Stretch Daily

Hey there. Welcome to yoga anytime. My name is Robert, and thank you for joining me for this we'll call it deep stretch stretch class. A class you can do all the time, especially if you feel like your muscles, your body, feeling a little contracted, a little tight, and you just want some lengthening, and you wanna ground and feel, really good. So we'll go with really good. So we're gonna start today in a seated position.

I invite you to place your hands on your knees, your thighs, palms up, or down, and get long in the spine. And right away, if you can, if this is part of, you know, your day and you're really able to embrace this, is leave the rushing behind. There's no rush to get anywhere today. In fact, today's intentions for you could be patience, attention to detail in the body, and the most important, a little bit of love added in, a little love sprinkled in for yourself. Alright?

So get yourself set up, construct your sitting position, soften the eyes. And start by bringing attention to your breathing. The preference is to breathe in and out of the nose. So in and out of the nose, but you will either see me or I may encourage you to breathe out of the mouth every once in a while, like a and that for me is a way to really like soften the tension or the the tightness of a muscle will say. Okay. Let's begin by, like, imagine, like, the base of your spine, like a spoon, right, and you're, like, stirring a pot, right, and your hips are the pot.

So take the hands here on the knees, and then just kinda, like, and almost like you're trying to, like, scrape the edges of the pot. It's the only way I can really kind of cue this for you to get that lower body trunk kind of like circular stretch, circular movement. And you can go from side to side, like start clockwise, go counter clockwise, and just kinda feel it out. And we didn't get too deep into the breath. You know, it's not necessarily a breath class but I do want you and I want you to encourage you to stay with the breathing, your breathing pattern.

Think about like three seconds in and three to four seconds out, depending on the moment. Okay. So we kinda got all that stuff out of the bottom there. Take the left hand out to the side. Bring the right arm high.

Breathe in to exhale over to the left. And then inhale come out and up over to the right with the exhale. So try to do this with our breathing. Inhale to exit. Exhale to enter.

So think like lateral stretch here for the side body. Keep going. A little stretch. Some spinal mobility here. Go one more time to the left, lengthen up to go over to the right.

Good. Back to center. Now take both arms up on the breath in and open them up out to the right for a spinal twist. That's the exhale. An inhale up to center and exhale to the left.

I like to use my hands at the end to get that extra little squeeze. Inhale up. Exhale twist and squeeze to finish that exhale. Inhale up. Exhale, twist.

Squeeze. Turn. Good. One more time to the right. Open up. Stay long in the spine to twist and rotate.

Back to center one more time to the left. Breathe in. Get long. Breathe out to the left. And let your body come back to center Hands on the the shins or the knees, inhale for what would be like a cow pose seated gaze upward, arch the back, exhale round out the back. Inhale.

Exhale cat. Four more. Inhale. XL. Inhale. Exhale. I think that was three. Let's go one more.

Totaling five or six. Exhale round, round, round, round, round, round, super good. Inhale back to neutral. Take a breath, exhale. Okay. Take your right leg straight out.

Put the left foot inside the right thigh. Push through the right heel, pull the right toes back, and engage the right leg muscles. Breathe in, breathe out, reach to your knee, your shin, your foot, Don't worry about the distance. Go off of the feeling. Okay? What is the feeling allowing you to go to? Go to that place, pause there, attention, patience, love. And breath, of course. Here's where I might invite you to breathe out of the mouth. So breathe in.

You come away from the pose a little bit. Breathe out. Open the mouth a little bit and move back toward it. One more time. Breathe in. And breathe out.

Okay. Slowly back ups. Switch sides. We'll get plenty of time in these hamstrings. So Just starting to warm up. Right foot, inner left thigh, active left leg, so heel forward, toes back. Breathe in. Breathe out. Now inhale come out of it a little bit.

Exhale lean back in. Inhale out of it. Exale back in. Inhale. And exhale.

Perfect. Now come back up. Now we'll take that straddle position. So a little wider with the legs. And just like some personal intel, this has never been my strength. Ham string stretching, never been my strength.

But over the years, it's increased through practice and it feels feels really good, but it took attention and detail or detail to, attention to detail and patience. So now we're going to reach to the right. Come out of it, breathe in, reach to the left. Breathe in to center. Breathe out to the right.

