Lengthen and Stabilize

Hey, everyone. Welcome to day three of our 10 day challenge. Alright, for today's sequence, we're going to use a block for like the first section, we're not going to go too crazy with it, but just have this nearby as we begin. And when you're ready, we're going to start on our back. Okay. So as you lay flat down, just join me in bada khanasana, bottoms of the feet together, let the knees open up, and the hands can rest on the body. Alright, your choice, if you want to let both hands kind of rest in the same spot, the belly is a good option. You could also take the hands to the heart. We can do both if that feels a little more just spread out as far as just energy and awareness goes. And just take a moment. See if you can feel the weight of the legs opening up the insides of the hips. And then just let that ground your attention and focus for a moment. So wherever you're coming from, or whatever you've been just dealing with before you tap into the body and practice today, let those sensations of the legs just ground your mind. Alright, take a deep inhale here. Nice, smooth exhale. Do that one more time to get deep in him. And let the exhale just relax the legs a little more down the middle. Alright, from here you're going to slowly draw the knees in. And you just take the feet a little wider onto the mat. Alright, so beginning with the right leg, I want you to just stretch your right leg straight towards the ceiling. And then bend your knee, cross the ankle on top of your left leg and then draw both legs up towards the chest. Right hand, I want you to swing between both legs and at least the fingers on the top of that left leg. So once you've got that grip, soften the head, soften the upper body a little bit more. And then just take all your awareness of that feeling in the right leg. And then feel it for a moment. We're stretching that right leg, but we're going to make this a little more active. So feel that you can press the top leg down and into the bottom leg. And with the bottom leg in your hands, just pull back up like you're trying to resist that effort for a moment. Good. Keep that and then just let that sensation just take up all the space in your mind for a bit. Good. Alright, take a nice inhale to breathe here. Good. And then as you exhale, just slowly bring the legs back down to the mat, unravel, take that right foot down. Okay, let that register. If it feels nice, you can take a little sway through the legs as well. Alright, so in your next breath, stretch your left leg up towards the ceiling. Right and then same thing we did on the other side, you're going to cross your ankle on top of the knee and then draw both legs up towards the chest. Left arm in between the legs and you're going to interlace on top of that right knee one more time. Good. Okay, and then once you got that grip, let everything else just relax around that. Okay. And again, instead of this being like a super passive stretch, engage a bit. So that top leg again is working down into the bottom leg. And then with the bottom leg and hands is as if you don't want that top leg to win, right? Pull up. Right. And again, that little bit of engagement, just let that be at the center of your mind and just keep that focus as you breathe. Nice.

