Keepin' it Real Artwork
Season 5 - Episode 6

Core Mobility Flow

35 min - Practice
49 likes

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Get your core working in this activating mobility class that uses traditional vinyasa poses to stretch, stabilize, and strengthen the whole body. You will feel energized and accomplished.
What You'll Need: No props needed

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Hey there. How you doing? Welcome. So this is a core mobility class. All right, mixed with some vinyasa, like your traditional vinyasa movements, but think core and mobility and some stability and strength. All right, we'll take our time, we'll feel our way through it. Definitely enjoy yourself. Smile a little bit. It's all good. All right, so downward dog to begin start kind of active. So downward dog. And maybe unless it's really necessary, I won't give like a ton of detailed cues. That way you can kind of like, you know, enjoy some space without hearing me just jammer on. So downward dog, you know, all the typical cues, right, get grounded in the fingers, the palms, some energy through the arms into the shoulders, loosen up the neck, soft bend, or even like a really deep, generous bend in the knees, you know, feel out where your knees are right now. And work towards straightening the legs a bit. Tap into your breath. Asked often, I don't know why, but what would be one pose that I could do or that I would do if I could only do one pose, and it would be downward dog, I won't get into the reasons that you might you probably feel them right now. Okay, another couple breaths as you're starting to feel a little heat in the shoulders. Keep grounding and grounding and lifting through the seat. Keep your feet where they are. Start to walk your hands back towards your feet. We'll find forward fold. Get an adjustment here. Half lift for the first half lift, go up halfway, but drive the heels of your palms into the hip creases, bent knees, flat back, push like you're pushing this whole structure of your pelvis and hips back, lengthen your spine, breathe in on the breath out, fold forward and let it all go. But when I say let it go, it doesn't mean like lazy still active through the feet, screw your feet down. Walk your feet out toward the edge of the mat, you can lift your heels if you'd like. We're going to sit down into a little squat pose. This is all building into a little flow will do two or three times. But in the beginning, we got to kind of like earn our way into it. So squat with the feet wide toes out, hips down and work on this long spine. So try not to round too far forward. Okay, now bring the hands out in front of you, your knees are going to come down to the mat. Bring the feet in line with the knees and press the hips up, camel reach. So reach the right hand back toward the right heel, lift the left arm high, feel that full front body opening while feeling strong and stable through the backside of the body. And we'll switch left hand down to the left heel, push the hips up, reach the right arm. Beautiful. This is an optional add on untuck the toes. This has been a game changer for me and my knees. And there's the overall strength. Bring your arms alongside your body, make a little fist, strong arms, strong back, strong core, and lean back a little bit, lean back, not a backbend, lean back as one little unit, I won't go back too far. And then lift back up, you're going to feel that in the tops or the fronts of the thighs quite a bit. Inhale lower, strong, strong, strong. Exhale back up one more. And I invite you to do these on your own another time. And just notice whatever you notice a strengthening. Okay, now the hands come back down, curl the toes, squat, forward fold, half lift, breathe in, breathe out fold. Rise up, inhale. Exhale forward fold. Half lift inhale. Exhale squat, toes out, maybe a little lean left, lean right, squat long enough to feel it like you've actually been here. Then the hands come out, the knees come down, camel reach. Oh, lift up and back with the left arm. Lift up and back with the right using the opposing hand to kind of like, you know, secure you. And then maybe take that left arm up again, lean back a little bit more, maybe touch the ground. Big stretch and stabilizing through the tops of the thighs. Right arm high, lean the left hand back, reach up. Perfect. Back into your squat. So hands down, toes are curled already, right if they're not do that. Push back and land squat, forward fold. Half lift, inhale. Fold, exhale. Rise up, breathe in. Breathe out again. Last one, fold down. Half lift, inhale. Exhale squat. Hands down, camel reaches, push up, maybe lean back or to the heel. So this is like stretch and stabilizing move. Super good. Hands back down, revisit your final squat here. This time, keep your heels up, toes a little wide and your feet are a little closer together. Reach the hands forward, push the seat back. Forward fold, exhale. Ah, nice. Walk back out into dog pose. Land. Breathe. Tabletop, knees to the mat. Inhale, cow pose, arch the spine. Get some mobility in the spine here. Exhale. So here you go, right? Core mobility. That's what I said. So push the ground away, flex the spine, but then pull that belly up and in, maybe even lift the pelvic floor slightly and then inhale, cow pose. Exhale, cat. Inhale, neutral. Perfect. And we're going to try a little fun, fun movement play here. Okay. You're going to lift your knees from table, spin your heels or pivot your heels over to the left, post up on the left arm, ground your right foot and shoot for this one. Let the left, the outer edge of your left foot go to the mat or keep it lifted and then pull the opposing. In this case, your right arm, pull it back, lift the hips. Other side, bend, pivot, place, pivot to the right, post up on the right, pull the left elbow back as you shoot that right leg through. Nice. Stay low to the ground. Other side, left leg through, pull the right elbow back. Other side. Inhale as you come through center. Exhale. Exhale. So fun. Have a little fun with it. Put it on pause and work on it if you want to kind of like get it right and then revisit. I do that all the time when I watch videos. How about two more on each side? This definitely gets the heat going over to the right. Pull back through that left arm. Extend through that right leg. Left leg. Yes. One more time. Right little dance. One time left. And then back to table. Okay. We take a pause here. If you need to take care of the risks, a great one would be to turn the hand over because we have a little more work to do here. So you can again pause the video if you'd like. Take a little time to work on your wrists. You can even sit back and like kind of go like so. Roll them around. Okay. There's no rush. You don't have to fight through anything unnecessarily. But let's resume. Okay. So now we're going to add on to that cool little move we did. Curl the toes, lift the knees.

