Hanuman Hips

Hi, welcome back. I'm here today with Chelsea, my friend and assistant, and we're gonna do one of her favorite poses. Just kidding. Hanumanasana. This pose is a tricky for many people, partially because it's a little bit of hip work and a little bit of a back bend. And depending on your anatomy, not how much stretching you've done or how experienced you are, but actually on your physical anatomy, that really dictates whether it's more of a back bend or more of a hip extensor and flexor. So we'll work our way up to the pose with a few little skill-driven exercises and some warm-up poses, and then we will approach the pose with props so that regardless of what your anatomy is like, you can feel successful in the pose. So what you'll need is a bolster, two blankets, depending on, you might need three or one, so I'm just gonna go with two, a block, and a chair. And you don't need a special yoga chair for this, we'll just use it as a regular chair, so your dining room chair will work just fine. Don't need anything special. You ready to get started? So the first thing you'll do is grab your block and you'll go near a wall and go ahead and lie on your back with your feet against the wall. And then bend your knees up, put your feet on the floor, take your block and slide it underneath your pelvis. You're gonna be on the lowest level. We're not going for big back bendy stretch here. And then go ahead and pull your right knee into your chest and stretch your left leg out on the wall. Okay, so you have to move forward a little bit. There you go. Nice. And it's a nice passive restorative pose to start, but what I really want you to feel is the work in the stretched out leg. A lot of times our attention goes to the leg that's pulled in, but this work is really for the extended leg. This is Arda Apanasana, and you'll push your left foot into the wall pretty actively, so it's not totally a restorative pose in this sense, but you're feeling the front of the spine on your left side. So you have to kind of go into your body here, right? It's not your abdominal wall. It's behind your organs, the front of the spine, and you're feeling that stretch all the way out from center, all the way out from your trunk into the wall. Chelsea's already trembling. It's a lot of work. So this is just the beginning of the back foot or the back leg in Hanumanasana. So this work of the stretched out leg is just a little hint into what the back leg is doing in Hanumanasana, which is the splits pose. There's a slight little back bend, and you're working the hip extension, but we want you to be strong in hip extension. So let's go ahead and switch legs. Go ahead and put the right foot down on the floor, bend the left knee up, place the foot on the floor. Just pause in this restorative bridge for a moment, and then go ahead and bend your left knee in, hold on behind either the shin or the thigh, and stretch your right leg out, placing it on the wall. So the heel will touch where the wall and the floor meet. And then again, you're not just pushing into the wall without some sort of direction. So take your mind, find the left side, or that you're on the right side, sorry, find the right side of your spine, the front right side, and can you stretch that all the way through the front of the hip, all the way down the leg, and into the wall. So you're kind of stretching that leg out from center to get that that extra length, but it's not just passive length, it's very active length. Just take a few more breaths. Notice when you want to give up on the work.

Notice that that's when the work really starts. It begins at the point where you don't want to do it anymore. And then slowly let the left foot come down, bend the right knee up, place the foot on the floor, pause for a moment in your restorative bridge, and then go ahead and lift your hips up, and slide the block out from underneath you, and just rest for a moment. And then go ahead and roll over onto your side, come up onto your hands and knees. You're going to stay in your wall for this. And you'll have to measure to start. We'll do spinal balance with one foot on the wall. So I'm going to guess that Chelsea's going to need to come forward a little bit first, and then just measure to start. Put your right foot on the wall, and if you're too close you'll need to move forward so that your left knee is right under the hip. Good. And then from there put both knees down so you can start level. Press into your hands. If you'd like to turn your hands out a little bit, I'm fine with that. Be nice and strong, find as much of a neutral spine as you can, and then go ahead and now stretch your right leg out onto the wall behind you. Resist the urge to shift your whole body weight over to the left. So you really want to try and stay centered. And that right leg that's on the wall is stretching out from center. Again that front of the spine, just like we did on in Arda Apanasana, is reaching all the way out into the wall. But your left leg, which is inflection, is doing the opposite. So this left leg is trying to pull up in towards center to the left side of the front of the spine. So now the legs are working in two different directions, but very very strong. And that's the skill that we're going to weave into the class. Go ahead and bring your right knee down. When you're ready, stretch your left leg up behind you, find the wall, stretch your left leg out from center. Again, front of the spine reaches all the way across the front of the hip, moves into the wall, and the right leg pulls up and in towards center. So the one that's inflection draws in, the one that's an extension stretches out. Nice. And then slowly bring that left knee down and go ahead and rest in