with a straighter spine or round up hamstrings activated hamstring tissue moving towards the backs of your knees. Roll all the way up, taking your shoulders.

Back and coming into a standing position. I'm gonna turn towards you to stand on the left leg and bring right leg up held in the right hand. Again, really hold tight your knee and If you need to go to a wall, do that to find some support with your left hand. And we're gonna try to circle our knee this time standing on one leg. Breathe into it. Circle one way switch directions.

And then can you switch hands now so that your left hand is holding your right knee? And you could maybe open up into a twist. And we can start this by opening up our hand, our shoulder, our upper back, and keeping the gaze forwards. And it's maybe a little more challenging to take your gaze to the side or back behind you. Breath and then bringing it all the way back tricky switching your hands so your right hand has your knee and then opening your knee out to the side and your Other arm might provide a counterbalance and take a breath.

Okay. And lowering that down. When you come to standing, feel free to do a couple of figure aids through your pelvis to switch sides. On your right leg, bend your left leg and cup your knee and hold it pretty tight. So you're solid there, holding your left knee. You can tell your left hip to relax as you guide it through circles. Great balance here between giving and receiving.

Your hand is giving your hip is receiving. So important to find both. And then can you come across with your right hand and hold? And then you might look forwards or even down could be good for this to open up into a bit of a twist. And you could try to take your gaze with you.

That might even give you a bit more upper back opening. Breath. Bring it all the way back. Center. Change your hands.

And you can take that leg out to the side and your right arm might come out too. To give a counter balance. Don't worry if you fall over. Let it be messy. Get back in. I'm bringing it into the center, lowering it down and you could do those hip circles or figure eights.

So you might do that again, or one more option is to stand on your left leg, bend into a chair a little more, take your right leg on top. And then with your left hand, can you bring your palm in front of your foot and catch the outer edge of your foot and then stand up. And then again, really hold your foot hold your leg and let your right hip descend and relax a bit. And if it makes sense, you can start to roll your knee to center, kick your foot forward, and maybe take yourself into a twist. Maybe let your gaze shift. And you could reverse it, holding your foot, right, letting your hip feel held there, and then bringing your ankle back down onto your knee like a figure four chair, feel free to rest in between these or you could take your right hand to the outer part of your foot. And come up and hold.

Hold your leg there. Maybe some of you feel like opening it up into a standing balance. With your left arm being a counterbalance, for this. Your knee could be quite bent here. Take a breath, draw it all back in to that figure four chair, and then release stand.

Before you shift sides, you can do any little movements that feel like they regenerate for the other side. And then with your right, foot more into a tree. Your left ankle can go on top and we'll take our right hand over the top of our foot to catch the pinky toe side of the foot. And we can come up and hold there. Can your left leg relax a little bit and really be held by your hand?

And then you could roll your knee in and stop anywhere along the way. Maybe your leg goes towards straight and maybe you come into the twist and you get to play with it. You can roll your test back to the front come back in to the figure four shape. And then with your left hand, catch the pinky toe side of your foot and then start to come up. Hold your foot, but keep your foot strong, and then see if you can relax your hip.

Maybe even pull your right hip in. And there's a opportunity to open up this inner leg a little more. Let your breath support your grounding. And then you can close it back up figure four and release. Stand.

Any little movements you'd like to do to soften into your hips. And stand at the top of your mat. Let's come to our belly. Circle arms up, forward fold, lengthen your spine. Step back downward facing dog.

Roll through to a plank form, pause there. You can always take your knees down and lower slowly. Like there's full repellent on your belly and come on down inch out your feet. Can stack your hands in front and take your forehead down. And if you find that breath ball, Can you breathe it into the floor in between your belly button and your sacrum? And then can you lift your low back a little away from the floor? So it's at maybe a little tip of your pelvis.

And a little lightning of your abdomen off the floor, but not too much of a hardening. And maintain that, bend your right leg. So now if you're, If when you bend your right leg, you really feel a lift of your tailbone. Try to shoot your tailbone away from your low back. And then just as we were doing in the tabletop, can you pulse up through your inner leg for five, four, three, two, and one.

Now try to take your foot across to the midline. So you're wagging your ankle across your body and lift again for five four, so your knee rotates a little out to the side. Three, two, one, and then bring it to center, and then take your heel away from the midline. Try to maintain even weight through your hips and try to live there and see if that's a little more tricky. Five four three two one bring it right into the center, lift your knee a little higher, and then slow motion like you're moving through something kind of really thick.

