Give Your Hands a Hand

Hey everybody and welcome. This is day 10 of your 10 day yoga challenge with me. You made it, we're at the end. All right, and today we're just gonna pay a special attention to the wrist and hands in the yoga practice today. And also give a little awareness around the neck and things as we move through wheel pose in our practice today, okay?

So nothing needed for the practice. As always, if you got your body, you got some space to practice, you're all good, okay? We're gonna begin in the seat. So find your way down here. Find your way here, okay?

If it's lower to you relatively. And make it comfortable, okay? So legs can come in if that feels nice and compact that you can maintain that for a bit. Or if you wanna stretch your legs a little longer on the mat, that might feel a little more accessible and let that be the spot to start, okay? Hands to your thighs, if it feels good to move them a little closer to the knees, you're welcome, right?

Your hands could also come to the heart or up to the head if that feels a little better to support the practice, okay? So taking a moment, if it feels nice, you may start with the eyes closed, all right? And then just feeling for a bit that you can settle into whatever space that you're in before you just get up and start to move your body, all right? So feeling this feeling of a pause, sensing this experience of just some stillness, okay? And just letting that awareness just help you find those spaces where you might be holding in the body.

And as you inhale, just take a little more awareness of those spaces, go ahead and as you exhale, see if you can release some of that effort and energy in the body right now, all right? Anything unnecessary, you wanna let it go, all right? Do it one more time, take a deep inhale in. And as you exhale, soften the shoulders, soften what's lifted, the face, the jaw, anything with this effort, all right? And then taking a moment, slowly float the eyes open, your hands can relax for a moment, right?

And then just take a few simple neck rolls, all right? Just to invite a little bit of awareness into the neck, but also just to warm it up, make some space. Nice, all right? Opposite direction if you start it one way, so just taking it in the opposite, yeah, good, okay? And then real simply from seated, take your hands out front, both hands, like you're trying to high 10 somebody, okay, hopefully be.

All right, and flip your fingers back towards your shoulders a little bit more, all right? And as if you're trying to press forward from the heel of your hand, you wanna push out towards the front of you, but try not to let the arms and shoulders go with it, right? Keep them pulled back and relaxed, you're just feeling this kind of press throughout the hands, okay? Bringing a little awareness to the fingertips, excuse me, fingertips, spread the fingers a little bit more and press through all knuckles, good. And then keeping that press, imagine you're trying to rotate the hands, it's gonna say counterclockwise, but both of them are doing different things, turn them outward, all right?

And then rolling the fingers down towards the floor so the pinkies are moving in the same direction. And then imagine you can like turn your hand past that point of resistance, so past that edge where your body is stopping, and then just a little effort as if you can go past that. Nice, all right? Noticing that feeling in the forearms and wrists, breathe with that effort, and all the way in the opposite direction, take the hands all the way in and then turn the thumbs down towards the mat. And as if you're trying to rotate inward past that point of resistance, right?

Just a little bit of effort to turn it. Good, last time all the way out to the edge in pinkies, pinkies in. Good, and then all the way internally rotate. Nice, okay, let the arms relax, shake that loose. You could already feel your forearms and wrists if you can notice, okay?

Just letting that be a thing that we can feel in our practice today, all right? Slow transition, no rush. You're gonna move forward into all fours, all right? So tabletop position with the hands underneath the shoulders, the knees are gonna set up underneath the hips, all right? And then just a few cat-cows again, just to smooth it out, come into the body.

So as you inhale, belly drops down, chest lifts with the chin up. Nice, and then as you exhale, draw the belly in, you're gonna round your upper body to the ceiling. Nice, do that one more time, inhale, let the belly drop and then just feel that chin lift up so you can stretch the front of the neck. Good, and as you exhale, maybe you curl the chin in a little bit so you feel the back of the neck space and open. Nice, all right, a few more of those on your own and maybe it feels good to move to the rhythm of the breath.