That right there is enough work. So let's come back over to the right. Shoot the left leg through, but this time let it ground. Drive through that right heel. Push the hips up and reach the right arm overhead. So strength and stability here. Lower down. Other side. Boom. Press up. Lower back to neutral. Other side. Left leg comes through. Push through the right heel. Push up. Palm facing down. Good. One more to the left. Or you can do 30 more if you'd like. Oh, nice. Lower back to your table. Knees down. Right hand behind the head. Inhale your right elbow high to the sky. Try to keep your hips level. You're working on the upper portion of your spine here. Inhale. Open up a little bit more. Exhale the right elbow down toward the left forearm. Inhale up. Exhale down. Inhale up. Exhale down. Two more. And exhale. Last one. Exhale. Bring it back up all the way. Extending or expanding that right arm high. And bring it back down. Good. Left side. Left hand behind the head. Lengthen the spine. Inhale the left arm high. Exhale left elbow down toward the right forearm. So round that upper back out. Inhale up. Exhale down. Two of five. Inhale up. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale up up up. Rotate. Exhale. One more time. Bring the elbow up and then extend the whole left arm high. Open up there. And exhale left hand down. Good. Let's get off the wrists now. Forearms. Dolphin. Curl the toes and lift the seat high. Good. Come into a forearm plank. You might have to slide your feet back a little bit for your shoulders to go over the elbows. Okay. Now back into dolphin. Forearm plank. It's okay if the shoulders go a little farther. In fact, if they do, just make sure you know they're safe and healthy. It's actually probably going to build strength if you let them come a little bit farther forward. Downward dolphin pose. Forearm plank. Now forearm side plank on the left side. Just keep it simple. Pivot your feet over to the left. Lift the hips. Right arm high. Switch sides. Just weave the right arm right underneath.

Safe. Replace right. From left and lift. Pivoting the heels to the right. Forearm plank. Now you're going to hold forearm plank and send the hips over to the left. Kind of dipping the hips left. Dipping the hips right. To the left. To the right. To the left. And to the right. Perfect. From your forearm plank, bring your knees, your hips, your belly down. Sphinx pose.

