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Season 4 - Episode 5

Stay In the Hunch

45 min - Practice
13 likes

Description

With enthusiasm and humor, Heidi begins with a pattern to allow us to master the essential action of most vinyasa practices—stepping forward from Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward Facing Dog). We play with the rounding and lengthening of the spine to understand how to flow with light, spacious strength. We then flow through a creative sequence of balance and side bending, before closing with a spinal twist and relaxation. You will feel more energized and aware of your innermost resources.
What You'll Need: Mat, Block (2)

About This Video

Sep 19, 2015
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Transcript

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Hi, thanks for joining me today in this class. We're gonna look at changing levels, so how do we move from one level to the next? How does that happen? Let's explore it together. What you'll need for this practice is two blocks, and your mat, and your enthusiasm.

Come to all fours. Gazing at your mat set your hands nice and clearly. Feel weight evenly through both legs. Then just begin to move through what's called cat-cow. You can close your eyes.

You can add any additional movements. Just take some time here to connect to your breathing, and you're moving. Breathing and moving. The next time you're in cat stay in cat, and you shift right and left, and you let the movement kind of travel through your body. Notice where you feel it the most, but stay in the hunch.

You can let the head and the tail drop. Then come right into the center. Drop your head and your tail. Breathe out, and hunch as deeply as you can. Then breathe in, and stay in that deep hunch.

We're gonna look at the shape of it. Imagine that your tail and your head we're going to dive down into the floor under the mat into the earth, and connect, so you feel the circle of your spine. Move a little forward and back until you feel every bone in your spine. Then grab one of your blocks, bring it between your feet, and sit back on your block, and roll up to sitting. That was already like an impossible task, right?

How do you feel your spine? It takes a lot of imagination, and maybe it's even better to feel kind of cartoony about the spine like one bone, and then the other, and then the other, so we'll go again back to cat-cow. You can use your feet. The movements and the extra movements that occur, and then we'll stay in the hunch. You can use your breath strongly here.

Now you want to hunch which means you're bringing your front body strongly into your back body, but you don't want to crunch into narrowness, so be as wide as you can be in this shape of hunching. Bring your attention to your pubis, and then right behind it take that part of your gut back and up, like you could carve into the front of the sacrum. The front of the sacrum. The front of your lumbar spine. The front of your thoracic spine all the way up, up, up, up, up.

You can bring your chin strongly to your chest, but it's like you want water to pour over the crown of the head into the earth. Stay steady and breathe kind of exploring this hunch, and then as you exhale release it into the backbend. Exhale, tops of the feet on the floor, grab your block, sit back. Bring your hands together, and just roll your wrists like this, so what you're doing is you want to mush together every part of your wrist front and back, and once you get a hang of that do it kind of quickly. You could even nod your head, and then do it the other way.

Close your eyes and feel how light, and easy this makes your chest feel. You go back to all fours. Bring that feeling with you. Inhale into the backbend and exhale, forward bend, and stay in the hunch. Stay in the hunch, and make that spine round.

Also, make it long, so crown of the head under the floor connecting the tailbone that's going under the floor. As you breathe here, also, feel the wide aspects of it, so once you've cultivated the front into the back as much as you possibly can send it wide like a fountain going wide from the spine wrapping around, wrapping around, so you're more instead of just a wheel you're now a orb entirely circular and round. Keep that going. Curl your toes under. Breathe in, and as you breathe out just lift the knees off the floor.

Press the hands down. Lift the hips as high as you can with knees bent, and begin to draw the hips back, so you're pulling your dog out of the hunch. Play there. Try not to drop into cow at all, but really pull the legs back out of this lofty space of the upper chest. Bend the knees.

Bring your knees back to the floor. Relax your feet, inhale the cow, exhale, hunch, make it strong, make it round, make it deep without the crunch. Curl your toes under same gain pulling the dog out of the hunch. Hips up. Hips pulled back.

