Hello,
Welcome to this week's myofascial release yoga class.
We have the theme to work on our roots,
Meaning on our legs and they are important because the legs carry us obviously all along,
Yet the other aspect is that they are connecting us with the ground,
With the earth,
With the energy that comes from underneath us.
With releasing the tension today,
We are opening up,
Not just feeling lighter in the legs and obviously the extension in the back and upper body.
But it also helps us to ground in more deeply and stronger,
Meaning it gives you the foundation for your system to feel stable,
To feel safe and to feel connected.
Today we need two,
Whoops,
Two release balls and you may also want to have one block handy as we're going through different areas.
With my first release,
We always want to work in the sweet spot of putting our body in an angle with a certain body weight on top of these balls in a way that it's still supportive.
So that you feel the tension points,
Yet your body can still relax and work with the pressure that it has to open up the tissue as we go through without going into pain.
And without needing to braze or protect a specific area.
So you are in full charge of how you position your body,
How much body weight you put on top of the balls.
And I really encourage you to constantly check in with that.
As well as we go through the process.
Okay,
So as we're ready,
I invite you to come into a seated position first.
And whatever that means for you,
You can sit on a block already if that's more comfortable.
And close your eyes.
And then take a few cycles of breath comfortably in through your nose.
And sigh out through your mouth and then in through the nose.
Or more conscious like that in through the nose.
And out.
Allow yourself to arrive for this practice.
Be very present with your body.
How it feels at any given moment.
You're here to work with your body.
And for that,
Attention and awareness is needed.
As you're going to explore different tension points.
Around your leg.
Maybe tune into your lower body here for a moment,
Feeling from your hips.
A brief body scan down your upper thigh.
The front,
The outside,
The inside,
The back.
Watch your knees.
To your lower legs,
The calves on the back,
Your shin on the front.
Across your ankles.
And then tune into your feet.
Then with your next inhale reopen your eyes,
Get ready for our practice.
This region I do recommend.
Is our shin so we want to work Just if you find your shin bone here in the front of your leg,
We want to work on the outside of that.
Primarily at the top of the leg,
But depending on how you feel your tension is placed in your body.
Course make all your way down to your ankle region.
I find most people have more tension up here,
But I also,
For example,
Used to have an injury on my right ankle.
So I do feel I have more tension here,
But that's more on my right leg than on my left leg.
So I like to do the entire region.
But if you want to have a focus point,
Then I would say at the top half is usually where more tension is held.
And how you want to do that is by coming into a kneeling position first.
Maybe have a candy if you need that.
And place that ball just under the knee,
Just on the outside of the shinbone.
If I wouldn't be sitting on it,
It's literally under my knee.
Bone is here,
Just on the outside of that.
And then you want to put your weight on top of that.
And here you may want to have the block to assist you if you have Either you can't sit on your heels because your ankles are restricted or you want to reduce the body weight that is resting on the ball here.
You may want to just scoop that block under your hip.
So that you can sit on it comfortably and that will take some weight away from the ball under your shin.
And it gives you a nice.
Position to sit down comfortably without having too much strain on your back.
Ankles as well.
But if you're sitting here comfortable with that and still want to add a little bit more body weight,
You simply start leaning forward,
Maybe adding your elbows here or your hands to just press on the leg to give that point a little bit of extra.
Pressure.
Maybe you want to move the board just a little bit down.
The top region is also important from a meridian perspective,
Very important.
Stomach acupuncture point up here in that region just under your knee to the outside of your shin.
So if you're sensitive here,
Don't be surprised.
Or if you feel that traveling into your stomach,
Then you're right on point.
And it just opens up those.
Stressors,
These blockages.
That may be present in your body.
And as always,
We want to stay with each point.
Going very slowly in your own speed.
Knowing that you're always working on everything.
And I think here even sometimes.
It's not always about really finding a real big trigger point.
Even if you don't find like a really major trigger point,
It's really good to release and open the shin muscle here,
Just so that you're walking,
You're running,
You're hiking or whatever sports you do,
Just feels a bit more agile,
A bit more powerful.
The muscles will be able to distribute the impacts that you take.
And distribute the energy charge that is with that.
Much more easier when your tissue is open and gliding.
Even if you don't have painful points,
Hopefully you don't anyways.
Even if you just.
.
.
Working on softening that shin muscle here.
In your overall leg,
Your walking pattern.
How you're able to run Chum.
