Yin Yoga Artwork
Season 6 - Episode 9

Full Body Bliss

40 min - Practice
4 likes

Description

Move through a 45-minute full body practice with Justin Randolph, building toward the peak pose of Saddle. Through sustained holds that target the legs, hips, and spine, this practice creates an awakened state of being while cultivating flexibility and mobility throughout the entire body. As sensations arise and release, you will discover newfound strength and openness, challenging their traditional relationship with yin practice.
What You'll Need: Round Bolster, Strap, Block (2)

About This Video

Jul 16, 2025
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Transcript

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Welcome to full body bliss. For this practice, we will need a bolster, two blocks, and a strap. And we're gonna get started on our backs in Shavasana. So come to lie all the way into your back. Let your legs be long.

Let your arms rest by your sides, flipping your palms up to the sky, closing the eyes if it feels comfortable. And let's draw a nice big full breath in through the nose. Big sigh out through the mouth. Again, inhale, and exhale. Take a moment to move your awareness now through the body.

Just noticing any areas of the body. That feel tight, that feel tense, diminished, or small. And see if with that awareness, we can begin to invite the body to release any tension, any squeezing, any resistance. Since the whole back surrendering into the earth, soften your toes and your feet. And as your awareness rises up the backs of the legs, feel the backs of the knees softening all the way up to the sits bones, to the hips.

Relax and release through the low belly. And the shoulders relax. Let the jaw bones soften. Notice if there is a frown, see if we can relax that frown so the forehead is soft. And as you're ready, just allow your breath to begin to deepen.

Breathe into the belly. Let the belly expand, let the breath rise all the way up to the chest, and breathing out from the chest out the belly. I'm taking about five or six more rounds of just big, full deep, conscious breath. And then as you're ready, start to wiggle out your toes, wiggle out your fingers, maybe shift the head very gently from side to side. Grack your eyes open and go ahead and grab your strap.

We're gonna hug the right knee into the chest, give the knee a nice gentle squeeze. And then from here, we're gonna take the strap, and you're gonna wrap the strap around the ball of the right foot. Keep the knee bent just for a moment, and give yourself as much room as you need on the strap. You can keep this left foot flexed, the left leg nice and long. And on an inhaled lengthen and extend the right leg up to the sky, exhale re bend the right knee. Inhale lengthen, exhale bend, last time lengthen and extend and pause. So if possible, keep your elbows down on the mat, Relax the shoulders.

Don't worry about how straight the leg is or isn't. Doesn't matter. Keep as much of a bend to the knee as you need. Flex the foot. Flex the left foot as well. Take a big breath in.

Take a big sigh out. One more time, inhale, and exhale. Now take both ends of the strap into your right hand. We're gonna open the right leg out to the right just as much as we can keep the left hip grounded into the earth. Keep flexing through the right foot just gently pressing out through the right heels.

We breathe into the right inner leg line. Just a few big full inhales and long exhales here. And then on your next inhale, bring the right leg back to center. Left hand will get both ends of the strap. We'll take the right leg over to the left, less is more. So let's start to just gently roll into the outer edge of the left hip flexed through the right foot.

Feel as if that right hip crease is drawing forth. And then let the breath move into the right rib cage. To the right side of the low back. Few big full deep rounds of inhale and exhale. And the next inhale, go ahead and bring your right leg back to center.

Press up through the heel. Two more breaths that leg extended. And then go ahead and re bend the right knee. We'll take the strap off the foot. Just set the strap on your belly and let your right leg go long and pause and a little mini Shavasana just to take that in.

Just feel the spaciousness of the right leg, back of the right hip. And then we'll bring our left knee into the chest. Bring the left knee into the chest, give it a little squeeze. We'll take our strap around the ball of the left foot. Keep the right leg long, right foot flexed. Give yourself as much room as you need on the strap preferably, if we can keep the elbows down, we can we're able to relax through the shoulders.

Inhale lengthen and extend the left leg up to the sky, exhale, rebend the left knee. Inhale lengthen, exhale bend, last time, inhale lengthen extend and pause here. Don't worry about how straight the leg is or isn't keep at least a little bit of a bend to the knee. We never wanna hyper extend and lock out. Flex through the left foot, pressing up through the heel.

Brief. Big breath in. Big breath out. Both ends of the strap go into the left hand. We're gonna take the left leg over to the left just so much that we can keep this right thigh grounded.

