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Season 5 - Episode 3

Morning Mobility Flow

35 min - Practice
65 likes

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Welcome in your morning with this full body flow to loosen stiffness, increase range of motion, and awaken the mind. You will feel ready for your day.
What You'll Need: Mat

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Hey there, how you doing? Welcome to Morning Mobility Flow. Now with that said, this can be done any time of the day and the evening. I personally think that this works really nice in the morning. So without further ado, let's begin.

We're going to start in a tabletop position. All right. So tabletop and place your hands below the shoulders, knees below the hips, somewhere around there. And we begin to move through the spine through some cat-cow movement. So inhale, chest forward, gaze forward gently and exhale, cat pose.

Round out the back, push the earth away. That's the exhale. Inhale, cow pose. And exhale, cat. Let's do one more round.

Breathe in, cow pose, arch the back, stretch it out a little bit. Exhale, cat, push the ground away, pull that low belly up, up, up and in. Inhale back to a neutral spine and take your gaze over the left shoulder like you're trying to look back towards your left heel. Nice. And then the opposite, gaze over toward the right, a little stretch through the neck.

Let's do it one more time because that might feel nice. And back over to the right, a little side stretch there, good. Back to center, take it back into child's pose, stretch the hips back toward the heels, keeps the arms out like maybe even like crawl the hands forward as much as you can. Good. Place the forehead down.

Might be a good time in your practice to really ground and arrive here. Locate your breath. Now from here, keep your hands stretched out in front of you. Little hinge up through table, but then start to drop the hips into like a really kind of like modified, lazy, early in the practice up dog. Maybe even like drop your hips from side to side.

Look over the shoulder like we did in the tabletop. Look over the left. Just like the early beginnings of the movement, right? So you might feel some stickiness here and there. And then we'll push back into child's pose.

Use your exhale that might assist. Move back through that same position. Inhale up dog, we'll call it up dog, like keeping the knees down and again, wander from side to side, loosen up the low back. Exhale child's pose. Nice.

Getting the body opened up a bit, let's do one more, breathe in, come forward, drop the hips. This is where you just listen. You listen to the low back. You don't go too far. Just getting started here.

Maybe from here, bend the elbows and come all the way down. We'll start with the left arm. Stretch the left arm all the way out to the left as far as you can. Even that, that might be enough for you, but use that right hand to roll over onto your left side. A little scorpion action here.

So that right leg reaches up like a scorpion tail, right? Right foot back behind that left knee and you start to flirt with that stretch and opening through the shoulder, through the chest, and maybe you feel it through the hips a bit. Breathe a little love into those tight spaces. If you're anything like me in the morning, you just feel a little stiff and it feels so nice to address it. Okay.

Come back over to center and I'll have my back to you. I apologize, nothing personal. Stretch the right arm all the way out and as you're pushing yourself over, continue to stretch that right arm, like walk it further and further, place the left foot behind that right leg. If that's doable, if not, you can keep it on the other side, you can let the head rest or keep it elevated up to you. Perfect back over to center.

Slide the right hand back alongside the body, kind of like where cobra up dog would be. Now inhale, lift up through a little gentle cobra, exhale, child's pose. I'm going to put a few poses here together. Now lift up onto the knees. You can curl your back toes or not.

Press the hips forward. We call it like a camel reach. Lift the left arm up as high as you can and reach the right fingertips to your right heel, driving the hips forward, lengthening the spine, lifting the chest, reach up and back. Good. Left arm comes down.

Maybe on the exhale, inhale, reach that right arm nice and high and exhale now here. Press the hands down, downward dog. First downward dog. So you might wander around a little bit. Wander around meaning like bend one leg a lot, then the other.

Just that noticing, that attention to detail within the body. This beautiful gift of a body you have here now. Plank pose. Breathe in. Let's do a little knees, chest, chin.

So the knees come down, keep the seat high as you bend the elbows, chest and chin come down. Then we go back through that little cobra, breathe in, maybe a little upward, depending on what's available and back into your child's exhale, good camel reaches. So press right on up and as you're lifting up, you're addressing the pelvis right away. The tailbone draws down, hips forward, curl the toes, press up, lift up, left arm, breathe in, breathe out, left arm down, breathe in, right arm reaches. Super nice.

Wander around, downward dog, lift. Plank pose, inhale, exhale, knees, chest and chin, inhale, upward, exhale, child's, camel reaches. So lift up. This time I'll leave the heels down, reach the left arm up, gently reach back. There's a lot of strength in this posture.

Exhale it down, push up and back and back to downward dog. Nice. Take a deep breath here, nice and full on the breath in. Exhale release, release the breath, not the pose. Just take the right leg, lift it up, okay.