Side to the waist lengthen. There's still a sense of openness through the back of the upper chest, the back of the lungs as the legs go back exhaling. Inhale, come forward to plank. Adjust where your feet are, so you find an easy plank with your hands under your shoulders, and breathe here. Then by reaching your heels back, and the crown of the head forward pull all the tension out of any bit of tension that might have sort of brewed up in your hunching, so let it extend and leave the body.

Take a breath in. Exhale the knees to the floor, and then bring your chest, and your chin to the floor. Slide through to cobra, and exhale, come down. Take another cobra, and make it really low, so you're on your front lower ribs, and then charge up the legs. Now you have really straight legs, and you can take a little kick.

Lengthen them, and then just be steady here with the spine in extension, the crown of the head reaching forward. Inhale, come a little higher, and then exhale, come back. Bring your big toes together, widen your knees, and come into Adho Mukha Virasana or Wide-Knee Child's Pose, and rock it out. Kind of going one side, and then the other. Before your really reach the arms feel the rocking motion of your torso hunching, getting that hunch out, and then finally creeping, the crawling the fingers forward until you can bring the head onto the floor.

Take a full breath in, and as you exhale settle the hips back. You might feel that you're almost overextended, but is there any way for the breath to fill into those long spaces that you've created? If not then you bring your hands back a little closer. Come to all fours, and step your right foot back. All five toes on the floor.

A long spine, take a breath in. As you exhale lift the right leg up. Kick that heel away from you, and find the extension of your spine. Take a breath in, go a little higher with that leg. As you exhale bring the knee-to-nose.

Stay here and breathe. How high can you go into the hunch? By pressing your hands down rounding your upper chest, and bringing that knee forward. Inhale, shoot that leg straight back. Exhale, come into the hunch.

Inhale, leg back. Exhale, hunch. Last time, leg back. Exhale, hunch strongly in. Really curl that tailbone down, and forward head down.

As you inhale look forward. Just place the blade of your shin on the floor. Face goes forward, elbows bend, and you can bow your head to the floor. As you lift your back leg find the length of that back leg reaching, and then bring it to the floor. Walk back to all fours.

Inhale, backbend, and exhale forward bend, hunching, mutual spine. Extend your left leg back. Toes on the floor. Lift the leg but watch that you don't do any sort of bending in your arms, or shortening of your waist. Both sides long, inhale here, go a little higher, exhale, hunch strongly.

Stay here and breathe, so you can encourage the folding of that left leg into. It's like that leg is landing gear that's being brought into the fuselage of the body. Exhale, extend, inhale, exhale back into the hunch. Keep the breath moving. Inhale, extend, and exhale hunch.

Go a little deeper, a little higher, a little wider. Then lay that shin on the floor, look forward, undo the spine. Go for it, be brave. Back foot lifts, and you bow the head to the floor. Find the extension of the back leg, and come up, and come back to all fours.

Take your block. Sit back in Virasana. Roll your wrists again. You can close your eyes. Find this soft feeling through the chest, so the hunch is a powerful feeling.

You want to balance it with this kind of easy fluidity. Now we're gonna take these blocks, and place them at the front of your mat as wide as your hands are gonna be in downward-facing-dog. A little bit back from the front. Make sure they're on the same level. Curl your toes under.

Breathe in, take the backbend, and go into the hunch, exhale, so it's quite different when you're up on blocks. You can really get a little higher. You want to bring that breastbone into the spine, and then be wide, wide, wide, wide, wide. Inhale, exhale. Lift the knees up, and you let the hips and the legs move out of the hunch.

Find steadiness, find balance. Take your right leg back and up. As that leg goes up look at your left knee, and bring it back down. Keep your eyes on the left knee, and don't let the knee turn towards the right. As you lift the right leg you want to really wrap the outer left hip back.

Full breath in here, exhale, come into the hunch. Go ahead, go way up on your tippy-toes, and lift the landing gear into the body. Inhale, take the right leg back and up without internally rotating your left leg. Exhale, come into the hunch. Last time, inhale back and up.