So the inhale carries you here and the exhale moves you somewhere else. All right, feeling that pace in the breath, feeling that same sensation of a smooth inhale and a nice relaxed exhale. Good, all right, next time you pass through neutral, you're gonna pause, reposition the hands underneath the shoulders, all right? And it's similar to what we did in seated, you're gonna turn the fingers towards the feet. So you're gonna rotate outward so the pinkies are turning in towards each other.

All right, and in this one, I wouldn't ask you to like turn in past that range, but also I want you to feel that you can push into the heels of your hand like we did earlier, okay? So before we had like no surface, now we have one, okay? So pushing through the fingertips, pressing through the knuckles of all of the hand, all right, ground down and then maybe you lean back a little bit if it's not too crazy in the front of the wrist. Nice, okay, take a moment there and breathe. Nice, all right, slowly lean forward just to release that effort, turn the hands back to neutral, okay?

And then opposite of what we just did, tops of the hands are gonna come into the mat now. And this is another one where I'm not asking you to put all the weight forward, it could be really damaging to the wrist, but enough to feel that you can stretch the top part of the hand, all right? So maybe you lean back a little bit, but even here, we press through the tops of the hands and imagining that you can get the top of the wrist a little closer to the floor, all right? And this is especially good for a regular yoga practice or if you do a lot of things with the hands and wrist at work, just giving yourself some space to release in the body, nice, all right? Re-release, untuck the hands, all right?

And then take a few small movements just to get into any other part of the body that feels a little active or at least loud today, all right? All right, and then slowly transition, down dog, tuck your toes, hips lift up and back, good, okay? And inviting some of that free movement into your down dog as well. So if it feels nice, you can pedal out through the heels, all right, give yourself a couple of big bends in the knees just to carry that motion and effort throughout the legs. So again, just moving things around to make some space, right, if you want, shake your head a little yes and no, just to release a little more around the neck and then carry that awareness into the hands as well, so we're still spreading through the effort in the hands, we're still grounding through the knuckles, we're still feeling those fingertips open and spread.

Nice, and then from here, you're gonna bend your knees, look forward, all right? Take your time, you're gonna slowly walk your feet to the top of the mat, coming into your forward fold, good, y'all. So once you arrive at the top of your mat, see if you can just take a breath to be completely relaxed, maybe still, all right? Notice that feeling of release throughout the body and if you can encourage that a little bit more, just again, exhale, soften and do that effort, all right? And if it feels nice, maybe you invite a little bit of motion here too, okay?

So you can bend your knees a couple of times, start to take that movement into the legs, so you open up, all right? You could also carry that movement into the back, right? So maybe you sway the upper body a little, letting the body kind of stretch out with that pull of gravity, all right? And maybe today, you interlace the fingers behind the head, right? Me personally, I love to squeeze the elbows in a little closer together, but letting that be an added weight to lengthen out the neck, there you go.

All right, and then release what you have for a moment, again, back to heavy, back to soft, nice. All right, and from here, you're gonna inhale in the half lift, so hands might find the thighs and the calves, heart stretches forward, all right? Take a deep inhale, let the belly come in. And as you exhale, soften forward for a fold, there you go. All right, next inhale, stand all the way up, arms stretch over the head, big reach.

And as you exhale, hands to the sides, tight offs in the mountain, nice, okay? Pause in for a moment, try to pull your mind back into the breath, so take a deep inhale in. Nice, smooth exhale out, let that go. Nice, okay, do that one more time. Inhale, notice the lift through the heart.

Good, and as you exhale, try to soften the shoulders, feel that space to again, let go of the effort you don't need, here we go, okay? So keeping that awareness of the breath, a couple of sun salutations, so we pair that with some movement, all right? Keeping that internal focus, deep inhale, arms folding up, nice. As you exhale, soften your body, come down over the front to the legs, nice. As you inhale, half lift, shoulders pull back, so you open up the neck, good.

As you exhale, fold and release, let that all go, nice. All right, as you inhale, stand all the way up, stretching through the arms and hands, feel all that reach through the body, good. As you exhale, hands relax to the sides, okay? All right, so from here, if you can breathe a little deeper, right? As you inhale, you're gonna take a big breath in, stretch through the ceiling, good.

