Dynamic Flow Artwork
Season 2 - Episode 3

Slow and Present

60 min - Practice
60 likes

Description

Find space in the body, clear the mind, and embrace the stillness between movements in this mindful practice. We start supine connecting to the breath, which will carry us throughout the practice. We move into concentrated core work, hip mobility drills, and holds in standing postures to find strength and stability. Close out your practice with breath work exploring moments of presence. You will feel balanced and spacious.
What You'll Need: Mat

About This Video

Transcript

Read Full Transcript

Hey there, welcome to season two, episode two of dynamic flow with me, Robert Sedoti. Super excited to get this going. This practice is going to be a little geared toward like slow flow. So deliberate movements, time, space, think space, space in the body, like the muscles, the joints. We want to get rid of the, the guck. All right. The guck in the body, the guck in the mind. So let's focus on our breathing and our body and see what happens. So let's start on our back. We'll do a few things there and we'll, we'll move on.

All right. I've got a block. It's really just for a couple things. If I choose to use it, if you don't have one nearby, no sweat, you'll be fine. Maybe a little sweat, maybe a little sweat. I don't know. We'll have to see. All right. So let's first start off with some good breathing.

Okay. So let's focus first on noticing and being aware of the breath. Breathing into the nose, breathing out of the nose, into the nose, the belly, the rib cage, the chest all expand and rise and the exhale through the nose, everything relaxes. Place your hands on your rib cage, belly, body area. Breathe in through the nose. Feel the expansion. Exhale through the nose.

Feel the release. One more time. Breathe in through the nose. Breathe out through the nose. Continue breathing in through the nose, out through the nose.

And as best you can, throughout the practice, I will remind you several times as it is in the integral part of the practice. As we cultivate relationship with ourselves, as we move and stretch and feel and take time to pause. So those knees you draw into the body, lift your low back up. You feel the tailbone lift. You might feel a little like lumbar area.

That lumbar is your low back sacrum. Kind of lift and stretch. That might feel nice. Okay. We'll take a single leg version. Go ahead and shoot the left leg out.

Hug that right leg in. Good. Switch it up. Left leg in, right leg out. No rush to get anywhere. Okay. One more on the right.

Explore a little bit out to the side and toward the middle or toward the left. Whenever you feel it's appropriate or necessary or even just needed, breathe out of the mouth. That's a little perspective reset, I like to call. All right. So if your perspective is negative or anxious or fearful, exhale, open the mouth and shift perspective.

Everything's going to be all right. All right. Bring both legs in and then both feet down. I'm going to do this little series I like to call Bridge Roll-Ups. The Bridge Roll-Up is simply bringing the hips up with the feet below the knees.

Extend through the hips and reach your arms up back behind you. Okay. So you experience this for a few moments. You kind of get the shoulders open. You can really get that breath moving through the belly, the rib cage, the chest, that three-part breath. Blend it into one big fulfilling inhale.

Exhale, extend those hip flexors out, your waistline. Now the move from here, we will revisit this, is lower the back down, one vertebrae at a time. Lift the feet up off the mat, bend the legs 90 degrees, reach the arms alongside your hips or thighs, lift your shoulders up, boom, hello core. Good. Extend your legs out a little bit longer, if not fully extended. That doesn't feel good.

Bring the knees back together or back toward 90 degrees. All right, we're going to hold here for five, four, bend her straight, three, two, good. Bend, feet back down, press up for that bridge roll-up. So you roll up, you walk up onto those shoulders and shoulder blades, opening the front of the body. Feel some space there in the front, wiggle around.

And then from your upper back through the middle of the back, you lower, lower one vertebrae at a time. As you lower your low back down, you reach alongside your legs, your feet lift, bent legs 90 degrees, lift the shoulders up, shoulder blades, extend those legs out, pause in what's called canoe pose. Good, little core stability here. Now you can stay here or bring the hands behind the head and maybe draw those legs in on the exhale. Inhale, extend them out, exhale them back in, inhale them out, exhale back in, inhale, exhale, keep going.

