Keep Noticing : Michigan Slow Flow

This is an hour-long Michigan-style slow flow. As with other slow-flow practices, we start using a little more restorative energy in a seated position and then build our way up to bigger postures. Our Sun Salutation A in this flow is guided with some standing postures included. Then we dig deep into longer and more challenging holds. We end class on our back in a 5-minute savasana.

The theme of this practice is to keep noticing. It is a live recorded class so there may be little bits of noise from fellow practitioners. The movements are slow but there is always an invitation to come to your own edge.

Transcript

All right,

My yogis,

We're gonna start in a seated position today.

So if you're not there already,

Or if you need a little stretch before you find maybe crisscrossed ankles and bent knees or anything else that just feels good,

Sometimes sitting on a block feels good,

Elevating the hips above those knees.

So know that you have some options.

And letting the shoulders fall away from the ears.

You might close your eyes here as you adjust the body.

So if it feels comfortable,

Close the eyes.

If not,

Find a soft gaze at the floor and then just notice pieces and parts of yourself.

Notice your jaw,

Let it be soft.

Let there be a little gap between the teeth.

Maybe allowing the tongue to rest on the roof of the mouth.

Let the hands relax into or onto the lap.

Let the toes relax and the fingers.

Let there be these subtle pieces and parts of relaxation in the body,

But then find a little bit of attentiveness in the structure of your spine.

So think about sitting really tall here.

And when we say that,

Sometimes we can just wiggle another millimeter out of the spine and maybe that's you,

That maybe you're just as long as you can be.

Do this,

Yogis.

Take a big breath in through the nose.

And then sigh it out,

Let it go.

And then give yourself a couple of intimate moments here at the beginning of class.

A few moments to deeply recognize and connect with your breath.

A few moments to deeply recognize and connect with how you feel.

And sometimes as we choose stillness and we kind of settle into our bodies,

Sometimes the mind works so hard to draw our attention away from the experience that we're having.

And sometimes as we settle in and we just try to breathe and invite relaxation into the body,

The mind says,

Oh,

But wait,

Do this.

Oh,

But wait,

Think of this.

Oh,

Wait,

Wait,

Wait,

Analyze,

Prepare,

Remember.

But our job isn't to control the mind.

Our job isn't to control the mind.

It's instead to build a new relationship to what's going on in the body.

And choose to bring your awareness back to the breath with just a few more breaths,

A few more conscious breaths just like this.

And then just as we did before,

I want you to draw in a big inhale through the nose.

And let it go.

And you might keep your eyes closed as you just straighten the legs out in front and take a really soft forward fold.

So starting to relax the chest over top of the thighs.

You could certainly weave the forearms or the hands underneath or behind the knees.

Beautiful yogis.

And then slowly rolling yourself up to that seated position.

See if you can bend the knees again and crisscross the ankles.

I want you to tug the shoulders up toward your ears once when you get there.

So getting a nice big pull of shoulders toward ears and then letting them roll down the back.

And then from this position,

Go ahead and slide your right hand behind you onto the floor,

Left hand onto your right knee.

Come on into a spinal twist here.

And instead of staying,

We're gonna go right on over to the other side.

So turn to the left side,

Left hand behind,

Right hand,

Left knee.

Come back through center.

And I want you to keep doing that.

Just kind of rinse and repeat a few times.

Right,

Left,

Right,

Left,

Right,

Left.

You go a little right,

Peeking over the right shoulder.

Then you turn left,

Peeking over that left shoulder.

If the eyes are still closed,

Which is absolutely a place that you can be,

Direct the chin in that space versus the gaze.

Beautiful,

One more time each side.

So a little right,

A little left,

Or maybe if you're on left,

Maybe it's left.

And then a little right and coming back through center.

Once you get through center,

Go ahead and get another shoulder shrug.

So pulling the shoulders up toward the ears,

Giving them a nice tight squeeze,

And then letting them roll down the back.

From this position,

From seated position,

I'm gonna have you come into a supported boat pose,

Yogi.

So I want you to place your hands either beside you or behind you.

And then you're gonna turn your feet down into the floor,

Knees point up.

Shift the weight enough into your sit bones that you can start to lift the feet up off of the floor.

You find a little bit of balance here on those sit bones,

So belly and back stay strong.

You can use the support of your hands as little or as much as you'd like.

Find a gaze,

So right over top of the tippy toes,

Or if the eyes are closed,

Find an inner gaze.

Nice.

And then I just want you to come back into a seated position.

So with the knees bent,

Crisscrossing ankles,

Sitting tall,

Take a big breath in with me.

So big,

Big inhale.

And then sigh it out,

Let it go.

Ah.

Good.

I'm just gonna do that one more time.

So I want you to set your hands beside or behind you.

Come on into that supported boat pose.

For those of you who practice boat pose,

If you wanna take your hands up off of the floor and find balance of weight shifted completely into the sit bones only,

You can pick up the hands and find the steadiness of your own breath.

And if it's not steady yet,

That's okay.

We can just tune in with the breath.

Tune into the breath and notice how you're breathing.

