60-Minute Yoga Flows Artwork
Season 1 - Episode 2

Full Body Tune-Up

60 min - Practice
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Description

Wade guides us in a full body tune-up practice. We connect with both the upper and lower body as we move through this fluid and dynamic flow sequence. You will feel an overall sense of release and energy.
What You'll Need: Mat, Blanket, Block (2)

Transcript

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Hi, welcome back to your mat. Today our theme is a full yogic tune-up. So we're going to be focusing on the whole body as one unit today. And this will give you the chance to really connect with the upper body, the lower body, the joints, the movements of the shoulders, the wrists. So think about a full body tune-up today as we go through our journey on our flow today. Before we lie on our back, give yourself a moment to close your eyes and maybe set an intention, the sankappa, for your practice. Or maybe dedicate your practice to something bigger than yourself. And when you're ready, go ahead and open the eyes. I've got my dedication. Do you have yours? If we're ready, go ahead and lie on your back. You may need two blocks and a blanket today just to make sure you know. So go ahead and lie on your back. And as you settle in, you can place your right hand on your heart and your left hand on your stomach. And just for about a minute, we're going to connect with our breath. So without altering your breath, notice where and how you're breathing today. Our breath is going to anchor us through the practice today. So we'll keep coming back to the breath. Wherever you are in your breathing practice, finish your next exhale. And then we're going to inhale for the count of four. Pause. And then exhale for the count of four, three, two, one. Start your inhale for the count of four, three, two, one. Pause. And then your exhale for the count of four, three, two, one. Continue in a couple more rounds. Inhaling four, three, two, one. Pausing. Exhaling four, three, two, one. The last round. Nice big inhale. Four, three, two, one. Pause. Exhale four, three, two, one. On your next inhale, reach the arms over the head point, the toes. Give yourself a nice big stretch. And then as you exhale, draw the knees into the chest just a little wider than your chest.

We're going to do a little traction for the neck. So just press one knee away from the body at a time, almost like you're trying to press through your palm so that the palm almost feels like it's going to release. It may feel interesting to lift the head off the floor, or you might just want to keep it on the floor and turn the head so the head turns to the right as the left knee moves forward, and the head turns to the left as the right knee moves forward. And you'll feel a nice stretch in the back of your neck, the trapezius muscles. If you're trying it without your head on the floor, try to let the head and neck be relaxed so you're not using the muscles to keep the head up, and you're really allowing yourself to get a nice stretch here. Give yourself one more round with the heads on the floor, off the floor. We could do this for an hour, but that would defeat the purpose of us doing our yoga flow. So we'll go ahead and draw the knees into the chest, and then we'll circle the knees away, and then together, creating little half circles, drawing the knees into the chest as you exhale, circling the knees away. And the same opportunity that you had before, if you'd like to lift the head off the floor as you circle the knees away from you, and then draw the knees back into the chest, you'll get a nice stretch of the upper back and shoulders. Any time we can get a massage during yoga, we should, right? You get some nice traction for the spine as you move through these circles. And then the next time you draw the knees back down, we'll find happy baby pose reaching for the pinky toe sides of the feet. Let your baby rock from side to side a little bit. Not only is it fun, but it massages the muscles along the spine. The more you rock to the right or left, the more you'll feel. Good. We'll keep the right leg where it is, bend the left leg, bring the sole of the foot to the floor, place the right ankle on top of the left, figure four, and then as you draw the left knee into the chest, you'll feel this in the outer glute. Lift your left heel a little higher than the knee, and then draw the knee in so you feel this outer hip stretch. If you press your sacrum to the floor at the same time, you'll get a little bit more resistance here. Good. Lower the left leg, keep the right leg just as it is, bring your palms to the floor. A couple of options here. The first option, palm on the floor as you inhale, lift your hips, and as you exhale, lower them down nice and slow. Easiest variation right here, one leg at bridge with the hip opener, lifting and lowering with your hands on the floor. If you'd like to continue on, a little bit more balance needed, inhale the arms over the head, lift your hips, exhale lower back down with the arms. If you're still feeling it, this is where we can throw a little core work into our practice today. As you lower down, bring your palms together, press forward, and then as you inhale, reach the arms over the head and lift your hips. Keep pulsing with whichever variation you're working on, but if you decide to do the core work, try to focus on the core and not the muscles in the neck because we want our six-pack here and not on our neck. That would look kind of weird. As you press forward, look straight up and engage the muscles of the core. As you reach the arms over the head, you can lift the hips. Let's do two more rounds. If you're continuing with the hands on the floor, stay focused on the lift and the lower and the engagement of your core. Last one. Reach through once again, open up the hip. You can grab onto the shin or go back to the hamstring a little deeper if you're moving into the space right here. Let the left foot drop to the floor, and we'll take a soft twist to the left. You might want to shift your hips to the right just a little bit. Let the knees drop. Nice, slow, deep inhales. Then relax and settle in to each exhale. Nice, slow, deep inhale. Settle in with the exhale. One more big inhale, and then really soften into that last exhale. Come on back to your happy baby pose. So we're going to knees a little wider than the chest, pinky toe sides of the feet, a little rock from side to side. The more you press the sacrum to the floor, the more resistance you'll get in this pose. Good. We'll keep the right leg lower into the floor, and we'll bring the left ankle on top of the right knee, opening up the hip. Once the hips open, draw the knee into the chest. Lift your right heel a little bit higher than your knee so you can see the foot. As you draw the knee down, this whole focus will be on the outer left glute. Feeling more, press the sacrum away. Press the sacrum down to the floor. Go ahead and enjoy that outer hip stretch. Good. We'll keep the figure four. Lower the right foot to the floor, palms right next to the side body. Push down into your palms and lift on your inhalation, and then carefully lower on your exhales. Engage your core as you're coming down. Inhale, lift. Engage the core. Same opportunity to stay here or reach the arms over the head as you lift. A little bit more weight and balance on the right leg. Keep pulsing with whichever variation you're doing. Always inhaling as you lift up and exhaling as you lower down. If you're adding the core work, inhale, lift.