Exhale, hunch, hunch, hunch, hunch, hunch more, hunch more, look forward. Bring the leg forward, and step the right foot lightly on the floor. Exhale, take a little bounce. Sweep now your right arm back, and reach it back until your chest opens, and you feel that right shoulder blade moving down the back. Press that shoulder blade down.

Take the right arm up, bounce in the legs, but feel the openness of the chest. Sweep the right arm forward. Bring the hand to the floor. Press into that back leg just slide your right foot back to downward-facing-dog. Inhale, come forward to plank, and exhale, dog.

Left leg, so watch the right knee. The tendency is that the right side collapses, or we just sort of go off line. Stay on line as if you're on skis, so that right outer hip pulls back. Inhale, exhale, hunch. Take it as far forward as you can.

Lift the knee high. Pull it into the chest. Inhale and exhale. Take the leg back, inhale. Outer right thigh strongly back, and exhale, knee to chest, all the way in.

Last time, out and up, breathing in. Exhale, pull it forward, pull it forward, pull it forward, pull it forward, look forward, push off the back foot, and land on the left leg. Take a bounce. Right hand stays down. Sweep your left arm back.

Reach it, let that open the chest. Shoulder blade down the back. This other one needs a little attention, too, sometimes, so both shoulder blades down the back, and then they go wide. Breathing in take the turn, gazing up, a little bounce. Take the hand forward, gaze forward.

Inhale to plank, and exhale, dog. Bring your knees to the floor, and sit on your heels. Turn your hands. You could do that kind of more freely now because you do want to feel the power of the upper chest, but not power in this kind of brute force way. A light open way is a lovely way to feel strength.

We're gonna keep the blocks here. Come back to downward facing dog. Keep an eye on that left leg. Sweep the right leg back and up breathing in, exhale, knee-to-nose. Push off the back foot, look forward, and step your right leg on the floor.

Lift your hips. Drag your right leg back downward-facing-dog. Do the same thing again. Right leg back end up inhale. Exhale, push off the back foot.

Step that leg through to a lunge, and then lift the hips, and pull your right leg back to downward-facing-dog three times, inhale, right leg back and up. Exhale, knee-to-nose. Look forward, step the foot on the floor. There you are, take a bounce. Sweep the right arm back and up, inhale, bring it forward.

Inhale to plank. Exhale, downward-facing-dog. Left side inhale. Left leg back and up. Right leg square.

Exhale, knee-to-nose. Push off, step forward, look forward. Lift the hips, pull your left leg back, downward-facing-dog. Inhaling, left leg back. Right outer hip back, exhale.

Knee-to-nose, hunch. Push off the back foot. Step on the front leg it's a lunge. Lift the hips. Slide the left leg back, downward-facing-dog.

Last time, left leg back, and up breathing in. Exhaling, hunch. Look forward, push off step. Take a bounce in the hips. Sweep your left arm back, and then all the way up and around.

Bring the hand to the floor. Come to plank, and then move to downward-facing-dog. Bring your knees to the floor. Clear the blocks. The blocks give you this great height that you don't always have for that very kind of challenging moment of stepping one leg forward.

We'll do it together three times. You might find that you need to use your hand to bring that leg all the way forward use it. It's just an experiment of kind of using the back leg into the front leg moving from one leg to the other when they're so wide, and then taking them back. It's a lot of back and forth movement, kind of shifting weight forward and back. Let's have fun.

Downward-facing-dog. Taking the right leg back and up, breathing in. Exhale, go hunch, hunch, hunch. Push the floor away, look forward. Step that right leg forward.

You don't even have to move it if it doesn't, if it gets almost there I wouldn't move it. Just play with where it is. Bounce the hips. Drag the right leg back, downward-facing-dog. Make it fluid all the way through, inhale, exhale, hunch, hunch, hunch.