Beautiful,

Yogis.

Come back up to that seated position.

So knees bent and ankles crisscross,

Or if there's a different version of seated you would like,

You can always go there.

Take another big breath in as a reset.

Let it out,

Let it go.

Good,

And then meet me all the way into the belly.

So rolling over or around those legs.

Legs are gonna extend back behind.

You're lowering the belly,

The chest,

The thighs,

All the way down to the floor.

Just take a resting breath here like you're completely supported by your yoga mat,

By the wood floor.

Maybe you have a different floor at home.

Good,

And then propping up onto your forearms,

Elbows,

And palms.

So you're gonna turn the palms downward,

Lift the chest upwards so you get a little space there.

And then try this,

Guys.

Bend the knees,

Feet up toward the ceiling.

So you're just pointing them upward.

And like scissors,

We're gonna kind of crisscross them and open them up.

So think about crisscrossing ankles and then opening them wide,

Crisscrossing ankles.

And you'll notice that you can alternate which one goes in front or behind.

Good.

Try it a few more times,

Creating a little space and then bringing them close together.

Good,

And then let the feet become still.

Lower them down,

So tops of the feet to the floor,

And then lower chest and belly down as well.

Bring the head down whether you turn the cheek to the floor or maybe forehead to the floor.

And then instead of having arms and hands beside you or out in front of you,

I want you to take them backwards.

So take them alongside the body.

We're gonna flip the palms up.

And so the tops of your hands will be touching down.

Just like we did the two kind of strengthenings of the core using boat pose,

Guys,

We're gonna do two here,

Lifting the body up in kind of the opposite direction.

So on your next inhale,

I want you to start to peel the chest,

The shoulders up off of the floor and do the same thing with the bottom half of your body as much as possible.

So feet,

Shins,

Ankles,

Maybe even a portion of your knees and thighs come up off the floor as the fingers continue to reach backward.

The arms come up,

The backsides of the hands come up off of the floor,

So you feel that strengthening in the back and the belly,

Not in the jaw,

So unclench the jaw and then go ahead and come on down.

Slowly lower and just take that resting breath or two.

Again,

It might be the cheek that turns down to the floor or maybe the forehead,

Maybe it's the chin.

Beautiful,

Guys,

And then one more time,

So let's take a lift,

Chest pulls up off of the floor,

Chin,

Head,

Cheek,

Thighs a little bit,

Maybe knees,

Shins,

Tops of the feet,

They come all the way up,

Unclenching the jaw,

Maybe softening through the eyes.

See if you can lift just a teeny tiny bit more than you thought that you could,

So a little extra engagement there.

Good,

And then slowly,

Slowly lowering all the way down.

Take a resting breath here first,

And maybe it's even two or three,

And then we're going to meet in Child's Pose,

So you'll bend the elbows,

Press the palms to the floor underneath of the shoulders,

And then you can shift your weight back,

Bending the knees,

Sinking the hips toward the heels.

Here's where I really want you to link up with your breath.

And see if you can encourage that breath to come in and out of the nose.

If you were with me last week,

We worked a little bit on Ujjayi Pranayama,

Breathing with a slight constriction in the back of the throat,

And if that's available,

Maybe you sort of hop on board the Ujjayi train.

So today,

As we flow into our Sun Salutation As,

We have a little bit longer and kind of bigger Sun A.

We're going to take up a lot more space and use some standing postures,

Which we don't always do.

I want you to do as much or as little as you would like.

Let's start here,

Guys,

Pulling up to hands and knees,

Tabletop Pose,

And then I just want you to catch a couple cat-cows that lead you into Downward-Facing Dog.

So think about lifting your chin and tailbone and then curling through the spine,

Tucking the chin and tailbone under.

You press the palms into the floor,

Spread the fingertips wide,

Keep the arms nice and long,

And then you play with that motion,

That movement of the spine.

You play with the flexibility in the neck by tucking the chin and then lifting it upward.

Nice work.

When you feel like you've wiggled a bit,

When you feel like you've created some mobility there in the spine,

Maybe worked out some tension,

We'll meet in that Downward-Facing Dog,

So you'll tuck the toes and lift the hips.

You'll lengthen the legs and lengthen the arms.

So you have this long space between your fingertips and your hips,

And then lots of space between your hips and your heels.

We try to create that upside-down V with the body,

And it looks a little bit different on every body.

So although we can use that term generally,

An upside-down V,

Know that it looks and feels a little bit different for each person.

We're gonna rise up onto tibby toes,

Yogis,

And take a little walk all the way up to the top of the mat.

So bring in your feet up toward your fingers.

Take a halfway lift,

Peek out and breathe in,

And then fold back in to exhale.

Good,

And you're gonna roll your body all the way up to standing.

Circle the arms wide and then tall.

Connect the palms above the head,

And then slowly bring those palms all the way down the middle of the body,

All the way down your midline,

And so you can drop the arms once again alongside the body.

And then reach up.

So fingertips reach toward the ceiling.

Arms might sweep around the body.

Take a forward fold.

Fingertips come down toward your toes.