And then as you exhale, palms reaching beyond the knees or towards the knees, head straight up. So you're not looking forward. Look straight up to the sky or the ceiling or whatever you're looking at today. Pulse with your breath. It's a nice one to heat up the body. Last round. Good. Keep your right foot on the floor. Reach through. Grab on to either hamstring or shin, and then go ahead and lift off and draw the knee into the chest. Same opportunity behind the hamstring or the shin. The closer you draw in, the more you'll feel on the hip, and then you can press the sacrum down to the floor for a really nice hip opener. And then from here, we can lower the right leg to the floor, slide the left knee across all the way over to the right for your soft twist. And I like to extend my left arm and really just surrender into this, especially the exhales. The exhales are the surrendering breath, the inhales, inviting in that new life force, that new energy. Come on back to center, hug the knees into the chest, and we'll take a little rock and roll all the way up to our seats. And once you get up to the seat, you can swing the legs around and move right into table pose. Palms underneath the shoulders, knees right underneath the hips. Let your belly drop, and then as you inhale, move the heart forward, lift the chin and chest for your cow tilt and table. And as you exhale, start at your sacrum, rounding the spine, head moves last, draw the navel up and back, cat tilt the spine, slow pulse with your breath, inhale, lengthen the spine, let the belly drop, lift up, exhale, push down, forward, round the spine and really lift right where the core is, draw the navel up and back. One more round of breath. And then find your neutral table here, extend your left leg back, we'll stay with the toe pads on the floor and we'll just pulse into the back of the calf and hamstring, giving yourself a nice stretch through the back of the calf and hamstring, getting that leg ready for its first down dog later. Keep the left hand where it is, keep the left leg where it is, inhale the right palm to the sky, exhale, thread under, across and through. You can keep your left arm straight if you'd like to, a little bit easier, or you can play with bending the left arm and really firing up the tricep in the arm. Now this is where we have an option to take it a little bit deeper. Start with the arm straight, we're going to lift the left leg off the floor as a stabilizer for the core and then we're going to thread under, across and through. Inhale, lifting up, try to keep the left leg about the height of the hip or as high as it'll stay. And then as you're threading through, same option, you can also bend the arm, go a little bit deeper into the tricep. Last two pulses. Keep breathing with me. The next time you send your right arm to the sky, pause. If the left leg's off the floor, lower it down, take a nice big inhale, reach up and back, exhale, thread under, across and through. Bring your shoulder to the floor if that's available for you. Push down with the left hand to get a little rotation. Stay here or bend your right elbow, press the palms into prayer and if it's happening, push down, lift the shoulder off the floor. This is the finale if you decide to go with me here. Push down, lift your left leg off the floor. Two more rounds of breath. These are fun if you're in a full class and you have people behind you because you could do the domino effect and take your whole row out. Lower back down, release the arm, press down with the left hand, inhale the right palm to the sky and back to your table pose. Come up to your fingertips, lengthen the heart forward, cow tilts as you inhale, exhale around the spine, start at the sacrum, heads the last to move, pulse with your breath. Good. Come back to your neutral table, palms to the floor, extend your right leg back and we'll work with those pulses, calf, hamstring, waking up the muscles, the back of the leg. As you're pulsing, you're pushing forward with your hands at the same time, really active in your palms. The next time you press back, stay here, right hand stays, inhale the left palm to the sky, exhale thread under, across and through, easier with a straight right arm, a little bit more intense as you bend into it and reach a little farther across. Feel out which one's right for you and then you also have that same opportunity of lifting the back leg off the floor, keeping the heel nice and high off the floor, right arm straight once again as you thread the left arm under and through or bending the right arm, going a little deeper. Give yourself three more rounds of breath, three more pulses. Last round. Are you still breathing with me? Inhale the left palm to the sky, right foot to the floor, reach up with the inhale and now we're threading it under, across and through. If it's available, lower the shoulder to the floor, you can use your right hand to press down for more thoracic twists, stay here or try the palm and prayer variation. If you're really feeling it, lift, you're balancing on that elbow and then maybe the right leg lifts off the floor. Steady, a nice calm breath. Lower back down, replace your right palm. Inhale the left palm back to the sky, right back to home base, right back to your table. One round of cow and cat tilts. Good. Come to a neutral spine, walk your hands of palm print forward, spiral your biceps forward, and push down strongly into your hands, tuck the toes under, hips to the sky. First down dog of the series, so go ahead and pedal it out one leg at a time. We got a nice little stretch earlier for the hamstrings and calves, so you might notice that you already have a little advantage as you move into your first down dog. Push actively forward with the palms, draw the navel to the spine. If there's any little movements that you need to do, feel free. Just make sure the breath is guiding you through the flow today. Inhale to your plank pose. Let's lower the knees for this first one. Take your time, we're going down for the count of five, bend the elbows, four, lengthen the heart forward, three, two, I hope you're not down yet. One, replace your palms with your elbows, roll the shoulder blades back, swing pose, press into the tops of your feet, and draw your ribs forward to really stretch the front body. As you draw the ribs forward, you can move the shoulder blades down and back in space. A really nice setup for our first back bend here. Connect with the breath. Go ahead and lower down, replace your palms where your elbows were, knees press up to plank, tuck your toes under, press back to your down dog, push actively forward with both palms. We'll take a little side stretch on this down dog, so lift your heels, pivot your heels to the right, lower the heels and just bend one leg at a time.