Really, the whole point is to keep the upper back lifted so the core is engaged. The legs moving back and forth are almost just like a little distraction, a way to keep you engaged a little bit longer. Let's do four more, inhale, extend, exhale. You can bring the arms alongside the legs, hands behind the head, exhale, two more, exhale, exhale, feet down, nice. Bridge roll up, walk up onto those shoulder blades, back to the shoulders, reach the arms back behind you.

Breathe well, so you've gone from this contraction and tightening through the belly muscles to expanding and stretching. Lower back down, last little effort here. Take the hands behind the head, lift the feet, keep them just like this, lift those shoulder blades up, rotate left elbow, right knee, extend the left leg out, good. Right elbow to left knee, extend the right leg out. Oh boy, here we go.

Left to right, right to left, left to right, right to left, five, five, four, keep rotating over, keeping the shoulder blades lifted. Where are we at? Three, three, two, two, extend long through the leg. One, one, hold, canoe, I promise you this is it. Left, hold, burn, baby, burn, and lower the feet. Arms out wide, windshield wiper your legs from side to side, enjoy a little relief.

See what's nice in offering this type of practice is when you can offer the effort followed by some ease so that you can actually really like appreciate the stretching and the recovery. Okay, one more bridge, but this time you keep those arms alongside the body palms facing up, walk the shoulders underneath you as much as you can, clasp your hands if you'd like, I prefer not to. Lift up, this is a fantastic posture for tightening, gluteening, gluteening your glutes, so tightening the glutes, working your thigh muscles, opening your hips, great extension for your spine, and then you've got that big stretch across your upper body. All the things, if you pay attention right now, you can feel happening. Good, lift your heels and roll down one vertebrae at a time.

Grab hold of your hamstrings and rock forward and back a few times. So now you're going to feel a little bit of the belly muscles, the muscles as Mr. Popeye used to say, old cartoon, let her eat your spinach. They were onto something back then. Eat your spinach, eat your greens, right? He was rocking, keep going, rocking the green smoothie before it became a real thing.

Popeye, forearms are too big though. Good, roll all the way up. Let's come on to our hands and knees. And before we do a bunch of knee, kind of low to the ground stuff, let's move into downward dog so we can get that spine kind of stretched out, the legs nice and stretch. So from one heel down, the opposite leg bent, some hip love in there.

So try this, push your right heel down as much as you can. Bend your right leg and then throw those hips over to the left and maybe even push a little extra through your right ankle. So you're trying to lift the arch of your right foot and you're going to feel a big stretch up that right ankle, outer right leg, space, creating space. Bend the right, straighten the left. Now again, you're going to try to lift and create an arch in that left foot and you're going to feel a stretch in that left ankle now.

Hips over to the right. Continuing to breathe throughout just conscious breathing and body awareness. Continue to just let the whole kind of practice unfold and you're present throughout. Bring the knees down, cat-cow, adjust the shirt. Inhale, cow pose, exhale, cat.

Inhale, cow pose. Exhale, cat. Inhale, exhale. One more and exhale. Neutral, shoot the left leg back and back behind you.

Slide your right foot over. We've done this before but it's a fantastic go-to everyday kind of option. Reach the left arm up overhead. Push your hips forward. Breathe.

Get as creative as you can. You can really reach that left arm up over and up toward the left side of the mat. Push your left hip back and then back up. Really nice. Switch it over to the other side.

So shoot the right leg back and kind of like it's like back and back behind you. Slide your left foot over for some like balance. Reach the right arm high. Stretch. Good.

Work out any of that, those like little like kinks in the body. Reach the right hand up to the right side of the mat. Round off that upper back. Draw the right shoulder toward the ground. Beautiful. Up and open again.

And down into tabletop. Good. We're going to totally throw things in a different direction here. You're going to come onto your seat. Okay.

Now to start this little sequence, you're going to take your feet really wide. All right. Take your hands back behind you. Fingers pointing back. Pull the shoulders back.

