Side Body: Lift and Lengthen

Hello, everyone. Welcome back to another practice. I'm so happy you're here with me today. Today for our class, you'll want a blanket and a thera band, and we're going to be preparing to do our side angle pose. With a bunch of things on our back as well as standing to get our side body engaged and some core muscles warmed up for our practice today. So let's meet, with a blanket folded, to put underneath your head when you get down to the floor.

And we'll keep a thorough bend close by as you meet me here on your back. And I always like to do just a few moments of grounding with the support of the floor, the earth underneath us. And if you like having the fingertips on the belly area, you might join me here this way, elbows out to the sides. So you feel your shoulders have, more opportunity to drop back towards the earth. And if you like closing your eyes, you might join me also here in closing the eyes and trying to relax all the facial muscles, the lighting and the support underneath you.

And as we feel, again, a little more of that support underneath us, we might automatically notice we're taking those more satisfying inhale exhale breaths. And even feeling that deeper ripple of movement down towards your belly as we fill up the chest and the abdomen on the inhale, and empty out the center as you exhale and take that moment. Maybe without the breath moving in or out, we just take that moment to pause at the end of the exhale into the stillness that's there. Before we fill up again on inhale and exhale back to that feeling of stillness. We feel grounded.

Now, we're ready to start to move. You might have your eyes open. And let's go ahead and tilt your knees into your hands since we'll be working with the hips a bit today. Let's circle each leg independently for a moment. Just to feel how the femurs are moving in the ball and socket joints.

K. And then we'll bring the legs back together and put your feet on the floor. And now let's try something like that for each leg as we grab our thera band and put it around the bottom of your right foot. Let's take that right leg up in the air first and maybe pull the band a little bit against your foot so you can anchor your elbows on the ground. Okay. We're gonna circle now just the right leg and feel more specifically how our right femur is moving in the ball and socket joints. Alright. Focusing on that.

One more circle. And then release some of that stiffness and let's switch. Put your left foot up. Take your right foot down. Again, pull the band against your foot, anchor your elbows. And try circling your left leg.

Let's do a couple more rotations just to feel how this left femur is moving in your ball and socket joint. Alright. Now let's go ahead and swing that leg up in the air. Open your arms a little wider so you can put your right foot up beside your left foot. K. Hold on to the ends of your resistant band. And as you pull tighter. Let's see if you can bring your arms down to meet the floor. So when we do side angle, sometimes we wanna feel our shoulders are along the same plane. So it kinda feels like this.

Flout your arms up. And again, let's bring your arms back down and beat the floor. Also, really great for posture. Arms up. And pull down and hold.

Float your arms up. I'm gonna do two more. Pull down and hold. Arms up. Something I hope you do regularly. Pull down holds.

Hopefully, notice that feels pretty good. Stay here. And then take your arms up. Now, maybe wrap some of the band around your hands depending on, the length of the band that you have. And we're gonna keep your arms straight up above your shoulders, palms face each other.

And let's bend your knees as you stretch your arms straight back. And then have your legs up in the air, arms again up above your shoulders. Bend your knees, pull your arms back towards your ears. Great side lengthening stretch legs arms up, lower your heels, pull your arms back, legs arms up, and two more, lower your heels, arms back, legs up arms up, and lower your heels, stretch the arms back, and then legs up. Alright. From here, let's open your arms again wide and take your arms out to the side And then as your arms come back towards your ears, let your legs lower a little bit in front of you.

Lags float up, arms are out about 45 degrees. Let your arms sweep towards your ears a little bit, legs forward, legs up, arms out about 45 degrees. Let's just do two more. Lakes forward arms back, neutral. One more time. Lakes forward arms back.

Just a little core waking up. When you're back to neutral now, let's open your feet about hip distance apart and cross your band. And after you've crossed the band, anchor your elbows back to the floor, and we're simply gonna push your feet out wider. And then bring your legs back towards parallel. Press your feet out and come back together.

Push out together. Press out And together, a couple more propping the legs, the hips, for some of our standing poses, again, out, and in, we'll do one more. Push out, and come back in. You know, let's uncross the bands and bring your elbows back to the floor as you push your feet out a little wider like happy baby and bend your knees and here we are in happy baby. Keep your left leg bent.

We're gonna just press your right leg out to the side, and then rebend your knee. Same leg. Push out to the right two. Repend your knee. Push out three. Bound your knee.

Press out four. Ban your knee. And last one, five. Okay. Kinda like you're doing warrior two or side angle. Keep your right leg as it is. Now left leg, press out to the left.

Rebend your knee. Push out two. Rebend. Three. Rebend.

