Good Old Fashioned Flowdown

(wave crashing) Welcome to Good Old Fashioned Flowdown A. This is all about having a good time, getting a little sweaty, and being yourself. We'll start in standing. So come on up to the front of your mat, come into Tadasana, comfortable position with the feet, bring the hands to the heart. Let those fingertips spread out nice and wide and plug the thumbs into the sternum.

Let your eyes close. Take a few moments to connect to the earth. Feel your feet to the ground. You imagine a sense of rooting. I like to literally imagine branches moving out from the points of contact with the floor, and my feet drawing down, rooting into the ground, creating stability.

Maintaining that, there's a movement upward, in the center line. Past the pelvis, fire of the belly, the chamber of the heart. The throat, the third eye, all the way out, expansive, through the crown of the head. And you feel your breath, pressing into your hands as you inhale and exhale, maybe even your heartbeat. And you open your eyes with an inhale, reach the arms on up overhead, and then as you exhale, hands come to the heart.

And two more times, inhale, reaching the arms on up overhead, exhale, hands come to the heart. Last one, inhale, reaching the arms on up overhead, and exhale, hands come to the heart. And this one takes a little bit of an explanation. So we're gonna take our feet wide. This comes from my dance teacher, Donna Gould, when I was from five to about 11, and she had big fiery red hair and she always wore a lot of gold, and this was her favorite move.

It was in ballet class, it was in tap class, it was in jazz class, every class, we always did this move. And I discovered later as an adult why, because it feels so good. So feet come a little bit wide, and you have to like embody your 1980s dance teacher, like leotard, hair, leg warmers, right? So as you inhale, reach the arms on up and as you exhale, let the knees bend, slap the floor. Roll and round it all the way up, we'll do that a few more times.

Inhale, let it be sloppy, let it be big, (grunting) exhale, release Donna Gould, rolling, rounding all the way, and up, inhale, exhale, slap the floor. Last one, inhale, rolling, rounding all the way on up, big heart, (sigh) slap the floor. Inhale, extension through the spine, exhale, fold on over, and then toe-heel the feet together towards your natural, normal Tadasana. Release the head, little wiggle out. Ground your hands, step on back, Plank Pose.

Exhale, lower all the way down onto the belly. Roll the shoulders back, use your feet, three Cobras here, inhale, lifting the heart, exhale, softening the heart. With your breath, shoulders back, feet used, inhale, lifting, exhale, softening. We're gonna do this last one a little bit bigger, inhale, lifting, exhale, softening the heart back down. You can use your knees, lift yourself up, Plank, and then Downward-Facing Dog.

We'll take the right leg nice and high here, inhale. Exhale, draw the knee towards the nose. Inhale, take the leg high. Exhale, draw the knee towards the nose like you mean it. Inhale, take the leg high.

Exhale, draw the knee towards the nose, you'll win something really awesome, I don't know what it is. Step the foot there, ground the back heel, inhale, arms up, Virabhadrasana One, Warrior One. Hands come to the heart with the exhale. Collect your energy into your front foot, ground down, Warrior Three, as you press down lift up. It doesn't have to be super deep, a few breaths here.

This is what I call the Floating Warrior, so start to bend into that standing leg like you're in Warrior One, but keep the back leg lifted. And then using the glutes, slowly lower it down, back into Warrior One, inhale, the arms come on up. Exhale, hands come on down. Step on back, Downward-Facing Dog. Inhale, shift forward, Plank Pose.

Exhale, lower down to the belly. Inhale into your Cobra. Exhale, tuck the toes, Downward-Facing Dog. Same thing, left side. So inhale, take the left leg nice and high, exhale, draw the knee towards the nose.

Inhale, take the left leg high, exhale, knee towards the nose like you mean it. Inhale, take it high, exhale, glorious prize, gaze forward. Warrior One, step the foot between the hands, ground the back heel, inhale, arms come on up. Exhale, hands come to the heart. Collect your energy into your front foot, Warrior Three, press down, lift up.

Pause here, breath, and then your Floating Warrior, make it a shape, bend into the standing leg, land the back foot back into Warrior One. Inhale, arms come on up, Exhale, come on down, Downward-Facing Dog. Inhale, the shift forward, Plank Pose. Exhale, lower all the way down to the belly. Inhale into your Cobra, lifting your heart.

Exhale, tuck the toes, Downward-Facing Dog. So from here, take the gaze forward, inhale, exhale, step or hop to the front of your space, inhale when you get there, Ardha Uttanasana, exhale, folding on over, Uttanasana. Press down to the feet to rise on up, upward salute. Exhale, hands to the heart. Okay, last opportunity for your Donna Gould, so do it like you mean it.