Look forward, push forward, and there you are. Bounce it out, don't worry about it. Go back downward-facing-dog. Third time inhaling, exhaling, hunch, look forward. Step the foot, bounce, sweep your right arm back and up.

Take in the space. Inhale to plank. Exhale, knees, chest, chin. Inhale, sweep through to cobra, and downward-facing-dog. Left side, inhale, back end up.

Exhale, strong hunch, push off. Step forward, bounce, and drag the leg back. Way back and up, inhale. Exhale, hunch, push off, step through, bounce. Come up on your fingertips if you need to, and move back downward facing dog.

Downward facing dog split, inhale. Exhale, hunch, step it forward and bounce. Left arm sweeps back, and up, and forward. Inhale-plank-knees-chest-chin. Slide through cobra, and come sit on your heels.

That's the game, right? So where is that back-forth, back-forth, but never forgetting the sense of width, the sense of breath. Okay, let's move on, so we're gonna take it now to standing. Downward-facing-dog. I'll add this, all right.

Very often, we'll go through it. What we've been doing so far is hips really even. Now I'll give you the openness of the hip, so get downward-facing-dog. A nice long dog. That means lots of space between your hands and your feet.

Right leg sweeps back and up. When your hip starts to open, and that right leg goes up powerfully reign your outer left thigh back. Reach that right leg as high as you can. Inhale here, exhale like a spring, knee-to-nose, look forward, step the foot forward, and then stay here. Heel toe kind of sneak it.

Your right foot to the right just an inch. Reach your left heel back and down. Come up onto your fingertips, stay here. This back and forth movement can help to just ease the hips to where they need to be. Think about hugging your legs into the mid-line.

Sweep your left arm forward and up, and open to Warrior II, and then this back and forth movement. What is this really about? How's my back foot? How's my front foot? What's in between?

Find that feeling, and this is the softness of the lungs. It's not like yoga. Let it all go. Feel the fluidity. Drop that right thigh as far as you can.

Maybe parallel to the floor. Sweep your right arm up, and then inhale go up, but as you reach your gaze, and your right arm up drop your right thigh more. Then trace your fingers back along the ceiling, follow with your gaze as far back as you can. Then inhale and go up into that space. Sweep it far enough forward.

You really want to take the whole chest forward, forward, forward, and then you'll have to spin the back heel up, hands on the floor. Then you go more forward, and forward, and forward. It's either Chaturanga, or knees-chest-chin. Upward-facing-cobra, and downward-facing-dog. Breathe here, I have to catch my breath.

Left side, steady in the right leg. Keep your eye on that. That's really important. As your left leg goes back and up wrap the outer right thigh back even more. Lift your left leg as high as it's gonna go, and then exhale, knee-to-nose, look forward, step on it.

Heel-toe and to the left, and turn your right heel down. Feel the floor, feel the down. Feel the legs hugging into the mid-line, and then your right arm sweeps forward and up to Warrior II. Back and forth. How's the back foot?

How's the front foot? Is there communication between the two? How do you feel in the hips? How deeply can you go, but feel both feet? Arms are wide.

Left thigh drops, left arm goes up. Then make more space between those two points. Soften that left hip down. Left arm how wide, how open, how airy can your lungs be? Tracing the ceiling back, and then go up touch the ceiling, and then you reach for the side wall away from you.

That will take your weight forward. You turn the back heel up, and everything compresses into the mid-line. The hands are under your chest, leg slides back, Chaturanga. Up-face. Down-face.

Stay steady. Let's go all together moving. Right leg back and up. Lift it high. Let's add the bend of the knee.

Inhale-lengthen-exhale. Knee-to-nose-hunch-push-step, heel-toe, drop the back heel. Sweep to Warrior II, and you're up. Reverse Warrior. Go forward, don't go down, go forward like you want to touch something, or kiss something.

Up-face, down-face right to the other side. Left leg back and up. Open it, bend the knee. Lengthen and hunch. Push off the back foot.

