All You Can Do With Blocks

Props don't make us weaker, but wiser.
In this sequence, 2 blocks will be utilized to mobilize shoulders and hips.
A smart way to bring the Earth closer to us too.
Full-body stretch and strength.
Nota Bene: class can be done with no blocks, your hands will suffice.

Transcript

Hello, Welcome to your class. This is Wendy once more. And this time it will be a postnatal class because I have given birth. Three and a half months ago, So. . . Hopefully it's flat enough for you. Will do and all you can do with blocks so two blocks please have them nearby If you don't have the blocks at home, You can also work without them, Just using your hands. It's magic. So two blocks here, Just leave them in front of you. And if you're sitting onto something like I am, Remove that. We're going to use two blocks like so. So try to avoid only one, Unless you're five years old and you've got a very small pelvis. We want to have to attach like this side by side on flat level. So we're going to have this set up first. Check. Then we sit on top. Oh, It's so much better already. And then you're crossing the unusual leg in front, Just to use it up a bit. Have your palms facing down. Close the eyes. Now take all the time that you need to reset the whole of your system, Your whole constitution. Engage with the breath. Listen to it. Look at it with a very fresh mind. Allow it to be nasal. It doesn't take much to get deeper. Just a simple seed. Engaging with our breath, It's all it takes. Would you like to place one hand on the heart and the other one to the lower belly below the navel spreading the fingers wide And see if you can move your torso even closer to your head, So you open yourself up. Lengthened, Lifted, Uplifted even, Ready to practice. Not just with the body but with your whole being. A collective breath in. A collective breath out. Let's bring the palms to touch in front of the heart. And let's just have fun with our blocks. Always get reminded of that beautiful quote from big brain Einstein when he said creativity is intelligence having fun. Let's have fun on the mat! Namaste. Alright, First things first, If you've got pesky long hair like I do, Make sure you get them out of the way. It will be much easier to flow. And you won't have the problem of the microphone, So that's good for you. One thing I can tell you, Postpartum hair loss is real. So if you see hair falling down, Don't panic. I still have a few left. Hopefully I won't go too bold. All right, So. Let's get the blocks out of the way. And sit bones on the ground. Let's just start to warm up the spine here by placing the left hand by your side. I will not mirror you by the way, It will be your left hand and it will be my left hand. Take the right arm out and up to sky, Breath in look up and as you exhale start to bend the left arm to get deeper into your lateral flexion. We may take a little twist as well, Bringing the back of the right hand over the left thigh, Readjusting the left fingers behind you, Lengthening your arms looking over the left shoulder. And then let's take the left arm up to the sky, Let's side bend the other way. Oh, That feels so good. The left arm goes on top of the right. We cross our arms, Trying to reduce the gap between the forearms. Pick up your elbows, Maybe a back bend to the sky, Forearms parallel. And as you exhale, Round your spine, Intention to create space between the shoulder blades. Little finale in cactus, Spread out fingers, Shoulder blades squeeze together, Squeeze, Squeeze, Squeeze, And draw your elbows close to the waist, Palms facing up, Squeeze, Squeeze, Squeeze, Release everything. Get to the other side a little sneaky navasana because we don't want to and that means we have to and a little lean on the left sit bone. A little link on the right. And on extending the legs. Lane on the left. Lean on the right hip. Come back crossing the other leg in front. Take your arms up to the sky, Big breath in, Side bend over to your right. The gaze can be up. Moving into a rotation. Readjusting your arms, Gaze over right shoulder, Remember the further you can look back the the deeper the twist will be. Radom joins the party. Extending over to the left. Crossing that right arm over left, Bending your arms, Palms, Touch as best as you can, A little lean back and flexing forward and downward. Re-open up. Little jazz fingers. And squeeze in towards the midline and releasing everything. I don't know about you but I already feel better just after this little mobilizations around the spine. Now it's gonna get a little bit spicy I just realized that we have a little totem here. Our son