Push actively forward with your right hand and enjoy that side stretch on the left side body. Come on back to center tops of the toes, pivot your heels to the left. And then once the heels lower to the floor, bend one leg at a time, push actively forward with your left hand and enjoy the side stretch through the right side body. Good. Come on back, plank pose. Option of lowering the knees to the floor for your five count, or keeping the knees off the floor for four, three, two, one. Lower all the way down, going to back up a little bit so I'm staying on my mat. We're going to do a pec stretch for the up front of our chest, opening up the shoulder. So bring your left hand to your sacrum, make sure the palms on the sacrum and we're going to roll to the left. This might be your spot. The closer you get your right hip to the floor, the more you'll feel. You can bend the legs, straighten the leg. You can bend both legs. Nice opener for the front of your chest. Remember, position to make sure the breath is still even and long and smooth. When the breath starts to change, we know that we might be getting too deep into the pose. We'll come on back to center. Let's try the other side. Right hand to the sacrum. Roll to that right side. Good. If you're going deeper, bend your left leg. This one, if you get a chance to do this once a day, especially if you're sitting a lot, if you're driving, if you're working on computers, the front of the chest gets so contracted and then we get the pain in the back. So really give yourself an opportunity to open the chest as much as possible. It's really nice for postural alignment. Come on back. Sphinx pose is available for you or if you'd like to move a little farther forward and to Cobra, extend the heart forward, roll the shoulder blades back, keep the legs active. Press back through your table. Tuck the toes under. Down dog. From our down dog, we'll go ahead and walk the hands back to the feet. You can keep the feet hip distance and just give yourself a little hang time here. You might want to grab the elbows. You might want to do a little rock. You might want to shift your weight forward and backward and make sure that you're not leaning too far back and your fold fold. We're going to do a little twist here. So I like to use the floor. If you'd like to use the block, you can put a block right between low, medium or high. And as you bend your right leg, inhale your left palm to the sky. Lengthen the spine. Get as long as you can and then rotate. Get along with the inhale. Exhale. This is a nice hamstring isolator. Beautiful. Re-bend your left leg, left palm to the block, straighten the right. When you send the right palm to the sky, before you twist, lengthen the spine, move the crown of the head forward and then give yourself space to rotate more. Lengthening with the inhale, rotating with the exhale. Good. Easy forward fold. You might want to keep your second block handy. When you're ready, reverse the dive, rise all the way up. Exhale, your palms ride into prayer. Give yourself a moment to reconnect with the breath. Inhaling for the count of four, three, two, one, pausing. Exhaling four, three, two, one, pausing. One more round. Inhaling four, three, two, one, pausing. Exhaling four, three, two, one, pausing. Good. Inhale, reach your palms to the sky, lift the heart, chin, and chest. Hinging at the hips, swan dive forward, flat back, core engaged. Bring your palms to the shins or the block or wherever they're landing.