Okay. Now start with drawing the legs like a windshield wiper would to the left. And as you're going to the left, pull the right shoulder back. There's this I don't even like like pull the right shoulder back and look over the shoulder like huh. I don't know what that really is, but that is but it's sort of like little standoffish.

Now come over to the right side. This builds into something nice. I think so. Pull the left shoulder back as the legs are over to the right stretch. Nice. Now try this hands-free.

So this involves some core but it's great hip mobility and we'll add some flavor to it. So arms can come out in front of you. This will help give you some leverage. Knees over to the left. Stay upright in your body.

Turn now to the left and get a little spinal twist back to center. Hinge at the hips over to the right twist to the right. Back up to center and what you can do now is kind of go back and forth. This is a really great hip mobility drill that involves your core. And what we'll do is we'll actually work it into a pigeon pose that might feel nice.

It's funny when you do it. You start to travel forward and back or forward. Okay. Now if you come over to the left again. Boom upright turn chest falls over the inner left thigh for a pigeon stretch. Pigeon stretch maybe one of the best stretches out there.

And this is a super accommodating version. Safe on the knee. You don't have to have that back leg really extended. Okay. Let's check it out on the other side through core, right?

Core engaged, core engaged, core engaged. Hips rotating, rotating. Boom, inhale, lift the chest, exhale, fold over your right thigh and get that pigeon stretch. Continue breathing, finding those little spots that need attention. Trust, trust, trust, trust, trust.

Back up to center, hinge over. And now we're going to come into pigeon pose. Okay. So you can come into it just like here or you can slide your right leg back and assemble your maybe more if it's for you. More of a traditional pigeon pose. So slide the right knee back, point the left toes forward.

Make sure your left knee is super safe. Wobble a little left to right. You can put a block or a pillow under your left seat. Check in with your breathing. If you want a little more of a folded version, bring the forearms to the mat.

Relax your head. Maybe make fists, stack your fists, let your forehead rest. This way you can kind of like really dive into the value of the stretch. This is a great hip opener kind of glute stretch. I say it relieves sciatica.

I have some clients who've done this religiously with sciatica and they no longer have it. Call it coincidence, whatever you'd like. But it's one that I've become, you know, very fond of and believe in its offering. Okay, so let's come back out of that. That's nice.

Now hinge up and over to the other side. Okay, so you can come into it. So there's just the transition alone is worth the effort. And then you set up this lazy yin-like pigeon, which is the could be your jam. Or you slide that left knee back, find the angle, the desired angle of that right shin.

Make sure your right knee is very comfortable and safe. Use your arms to support you. You can place a block underneath your right hip, your right butt. That'll help you to not use too many muscles to hold yourself up. Okay, and you can come onto your forearms.

Stack your fists, forehead rests on your fist, maybe a pillow. And you check in with the breathing. You check in with the level of intensity, intention, why you show up for this practice. Or just be in that kind of like water flow state where you just let go as much as you possibly can. So it's like that flow state.

The more you focus on your breathing, the more your breath is kind of open and spacious, the more you can, I think, kind of hop into and onto that flow state. But it takes those moments when your mind wants to wander in and take over of you noticing that and kind of catching it and setting the mind aside for a few moments. Okay, that's enough of pigeon for now. Remove the block. If you put a block there, come back over to center, draw the bottoms of your feet together.

Your hips might be pretty available for this. Again, this is kind of like less of a vinyasa kind of fiery flow. You're just kind of moving around in the body, okay, from like pose to pose, staying for a little bit, okay? So let's lift the chest, lengthen the spine and stay right here if this feels like where your hips want to be. Or lean into it.

Use your breathing, use your exhale to lean into it, right? So you're leaning in with softness, with like, I'm a friend. Rather than like, I need to get it done. I need to just do this and things need to change, right? So you kind of push or bully your way in.

That's usually not the best route with this type of practice. You lean in, wander around, move your head from side to side. Finding value in these small, maybe not so sweaty experiences, when you can do that, I think you're kind of onto something, come back up, stretch the legs out, wide legs seated forward fold. I don't do this one too often as an offering in class, but I feel like it's calling for it right now. So legs out as wide as you can get them without forcing, right?