Bend that right leg, open the hip and add some very deliberate big or small circles through that hip socket there, nice. You can reach the right leg up with it bent like you're going to step it back, but maybe don't step it back and tent up high on the right fingertips, right. Touch and open up that rib cage a bit, let's do the other side. Bring the right foot down, lift the left leg up, bend, circles, very nice. Up on the left fingertips, reach the left foot back as if you're going to address or come into that flip dog, good, back to downward dog.

Bring the knees down, one more child's pose, okay, let's keep moving, come into downward facing dog once again. So step the left foot toward the middle of the mat, lift the right leg high, okay, we already visited this space, we'll deepen it a little bit. So bend the right leg and step that right foot back behind you into a little flip dog pose, nice. You can keep both legs bent for now. Address the left shoulder right away, make sure you're good there, then press the hips nice and high and reach the right arm back behind you, good.

Now bring the seat down, this is just the first time we'll talk it through, seat down, keep torso up, pivot the knees to the side and drop the body over the inner right or inner left thigh for a little, what might feel like a little pigeon stretch, exhale. We'll come back up, set the left hand, bend the legs, press the hips high, reach up and back, that might be an inhale for you, exhale, seat down, pivot the hips, fold. So the torso rests on the inner left thigh, one more time, lift the torso, knees back up, set the shoulder, rise up, inhale, and bring it back down, pivot, fold. This one, extend the right leg back a little bit more, like reach back through the toes and reach through that right arm. So it's sort of like a, you know, on your left hip, big long stretchy pigeon pose.