As you exhale, see if you can linger on the way down, so just a little length on that exhale, good. As you inhale, half lift, take a little moment at the top. And as you exhale, see if you can linger at the bottom of that breath a bit too, nice, okay? As you inhale, stand all the way up, try to slow down as you reach up, nice. As you exhale, hands to the sides of the body, okay?

One more time, maybe you wanna close your eyes, that might feel nice, okay? Inhale, arms forward and up, feel that stretch through the fingers, good. As you exhale, feel that release through the whole body, so no effort for just a moment, good. Right, as you inhale, half lift, feel the space around your neck. And then as you exhale, fold, we soften, we let go.

Good, as you inhale, stand all the way up, stretching from feet to hands, take as much time as you need, good. And as you exhale, let the hands soften to the sides, okay? Keeping that pace, one Sunday, just moving through whole body, up dog down, okay? Inhale, arms forward and up, nice. As you exhale, soften and release, come all the way down over legs.

Okay, as you inhale, half lift, stretch through the chest. Nice, as you exhale, hands on the mat, step both feet back, we pause in plank, okay? So, especially today, right? Again, as always, if you're coming down to the knees, this is fine, right? But in plank pose, I want you to take a moment to let your shoulders kinda come past the hands a little bit on the mat, okay?

Notice the tops of the hands, you might notice a line in the wrist right now. This is something that I don't want you to feel too much today, okay? So maybe you rock it back, so much so that you feel the line disappear, good. Keep that, push the floor away, all right? Take a big inhale, exhale, come halfway down.

Nice, inhale over the toes, lift the heart forward and up for up dog. And as you exhale, tuck your toes, lift through the hips, downward facing dog, nice, y'all. All right, so softening in the breath for a moment. Nice, okay, so take a moment in your down dog, come forward into plank, all right? Feeling plank again, you can kinda press through those fingertips, but you could also kinda draw the shoulders back so some of that line disappears, okay?

Notice that, push the hips up and back in down dog, all right? So keeping that same idea, you might take a peek at the wrist again just to see, but even in down dog, you're not crunching, right? There's some space to come back a little bit to free that space, all right? Push through the heels of the hand, bend your knees, look forward, and then slowly walk our hop to the top. Nice, y'all, okay?

Taking a breath, inhale for half lift. Exhale, fold and soften the body, all right? Inhale all the way up to standing, take as much time as you need. Nice, as you exhale, let the hands relax by your sides, okay? So keeping that focus, a little more here, a little more here, okay?

Stay with your body, all right? Inhale, arms folding up. Nice, as you exhale, release and soften, feel the space around your neck, the arms are heavy. Good, as you inhale, half lift. Exhale, take the hands to the mat, step both feet back, down dog, all right?

And if you want, as we move forward, full flow your choice, all right? Being mindful of the wrist. So again, we're moving through a flow, but again, we're still trying to keep that integrity, okay? And if it feels better to pause throughout the practice today, make the choice that benefits what you need today, all right? Stay in center, all right?

Taking a moment, again, you might look up for a moment, notice where that work is in the hands. Try to spread the work through the fingertips and knuckles, but with grounding a little more through the heels of the palm, all right? So from down dog, you're gonna inhale, stretch your left leg up and back. And as you exhale, step forward in between the hands, center for warrior two, so back heel comes down, and then heart open to the right with the arms out to the sides, nice, right? Feeling for a moment that you can ground, again, warrior two, like I don't want you to practice this feeling of rushing to the next pose, but feel this like space that you can take to feel all of warrior two, all right?

And if for a moment, flip the palms to the front of your body, this is a subtle technique, but feeling it because it's very beneficial, okay? You're gonna take the thumbs in the palms of the hands and then wrap all four fingers around those thumbs, like they're super crazy, okay? So feeling that as you wrap the thumb, you're gonna push the thumb out like you're pouring your favorite drink, which we're yogis, y'all, I know where your mind is, so push, and then feel like you're just trying to tilt the glass out, two good cups, and you're gonna stretch that top part of the wrist outward in the body, nice, all right? Punching a little through those hands, feel that top wrist work out, pour that glass, good. All right, take a deep inhale, stretch a little more through those arms so the space across the chest opens up, and then as you exhale, both hands on the mat, down dog, step back on the front foot.