Okay. We're going to lower all the way down. Work on some scorpion moves here. So lower. And start with the left arm. Reach the left arm all the way out, palm facing down. If you need to lift the palm up, do so. Use your right hand to roll yourself over onto your left hip. What you're going to do is bring your right foot back behind your left leg and that's going to open up the hip as well as your left shoulder. I'm going to try the other side. Roll out. Extend the right arm out. Now maybe you can see better if you're a little confused. Just left leg lifts, foot behind the right leg, knee up toward the ceiling.

I'm going to come out and do this side again, the same side, but we're going to change it up. What you're going to do is bend your right arm. It's going to be a lot different. You're probably not going to be able to go as far, but that's fine. Now roll over. Keep walking that oboe over. Bring the left foot back behind if you can, or bend your knees like so, because it can feel pretty intense. More like in the chest muscle area. What a really nice way to open. All right, let's see what it feels like on the other side. It may feel totally different. Better or worse. Okay, bend the left arm 90 degrees. Keep sliding the elbow over. Use your right hand to gently like, oh, there it is. There's that feeling. Right foot behind the leg or bend your legs like so and try to rest your head down somewhere.

Sit with the stretch. Okay, slowly back out. Let's see. Maybe we can access locust pose. Now reach your arms back, clasp your hands. Good. Spend as much time as you need there to kind of like get it, access it, grab a towel if you need or a t-shirt and begin to lift the chest up off of the mat. And then maybe let's let's lean to the left and pull the right shoulder open. And then we'll go to the right side and pull the left shoulder open. Kind of fight the rounded iPhone shoulders. Good. Back to neutral and relax that.

Let's bring the hands alongside the body prepping for a cobra. Inhale. Inhale. Exhale. Downward dog. Great work so far. Still have some more fun to explore. Pause here for now. Wander around dog pose. Okay, let's continue to move through our bodies and this practice. Left leg lifts. Inhale. Little bit of work here. Left knee outside of the left elbow.

Inhale. Bring it up down the center line. Exhale. Inhale. Let's cross it over toward the right elbow. Inhale it back up. Exhale. Step to the front. Good. Once you land there, rise up. High crescent lunge. Perfect. Rocket lunge. Extend. Super fierce through that right heel. Long through the spine. Now bring the hands to the heart. You can shorten your stance a tiny bit but what I want you to do is bend that right knee down a little bit like you're going to touch it. So that means you're going to bend the left leg a little bit more but then straighten all the way up. But keep your body lengthened and leaning forward. So it looks a little like that. It's not like a full split lunge but it definitely works that left leg. And it's okay if your left knee is going a little bit farther forward than your ankle. Just be mindful of it. How about two more? Breathe in lower.

Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. Now bend. Prayer twist. Left elbow or right elbow crosses over the left thigh. Wiggle it. Wiggle it. Palms together. Three breaths. Left leg cooking. Don't overdo it. Perfect. Keep your focus. Straighten out that left leg a little bit. Shorten the stance just a bit. You're going to bring that right leg up to balance on that left leg. Okay. Once you get this position here, lift the right knee as high as you can. Use your hip flexors for that. Take your left hand to your right thigh. Let's open the right arm wide. So a little twist.

Go ahead and straighten your right leg if you'd like. I'm going to keep mine bent. We're going to move into tree pose. Back to center. Right foot. I like to keep it down by the calf. Call me crazy, but that's what I like to do. Push the foot into the leg, leg into the foot, hands and heart, arms overhead, or maybe switch it up just a little bit and bring the right hand down to the top of your right thigh and take a little side bend to the right. Just a little variation to mess with you a tiny bit. Mess with myself. Okay, good. Now standing pigeon, release the right foot. Right foot on top of the left thigh. Flex that right foot and ankle. Open the hip. Push the seat back. Maybe the hands rest at the heart.

Warrior three as a transition pose. Left leg. Left leg. Say hello to my little friend. Warrior three. Step back. High lunge. Oh boy, good work. Now from here, you've got your high lunge. Let's take that psoas stretch. Hip flexor. Reach up. Side bend left. Beautiful. Back to center. You're amazing. Hands down. Downward dog. Big breath. Left leg. Shake it out a little bit. Good work. Thank you, leg. Plank pose. Inhale. Let's do a little transition here. Lower down. Exhale. Back bend. Inhale. And downward dog.