Breathe in to center. Breathe out to the left. One more time to write. One more time to laugh. Breathe in. Breathe out.

Okay. Back to center. Now, we're gonna add to that single leg. So keep the right leg where it is. Left foot to the inner right thigh. Turn open to the left just a bit. Reach the right fingertips or wrap around the big toe. Okay?

K. Now that's kinda nice. That feels like a good stretch, but let's see if we can take a side bend too. So the left arm reaches up. Breathe in. With the palm facing down, reach up and over the head toward the foot. Now, what I like to do, call it a cheat, call it just another way to do it, so I like to drop the left shoulder down so that I can actually reach the foot. And I get that left side body stretch, right leg stretch.

Stay committed to your breathing. Those little micro movements in and out. Now reach back up. Mindful of like the transition out of a pose like that, just for your low back. Come back out and make a couple adjustments here.

Bring the left hand down. Ben the right foot down, come up onto the left knee and lift the right arm up as you press the hips up. This is like potentially a nice little counter pose. Curl your left toes under and see if you can get a toe stretch while we're here. Move around a little bit.

That right palm is facing down. One or two more breaths. Big shoulder circle. Okay. Slowly back down. Back into the straddle.

Why not go forward for a breath or two? So it reach the arms forward. Wiggle a little left and right. So those little movements, right, rather than just kind of coming into a deep stretch and staying and waiting to curiosity. Where is it? Okay. Back up. Right foot now.

Inner left thigh region. Turn the body to the right just a bit. Reach to the left big toe if you can. Reach the right arm high and then flirt with that side bend. Like, For me, I start to get a little bound up in my left hip and waistline, so that's another reason why I may turn the right shoulder down a bit to access that side bend. Sometimes you see folks that are up here and are able to come over, that's cool too.

I'm kinda working with what I have, and this feels lovely. Good. Come back up. Again, transition for the back, mindful, right hand down, left foot pins down. Come onto that right knee. Now, maybe even slide that knee under a bit and you might get just a little more hip pressing forward availability. We'll call it.

Good. Maybe move that left shoulder around a bit. Left darm getting that kind of circular mobility for the shoulder. Perfect. Come on back down. Now, staying where you are pop yourself up on your sit bones, bring the hands back behind you. Push the chest forward shoulders back.

So that right there is something. Stay with that. Or, I mean, not or, and take the knees over to the left. So that windshield wiper movement, right? So we're gonna grow this, but for now, kind of warming into the hips. Spend some time in the hamstrings, now some hip love.

So when you go over to the left, see if you can pull that right shoulder back. Even look over the right shoulder. And then when you're moving from side to side, When you come through center, you have to recenter yourself. Otherwise, you're gonna really move around the mat quite a bit. Okay. Now back up to center, You can do this with hands or without.

I'm gonna offer it without. Arms out in front of you, sitting up nice and tall, pivot the hips to the left. Now You have a 90 degree front, back leg and front, lean your body toward the left inner thigh. You'll feel potential pigeon stretch on that left Sidoti. And use the strength of your legs and your core to come up to center Now here, gotta shift yourself to center. Otherwise, you're gonna wander around the mat.

Pivot to the right. Fold over that right inner thigh. Back up to center. Again, shift to center, release the arms, and again. Good. This time, stay in the stretch for a moment, lean into it.

Possibly even taking that right leg back, but staying on the outer edge of the left leg, but extend that left leg back, maybe even come onto the toes of the right foot. Lene a little left, lean a little right. You can prop yourself upright like so. Good. Now prop yourself back up if you're not. Bend that right leg.

Pull the right heel in a little bit and then walk back for that what's called like a hurtler stretch. You're gonna stretch the top of the right quad for a moment. Good. Back up to center. See if you can use your core, use your hips, to rotate, re center, and over to the right, and fold, extend the left leg back as an option. Toes curled for that toe stretch.

I promise you there's some value there, especially if you kind of have, you know, any issues with your feet, stretch those toes out in the bottom of your feet as much as you can. Good. Come back up. Bend the left leg. Lean back. So all you're doing, leaning back is just kinda getting some length through that left quadricep muscle. Or muscles.