Hinge at the hips.

Halfway lift,

Breathe in.

Good,

And then top of your push-up plank pose.

So we go right into that push-up position.

Palms here and feet go back.

You could always drop the knees,

Especially right away to take weight out of the arms.

We're gonna slowly lower down through that push-up,

Keeping the elbows close to the ribs.

When you get to or toward the bottom,

It's Cobra,

Pressing through the palms and lengthening the arms to lift the chest,

But you can always revisit Sphinx.

Good,

And then Downward Facing Dog.

Now,

As you go to Down Dog,

Know you can always have that sort of halfway step of hands and knees first,

Then tucking toes,

Lifting hips.

So like I said,

The Sun Salutation A is gonna be a little bit bigger,

A little bit broader.

We're using our bodies a little bit more.

So I want you to rise up onto tippy toes and then slowly bring your knees down to the floor,

All the way down into that tabletop.

As you come to hands and knees position,

Go ahead and send your right leg back behind you.

So think toes off of the ground as that right leg gets long.

You might give the right toes a little twirl or a little spin or even point flex that back foot if it feels good.

And then take that right foot and let's step it all the way up between the palms.

Come on into a lunge.

Now,

Some of you might come all the way up into a supported crescent and reach the fingertips up toward the ceiling.

Otherwise,

It's kind of early in class.

You might keep your hands down and just kind of feel into your hips and your thigh and your ankle and your toes,

All of the places that are required to feel that support.

All of the places that are required to build into a lunge.

Beautiful,

Holding it just a little bit longer this first time.

And then next time we go through,

Guys,

We'll be using just the inhale here on the lift.

From here,

We're gonna go half split.

So I'm gonna have you bring your hands down to the floor,

Lengthen out that right leg.

The left hip pulls back a little bit.

So you're stacking sort of left hip over top of that left knee.

It gives you some space to fold into.

You can work on keeping the hips a little bit square.

And now here's where the bigger postures come in.

I want you to pull forward into a warrior A.

So I'm gonna have you re-bend the right knee as the hands walk forward.

Pivot and plant the back foot.

And then we're gonna rise straight up.

We're gonna take the arms straight up into the air,

Keeping the hips and chest squared toward the front of the room.

You'll get that planting down of the back foot.

Beautiful breath,

Yogis.

And again,

We'll hold it just a little bit longer this first time.

But the next time that we go,

We'll use the inhale to arrive here.

And then go ahead and turn open to a warrior B.

So chest opens to the left,

Arms reach front to back.

And we could create a big bend into that right knee.

And then we're gonna lengthen it out to sky archer.

So we're gonna lengthen the right leg,

Take the right arm up into the air,

Lengthen the right leg,

Take the right arm up and over top of the head like you're reaching your right hand toward the back of the room or toward the back of your mat.

Beautiful work,

Yogis.

Take an inhale.

And as you exhale,

Cartwheel the hands down around your right foot.

Step it to downward facing dog.

So as the hands come down,

Turn onto your left toes.

Step the right foot back to meet left if you need to come down onto the knees.

You can always do that or come down onto the belly.

That's always an option.

Let's try this on the left side.

So rising up onto tiptoes,

Let the knees come down gently,

Tabletop.

Left leg goes back behind you.

Toes lift up off of the ground.

You might give the left foot a little wiggle,

A little sway,

A little point flex or circle,

Circle.

Good,

And then stepping the left foot all the way up between the palms,

We catch a lunge.

So bending into that left knee,

You might come up for a supported crescent with back knee grounded.

Arms can lift up into the air.

You might keep hands down into the floor onto a block or even your thigh.

Tuning in to your body and the signals that it gives you when you start to explore these postures,

When you start to get a little curious of what you're capable of.

Half splits,

Hands come down,

Left leg lengthens.

Keep breathing.

As you lean forward over top of that left thigh,

Right hip draws back a bit.

And then we have three big standing postures,

Yogis.

Come on up to warrior A.

Left knee bends again,

Hands walk forward,

Pivoted,

Plant the back foot.

Reach up as you rise up.

So chest and hips again,

Squared toward the front of your mat or the front of the room.

And then warrior B,

Turning the chest open to the right,

Arms draw front to back.

Left knee is bent,

Right leg lengthy and nice and long.

And then sky archer,

Lengthening that left leg.

Left arm goes up and over.

Left toes can stay pointed toward the front of the room.

Sometimes they wanna point in.

Take a big breath here at the top and then exhale,

Cartwheel the hands down,

Step it to downward facing dog.

So as the hands come down around that left foot,

Turn onto your right toes.

Left toes go back to meet right.

You might pedal it out,

Kind of sway the hips.

Nice,

And then right away,

Let's do this.

Rise up onto tippy toes.

Take a little walk all the way to the top of the mat.

So feet come all the way up toward your fingertips.

Slide halfway up,

Breathe in,

Pull your chest away from your thighs and then fold back in to exhale.

Beautiful,

Roll up to standing.

We're gonna circle the arms out and up,

Connecting the palms above the head.

Bring that connection all the way down through the middle part of your body until you can drop your arms alongside the body.