Lengthen the spine as you inhale. Now we have the opportunity to fly in a little crow pose. If you're not doing crow pose with me today, just bend your knees, drop the seat about the height of the knees, walk your fingertips forward, and stretch the back. Great way to release the sacrum and back. If you're doing crow pose with me, put the block right between your feet, come up to the tops, toe pads on the block, bend your knees. Your knees will be wider than your triceps, and then slide the second block about 10 to 12 inches in front of your fingertips. And try not to move the hands. We want hands to stay right where they are. Knees are outside of the triceps, lengthen forward, bend your elbows, squeeze inner thighs towards each other, engage the core, keep leaning forward. You've got the block there for safety. If you don't need the block, come up a little higher on the triceps, lengthen forward, engage the core. And as you lift the heels, lift the knees, pull them up. Crow pose. Lower back down, move the blocks out of the way, take a little walk back to your down dog. Pedal it out, any organic movements, shoulder shrugs are really nice in our down dogs. Move forward to your plank pose, lower all the way down, five, I didn't forget, four, did you? Three, two, one. Choose your back, bend sphinx, cobra, or if you're starting to move into your up dog, make sure the ribs and heart are moving forward. Good. Press back to your down dog. From your down dog, go ahead and bend your left leg and press strongly forward with your left hand, walk your right hand halfway to the right foot. So isolating and strengthening maneuver for the shoulder. So really press forward for this one arm down dog. If you want to go deeper, you can reach back for the calf, ankle, or the heel. Push actively forward and keep breathing with me. Easy side plank to the right. So come into plank pose first, lower the right knee to the floor, right under your hip, pivot your left heel, push forward and down with the right hand. You can swing the right toes around behind you a little bit more openness for the hip, or you can press actively forward enough so that the right knee lifts off the floor with a little bit more power here. Good. Come on back, keep the right leg bent, lower with your right leg bent all the way down to the floor. So the right leg is in a variation of tree pose. Come up to sphinx pose, draw the ribs forward so we get a nice hip opener for the back hip. Go back to the breath. Right elbow stays, left arm threads under and through. We'll take an easy twist here. Try to keep the right inner thigh on the floor as you open and release. Rolling back to center, extend the right leg, palms and cobra, sphinx or up dog, big inhale as you lift, exhale, press back to your down dog. From your down dog, go ahead and bend to your right leg. Push actively forward with your right hand so that you can walk the left hand back halfway. Really strengthening and stretching through that right shoulder. You might even take the left hand back to your calf, ankle or towards the heel. Push forward, actively breathe into it. Good. Move your left palm forward, plank pose. Lower the left knee to the floor. Pivot your right heel. Easy side plank, easy vashtustasana. This might be your spot if you're lifting that left knee off the floor. Push forward and down with the left hand and keep that left ribcage pulling up to the midline. Left leg stays bent. Open the hip, lower all the way down. Come up to sphinx pose. Draw the ribs forward, heart forward, invite the shoulders back. We're getting a nice hip opener for that left hip. Good. Easy side twist, right arm slides under. Left knee stays on the floor.

And just let each exhale help you move deeper into the pose without work. Surrender with each exhale. Good. As you come back, left palm to the floor, straighten the left leg. Easy sculber up dog. Press back to your down dog, hips to the sky, chest towards the thighs. Walk your hands slowly back to the feet. And you may want to block handy for you just in case you take the second variation or in case you want to move a little deeper into your forward fold. Lengthen the spine. I like to use the block right underneath my head. And from here we'll bend the knees, engage the quad, engage the core, roll all the way up to your stand. Inhale, the palms to the sky. Exhale right into prayer. So let's set up for our tree pose. I'm going to turn and face you so that you can see this action. Block right in front of you just in case you decide to take the second variation, which is figure four in tree pose. So from here, bend the right leg. You can keep the toes on the floor and slide it next to the ankle or finding your dish to your focal spot before you lift the right leg up. Bring it to the calf or somewhere above your knee. Once you have the foot placed, start to squeeze the standing leg into the foot. That'll help you draw the hip back in and then you can extend the wings. This is great for five more breaths or if you'd like, you can place the right ankle just above the left knee. Use your block to help you set up for the figure four. Keep the drishti. Keep the core active. Stay here. This is perfect right here or reach your palms up. See if you can connect with your breath. Really nice quad strengthener. Figure four with tree pose. And then on the next inhale, lift this up. Shake out the standing leg and we'll see what's happening on the other side.