As best we can. Flexing through the left foot, push out through the left heel, breathe into that left inner leg line, few more rounds of breath. And the next inhale, bring the left leg back to center. Right hand will get both ends of the strap and less is more here. Left leg is gonna go to the right.

Gonna very gently start to roll into the outer edge of that right hip. Keep the left foot flexed. Take a few big full deep inhales and exhales here. And then your next inhale, bring the left leg back to center. Take a big full breath in as you press up through the heel.

Big sigh out. One more time. Inhale. And exhale. Go ahead and rebender left knee.

Go ahead and take the strap off the foot. Let your left leg go long down the mat pause once again in your mini Shavasana, just allowing the body to reset. Taking a moment to feel the bliss of all that space that you've opened up and just two very short poses. And then we go the toes. Wiggle the fingers, shift the head side to side.

Bring your feet onto the earth and go ahead and windshield wiper your knees very gently from side to side. And we'll hug the knees into the chest, give yourself a little squeeze, grab your big toes, index and middle fingers wrap around the toes. Happy baby. Just gently begin to kick out through the legs, rock a little bit side to side. Try to relax through the shoulders. Paws and stillness for five breaths, just allowing here.

Allow the tail, allow the low back to release down. Two more breaths. And then go ahead and squeeze the knees back in towards the chest. Bring your feet back to the earth and gently roll over onto your left side into a little fetal position. Just pause for a breath. And then take your time pressing yourself up into your hands and your knees in a tabletop.

Hands under shoulders, knees, under hips, just a couple of rounds of cat and cow arching the back. And then exhaling tucking the tail and rounding. Let's do one more. Inhale arch and open. Exhale round.

I mean, back to a nice neutral spine. We'll extend our right leg back with our toes tucked and just find a nice pulse forward and back. And then from here, we're gonna step the right foot outside of the right hand. You're gonna keep the back knee lowered. Stay up on your hands for this lizard variation.

Feel a nice surrender of the until hit points moving forward and slightly down lift your chest. Five breaths here just like this. And then keep your left hand down or be on your left fingertips. You're gonna bring your right hand onto your right thigh. So the right hand is pushing the right thigh forward so we can gently lean back and turn our gaze over and up to the right.

Surrendering the left frontal hip point down even more towards the earth. Breathe. Let's take five more breaths. And then gently begin to bend your back knee out and appoint your toes towards the glutes. So I'm gonna feel this continued surrender here of this left frontal hip point.

Reach your right arm back. See if we can get that back foot. Keep surrendering. Finding a nice big opening through the front of the left thigh. Six big, full long inhales, and exhales keep opening the chest up to the sky.

Take a nice big breath in. Big exhale. Release the back foot. Bring your right hand back inside of the right foot. We'll slide the right leg back, finding all fours, circle out your hips a few times one way.

Few times the other way. Just flush it out. And then from here, moving into a yin camel, I want to invite you to keep your knees about hip bone distance apart. Perhaps a little bit wider. Bring your hands onto your low back.

Draw the naval in towards the spine, feel the hands moving the tailbone down. You're gonna push the pubic bone forward. And then this is really the focus of our yin camel. We're gonna lift the chest up. So we're thinking chest up, up, up, and then we begin to lean back.

We're not going for the heels here. We're moving the pubic bone forward. We're lifting the naval and the sternum up. And allowing that up to start to take us back. Breathing here just for a moment.

If it feels okay in the head and the neck, you can lift the chin looking slightly up. Otherwise, you could tuck the chin just very softly in towards the chest. Breathe. Keep thinking heart forward and up. Take a big breath in.

Stick out your tongue, lion's breath. Keep your hands on your low back. Slowly begin to rise up. Feels okay on your knees. You're gonna sit back onto your heels and just pause, bring your hands into your thighs.

Draw the tip chin slightly into the chest. Maybe swallow a couple of times. And then as you're ready, let's come back into our hands and our knees. Circ out your hips. Move the spine a little bit.

Then we will extend our left leg back with our toes tucked. I'm just gonna pulse forward and back. Forward and back. So we'll step our left foot outside of the left hand. Stay up on your hands or come up onto your finger pants. Move the heart forward, shoulders back, lift the chest.

Speed here for a moment. Feeling that surrender of the right frontal hit point, surrender, forward and down of the pelvis, slight backbend here in the chest. And then stay on your right hand. Your left hand is gonna come onto your left thigh. Very gently pushing the thigh out.