And then reach up again.

On an inhale,

Fingertips toward the ceiling.

On an exhale,

Forward fold,

Fingertips down toward your toes.

Beautiful,

Guys.

Take a halfway lift,

Breathe in.

Top of your push-up plank pose.

Palms here,

Feet back.

You can always drop the knees,

But we're lowering down,

Elbows close to the ribs.

Heart comes through into your cobra or maybe a sphinx pose and then downward facing dog.

Again,

You can always back it up to hands and knees before tucking the toes and then elevating the hips.

We're working to build a little bit of heat and then that mobility in the body.

Let's keep going.

Rise up onto tippy toes,

Knees come down onto the mat,

Table top.

I want you to send your right leg back behind you so it's a three-limb table.

And then step it up,

Right foot all the way up between the palms.

Come on into your supported crescent or just a lunge.

Again,

Stay here for just a big breath in.

If you need longer,

You can always stay.

And then come on into a half split.

So hands come down,

Right leg lengthens.

You're folding over top of that right thigh.

And then pulling up warrior A,

We're gonna rebound the right knee,

Walk the hands forward,

Pivot and plant the back foot.

Rise up with hips and chest squared,

Arms reaching toward the ceiling.

Beautiful,

Yogis.

And then turn it open to warrior B.

So chest to the left,

Arms extend front to back.

Sky archer,

Lengthening the right leg,

Taking your right arm up and over top of the head.

Good,

And then downward dog.

Go ahead and cartwheel the hands down around your right foot.

Turn onto your back toes,

Step right foot back next to left,

Pike the hips,

Drop the head.

Maybe give the head a little shake or the hips a little sway.

And then rise up onto tippy toes,

Knees come down,

Let's try this left side.

Left leg goes back behind you,

Little kick back with the left foot.

And then left foot steps all the way up between the palms into a lunge.

You're welcome to lift the arms up into that supported crescent or stay nice and low.

From there we go half split,

So you're lengthening out that left leg,

Giving a little fold over top of your left thigh.

And then all the way up to a warrior A.

So a little bit of work here to re-bend the left knee,

Plant the back foot.

Good,

Arms reaching,

Chest open.

And then turn open for that warrior B.

So arms reach front to back as your chest turns to that right side.

Keep a bend into your knee until you're ready to come into sky archer,

Then lengthen the left leg,

Left arm goes up and over.

Beautiful,

And then hands cartwheel down,

Downward facing dog.

So as the hands connect to the floor,

Turn onto those right toes,

Step the left foot back to meet right.

And then we're gonna take a little walk,

A step,

Or maybe a hop all the way up to the top of your mat.

As before,

Halfway lift,

Peek out,

Breathe in,

And then fold back in to exhale.

Roll your body up to standing,

Sweep the arms out and up,

Connect the palms above the head,

And then fold back in to exhale.

And then we're gonna take a little walk,

A step,

Or maybe a hop all the way up to the top of your mat.

Roll your body up to standing,

Sweep the arms out and up,

Connect the palms above the head,

Bring them down the middle of the body,

And then drop them by your side.

Let's go up again.

On an inhale,

Reach for the ceiling.

On an exhale,

Forward fold,

Reach for your toes.

Halfway lift,

Breathe and peek out,

And then top of your pushup,

We're lowering down through that pushup.

We do what we call a vinyasa,

Lowering down through that pushup,

Bringing the heart through into Cobra,

And then we'll meet.

Again,

You can back it up onto hands and knees as a little step to that downward facing dog.

We just have one more time through the standing portion of our sun A.

So,

Rising up onto tiptoes,

Let the knees gently come down underneath.

Right leg kicks back,

So it's three limb table.

You make some space underneath,

And then right foot steps all the way up between the palms.

We're gonna come into a lunge or a supported crescent.

Beautiful,

Yogis,

And then half splits when you're ready,

Lengthening out that right leg,

Folding over a bit.

We're gonna pull forward into Warrior A,

So bending the right knee,

Planting the back foot,

Lifting that left knee off of the ground.

You give yourself some space to lift,

Lift,

Lift,

And then turn and open,

Warrior B.

Beautiful,

Sky Archer,

Lengthen out the right side of the body,

Right leg and right arm,

And then downward facing dog,

Hands cartwheel down.

If you'd like to take a vinyasa,

You can always add that portion as you step back.

You might step back to plank and then lower and lift.

From that downward dog,

Rise up onto tiptoes.

Let the knees come down.

We're on the left side,

So as you come into tabletop,

Left leg goes back behind,

And then we're stepping the left foot all the way up between the palms,

Coming into a lunge.

Whether the arms lift or the hands stay low,

And then half splits from there,

So lengthening out the left leg to give a little fold over top of that left thigh.

Let's pull forward and up,

Warrior A,

So rebending the left knee,

Walking the hands forward,

Planting the back foot.

Arms reach up here at first,

And then they reach forward to back or front to back as you turn open to Warrior B,

Chest to the right.

Sky Archer,

Lifting left arm up and over.

Beautiful,

Guys.