Okay. Back up to center. Good. Now try just a couple rounds where you take your arms, and you're gonna wander a little bit, but go from left over to right. And when you're up in center, sit up tall. It's a core exercise big time over to the left. One more time over to the right. And one more time to the left.

Okay. Back to center on the mat. Now bring the hands back behind you, lift the hips a little bit, it makes it more accessible to grab the ankle, right ankle over the left knee. So a little seated pigeon pose, figure four, and then add the little side to side, so bring the right foot or the right heel down, and then bring the right ankle down or the left knee down. So you still have those like little windshields going on.

Okay. And when you go to the left, pull that right shoulder back. Self care. Gotta do it, right? Gotta move the body. Move it or lose it. K. Left ankle over the right knee.

Twist to the right. So tap that right foot or right heel or left heel. Sorry. And then over to the side. Back to center one more to the right and one more to the left. Okay. Back to center.

Good. Undue the legs, bring the bottoms of the feet together, prop yourself up on your sit bones. Grab hold of the ankles or the feet, lift tall through the spine, inhale. And exhale lean into it a little bit. Again, listen to the feedback your body gives you. It's like, alright, right around there. And then I meet the resistance and with patience and move away, breathe in, breathe out.

Join me in that. Breathe in, move away. Breathe out lean into it. One more time, inhale. And exhale. Good.

We'll back up. Take a breath, exhale everything. Okay. Let's shift it up a little bit. Moving to tabletop. Table top cat cow, breathe in. Breathe out round into cat. One more time, cow pose, and cat.

Back to neutral. Now take your right foot, send it back, but then slide it way over to the left and then push back like you're trying to sit with your toes curled preferably or not, undo them actually. See what that feels like. And then push back, slide that right foot back quite a way. Now you're gonna get a little bit more of that pigeon stretch, that hip work. Back up to center, try the other side.

So left foot back, slide it over to the right, and then push back. It's like you're trying to come into like a child's pose on that right side. And you can lean a little bit to the right to emphasize the stretch. Wow. Some of these options I'm giving you for pigeon are a little like more user friendly for the knees, I think. I'll come back up Good, down dog, curl the toes.

I often think if I had one pose to do, that's it. Just one yoga pose to do for the rest of my life. I think downward dog would be the one. I think it covers lots of bases, not all of them, but it's a good one. Lift the right leg up, open the hip. A little more hip work here.

Try to drive that left heel down toward the mat, come up onto your right fingertips to get a little more height, and then square the hips and step the right foot out wide by your right pinky. Keep the left knee lifted, straighten and bend your right leg a couple times. You can allow that right knee to go beyond the toes. That's okay. And then add some big circular movements with the right arm.

Maybe like a kind of halfway back and halfway like a big half circle. Good. Open. Open. Open. Open. Open. Super nice. Now, bring the left knee down and as your right arm is back, grab your right or left foot possibly. Now pay attention to where your left hand is versus your left shoulder. So your left shoulder has support.

Lean the hips forward and over to the side a bit. And pull gently that left heel towards your seat. Good. Flirt with that for a few moments. Okay. Release that gently, bring your right foot over onto the mat if it was off, push the hips back into a little half split, and then back into the lunge.

We'll have split, and lunge. Now, the right hand comes to the inside of that right foot, curl the back toes, lift the left knee. Three legged dog, so lift the right leg high, open the hip, stay here if this feels lovely, or flip it. So step that right foot back behind you left leg can say straight, right leg bent, press the hips up. Reach the right arm up and open. Lower down. Press back up.

Good. Lower down, slide the left foot toward the right side of the or left side of the mat, spin back over, right leg high all the way down to dog pose. Lift the left leg up, open the hip, come up onto the left fingertips as an option. Some space in that left side. Good. Square the hips, step the left foot out toward the left pinky. Nice big, wide, generous lunge as you're straightening and bending your left knee or left leg.

Those big half circles with the left arm. Just give a little shoulder love. One more time forward. Reach. Reach. Reach. And then reach all the way back. And as you're reaching back, you're softening the right knee down.