Start to lean back spiraling the right ribs over and up to the left. Maybe the gaze can move up towards the sky. Breathe. And then start to bend your back knee. Point the toes towards the glutes, reach back with your left hand.

Get the back foot and then re engage here, surrender that right frontal hit point forward and down. Opening up the left collarbone, leaning softly back for six full breaths. Big full inhale, exhale. Release the back foot. Bring your left hand back inside of the left foot slide the left leg back.

Circle out through your hips for a moment. Just flush that out. Move it around. And then one more time coming into our camo for the second round. Again, knees, hip bone, or wider, hands to the low back.

Use the hands to suggest the tailbone sliding down. The pubic bone moving forward, lift up, up, up, up, through the naval through the sternum, think forward, think up, and then lean back. We're not going through the heels here. We wanna keep the quality of yin. Not too much effort.

But keep the mind quite active inviting the heart to continue to reach up and then lean back. Breathe. Big breath in. Lion's breath. Slowly. Keep your hands to your low back.

Slowly rise up. Slowly sit back on your heels, hands on the thighs, draw the chin into the chest swallow a couple of times. And then come back up onto your hands or your knees and just circle out the hips few times one way. Few times the other way. So now we're gonna open up the tops of the feet, the ankles and the shins.

So I wanted to invite you to bring your big toes together to touch. Most like you're moving into a child's pose, your knees will spread out nice and wide. We're gonna start to sit back towards the heels. Now some of us, this is totally gonna be just enough being right here. If we're not used to being on the top part of our foot, we might be feeling quite a bit of sensation right here.

So if you are, just stay right there. Otherwise, we're gonna begin to walk our hands back, leaning back, and perhaps this is where we are. Or perhaps using the tops of the feet, we begin to lift the knees and lift the thighs up. So we're really stretching the tops of the feet. You might stay right here, or perhaps keeping the knees and the thighs lifted, you lower down onto your elbows, keep the chest lifted up Keep the gaze up towards the ceiling and breathe here.

Thirty seconds. Just feel the belly rising and falling. Try to release through the jaw. Big breath in. XL. One more time, inhale, and exhale. So if you're down on your forearms, you're gonna very carefully begin to press yourself up.

An awkward return. Press yourself up onto your hands and your knees and tap out the tops of your feet. Let's send one leg back at a time with the toes tucked and just find that nice pulse so we counter and then send the other leg back. Then from here, we're gonna come into a seat, bringing your legs long in front of you and go ahead and shake shake shake out your legs to release. And for a moment, moving into half saddle, you're gonna swing your left leg around behind you so that the left shin is parallel to the outer edge of the mat.

And then we're gonna bring this left heel as close to the left sits bone as possible. And if the left sits bone isn't coming all the way down, it's okay. You're gonna bring your right thigh in as close to the left thigh as you can. Hands are by your sides. Lift through your chest.

And if it feels okay in the head and the neck, you're just gonna drop your head gently back. Keep the chin micro tucked into the chest. Keep the right foot flexed. Breathe. Now you're welcome to stay right here.

Okay? Or we're gonna start to lower down onto our forearms. It's very much like we did for the top of the foot stretch. And again, if that left sits bone is lifting, it's okay. Just imagine it giving over to gravity. Keep the chest quite elevated. So it really is the same feeling as our camel.

Drop the head back any amount. 10 breaths here. Just releasing the jaw, releasing the forehead, release the belly. Big breath in. Lion's breath.

One more time inhale. Lions's breath. Stay in the shape of the saddle. If you've come down into your elbows, gently press yourself back up onto your hands. Take a couple of breaths here.

And then carefully tenderly release, oof, that left leg out, and then shake out your legs, hands are by the sides. Circle out your feet. And then we'll move to the other side. So we're gonna keep the left leg long. We'll swing the right leg out and around so that the right shin is parallel to the outer edge of the mat, and both sides are gonna be quite different.

I'm gonna start to guide this right heel in as close to the right glute as possible. Just notice if the right glute isn't coming all the way down, it's okay. Bring the right thigh in as close to the left thigh as you can. Hands come by your sides. Lift your chest, and just breathe right here flexing through the left foot.

Keep the breath moving. And you're welcome to stay right here. Okay? Or if you'd like to explore coming down onto the elbows, into the forearms, keeping the chest lifted, explore that option and get if the right sits bone isn't coming all the way down, it's okay. Keep moving the breath right into the belly, up to the ribs, up to the chest.

