This practice features my go-to supine series and will be performed completely on your back! A yoga strap or belt is recommended. This is a great way to both warm up and cool down the body and can be enjoyed at any point throughout the day! Return to this practice as often as you like.
Meet your Teacher
San Francisco, CA, USA
Transcript
Hello yogis, Go ahead and grab your strap and let's come onto our backs. We'll start supine. And we'll lie down all the way into Shavasana. Just make sure your strap is accessible to you. Come to lie down and we'll begin with shavasana and a breathwork exercise called samavritti pranayama. It's very simple. Sama means same. Vritti means fluctuation. So equal fluctuation of breath. Just follow along. Take a cleansing breath first. Breathe in. Let something go breathe out. Here we go. Inhale the breath for five. Four. Three to 1 Exhale the breath. Five. Four. Three. To One, Inhale through the nose. Five. Four. Three. To One. Exhale through the nose. Five. Four, Three. Two. One. One last time. Breathe in. Exhale, Breathe out. Good. Blink your eyes open if they fell closed. Draw your feet together to touch. Imagine you were standing on the earth. Flex your feet actively. Lift your heels and draw your toes together. Take another breath. Inhale. And then as you exhale, Hug your right knee in towards your chest. Interlace your grip around something. Maybe it's your shin. Maybe it's your hamstrings. And then you start to just rock a little bit side to side. We call this sahaja movement or spontaneous movement. Any intuitive movement that calls to you, Maybe that's a circle of your ankle. Point in the flex of the foot, Just starting to wake up the body for our practice. From here, You'll grab the strap, Unravel it if it's rolled up, And then place the middle of your foot or the sole of your foot into the middle of the strap. From there, Grab onto both sides of the strap, Bend your right knee deeply, Squeeze your heel towards your seat. And then exhale, Extend your right leg straight up towards the sky. Do it again, Please. Bend your right knee, Squeeze your heel towards your butt. Exhale, Fully extend your right leg any amount. Do that a few more times on your own. Bring some awareness to your left leg as you work on your right leg. Make sure the left foot stays flexed, The left leg stays active, And you're in fact encouraging an internal thigh rotation with your left leg. As you feel activity running down the left leg from your hip to your heel. I've lost count. Maybe one more round. Bend your right knee, Squeeze your heel towards your butt. And then exhale, Fully extend your right leg towards straight. Now adding on from here, Grab onto both sides of the strap with your left hand. You can move the tail of the strap off to the side so it doesn't clock you in the head. Take your right hand to the outer edge of the right hip and guide the right outer hip bone forward. Take a breath here, Breathe in. As you exhale, Begin to guide your right leg about an inch or two or three over to the left. You really don't have to go very far in order to get some sensation out of this one. Breathe in. Breathe out. You're likely feeling this down the outer edge of the right leg. Breathe in. Exhale, Breathe out what we call the IT band, The fascial layer running down the outer right leg. One more cycle of breath. That which gets. . . Tight and stuck from either sedentary activity or lots of movement, Right? Engage your belly. Come on back through center. Now grab for both sides of the strap with your right hand as close to the foot as you can manage. Take your left hand now to the top of your left thigh. Externally rotate. That means just turn the right foot out, Turn the right hip out, And then any amount, Guide your right leg off to your right. Bend your right elbow in order to maintain that control. Three breaths. Breathe in. Breathe out one. Remember that left leg stays active. Breathe in. Breathe out too. Feel the slight wrap of your torso to the left. One more cycle, Yogis. Breathe in. Breathe out. Perfect. Engage your belly. Come on back through center. Now reclaim both sides of the strap with both hands. Maybe walk your hands up the strap and lift your head and your shoulders off the mat. Try to bring your forehead towards your knee. Knee towards your forehead. Curl up any amount. Hold it for three. Breathe two. And then one. Good job. Release the strap, But keep the right leg extended. Now bend your right knee again. You might like to bend the left knee. I apologize for not offering that earlier, But you can always modify with the bent left knee, Which I'm going to do now. And you'll take half happy baby pose. Hold on to your right shin, Your right ankle, Or the pinky toe edge of your right foot. Draw your right knee wide outside of your right ribs and flex your right heel towards the ceiling. Stay there. Breathe in. Stay there. Breathe out. Two more cycles. If you have more mobility, Of course, You can re-extend your left leg. Whatever you do, Do it with integrity, With ease, With intention. One more cycle. Let it grow out. Now, If your left leg is