Bend the right leg. Grab hold of that right foot. And pull gently the right heel toward the seat. I can send your right hip down a bit. Make sure your right shoulder's secure.

Good. Release, bring the left foot onto the mat, or at least kind of left center. So a little half split. So you're straightening the left leg, bending the right, and then back into the lunge. Good.

Half split into the lunge. Half split, into the lungs. Perfect. Lift the back knee, ground the right hand, left hand on the inside of that left foot, send it up into three legged dog, bend the left leg, stay here, begin because it's lovely with that hip open, or step that left foot back behind you, straighten the right leg, and then blast off. Breathe all the way up into the heart, the chest, The entire ribcage open, feel that balance of stability and freedom here.

Lower inhale, exhale blast off. Fly high, flip that dog. Good. Now with control, you're going to slide the right foot over, left leg high, left foot down to the mat, Bring the knees to the ground. Childs pose. Try this child's pose with knees pretty wide. Big toes toward one another. Stay here, or lift the hips, bring the knees a little bit more hip width. You can move back toward the a little bit further back. So puppy pose, puppy pose, bring that elbows and forearms down.

Your forehead to the mat, and bring the palms together in that prayer position behind the head. There's something so nice about this pose for, for me, from my perspective, just this devotional prayer position. So just kinda deepening that intention of that constant sense of attention and patience and love for your body, embracing where you are, but continuing to show up. To work on what needs to work on or just to show up for the sake of showing up for yourself. And this position just can totally open the arms and shoulders and chest and upper back.

So okay. Start to come out of that, back up into tabletop. Maybe do a full cat pose here. So we were in that full extension through that upper back before, and puppies, so push, push, push, push, push, push, the ground away. So spread your shoulder blades wide, pull your belly up and in. And nice.

Good. Come to your seat. Oh, man. To stretch the body feels good. So let's do this. Take your right leg forward.

Take the left foot on the outside of the right knee. You can definitely bend the right leg and push that right heel underneath your seat. I just like this one straight for now. Now take the right arm around, wrap it around the left knee. So first, like, first you're gonna get that, like, pigeon stretch to the outside of the left thigh there.

You're gonna compress into the belly. Just kinda play there for a moment and you're gradually going into that twist to the left. Left hand posts up back behind you. Keep your right leg pretty active. Gaze over the left shoulder.

You can hook the right arm onto the top of your thigh if you'd like. I like to have this. Real solid grip. Emphasize that exhale. Squeeze. Get a little passive core work there.

Maybe some aiding in digestion. Okay. Slowly out. Take that little complimentary twist to the right. So lean over to the right.

Twist. Good. Switch it up. So left foot forward, right foot on the outside. Sidoti up tall, sit bones, the whole thing. Left arm reaches around that right knee.

Pull in. Get that compression into the midsection. And gradually start to twist to the right now. And again, that left arm can rest on top, can hook on top of the thigh. That's kind of a personal preference and what's available to you.

Push into the right foot as well to aid in your lifting and lengthening. Slowly release back to center and over to the left for that counter twist. Okay. Now, it's been around. What we've all been waiting for, a little rest.

Roll down to your back, and let's take this reclined child's pose for a moment. Wrap your arms around the backs of your legs, or give yourself a full hug around the shins where the shins meet the knees, give yourself a full embrace. Let that embrace with whatever position you have. Let the embrace symbolize that self care, that self love. Give yourself a big embrace. Multiple benny fits for that.

Then bring the feet down and stretch the legs out and let it all go. Okay. So 10 to your spine, your neck, your head, your arms. Time well worth. Time well spent.

Allow your entire body to fully, like, drop, release. The muscles around your eyes, your jaw, relaxed. Muscles of your mind muscles of your mind, all those thoughts. Just let them be fluid and spacious. Relax.

Rest for his long as long as you like. Maybe even when you feel the urge to get up, take that pause and rest for another five breaths, especially if you're one that has a hard time resting. Just as a practice. Join me if you'd like to join me for the close. Take a moment just to kinda like move the neck around and intentionally close your practice today by bringing the palms to the heart.

The intention was attention, patience and love, and maybe you can take that from the mat out into the rest of your day. See how that feels. Thanks for joining me. I really appreciate it. I'll see you next time.