And again, your choice, maybe you pause, if you have a flow, take your time to move through. Nice, okay, same thing, second side. So as you inhale, right leg stretches up and back, and as you exhale, take that foot in between both hands, warrior two, one more time, okay? So again, taking a moment, arms out to the sides, feel that work through the feet, but that space to release the neck as you stretch, nice, okay, and then palms flip to the front of your body, thumbs go in, fingers wrap around, okay? And then feeling again, like you can push from the tops of the wrist, so you're pouring, right, through the front and backside of your body to open up that wrist on the top, good, okay?

And then keeping that work through the fingers, push out through the arms, so you can draw the shoulders away from the neck, but stretching everything in that line of the body, good. Take one more inhale, exhale hands down to the mat, down dog, you step it back, all right? Full flow, you pause, and again, you make your choice. Nice, all right, take a moment to peek towards the hands and down dog. Notice where that work is in the hand, and again, if you can spread the effort, push down, and then take a little bit of that line away if it's there.

Good, all right, bend your knees, look forward, slowly walk or hop to the top, good, y'all, okay? Soften through the body for a breath, inhale, half lift, exhale to release all the work, good. Inhale all the way to stand and take as much time as you need, and then as you exhale, let the arms relax to the sides, good, y'all, okay? Pause and just to pull the mind back in the breath, take a deep inhale in, exhale, release the excess, good, y'all, all right? So passing through one more time, I want you to inhale, stretch the arms up and over the head, and as you exhale, fold forward over the front to the legs one more time, good, all right?

And then if you can, maybe you take the feet a little closer together, all right? But we're gonna come into a gorilla pose. So you're gonna lift up the front to the feet, slide your entire hand under the foot, maybe you get the toes up to your actual wrist, all right? And it's similar to what we did earlier, all right? Tops of the feet, excuse me, tops of the hands are gonna work down into the mat, tops of the wrist are gonna stretch, but lean a little weight into the balls of your foot to add a little more weight to that, all right?

With that effort, inhale, heart might stretch forward a bit, keep that length in your spine, you're gonna slowly bend the elbows and come out to the sides to fold, nice, okay? And then be mindful, right? Like I don't want you to like, I mean, it might be fun too, but don't stand on your whole hand, especially if that feels a little undesirable. And it also might be something to balance, which might take a little more of the focus off the stretch, okay? So elbows bend, little bit of weight on the tops of the hands, work through those wrist, nice, okay?

One more inhale, maybe heart stretches to the top, nice. And as you exhale, release, untuck, fold, there you go, okay? Inhale, halfway lift, exhale, hands to the mat, down dog, step it back one more time, all right? Full flow if that's where you're going. Nice, all right, quick check up top, check that you still have the things that we know we should have.

So that practice in the beginning, you wanna keep and maintain that throughout the whole whole sequence, okay? Inhale, left leg stretches up and back. As you exhale, step forward in between both hands, low lunge this time, your back knee is gonna come down to the mat, okay? And then from here, bring the hands to the front thigh, all right, we're just gonna re-invite something that we did earlier in the challenge. So I want you to rock your weight back a little bit, so you're a little more stacked on that back leg and knee, and then take your front foot a little further to the top of the mat, okay?

Keep that effort, you're gonna kick down through the top of the mat, excuse me, through the top of the foot, and then squeezing through the glute a little bit, curl a little through pelvis and hips, okay? Keep that, drop the hip forward and down, so we take a little bit of that engagement into the front hip, and then arms over the head, simple breath, nice. If you know you wanna go further and you feel like you have the range in your body, you're welcome to curl that front foot a little more to the top, okay? But as you inhale, press through that back foot, take a big stretch to reach, and as you exhale, take the hands to the sides of that front foot, and you're gonna slowly weight over to the right hand, bend your back knee, left hand is gonna reach back to catch foot, okay? And then for today, usually when we take this, hands usually on the outside, I would suggest for today, flip the palm, so you grab the foot from the inside, okay?