Take your feet wide, right, let it be loose. And then inhale, we'll do three of them. Reach the arms on up, soft fold down, Donna Gould. Rolling, rounding all the way on up, inhale. Exhale, release, fold.

Rolling, rounding all the way on up, last one. Inhale, exhale, Donna Gould. Inhale, extension through the spine, exhale, fold and release. Toe-heel the feet together here, and step on back, Downward-Facing Dog. Take the right leg nice and high here, inhale.

Exhale, draw the knee towards the nose. Inhale, take the right leg high. Exhale, touch that right arm, ding. Inhale, take it high. Exhale, cross, reach for it, touch the left arm.

Inhale, take it high. Cross again here over to the left, this time shoot the leg out, ground through your bottom heel, and lift your left arm up high. And then exhale, lower the seat on down as you bend into that left knee, and you're in this little seat. And this is with your breath, inhale, lift back up. Exhale, lower the seat back down.

Inhale, lift up. Exhale, lower the seat back down. Inhale, lift up, the arm goes over the ear. Exhale, lower the seat back down. Here you'll take the foot back under, inhale, lift the hips, draw that right knee in and up.

And then exhale, step through, Virabhadrasana One, Warrior One. Inhale, arms come on up, exhale, take the arms out wide. Eagle the arms and up right over left, collect and ground through your front foot, and then take your back leg, the left leg, up and around, coming into the full Eagle Pose, wrapping it on down. If you have a double wrap with the feet, great. If not, flex that foot and press the pinkie edge into the calf.

Bend your hips, bend your knees. And then this unfurls, Ardha Chandrasana, right fingertips come down, left leg opens, left arm opens. Landing back, Peaceful Warrior, lowering the back leg down, inhale, right arm swings up. Exhale, Side Angle. Start elbow on knee, reaching that left arm high.

Inhale, Peaceful Warrior. Exhale, Triangle Pose, straightening your front leg, coming on over, left arm comes high. Inhale, Peaceful Warrior. Exhale, straighten the legs, parallel the toes. Inhale, reach the arms on up, and then soften to knees as you exhale, fold on over, Prasarita.

A few breaths here, releasing, exhaling, shaking the head, wagging the tail, any intuitive movement is nice. And then as you inhale, you'll take the fingertips out underneath the shoulders, exhale, start to walk back around towards the front of your mat, you're in your Low Lunge. Ground your hands, carry it long here, Three-Legged Dog, exhale, lower the foot down. Inhale, shift forward, Plank Pose. Exhale, lower the knees, shift back, Child's Pose, moving the seat towards the heels.

As you inhale, round through the spine, rolling forward like Cat Pose. As you exhale, keep the arms straight, and then tuck the toes, pulling the chest through, Upward-Facing Dog. Find the belly, Downward-Facing Dog. Okay, same thing, other side. Take your left leg nice and high, inhale there, exhale, draw the knee towards the nose.

Inhale, take the leg high. Exhale, touch the left arm, ding. Inhale, take it high. Crossing the body, touch the right arm, like you mean it. Inhale, take it high.

Cross the body again, over to the right, this time shooting the leg out, grounding through the heel and then inhale, lifting your right arm up. Exhale, lower the seat down, and then with your breath, inhale, lift up the hips, exhale, lower back down to the seat. Inhale, lift the hips. And you're gonna allow this to be a creative expression of you as well, moving with your breath, exhale, hips lower, inhale, lifting the hips. Exhale, hips lower.

And then inhale, last time, hips lift, ground your right hand, draw that left knee back in and up, step through, Warrior One. Ground your back heel, inhale, arms come on up. Hands go out to the side, cross that left arm on top, eagling the arms on up. Collect the energy into your front foot, ground down, wrapping your back leg all the way around. Bending into the hips, bending into the knee, coming into full Eagle.

Few breaths here. And then this is like unfurling, beautiful flower, Half Moon, Ardha Chandrasana, left fingertips are down, extend out through the legs and the arm. Soft bend into the knee, land it back, Peaceful Warrior, big inhale, that left arm goes back. Exhale, Side Angle. If you've got a favorite variation of this posture, awesome, you should do it.

Inhale, taking it back, Peaceful Warrior. Exhale, straightening the front leg, Triangle Pose. Same thing here, favorite variation, awesome. Inhale, Peaceful Warrior, exhale, straighten the legs, parallel the toes, inhale, reach the arms up, gaze lifts, soften into the knees, fold on down, release the hands to the ground. Take a few moments here, catch your breath, nice resting space, come on back home.

