Hi,
I'm Asa.
Let's do some yoga.
We'll start on our back.
So take your time lying onto your back on your yoga mat.
All the way down with your knees bent and your feet on your mat.
Bring your hands to your knees.
And on an exhale,
Gently hug your knees in towards your chest.
Inhale to straighten your arms.
And exhale to hug your knees back in.
And we'll flow like this a few more times.
Connect your movement with your breath.
Just gently warming up the hips.
Last one.
Inhale.
And exhale to hug.
And on your next inhale,
Release your knees.
Set your feet back down to the mat.
Extend your left leg all the way flat on the mat.
And then on an inhale,
Float your left leg all the way up to the sky.
And bend in your knee.
Hug your knee in towards your chest.
And start to come into some circles here in your left hip.
Now you can keep your other knee bent with your foot on the mat.
Or if it feels okay in your body,
You might extend your right leg flat on the mat.
Keep circling that left knee.
And when you're ready,
Go ahead and reverse direction.
Getting into that left hip crease.
One more circle here.
And then on the exhale,
Hug your knee in towards your chest.
If your right leg is extended,
Go ahead and bend it,
Bringing your foot back to the mat.
Extend your left leg high to the sky.
And then as you bend your knee,
Bring the outside of your left ankle on top of your right thigh.
We're setting up for a figure four stretch.
You can stay right here,
Kind of gently guiding your left knee away from your body.
Left toes are flexed.
Or if you'd like,
You might float your foot off the mat and interlace your hands behind your right thigh.
Or even over top of your right shin.
So you decide how deep you want to come into this stretch.
And if you'd like,
You can even kind of sway from side to side.
Remember to breathe deeply here.
We'll spend a few deep breaths here.
And one more breath in.
On your exhale,
Release your feet back down to the mat,
Knees bent.
Step your feet a little wider.
A little windshield wiper action from side to side.
And bring your knees back to center.
On an exhale,
Hug your knees in towards your chest.
Inhale to straighten your arms,
Just like we did at the beginning.
Exhale in.
Inhale back out.
Last one.
Exhale in.
And inhale to release.
Bring your feet to the mat.
This time,
Extend your right leg flat on the mat.
Inhale,
Reach your right leg up.
On the exhale,
Bend your knee.
Grab a hold of your knee and start to make some circles.
With that right knee getting into your right hip.
Now again,
You can keep your left leg right where it is.
Or extend it flat on the mat.
Try to make those knee circles as wide as you can to really get into the right hip.
You're welcome to reverse direction now if you'd like.
One more breath here.
And on your exhale,
Release your foot to the mat.
Bring your left foot back to the mat if your leg was extended.
We're going to inhale.
Extend the right leg and lift it up to the sky.
Exhale,
Bend the knee.
Bring the outside of the right ankle on top of the left thigh.
Setting up for figure four here on the other side.
And either keeping your foot down or maybe interlacing the hands behind your thigh.
Draw your knee away from your body.
Your right knee away from your body.
Flex your right toes.
Couple more breaths here.
Option to sway from side to side.
One more deep breath in.
And on your exhale,
Slowly release.
This time we'll hug the knees in towards the chest.
And two options to come back onto hands and knees or tabletop.
You can roll over to one side and gently press yourself up.
Or you can grab ahold of your knees or behind your knees and get a rock back and forth on your spine a few times.
Until you come all the way up.
And then we'll meet in tabletop position.
So on the mat.
Wrists under shoulders.
Knees under hips.
Step your knees back a few more inches.
Take a deep breath in.
On your exhale,
Tuck your toes,
Send your hips back and up to downward facing dog.
Once you get there,
Pedal your feet.
Sway your hips if you'd like.
You can nod your head yes,
No,
And maybe.
Alright,
On your next inhale,
Lift your right leg back and up for a three-legged dog.
And we'll move into a variation where you open the hip and bend your knees.
This is called a scorpion variation.
A nice stretch in the hip.
Wait for the next inhale to restraighten your leg.
Face your hips back down towards the mat.
And on an exhale,
Step your right foot up towards the top of the mat.
And we'll stay here in this runner's lunge position.
Like you're about to take off at a race.
So the back heel is lifted,
All ten toes are facing forward.
Kind of on the fingertips.
If you've got blocks,
You can grab some blocks,
Get a little extra lift up in this pose.
Take one more deep breath here.
And on your exhale,
Lower the left knee down.
And keep the distance from your knee to your foot short here.
We're going to rise up into a proposal lunge position.
You can rest your hands on top of your thigh.
Relax your shoulders.
Lengthen your tailbone down towards the mat here.
So you might notice as you do that,
The pelvis kind of tips back just a little bit.
And you might feel a deeper stretch in the front of the left hip.
The left hip flexor.
So we'll stay here for another breath.
And then on the exhale,
Come forward just for a moment to scoot your foot forward a few inches on the mat.
To sink your hips a little bit deeper,
Coming into a low lunge.
Now you can keep your fingers low to the ground or on blocks.
Or float them back up to your thigh,
To your knee.