Downward-facing dog,

Hands cartwheel down.

Again,

If you want to add a vinyasa there and do a pushup,

Lowering and lifting.

Eventually,

We all meet up in that downward dog.

Nice,

And then rising up onto tiptoes,

Take a walk all the way up,

Or a step or maybe a hop up toward your hands.

Halfway lift to breathe in,

And then fold in and exhale.

Roll the body all the way up to standing again,

So arms circle around and up.

Palms connect above the hat,

And then move down the center line of your body.

Drop your arms by your side.

Keep them there for a moment,

And then get that shoulder shrug that we had earlier,

So pulling the shoulders up toward your ears,

And then just letting them roll down the back.

Good,

And then arms sweep out and up.

We're going for a side bend here,

Yogi,

So you might grab right hand to left wrist or bend the elbows and grab a hold of an elbow,

But lean on over to the right side.

Good,

And then coming back through center,

Same thing onto that left side.

Beautiful,

Come back through center.

Take an inhale,

Exhale,

Forward fold,

Fingertips toward your toes.

Take that dive,

And then halfway lift.

Breathe in,

Vinyasa,

Top of your pushup plank pose.

We're lowering down slowly through that pushup.

Heart comes through in your own sort of way,

And this time,

Take it into child's pose.

So instead of going all the way to that downward facing dog,

Go ahead and bend the knees,

Sink the hips back toward the heels.

Have a little bit of rest here.

So maybe a little more mobility in the body,

Maybe a little more mobile in the breath,

Maybe a little more depth to that breath,

And maybe that slight constriction that we call that ujjayi pranayama.

So you might've noticed that in that sun salutation A today,

We didn't get any twisting.

There was no twisting involved.

So we're gonna use it here.

We're gonna pull up to hands and knees.

So pull back up to that tabletop pose,

And then I want you to send your right leg back behind you.

Go ahead and tuck the toes against the floor instead of lifting them up off of the floor,

And we're just gonna twist open to the left.

So taking your left arm and reaching it up toward the ceiling or taking that left hand and reaching it up.

Nice,

And then we're just gonna do the other side,

Guys.

So bring the left hand down,

Bring the right knee in,

Lengthen out that left leg,

And reach your right arm up into the air.

So as the left leg goes back,

Toes tuck against the floor,

And then I just want you to find your own pace.

We're gonna keep going here.

So hand comes down,

Left knee next to right,

Change sides.

Right leg goes back,

Left arm reaches,

And when you're ready,

You'll just switch it up.

You'll change to the other side in the other direction,

A little right side,

A little left side.

So twisting open one way,

Twisting open the other,

Just to get this rotational feel in the spine,

Especially now that we're a little bit warm.

So using that warmth,

Using that expansive breath to really kind of dissipate some of the tension in the spinal region or into the hips and the shoulders.

Nice,

Try it one more time each side,

And then we're just gonna meet back into that child's pose.

So having a moment of rest there.

Beautiful breath work.

Beautiful work,

Yogis.

Go ahead and pull back up,

Hands and knees,

Tabletop.

I want you to send that right leg back behind you,

But this time,

Just like the sun A,

I want you to pick the toes up on the floor,

And then I'm gonna have you step the right foot all the way up between the palms,

And we're gonna come right into a low twisted lunge.

So I want you to tuck your back toes under,

Try pulling your left knee off of the floor as you reach your right arm up into the air.

So it's kind of like that twist we were just taking on the knee,

But now we have more space underneath.

And we're gonna take this low twisted lunge and deepen it a little bit.

So from here,

I want you to take your right foot So from here,

From this low twisted lunge,

I want you to drop the left knee to the ground again and wrap your right arm around the lower back.

You might untuck the left toes.

And then it's almost like we're rising up onto that left knee,

Coming into reverse revolved supported crescent.

So as you rise up,

You're turning your chest open to the right and then taking your left arm up and over top.

So it's a little bit of a twist.

It's a little bit of a backbend.

You can even feel aspects of a side bend here.

It's like a supported crescent with a whole lot of twist action.

So lots of balance required here.

And then from here,

We're just going to revisit half split.

So untwist,

Bring the hands down,

Square the hips,

Lengthen out that right leg and fold over top of that right thigh.

And then do this with me,

Yogis.

Pull forward into a lunge.

So re-bend the right knee and tuck your back toes.

Pull that left knee off of the floor.

We're just lunging with the hands on the floor.

And then we're going to walk it into a wide leg standing forward fold.

So have both hands walk to the left.

Lengthen out your right leg.

Turn your left toes out and your right toes in.

And as you drop your head and your hands and your arms in the middle there,

You may put a little bend into one knee and a little bend into the other until you feel like it's a balanced space between left side,

Right side.

Sometimes we just need a little sway,

But sometimes we need bigger motion.

Sometimes people like to take ninja here,

Right?

Bending deeply into one knee and then the other.

Just letting it feel good wherever you settle,

But eventually settling.

So eventually getting your head and your hands and your chest right into the middle there between the legs.

And then all together,

We'll take a halfway lift.