Kenzo is three and a half months and we have toys all around the house. This is a little lion from his auntie Beata. Well, You might as well stay here. Yeah, Why not? All right, Two blocks. One is going to be for your left hand one is going to be for the right knee and you're just going to act normal in tabletop even though it's going to feel so crooked. Tuck the toes under here, Lift the left knee off the floor at the same height with the hips. Come on to the right fingertip. So now as you readjust left leg and right arm You should feel nice and level with shoulders and hips extend the right arm forward Extend the left leg to the back more balancing here you'll find. Squeeze knee to elbow. I'm sure you've all done this one many times before. Inhaling to re-extend the limbs. Exhaling to squeeze into the midline let's do just one more like that breath in and breath out. Now we'll come back to our lengthening. A little challenge, Can you become lighter with the right toes? So pointing the right toes so only the right knee the right shin will be on the block Hold this one and maybe even take the right arm back Lengthening if that's not enough for you. Wait, There's more Can you bend the left arm towards the back a little chin dip? Oh and returning to center And two more just for fun. And last one you're gonna hold this one and a little pulsing here with the left arm so your elbow points to the back you target the tricep not the bicep it's hard enough I tell ya and releasing everything Wow! Alright, Have a little shake with your hands. We'll come to the second side. Let's go the other way so that you can see. Block under the right hand, Block under the left knee. Getting ready here, Tucking all the toes, Left fingers on the floor, Eventually right knee off the floor. Big inhale, Gaze sets forward, Lengthen your limbs first. Long fingers, Heel is to the sky. As you exhale, Draw it all in, Flexing, Flexing like down cat. Inhaling, A tiny back bend. Excel in constructing. One more like this. Exhale, Squeeze. Lengthen finally. Can you release the left toes of the mat, Pointing your left foot, Keep flexing the right. You'll notice it's a bit hard to do one on each on both feet. And then can we take the left arm back behind us? And can we bend the right arm nice and brave press back up twice more, Bend, Bend, Bend, Bend Inhale to re-extend. Last one we bend, We hold and we pause here that right arm Let's release everything. Ugh. Well that was good. Two blocks under the hands. Inhale, Up cat. Excel down catch. Coming back to center, Let's place one block flat. To the lower back. The other one we won't need it, Be happy about this. And now can you keep everything as it is nice and leveled and do the same thing as we did before? Right arm, Left leg. And return to the mat at the same time. Left arm, Right leg on the mat at the same time a little faster fast but stay mindful in your approach. And we'll finish with the left arm. Coming back re-centering. That block is now going to go flat between the knees Squeeze it very tight, Tuck the toes under. Keep squeezing the block so you can pick it up and then we swing the knees from side to side. Keep doing this and eventually a little down though you can readjust here I like to have the block a bit higher not between the knees but between the thighs, So a bit higher here. Lift the heels, Bend the knees, Stretch the whole of your spine. Let the head dangle, Let it move. Return the knees down to the floor. Drop the block. Squeeze a block. Pick it up. Drop. Pick it up. Drop. Pick it up. Pick it up. Drop. Big get up! And release everything. Japanese sit, Have a little squeeze, Have a little release here with your wrist. And roll your wrist around. Two blocks will go now flat under your heels. Flat on your heels. And a little squat. Take the knees wide, The hands to the heart space. Ah. The sun feels so good this spring in Melbourne. Hmm. You may even rearrange the blocks like you were when you were sitting. Leaning back a little bit more It's nice for the ears to touch something in squat. And touch the floor here, Gently coming into standing forward fold with high heels on. Bend, Bend, Bend. Alright, Take your time to unroll all the way up to your standing. And we roll the shoulders back and down Feeling super tall now. And Utkatasana. Take your arms back, Heels off the blocks. Heels on the blocks, Arms forward. Arms back, Heels off the blocks. Heels down, Arms forward. Arms back, Heels off the blocks. Heels down, Standing all the way up. And release everything. You're only gonna need one block now. On top of your right hand. Like so. Left hand to your