And four. Rebend that knee. Last one, press out through that left leg. And then back to center. Let's go ahead bring your knees closer together and let's slide that band off to the side just for a seconds. We're gonna flip over onto your right side.

Okay. And as you do, we can go ahead and move your blankets out of the way. And hold on to an end of the band with your maybe right hand. Okay. You're gonna have straight legs or straight ish legs. It's okay if they're a little bit bent. As you keep your right arm straight, hold your left arm up into the air above your shoulder. And if you need more lift, put your blanket on top of your right arm.

K. Otherwise, we're gonna work some of those side oblique muscles. Hold on tight with your right arm. And bring your left arm down towards your side, and then arm back up. If you want more challenge, you keep wrapping more band around your hand. Pull down two.

Go up. Going down three. Up. Coming now four. Up and five.

And come up. K. Really some of that tensions. When your legs around, And I'm gonna get to the second side. I'm gonna keep facing you. You might just flip over whatever is easiest for you.

So when you come down, gather a bunch with your left hand. Rest your head on your arm or put a blanket there. Pretty straight legs. Right arm in the air above your shoulder. K. So same thing. We're gonna pull down one.

Adjust accordingly to the shoulder. Pull down two. Arm up. Pull down three. Arm up, and pulling down four, arm up, and five.

Okay. Go ahead and release that tension, and now we're gonna come on up And let's stay with the knees pointing to the left and your feet a little bit over to this right side. Okay. Now we're gonna gather a bunch of that band with your left hand with that hand on the floor and gather the other end with your right hand. I like wrapping it around my hands. Maybe you do too. So we're gonna pull the arm out in front of you and then we're gonna travel over to the right side of the room and then bring your arm back to the left.

So you're pulling forward and opening to the right. Keep that tension, reach to the left, and open to the right. Eight two more, reach to your left, open to the right. Okay. One last time. Reach to the left, and then pull open to the right.

Okay. As you come forward, undo some of that band tension, swing your legs forward, and we'll go right over to your second side. So legs are over on the left, and maybe you wrap some of the band around your right hand, and then some of the band around your left hand. Okay. So we're gonna pull the band forward. So there's some tension. Open up to your left, and then back to the right.

Pulling open to the left. And holding there. Reach back to the right. Opening three. Reach back out to the right.

Open to the left. And one more, opening up to that right side. And then take your arm down. Now, let's swing your legs straight out in front of you and put the band around the bottom of your feet. K. As you stretch your legs out straight, pull a little bit, of the band against your feet to create a little resistance, and that might help you sit right on top of your sit bones. Let's pull your right hand back towards your waist and look to the right.

And then face forward. Left hands, pulls back, look towards the left, and look forward. K. Now both hands back towards your hips, and then arms forward. Again, the right hand pulls back. A little rotation.

Look forward. Left hand back. A little rotation. Face forward, and we'll pull both hands back towards your hips. Again, just really good for your posture. Arms forward. One more time. Right hand back. Rotate.

Look forward. Left hand back. Rotate. Look forward. And then we got both hands going back. And forward. Alright. Let's take the band off your feet and go ahead and cross your legs, and we're gonna take your band and sit on it. And as best you can, try to sit about the middle of your band. So you've got some on the ends here to pull out.

K. Once you're sitting in a good way and if you it's difficult to cross your legs, you could also have your legs straight. Let's put your right hand down and we're gonna take our left arm up and up above the shoulder chest area, and then maybe reach a little bit over to your right side. From here, let's bend your elbow and then stretch your arm again straight, staying in that side bend. Bend your elbow. And then stretch up two, bend your elbow and stretch up three, bend the elbow going up four.

Let's do one more bend your elbow and press up five. Okay. Goodness up. Ready for side angle. Take that left arm down, pull the right arm up, and then start to stretch up above the chest or a little bit over to your left side. K. Then bend your elbow, and then pressing up too.

Bend the elbow, going up and over three, bend your elbow up and over four, bend your elbow, and then up and over five. Alright. Arm down. Let's go ahead for a moment and slide your band off to the side. We'll get back to that shortly. And as we spin it around, let's go ahead and grab your blankets.

This will be useful under your knees for this next part. And maybe put your blanket right about the center. So if you have your hands under your shoulders, just for a moment, to make a few circles with your hips, after swaying your hips side to side, couple basic little circles. Up through the ribs and shoulders, just organic free movement. And then we're gonna maybe bring your knees now a little bit closer together and swing your right foot a little back like kickstand as we get ready for a little side angle variation here with your left foot on the floor and your right hand under your right shoulder.