Right now, big stretch, inner thighs, hamstrings connecting into the groin. Keep your feet pretty active. You can soften your knees a little bit if you'd like, reach, grab hold of your big toes, your shins, maybe walk your hands forward. And again, no bullying here, right? Softly kindly working toward a stretch that feels like, oh man, my body needs this right now.

And if it really needs it, and there's a lot of neglect there, be patient. Even more reason to be patient, right? And you can't just come into it after years thinking like, gosh, I wish it were like it used to be, let's see if you can move from the, to the like, that's a good spot. Right hand over to the right foot or shin, maybe even the left hand, maybe grab a little side stretch, more of a focus on that right leg, back over to center, wander over to the left, feel it out, be very aware, be intentional and have purpose. All the key words, intention, purpose, mindfulness, but here you are applying them.

You're not writing them or posting them or reading them. You're actually practicing back over to center. Okay. Before it gets a little too much, come back out one more hamstring stretch your left foot into the inner right thigh. Okay.

Put a soft bend in your right knee, a pillow, a block, something, and then fold forward toward the right foot and he might cycle in and out. So there's this rolling effect in the spine, breathe in, breathe out, finding your way, making different paths, different roads, you might land somewhere, stay a while. If you're accustomed to practicing with me quite a bit, this is for sure a different like flow, a different offering. So hopefully it's resonating in some way with you. Come back up.

Man, good hamstrings need some attention sometimes, but not too much attention. Left foot out, right foot into that inner left thigh. Okay. Some activity in that left foot point through the heel, the big toe mound, spread your toes out and again, put a little something underneath your knee and we'll fold forward again. Some undulations through the spine.

Breathe in, lift up, say hello, breathe out, forward and down, breathe in, you move away from the stretch, breathe out, you move toward my pause, stick around a while, have a conversation. That communication I keep talking about with yourself, with your body, any good relationship requires communication and sometimes it's easier not to and you don't want to because it can be uncomfortable, but there's value there. All right. Come back up. All right.

Let's get back onto our hands and knees. Take your knees pretty wide, get out of the hamstrings. So we'll really kind of relax the hamstrings a bit here. Maybe relax, but more hip, push the hips back into child's pose, bring the forehead down toward the mat, maybe stack your hands or your, your fists and pause. You might wiggle a little left to right.

The biggest value is in the breathing. Full stop, the postures are lovely and very necessary. The breath is the key to all of it. So see if you can dial in with the breathing, back into a long stretched out version here of child's pose into your tabletop, back into downward dog, yes, move the head around, loosen up the neck, little core abdominal effort here. So think cat pose while in plank.

So come into plank and cat pose, so push the ground away, pull the belly up and in round out those shoulders and they'll draw your right knee towards your right elbow, maybe even a little bit higher than that. Good. Step back into downward dog. Same thing, but now it's a gradual, um, movement into downward dog, plank, cat pose, knee in knee up, step back, downward dog, good plank, knee to elbow, that cat pose in the upper back, downward dog, let's get that core plank, need a note, need an elbow, slide it up a little higher. Two more on each side, good knee in, that's the right side, pull up, good work, left side, knee up, one more on the right, one more on the left, exhale right, exhale left, downward dog, good job, walk it out, walk to the front of the mat, forward fold, adjust the shirt, half lift, breathe in, breathe out, lead with the heart, hips back, forward fold, rise up, breathe in, reach the arms overhead, take a full big beautiful stretch, reach up with the left, reach up with the right, it's almost like you're trying to climb a rope, one arm reaches up, good, side bending, side stretching, hips moving, so take this, left arm up, throw your hips to the left, right arm up, throw your hips to the right, and hands back to center, this is called tuck the shirt asana, okay, very nice, good job on tuck the shirt asana, see that, bring the arms overhead, breathe in, breathe out, forward fold, breathe in, half lift, breathe out, hands down, left foot back, bring the left knee down, low lunge, point your left toes back, push as hard as you can into the left foot, down into the mat, you're going to alleviate knee pressure and really work muscle on the left side as well as stretching the left side, it's almost like you're trying to push so hard into that left foot that your left knee lifts, it's a lot of work, that way you know you're in muscle and not just stretching your joints out too much, take your right hand onto the right thigh and take the left arm up high and over, so as much as I believe in, I talked about pigeon, this psoas stretch, this like hip flexor psoas stretch on the left side or like a psoas release or lengthening is lovely, come back out of the lunge a little bit, right hand on the thigh, lean, hinge at the hips and lean your body forward, take the left elbow across your right thigh, low lunge spinal twist, turn that belly around a little bit, not turn but churn, palms pressing together, shoulders relaxed, look over the right shoulder if your neck allows, good job, good spinal rotation here, beautiful, come back out of that effort, reach the arms up high, send the hips forward, get a little back bendy here, reach back, interlace your fingers, remember what I mentioned earlier, right, we need to take time in the poses to or in order to create this desired space in our body, opening the hips, opening the shoulders, mobility where it's needed, okay, let's release the arms high, come a little bit more out of the pose, hands to the mat, curl the back toes, lift the left knee and sweep back into a three-legged downward dog with that right leg up and hip open, up on the fingertips.