left hip And then you take a big squat. So think Utkatasana. Send the block forward. Block is flat on top of the hand. If you don't trust yourself, You can cheat. You can wrap your thumb and your little finger around the block to help you. I saw someone in class last night doing this one. Cheating big time! That was so easy! So you do you, I'll try to not shit. Bend bend bend with the knees send it forward out to the right standing up leaning back moving into our internal rotation of the right shoulder as you rebend the knees and we're going to go all around behind and send it through again You got this? Let's go a little faster. I'll face you this time. Block forward, Out to the side, Standing up, Leaning back left, Around and forward. And then it becomes really nice for that right shoulder to move around in space. Transitioning from an external rotation to internally rotating. All around. Can you rewind this? Go back. And around one more like this around left back Rise. Oh my god, The difference! Now place the block carefully flat. For the right foot. More or less it should be your shoe size. Push the right foot down till you pick up the left. Hands together, Lightly touching just the fingertips or even better for more balance, Place the fingertips to your navel, Really helps with the center. Left knee draws into you. Can you bend the right knee like chair pose leg? Can you take the left knee out? And finally, Can you pick up the left heel as high as you can? It always reminds me a bit of an Indian dance. And then a little pulse. Can you place left ankle on top of the right thigh? Burning backward. Hands to the heart, You can stay here and just to have fun take your arms out like wings and we're going to do some hip-hop waves here with our arms. Loosening up the shoulders again, Challenging your balance as you move like a bird. Standing up. Arms up. Maybe right heel lift. And ride the heel down. Throat healing! And down. Last one, Lift it up. Slowly return it down, Slower than I did Calm down, Sit down. The whole right side has been worked a lot on. Let's move to the second side. Bend the knees, Pick up your block. On your left hand, Right hand to the right hip. This time we'll go this way so you can see better. Bend the knees, Send the block forward, Go out to the side, Leaning backward. Think of the movie Matrix all around again. And forward. You'll find it gets easier, Of course, The more you do it. If you're right handed. You may find this side is a bit more challenging. I certainly do find it more challenging. I do want to cheat, Have my fingers wrap around. If you zoom the video you will see I'm doing it. Don't tell anyone. Can we unwind this? Rewind oh my god this is This is something. I wish I could see you at home doing this. Ai yai yai yai yai, Last one. I think. Wow, So open. Block on the floor, Left foot on the block, Right foot off the block. Fingertips in place, Draw the right knee up. Bend the left right knee out. Pick up that right heel and try to lift it up almost as high as the right knee if you can. Keep bending the left knee here, Hold and breathe. Maybe a little deeper. Right ankle over left thigh, Hands to heart, Leaning backward. Arms go out to the side, Move your arms around and then try to do one at a time and then do the other way around. A little lower deeper. And release everything oh no wait there's more arms up right knee up sorry guys i do remember now we lift the left heel up lift heel down. Twice more up slowly down slower than what I did up and down release everything one block it's gonna go on top of your head Now depending where you have these ones are quite heavy real cork blocks are if it falls. A solid floor that's okay just be mindful at home so just be prepared to catch quickly if it falls you may even have a plastic block or foam block so it'll be fine come here, Find your Tadasana, It really allows us to keep the chin parallel to the floor and have a nice posture here. I'm just going to turn my head to the left hand side. And head to the right. Center. Whoa. Can we come to the top of our mat? Testing the balance a bit more, Drawing the right knee into the chest. Release the foot down. Left knee to the chest. And down. Arms up as well. Right knee. Down. Left knee. Down. Wait, There's more! Ride me up! Slowly, Carefully, Write to attach the back of the mat. Rewind. And down. Left knee. Toes to the back. And jump. Right knee arms up. Right foot down, Arms up, High lunge. Warrior 2 Don't reverse it or the block will fall. Come back Highland! Step the right knee to the chest and return everything down. Left knee. Step it back, Move to your