Even more so.
So give every pine a few gentle breaths to ride weight.
And stay with whatever you're observing in your body.
I avoid speaking to you.
We have another minute here.
So if you don't make it all the way between knee and ankle,
Don't worry.
You technically,
You still work on all the areas anyways,
But.
We found.
Different focus on individual points.
By the entire shin.
Benefits from this work as you know.
I'm still only half a fruit and that's perfectly fine.
Even with me just here sitting on my on my heels even gives my ankle and the shin muscle itself,
A bit of a stretch.
Okay,
Last few breaths here for the first leg.
And then release.
Bringing that leg around.
Maybe tabbing it I feel.
The different spots where hats.
The ball press into.
Sometimes it feels nice to just massage that.
Front shin muscle here a little bit to help even out the impact that the ball may have left.
Depending how hard your ball is.
And that's it.
Also a reminder,
If you now have a lot of red spots here because of the pressure that you had applied,
Maybe consider taking a towel to put across the ball as we're going into the other side.
Just to give it a bit more.
Chant tool.
But do you do psych?
You know what's right for your body.
Coming over to the other side now.
Again,
If sitting on your heels is possible for you,
Please do so.
If not,
Then please use the block accordingly to find the right position.
Higher position for your hip and also lift some of the weight off.
The knee and the heels and have your book carried out.
So again,
We've.
Just under the knee on the outside of your shin bone.
Kind of in the area where we have.
Stomach meridian,
Acupressure point.
Of course we are not doing Aku.
Here.
You're not that pointy.
With the ball but you're still in the overall region here.
And you're helping to open up.
Your stomach meridian,
Which is important for many reasons.
Connecting back to what I said at the beginning or about the grounding.
As we open up and loosening the tension in our legs.
Are able to.
Transport the energy from the earth through our body more easily.
And with that,
Also transport away any.
.
.
Heavy energy from someone else,
So you're basically digesting better.
Because it has a way to leave your system.
If you have a bigger shin or as I'm squeezing here.
You might also want,
If there is an interesting spot,
You can also open and close your leg a little bit.
So that you're doing a gentle cross-fibre movement.
So while you're staying in one spot,
It's very compressing,
But if you're then moving.
.
.
You're bringing in your tie,
But then you're bringing it out again.
Just giving different angles of the chin muscle.
Also an exposure to the pressure.
And then whenever you feel one height,
So to say,
Is.
.
.
Well managed,
You just move your ball again a little bit lower.
Still staying outside.
The outside.
Of your shin.
So we do not want to place the ball on the shin bone itself.
You always want to be on that soft tissue.
You can move on with the ball in your own timing.
It also means the closer you come to the ankle,
Maybe that means at some point you may want to add the block.
To just support your body posture here and the weight.
Also pay attention to how the second side Feels different possibly compared to the first leg.
Notice there are different pockets in the shin here that feel more intense than they did on the other side.
There never should be an expectation that the left and the right body have the same tension points or behave the same way.
They are different body parts.
And anything that is different in our feet.
For example,
Like me when I had my ankle injury many,
Many years ago.
I definitely notice how I'm walking differently still now that I've had my ankle injury and how that changed how I was walking during the healing process.
But somehow the different bulking just stayed,
Although my ankle injury had healed up.
And with that different walking,
You're using your body weight differently,
Meaning your body needs different muscles working and active and strong from your left to your right side.
And that will sooner or later make its way into your glutes.
And into your lower back.
So if one side in your glutes in your lower back is so much more tense than the other side then Look at your legs.
What is out of balance there?
Already coming to the last minute here on the second leg as well.
Should be already over it so we should be releasing coming into rebound here Maybe it feels good to bring both legs,
Scoop them over.
Them in front of you,
Do a bit of a tabbing or Massaging along your shin muscles.
Sometimes it also feels good to just wriggle them.
Giving them some space.
And maybe you just want to hold him still.
Feeling into the left and the right front leg.
Maybe you're feeling some tingling,
Some warmth coming in.
Maybe there's a bit of a pulsation happening that you didn't notice before.
Just invite you to be very attentive to that.
And then take Maybe a minute or so of savasana,
A bit more stillness.
Work can really integrate and land in your body and you might even feel that.
Integration or that shift from your shins going back down to your ankles or to the top of your feet or maybe you feel it coming up into your What's.
.
.
Give yourself some extra time to integrate before you complete this practice for today.