Step and turn the back heel down. Sweep the right arm forward and up. Drop that left hip. Trace your fingers along the ceiling. Now as you reach out your back heel lifts, hands come to the floor.

Everything's soft. Up-face. Then down-face. Bend the knees, bring the knees to the floor. Rest for a moment in Child's Pose.

Take your hands onto your hips as if you were going to put your hands into your back pockets. Press your buttocks down. Drop your tail, and roll up to sit. Come to all fours. Curl your toes under.

Lift your hips downward-facing-dog. Inhale-exhale, bend the knees. Look forward and either jump, or step your feet to your hands. Inhale, lengthen your spine, and exhale, fold. Breathe out, draw that belly in as if you're going into a hunch.

Inhaling, bend the knees. Reach the arms back. Circle them up. Come to stand, and release your arms. Stand in Tadasana.

Turn your palms out, and sweep your arms up over head. Bend your knees at any time, so you keep the fluidity the kind of rhythm of the legs under the spine. Turn your palms away from each other, and slip your right wrist in front of your left, so your hands are together. Then begin to rock or climb, or reach the arms up. You can let your head fall forward.

Find that gravity line, and let the ribs hang, but try to rock the arms as high as you possibly can. Knit the legs together, and press your feet down into the floor, but dive your fingers up through the ceiling, and begin to take a side-bend. As you go look directly forward. Reach your hips to the left, and feel that spinal line opening, so the spine is curving. Imagine that your tailbone reaching right down through the feet, and your spine extended between your legs, so try to make a circle.

Breathe in, and as you breathe out look towards the floor a little bit. Then breathe in and out. Look straight forward, and then breathe in and out, and look up towards the ceiling. Come square center, inhale, exhale, come center, and up. Keep your fingers together.

Bend your elbows just a little bit, so clear your head, and then bring your hands down in front of you. The hands are together. Your fingers turned towards you. Move your fingers like this like it was Hawaiian dance. Really soft, really soft in the lungs.

The left arm is on top of the right. Exhale, and wrap them together. Maybe, maybe, maybe the hands come together, and you turn the hands around as many times as possible, so you have twining arms. Inhale-exhale-bend the knees. Fly your right arm out to the front.

Give it a good swing, and then step the foot onto your thigh. Breathing, balancing, or falling. Come back to your position, and then as you exhale you want to hook your elbows onto that thigh. Your vision splits. It's like your hands disappear.

Breathe in, breathe out, and hunch strongly. Draw your belly back, and widen the back body, and become an orb. Inhaling-exhaling, unwind. Roll the shoulders. Go to the other side.

Tadasana. Turn your palms out. Inhaling, take the arms up. Hands come together. Exhaling turn the palms away from each other.

Slip the left wrist in front of the right. Finger-pad to finger-pad. Then take the arms up. Unless you've had a dislocated shoulder it's really okay to pull the arms strongly up. Squeeze the wrist, squeeze the elbows, but soft and wide in the shoulders.

Take a little bounce every once in a while. Inhale, and exhale side bending now to the left. You can lay your head in your left arm. The spine goes down through your legs between your legs into the earth. Now you have like 148 vertebrae all articulating into a curve.

Breathing in and breathing out. Extending softly, look to the floor from this great height. It's like your jack on the beanstalk you're so tall. Exhale. Side inhaling and exhaling turn to the ceiling.

Can you see? It's not fake, right? You really want to see the ceiling. How would you do that here? It's fun, exhale, side-bend.

Inhale and exhale, come center. Bend the elbows, but keep your hands together, and bring your hands down in front of you. Then you turn your fingers forward. I like to make those noises when I practice because it reminds me to breathe. It reminds me of possibilities.

Wrap the arms. Right arm on top of the left. Hand-to-hand, just soften the elbows on the chest. You don't have to do anything with them. It's already so widening for the back, and then left leg flies forward and up.

You can swing it, and then catch it onto your right knee. You can always wrap the legs into that classical Garuda shape here. That will be fine. I like this one right now. Really open the front into the back.