high lunge. Oh, But now worry too, Don't reverse it. High lunge. Left knee in, Whoa, And then down. When you remove the block, Enjoy. You have to feel so much lighter, Light mind as well. Two blocks again the top of the mat. In your down jog. Let's do this height. Two peace fingers on the block like so. The other fingers can wrap around the block. Make sure the weight is distributed. Evenly on the block so this is not happening or this. You should feel nice and safe. If you don't feel safe, Work on flat blocks. We'll find a nice downward dog here. Down dog, Hands on the blocks, You'll find with more height, Wow it's slippery, The heels can touch the floor better. Lift the heels, Walk the feet to the top of the mat, Bend the knees, Pick up the blocks, Stand up, All the way up, A little bit of a back bend with more weight, So squeeze your glutes, Push the hips forward. And then come all the way back down. Walk your feet back, Downward facing dog. Lift the heels bend the knees look forward this time you can step or float to the top of the mat be mindful guys there's more height some more momentum so be careful otherwise you're gonna go whoa all the way to the grass yeah bend the knees look forward Ah, So much better. Half list, Inhale. Refold as you exhale. Now we're going to take the blocks to the back, Keep the knees bent. Bend the left knee a little bit more, Transfer body weight to the left side, Right leg goes back. In a warrior 3 situation with the blocks back, A little clap to the back. Plugs will go forward. Clap to the front and out to the side. I'm flying. Squeeze, Squeeze, Squeeze, Squeeze, Squeeze. And everything squeeze back to the midline, Bend your arms, Bend your legs, Come back to your flying bird, Squeeze everything in and out. Last one, Squeeze, Squeeze, Squeeze, Squeeze, Squeeze. And out down with the blocks why not do a standing split right leg up head down Maybe push your hands to the blocks to lift the left heel. And release everything back down. Have a little break. In your standing position. So open your palms, Open your heart. Open yourself to the experience. Hmm. . . Bend your knees, Take your time, Hands on the blocks the same way you had them earlier. Walk your feet back, Downward dog. Lift the heels, Bend the knees, Gaze forward, Step or float. Top of the mat between the blocks ideally. Half leaf breath in. Fall as you breathe out. When you're ready, Bend the knees, Transfer the weight to the right foot, Left leg goes back. Take your time, Send the blocks back behind you. Whoa, Whoa, Whoa. And then once we feel nice and lengthened, A little clap. Arms go down and forward with a clap they go back they're gonna go out to the side Can we bend the knees, Bend the elbows, Squeeze? And re-open up into your bird position bend everything, Re-open up last one, Squeeze tiny little ball Release all the way down, Left leg goes back up into your standing split. You stay here or you push hands on the blocks, Use your core, Pick up the right heel, Head is lower. And release everything back down again. A little roll with your bottom side to side. Blocks will stay as they are. Walk your feet back. Breath in, Right leg goes high, Three-legged dog. Knee to the nose, Step the right foot between the blocks. Lengthen everything, Legs, Spine, Gaze forward. Pyramid shape, Forward fold here. Can we walk our blocks over to the right hand side? Deeper stretch. Blocks will frame the right foot again. Lift the right heel trying to keep your legs straight as you take it back to the sky And maybe try this again, Right foot hovers between the blocks. And back up. One more between the blocks. And back up, Down dog, Reset. Left leg goes high, Breath in. Lift the right heel, Keep the leg straight if you can, Then knee to the nose, Step the left foot between the blocks, Lengthen everything, Prepare, Big inhale Fold as you breathe out. Moving your blocks over to the left hand side folding down Ah, Feels good Returning the blocks the way they were. Pick up your right heel And bending the left knee at first. Now can you extend both of your legs? Take it back to the sky. Left foot will be hovering between the blocks trying to keep your two legs straight And back up. And again. What? And back up and release everything down, Knees down one flat block between your feet. To take a seat, Japanese seat. Hmmmm. . . We're going to work with a lateral flexion next. Setup is like this two middle height blocks this way. For our ribs. I wonder what temperature the tea is now. Let me try it. Oh, So good. It's a nice green tea, Sencha green tea with a I think it's lychee and. . . Rose and some very fancy