Shift your weight to the right leg. Open up the left hip. Feel free to stay right here just working on the balance, establishing the drishti. If you're going higher, make sure your point of focus is steady on one point, lifting above or below the knee. And then once you have it, squeeze both legs to the midline to bring that right hip in and maybe extend the arms. Feel free to stay right here with the breath and the drishti steady or place the left ankle above the right knee. Maybe use your block to help you get into the pose a little bit deeper and stay here, opening the hip, keeping the core engaged, the spine lengthen or lift all the way up. Good. Are you still with me? Straighten up. Shake the legs out. You can move your block out of the way and we'll stand at the back of our mat. Connecting with the breath. Once again, palms into prayer. Inhale the palms to the sky. Exhale, forward fold. Inhale, lengthening the spine and exhale. Take a walk forward to your plank pose. Lower down with five, four, three, two, one. Press up to your back bend and exhale back to your down dog. Inhale the right leg to the sky. We're going to pick it up a little bit. Exhale, step the right foot to the front of the mat. Make sure your feet are about hip distance so you've got your balance. Inhale the palms to the sky. Flip the palms, press the palms skyward and straighten the right leg with the inhale. Bend the right leg with the exhale. Squeeze to the midline. Straighten the right leg with the inhale. Bend with the exhale. Three more pulses. The deeper you go with the exhale, the more you'll feel in the quad. Last two. Keep breathing. Last one. Reach the palms up. Separate them. Pivot your back foot to the floor. Turn the toes in and we'll sink into warrior two. Check your back hip. Drop the hip a little bit. Extend the arms. Inhale, flip the palms to the sky. Cow tilting the spine. Exhale, round. Flip your palms back. Maybe even up. Inhale, lift the heart, chin and chest. Exhale, round. Pulse with the breath. You want to go deeper into it, you'll feel a little bit more of a burn in that right quad. Last one. Flip your palms to the sky. Find a neutral spine. Keep the biceps up.

Palms down. Peaceful warrior. Left hand to your left IT bend. Straighten the right leg. Reach back. Exhale, bend the right leg. Inhale, straighten, reach back a little farther. Exhale, bend. Nice pulsing action to help you get deeper into the pose and help you feel the side stretch a little fuller. Give it one more pulse. Peaceful. Reach back. Keep the reach. Keep breathing. Sink that front knee in. Back to your warrior two. Extend that left arm around the waist. Right palm to the sky. Nice little trapezius stretch. This is to distract you from the quad burn that you're probably feeling right now. Give it one more round of breath and then go ahead and release the arms. Step your back foot forward. Heel toe it in one round. Go ahead and re-interlace the hand behind the back. Reach forward with the right hand. Drop that, lift that left hip up and back. Reach. Try to keep the shoulders in line with the hips. Inhale, rise up. Exhale, reach. Engage the core. Lengthen. Inhale, send it up. Two more rounds. Pulse with the breath. Opportunity to get a little deeper each time in your triangle pose. Last round. Really reach forward. Let that right hand come to above or below the knee wherever it drops. And then from here, move your right hip forward. Left shoulder back. Lengthen the spine. Celebrate. Send that left palm to the sky. Trikonasana. Exhale the palms to the floor. Bend the right knee. Right leg to the sky. One-legged dog. Shake it out if you want to. Move it around. Plank pose. You can go all the way down this time. Cobra dog. Exhale back to your down dog. Inhale the same leg to the sky. Right leg to the sky. Bend the knee. Open the hip this time. And exhale, step the right foot just outside of the right hand. Lower the left knee to the floor. And from here, we're just going to pulse the hips from side to side. Shifting the weight to the right. Shifting the weight to the left. Couple rounds. Next time you pulse to your left. Push forward with your left hand. Reach back with your right hand. Stay right here or bend the back leg for the quad stretch. Pulling the heel in will help you open up that knee-quad connection. Kicking the heel away. So as hip flexor, opening up the front of the chest. Good. Release the leg. Heel to your right foot back to the center of the mat. And then go ahead and straighten your right leg. Start to draw the first three letters of your name with your foot so that we start to get into the ankle. That A wasn't very good. How are you doing? Good. So we get a lot of ankle mobility and it helps us move into both parts of the hamstring. And then from here, we're going to bend into the right leg and we're going to slide that left knee forward and come into a seat. So this is option one. This is the more chill route. Left hand behind you. Right hand. Let's go for the inner arch. Lift your sternum. Lift your chest. Pull the toes back. We did happy baby before so if you want to try seated happy baby and start to extend from here, this is a great option. If you're feeling a little bit more adventurous, we did our crow pose before. Now we're just going to add the hamstring stretch. So bring the right foot to the floor.