So side plank as the left arm comes up right above the shoulder chest area. Now, let's start to bring your left arm towards your ear and round and arch through the left side of your body, and then take your arm up, and let's float your foot off the floor. So now you're more neutral through your side torso. Bring your left foot down arch, mindfully, do that left side, and then come back floating your foot up, and we've got a neutral engaged core. Left foot down arch, mindfully.

And then we're coming back toward neutral. Take your foot down. Let's turn back to face the floor in tabletop. Now, let's do the other side. I'll go ahead and turn around to face y'all.

Swing your left foot a little back and have your right leg, right foot connected to the floor for side plank. Take your right arm up in the air, and we'll come to that arch version with your right arm coming towards your ear. And then float your right leg as you lift your arm up neutral core. Right foot down, arch, mindfully. Float your foot up, arm up, holds.

And we touch down with our foot, do that arch round, and then lift your foot, your arm up and hold. Okay. Take your foot and arm down. They're gonna swing back around to your tabletop position. Let your toes curl under here. And then from tabletop, lift your knees up, plank.

And let's take a moment, swinging our hips up and back into our downward facing dog. As you bend a knee, drop the opposite heel, and just stretch out a little bit through the back of the legs here. Maybe after the next moment or two, we'll walk your feet a little bit towards your blanket, hands towards the blanket, and let's fold up your blanket and set that to the side. As you grab your band and will come up to stand. Okay. In your standing position, let's face the long side of your mat and have your feet open up a little bit wider than your shoulders.

Take the band to the back of your shoulder area and we're gonna turn our toes out and start to come down into your legs in the goddess position. Keep your elbows parallel for a moment, and then we're gonna open the arms out to the side, so your forearms are parallel to the floor. Let's stretch your arms out straight and then bring the elbows in. Let your arms open out wider, elbows in. Arms out.

And in, feel that widening through the back body. Ground it through the legs. Open elbows in. Let's do one more after this one. Let's your elbows straighten and hold just for an extra moment, bring your elbows in, straighten your legs and bring your arms down.

Okay. Point your feet forward for a moment, and let's put the band underneath your left heel. Let your legs open a little bit wider, maybe a little wider than your shoulders, and have the left hand hold the band out to the side, right hand on your thigh. And let's start to stretch your left arm up as you anchor the band with your heel. So that left leg is active as you reach to your right. And then you're back out to the side with your arm.

Again, reaching over to your right side and hold the band out arching three And then the arm out to the side. And we're going to four. Arm out to the side. And last one, five. And release. Now, take your arm down and let's go a little bit wider with your feet.

Turn your right foot out as you bend your knee. And we're gonna bring the band over to your right hand as your left hand stays at the waist. Now, we're gonna take this right arm. We're gonna pull out to the right as you anchor through your back heel and then come back up to neutral. Let's reach again out to your right while anchoring through your back heel.

Come up, and let's reach out three. Like, think through that right side. Reach out four. Okay. Strong legs grounding. Come up, and last one, reaching out to the side.

Excellent. Okay. Now, go ahead and put the band back in your left hand. Open that left arm out to the side. And from here, we're gonna come into a side angle as you take your right forearm to your thigh and stretch a little further through that left side of your body. Okay. Take your arm back up above your shoulder, chest. And let's again reach long through that left side.

Take just the arm up. One more time stretch long through that left side and take a moment and join again the grounding of both feet stretching long through that left side of your body. Okay. Let's come up and out. Turn your right foot in, bring your legs closer together and give your legs a little rest there. Okay. Now, the the band goes under your right heel feet about shoulder distance apart.

Okay. So let's hold the band out to the sides. And we'll keep your left hand on your thigh. We're gonna go up and over to your left. Stretching that right side body. Up and over to your left too.

Back out to the side, up and over three. Hopefully you love the way that feels, up and over four. So good. Then one more time, up and over five. And then back out to the side. Okay. Now, let your, maybe, left leg a little further out, turn your toes out, set up for side angle.

And we're gonna take your band into your left hand and have your right hand at your hip. So from here, we're gonna reach out to your left and make sure you're grounding through your right heel and then tip back up. Going out two, getting longer through that left side. Come out. And three stretch it out.

Back up. And four. Reach out. One more time and five. Engaging legs and core.

Right. Now, when you come up, band goes back to your right hand. Open out to the side. Can bring your left forearm to your thigh, and then stretch your right arm over, over to the left side of the room. And then take your arm up more straight above your shoulder. And then the side angle part, reaching down towards your ear. Go back up straight above the shoulder, and one more time, hold as you sink a little bit more into your feet.

Really anchoring your back heel so that band doesn't pop up. And then let's slowly tip back up. Bring your feet parallel, heel, toe legs and feet towards each other, and then shake out your legs a little bit. Take your band one more time, up around the back of your shoulder area. So as we are facing forward, feed a little closer together.