ingredients to it. Okay so left ribcage, Not the armpit but the ribcage will go on top of the blocks, Hold the head, Bend the knees, Find this already you find that's enough you can do a little bit of a roll forward and backward while you stay as you are. If you want more, Extend the left arm move what's in the way. So the left palm is facing up, Maybe even extend the top leg, Right leg is straight then maybe the right arm up and reaching over. Lots of space to breathe into from the right pinky toe all the way to the right pinky finger You want to inhale on the right. Bottom to top, Exhale on the left, Top to bottom. You may even bring the fingertips a touch behind that left arm. And how about rolling as well forward and down And backin' up. Again. And release. Push. Out of the way. And we'll come to the second side, But before you do, Notice the difference. Let's work on our right rib. Alright, So under that rib. . . Right hand to hold the head, Knees up and try this already. Little rocking motion forward and backward. Can we now extend the right arm? Extend the top leg, Pointing the toe so it looks prettier. Left arm goes up and over. Breathing deeply. Perhaps a little roll, The left fingers can touch the floor behind that right forearm. Rolling forward and backward. I think some people call this sticky. It's sticky. You roll onto this. Bit tender. But then it feels so much better once it's done. Of course, It can't feel worse. Ah, Alright. Push out of the way, Come back You should feel like 21 years old again. Or 21 years young. Let's use those blocks as they are under our thighs for a supported up dog. So start from tabletop. Extend the legs, My thighs are gonna go on top of the block so you can readjust your hands. I like to turn my fingers out a little bit so you have an open chest. Stay on the toes, Have a big stretch. You can really feel the belly stretching. We could even make this one! A bit of a yin shape and stay here 3 minutes if you wanted to. If that's the case you can just pause the video and stay. As long as you need. It feels really good. Especially when you activate the backline. To make the front line more passive, More stretching. I guess we have to come out of this eventually. So push, Sit back onto your heels. And now we're going to move into supine work. So one block behind your head, One block behind your shoulder blades, One of the most popular shape of yin as well. The block can be like this or like that, You choose. I like them both actually. If you find this is too much, Drop them down, Yeah? One here, One here. Some people go a bit crazy here Let's start with this though, And then you can do you. So. Adjusting the shoulder blades over that first block Ah, There's a microphone in the way. And second block for your head so then you get to decide if you want to have it horizontally or vertically. Having your arms out like Jesus, Palms facing up, Toes turning out. Hmmmm. . . Maybe you have the legs in. . . Barak nasana. Feet together, Knees opening wide. Opening the hips and if that feels quite pleasant Reach your arms overhead. Long arms, Maybe thumbs touch or interlace. You may hold the elbows. You may interlace the fingers or you may also do nothing, Just let them dangle. A little band should feel nice. Alright, Alright, Just two more breaths guys. There's another one that you could do. You may have thought about it already. As you're doing this class is to have that block behind the heart actually turning. This way. This feels quite nice for the spine. If you want to go crazy, Go like this. Don't take my word for it. Try yourself. So we'll go up. We come down so you get a thoracic spine onto that block. And the head is going to come to the second block. Mind you guys, If there's any bun in the way, You may need to reshuffle them around or maybe even let your hair be out. This is a different feeling, Isn't it? You feel like the shoulder blades can collapse a little bit more to the floor. And then we live back up. This one you may have seen in a yin type of class we're going to use only one and it's going to go to your occipital points. So medium height, It's going to go to where your neck and your head attach right here. You come down, You have this going on. Knees can be bent, Feet down and hands on the belly. And then you roll your hair slowly side to side. If you enjoy this and you want more tilt the block so it's in an angle. It's got a. . . Sharper edge to dig deeper into muscles here. And we roll. If you find it's gonna fall, You can use your fingers but keep your elbows down. To hold it. Side to side. You may haul over to the left hand side. Open