So now you're gonna turn the heart forward to the top part of your mouth, and then maybe you give some space to kind of drop a little in that front hip flexor, good. All right, a little kick into the hand if you can, all right? I'm gonna ask you again to like crank anything, but kick into the hand, and then let the hand just pull back against that kick for a moment. Nice, y'all, all right, hard up, take an inhale, chin lifts, nice, and as you exhale, release through that back foot, hands on the mat, downward facing dog, all right? Flowing, if that's where you're going.

I didn't plan that. All right, one more time from down dog, okay? Good, from here, inhale, stretch the right leg up and back, and then as you exhale, take that foot forward in between the hands, low lunge, back knee to the mat, all right? As you untuck the back toes again, you just take your hands here to rest for a moment, okay? You're gonna rock the body back, stack on that back leg, and then front foot is a little more forward to the top, okay?

And again, we're gonna kick down in that back foot, just a little bit of activation again to just engage those muscles as we work through them. So you're gonna squeeze through the glute, curl a little through pelvis, yes, curl, all right? And then from that, bend forward, okay? Trying to maintain that kick, maintain that squeeze and curl, stretch up through the arms. Good, all right?

Feel active through hands here. So again, hands are not lazy, like, sometimes I feel like we get so focused on these other things that we forget we're working through whole body. So stretching through the fingertips, feel that space in the hands as well, okay? Inhale, stretch up, nice, exhale, hands to the mat, all right? Take the hand over, excuse me, take the weight over to the left hand, and then reaching back to that back foot, inviting a quad stretch, okay?

So again, common pinky edge today, big toe side, right? And instead of letting the heart lift up and out, turn forward to the top part of your mat, good, all right? Give a little gentle kick into the hand, let the hand pull back for some resistance, and heart up. Nice, gotta have a proud heart in your yoga, y'all, proud chest, okay? Take a big inhale, lift, nice, as you exhale, release, hands down, downward facing dog, good, okay?

Pause in if you're pausing, moving if you're moving. Nice, all right? So from down dog, just a simple transition, knees to the mat, and you're gonna find your way all the way to a seat, all right? So hips down, all right? And then lay flat down on your back, no, it's a transition, really, okay?

And then allowing yourself to bend both knees, take the bottoms of your feet to the floor, stretch your arms down by your sides, nice, okay? And then pausing for a moment before we add anything else. Nice, so as you arrive on your back, take an extra moment just to settle, all right? Maybe you let this breath just be a little bigger here on the inhale. You're just trying to lengthen the exhale on the way out.

Nice, okay, so arms are down by the sides if you haven't moved them, all right? And then work the hand, excuse me, take the feet a little wider than usual, so about where the edges of your mat is, like you really separate the feet that wide, all right? And then turn your toes slightly out, so now they're on this like 45 degree turnout, you don't have to like take out the ruler or anything, but all right, so stretching down as if you're trying to just touch the backs of the feet, all right, press down into all corners of the foot, all right, take a deep inhaling, and as you exhale, bridge pose, you're gonna push into the feet, lift the hips up and away from the mat, okay? If you want, you can slide the arms a little more underneath the body, inhalating the fingers for just a connected grip with the hands, all right? But feel here that you can punch a little more through the arms and hands, and then you can shift a little more weight into the top part of your back, all right?

So there's some weight on your neck, but you're not necessarily like cranking so much that you're like collapsing, but a little bit of weight is fine, okay? And it feel like you can gently press the back of your skull into the mat so you can engage that part of your neck, and then push down to lift up a bit, nice, all right? Take a deep inhaling, exhale all the way down, nice, okay? So from here, I'm gonna invite you to a wheel pose, all right? If there's any complications in the wrist, is there something in the body that's not supporting you moving through that process, feel free to do bridge one more time, okay?