This one requires a little effort, what you're going to do is see if I can talk you through it efficiently, effectively, right knee in toward the middle, then draw the right knee toward the left elbow, shoot the right foot over to the right, left foot down, hips high, good job, so it's a side plank with your right foot shooting straight out, oh boy, hips high, hips high, hips high, left arm reaching up and back, good strengthener here, lower the hips a little bit, maybe the left hand on the hip, lift the right foot back up into that three-legged dog, step the right foot all the way through, right foot right side, left foot left side, rise up, high lunge, nice, a little core effort here, also a way to get out of the back, hinging at your hips, lean your body forward like you were in like a half lift or a cobra, right, you can bring your hands to the thigh to first assist, stay steady and strong, committed through the core, or reach the arms overhead. This really requires feet effort, leg effort, core effort, and the almighty breath. You got to stay working in that right side, hands to heart, straighten the right leg, let's adjust just a little bit, maybe the right foot comes back a little bit, you shorten your stance out, right leg is going to feel it my friend, warrior three, lean, bend that left leg and lean into that right leg, left leg shoots back, lengthen your spine, steady your focus, beautiful standing pose, standing balancing pose I mean, soften the left hip, I need to do that also, left hip toward the ground, hands to the mat, left foot to the mat, deep breath in, half lift, deep breath out, forward fold, straighten the right leg, bend the left, up high on the left fingertips or a block even, let's throw the block in, why not, twist and rotate to the right, right leg is straight, left leg is bent, rotate and twist, good, switch it up, right knee bends, left leg straightens, block is underneath the right hand, or the right hand is on the shin or knee or floor, twist and rotate open to the left, how you doing, you doing alright, good me too, nice to be here with you, okay, left hand back down, let's lose the block or keep it if you'd like it, forward fold but after a breath in, half lift because it's important, right foot back, good, bring that right knee down, same thing we did on the other side, low lunge, hands can rest first on the left thigh, you find the degree in the hips, meaning like the length between your left foot and your right knee, so you can have it more like the right knee a little closer or extend the right knee back and if you lean your body forward a little bit here, hands on the thigh, you can stay out of your low back and get a super deep effective hip opener here and as I said before if you push the right foot down hard into the mat, so much that you're trying to lift your right knee, number one it'll lift your knee up off the mat a little bit, relieve the knee tension but it'll really bring some muscle and strength into the posture, good, left hand on the left thigh, come out of the pose a little bit, right arm high, that psoas posture, right, so lean to that left side but stretch up the right as much as you can, I guarantee these postures work, guarantee with that daily practice your willingness to stop and pause in the simplicity of some of these offerings to recondition, repattern, good posture, beautiful, okay come back out, take both arms now, bring them high, otherwise like you know whether it's tension, stress, injuries, scar tissue, reach your arms back behind you as an option, clasp your hands, all those things start to just stack on and layer on, right, the load of life and so these types of postures and breathing and offerings are going to help kind of clear and cleanse and keep you healthy, keep you free, keep you spacious, so nice, okay last little low lunge offering here, if you need to take a break, take a break, that means my offering that means I needed to take a break, okay same twist we did on the other side, I like to take the left hand under the thigh, lean the body forward so I'm like push pulling the hips back lengthening the spine, on the exhale pull the belly in and hook that right elbow across the thigh, boom relax your shoulders, wiggle that belly in a little bit, press the palms together, lean into it a little bit, rotate open, that navel, imagine the navel with a big spoon, you're stirring the spot, stirring the pot, so you move that belly around a little bit, you might feel a big stretch in the outer left hip, that's good, come back out, oh yes, wiggle around a little bit, pull shoulders up and back, bring the hands down to frame that left foot, curl the back toes, lift the left leg and lift up and open into that three-legged dog, that might feel like a nice relief and release in that left hip, loosen up the neck, so a three-legged dog with the hip open, okay same little, I think it's called fallen angel, okay so what you're gonna do is square off the hips, bring the left knee into plank, knee to nose over toward the left or right elbow, bring your right heel down, bend your right knee a little bit, shoot the left leg out, then straighten the right leg and lift the hips, reach the right arm overhead, side plank variation, good, bend the right leg, lift the left foot up, right hand down, back up into three-legged