Very nice, explore that a bit, bring it on back up, bend that back leg, one more time because it just might feel nice, reach up and back, inhale, and so set the hips almost down and start to wander back into that three-legged dog, right hand down and right leg up. Now plank pose, knee toward the right elbow on the inside, keep the hips square, belly nice and strong, inhale, bring it high, toward the nose this time, exhale, push the ground away, similar to cat pose, you have that really big open strong back, inhale, bring it high, this time step the right foot out toward the right pinky. Keep the back knee lifted, pause here, bend the right knee, kind of nice and deep, let the right knee travel over the toes a little bit there, straighten out the right leg, so a long pyramid pose, bend back into the lunge, straightening the right leg, addressing those hamstrings, very nice, back into the lunge, we'll add some nice rotation here, so bring the left hand out toward the front of the mat and the right arm high, so this big open twisted lunge, breathe in as you rise up, breathe out as you bring the right hand down and underneath that left arm, let that right hip kind of open up, inhale up and open and exhale down and through with the arm, one more, breathe in, breathe out, back to center, twist the left knee down, walk the right foot toward the right center of the mat, hands up on the right knee, low lunge, make sure your low back feels good, take eagle arms, right arm under the left, wiggle those right fingertips toward the left palm, feel the bind, get it set, set the gaze, you can lift the elbows up and away from the body, you might feel an upper back shoulder stretch, take the arms from side to side, always a good idea to explore, right, instead of just static, think movement, breath, good, release the arms, reach up nice and high, press the palms together, lift the heart up toward the high, little gentle back bend, now the hands come down as you exhale, curl the back toes and lift up into that three legged dog once again, and one more time move through that hip socket, circles, natural movements, perfect, dog pose, plank pose, inhale, exhale your way down, come all the way down, nice and smooth, inhale, cobra pose, maybe gentle up dog into down dog, breath in, breath out, set the right foot toward the center of the mat, lift the left leg high, open the hip, same series as the right leg, so start to begin to flirt with bringing that back foot back behind you, that left foot back behind you, you can keep both legs bent, let the seat come down for a moment as you set the right shoulder, strong right arm, now press up with the inhalation, hips up, left arm reaches up and back with the palm facing down, exhale down, pivot the knees, sorry my back is to you, exhale, fold over the inner right thigh, back up, right hand sets, knees bent, up and back, inhale, and exhale, one more time, lift up through the hips, reach the left arm up and back fully express the pose, bring it down, pigeon but this time maybe you reach the left arm, crawl out through those left fingertips and extend that left leg back, support yourself with the right arm if you need, just looking for that left side body to get fully extended, stretched, slowly exit, let's do one more of those reverse tabletop crab reach is what it's called, so many names for these different poses, okay, with control maybe slide the right foot back over toward the right side of the mat, downward dog with that left leg high, set the three-legged dog inhale, exhale left knee toward the left elbow, nice and strong there, inhale it up, exhale toward the nose, inhale it high and exhale toward the left pinky with the foot, great, okay, so it's that kind of like bend and straighten move with the left leg, you can graze that right knee down toward the mat as you bend deeply into the left knee, great for the ankle too, so don't be afraid to let that left knee track over the toes, straightening out that left leg as much as your hamstrings, right, they might be a little grumpy, they might be a little tight, so don't force it, just looking for just enough, just enough, okay, setting this nice wide runner's lunge, right hand out in front just a little bit to create some space, left arm reach it up, feel the chest start to open the ribcage turn, inhale, exhale left hand down and through, down and through meaning behind that right wrist and forearm, open that left hip, inhale bring it back up, nice flow down and through, inhale up and exhale down and through, good, low lunge back knee down, take the time necessary to get it set safely, send the hips forward, this time we'll take the left arm under the right, fingertips toward the right palm, super nice start to address that right hip scene over there, your breath is nice, fluid and spacious, release the arms, reach high with both arms, press the palms together, kind of like it feels like the full expression of the pose, right, heart lifting, ribcage kind of lifting and back bending a bit, pull the belly in to support the spine and the hands come down to the mat, downward dog, little clearing breath as we reset, downward dog is a great reset pose, little core action here, so let's come into plank, bring the left knee down for now, step the right foot toward the middle of the mat, so I'll face you here, set the left arm, now shoot that left leg back, so you're on the outer edge of the left foot, this left right leg is for some support, reach the right arm high, stay here or maybe drop safely the hips down and feel that left side body stretch, reach the right arm up and open as you lift your hips, two more, lower down, access the stretch, exhale lift up, lower down and lift back up, sweet plank pose, hold plank, we use this as a little reset, set it up on the other side, so what you could do is just turn onto the outer blade of the right foot, step the left foot toward that center of the mat, turning the toes open, lower the hips down as you inhale, exhale lift the hips, reach the left arm up and open, so big side body stretch on the left and full engagement on the right, lower down inhale and exhale up and open, one more time, lower it down and exhale up and open plank pose, downward dog, step the right foot to the right pinky, angle the foot preparing for squat, left foot left pinky, set the seat down, if it's easier for you or just feels better, you can narrow your stance and lift your heels, that's a super appropriate position, for this one here I'll go a little wider, drive the elbows into the inner thighs, try to lift the chest a bit there, maybe send the head from side to side, now here exhale, no rush, on your exhale lift your seat, point your toes forward, standing forward full, just enough again just to address the backside of the legs, pause here, breathe in, breathe out, sit down into your squat, super natural sort of like human movement right, to be able to squat, so wherever you are do your best, spend a little time there wandering, breathing, the breath really does help right, releasing some of that tension you may feel, so let's exhale into a forward fold, point the toes forward, let's even heel toe the feet toward like a hip width position, slide the fingers up toward the shins, flatten out the back a bit, engage the low belly muscles, breathe in and exhale fold, straightening out the right leg, bend the left leg, lift up into that half lift, bring the left fingertips out in front of the left foot, let's turn open to the right, so I'll say hello to you for a moment there, reach up open twist, gaze up toward that right hand if it doesn't bother your neck, we'll do the other side, bring the right hand down, bend the right leg, straighten the left, lengthen the spine and then start to turn through that mid torso rib cage, left arm rises high, I cannot look at you here, that would be wild if I could do that with my neck, but anyway, let's reach up and open, breathe in and bring it back down, full fold, rise up and roll up if you'd like, reach the arms up high, inhale, inhale and exhale the hands to your heart, so I'll switch so I can see you, alright, so let's take the arms up, take the right foot back behind the left, maybe quite a bit, like over to the side and then reach the right arm up, so we're looking for a side stretch, like a really nice long deep side stretch, you can take your left, naturally I'm just putting my hand on the chest, it kind of helps me to keep the core engaged, like not to get too flarey and backbendy, so you could push the left hand into the ribs, keep the core engaged, so then reach up and over with that right palm facing to your left, that helps with the shoulder a bit, good, back to center, switch it up, left foot back behind you, bend the right a bit, then the left arm rises, palm facing to the right, right hand to that rib cage again, just to bring that rib cage in, core stable, then safe to fly, beautiful, back to center, breathe in, reach the arms nice and high, exhale hands to heart, so we're gonna take it down to our seat, we're gonna do it through squat, let's see how that feels, so take the feet out to where you had it, kind of like outer edges of the mat, turn the toes open, breathe in, exhale sit low, low, low, low, and this is right around where I land, I'm not sure where you land, you're either a little higher or way low, pause, I'm gonna use my hands to drop the seat down, we're gonna do a little twist, left foot, actually let's take the left foot straight out in front of us, right foot, outer left thigh, whole right foot kind of palms down, take the left arm around, like hook it around that right shin, pull that right knee in toward the midsection, little pigeon stretch to that outer hip, active left leg, might point the toes up and back, then take that right hand back behind you, turn through the midsection, that torso ribcage again, and gaze over the right shoulder or keep the head neutral, so this might feel like a nice way to kind of rinse out that belly, mid body area, reset the spine, release slowly back to center, now here take the left heel toward the seat, right ankle over the left thigh, little double pigeon here, okay, so ankle over knee, knee over ankle pose, active right foot, maybe forward tilt of the pelvis, alright, now your knee might be up here, right, if it is, take your right hand on the inner right thigh and the left hand back behind you and just be gentle with it, if the knee goes down a ways, that is where it lands, breathe in, exhale, maybe even lean into it just a bit, maybe you kind of inhale away, exhale, lean back in, and exhale, exhale, alright, back on out, switch sides, take the right foot forward, left foot crosses over onto the outside of that right thigh, figure out the sit bones, right, your sitting bones want to be nice and grounded, wrap that right arm around the left knee and shin area, figure out where the belly is, pull the belly in, lengthen your spine, left hand back behind you and get a nice little twisty twist, find a comfortable place for your neck, it doesn't have to be fully to the left, maybe keep it moving, stay active in the breathing pattern you have, inhale, expand, exhale, gently contract, okay, slowly out, lean back just to kind of hug that right heel in, ankle over knee, knee over ankle, pelvis, little forward tilt, sit bones, grounded, breathe in, stay exactly where you are or breathe out, lean just a little bit, like lean into that resistance or sensation you might feel, might feel lovely, it might feel terrible, somewhere in between, breathe in away, breathe out, lean, breathe in, let's do one more, breathe out, lean gently, just like exploring that feeling, right, lean back out, hands back behind, open up the hips a bit, so if you take your feet hip width but wider, fingertips pointing back, roll the chest open so you get a little chest opening shoulder stretch, now windshield wiper the knees over to the left and when they go to the left pull your right shoulder back just to add a little extra love to that stretch, so you pull the right shoulder back and roll the right hip forward, okay, try the other side, knees to the right, left shoulder, pull it back and roll that right hip forward to add a little something there, right, is there, okay, back to center, palms of the feet together, one breath here, that's all we get so let's make it really nice, breathe in, breathe out, stay or lean, forever exhale, forever exhale, exhale, exhale, exhale, nice, bring it on back up, I'm going to spin around and we're going to take a moment to lie down, so lie down on your back with the bottoms of your feet together if you like that baddha klanasana, round angle or straighten out the legs and just take the short little relaxation to allow the body to completely relax, let go of all muscular effort, let the breath start to resume its natural nature, natural rhythms, let go of any idea of what this should be, should I set an intention, what's next, what's next, how about just breathe in and let's relax together for a few moments, breathe in and breathe out, relax your eyes and all those facial muscles, your jaw. Stretch the arms overhead, reach through the fingers, the toes, arch the back a little bit or a lot, hug the knees in, give yourself a nice warm embrace, rock to sit, turn say hello to you, take the arms overhead as a sort of gesture of closing, arms overhead, inhale, exhale hands to that sweet space, that nice beautiful heart, maybe even close the eyes, give yourself thanks for showing up and we can end with namaste, see you next time.