Or even maybe on an inhale,
Arms forward and up.
Anjaneyasana.
Deep breath here.
Reach your tailbone down towards the mat.
Feel that stretch in the front of the left hip.
One more deep breath here.
And on an exhale,
Slowly fold forward,
Plant your hands,
Lift the back knee,
And step it back to downward facing dog.
Let's do that on the other side.
Inhale,
Left leg back and up,
Three-legged dog.
Wait for the exhale to open your hip and bend your knee.
Inhale to restraighten your leg,
Face your hips down towards the mat.
And on the exhale,
Bend your knee,
Step it all the way up to the top of the mat.
Starting with our runner's lunge.
Lengthen through the crown of your head.
Sometimes there's a tendency for the left hip to open out to the side.
So see if you can draw it back behind you so it's more in line with your left knee.
One more deep breath here.
And on your exhale,
Slowly lower your right knee down to the mat.
Keeping that short distance here and rising up into that proposal lunge position.
You might bring hands to the hips.
Lengthen the tailbone down.
Feel that stretch in the front of the right hip,
Hip plexor.
Maybe hands rest on the thigh.
Lift up through the crown of your head.
Relax your shoulders down.
One more breath here.
On the exhale,
We'll bring the hands to the mat just for a moment to scoot the front foot forward maybe a couple of inches.
Sink your hips a little bit lower to the mat and either stay low or bring the hands to your knee or maybe inhale the arms forward and overhead.
If the arms are up,
Draw your navel towards your spine.
Nice strong core to support your back here.
Gaze comes up,
Soften in your face.
One more deep breath here.
And then exhale to fold.
Plant your hands and step it back once more to downward facing dog.
One more full cycle of breath here.
Take a deep inhale and a long slow exhale.
From here,
We'll lower the knees down onto the mat,
Step them wide,
Big toes to touch.
Let's take a child's pose.
Reach your hands high up on the mat.
Melt your heart towards the mat.
A few options here.
You can rest your forehead on stacked palms,
Stacked fists.
You can grab a block if you've got it.
Or you can always rest your forehead on the mat if it reaches.
Breathe into any tension that you might be feeling in your hips here.
One more deep breath here.
On your exhale,
Slowly rise up.
Step your knees back towards each other.
Tuck your toes.
And on an exhale,
Lift back to downward facing dog.
Just briefly,
On the next inhale,
Look towards the top of your mat.
Take baby steps all the way up to the top.
Step your feet wide.
Heels turned in,
Toes turned out.
And slowly lower your hips,
Coming into Malasana,
Yogi squat.
If you've got a block,
You can sit on that.
You can put a blanket underneath your heels if your heels are off the mat.
Hands to prayer at heart center,
With the knees just gently,
Or the elbows gently guiding the knees open.
Relax your jaw.
Soften your eyes and your forehead.
Lift up through the crown of your head.
Slow your breath down.
And be gentle with yourself here.
Sometimes getting into the hips and opening the hips can release emotions.
So if anything comes up,
Just allow it to be there and be soft and gentle with yourself.
We'll take one more breath here.
And on your exhale,
Slowly release.
Reach back and come to seated on the mat.
And then from here,
We're going to lie all the way back down onto the mat for just two more poses.
Supporting yourself here as you lie down.
Knees bent,
Feet on the mat.
Take a deep breath here.
And on your exhale,
Draw your knees towards your chest,
Soles of the feet towards the sky.
We're sitting up for happy baby.
You can grab a hold of your shins,
Your ankles here,
Or if your fingers reach,
You might grab around the outside edge of your feet.
Just gently draw your knees towards your armpits.
You're welcome to hold this pose pretty still or rock from side to side.
We'll be here for three deep breaths.
Last deep breath in.
And on your exhale,
Release your feet.
Bring your feet to the mat.
We'll set up for a reclined bow in the angle pose.
Last pose of the class.
Slowly allow or scoot your feet a little closer in towards your body and then bring the soles of the feet together as you allow your knees to kind of open out to the side.
They might be hovering off the ground.
For most people,
They won't touch down to the ground.
If you've got blocks or pillows,
You can always place those underneath your knees for a little extra support.
Hands can rest on the belly.
You could place one hand on your belly,
One hand on your chest,
Or even open your arms out to the side.
We'll spend five deep breaths here.
With each breath,
See if you can allow your body to relax more and more.
It feels as if you're melting down into the earth.
One more deep breath here.
And a long,
Slow breath out.
To come out of this pose,
Bring your hands on the outside of your thighs or your knees and guide your knees back up.
Hug them into your chest once more.
You're giving yourself a little squeeze,
A little hug,
A little self-love for taking this time to practice today.
And when you're ready,
You can roll over to one side.
You might pause there for a moment,
Kind of reset.
And then gently press yourself all the way back up,
And we'll meet in a comfortable seated position.
Rest your hands on your lap.
Close your eyes if you'd like.
Inhale,
Arms out to the side and overhead,
Palms touch.
And exhale,
Hands to heart center.
The light in me sees and honors the light in each of you.
Namaste.