dog, inhale, exhale, left foot forward, okay high lunge, once you get your base, you root down, root down to rise up, many times have you heard that in yoga classes, right, but it just works, root down through the feet, so send these roots just, but then those roots also come up through your legs and travel into the rest of the body, so everything is connected, okay hands at the chest or arms up overhead, rocket lunge, one of my favorites, lean your body forward, you're gonna pull your left hip back, right hip forward, drive heavy into the right heel, strong and long through the arms if you choose or hand centered at your chest, this is gonna take a little bit of work and effort through the core and you're gonna probably feel it quite a bit in that left leg, okay hands back to the heart for a little centering, adjust yourself on the mat, I'm gonna adjust it just for like camera sake, right, if I'm just totally transparent, in the right leg, left leg gonna get a little fatigued here but that's okay, lean into that warrior three, so start with a little bent left leg, shoot that right leg back, lengthen through your spine, soften the right hip toward the floor, breathe, hands down to the mat, right foot down to the mat, take your feet out to the edge of the mat, heel stay on, toes off, send your hips back and down, that might feel like a little relief, little side to side, loosen up the neck, from this position with your feet what I want you to do is reach the arms forward, lift your butt up so you're actually shooting your hips back and your back is kind of flat here, so there's like it's almost like a happy baby sensation in those inner groin muscles but then what I want you to do is keep the arms forward, drop the seat down so squat almost like a full squat, push through your heels to come all the way to stand, arms down by your side, kind of thrust the hips forward so you get the hips open, squeeze the butt, good, we're gonna do one more version of that, so take the arms forward, butt goes back, flat, flat back, let's see, yes flat back, tailbone lifts a little bit into your squat all the way up, we'll do more of those in episode three, such a fantastic way to kind of strengthen and create mobility, let's lower down, come on down to your seat and let's do this, lower to your back, okay, hug those knees in again, so the knees are drawn in and you rock a little side to side, we're gonna move into happy baby more hip stuff, right, so the hips like to gather from what my understanding, they gather trauma, negativity, all of those types of energies and experiences, this is what I've read, maybe what I've heard and experienced and so the more we can kind of like unlock the hips and what is stored there, there's another kind of idea of how we can create some space, new conditioning rather than like residing in that old conditioning, so knees out wide, reach up, grab hold of the outer edges of your feet, if that's just out of this question, hold on to the shins or the knees, very doable that way, I'm gonna hold on up here just because that's where it feels best for me, feet out wide over the knees, little rocking side to side, softening of the shoulders, lengthening of the neck, keep the knees out wide, draw the bottoms of the feet together, similar, just a little different, now pull the heels down, knees out wide, almost creating like a diamond shape, pull the legs, the arches of the feet towards you, safe in the knees, feet back out wide, pause for about five breaths in your version of happy baby, hip opener, whatever you'd like to call it, there's one breath, soften the facial muscles, the eyes, the jaw, there's two breaths, long extended exhalations, there's three, there's four, one last one here in this shape, there's two breaths, nice, oh boy, release that, bring your feet down nice and wide, legs bent, windshield wiper your legs from side to side, when you go to the right, take your right ankle over your left thigh, okay, the weight of that right leg on your left leg will add an increased stretch through the left hip, if you want a little more feeling, flavor, reach the left arm up, so it's that whole left side getting a real opening, again, none of these are throwaways or fillers or how can I complete an hour, right, these are all significant, very valuable postures to add, they're simple some of them but their offering is not simple, knees over to the left, left ankle over the right thigh, okay, feel the weight of that, oh boy, big hip stretch on the right side, then you can take that right arm, reach it up and back, that may add value, it may bum your shoulder out, if it does, just kind of back away from it, you can take your hand behind your head and lead more through the elbow, the right arm, so it almost looks like you're just chilling, all right, you found a little spot at the beach, sounds perfectly like on you, you're like what, that's what I'm doing, taking a break, nice, come back out, mindful of the transitions too, okay, got one more, it might be more but nice little gift, I think it's a nice movement, okay, so you're gonna extend your right leg out, slide your butt over to the left side of the mat and take first the spinal twist, okay, so get that alignment, so you're gonna be on your right hip as your spinal twist, which the spinal twist is kind of primarily taking