Okay. Take another big inhale here. And then as you exhale, unravel legs to the mat one more time. Good. Alright. And then real quick, before we get up, I want you to grab that block that I asked you to have at the start of class. And then just simply take that block, you don't have to set it to any specific setting, but if you can just have the thin part to the sides, alright, whether you want to choose to like flip it horizontally or vertically your call. Alright, but the thinnest part on the sides and then just bring this in between both legs. Okay. And you're feeling for a moment that you can squeeze the block in between both legs just to engage those muscles on the inside of it. Focus on that feeling for a bit. And again, not to go too crazy, but just again, take the awareness to the legs and bring the mind a little deeper, feeling that from the inside out. Okay, do that one more time. Inhale, squeeze. Exhale, take the feet down. You can let that go. Relax. Okay, take a moment, let it settle. Alright, and you're going to transition into down dog on the mat when you're ready. Nice. Alright, so again, just taking a moment in your down dog just to kind of move things around. Okay, especially if this is like first down dog of the day. I don't know how many, how many yoga practices y'all did already, but take a moment. Alright, simple movements just to get into the legs again, heels, press, moving through the knees and especially just to work through the hips. You might turn the hips a little to the left and right just to bring some awareness there. Nice. Alright, and when you're ready, bend your knees, look forward in between both hands. You're going to slowly step to the top of the mat and to your forward fold and just take a moment to hang heavy. Nice, y'all. Okay, and then feeling for a moment in your half-lift that you can release everything. Okay, so all the parts of your body where you feel like there's a little extra effort, there's some excess. Take a moment to release. Alright, let the neck be heavy. You can remind yourself to shake the head a little yes and no to feel that. Right, upper body, if it feels good to move across the back, you can lengthen that out and just let that be heavy as well. Alright, big bends in the knees if it feels nice to move into the legs, but again, just anything to help you create a little bit of space and release intention. Okay, and from here, you're going to inhale in the half-lift. Alright, and then pause it for a moment, hand you the rest at the thighs of your calves, and then feel even here in half-lift that you can take the focus of the feet just so we can help the legs turn on a bit more. Okay, so pressing down through both the feet, create the effort as if you're trying to pull your feet away from each other. Okay, so doing that, you fire up the outer hips a little bit more. I want you to feel that as best as you can. And then lift the heart up with that effort. Good. Okay, keep that. Take a deep inhale, belly in a bit. And then as you exhale, fold and let go of that work. Good y'all. Alright, next inhale, you're going to stand all the way up, deep stretch through the arms and hands. Nice. As you exhale, let the hands relax to the sides of your body. Okay, pause it for a moment to pull your attention back to breath. Take a deep inhale in. Nice deep exhale out. Let it go. Do that one more time. Try to inhale as big as you can. And as you exhale, release the shoulders, release the body if there's any extra effort. Okay, keeping that awareness on the breath, just moving through salutations. As you inhale, arms forward and up. Nice. As you exhale, take the body forward and down over the legs. Let that soften one more time.

Good. As you inhale, half lift, press the feet down and pull them apart a bit. Good. As you exhale, fold, let go of the work. Good. As you inhale, stand all the way up, stretch the arms towards the ceiling. Good. As you exhale, let the hands come down by your sides. Alright, do that one more time. Keep the breath. Inhale, big arms, big arms, big breath. Unless they're big, you do your thing. Exhale, forward fold, let them go and relax. Nice. As you inhale, half lift, press the feet and pull. Nice. As you exhale, soften every little bit of effort. Good. Alright, one more time. Slow rise to the top. Take as much time as you need. Exhale, hands to the sides of the body. Alright, last one. Maybe you close your eyes just to come into the body a little more. Inhale, arms up. Good. As you exhale, feel the release throughout the body, that letting go kind of effort, right? Inhale, half lift, feel the feet, feel the outer hips and legs work. Good. As you exhale, soften. We release the effort, right? Come back to that rest. Good. One more time. Inhale, stand all the way up. Find that breath to lift. Exhale, let the hands relax to your sides. Good. Okay. So keeping that same pace, you're going to move through one sun A, but just pace and rhythm with our body. Okay. Last one. Inhale, arms forward and up. Good. As you exhale, soften and release. Fold. Good. Inhale, half lift, press the feet. Notice the hip work. Good. Exhale, hands on the mat. Step both feet back. We pause plank. Okay. It's the same idea here. If you want to come down to the knees, you're welcome to support yourself with any support you need, right? If you can keep the work through the legs, straighten that out, push the floor away and round a bit through upper back. Good. Take a deep inhale. Exhale, come down halfway. Nice. And you're going to up dog. Inhale, lift over the toes, lift the heart forward and up. And as you exhale, down dog, tuck your toes, hips lift behind you. Good. Okay. So feeling for a moment, right? Balls of your feet are pressing to the mat, spreading that effort throughout the toes. Okay. And it's similar to what you did in that half lift. I want you to press your feet into the floor and then pull your feet away from each other. So the outer hips work in your down dog the same way they worked in that half lift. Okay. Feel for that for a moment. Nice. Okay. Next exhale, bend the knees, look forward. All right. And then slowly walk a hop in between both hands, come into a fold at the top of your mat. Nice y'all. Inhale for half lift. Exhale to soften and fold. Good. Inhale to stand all the way up. Take as much time as you need. Good. As you exhale, let the hands relax by your sides. Okay. Try to keep that rhythm as best as you can. We take one more. All right. Inhale, arms forward and up. Good. As you exhale, soften, release the work. Good. Inhale, half lift, press the feet down. There you go. Good.

