Hello and welcome to this quick good morning stretch.
I'm Kelly and I'm going to be leading you through this mini practice to get things moving.
So we'll start just in a comfortable,
Easy seated position.
Taking a deep breath.
And then drop your right ear down towards your right shoulder.
Left hand reaches down towards the ground.
Creating space in the neck.
Feel like a variation,
You can turn your chin towards the right armpit,
Noticing how that opening moves more into the throat.
Moving your head back to neutral,
Inhaling here.
Exhale,
Tucking chin to chest and switching sides.
So left ear is now down towards the left shoulder.
Right fingertips are down towards the ground.
Option here to turn that chin down towards your left armpit.
Taking a deep breath.
Then moving your head back to a neutral position.
Tucking chin to chest and interlacing your fingers,
Resting them on the back of the head.
Without pushing or forcing the chin to chest.
Just rest here.
Then inhaling,
Reversing that position.
So opening up,
Lifting up the head,
Opening up the elbows and chest.
Exhaling,
Tucking chin to chest.
Inhaling opening Then reaching hands overhead,
Fingers reach up towards the sky and over to one side.
Then inhale,
Move through center.
Exhale,
Switch.
Then inhale,
Move through center.
Bending the elbows and taking the hands to your low back where you clasp them and lift them up.
Feeling that deep opening across the front of the chest.
And releasing here,
Taking hands onto your knees or do some circles with the upper body,
Waking up the spine and the hips as well.
Go ahead and switch directions with your circle,
Just doing a few.
And then coming back to center and taking your hands behind you,
Fingertips.
Reach away from your back.
Stepping the feet out wide,
Bending the knees,
Just windshield wiper the legs from side to side.
Feeling this gentle twist,
But also that little massage on the low back and the sacrum.
We'll drop both knees over to the right side,
And if you'd like,
Take the right foot on top of the left knee to deepen the twist.
You can even look over your right shoulder if you'd like.
Releasing inhale moving through center exhale switch knees go over towards the left option left foot goes on top of the right knee and we can gaze over that right shoulder if it feels good breathing down low into the belly.
And then keeping the knees bent,
Step the feet out wide and drop the knees towards one another.
Noticing how this changes the sensation.
And then we'll make our way over to a tabletop.
Tucking our toes underneath,
We'll sit back on the heels.
Hands will go on top of the thighs.
We'll do a few seated cat cows here.
So not only opening the toes,
But feeling that nice flexion and extension of the spine.
Opening everything up.
And then coming back to a neutral spine.
Hands will go to low back.
Clasping,
Lifting them up.
Releasing those toes and dropping hips back to the heels.
We'll find a child's pose,
But keeping the chest expansion.
If this feels a little too intense,
You can always release a chest expansion.
But if you have it,
You can drop your hands over to the right side and then over to the left side.
It's kind of rocking from side to side,
Opening up the shoulders as you do.
And releasing your hands,
Bringing them overhead.
Finding a child's pose.
We'll prop ourselves up onto our fingertips and melt the heart down towards the ground.
Then walking both hands over to the right side,
Drawing your hips towards the left side of your mat.
And then inhale,
Moving through center and exhale,
Switching hands to the left,
Hips to the right.
Then coming back to center and neutral.
And from here,
We'll come up to our hands.
And lower down to the belly where we'll find a little baby cobra.
So inhale,
Just lifting the heart off of the ground.
No weight in the hands here.
Exhale lower.
Inhale,
Lifting up again.
No weight in the hands.
Exhale,
Lower.
Inhale,
Lifting up one more time.
And then lower.
From here,
We'll get into the quads.
So bending the left knee,
Grabbing that foot if you can,
Or use a strap to find it.
Just draw the heel in towards the glute.
You'll find this nice opening in that left quad.
And gently releasing and switching sides.
Drawing the right heel into the right glute.
And then gently releasing.
And then we'll make our way to a down dog.
Coming up to the balls of the feet and exhale,
Dropping the heels.
And then walking to the top of the mat,
We'll find a rag doll.
So feet are hips distance apart.
Grab opposite elbows.
Hanging here,
Swaying from side to side.
Letting gravity do all of your work.
Then releasing the hands down,
Stepping the feet out as wide as the mat,
Turning the toes out.
We'll find a little yogi squat here.
Elbows come to the inside of the knees.
Spine is long.
Then left arm reaches up for the sky,
Finding a gentle twist.
And move through center and switching sides,
Reaching up with the right hand.
And coming back to center,
Yogi squat,
Planting those hands.
We'll keep the right foot where it is.
Take a big step back with the left foot so you find yourself in a wide,
Low lunge.
And right hand comes up onto the knee or maybe hands to the hips,
Dropping the hips down in this low lunge.
Shoulders are soft and relaxed.
And left hand comes down to the mat.
Will open up the right knee.
Just letting that right knee fall away from the body and rotating the heart so we're in a gentle twist.
And moving back through center.
Straightening out the right leg,
Folding forward with hands on the inside of the right leg.
Just bowing forward.
Lengthening out the back of the leg.
And bending the right knee,
We'll tuck the back toes and lift the hips,
Returning to down dog.
We'll be repeating that again.
Lifting the heels,
Lowering them.
Gazing up at the hands,
Finding a rag doll,
Grabbing opposite elbows,
Letting the body hang.
No tension in the neck here.
Gravity does your work.
And releasing the hands down to the mat.
And we'll take the feet out wide again,
Returning to our yogi squat and we'll twist.
Right hand comes down,
Left arm up.
I'll switch sides.
Left hand comes down,
Right arm comes up.
Then coming back to center,
Elbows to the inside of the knees,
Long spine.
I'm planting the hands.
This time left foot stays,
Right foot steps back.
Finding yourself in this wide,
Low lunge.
Soft shoulders.
And right hand comes down to the mat.
Left knee floats away from the body.
Rotating the heart open for this gentle twist.
And moving back through center,
Hands are on the inside of the foot.
We'll straighten out the left leg and we'll fold over.
Finding that nice and deep opening in the back of the leg.
And then bending the left knee,
Tucking the toes,
Lifting the hips.
Then we'll make our way to an easy seated position.
Inhale,
Reaching hands overhead.
Exhale,
Twisting one way.
Then inhale,
Moving through center,
Reaching hands overhead and switching sides.
And inhale,
Reaching both hands overhead,
Reaching for the sky,
Bend the elbows.
Open the heart and then take hands to heart center and you are done with this daily morning stretch.
Thanks for joining me.