care of the low back, releasing any tension you may have there, but take that left arm now and reach it out wide, now you're gonna feel maybe that completion of the twist, the torso getting a little ring out, so if you'd like to put a block or a pillow or something underneath your left knee, it's not mandatory, right arm reaches out, palm facing up, now you've got the twist, you're in there, right, this is now gonna be like a chest shoulder rotation, so bring the left palm to meet the right palm and you're gonna actually lift off of the left shoulder blade to do this, so you're kind of like high-fiving left palm to right palm and you're stretching out the upper back, okay, that might feel nice, but here's where the money is, I think, slide the left arm up and back behind you while maintaining the twist, reach it up, palm faces up, now you're getting this lovely shoulder opener and rotation, so it's a half circle all the way and right about like three quarters of the way through that movement, you're gonna feel that big stretch in the shoulder, the front of the shoulder, then you high five again, we'll do three, high five, what's going on, reach up and back behind you, keep that left knee down, circle, reach over, palm to palm, stretch out that back, it's similar to cat pose in the shoulder blades and now slide it up and back, ground that left knee, circle, circle, circle, space, pause, shoulder blade to shoulder blade, okay, come out of that and back to center on the mat, take a pause, how can we in this yoga practice embrace the pause, the stillness, to be so comfortable with you in your own skin, your own mind, your body, to be still enough, to be present and not need distractions and stimulation, and that's a skill, okay, slide the hips over to the right, this little position, okay, slide the left knee forward, right knee in, so we're gonna get nailed down that good spinal twist first, okay, so right knee comes across, you get that lovely spinal twist, right palm, right arm extends out from the right shoulder with the palm up, here if you stayed here the whole time, there's your wind, that's beautiful, okay, keep that right knee on top of a block or something where you don't have to like work it too much, reach the left palm out, I'm kind of wall challenged here but that's okay, I'm still gonna get it, right palm reaches up and over and you stretch out that back and you circle that right arm up and back behind you, working through any shoulder discomfort or stickiness and you land in a twist, right arm reaches up and over, kind of high five, palm to palm, reach the right arm up and back and over, so I kind of like a half circle, reach up and over, good, back, back, back, back, back, it's like you're trying to trace a perfect half circle back behind you, really working that shoulder joint nicely into that chest, hand on the right thigh, reach the right arm out, pause, a lot of space in between your shoulder blades, nothing's gummed up or bound, beautiful, mindful of the transition out, that's a deep twist you're just in, situate yourself back on the mat, hands back on the body, legs bent, feet grounded, breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out, draw the bottoms of your feet together, knees out wide, head resting, take the hands behind the head, lift the head, stretch out the back of the neck, place the head back down with a lot of length in the neck, so the chin kind of stays tucked in, back is nice and supported and grounded, hands on the body again, breathe in, breathe out, breathe in as kind of full as you can, hold your breath, breathe out, again breathe in, hold and retain your breath, open your mouth and breathe out, one more time, breathe in, hold your breath as long as you can, keep holding, embracing the stillness, a snapshot of your life, the moment, exhale, release everything, now take a big breath in through the nose, big open mouth clearing breath, relax your arms alongside your body, straighten out your legs, feet are really wide, legs are spacious, relax your body, take this very valuable necessary time to rest, to release all the effort you've just put in, relax your back, relax your legs, both legs just completely, completely relaxed, relax your shoulders, your shoulders are relaxed, your arms are relaxed, relax all the facial muscles, relax your breath, relax your feet and your hands, your fingers and toes, close and soften and relax your eyes deep down in your eye sockets, totally relaxed, if you're in a really good spot right now and you feel content and satisfied, you can just listen to my voice, I'm going to come up to sit and do a closeout, stay as long as you'd like and relax and reflect upon your practice, contemplate any thoughts that may have come up, if you're going to come up you can start to wake the body up and roll up, I was getting pretty relaxed there, I was reluctant to end this, hang out with you a little bit longer but I must move on, so I just want to end with saying thank you as always, I'm grateful to be able to do this and share what I believe as I said earlier to be very valuable, just the whole practice, so from my heart to yours, my home to yours or wherever you are, namaste, peace, blessings, just awesome life, really awesome life, let's keep moving, keep breathing and doing our best, have a beautiful day.