Exhale, hands on the mat. Step both feet back and you're going to take the floor. That feels good. So if you want to come halfway down, good. Up dog is fine. Right. If you want to take any variation, Cobra, locust pose, anything like that to facilitate that flow and back bend, you feel free. You could also skip. Okay. Anything that helps you kind of come back to the breath is my big agenda. So allow yourself to just find your way back, even if that means pausing for a bit. Okay. And then breathe. Soften through the shoulders. You can continue that work through the feet. You can continue to pull the feet away and just let those outer hips help you a bit in your down dog. That's so good. Y'all good. Okay. So from here, inhale, right leg up and back. And then as you exhale, step right foot forward in between the hands. You're going to set up warrior one, back heel down, right? Arms over the head. All right. Supposing for a moment. Okay. Feeling traditional warrior one feet are set up the way they are. Try to soften your shoulders and just ground for a bit. Nice. All right. And from here, draw the hands to the heart. You're going to straighten out the front leg for a moment. All right. And that front foot, I just want you to heel toe all the way over to the right. So we're making warrior one, we're just taking like a wider than traditional setup. Okay. And then focusing on that back leg a little bit more. I want you to press a bit through that outer arch, so much so that the inner arch might lift a bit, but feel as if as you ground down, you're creating that effort of pulling your foot forward on the mat. Okay. So now you're engaging a little bit of that back leg inside. Keep that bend back into your warrior one. Okay. Arms over the head. If arms are a lot today, I won't stress you. Hands to the heart. But if you got it, go for it. Okay. And maybe here you close your eyes. Okay. And instead of letting your mind just jump around from thing to thing, thought to thought, you focus all your awareness, back leg and work. All right. Ground through that foot, engage that inner leg, take a deep inhaling reach. Nice. As you exhale, take the hands to the mat, step back for your down dog. All right. Full flow. If you're going for it, inhale, chest forward, exhale halfway down. All right. Inhale over the toes, lift through the heart. Exhale downward dog. That's good y'all. Okay. So just keeping that rhythm. Same thing on the left side. Inhale, left leg up. Nice. Exhale, step forward in between the hands. Traditional warrior one, back heel down, hands at the heart to set up. Okay. Feeling for a moment. Just ground again. Maybe eyes closed for a moment just to feel that you're where you are for a bit. Good. Okay. And from here, straighten out the front leg, front foot, heel toe, heel toe, heel toe.

Good. All right. And then the same idea. Grounding through that back foot, give that little lift on the inside. And again, instead of pulling apart, you're pulling forward towards the top of the mat. So the back of that leg, excuse me, so the inside of that leg works. Okay. Bend into your front knee and then arms over the head. Nice. Okay. So again, if it felt good to close your eyes, feel free. Okay. But allowing yourself to just continue to engage in that back foot and then work in that back leg forward, squeeze the thigh. Right. Let that sensation just take your focus. Stay right here in that leg and hip. Okay. And when you're ready, inhale, arms up, baby back. Your choice. Good. Exhale, hands down to the mat. Down dog, we step back. All right. Full flow, your pause, your choice. You know you got options. Okay. Meet back in down dog whenever you make it. Good. Right. And then one more time in down dog, press the balls of your feet into the mat. You might spread the toes a little bit. And again, you're just working the feet away from each other. So your outer hips help in your down dog. There you go. Okay. Okay. From here, bend your knees, look forward. All right. Slowly walk our hop to the top. Take your time. Nice. As you inhale, half lift. Exhale to soften and fold. Good. Inhale, stand all the way up. Exhale. Tada. Small mountain. Good. All right. Pause in for a breath. Just take a big inhaling.