child's pose. You deserve it. And then from child's pose, you'll slowly make your way up into a downward dog. Just warm up the hips and the shoulders a little bit by moving through plank and downward dog a few times. And let's start to weave the skill through. So as you come forward to plank, your legs are going into extension. So they're reaching out from center from the front of your spine. And as you pull back into downward dog, they're pulling up in towards center. It should change your experience in this otherwise simple little flow. We go reach out from center from the legs when you go to plank and reach in towards center when you go to downward dog. Just finish this one and do two more on your own. As you finish the exhale going back into your downward dog, on an inhale please step your right foot forward into a lunge. Exhale out all of the air. Come up onto your fingertips and continue to weave this skill. So your left leg stretches out from center and the right leg pulls in towards center. You'll notice your pelvis starts to shift. So your pelvis is now finding its position based on the work in the legs rather than you just sort of finding this haphazard random position for the pelvis that you've been instructed. And then plant your palms down and step back into downward dog. Finish your exhale in downward dog. On your next inhale, immediately step forward into a lunge. Left foot comes forward and exhale out all of the air. Come on to your fingertips and continue the work. Really try to pull that left leg in towards center and stretch the right leg out from center. Keep stretching the spine forward. Really piecing together you know where we're going, but this is what happens in Hanumanasana. One leg's in extension and one is inflection. And then step back, downward dog. Inhale, come forward into plank. Exhale, lower all the way down to the floor for five, four, three, two, and one. Nice. Untuck your toes. Come into a very low cobra. Cobras on the inhale, but you're gonna stay here and breathe. So about five to eight breaths probably. Really feel the work in the pose. Your legs are stretching out from center. You're going toward extension here. You're not doing the pose only in the lower back, so you're really reaching that crown of the head forward and the legs are stretching back. Your whole body is lengthening here. Just two more breaths. And then from here, keep your chest lifted. Tuck your toes under. Press all the way up to plank. Nice and slow. Nice and pull back into downward dog. Finish your exhale and downward dog. Inhale, step your right foot forward and exhale out all of the air. Stretch your arms back behind you now. Coming up just a little bit. You're not resting on your thigh. You're sort of trying to lift off the thigh, but you're still low. You're not in crescent yet. And you'll notice that now your upper body has a little extra weight because your hands aren't on the ground and so the work in the legs is harder. You're stretching the left leg out from center and pulling the right one in towards center. Excellent. You'll feel your pelvis shift when you've got it. And then from here, place your hands down on the ground and step all the way back into downward dog. Finish your exhale and downward dog and inhale, step your left foot forward.

Exhale out all of the air. Stretch your arms back behind you. Come up off the thigh just a little bit. Stretch the spine forward. Find the skill in the legs. Just work on whatever level you're working on, but just observe the changes in the body and notice that they come from a place of strength and control. And then exhale, place your hands down and step all the way back downward dog. Inhale, come forward into plank. Exhale, lower down. Five, four, three, two, and one. Very good work. Stretch your feet back behind you. Come into a low cobra. Three to five breaths this time. So many times in cobra we get really stuck in what's happening in front of us and in the chest. Can you stay connected to the legs? Can you stretch the legs all the way out from center? Connect them to the sides of your navel. Imagine that your legs begin way above your hips. They begin sort of in the lower part of the spine. It'll really stabilize your lower body for these back bend type poses. And then tuck your toes under, press all the way up to plank, one straight line, and pull back downward dog. Just take a couple breaths here. And then on your next inhale, step your right foot forward. Bring your left knee down onto the ground. And then from here Chelsea's gonna come all the way upright. And what you're going to do is you're gonna, it's a little bit different of a stretch than you're used to, you're going to make sure that your left thigh is straight up and down. So it's perpendicular to the floor. And instead of just sinking into your hips, what you'll do is you'll move your pelvis forward as one unit. So you're going to move it forward in space and what you should do is feel a big stretch across the quadricep. It might be less of a hip flexor stretch. Do you feel that? Yeah? Okay great. So it's like the whole pelvis is just moving forward in space. There's no back bend as you can see. And then go ahead and place your hands down and step back downward dog. Feel the difference between the right and left leg. And then go ahead and step your left foot forward. Bring your right knee down to the ground. You'll have to move your body back here and then come upright. So it's a shorter stance than your typical Anjana Asana. And then from here you move your whole pelvis forward. Anjana Asana a lot of times is more of a back bend than hip extension for many people. And we end up just kind of sinking in the hip joint instead of actually stretching the