Move & Settle

Hi, everyone. Welcome to your practice today. You'll need two blocks and a strap. We're gonna begin on our backs. So lie down, bending your knees first, and placing your feet on the mat.

You'll reach for your strap, and we'll place both feet in to the strap at the same time. So a little different way to straighten out the legs today, but you're gonna hold the strap in each one of your hands about shoulder width apart and both feet go in. Once the feet are in the strap, just bend your knees, drawing the knees in towards your body. And I'd like you to pay attention to your spine, so making sure the whole spine is flat on the mat. And especially the lower spine, breathe in deeply through the nose, feel yourself up.

And as you exhale, press your legs to straight. So you wanna draw the heels of your feet towards the ceiling and your toes towards your body. So if your hamstrings feel tight, you can always keep a slight bend in the knees. But we'll be here for a little bit. Let your shoulders relax.

As you breathe in, imagine filling your lower belly first, then the chest, all the way to the upper chest. And then when you empty an exhale, you're emptying from the upper chest. So from the upper lungs, mid lungs, lower lungs all the way back down to the lower belly. So we'll do that twice more. If you're feeling pretty open now in your hamstrings, you can always tug on your strap a little bit more and bring the legs in towards you a little bit more.

If it's too extreme, just stay where you are. It's like a reclined seated, a forward folds. What's nice about this is you have the support of the floor beneath your body. Wonderful. And then bend your knees. Remove the feet from the strap.

You can set your strap aside. We won't be needing it anymore. Hug both knees in, give them a squeeze. Extend your left leg long. Keep the right knee in.

Inhale through the nose. And as you exhale switch the legs so you're holding your left knee in and extending your right leg long. Great. And now place your arms alongside your body. Just let your hands rest down, inhale here. And exhale switch the legs again.

Draw the right knee into your chest extend the left leg long. And you can choose to let your left heel rest on the mat or hover the left heel over the mat a few inches, inhale, and the exhale switch. So we're epistoning the legs now, and we're just gonna inhale and switch and switch the legs are gonna move back and forth. As you're doing this, draw your lower belly towards the mat, keeping the back flat ish or in its natural curve. So it's not too arched.

The legs are just going back and forth. Try your chin in slightly towards your chest so the back of the next day is long. We'll go for five, four, three, two, and one hug your knees into your chest. This is a nice way to wake up your core. We're gonna come onto all fours.

So tabletop position into downward facing dog. So slight bend in the knees and your down dog. Draw the sit bones up and back. Take a breath in for the nose and exhale straighten your legs any amount. Feel the backs of your legs. Your hamstrings are open.

Your calves. Come up high onto your toes, and at the exhale bend the knees and step up to the top of your mat. Inhale halfway up, breathing in. Exhale fold. Reach up, inhale.

Hands to your heart. We'll take one round of sun salute a inhale, reach up. Exhale fold. Inhale halfway. Step back and move through your vinyasa, exhaling in Chaturanga, inhaling in your backbend of choice, exhaling to downward facing dog.

Pause here, breathe in, and breathe out. Come up high on your toes, bend the knees and step up to the top of the mat. Arda, uhtanasana fold. Reach up, breathe in. Hands to your heart.

Great. So you're gonna set up your blocks at the top of the mat. And even on your mat, the highest height. And you'll take a little step back from there. Join your feet together, bend the knees, inhale into utkatasana. So pausing to draw the shins back.

See if you can drop your hips a little more and deepen the creases of your hips. Scoop your lower belly up towards the heart, lengthen your tailbone to the earth, and then join your hands here in front of your heart. Cause it's nice to just find a spot to gaze at here just out in front of you. Keep your gaze there. Put a little more weight into your right foot and lift the left one off the mat.

You're gonna start to draw your left knee a little closer to your chest. You're gonna start to also feel your right glute and quadricep turn on. That's a good thing. And then from here, pitch your chest forward, start to extend your left leg back. We're in a short warrior three.

But feel your core intelligence here. Lift the naval to the spine. And then let your hands come down onto your block so this is a supported warrior three. You can always soften the right knee a little bit. Draw your right hip back.

Firm your left leg. Make that leg even straighter. Take one more breath. Reach your sternum forward. And as you exhale soften your elbows and fold over your right thigh.

So it's a standing splits. Feeling the back of that right leg. And then straighten your elbows, inhale, reach your chest forward. As you exhale bend your right knee, step your left foot all the way back. So you're in a runner's lunge, we might have to scooch that right foot forward a little bit.

We're gonna set up for pyramid pose. Your back foot hops in about a quarter of the way in. Or third. And then your back heel will flatten. Keep your hands on the blocks. Inhale.