And as you exhale, soften anything unnecessary. Nice. So as you arrive at the top of the mat, I just want you to take the feet a little wider on the mat. So maybe about hip swift is fine. Okay. And in the same idea, before we sit down and back in the chair, press down into the feet. Same thing we did in half lift and then create that effort again of just pulling the feet away from each other. Okay. Keep that effort. Hands to the heart. Chair pose. Okay. Everybody's favorite pose, right? So from here, emphasize that feeling a little bit more. Okay. So you might even ground the inner arches of your feet, similar to what we did on like day one, where you're pressing down through the points of the base of the big toe, but feel that same effort of pulling feet away from each other. So again, outer hips are helping you not just in half lift, not just in down dog, but now in chair. Okay. Heartless, forward and up. And a good choice. If you want the arms by your head, feel free to stretch and reach. If you want to close your eyes, that might take you a little deeper into your body as well. Okay. Sit a little bit lower for three. Good. Chest a little higher. Good. I'll take a deep inhale. Exhale, fold forward. Let it all go. Good. All right. Feel for a moment that you could actually practice the pause, right? Like there's some space for you to actually feel a release and you can let go. Nice. Okay. When you're ready, back in the rhythm, inhale for half lift. Nice. Exhale, hands to the mat. Step both feet back and then moving yourself through a flow. Take what you need. Good y'all. All right. Smooth through the breath.

All right. If it helps to come back to the feet, which is my like go-to place, especially when I do this sequence, feel the balls of your feet spread. Feel the work through the base of your body, the foundation and allowing that to kind of carry through the hips and outer legs. Nice. Okay. Take a deep inhale, right leg up and back. Good. As you exhale, step forward in between the hands, back heel down, warrior one with that wide set up from earlier. So if you can, you can just heel toe. Good. And the hands come up to the heart. Okay. Feeling for a moment that we're still working the legs the same way. So grounding through that outer arch a little bit and just feeling that work of pulling to the top of the mat, squeeze that inner leg. Okay. Keep that. You're going to inhale, stretch to the ceiling. And as you exhale, take the left hand to the mat on the inside of that front foot, right arm towards the ceiling. If you feel you need a block, feel free grab and support. But again, if this is possible, I don't want you to rest on your hand, right? Feel that you can press through that front foot so much so that that thigh and hip has to work that you can get lighter on the bottom. Yeah. Like you can take it off the mat completely if that feels better. Okay. Keep turning the heart up towards the ceiling and then press that front leg. Take a deep inhale, stretch over. Good. Exhale, right hand on the mat, down dog. We step back. That's super good. Y'all inhale, chest forward. Exhale, halfway down. Right up dog. We inhale over the toes, lift the heart up and back. Exhale, down dog. Good. All right. Stand consistent with the breath. Feel your feet, ground your mind. Nice. Okay. Inhale, left leg up. Exhale, step to the top of the mat. Wide leg set up with that warrior one. Same idea. It's just heel toe. I love saying heel toe. I don't know what it is. All right. From here, warrior one. Okay. So your choice. Like I start here, hands on the heart because this is acceptable, right? We're focusing on hips more than anything. But if you feel like you're used to this and this is where you want to go, not taking that away. Okay. Feel the same work. Press through the back foot, squeeze into the top of the mat. Okay. And as you inhale, stretch up. Good. Exhale, take the right hand to the mat and you're going to keep that back leg work. It's not like we're doing something different and then you forget, right? Keep pressing, keep pulling. But again, so much so that you're not laying here. All right. Press that front foot. Lift. That's so good. So you can imagine like both legs are kind of squeezing towards each other in a way. All right. Turn the heart open. Take a deep inhale. Good. Exhale, left hand to the mat. Down dog. We step back. All right. Pause if you're taking the pause or you flow. Good. Pause in for a breath. So good. Okay. So from here, bend your knees. Look forward. Slowly walk or hop to the top. Nice. Half lift as you breathe in. Exhale to fold and let go. Good. Inhale, stand all the way up. Big breath. Exhale, take the hands to the sides. Good. Okay. Pause and then come back into the breath. Take a deep inhale. Smooth exhale, let everything go. Good. Okay. So one more time, I want you to take the hips, about hips width, a little wider than the hips. Okay. And a simulated chair, similar to the chair we did earlier, we're going to work the legs, but we're not going to go outward to get the outer legs. Now we're going to squeeze in to get the inner legs. Okay. So sit the hips down and back. Chair pose. Hands at the heart. Okay. You can imagine, or at least recall that feeling of like squeezing the block between your legs, but now we have no block. Okay. So feeling that same effort, grounded through the feet, maybe outer arches work a bit more. And it'll work as if you're trying to squeeze the space in the center of your legs, but you don't want the knees to buckle in, right? And we just want that effort, that squeeze and engagement, right? So a little lower your choice, arms over the head, if you want that extra, right? Maybe close your arms. Okay. And again, mine will go everywhere if you allow, but if you can attach it to something grounded, okay, one thing rather than a thousand other things that your mind is going to find to find. Okay. So a little bit lower, or squeeze through the inner legs. Let the mind rest on that sensation. Stay right there, right?