muscle. And you'll feel this if you're not feeling it in the quad, back up a little bit. Take the back bend out and move the pelvis forward again because you'll feel it right away. You'll know it when you have it. And then go ahead and place your hands down and step back downward dog. Inhale, step your right foot forward and exhale out all of the air. Inhale, step your left foot forward and exhale to fold. And then inhale, stretch the arms all the way out. Come all the way up to standing. Reaching the arms up, keep the arms up here and sit back into Utkatasana, chair pose. Good. So just a little lower, pulling the legs all the way in towards center because you're in flexion. And then from here go ahead and pick up your left foot and start to stretch it back behind you. So you're going to go into crescent. Your right leg is still pulling into center, the left one's pulling back. You can come into crescent whenever you're ready and then come all the way up crescent pose. Nice. Continue to work on the skill. Right leg pulls in, left leg stretches out and again those legs start higher than your hips in your mind. They start near your navel, the right and left side of your navel. And then exhale, place your hands down on the floor and step all the way back into downward dog. Come forward into plank, exhale lower down for five, four, three, two, and one. Inhale into a low cobra, just a couple breaths and then make your way into downward dog. If you're tired of planking up, you're welcome to go through all fours. And then inhale, step your left leg forward and then step your right foot forward and fold. Inhale, stand all the way up, reach up, exhale, sit all the way back into chair pose. Pull in those legs, those thighs are pulling all the way up in towards center. So you're connecting them to your lower back and then start to lift your right leg up and that's going to start to stretch out from center as you take it all the way back behind you. Find the floor, come all the way up into crescent, test your balance just a little bit, keep working on the skill, notice where you want to lose it. And then exhale, place your hands down on the ground and step back downward dog. Inhale, come forward into plank and exhale, lower down, nice and slow. I don't have to count anymore, do I? Inhale into cobra and exhale, make your way into downward dog. Great, step your right foot forward into a lunge, lower your back knee down and stay forward this time. And remember I was talking a little bit about Anjanaasana, we're gonna add some eccentric work to really strengthen the front of the hip rather than just sinking into it. So you're gonna sink your pelvis forward quite a bit here, you keep that forward but what you'll try and do is lift the back knee just as much as you can without moving the pelvis forward. So slowly lift the knee, slowly lift the knee, think of the sacrum sort of driving forward and then lower it back down. Just repeat that about four or five times, you're not gonna go as high as you think you might, there will be trembling just a little bit but I'm a big fan of strengthening the front of the hip. In yoga we are always stretching those hip flexors, when do we ever strengthen those hip flexors right and that's what we're doing today. Nice, do one more and then when the knee is down shift your weight back for Ardha Hanumanasana, the right toes will lift, you're on your heel and you get to as you think just relax for a moment but wrong. You're really gonna work that leg, you're pulling that heel in towards center, I know I'm so mean. So the contraction of the back of the leg because that's what you're stretching, we want to contract it at this end range so you're really using that skill to pull the leg into the center to find the extra work and then you can always of course stretch the spine forward just a little bit more and now you're gonna test your balance and work on the quad stretch. So you'll stay in this position and slowly walk your hands all the way up so you're coming upright, you can put your hands on your hips, it's gonna take a lot of balance, stay as strong in the legs as you can, feel free to fall over. Once you're up can you move the pelvis forward in space just a little bit to get a quad stretch, you'll have to let go of the back leg just a little bit, moaning and crying is okay and then release the hands down and make your way into downward dog and then just rest in a child's pose for a moment. Okay and go ahead and come on up, short little rest there. From downward dog this time you're gonna step your left foot forward into a lunge, lower the back knee, it's like Anjanaasana but it's got some extra work. So from here your hips go forward and you know those of you that are teachers at home you know sometimes people want to lift their hips. So Chelsea just lift your knee and lift your hips at the same time, this is usually what I'll see and so go ahead and lower the knee down. So sometimes just a gentle little reminder here in the sacrum, you can think your sacrum is driving forward, good, and the knee comes up, good. You're gonna do even less pelvic movement, keep forward, there that's it, nice. So you really have to sort of disassociate from what your body wants to do. Just repeat about three or four more times, you're gonna feel a lot of work in the front of the hip, this is excellent hip flexor strengthening. Great, finish this one and do one more and then once your knee comes down, now you can take the pelvis back, straighten the left leg, lift the toes and start to contract by sort of dragging the heel toward you, pulling that leg all the way in towards center, and then once you've found that, don't forget to stretch the spine forward just a little bit more.