the jaw and rock the bottom jaw side to side. Milo, Come here. Milo, Come and say hi. Hi baby, Same color as the mat and the cork. Have you noticed? Such a yogi dog. Roll the head to the other side Open the mouth, Rock the bottom jaw side to side. You may find it's easy to yawn. Oh. Coming back to centre, Do a few more of these. Maybe even press your skull. Actively onto the block to give you more feedback, So heavy ahead. Ah! So nice! All right. Reluctantly release it. Stacking two flat blocks. Oh wait there's one more I want you to do oh my god you're not gonna like this one at all have your left foot on the flat block Arms by your sides. Lift your sit bones off the mat. Right knee towards the chest. Right leg up, Point your toes. Can we bend? And. . . Bring the right leg under the left without touching the floor or the leg. And bend and extend so we bend the right leg we thread the right leg under drop the right hip halfway up all the way up one more bend go under Halfway up. All the way up. Bend. And release the whole spine down. What do you think? Move the block to the right foot. Ah, With kisses, Bleh. And we lift the hips, We pick up the left knee, Extend the left leg up, Point your toes band, Keep the hips lifted guys, More than I'm doing. Under or halfway up all the way up Halfway done! All the way down and under. Two more like this. Ugh. I'm sure you're doing a better job than I am doing. Postpartum core is no longer existing so gotta start afresh and then again rolling the spine down Let's hug the knees in, Rock from side to side. Okay this one is gonna feel so good after this horrible part so two flat blocks We'll go under our lower back, Under our sacrum more precisely. Flat is good so you have more Balance. Readjusting And then one year at a time. Start with the right knee to the chest, Interlace fingers over the right shin. If it's too high, Guys, Only work with one block. Extend the left leg long, Enjoy that stretch. Right knee may come out to the side a bit. Ah. Work with pointing and flexing the left foot Even floating, So floating is in between, You point your left foot. So you just flex the toes. Beautiful stretches in it. And we gently swap to the other side. Knees in. Release the lower back. Change the interlace of the fingers over the left shin. Extend the right leg. Letting the right leg be heavy. Left knee in so that you can stretch the right hip flexor. And some motions here with the right ankle, You point, You flex, You float. Let's draw the right knee in. Finally, Legs up. And the arms up too. Let it bend into the joints. Legs are apart, Make it in. Just hanging with yourself in the air, Floating. We shall require no effort to hold this one. Feel the blood surging from toes and fingers. Down to hips and shoulders. If you want to stay longer in your inversion, Pause the video. As long as you need. Bending the knees one at a time fit on the mat and possibly Baddha konasana, Soles of the feet together, Knees wide. Possibly. Arms overhead, Hold onto your elbows. Oh wow. Feet on the ground. Maybe a few more breaths into supported bridge. And eventually. . . Pick up your hips so you have enough space to remove the blocks blocks flat under your thighs, Really close to your glutes. Extend one leg at a time. Arms by your sides, Toes out. Palms up, Eyes closed. Let's do a mini shavasana together. Noticing all the pockets of space and more ease that you have created all the work you've done. Some strengthening, Some stretching components. And now stillness is here and it's now. If you need more time in Shavasana, Of course be my guest. Pause that video. Otherwise we're gonna Find some motions in extremities. Rolling around the ankles and the wrist joints. Let me take a stretch, Lick your lips, Have a swallow. Maybe yawn. We roll to one side, Taking a couple moments down. Recomposing yourself. Aw, Teddy bear. And then use your hands to press back up. Get the blocks out of the way, Maybe place them on top of your thighs for a little bit more weight. You can find your forearms on top of the blocks. Let nothing faze you. Not needing to fix anything nor the hair nor the clothes joining the hands back together lifting yourself a little higher a little wider Thank you for blocks. Thank you for making me stronger and more flexible in my body, In my mind, In my heart. And let's remember. We stretch so that we don't stress. Take a big breath in. Long breath out. The blocks are never here to block you, They are always here to support you and to actually get you deeper into the asana. As I always say in class, The props don't make you weaker, But they make you wiser. Namaste.