Big inhale, heart up. Exhale, fold. Relax. Good y'all. All right. And one more time, we practice the pause, right? Practice the space in between, practice the rest. Nice. Okay. Back into rhythm. Inhale for half lift. Exhale, take the hands to the mat, step both feet back. Down dog, right? Full flow. If you're taking, you might just pause. Nice. Nice y'all. Okay. So last time before we take it a little lower on the mat, okay, press through the balls of the feet, pull the feet away from each other, right? And over time, like as hips open up and things start to kind of just kind of like loosen up in the body and kind of feel stronger and a little more open, take the feet wider. All right. That's a good choice as well. All right. From your down dog, you're going to inhale, stretch the right leg up and back one more time. And as you exhale, take your right knee towards your right hand for pigeon and you're going to lay your leg across the mat. Okay. And then just check with the back leg so it's not like super far right. It's not super far all over, you know, it's like somewhere centered and supportive. All right. And then traditionally when we take pigeon pose, I feel like the common thing is to kind of just be super passive, right? Like, like we just like sink into the hips. We drop everything, right? Throw the whole yoga away. Right. But for today, I want you to feel like you can be a little more active so that muscle can engage a bit more. Okay. So you're going to walk the hands a little further forward. You might push the floor if that feels nice, but feel that you can press that front leg and shin that you can lift a little out of the hip. Okay. So as you press, keep that lift and then create that effort. Like you're trying to pull back a little to your right leg. Good. So you feel that muscle kind of fire up similar to how it was all class. Keep that focus and then just let your mind relax on that spot in your body. Right. If you want, you can stay on your hands. If you can keep that press, you could also rest on your forearms. That's fine as well. Okay. And again, one thing, right? Like you might notice how easy that sounds in like theory. Focus your mind on one thing, but how difficult it might be to put into practice, but maybe see what it feels like. How long can you stay with your body before something else comes in to take your attention? All right. Can you feel your leg? Can you feel your hip? Good. All right. Take one more inhale, press the floor away.

Nice. As you exhale, slowly walk the hands up. All right. Find your way back to downward face and dog. All right. Your choice, like around these parts of the sequences, I keep things real simple. So you might benefit from doing less rather than adding more. So take your time. If you're flowing, you know, as long as it's a good choice for you. Good. All right. Left knee, left hand, pigeon. Right. And again, just checking in, right? I don't want you to be mechanical about your yoga practice, but if you can be more mindful of how you set your body up, make sure you know, right? You're not just throwing your body around, right? Hands a little further forward, push the mat, push. Yes. Okay. So again, we're just not just dropping, but a little bit of a work, a little bit of activation. So push the floor, lift. Okay. My personal preference is to stay on hands. I like my body upright over my hip. I'm not trying to sell anybody on anything, but if you want, elbows are an option too. Okay. Just keep that press. Just keep that work through the front leg. Okay. And again, just a little drag back rotation. That's so good. Y'all. Okay, good. All right. Let the exhales just soften you in the hip a little bit more. Just notice the difference. Good. All right. Take the last breath here. Deep inhale. Nice. Exhale. Let it go. Good. All right. Take the hands to the mat. Give yourself a little lift. Right. And then instead of down dog, I just want you to roll over into that left outer hip and then just swing that back leg to the front. I'm gonna face this way, but you can take it to the top of the mat. That's perfectly fine. Right. And if you can set yourself up where the heels, usually when I take this, my heels are like on the outsides of the mat. So you can set yourself up same way. Heels on the outside of the mat. Let them just be a little wider than where your hips are. Knees, heels, a little wider. Okay. If you can train this next section without the, without the hands, I'd ask that you like give yourself that mobility. If you need the hand support, bring the hands behind the seat. That's perfectly fine. Okay. If you want, don't simply sway the legs without that support, giving yourself that feeling of just training motion, right? Like you want to feel that your legs can do some work without always needing assistance, right? Like they can do their job when they need to. All right. And again, move, slow pace. If you can do this real easy, slower, which that's a good lesson for everything in life, you know, slower. All right. Next time you're on the right, stay on the right. All right. And then keeping that you're going to bring the hands behind the seat on the mat. Okay. And then giving a little focus on the inside of that back leg. I want you to press down through the inner knee and then squeeze that guy a little bit. So the inside of that leg is a little more active. Okay.