Comments

Catherine R
Very soothing, powerful practice. I look forward to more “glutening”❤️❤️❤️
Jenny S
4 people like this.
This definitely has VALUE...long holds in poses really gets to the deep inner physical and mental benefits of yoga...and YES I did break a sweat! Just curious though: was the revolved triangle cut for time on this recorded version?LOL, no worries - this was one of my favorite “Robert” practices ever 🙌
Christel B
2 people like this.
Enjoyed this flow flow on this warm summery day.
Julie R
2 people like this.
Beautiful
Robert Sidoti
More 'glutening' to come for sure Catherine :)) Thank you for your comment, more of these practices to come! 
Robert Sidoti
Jenny !! Many thanks for your comment and for practicing with us all! I'm a big fan of the longer holds, moving toward stillness but with an active approach - thus the sweat :)) Because of some tech challenges shooting Episode 2, I accidentally left out revolved triangle, thanks for noticing and asking about it - will be sure to offer again soon! Awesome you enjoyed it as much as you did, always grateful Jenny!! 
Robert Sidoti
Hey there Christel ! Been awhile since 'seeing' you :)) How have you been?! Let's continue to enjoy these summery days, fall is upon us (one of my favorite times for sure) but I do love love love the summer! See you for Episode 3 if you join! 
Robert Sidoti
Hello Julie !! Thank you for your comment - hope your day is beautiful!! 
Michelle F
2 people like this.
Hola Robert,
Perfect Sunday morning session - sure was different - first time Ive practised with you that i didnt break a sweat! - but boy, did my knees  tremble haha!  The hour passed in the blink of an eye yet so unhurriedly...Really grand - thank you!
Have a beautiful day
loveandpeacexxxx
Robert Sidoti
Hola to you Michelle !! Happy Sunday! I’m so happy you enjoyed this practice. Thank you so much for your comment and for being here - hope to see you for episode 3, maybe we’ll get a little sweat on and fire the core a bit, always a good feeling! Have a great day wherever you are :)) Namaste Robert 
1-10 of 36

You need to be a subscriber to post a comment.

Please Log In or Create an Account to start your free trial.

Footer Yoga Anytime Logo

Just Show Up

Over 2,900 yoga and meditation practices to bring you Home.

15-Day Free Trial