And then from here, you'll slowly start to walk your hands up, bringing them on to your hips, takes a lot of control and balance, and then once you're up, if you've got it in you, you'll move the pelvis forward for that quad stretch one more time. If I was really mean today, I'd tell you to lift that front leg. Kidding. Bring the hands down and make your way to downward dog. Great. And then come all the way forward into plank and lower down, nice and slow, be in the legs the whole time. Pretend to get caught in the shoulders, stretch those legs back and rest. Make a pillow with your hands, turn your head to one side, and then go ahead and turn your forehead down. Stretch your arms out in front of you. Connect with your legs and slowly stretch your right leg up off the floor. Do not shift your weight over onto the left pelvis. Can you keep the weight even on both sides of your pelvis? And the real trick here is can you reach that right leg that you're lifting out from center. So sometimes I'll see people bend the knee to sort of fake getting the foot higher, but I really want you to move from the hip. So the knee is straight and you're lifting that that right thigh bone off the floor. And this is really your hip extension. This is pretty much what you've got, at least what you have active control over. Go ahead and lower that leg down and then do the left side. And I bring this up, keep working on the skills while I chat a little bit about this, but I bring this up because Hanumanasana is this very split pose and if this is all the hip extension you have, the rest of it will occur in the back. And so I like to use props so that it's not a like hyperextension of the lower back because most of us don't have a lot of hip extension. I think we confuse spinal extension for hip extension a lot. And then slowly lower that leg down and go ahead and bring your arms in, make a pillow with your hands, turn your head the other way, which is probably the way you don't like to do it. So you should remember to do that occasionally. And then we'll put it all together. So forehead down, arms stretch straight out in front of you. Both legs lift. Don't think of the heels lifting, think of the top thighs lifting, and then the shoulder and the chest lift. If you'd like to, and your hands too, if you'd like to interlace your thumbs, it gives you a little bit of extra leverage so you can get a little bit more traction, closes the chain a bit. But really start to lift, lift, lift, and notice that at some point your back gets involved. So you've got some hip extension and some spinal extension going on here, both of which are required for our apex pose today. And then slowly lower down and rest. I don't want you to go into deep spinal flexion just yet because we're still in the extension mode. So I will have you push back to child's pose, but you'll tuck your toes underneath you so that your heels are lifted and then just go back into a child's pose that way. So it's more of a neutral spine position. And then from here go ahead and sit up and slowly stand up. So thanks. From here you'll want to go grab your chair. That's pretty much the next prop. Grab a chair and a blanket actually, that's what I would suggest. So the next pose we're going to do is crescent on a chair. And again any chair will work if you don't have chairs, maybe you don't have furniture. I know it's a trend lately. You can put like two blocks on the floor or just one block, that'll work as well. I'll explain what the benefit of the chair is. So Chelsea's gonna go ahead and place her hands on the seat of the chair. Place your right foot on the chair and then step your left foot back. You're just setting up for crescent. This is just the safest, most stable way to get into the pose. And then when you're ready, push into the front foot and come all the way up crescent pose. So by elevating the front leg we're changing the direction of the stretch here. Chelsea's back leg, left leg and yours as well at home, it's not in as much as extension as it needs to be. You're getting a stretch still in the hip flexor, right? But you're not putting as much work on the leg and so or the back. So you can actually be in the pose and work the skill. I know you're probably dying. So that right leg on the chair pulls in and the left leg stretches out. And then go ahead and place your hands down and step back. And when you're ready, switch legs. So by elevating the front leg a lot of people think, oh this is gonna make it easier. And it does make it easier because it doesn't put as much stress on the joints, but it makes it harder because now you have more work to do. I don't think it's easier. You're really gonna pull this leg in. As you can see, as you pull the left leg that's on the chair all the way in, you get some lift in the front of the left pelvis. And that right leg reaches all the way out from center so that you're strengthening and contracting isometrically at end range. Bend your knee just a little more, Chelsea. And press into the foot to lift just a little higher. Excellent. And then place your hands down and come off the chair. Good. Stand all the way up. Your next pose is to take the chair if you have a folding chair and to fold it up. If you don't have a folding chair you're going to use a blanket. Go ahead and back up just a little, Chelsea. I'll demo with the blanket. It's a forward fold that's very active so we're getting into the hamstrings now. So I'll start with the chair. You put the chair in the hip crease and it's at an angle. So the nice thing is regardless of how tall you are you can angle the chair at whatever angle you need. So this works for everybody. So this goes in the hip flexor right in the hip crease and then Chelsea's going to go into a forward bend. And again if you haven't noticed I do a lot of strengthening at end range. So I get you into a stretch and then we contract. So that's really what you're doing here. You're contracting your hamstrings because that's what's being stretched and you can really pull on the chair leg to get the spine to stretch forward even more. Hang out there for about five to eight breaths. The other option is to put a blanket in the hip crease and you just fold right over that.