Step the left leg back. Slide your right arm underneath your right shoulder. Bring the right hand to the floor. Step your left foot right behind, setting up for crow pose with the left leg. Before you move forward to this ekapada variation of crow pose, you need to lift the right foot off the floor. Now get that lean forward and squeeze to the midline and see if you can lift up. See what happens. You might want a crash pad if you're trying this one. Good. We'll lower down. Come back and meet you seated. Cross the legs and we'll take a little rock and roll and I'll give you a little break in child's pose after this. Palms in front of you or swing the legs around. And then press back. Knees a little wider than the hips. Return to your breath. Samavritti, equal inhale, pause, equal exhale. Clearing the mind with the inhales, releasing any of the tension with the exhales. Now if you need to break, you can stay here longer, but we're flowing with it. So come on back to your table pose. Walk the hands of palm print forward, tuck your toes under, caress back to your down dog. Inhale the left leg to the sky. Exhale, step the left foot to the front of your mat. Keeping your feet a little wider so they're about hip distance. As you send the palms to the sky for your high lunge, take the non habitual interlace, the weird index finger on top. Straighten the front leg, roll the shoulder blades down, bend the front leg. Pulsing with the breath, rising with the inhale, sinking deeper into the quad with each exhale. Don't forget about the back leg. Keep pushing that back heel towards the back of your mat to stretch the front of your right hip. You've got two more. Last one. The next time you straighten the left leg, release the interlace, pivot your right heel to the floor, and then line up your heels, bend into the front leg. Make sure the hips are even, the back hip's not up too much. Flip your palms to the sky. We'll take our cow tilt in warrior two, and our cat tilt, engaging the core. Rolling up with the inhale, and contracting with the exhale. If you want to go deeper, just bend deeper into the front leg. Last two rounds. Keep the breath as your anchor throughout the flow. Last round, palms facing up, neutral spine, and then flip your palms down. Great. Straighten your left leg. Right hand to the IT bend. Peaceful warrior pulses. Inhale, lift and reach. Exhale, sink into the left quad. Inhale, straighten the left leg. Reach a little farther back. Exhale, sink. Three more pulses with the breath. Last one. The next time you reach back, really lift through the right side body as you lift and reach, and then sink into peaceful warrior. Breathe into it. Warrior two. Right hand drapes around the back. Left palm cups the right ear. Trapezius stretch. Drop that right shoulder down the spine. Give yourself a breath or two right here. You'll still feel that burn in the front leg. Good. And then release the arms. Heel to your back foot forward. A half or a full step. Straighten the left leg. Redrape the right hand around the waist. Inhale, reach up and back. Hinge at your hips. Draw the right hip back towards the back wall. Reach as far forward as you can with the left hand.

Keep lengthening your left side body and see if you can reach a little farther with each pulse of your breath. Keep the ribs lifted and active. Drawing up, back with a navel. Last pulse. And we'll land wherever the body wants us to land. Invite your left hip to move forward. Your right quad to roll back. Right shoulder. Extend the right arm. Triangle pose. Good. Bend your left leg. Hands to the floor. Inhale the left leg to the sky. Shake it out. Move it around. Celebrate. Side two is almost done. Good. Move to your plank pose. Lower all the way down. Go for up dog. Exhale back to your down dog. Left leg. Same leg to the sky. Bend the knee. Open the hip and step the foot just outside of your left hand. Lower the right knee to the floor. And from here you can just rock the hips from side to side. Next time you rock your hips to the right, pause here. Shift your weight into your right hand. Reach back with your left hand. Maybe let the right ear drop towards the right shoulder. Great spot to hang out that reach will help you release the shoulder or offer up that right leg. Drawing the heel in for the quad stretch. Quad knee connection. And then that quad hip flexor soles connection. Moving the hip away. Opening up the shoulder.