Breathe in,

Peek out.

And then fold back in to exhale.

Good.

Big contact,

Big press of the feet into the floor to roll your body all the way up to a strong T.

So rolling the upper body to the top,

We're going to split the arms like they're the top of a T.

So reaching hands front to back.

And then turn your right toes toward the front of the room or toward the front of your mat.

We're halfway there.

And then turn your right toes toward the front of the room or toward the front of your mat.

We're headed right into triangle pose.

We need to bring your right hand downward toward your right foot.

Left hand reaching straight up toward the ceiling.

Chest stays open here.

Legs stay long.

Beautiful,

Yogis.

And then staying here,

Just wrap your left arm now around your lower back.

We're going to try to come up for reverse warrior.

So it's like Sky Archer,

So lifting up.

Right arm goes up and over top of the head.

Bend into the right knee as you come to the top.

You're leaning toward your left foot.

The left leg stays straight here.

Good.

And then right into extended side angle.

So bringing that right forearm down onto the right thigh or that big bend,

Right?

You're bending into the right knee.

So you make a little bit of a platform with the upper portion of your leg.

Left fingertips can reach toward the front of the room.

You'll keep a nice open chest here.

Nice open heart.

Beautiful,

Steady breath.

Let's utilize that.

Help it to keep you centered and grounded.

And in this experience,

Yogis,

From extended side angle,

We're going to go revolved triangle.

So almost like you're passing through a pyramid pose.

Hands can come down around your right foot.

Step in with your back foot.

Lengthen both legs.

Left hand stays to the floor.

Right arm reaches up again with both legs straight so that it's almost like triangle,

But we revolve it.

If triangle doesn't work,

Keeping the leg straight,

You can always come back into that low twisted lunge that we practiced toward the beginning of this flow.

Good.

And then bring your right hand down.

And listen,

We're going to take a step up,

Left foot next to right,

But feel free to pass through standing splits or a little balancing of left foot in the air for a moment before you step up.

When you do eventually step up left foot next to right,

Feel free to bend one knee,

Kind of sway one way,

Roll the weight into one foot and then the next.

Nice.

And then take a halfway lift.

Peek out,

Breathe in.

Fold back in and exhale.

Just roll up to standing in the way that we did our sun A's.

Come all the way up to the top.

We're going to sweep our arms out and up.

And instead of bringing the palms together,

Guys,

Come back down,

Fingertips toward your toes.

So just diving right over top of the thighs.

Halfway lift.

Breathe in,

Peek out,

And then meet me in down dog,

Whether that's passing through a vinyasa,

Doing a push-up position,

Lowering down,

Or just a straight step back as you lift the hips and drop the head.

Nice.

And then rising up onto tiptoes.

We're going to bring the knees all the way down onto the mat,

Tabletop.

Left leg goes back behind you and toes are lifted up off of the ground.

So it's three limb table and you're doing a little balancing work here,

Which means that we're engaging in the core section of the body.

And then we're going to take this left foot and step it all the way up between the palms.

We're headed for a low twisted lunge on this left side.

So tuck the back toes,

Lift the right knee up off of the ground,

And then lift your left arm up into the air up toward the ceiling.

So we're twisting our chest open.

Nice.

We missed out on all of those twists during our sun a's and so we really want to feel it here.

And this is where and why we kind of deepen this twist.

From this position,

Go ahead and bring the right knee back down to the ground and then let your left arm loop around the lower back.

We bring the chest upward.

So it's reverse revolved supported crescent.

You're turning your chest to the left,

Taking your right arm,

Reaching it up and over top of the head.

That left shoulder pulls toward the back of the room.

So it's a little bit of a twist,

A little bit of a back bend,

A little bit of a side opener.

Lots of balance here.

So continue to breathe.

Continue to use your breath to pull yourself open.

Nice.

And then coming into that half split.

So it's familiar.

You turn your chest forward,

Drop the hands,

Lengthen up that left leg.

Your body knows it because we were here multiple times in the beginning of class.

Maybe it's evolved a little bit.

So as we go,

You know,

Just the breathing itself can help take away tension or tightness in our hips and our legs and our ankles,

Sometimes just in our mind.

And so notice how it might be different from the beginning of class or that first half splits that you took.

And then pull forward into a lunge.

So bend the left knee,

Walk the hands forward,

Tuck your back toes and pull the right knee up off of the floor.

And we just use this to walk ourselves into a wide leg standing forward fold.

So walk the hands to the right,

Lengthen out both legs,

Left toes turn in and right toes,

They kind of turn out.

Again,

Feel free to move here a little bit before you settle in.

So feel free to bend one knee and then the other,

Or just kind of sway yourself into a figure eight with hands and head hanging.

Sometimes we have to do that.

Things feel a little kinked or crunched in one way or the other,

But then eventually kind of holding that center spot where you feel balanced in the middle,

Head hanging,

Hands,

Heart low.

Beautiful work,

Yogis.

Take a halfway lift together here.

So breathe in,

Peek out.

Fold back in and exhale.

Roll your body up to standing by pressing through the feet.