And then keep that slowly start to walk the hands backwards, right? If you can find a spot to rest on elbows, that might be a cool place to relax. If elbows feel okay, and you can keep that inner leg pressed into the floor, feel free to like rest more of your back onto the mat. Okay. If you get to a point where you're laying back and your knee is like fighting to lift off the mat, that's your body's way of saying like, this is a lot. We're going really far. So I prefer you come up if you need to keep that connection of your back leg on the mat and just continue to ground down and work the inside. Okay. Take a breath here. All right. Feel for a moment. Deep inhale. Smooth, big exhale. Nice. Okay. And going all the way over to the other side. Again, if you can train this without hand support, give yourself that practice, right? If you need the hands, never a problem. All right. All the way to the left hand to the heels, hands behind the seat one more time. Excuse me. All right. And again, the ground in the inner leg. So big focus, right? You push the inside of your knee down and I feel that connection of the inner leg in the mat and just squeeze the thigh to lock it in a bit. Okay. Hold. If the body allows, walk back. All right. We got elbows. All right. If the elbows are fine and that knee is still planted, explore a little more range. All right. This is that space where you really want to listen to your body. Not saying that you don't want to listen to your body at any part of your practice, but your body gives you signals. They let you know when things are good and they let you know when things aren't so good. And sometimes when we're in our head, we're not following those signals in the body. And that's just the big idea today. It's just grounding your attention and your sensations. All right. Take a big inhale. Nice long exhale. Good. And then walk the hands back up. All right. Swing both legs.

Excuse me. Just stretch both legs long to the top of your mat. And you're going to lay all the way down on our back for Shavasana. Nice. Okay. So no, again, preferences, right? Legs can be long. Arms can be long. Right. If you want to continue to open up inner legs, that might feel nice to set up and body can also the bottoms of the feet together. Feel free to adjust if you need to, if things start to feel a little different. All right. Let the hands relax. We're going to take a few moments just to let things register. Okay. Nice, everyone. Take a moment. Let your body just register this pause a little longer. And if you can let your exhales just be a little more length, lengthen, excuse me, a little more extended.

Let your body feel that feeling of release a few more times before we move. All right. No rush. All right. Slowly flex the fingers. Bring some motion back to the hands. Right. And wherever you are, whether you're feet are together, they're stretched out, draw the knees together and up and into the chest. Nice. Arms can wrap around the legs. Just give yourself a little rock, you know, left to right is fine. And if you want to go forward and back, that's fine as well. Good. And enrolling all the way over to the right side of the body to pause.

All right. Take a moment. Right arm, you can rest your head right there. And then slowly coming up to a seat. All right. Face the top of the mat or wherever you may end up. All right. Let the hands relax in the thighs, unless it feels good to pull the palms together. You got in front of the heart or the head, if that's what you want to take it. All right. And just take a moment to just feel the movement, feel the space, feel the energy in you before you shift to everything outside.

Thank you all so much. We appreciate your energy and the practice that we all come together to share. You all are amazing. Namaste.