A little movement is nice, maybe stillness is what you need. And we'll take the hands out underneath the shoulders, walk around over to the left towards the front of your space, you come to a Low Lunge, ground your hands, step on back, Downward-Facing Dog. Shift forward here, Plank Pose, exhale, knees come down, Child's Pose. Inhale, round through the spine, coming through Cat, and then as you start to shift forward, this transitions into Upward-Facing Dog, tuck the toes, lift the thighs off the ground, pull the chest through. Exhale, hips go up and back, Downward-Facing Dog.

From Downward-Facing Dog we'll add on, take your right leg nice and high, inhale. Exhale, draw the knee towards the nose. Inhale, take the leg high. Exhale, outside of the body. Inhale, high.

Crossing the body to the left. Inhale the leg high, and then pause here, maybe take the hands in a little bit, see if you can ground through that left heel as best as you can and open out through the hip. So the work here is really pressing down and away with that left hand, and grounding as best as you can through your bottom heel. Start to use your glute and come up fingertips on your right hand, you might pause, stay here. Come up maybe one finger, and then from here, straighten the extended leg, and can you make, it's like, Ardha Chandrasana and Downward Dog had a baby, the X.

And then like a ninja, seriously dodging bullets Matrix-style, take it over. Inhale, lift your hips, exhale, lower the hips. With your breath, inhale, you lift, exhale you lower. Inhale, and you can like feel the bullets. (imitates gunfire) All right, exhale, lower.

Inhale, come back around, Three-Legged Dog, step through, Warrior One, grounding through that back heel, inhale, arms come on up. Exhale, the hands come out to the side, right arm top of left, and here we come on in, Vanistasana. So you collect the energy into your front foot, and you take the back knee, the left knee, deep and underneath, Vanistasana. Breathe here. And then release the hands to the heart, stay in the shape with the knees, and take your left elbow outside the knee, twisting to the right, pressing the elbow into the leg, press the palms together, take a revolved variation.

Gaze comes back down, again this unfurled Ardha Chandrasana, Half-Moon, just for a breath. Exhale, take it on back, Peaceful Warrior. Here you land it, Low Lunge, spiraling the hands on down, carrying it back long, Three-Legged Dog, into your Three-Legged Vinyasa, Upward-Facing Dog, and Downward-Facing Dog. Same thing, other side. Left leg comes high, inhale, exhale, knee towards nose.

Inhale, take the leg high, exhale, outside of the body, touch the arm, ding. Inhale. You guys have to let me know what that prize is, right? Cross the body, touch the arm. Inhale, and then pause here, ground through the bottom foot, ground and press away through your right hand, and then come up onto the fingertips of your left hand, use your glute and lift the leg, right, so there's this lifted quality.

And then maybe it's one finger, and then here if you're making the X, right, start to straighten the leg, lift the left arm up. Ninja style, take it over, slow and graceful. Inhale, lift your hips, reach back. Exhale, lower the hips on down. Inhale, lifting your hips, reaching back.

Exhale, lowering the hips on down. Inhale, lifting. Exhale, lowering. And then here as you lift you come back to your Three-Legged Dog, ground your left hand, reach that left leg high, step through, Warrior One, ground through the back heel, inhale, arms come on up, you've almost made it. Take your arms out to the side, left on top of the right, press down through that front foot, bottom foot comes under, Vanistasana, deep squat, breathe here.

Hands come to the heart, start to twist over to the left, your elbow comes outside the knee, press leg and elbow together, then palms come together, coming to the revolved variation. Unfurling, Ardha Chandrasana, left fingertips down, reaching out through that back leg, expansive, big, beautiful, Peaceful Warrior, reach it back, and then spiraling hands on down, Low Lunge to your Three-Legged Dog, Three-Legged Vinyasa, and Upward-Facing Dog and then Downward-Facing Dog. Then you take your right knee in towards your chest, take it over to your right wrist, the shin's at a diagonal, and let the hips shift back, coming into Pigeon Pose. Take a few breaths here, inhale upright, and then exhale, lower on down, to the place that feels comfortable to you, maybe on forearms. If it feels spacious you might come on down all the way.

We'll inhale, we'll take our arms back on up, lifting the chest, and then as we exhale, we'll shift the weight on over to your right hip, let your back leg swing all the way around, coming to a seated twist. Press the hands on down into the ground, lift up tall through the spine, and then take your right arm high, inhale, exhale, twisting it over to the left. The hand might find the knee, or maybe it's the nook of the elbow, it might be elbow past, if you're someone who goes bigger than this, awesome. Breathe here for a few breaths. And we release through center.