You have to be a little bit flexible for this one but it feels great and really gets you into the legs. Your hands can reach down and you're really trying to close onto the blanket but at the same time contracting all of the muscles that you're stretching. I'm slowly going to come up as you finish your last three or four breaths. Pull just a little bit harder. Don't give up and then slowly climb your way up the chair and come all the way up. Great. So for the rest of the class you're going to need a bolster, probably one or two blankets depending on how thick your bolster is and yeah get two blankets. Let's do that. Okay so let's work our way to Hanumanasana. So what you'll do is you'll set up a bolster and I know Chelsea and I know that she needs a little extra height so I'm going to take a blanket and fold it in thirds and set it on top. I know this looks crazy high but it'll make sense for you at home. So you might not need as much height, you might need more. At this point you'll have to play around with it but it will really help you understand what Hanumanasana is all about. So Chelsea is going to come into a lunge so your front leg is going to be the right leg to start and you straddle the bolster really resting on the back leg. So you're just in a lunge to begin with. How much height you need really is dictated by how much extension you have in the back leg. So here Chelsea is not just suspended in gravity because she's got enough height. So take the time to build yourself up as high or low as you need to so that your hip that's in extension the back hip is resting on the bolster and then from there you can start to stretch the front leg out into Hanumanasana. You have to inch it's a little awkward but you'll get there. Now you're fully supported but now there's work to do in the pose. It looks restorative but it's not. Chelsea is going to start by pressing your hands into the bolster and she's going to do the same skill that I've talked about all along. She's going to pull this right leg all the way in towards center because it's inflection. She's going to stretch left leg all the way out so you really want to reach from the left side of the navel with the back leg and then if you can you can take your arms straight up overhead reaching up finding a little bit of the back bend in the pose but knowing that the legs are what's doing all of the work. The legs are what's always strong in backbends. Great and you want to imagine that you could literally pull yourself up that that's how strong you are in this position that you're not falling into the bolster but rather levitating up above the bolster and then slowly bring your hands down and get ready to switch sides. You might actually need different height for the second leg so don't be attached to what you had on the first side. Always start in your lunge so you can get and get enough height for the back leg for the one that's an extension. Make sure your ankle is straight and then when you're ready you can start to stretch the front leg which is now your left leg out in front of you. You just have to heel toe it forward and then for some of you at home this might be a really useful tip while you're pushing in and pulling the left leg in and stretching the right leg out and doing all of that work some of you might collapse in the knee and so I have this really handy prop that's called an egg and I can just slide that right underneath it's actually it prevents the knee from hyper extending and it also gives you more to push into to be more active in the pose. If you don't have an egg you can just use a rolled up blanket. I just had an egg handy here and they're great and then when you're ready stretch the arms all the way up again you're not just resting into the pose you're not surrendering to gravity you're actually trying to lift up. Take two full breaths here and then slowly bring your hands down and gracefully or not make your way out. Great work. How'd that feel? How'd that feel? Okay so let's just wind it down a little bit with a couple restorative poses. A side stretch either over a bolster or a blanket. This bolster is a little bit bigger than I would like so I'm going to use a blanket for Chelsea if you have a lower more rectangle bolster that's fine. So I'm just using this blanket rolled up into thirds and Chelsea you're going to go ahead and lie on your side and your right ribcage is going to go over that. I'm going to give you the second blanket for underneath between your arm and your head. Just lie on your side and make sure you do have something between your head and your shoulder so you protect your shoulder and make sure that the blanket is not at your waist but actually at your ribcage. So scoot down just a little bit. This is a little gentle side stretch. You can keep your legs just like this or you're welcome to split them taking your top leg forward and your left leg back. Make sure you take your left leg back not just straight you've just learned a lot of extension that might be too far with your front leg and then take your top arm and stretch it all the way up and over hold on to your left wrist with your right hand and just give a gentle little tug. It's a nice side body opening. If you're starting to get a little bit of strain in the top hip you can always elevate the top leg just a little bit