This is one of my favorite stretches ever. This feels so good. Good. Release the right leg. Heel to your left foot. Back to the center of your mat. Arda Hanuman. Straightening the left leg. We'll go back to our circles. Start writing your name. I used to tell people to write their full name, but people have long names. So just the first three letters should be good. Good. We get the hamstring ready. We're going to bend that left leg and slide the right knee forward, coming all the way to our seat. Right hand. Solid by you. Reach either for the pinky toe side. I like to do the big toe side of the foot so I can open up the hip a little bit further from this variation of happy baby pose. Okay. So remember this is a spot you can stay. Just keep growing taller and moving that foot back into space. Or if you'd like to try, Ekapada, Bakasana 2. Step the right leg back. Slide your left hand under. Walk the fingertips forward. Step the right foot forward, setting up for crow pose with the right knee. And before you move forward, you got to get that left leg off the floor. The left leg's not moving off the floor. Just enjoy the stretch and come back to your seat. Otherwise, lean forward and then start to lift the right heel off the floor and the left leg off the floor. Two more breaths. One more. And we can meet back at our seat. Good. Give yourself a little wrist stretch. Sometimes those get a little intense. So pull the fingers back on your right hand. And then we'll go ahead and do that on the other side. Interlace your fingers. A couple of little whirly birds with the hands just to keep the wrist nice and mobile. And then we'll switch which index fingers on top. Good. From here, you get one more chance at your rock and roll vinyasa. Rocking forward and backward. The closer the heels are to the seat, the easier it is to bring the palms in front of you. Lower down. And we'll meet in table pose. And for this variation, we're going to interlace the hands and then just back up the seat for a modified variation of dolphin. If you need a breather, this is the perfect spot to stay for another five breaths. But if you'd like the opportunity to really open up the shoulders a little bit more, lean forward, tuck your toes under and we'll take this interlaced version of dolphin. Just inviting the shoulders to move back in space, pushing forward and down. Such a nice release for the upper back and shoulders. Good. Let's lower back to table pose. Replace the elbows with the palms, walk the hands, a palm print forward. Good news for you. Last down dog of the session from your down dog. Everything should be nice and open. Now walk your hands slowly back to your feet. And as you get halfway back there, start to turn your toes out and we'll grab a seat and the last one. You can use your block underneath your seat. Always feels like I'm hatching an egg when I do this one. You can do this one or you can start to press the inner thighs away and lift your heart. We're going to come to the front of our mat with a couple of hops, little frog hops to the front of the mat. So walk your hands forward, lean forward tops of the toes, lift your hips up and then take a little float. It should take about three or four floats to get to the front of your mat. That was a half one. And go ahead and lower it all the way down. So we're going to use our built-in cushions back here to just lower down onto our seat and come on back to your seat. From here, we've been in happy seated baby before. We're going to massage and release the glutes here. So take your right leg across, hold onto it with your left hand. Bring your right hand behind you and then we're going to roll to the right and we're releasing the outer glute piriformis on this right side. If you're not feeling anything, you can take the foot into the hook of the elbow and you get a little bit more tension, a little bit more resistance and you'll feel it in the hip a little bit more. This is what they used to do before they invented foam rollers. This is the real roll right here. Great. But one more round of breath. Good. And then we'll release that leg just inside.

Easy jhanu twist. Right hand on top of the right thigh. Left hand behind you. Lift and rotate. Keep your left leg active. Lift and rotate. One more round of breath. Right hand slides behind you. Push forward and down. Lift your seat off the floor. Keep the knee down and enjoy a couple of slow circles getting into the upper back and shoulder on the left side. I like to keep my arm bent, but you can explore whatever works best for you. Good. We'll lower all the way down. Extend your right leg and we'll bring that left knee into the chest. Take the left foot across into your right hand, the left hand behind you getting into that hip, outer glute roll. If you're not feeling anything, it's probably because you're not stretching that area enough. So if you need to feel more and it's available to you, there it is. Go ahead and roll right into those spots where you feel. This is where you start making some of those crazy yoga faces when you find that spot. Good. And then from here, we'll release that leg inside. Easy jhanu twist. Left hand on top, right hand behind you. Get really tall through the spine. Lift, lift, lift. Soft rotate. Lift, lengthen, and rotate. One more round of breath. Maybe even walk the fingertips back. Leg stay. Left hand slides back, fingertips facing back. Left knee stays on the floor. Lift your hips. Slow circles with that right shoulder, right arm bent or straight. I like to let my left ear drop to the left shoulder to get my head out of the way so that it stretches the muscles along the side of the neck. Good. And then lower back down to your seat. Good. From here, we're going to set up with our block. Swing the legs around for your bridge pose. So grab your block. You have option of low, medium, or high setting. Bend the knees and we're going to place the block right underneath the sacrum. If you're not feeling a backbend here, you can flip the block one or even two. Sacrum was right above the areas that we were just massaging. Roll your shoulder blades towards each other so the palms are facing up. Squeeze the inner thighs towards each other and then just start to press and lift. Enjoy the breath. If you want to be a little bit more active in your bridge pose, you can interlace your hands around the block if you have it at that higher level. Squeeze your shoulder blades together. Push down and lift. Last round. Lower back to your block. Release the interlace. Just take the restorative backbend for a couple more breaths. We're starting to slow things down. We can invite the breath to be slower, fuller, and deeper as well.