That's the game. Stay in the hunch. I got a hunch. Balancing, hugging into the mid-line, but finding the freedom within the limitation. Inhale-exhale, unwind.

Tadasana. Come to the front of your mat. Sweeping the arms out and up gaze up, inhale, dive into the ceiling. Swan dive forward. Inhale-lengthen.

Exhale, stepping or jumping. Chaturanga Dandasana. Upward-facing-dog. Downward-facing-dog. You're gonna walk your feet further back, so make a really, really ridiculous long dog.

Now, you're gonna lift the heels, and just watch this. So, when you lift the heels you notice that my shoulders and head go forward, so instead of doing that you're gonna lift the heels, but not move the chest forward. You're gonna deepen the groin, and flare the sit bones to the ceiling, and then release the heels down. Do it again, heels come up, groins deepen, but the spine releases towards the floor. I'm going to show it to you.

I'm gonna do it right now. You can do it with me if you have a sense of it, but if you need one more eyeballing of it then watch this demonstration. Otherwise, you do it with me. A long dog, as long as you can possibly make. Without moving your shoulders forward you pull the heels forward, and the thigh bones lift, and the shins lift.

You can let the head go. Find the opening through the front of the spine. Let the head fall. Now take a breath here in, and as you exhale find your tailbone, and draw that tailbone down into the body. It's almost like you could look it, so you want to bring your tail to your head, your tail to your head.

You're going forward, forward, forward. Finally, upward-facing-dog. Push down on your toes. Pull your heels back downward-facing-dog, and do the whole shebang again. Not going forward in the shoulders, but letting the spine release.

Pulling the sit bones as high as you can inhale-exhale. Now tailbone comes down. It's like the tailbone goes into your central axis, and comes up, up, up, and you go through the hunch. Then you release, and it's upward-facing-dog. Push down the toes one more time, so much fun except when your mat's slipping.

Inhale, lift your hips up, tailbone, hunch. Downward-facing-dog, and you can rest. Resting as long as you need until your breath settles, until you feel the vibration in the chest settle. Now we go back to downward-facing-dog. Then you take downward-facing-dog split right leg back and up.

Lift it as high as you can. Contain the outer left thigh, and bend the right knee. Inhale here. Exhale, deep hunch, high hunch. Look, push off, and land the back heel.

Hug the thigh bones in toward the midline. Sweep up to Warrior II. Straighten the legs. Turn the feet parallel to each other. Turn your right foot in, your left foot out.

Take extended side angle pose any variation that you're comfortable with. Sweep that right arm overhead. Then look to the floor a little bit. Open the backside seam. Open the side, side seam.

Open the front side seam. What is your tendency? Are you a huncher, or a flarer? Find your mid-line for right now. Breathe fluffy lungs, deep groins.

Then inhale and come to stand. Turn the feet parallel to each other. Take your hands to your hips. Inhale, roll the chest up. Roll the chest forward and out.

Take your hands to the floor right under your shoulders. Hug the feet toward each other. Extend your spine into its length. Bend your right leg, and then bend your left leg. Come to square center.

Keep the legs as they are. Your feet don't move, your legs don't move. Walk your hands towards the front of your mat, so towards your right foot. Keep hugging that left thigh back. Look forward, inhale.

As you exhale can you walk that left hand around a little further? You want to really pull back in your inner left thigh, and reach the left arm forward. Then breathe in. Let the chest lift. Turn your right toes forward, and spin your left heel up, and then we're into a little lunge.

Right arm, dive it down under your right thigh. Take the fingers to the floor, and you can take this bounce because you want to find the place where everything fits together. Nothing's pulling wide, so you want to wrap the outer right thigh back, and reach through the left heel. If you're steady here that's fine. You can ride in the arms.

You can take the arms off the floor. Is there an element of hunch here? Is there an element of extension? All at the same time. Hands to the floor.