We're coming up to the top,

Taking the arms wide,

Like the top of a T.

Turn your left toes toward the front of the room and let's come right into triangle pose.

So coming on down,

Left hand toward your left foot,

Right arm reaches straight up into the air and that helps us to keep the chest pulled open.

Legs continuing to try to stay long here.

So lengthy legs.

We can always use the prop of a block or even left hand to left shin.

It might be that you're touching the floor or maybe touching your ankle or your foot.

And then staying in this posture,

But just taking your right arm and wrapping it around your lower back.

We're coming up for reverse warrior.

So bending into the left knee,

Left arm goes up and over.

Again,

It's like sky archer,

But we have a big bend into that front knee.

And then right on down to extended side angle.

So think about left forearm to left thigh or maybe left elbow to left thigh.

Right arm can reach up and over and I know there's variations here.

So if you know it or you have it or you love it,

Guys,

Go there.

Beautiful.

And then from this position,

From this position,

We go revolved triangle.

Again,

You might pass through a pyramid pose.

Hands come down,

Back foot steps in,

Both legs lengthen out.

We're turning open to that left side.

So right hand stays down,

Left arm,

Left hand reaches up with those legs lengthy,

Just like they were in triangle pose.

If it doesn't work to do this revolved triangle,

Know that you can always come into that low twisted lunge that we took at the beginning of the flow.

Keep your breath strong and steady in the body.

And if you stop breathing or if the breath says too much too fast,

You can always come into child's pose or onto the belly.

And then from here,

Guys,

Bring the left hand down.

We have that step forward,

But remember as you're stepping,

You might kind of pass through a standing splits or just linger that right foot in the air before you step right foot next to left.

We're stepping up to the top of the mat into a forward fold.

You might bend one knee and the other or sway the weight right to left,

Left to right.

You might kind of create a little figure eight with the hands.

Go ahead and take a halfway lift.

Peek out,

Breathe in.

And then fold back in and exhale.

Now this time,

Instead of coming all the way up to standing,

I want you to wiggle your feet a little closer together.

Bend the knees,

Sink the hips and come on up into chair pose.

Like you're sitting back into an invisible chair.

You're going to lift your chest away from your thighs.

Reach the arms upward,

Biceps near your ears,

Palms turned in toward one another.

Again,

There are so many variations here.

So if there's something else that you would like to choose,

That is your yogi space to take.

Otherwise being here,

Your eyes might close.

Allow the breath to be deep.

Last little bit of oomph here.

Good.

And then just come to standing.

Drop the arms alongside the body.

Lengthen the legs.

You might close your eyes or if your eyes are closed or just a soft gaze,

Guys,

Tune in to what's going on and the internal landscape of the body.

Notice,

Notice,

Notice.

Separate the feet about hip distance apart.

We're reaching up again.

So fingertips toward the ceiling,

Big reach,

Lots of length.

On an exhale,

Forward fold,

Fingertips toward your toes.

Take a halfway lift,

Breathe and peek out.

Good.

Top of your pushup plank pose.

Lowering down through that pushup,

Heart comes through and we'll get one last downward facing dog.

So again,

If you need to,

You can do a little bit of a pushup.

So again,

If you need to back up on hands and knees,

It's toward the end of class,

Maybe feeling a little bit of fatigue.

You can always throw that in as a little step stone to that downward dog.

Think about lengthening the legs.

You might even pedal the feet and kind of sway the hips like we did before,

Just letting everything feel like it's balanced in the middle.

Beautiful,

Yogis.

And then rise up onto tiptoes.

Let the knees come down,

Child's pose.

And then from this child's pose,

Pulling up to hands and knees position,

So that tabletop.

Now,

Just like we did in the beginning of class,

I want you to send your right leg back behind you.

Keep your toes tucked against the floor,

Guys.

Create that twist by lifting your left arm up into the air.

So with toes against the floor,

So lots of stability here,

Left arm goes straight up into the air.

And then I want you to do this.

I want you to take the left hand that's reaching up toward the ceiling and start to reach it toward the front of the room so the chest starts to go square toward the floor and then pick up your right toe.

So now you're in a balancing table with right toes lifted,

Left arm reaching forward,

Left palm turns in.

So think about that,

That turning the palm in and thumb up like you're gonna shake someone's hand out in front of you.

Nice.

And then try this,

Guys.

Try to bend your right knee and reach your left hand back toward your left foot so you're getting this nice little quad stretch.

Requires a little bit of balance.

Now,

As you get there,

You might kick into your hand,

But sometimes it also feels good to just pull the heel toward the glute so you get a nice little pull there on the front side of the leg.

Takes a lot of balance.

Keep breathing.

Beautiful.

And then come back into that balancing table.

So left arm in front,

Right leg back.

Try to sweep it out there and then bring left knee in underneath to your left elbow.

Give a little squeeze and do that one or three times.

So you lengthen out.

You might just do it once.

Maybe you're fatigued and then we'll meet in that tabletop pose.

So after that first,

Second,

Maybe third time,

Bringing the left hand down.