Comments

Pia A
4 people like this.
Hi Robert
I am from Switzerland. This is a very nice practise. I like it because it has not the usually poses.  I feel me stretchy after it.  Very good explanations. Thank you very much.
Christel B
4 people like this.
So nice to see you back on Yogaanytime with your creative sessions. For one I enjoyed the stretched out elongated pigeon pose.
Sandra Židan
Thanks, Robert, for this nice and calming practice! Namaste! 💜🌞🌼
Michelle F
4 people like this.
Hola Rob!
Great to be practicing with you again- really enjoyed these first two sessions - reaching wee spaces that have been abandoned lately - feeling like something is moving again!
Have a beautiful day!
loveandpeacexxxx
Robert Sidoti
Pia A Hello and thank you for your comment! I'm so happy it felt good and stretchy for you - sending a big hug to you in Switzerland! 
Robert Sidoti
Christel B  Super happy to be back!! Stretchy long pigeon is one of my faves - nice to practice with you again :))
Robert Sidoti
Sandra Židan Nice to see you again, it's been awhile!! So happy you're here! 
Robert Sidoti
Michelle F Hey there, nice to 'see' you!! Love that about yoga - it reaches all the neglected or hard to get to spaces in our bodies - glad I assisted in you finding some! Love and peace back to you :)) 
Lina S
1 person likes this.
A feel good practice!
Catherine R
Great practice for a hot and lazy summer morning!  The orange grove is magical. 
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