Exhale. Time to work. Prepare that right leg. Lift. Inhale. Exhale right knee toward the right elbow. Maybe out wide. Inhale it back up. Down the midline. Exhale. Enjoy the ride. Right knee, left elbow. Inhale it back up. Step it up. Land, ground, root, to rise. Perfect. All right. Let's get prepared. Rocket lunge. Bring the hands to the heart. Just like we did before. Lower down just a bit, right? It's just like kind of deepening this right leg bend and then lift to straighten it. We'll do five. I think we did five or six on the other side. It's okay to let the knee go forward. Just be mindful, right? It's okay to work on that ankle. Let's do two more. Nice. Now the prayer twist. You can do an open arm twist if you'd rather or hook the elbow across. Hold it tight. Palms together. Rotate. Open the chest a bit. Fierce through the left heel. Strong left leg.

Exiting. Back to neutral. Take a pause. Straighten the front leg. Prepare for the balance. You're going to drive that left leg forward and up. Get a little wavy, right? Left knee lifts. You're using your hip flexors there. That's a good thing. Right hand on the left thigh. Find your gaze. It might even shift as you open the left arm. Twisting.

Twisting. Breathing. Perfect tree pose. Not perfect. My perfect tree pose. Just perfect. Now tree pose. Okay, I have to focus here. Palms to heart. Foot to leg. Not the knee. Above or below the knee. Option. Left hand on the left thigh. Right arm high. Side bend a little bit to the left.

Back to neutral. Lift the left leg up. Bend the right leg a little bit. Oh, that's okay. Let's start. Left ankle on top of the right thigh. Standing pigeon. Palms to the heart. Sometimes like try this. Arms out in front of you. Push the hips back, back, back. Nice. Now bring the palms to the heart. Now transition to warrior three. Fully extend that back leg. Strong left heel. Right leg's definitely speaking to you by now. Step back. High lunge. Breathe in. Little psoas stretch. Left side. Reach up. Lean to the right.

Back to center. Inhale. Exhale. Hands to the mat. Downward facing dog. Thank you. Right leg. We didn't forget about you. Plank pose. Inhale. Exhale. Lower down. Halfway or all the way. Upward dog. Inhale. Always nice to throw that upper body strength in. Downward dog. We will revisit our little flow from the beginning. Walk your hands back to the back of the mat. Forward fold. Half lift. Inhale. Inhale. Folding exhale. Heel toe your feet out toward the edge of the mat.

Maybe even like heels on the mat toes off as a general cue. Seat down. Maybe it feels different now. Maybe you've opened up. You move some like stickiness away, right? Left side. Right side. On to the knees, right? So hands out. Place the knees down nice and soft. Press up. And as you're pressing up, you're drawing the tailbone down. You're kind of setting that pelvis, this whole area here, to safely reach up and back. Ah, easily my favorite daily, daily move.

Full camel. Grab hold of those heels. Push the hips. Pull on the heels. Pull the shoulders back. Feel the opening across the chest. Breath in. Breath out to center. Kick the feet out wide. Hands to the ground. Squat. Heels to the mat if you can. Left hand down and over to the side a bit. Rotate and reach up. Inhale, reach. Try the other side. Left arm reaching. Beautiful. Forward fold. Exhale.

Half lift. Left fingertips onto the mat. Straighten your right leg. Lengthen the spine. Another rotation. Another opportunity for me to say hi. And I mean that. Hello. Good work. I see you there. Bend the right leg straight in the left and twist and turn. Bring it down. Forward fold. Heels in. Heels up. Sit low. Squatty squat. Good. This one I want you to try to walk the hands forward almost like a squat child's pose. Push the hips back. I told you this was a mobility and core flow. I hope that has felt like that up till now. Working on our hips, our spine, our shoulders. Good. On to the hands and knees. Into child's pose.