Good. To lift off of the block, press into the soles of your feet. Lift the hips. Move your block to the side. We might use it for this next variation. Roll to your right and then come up to your palms. We're going to do a little variation of restorative fish pose. Slide your palms so that they're right about where your waistband is. Palms facing down. Straighten the legs. Squeeze your elbows in towards each other. Lift the shoulders. Lift the heart. This is a great spot to stay. Nice, soft experience and bridge supported fish pose. If you'd like to go deeper, you can use the block right about where the shoulder blades are right before they start. Then you can let the head drop back. If you're feeling any tension in the neck or the shoulders, go back to the first variation. I like to bring my arms over the head to feel the full expression. It's kind of like you're hanging out in a hammock right before your shavasana. You might stay here a little longer because it feels so good or we can take a movement or two to settle us into a nice shavasana. To get out of this, just prop yourself up on your right elbow. Move the block out of the way and then lower it on down. We'll bend the knees and take any intuitive movements. I like to do little windshield wipers to release, but whatever you're feeling right now, we're trying to let go of our attachment to the physical body and just do absolutely nothing with it. Whatever helps you prepare for nothingness is just perfect. Extending the legs when you're done, rolling the biceps to the sky, palms to the sky, settling in. Give yourself permission to do absolutely nothing physically and then let go of the controlling of the breath. Forget about how long you're breathing, how long you're holding, the body breathe itself. Give your mind the true retreat that it needs. Let go of any mental doing as you melt into your shavasana. All right, now we're going to do a little shavasana. We're going to do a little shavasana.

All right, now we're going to do a little shavasana. All right, now we're going to do a little shavasana. All right, now we're going to do a little shavasana. All right, now we're going to do a little shavasana. So start to bring some of that awareness back to the breath, maybe slower, fuller, deeper inhales. Bring a little tingle of energy back to fingers and toes and any intuitive movements that feel right for you right now as you come back to the physical body. Maybe taking a stretch through the arms over the head or just rolling to the right side for fetal pose.

With your eyes closed and your neck relaxed, use your left hand to help you up through your seat. Give yourself a moment to stay inside that space that you are connecting with in your shavasana. Remember that you're always able to come back here and connect with a deeper essence of you. Let it take you two or three breaths before the eyes fully open. Let the eyes be heavy and relaxed as you come back. Take a nice big inhale in and exhale it out through the mouth. Thank you so much for joining me on this journey today, our little yoga tune-up. I hope you're energized and feeling really nice in the body. Keep connecting and keep sharing that energy with everyone else that you meet. Namaste.

Comments

Jenny S
10 people like this.
WOW this was so much fun! A whole hour filled with creative yoga goodness, lots of surprise moves that were playful and also felt so very nice. I kept thinking “I feel like a little kid again!” Your cuing was easy going yet spot on, enabling me do go into some poses I didn’t think were there for me anymore. I highly recommend this to anyone who wants to lighten and brighten their day 👏👏👏
Christel B
4 people like this.
What a great way to start the new year!
Wade
2 people like this.
Hi Jenny ..Happy New Year! What a wonderful message to start the year off with! Thank you for sharing your positive energy and yoga journey!!
Mary Jane D
Thank you for offering us an always-innovative class Wade - and the biggest bonus is the length of the class! What a treat! Looking forward to more hour-long classes with you Wade!
Catherine R
Had a long day of airplane travel yesterday and this practice was a great “re-set” to get all the kinks out and to get back into a good mind-space. Thank you!
Wade
2 people like this.
Hi Christel thanks for starting the new year off with me and the Yoga Anytime crew!!

Wade
1 person likes this.
Great to hear from you Mary Jane ! Really happy you liking the longer sessions and are getting more time to spend on your practice win win!! thanks for joining me!!
Wade
1 person likes this.
HI Catherine I'm so glad you are 'feeling' this... the flights really knock it out of me too and yoga is always a great reset..they need more room in the back of the plane so you stretch it out a little!!!

LOUISE F
3 people like this.
Hi Wade
Just what I needed today! I feel deliciously  "stretched out" now with a true sense of self. I did struggle with the Bakasana / Crow (but it is my nemesis ! - LOL).
Lovely relaxed style and cueing just when needed.
Im going to try your other videos now - thanks so much.
Fab practice
Lou xx
Wade
1 person likes this.
HI LOUISE Thanks so much for sharing w/ me and the forum! I think Crow pose is a nemesis for a lot of people. Hope some of the variations help you feel like stretching your wings with more confidence... Have a great weekend!
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