And then in between,

Guys,

Get a little cat-cow.

Kind of just roll the body a bit,

Lift the chin and tailbone,

Curl the chin and tailbone under.

And then let's try this other side.

Left leg goes back behind you.

So you lengthen out the left leg.

Toes tuck against the floor.

Right arm reaches straight up into the air.

So we start with the twist.

Just turning yourself open to that right side.

And then slowly start to reach that right hand toward the front.

And then as you're here,

Bending the left knee and seeing if you can reach back,

Right hand to left toes or ankle,

Maybe shin.

You might kick against it.

So if the hand has the foot,

The foot might kick against the hand.

Or you might just use the hand to pull that heel in toward your glutes.

And then as you're here,

Bending the left knee,

And seeing if you can reach back,

Right hand to left toes or ankle,

Maybe shin.

And then as you're here,

Bending the left knee,

And seeing if you can reach back,

Right hand to left toes or ankle,

Maybe shin.

And then as you're here,

Bending the left knee,

And seeing if you can reach back,

Right hand to left toes or ankle,

Maybe shin.

And then as you're here,

Bending the left knee,

And seeing if you can reach back,

Right hand to left toes or ankle,

Maybe shin.

And then as you're here,

Bending the left knee,

And seeing if you can reach back,

Right hand to left toes or ankle,

Maybe shin.

And then as you're here,

Bending the left knee,

And seeing if you can reach back,

Right hand to left toes or ankle,

Maybe shin.

And then as you're here,

Bending the left knee,

And seeing if you can reach back,

Right hand to left toes or ankle,

Maybe shin.

And then as you're here,

Bending the left knee,

And seeing if you can reach back,

Right hand to left toes or ankle,

Maybe shin.

And then as you're here,

Bending the left knee,

And seeing if you can reach back,

Right hand to left toes or ankle,

Maybe shin.

And then as you're here,

Bending the left knee,

And seeing if you can reach back,

Right hand to left toes or ankle,

Maybe shin.

And then as you're here,

Bending the left knee,

And seeing if you can reach back,

Right hand to left toes or ankle,

Maybe shin.

And then as you're here,

Bending the left knee,

Now you have a little more heat in the body,

Maybe a little more mobility,

Guys.

Arms go up into the air,

Fingertips stretch toward the ceiling,

And then forward fold fingertips toward the toes.

And then slowly rolling your body all the way up to a seated position.

We're going to go into reverse table.

So planting the hands behind you,

Like we did for that supported boat.

Bend the knees,

Feet into the floor.

And this time,

Instead of shifting the weight into the sit bones,

Guys,

We lift the sit bones.

Think about lifting the belly and the hips,

Lifting open and up through the chest so that you're making a table with the chest and the belly and the thighs,

Trying to create a level space.

So the higher that you lift your hips,

Right,

The more in line,

I should say,

That you can be with your shoulders and your knees,

The more tabletop you make.

Beautiful.

And then slowly lowering,

Not only the sit bones,

But the spine to the floor.

So coming all the way down,

All the way down to the bottom.

When you get to the bottom,

Go ahead and draw the knees in toward your chest.

Give them a little squeeze.

And then before we take our twists,

Yogis,

I want you to take your legs long,

But wide up into the air.

So it's almost like that wide leg standing forward fold that we had,

But without the resistance of the floor.

So just allowing the inner thighs to open.

You could always bring hands to the outer edges of your thighs if that feels good and supportive.

Good.

And the knees right back in toward the chest.

Bend the knees,

Bring them close,

Bring them together.

Widen the arms,

Take them out like the top of a T,

And let's let the knees drop over to that right side.

And then bringing the knees back through center,

Tipping them over to the left side.

And then bring those knees back through center,

Yogis.

Give them a nice,

Tight,

Compassionate squeeze in toward your heart,

Toward your belly,

Toward your chest.

Good.

And then just lengthening into the center of your body.

Good.

And then just lengthening out the legs against the floor and dropping the arms alongside the body.

You're always more than welcome to adjust where you place the body against the floor,

But make it be a place that invites relaxation.

And do this with me.

Big,

Big inhale once you're there.

And then sigh it out.

Let it go.

Shavasana.

I want you to just notice what there is to notice.

In this practice of noticing,

Our noticing becomes stronger.

Our presence in a particular moment becomes more present.

And so the work that we do here in the yoga space is absolutely,

Absolutely carried with us outside of these doors and these walls.

Keep noticing as you start to move your fingers and your toes.

Keep noticing as you rock your head a little side to side.

Continue noticing as you begin to stretch the arms up and over top of the head and just lengthen out the legs to get as long as you possibly can.

And keep noticing.

Draw the knees in toward your chest.

And turn onto one side.

It doesn't matter if it's the left or the right.

Whatever feels most comfortable or maybe familiar.

And then keep noticing as you rise all the way up to a seated position.

As you come up to a seat,

Bringing the palms together in front of your heart.

Maybe softly dipping your chin toward your chest.

Keep noticing.

Take a full gigantic breath all the way in.

And let it go.

From my heart directly to yours.

Namaste.