The atmosphere is thicker as you reach your leg away from you. Point your toe. And release. And then wobble through your backside, jelly roll your legs. Take that magic moment and check-in which side feels more relaxed.

Okay. Let's switch sides. So we're bending our left knee, lifting our low back a little bit. And right in the middle, pulsing up through the inner part of the leg. Five, if you want some more stability, you could even tuck your right set of toes.

Three. Two head down can help really use the backside and hamstrings. One. And then heal across the midline, moving into the midline, knee of that left leg, a little out to the side, lift from there. Notice the difference. Five, four, three, two, one, knee into the middle, and then heal out to the side. Maybe this one's a little more challenging for five.

Can you keep your pubic bone a little heavy? Three, two, one, and then right into the middle, lift your knee a little higher. Like you're moving through something that's creating resistance around your legs straighten out your leg. Maybe lift it a little higher and release it. And then wobble. Wabble through your hips.

Jelly roll your legs a little. Wag your heels. And we're coming back to our back body through a child's form. So give a good stretch there. Child's form. And we're gonna roll back onto our back and keep your strap within arm's reach.

So roll all the way down. Back into our right leg, either the strap or your hands behind the back of your leg. And see if your leg is having a little more ease moving towards straight. It doesn't have to be straight. Right? But where is it at now? And then just your toes.

Like, you're picking something up with your toes. Like, you're picking up a pencil with your toes. Curl and release. Curl and release. Point and flex. Point. So if you're used to, like, really going a %, how would it feel to go 70?

Point and flex, circle. So if you're used to raising your voice, how would it feel to whisper here? How would it feel to do something new? Circle the other way. Bend and straighten. Might even do this with your eyes closed.

Bend and straighten. If you're used to tiptoeing on your feet and being quiet through your feet, how would it feel to stomp? Just how would it feel to do something new? Bend and straighten. Okay.

So you could take your strap and get it around your foot. And here's an option. We did take our leg across, but this time we can make it a little bit of a bigger movement and roll all the way onto our outer left hip and open our right arm out to the side. So it doesn't have to be all the way down to the floor. Could be or could be floating a little with your elbow down.

Let's take a couple breaths. Take your leg all the way up and switch your hands. And then encourage your leg to go out to the side. Again, your left arm like a counterbalance. Maybe your elbow comes to the floor. Maybe you use your hand instead and support your leg.

Let's take a couple breaths wherever you land. Leg all the way into the center. And then holding your strap, can you circle? Just a different way of circling into your hip. One way and then the other.

And we'll release that leg and take that moment of awareness which side feels more spacious. Okay. Last side. Left leg up. Hold the behind the hamstring or use a strap. Just your toes. Pick up a pencil with your toes. Release. Pick it up, release.

Point and flex. Point and flag circle circle. One way and then the other. Bend and straighten. Maybe even with your eyes closed.

Grab your strap when you're ready. And we're coming across so you can loop it around the arch of your foot. Take it in your right hand. And you can roll all do a little hip flip and roll all the way onto your outer right hip if you like. And it could be floating or it come could come towards the floor.

Wherever you are, your knee could bend. Take a couple breaths. Your left arm can go wide. All the way up. Switch your hands and get into your variation of opening this leg out to the side.

Could be bent knee, could be kickstand support. Okay. You can bring it all the way center. You might do a few little hip circles with your leg a little straighter. A little more weight coming down into your hip. And then you can let it go.

And we're coming towards Shavasana. So any little movements that you feel are missing follow your curiosity. And I'm gonna invite you to land into your backside into your sacrum, your chest, your head, your heels, And you could imagine that breath ball, five count in breath, five count out, and let it roll through your body, like roll through liquid and get to all the places that feel like they need space. Let that ball roll through your body with your breath and put the pieces back together. Few more breaths here.

Five counts in if you like. Five counts out. Okay, friends. So you might be glued to the floor right now, or you might wanna come up to a seat and go on with your day so you could stretch. Draw your knees in. Roll to the side.

Come on up. And in a seat, you could place your hands wherever you like. And take a moment to acknowledge that you took time today to support yourself to make choices that support you. Peace. Sean Tea.