So hands are gonna come up by the ears, all right? And then just notice in here too, like you're putting a lot of like torque on that wrist, a lot of weight and a lot of just flexion here. So just notice if you take a peek to the right or left, you got that similar idea of crunching in the wrist, wrist line, all right? But also that kind of lifts through the heel of your hand, which you wanna activate when we come up, okay? So spread the fingers a little bit more, all right?

And then breathe in through the notes, and as you exhale, push into the feet, push into the hands, lifting for wheel pose, all right? And if in today's practice, just like the feet are a little wider than usual, you're gonna take the hands a little wider and then turn the fingers out just a bit, okay? Just to relieve the wrist a little bit more, you got more room to work with in the practice, right? And then the same idea, pushing through the heels of the hand, lean the weight a little more to the front of the mat, so you can take away a bit of that line through the wrist and hands, and then pushing through the fingertips, lift up and away. Next, and then all the way down, relaxing, okay?

Hands to the belly, soles of your feet together, Baddha Konasana, all right? And then maybe you feel in just some lingering sensations in hands, wrists, fingertips, and that might be a perfect place to rest your attention. All right, or maybe you focus on how you're breathing, and you let those exhales just slowly take away more and more of the effort. Nice, all right, knees come together, draw them both up and into the chest and the hands on both knees, all right? With the hands on the knees, make a few small circles, all right, giving a little love to your lower back, right?

Feeling that you can massage the sacrum a little bit more. Nice, all right, and invite in one more pose just to support the neck, which I feel like it's just super complimentary to a sequence like this. Shoulder stand, but again, if this is a pose that gives you just more complication than it does benefit, feel free to take early Shavasana, okay? But if you're ready for shoulder stand, all right, you're gonna slowly roll to the top part of your back, and then your hands are gonna catch low back to support that weight on your neck, okay? Even more so if you can, like walk the elbows in a little closer, so you got that extra firm reinforcement around the top body, good, all right?

And it's similar to what we did in bridge pose, press through the back of your skull, so you have a little bit of length and engagement in the neck, good, all right? Holding here is fine, again, that weight might feel nice on the neck, you can pause here and this is good. If you wanna go a little further, you might invite the plow into the sequence, so toes find the mat or the floor above the head, and then you can release the hands to the mat, similar to what you did in bridge pose, you could also interlace the fingers, right? Knees can come down to the sides of the ears, full plow. I'm not, because you'd hear a lot, okay?

But feeling that, you can take your legs and knees wherever you need to go, pause for our breaths. Nice, and then reversing all of those actions you took to go in. Nice, all right, stretch the legs along on the mat, arms are gonna relax down by your sides, good. All right, and this last few bits of your practice, I just want you to take a minute to pause, and that's a literal minute, all right? It's not gonna be super accurate, I don't have the countdown timer.

Let's see if you can let your mind move away from that, that attainment, you know, like that. I've done this, I've held this, I've accomplished this, it is what it is. Day 10, end of a 30-minute practice. You did something, but I think the process is more valuable than what the goal is. Allow yourself to feel it.

Nice, nice, nice, nice. All right, take a moment, all right? Invite a little bit of movement into the body, nothing too forced or crazy, all right? So just gentle flexion in the hands, gentle movement of the fingers and toes. Nice, all right, slowly draw the knees up and into the chest, take your arms around both the legs.

All right, and maybe it feels good just to rock a little left to right or a little, maybe forward and back just to feel parts of your back a bit more. And then slowly roll in over to the right side of your body. And then take a moment to pause on the right, the head can rest on that right arm. You're gonna slowly come up to a seat. All right, try to stay soft in the body.

If you can keep your eyes closed, that may feel good as well. All right, hands can rest in the thighs unless it feels good to come together at the heart, maybe you had. And before you just wrap this thing up and consider it like the end of a good book that I feel like we've all been reading. All right, maybe take a moment to reflect. Feel each day, feel each body part, feel each focus, feel this connection to the whole system that is you.

And just notice that underneath all the movement, all the need, underneath all the movement of the mind, the day, there's stuff under there that you can pay attention to to connect you to yourself. Great work, good energy, and I'm always happy to share. So congrats and namaste.