From here, we're going to bring your arms forward as you lift your left knee up Let's open the arms wide as you come to tree pose. Bring your knee and arms forward, and we're back to neutral. This is for focus. As you bring your arms forward, get ready to focus, as you balance and lift your right knee, open your leg for tree, arms out to the side, knee up, arms forward, elbows in. Alright. Now, let's do one more. Arms forward, left knee up, open up wide, we come to our tree, knee forward, arms forward, and we're back to neutral. Okay.

Arms out. Right knee up. It's come to your tree, knee forward, arms forward, and we did it. Alright. Go ahead and bring your arms down. Couple roles for your shoulders. Alright. Let's go ahead from here and bring your legs a little closer together and we are going to set the band down for just a moment.

We will get back to that. Grab your blanket if you will again and come down to meet me here with your blanket down about the middle of your mat. Your hands might appreciate now meeting the floor here as we point the toes straight back. Let's take your left hand, a hand print over to the left and your right hand on top of your left hand. When you tip your hips back towards your heels and your head lowers between your arms, we'll get hopefully a nice stretch to that right side of your shoulders, waist, lower back, glute area.

Take one more moment, letting your hips stretch a little bit back towards your heels. Come forward back to tabletop and see your right hand go just a tiny bit to the right, left hand on top. Swing your hips back a few inches to find that stretch now through the left side of your body. You had hanging down. Hopefully appreciating that stretch all the way from the shoulder back down towards your lower back.

When you're ready, let's start to bring our body forward and come back just for a moment in your tabletop. Just do a little cat cow for a moment arching and rounding, getting your hips, your spine, your shoulders all moving together. And after our arching and rounding, let's go ahead and and send your feet over to any side and we'll sit on your blankets. As you come to sit on your blanket, swing your legs in front of you. Let's bring the soles of your feet to me, and now we want our resistant band one more time.

And we're gonna put them around the bottom of the feet Sometimes you might do that with a strap, a yoga strap. And as we reach our hands pretty close to our feet, let's from here, bring your elbows back towards your waist as you pull a little bit forward. So your keeping your chest open as you tip to that forward position and then lean a little bit back with your arms more straight. So as you tip forward, you're pulling your elbows and hands back so you've got an open chest, almost like a backbend, and then you lean back, you're sitting up good posture. So a couple more of those.

Pull your elbows back as you lean forward. And, straighter arms, your back to neutral spine. Elbows back, do our tip, lean back. K. So it's kind of nice, for better posture as we're trying to get to our forward bends. And you feel maybe a little bit of effort in the arms.

Let's do two more to pull back as you tip forward. Release the arm sit up tall. One last one. Pulling back. Tip forward.

And then release here. Alright. Let's go ahead and move your band out to the side and go ahead and slide off your blanket and set that where your head goes as you come down towards the floor. And as you take a moment to set your cell down here, let's go ahead and tilt your legs towards you. And as you send the knees out to the side, stretch your legs up in the air straight with your hands on the inner knees. And squeeze the legs to parallel.

Lakes open out, just finish it with a nice stretch for the hips, come parallel with the legs, ankles flex as you reach out, squeeze to parallel. Open out, and squeeze to parallel. One more time, open the legs out, squeeze to parallel, and then put your feet on the floor. And let's slide your hands under the back of your head and lace your elbows, lace your fingers together. That would be some trick to lace your elbows.

Okay. Let your knees open wide. Soles of the feet touch. We'll get our shoulders, spine, hips moving together as we squeeze the knees together, lift your head and curl up. Elbows are parallel. Lower back down to the floor.

Do that curling up, legs arms parallel. Roll down. Curle up. A different way to recenter ourselves. Roll down.

And let's do three more. Curling up one. And roll down, curl up two, knowing our shavasana is near, cold, curl down, last one, curl up. And then stay down, release your arms out to your side, and just a brief moment letting your legs maybe come all the way down to the floor. Couple of full, comfortable exhales as you let all of your weight sink down into the floor, into the earth here.

Little gratitude for all that you were able to do today and the practice for getting to the mat and for paying attention throughout the practice. He knows how it feels to be in the present moments. Wait. Let's go ahead and try to take the sense of ease that we hopefully feel in this Shavasana with us as we bend the legs. As you get ready to turn over to any sides, and eventually all the way back up towards sitting. It's when your legs back out in front of you.

Might even gather your blanket again to have a little bit of support and lift under your hips. So wiggle into a comfortable seat here. Alright. And maybe if you like the hands in front of the heart center as a closing gesture, may others continue to benefit from our practice? Namaste.

Thanks for being here.