Reach your sternum forward. Square the hips to the front of your mat. Exhale and soften the elbows to fold over that right thigh. Just let your head hang your neck relax. Just soothing your system here, the nervous system coming into these deep forward folds. And reach your sternum forward breathing in.

Reebend your front knee. Slide your left foot back. So you're in a lunge again. Move your blocks to the side. We're gonna step back into a three legged downward dog.

Take your right leg up and back. Inhale. Bend that knee, open the hip. It's like a big yawn on the right side of the body. Ben straighten your right leg, square off the hip to the mat, lower your foot. Optional vinyasa. So those of you taking vinyasa shifting forward, inhale.

Lower Chaturanga. Back bend of choice is a breath in feel the tops of your feet and your hands, press down. Exhale to downward facing dog. Take a deep breath in through your nose. Full breath out.

Inhale your high toes. XL bend the knees and step up. At the top of the mat, breathe in as you come up halfway. Breathe out to fold. Right into chair pose.

And stand up, hands to your heart. Alright. So set up your two blocks one more time. We get to do that on the left side. So inhale into utkatasana. Right away, you wanna feel your core engagement, bringing your hands to your heart.

Transfer the weight into that left foot, lift your right. Draw that right knee up higher towards your chest. How is your breath? You'll pitch your chest forward. Extend that right leg back for a short visit in warrior three.

Your blocks are there for support. So let your hands lower to the blocks. In here, you might wanna draw your left hip back a little bit more. Firm and lift that right leg, even higher, stay and breathe. Draw the front part of your abdomen to the back of the body.

Inhale here. And as you exhale, soften your elbows and fold over your left thigh for standing splits. And halfway up, lifting inhale. Bend that front knee step your right foot all the way back. We're gonna sit up for pyramid pose. So your front leg straightens, that back foot may or may not need to hop in for you to flatten it onto the mat, your hips square, inhale lengthen all four sides of your waist.

Exhale and soften the elbows, fold over that right thigh one more time. And halfway lift, breathe in. Bend your front knee, slide your right foot back so you're in a lunge, move your two blocks. Three legged downward dog inhale your left leg. Live, bend the knee, open the hip. Square that hip off again.

Lower that left foot, optional final vinyasa. We'll meet in downward facing dog. Pause here. Just feel the backs of your legs. The calm in the mind.

So you'll lower your needs to the mat when we're gonna set up for plow pose. And before we do that, I'm just gonna give you an option in case you don't want to go into plow. You can always take a supportive bridge and place in the block underneath your pelvis. If you are taking plow pose, Start with the knees bent and your arms alongside your body. So what we wanna feel here is that the spine is pressing down. Your shoulders are relaxed.

And we'll bring the knees into the chest. So you're gonna use your arms here to help you. You're gonna press down and swing your legs up and over the body. So your feet are gonna touch down to the space behind your head. And I'm gonna start with the knees bent.

So just remembering what we did early in class when we had both feet in the strap. You can bend your knees here before you straighten the legs all the way. Your arms are still very much actively pressing down into the mat. That's gonna help get your hips a little further forward. Like right above the ribcage.

So your knees can stay bent the whole time, or you can begin to straighten your legs. Coming into plow pose, Don't worry if your feet don't touch down behind you. You can always do this pose with your knees bent. Come back to noticing the breath and breathing to fill the lower lungs, the mid lungs, the upper lungs. And empty from the upper lungs, mid lungs to lower lungs.

If your legs are straight, begin to bend your knees. You're gonna take your time to exit. Start to roll your spine back down onto the mat. You can use your hands here for support. Taking your time, one vertebra at a time, rolling back down to the mat.

And once the whole spine is touching down, you could place your feet on the mat again. If you're in supportive bridge, just take that block out from underneath you. We're gonna go into fish pose. So straighten your legs out in front of you. We're gonna slide the hands underneath the pelvis, underneath the sit bones.

Both hands press down. And support the pelvis. Feel your forearms and your elbows. You're gonna push into the mat, lift the chest, and come on to the crown of the head. So now your throat is what it feels like exposed to the sky, heart, chest, exposed, and lifted to the sky.

It's a great counter pose to plow pose. And then the exit is slow. So press your elbows and forms down, tuck the chin back in to lower your head onto the mat and slide the hands out from underneath your body. Please bend the knees and just place your feet on the mat to support your spine, your lower back. And just feel that afterglow from the pose, we'll cross the right leg over the left, shift your hips to the right, drop your knees to the left.

Bring yourself back to center and switch the crossing of the legs, hips left, knees right. And back to center, and you can straighten both legs out in front of you. Just resting your whole body onto the mat, onto the earth. Feel the whole front of your body softening. And please place one hand over your belly, one over your heart, resting your hands gently, and appreciating what your body has done for you today.

Thank you for sharing your practice with me. Namaste.