It's releasing any unnecessary effort in the face and the jaw. Get your head drop back any amount. Keep the breath moving. Big full breath in. Lions's breath.

You've come down into your elbows or your forearms, just gently press yourself up and pause. So keeping the shape here of our half saddle as best you can. And then tenderly, gently release the right leg out next to the left, hands by your sides, flex and point the toes, circle the feet out, whatever you need to do to flush that out. And then bring your feet onto the mat. We'll go ahead and windshield wiper the knees side to side.

And then we'll make our way up onto our hands and our knees to prepare for our full saddle. So for our full saddle, recommend using a bolster. We're gonna take our bolster vertical near the top of our mat. And from here, we're gonna turn so that our knees are together. Our back is towards the bolster.

Viner nice and wide, we're gonna begin to sit down and back. I recommend sitting up a little more towards the edge of the bolster so that the very top of the sits bones are right on the bolster. Some of you, this is gonna be enough. You might stay right here. It's enough to hold the knees, the thighs together and to sit back.

Otherwise, we're gonna begin to walk our hands back. Maybe lowering the back all the way down onto the bolster. Now the knees and the thighs for most of us will come apart and they will lift. Just allow the knees and the thighs to lift at their lifting. If you can bring your hands onto your heels, feel the openness here of the chest.

Breathe. We're here for just a moment. Be where you are in the breath. Don't worry about what the shape looks like. Ian is not an aesthetic practice.

If you feel that you're creating space, which might feel quite uncomfortable in this moment, you're doing it right. Breathe from the belly, up to the ribs, up to the chest. Take a big full breath in. Big exhale. Slow. If you're all the way back, use your hands on your heels to press yourself up.

Try to stay seated in the supta virasana or the reclined Heroes pose. And then begin to press yourself up. You can push your bolster off to the side, finding your hands and your knees, take your time. We'll begin to circle out the hips and move it around. Circle the other way if you haven't.

And then let your knees come nice and wide. Send your hips back to your heels, just finding a wide need child's pose, forehead rest on the earth. There may be some tentativeness, some tenderness to the low back after that shape. So just allow the weight of the sits bones to naturally move back towards the heels as the body is ready. No pushing, no forcing.

So allow the breath as it moves into the belly to swirl around to the side ribs, and to fill the back of the body. See five more breaths. Gently. As you're ready, press yourself up onto your hands, onto your knees. It will probably feel really nice to circle out the hips. A few times one way.

And a few times the other way. And let's come to sit on our shins or if you prefer sukhasana, perhaps sitting in a nice easy seat. But sitting up nice and tall, take your left hand onto your right thigh or onto your right knee. Bring your right hand behind you, lift through your chest, taking a big breath in. And then exhale very gentle seated twist to your right, allowing the left side of the belly to roll over to the right side.

Keep drawing the chin down towards the chest. With the head, let the neck be nice and easy. The twist and the turn comes from the navel. It's breathing here for another moment. And then go ahead and come back to center and just pause.

Take that in. And then we'll switch sides. So let your right hand find your left knee, your left thigh, your left hand comes behind you, lift your chest. So plugging the sits bones down into the earth. And then letting the spin, letting the turn and the twist come from the naval right side over to the left side.

Chin micro tucks into the chest, lots of length through the sides of the neck. I'm breathing and pausing. Few more breaths. And then go ahead and come back to center pausing one more time. Just taking that in.

And then closing the eyes, taking your right hand under your left armpit, your left hand onto your right shoulder. It's creating a nice somatic hug. A closed circuit so that we can have this real internal experience gazing and where just feel the space through the body. Noticing and being aware of any shifts, any changes in the body that you are noticing. Being aware of any points of tension of resistance that may still be present for you.

And with your awareness, invite them to relax, invite them to soften. And then we'll switch taking the left hand under the right arm pit, the right hand on the left shoulder. Take a big full breath in through the nose. Big sigh out. One more time. Inhale, fill up.

Xhale release. Release the arms down by the sides, palms face up. Take a moment to bow the head in towards the heart. And to seal in your effort, your practice, the blissful space that you have created today. With gratitude.

Thank you so much for sharing your practice with me today.

Comments

Sandra Židan
I really loved doing today's practice - especially the yin camel pose! Thanks, Justin, for sharing it with us! Namaste! ❤️🙏🥰🌸
Christel B
Enjoyed this calming practice. Any advice or alternatives for knees that may not want to bend that far any more in lying down hero pose?

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