Downward-facing-dog. Inhale, left leg back and up. Lift it high, bend the knee. Inhale, lengthen, exhale, hunch. Look forward, step forward, and plant that back heel.

Hug the thighs in. Sweep the right arm forward and up Warrior II, inhale, straighten. Turn the feel parallel to each other. Turn your left foot in. Turn your right foot out.

(mumbles) Any variation. I think I'll choose this one on this side. Take the arm up overhead. Look to the floor, hunch. Turn square side and evenness.

Turn up, find the extension, and then find that square side position. Inhale, come to stand. Turn the feet parallel to each other. Hands to the hips. Inhale, and roll forward.

Hands on the floor. Bend the right leg. Bend the left knee, find square. Walk your hands without moving your feet or your legs towards the front of the mat. Go with breath.

Fill the lungs, and as you exhale walk a little further. Lean in that right thigh. Pull it back. Walk all the way until you're opening those side seams, and finally, you have to turn your left foot forward, and your right heel up. Soften the left shoulder, and bring the hand to the outside of the foot.

It's nice to be on fingertips, so we're using the legs more than our hands. Rein in, hug your left hip back. Come to any variation of airplane that you like to play with here. Hands on the floor. Downward-facing-dog.

Inhale, come forward to plank. Exhale, knees-to-floor, chest-chin-inhale-cobra. Exhale, come to all fours. Cross your right shin over the left, and roll behind your feet. Bring your legs forward.

Okay, tabletop. Hands are behind you six to eight inches or so. Fingers face directly forward. Legs are parallel to each other. Inhale-exhale.

Sweep your tailbone forward. Your sit bones it's like they get to slide up the backs of your shins. The knees go forward, and you're in tabletop. Move the elbows back, reach then knees forward. Just keep your face looking forward, and then release down.

So, that's fine, you can do that, or you can move onto the next posture which is Parsvottanasana. It's the same idea with two straight legs, so lift your legs together. Hands are behind you. Take a breath in, and as you exhale it's a quite strong movement of your tailbone, so tailbone, buttocks flesh goes to your heels. Heels down, hips come up wherever they go.

Then when the chest rises nice and high you can lay the head back. Release the groin. Hips to the floor, Dandasana. Take a breath. We'll do it again.

Start on your hands like this. It's like you're baking, and you take your spatula under the cookie, right under the butt, and the whole butt gets sweeped down, so it's really butt-legs. It's butt-legs. Inhale, and exhale. Sweep that butt-leg.

One unit, one unit, let the chest rise because it's butt-leg. Release the head. You can lift the toes. Bring the hips down. Dandasana.

Lie down on your backs. Keep the legs bent. Open your arms wide. Straighten your right leg down. Lift your left knee, and just hold your left knee with your right hand.

Bring the left toe to the right knee. Then you just twist. Left knee goes towards the floor. It doesn't have to come onto the floor. Find your twist, breathe in.

As you breathe out find your straight leg, your bottom leg, so you can kind of firm it down into the floor, but reach the heel away from you. Notice the feeling in your left chest. Don't be too harsh with that shoulder if it's not on the floor it's okay. Then come onto your back. Change legs.

Both legs bent. Left leg is long. Take hold of your right knee with your left hand. Toe-to-knee, and then go into the twist. Go slowly in so your breath doesn't get caught.

The minute the breath gets caught that's just where you want to pay attention. You're not gonna get more of a twist if your breath is caught. How does it feel through the waist, and through the chest? Full breath here, and then unwind. Shavasana.

Stay as long as you like. If you're ready to move out of Shavasana just turn your head side-to-side. Bring the knees one at a time up into your hands. Hang your knees away from you, so you have two straight arms. Just a little side-to-side movement, or circling.

Feel the weight of the thighs heavy. So no grip around the groin. Quite free in the torso. Roll to your left side, and come to sit. Thanks for joining, Namaste.

Comments

Frederic M
Thanks! Feeling the hunch makes the flow feel much more integrated!

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