that usually helps take some strain out of the hip and while you're here just breathe into those left ribs. Feel the ribs expand and contract and then even feel the bottom ribs feel how the the blanket helps to give them some shape and then when you breathe in the bottom ribs those right ribs stretch over the blanket and then relax on to the blanket and then go ahead and bring the top arm all the way up and over bring your knees back into your chest go ahead and press yourself up slow and set up for the other side. Start in fetal position just to get set up again make sure that the blanket is under the ribs and not the waist. Once you're set up you're welcome to split the legs the top leg goes forward and the bottom leg goes back so most people just stretch it straight out it goes actually back behind you just a little. Prop the front leg if you'd like to and then take the top arm which is now your right arm stretch it all the way up and over hold on to that top arm with the bottom hand and you just give yourself a gentle pull so you get a nice side body opening. Breathe into the top lung or the top rib cage and then also breathe into the bottom feel how your rib cage expands over the blanket when you inhale and relaxes on to it when you exhale. Take your last three breaths here and after your third full exhalation take that top arm stretch it all the way up and over bring your knees into your chest and slowly press yourself up to seated. Just end with one last restorative pose. Baddha Konasana, everyone's favorite. So you'll grab your bolster again turn around Sapta Baddha Konasana. You'll set yourself all the way up to the bolster if this is a little too high for you you can prop with any block you can prop the bolster up so you have a little bit more incline and then go ahead and bring yourself back. We have two blankets here so I strongly encourage you to prop the outer hips with by rolling up the blanket give you that I'll let you set that up so I just make a roll with the blankets and I prop right up at the hip joint so it's the hip that's supported. Join the soles of your feet take your knees apart and rest here. Great sort of different pose to do after all that Hanumanasana work which was very active and was very much in the sagittal plane. This pose is a little bit more restful include some rotation some abduction nice way to balance all the work that you've done. Close your eyes make sure you're fully comfortable here you're not looking for a deep stretch. If you have a deep stretch anywhere it will become more intense as you wait so make sure you just give yourself a little bit more support. You can use second blanket or maybe more incline under the bolster add another block. Many people like to take their Shavasana this way. If you choose that option I'm fine with that. We'll in a few more breaths walk Chelsea out into a regular Shavasana so you see how I like to come out of this pose when it's done right before final relaxation. If this is just feeling great for you feel free to stay here.

And to make your way out instead of bringing the knees together because we just gave a lot of directional information to the inner thighs I'm gonna have you slowly stretch one leg straight out keep it nice and low to the floor just slide it out down on your sticky mat and then the other leg can move the blankets out and then just slowly roll over to your side just enough so that you can roll off the bolster move it out of your way and slide onto your back. I'll take that blanket great. Give yourself the opportunity to do a small body scan before you go into full rest. If you prefer you can follow along on the body scan that I have here on yoga anytime that will guide you through the process but know that there's not one way to scan the body you're just in a state of observation. How do you feel after the work you've done? How does your back feel? How do your hips feel? And how does the practice regardless of how long or short how does the practice alter the way you experience inhabiting your own body? Does it make you more aware? Does it make your nervous system more sensitive? Do you begin to move more fluidly and also can you rest more fluidly? And when you're ready to come out you'll just start to deepen the inhalations and lengthen the exhalations. You'll stretch your arms overhead and then slowly bend one knee up and then the other and go ahead and roll on to your side. Rest on your side for just a moment. Place your top hand on the floor in front of your chest and then push into that top hand to slowly roll your way up. You're just rolling up. Your head comes up last. Once you come all the way up find a comfortable cross-legged position. Rest your hands on your thighs. Close your eyes and even here can you feel how your thigh bones connect higher up than your hip? Can you feel that the what you do with your legs even just paying attention to your legs influences your lower spine and your lower back? If you ever so slightly draw those thigh bones in do you feel a little bit of a lift in the lower back? And then see if you can keep that lift and then just relax the legs and then gently join your palms together at your chest. Bow your head down and slowly lift your chin, release your hands and open your eyes. Thanks for joining us. Thanks Chelsea. See you next time. Namaste.