Stretch the arms forward. I'm going to stack my fists for this one. Rest the forehead on the top fist. Then I'm going to wander a little side to side in the hips. Maybe that will feel good for you too. A nice option also is for you to bring your arms alongside your body, reaching back to your outer foot or ankle. Wiggle your chest and belly down inside your thighs if that's available. Then the forehead down to the mat. Another option while we're here. Knees wide. Reach your hands back in between your thighs, back towards your feet, palms facing up. Then the shoulders and the forehead can land on the mat. Begin to exit out of there. Good job. Sit in kneeling for a moment if your knees allow. Close your eyes and just take a moment to soak it in, to feel it.

Be present in whatever sensations, whatever energy is moved through the body. If kneeling is okay, stay here. Just a gentle little twist to the left. A little twist to the right. A little side bend, right arm reaching up and over. Left arm reaching up and over. To move freely in your body, to feel strong and capable.

Take your, I'll even turn around so you can see this because it feels pretty nice. Right hand to the left side of your waist. Left hand grabs hold of the fingers. Pull that right hand and arm over a little bit more and as you do, set the left shoulder or the left ear down toward the left shoulder. Lift your head a bit, turn it a little bit. Notice where you might feel how everything is connected. In the throat, the ear, up even into like the face and jaw bone.

Try the other side, just change the grip. Pull it over, soften the shoulders down. Take the head over to the right, tip the head back, move the jaw around. Move the jaw around. Release back to center. Okay, take a final pose, we'll thread the needle. So hands out in front of you.

From tabletop, you can also do this from a child's or sort of in between. Left arm reaches underneath. Right arm extends up. Switch sides. Feel free to stay a little longer if you found a sweet spot. Thread the needle, right arm under the left. Okay, final relaxation.

We've done enough for now. So here you go. Roll on down. Roll on down. Let's stretch out the legs. And after all of that movement and engagement, see if you can do the total opposite. Relax your entire body as a real sort of treat and gift for the work you've put in. Just like how everything is sort of like compliments or complimentary to one another. Effort. And now your ease, your release. Okay, I would definitely stay here a lot longer. So feel free if you'd like to. But they must move on. Stretch it out. Arms overhead, legs long. Almost like it's a brand new day, right? I don't know what time of day it is for you, but it almost doesn't matter. All right. So thanks for joining me for one of my favorite types of practice and movements. I truly believe in this kind of movement. So again, thank you, thank you, thank you. Have a beautiful day, night. See you next time. Namaste.

Comments

Shawn
4 people like this.
Robert! I LOVED this practice. So many fun sequences, and very powerful. I feel strong and stretched and energized for my day beginning here in Berlin. I appreciate your guidance, each and every time, but this one is my absolute favorite practice with you to date. Best~~
Lea M
4 people like this.
Amazing class!  I couldn't do all of the poses, but I will try again. Thank you, Robert!
Matthew
4 people like this.
great stuff - many thanks. :)
Matilda P
4 people like this.
as always Robert Sidoti - amazing. You are my absolutely favourite teacher. I love your classes, I love your style of guidenance, and I love your sequencing of asanas. 
Ingunn
4 people like this.
Great class!! I felt so strong and capable when I did this routine - and it was fun, too - I really needed this today
Lina S
4 people like this.
Fun sequence with the squat and camel pose. Nice balance and strength sequence (rocket lunge, tree, warrior 3). A nice energizing flow. Thank you.
David G-
4 people like this.
Tree pose: thanks for sharing that. I feel the same way with foot placement. I decided to go faster with the animal moves. Thanks for getting me out of balance and for a few laughs too. Looking forward to rocking out more practices with you. Hard to pick a favorite pose, but downward dog is so cleansing and focusing. Namaste 
Robert Sidoti
Hello Shawn !!! Wowza, what a great comment and feedback - thank you! I am so happy it felt this good for you - especially after the practices you've done with me - it's great how we can still continue to grow and evolve as students/teachers and humans :))  Sending big hugs from the states to you in Berlin!! 
Robert Sidoti
Hey there Lea M !! Thanks for the comment! Let me know how your progress goes - would love to know if you can do some of the poses with more practice :)) 
Robert Sidoti
Many many thanks to you Matthew !! Always nice to 'see' you here! 
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