And then here's where we might grab a blanket, coming into Upavistha Konasana. So I like to place a blanket underneath my seat. It gives a little bit of a lift. And when you're sitting down on the blanket, what you wanna do is not sit on it, right, you wanna sit in front of it, like you're rolling off of it. And I feel like this is one of those shapes where you're either like "Aaah, I love this shape," or you're like...

And I know, 'cause I was that person, I really was, I sat in class like this for a long time, feeling sad that I couldn't participate, and so if you're in that position in this shape, right, you're kind of like, "I don't really know what to do, "there's no way I'm getting any farther forward," if you just sit there like this, you probably won't get any father forward for quite a long time, right? So you need to engage and find a relationship with this posture. Bend your knees, take your hammies out of it, take your pinkie fingers around your toes, and bend your knees, even a lot of you need that, take your pinkie fingers around your toes or the hands to the pinkie edge or even to the ankles, and start to like, (growls) get a little bit of wrestle-y-ness with yourself, move that belly through the thighs. This is like action is happening, something is working here, you will move forward, create a relationship that something potentially awesome could happen, versus like sad, right? So here is your work, like maybe this.

If you were laying on the floor like a loungey lady, that's awesome too, all right, it's like, "I was born in this shape!" (sighs) Come on down. Otherwise, for the rest of us, I like to think of this as like a massage therapist, you wouldn't want 'em to just go hi-ya into you, right? You wanna like slowly, I like to dance, just gently weave in, oh there's nice, and then we inhale and then exhale you soften, and then you allow yourself to gently go, massage in just a little bit deeper, and then inhale, and you exhale, and you find your edge, where is your edge, and when you meet it, right, you breathe there, you find a little bit of softness, you pull out, and then you exhale and you release back in. And you just keep working the shape with your breath. And there's a relationship here, moving in the posture, moving with the breath, allowing this to create connection, creating in the body.

Softening here wherever you are. And then we lift ourselves on up, draw the knees in, you can take ahold of the legs underneath the knees, and you can move your blanket out off to the side, and then we find our way back, going the other side. So the left knee will be underneath and the right leg will come on top, rounding through the foot. So grounding down through the hands here, lifting up tall through the spine, take your left hand nice and high, inhale, and as you exhale, coming into the twist, twisting towards the right. So you might have hand on the knee, the knee might come to the nook of the elbow, maybe the elbow moves past, right.

Lean in a place that feels sustainable for you. Using the back hand to really help to lengthen and extend up through the spine. And then we exhale, come through center, and then this right leg, it swings all the way around to the back, press down through the hands, tuck that back toe, and lift yourself into Pigeon on the left side. Breath here, upright, just for a few moments, and then exhale, maybe lowering on down. Maybe all the way down if that's comfortable.

Good few breaths here, can you find softness. And then we press ourselves on up, bring the back leg back around here, we'll come into Virasana. So again, you might use a blanket here if your seat doesn't come all the way down to the ground. The feet are out, and what you want, if you've got a stubborn little pinkie toe that never wants to come down, that's okay, you at least want to have, try to get a majority of the feet down to the ground. And the knees don't necessarily have to touch, right, there can be some space there between them.

Hands can be along the sides, can be at the heart, in the lap, whatever's comfortable. A few breaths here. You might let the eyes close or the gaze soften. With the next inhale, reach the arms on up overhead, eyes open, and exhale, hands down to the heart. Then you shift the hands forward, and we'll come all the way down onto our back from here.

Doesn't have to be anything fancy, you just lay down. Moving into our Savasana. So allow space to come between the feet, space between the body and the arms. Let the gaze soften or the eyes close. And starting from the line of the feet, moving upward, just checking in.

Is there any restriction here, are you holding on in any way, is there any resistance? Feet, back side of the leg. Allow it to soften and surrender into the ground. And back side of the heart. Line of the arms, softening through the palms of the hands.

Release the fronts of the shoulders. Allow the head to be heavy. Relaxing the jaw, widening the cheeks away from the nose, softening the forehead. Allow yourself to settle. Feel your embrace.

If you'd like some more time here, feel free to stay. Otherwise, start to bring in a little bit of movement, fingers and toes. And eventually draw the knees in towards the chest, give a nice little squeeze, and then let yourself roll on over to your right side and pause there. And then press down into the ground, lift yourself on up to a seat, a comfortable place to sit, and hands to the heart, bow the head on in, just taking a moment. Take note of your practice, the energy created.

A moment of recognition and gratitude to the body. And sweet love and devotion to the heart. Surrendering it all on up. Namaste.