extended, Please bend your left knee again. Cross your outer right ankle on top of your left thigh for what we call figure four stretch or breathing pigeon. Take your hands and weave them through your legs as you draw your left knee in towards your chest. You can either interlace your grip behind your hamstrings or interlace your grip around your left shin bone. If you have trouble grabbing the leg, Just add your strap. It's a great way to do it. Take a breath in. As you exhale, Simultaneously as you hug your left knee in towards your chest, Press your right knee towards the front of your space. You might like to bring some organic movement here as well. I like to play with pressing my tailbone, My sacrum, The coccyx bone towards the mat for a little arch in the lower back. And then maybe you lift your tailbone up a little bit higher to get a little bit of rounding. Find your sweet spot and let's just stay for another round of breath. Breathe in. Breathe out. Wonderful. Release the grip, Lower the left foot to the mat. I'm going to scoot a little bit off to the right so I have room for this one. You'll keep the shape of the legs here and then you'll drape your right foot and your left knee off to the left. You can lower the right foot maybe onto a block or onto the mat if you have that accessible and press energetically the right knee towards the front left corner of your space. Maybe the right arm comes out into a cactus position and you can gaze over your right shoulder. Your gaze or close your eyes just enjoy this. Breathe in. Breathe out. This is a little bit more subtle with the outer hip stretch, Kind of like we did in the first exercise. Breathe in. Breathe out. One more breath. Good, Engage your belly, Come on back through center. Now uncross your leg. And let's do the other side. So first, Find Shavasana. Extend both legs straight out into the space in front of you. Again, Actively flex the feet. Draw your toes and heels towards the center. Take a breath, Inhale, And then exhale, Hug your left knee in towards your chest. Start off with some organic movement, Maybe a little rock and sway side to side. Maybe roll out your left ankle in one direction. Maybe your left ankle rolls in the other direction. Good. Finally, Hug your left knee in towards your chest. Feel free to continue on with that organic movement or let's add the strap. Take the middle of the strap to the sole of your left foot. Grab for both sides of the strap. With your hands, Bend your left knee, Squeeze your heel towards your booty, And then exhale, Extend your left leg any amount towards the sky. It doesn't have to be straight. Do it again, Please. Bend your left knee, Squeeze your heel towards your butt. Exhale, Extend left leg towards straight. Keep it going. You might notice some variance from right to left. That's supernatural. We are all asymmetrical, Imbalanced beings. So you'll naturally find some asymmetry in the body. And it's more about becoming aware of those imbalances, Those asymmetries, Than judging yourself or critiquing yourself. It's really just getting to know yourself and becoming more appreciative of your body as it shows up for you each and every time. Once again, I've lost count. So let's just do one more cycle. Keep that right leg active. One more breath. Inhale, Bend your left knee. Exhale extend your left leg towards straight right away we move on grab for both sides of the strap with your right hand remove the tail of the strap try not to knock your head if you have a buckle with the belt take your left hand to the outer left hip guide the left outer hip bone down forward towards the space in front of you take a breath And then as you exhale, Inch your left leg over to the right any amount. Usually an inch or two or three is more than enough. Breathe in. Breathe out one. Ooh, Yeah. Feeling that today. Breathe in. Breathe out. One more cycle, Breathe in. Breathe out. Good yogis. Take your time. No hurries. Engage your belly. Come on back through center. Again, I need to move away from the wall a little bit so I have the room. Keep your left leg extended as much as you can. Grab for both sides of the strap with your left hand. Externally rotate your left hip and your left foot. That just means turning it out, Opening it up, And then guiding the left leg off to the left any amount. At any point you can bend both knees if you need to have that modification. The right hand comes down to the right hip to ground you. Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. One more cycle, Maybe feel a slight twist of the torso towards the right edge of your space. And on your next inhale, Come on back through center. Keep hold of the strap. Now grab for both sides of the strap with your hands. And walk your hands up the strap. Lift your shoulders away from the mat. Lift your head. Bring your forehead towards your knee. Knee towards your forehead. Squeeze, Squeeze, Squeeze. Hold it for three. And one. So nice. Now release the strap. We won't use it again. So you can move it off to the side. Bend your left knee and hold onto the outer edge of the left foot or outer shin or ankle with your left hand. Again, This tends to be pretty intense. If you want, You can join me and bend your right knee. Maybe again, Rock a little bit there side to side, Half happy baby pose. Breathe in. Breathe out one. You could always re-extend the right leg if you like. Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. Moving right along, Re-bend your right knee, Cross left outer shin or ankle on top of the right thigh. Take a moment, Find your figure four stretch. Then take your hands, Weave them through your legs, Hold onto something. Maybe that's your strap, Maybe it's your hamstrings or your right shin bone. As you draw your right knee in towards your chest, Simultaneously guide your left knee forward towards the space in front of you. You can stay right here, Take a moment, Breathe in. Breathe out. If you like, You can start to guide your hips side to side. This one usually is a fan favorite. A very common outer hip stretch. If you'd like, You can press the tailbone coccyx down towards the floor and arch the lower back or round your spine a bit. I just offer that because it feels different for everybody and every time it might show up differently. One more cycle of breath. Take your time with this. Release the grip. Lower the right foot to the mat. Guide the shape now all the way off to your right. You might need to adjust yourself on your mat if you want. Left foot comes down with the right knee and you can step the left foot onto something. Maybe it's a block, Maybe it's the floor. You can hold onto your left ankle with your right hand and then guide the left arm off to the left any amount. Mostly energetically feel the left knee pressing towards the front right corner of the room and that'll target the outer hip stretch again. Breathe in. Breathe out one. Breathe in. Breathe out. One more cycle. Beautiful yogis. Engage your belly. Come on back through center. Realign yourself on your mat. Uncross your legs. And now we'll go into constructive rest. So your knees stay bent. Your feet are wide to the edges of your space and the knees will kiss together. And then you just take a moment to feel yourself a little bit more awakened in your legs and in your hips. Feel hopefully a little bit more grounded and centered with what is. One more breath. You can always stay here at any point when you practice. Otherwise, Let's get moving. Separate your feet again, Hip distance apart. And the feet are parallel now, So maybe your fingertips graze your heels. We're going to do what I call rolling bridge. So it's a rhythmic breath, Just like our five-count samavrati pranayama. And five count inhale, Five count exhale. And we'll do that with movement. So first, The cleansing breath. Breathe in. Let the breath go. Breathe out. On an inhale, Just lift your hips for a slow count. Five. Four. Two. One, And then lower the hips back down. Five. Three. Two. One exactly do it again inhale rise five just the hips four One, Lower the hips. Five. Four. Three. To. One maybe add the arms lift up five four, Three. Two, Arms will reach by your ears on one, Lift your hips, Exhale, Lower hips and arms, Five. Forward, One, Maybe close your eyes. Inhale, Rise. Five. Four. Three, Two, One. Exhale, Lower. Five, Four. Three, Two, One. Last one on your own. Inhale for five. Exhale for five. Thank you. Come down to rest. And then from there, When you're ready, Hug your knees and towards your chest. Circle your hips in one direction. Circle your hips in the other direction. And then we'll go into Ananda Balasana or happy baby pose. First, You can just start with your knees nice and wide. This is called Apanasana or the downward pressure pose. Usually this is more accessible for majority of yogis. But if you want to go deeper and you feel prepared after our practice, You can hold on to your shins. Your ankles or the outer edges of your feet. Try to press the tailbone down to the mat and press your heel bones towards the ceiling. Maybe of course you find a little bit of organic movement that might feel good for you Or you just stay right here. Find a neutral position and enjoy the foundation, The connection to the earth, To your body, To your breath. One more cycle. Let it go exhale. We're going to end in Supta Barakonasana. So really, You'll just lower the feet to the mat, Walk your feet together to touch, And let the knees splay out to the side. You can rest your hands on your hip points, Maybe hands to your abdomen. Maybe hands to your heart. Close your eyes and feel. Grounded, Feel settled, Feel complete. After our supine practice. Now, Some of you might feel really comfortable and you can stay right here. Or you are free to complete the practice in Shavasana. You can extend your legs out in front of you, Just like we started. Relax your arms by your sides. And allow your eyes to fall closed. I'm going to leave you here to enjoy Shavasana for as long as you like. If and when you are ready to release out of it, Just make sure that you do it with intention, With grace. With ease. As always, May this practice benefit your life. And everybody else in your life. Thank you so much for joining me. Namaste.
