Learn Yoga

And again, if you haven't already, go ahead and close your eyes just for moment here, go inward. I love this shape. Doesn't always have to be a fancy yoga pose. Just uniting breath and body. Sweet, take one more deep breath in your own private little love cave here. Nice, now release the hands, press the palms firmly into the earth. Stay connected to everything that is touching the ground here, your foundation as you tuck the chin, start to lean back, way back, and slowly roll it up. Awesome, take a deep breath in here. Head over heart, heart over pelvis. And then as you exhale, hands are going to come to behind the thighs. You're going to lift the toes up, dig into the heels and if you're experiencing any pain or discomfort in lower back, you're just going to stay here. If you're here for more of their lease and preventative care, then you're going to lean back and lift the shins and toes up parallel to the ceiling. Just connecting to little core stability here. So we're here or we're here and we're breathing deep. Jumping right in.

Take one more breath, then we're going to slowly release, feet back to the ground. Then you're going to send the left leg out long. You're going to hug the right knee in, squeeze as you send your sternum up towards the sky. Flex your left toes, take a deep breath in and then on an exhale, you're going to slowly bring your right hand behind you and you're not going to twist to look back. You're just going to twist to look to the right. So the right side of your mat, not all the way back. Just gentle and easy here. Big breath, squeeze and lift. Great, then you're going to come back to center. We're going to bring the right knee out this time. And then we're going to lift the right fingertips all the way up towards the sky. Left fingertips brace behind you. Then you're going to think up and over as you reach the left fingertips to either grab the outer, sorry, right fingertips to grab the outer edge of your left foot or your left shin or your left thigh. So you could be here, here or here. Now actively draw the top of the right thigh, that meaty quad muscle, and your thigh bone, the femur, down towards the earth as you inhale, lift your chest. Lots of awareness. 100% full body awareness. Take a deep breath in. And then exhale, you're going to release your hand and then we're just going to take the hands to the earth, the shin or the foot and you're going to come all the way flat, belly towards the thigh. Just intention not you have to come all the way flat. Head to knee pose, take one more breath here. Big cycle of breath in and out. Breathing into that lower back body and then slowly release. Don't push anything. Just let it kind of be where it's at today. And you're going to guide the right knee all the way up. Right leg goes out, left leg comes in. Nothing better than a little at-home yoga to tend to the body so I'm all good, don't worry. Not that you were worried. Squeeze and lift so find this foundation first. Nice and tall, hug that left knee in. And then again, we're not going all the way back. Today, we're just going to the left. So you'll bring the left fingertips behind. This is to help us resist the urge of cranking all the way back, creating stability and finding length today. Big breath here, breathe into your belly. Nice, and then slowly we'll come back to center. We're going to open the left knee out. Beautiful, then left fingertips reach up. Got it right this time. Right fingertips come back to anchor you and then you're going to think up and over as you reach towards the outer edge of the right thigh, outer edge of the right shin, or all the way over to outer edge of that right foot. And you're of course going to feel that great, long lengthy release in the lower back body. And you know what makes it even better? You bringing conscious breath to the par-day. So soften your gaze. Breathe deep. Let your left thigh bone, left quad get really heavy here. So we're actively drawing down as we lift and lengthen over the right leg. then slowly release. Frame your right leg with your hands and then you'll decide what feels best here. Maybe grabbing the shin. Maybe one day the foot, maybe you're just here. Baby steps and we'll slowly fall into our version of head to knee pose, Janu Sirsasan.

Hey buddy. Breathing deep. Then slowly press into your foundation to roll up. from here we're going to pull the right foot in to meet the left, Baddha Konasana but we're going to give our self a lot of space today. You're going to create a diamond shape by bringing the heels out. Then hands are going to hold on to the shins or the ankles so shins if you seem to be rounding forward. If you have that length already here then you can go ahead and go for the ankle and find a little rotation in the pelvis. Okay, inhale, sit up nice and tall. Exhale, bend the elbows. You're just going to slowly shift forward so that you're looking just beyond the toes. Maybe looking into a pond, seeing your reflection. And then we'll come all the way back up. And then back again, navel draws in and up, create space, coming forward, 1 bend the elbows. And then come back up and then this is the last time we're going to hold there, and you might find that the option is available to allow the elbows to press the tops of the thighs out a little bit and maybe open the toes. So we're breathing deep. Tops of the thighs actively anchoring down. Ooh, yeah. This is a good one, tuck the chin a little bit here. Find length. Nice, and then release. Bring the hands to the outer edges of the thighs or the knees. You're going to bring the knees together and then we're going to send the legs out long. If the legs are a bit tight, lower back, hamstrings a bit tight, just go ahead and keep a nice generous bend in the knees by digging into the heels. If you're able to straighten the legs let's go ahead and send the toes up towards the sky and keep nice and active in the toes. Check it out, left fingertips are going to go back. You're going to slowly reach all the way up and over, touch your right toes. Then come all the way back up. Left fingertips, I did it again. Right fingertips are going to go back, think up and over, touch your left toes. Again, you can bend the knees here for this flow. Inhale to reach up and over. It's like you're swimming here, big stroke. And then come back and then all the way up and over. And you're going to keep doing this and see if you can find a nice breath to sync up with. And this is definitely one where I like to remind you to not worry about what it looks like but how it feels. Explore the sensations as you move with your breath. We'll go ahead and even it out. And then the next time you're in your Forward Fold with the knees bent or with the legs straight, with a micro-bend, you're going to go ahead and hang out there, Paschimottanasana. I love to bend my knees in Paschimottanasana.