Welcome to today's practice.
I am Susan.
We are going to be working on our shoulders today.
Everybody has tight shoulders from life working,
Working on the computer and we're going to try to open them up today and create some more space and opening.
Let's start off with standing in Mountain Pose and just interlace your hands behind the back in Anjuli Mudra.
And that's the reverse Namaste.
Your fingertips are touching each other.
If this is a little tight for you,
You can just hold opposite elbows behind your back.
But either way,
Work on breathing through the upper shoulders.
Work on taking your elbows back.
Create some space under your collarbones.
And then you can even start to turn this into just a little bit of a backbend.
Stretching through the front part of the pecs.
And then relaxing through the back part of the shoulders.
One more conscious breath here.
And then release that.
Shake your hands,
Your wrists out a little bit.
And then still behind your back,
Interlace all 10 fingers.
Palms are together.
And now this time we're going to pull the shoulders back and draw the hands down toward the floor.
So rolling the front head of the shoulder blades back.
Bringing both shoulder blades together.
And now really pull downward.
Feel your front open,
Head of the shoulders open.
And again,
Direct a breath or two into that upper shoulder armpit area.
Breathe and expand.
It's a tight area on all of us.
And then again,
Slowly release that.
Shake out the hands and the wrists as needed.
Coming into Eagle Arms Garudasana.
So take your right elbow below your left elbow.
And twine up your arms.
And then lift your shoulders up.
Take your thumbs,
Your hands away from your face.
And then draw your shoulder blades down.
You're going to get this great opening across the back,
Back shoulder blades,
Back part of the shoulders.
Nice breath here.
Again,
One more time.
Elbows go up,
Hands go away from your face,
And then draw the shoulder blades as far down as possible.
Breathe and expand.
Release that twine,
Go right into the other side.
So left elbow below.
Twine up your arms.
And then move your elbows up.
Move your hands away from your face.
And draw strongly the shoulder blades down the back.
Draw them so far down the back that you engage that back part of the lats,
The shoulder girdle.
And as you pull strongly down,
You're opening up between the scapula,
Creating space between the upper part of the shoulder blade.
Elbows up again.
Hands away from face.
Draw down strongly one more time.
Two deep breaths here.
Breathe in.
Expand,
Release.
Then slowly release your hands.
Again,
Shake out as needed.
Let's come down to the floor.
Coming into Child's Pose,
But making it an active Child's Pose.
Arms are out straight in front.
Fingertips are domed.
And then really ground down through the hands and your front body.
Lift up and open your armpit area,
The under part of your shoulders.
Heavy through the tailbone.
Soft through the face.
Breathe and expand into the armpits.
Now keeping your lower body where it is,
Take both fingertips toward the right.
Stretch out a little bit more toward the right side.
Ground down through that left sit bone.
Fingertips are still domed.
Shoulders are still opening.
Armpits are still broad.
Breath here.
Soften.
Come back to center.
And then go over to the left.
That right arm stretches strongly.
That right hip still stays rooted down on your feet,
On your heels.
Now from that dome shape of your fingers,
Let that travel all the way up to your armpit.
Breathe and open the belly of the shoulder.
Release that back to center again.
Release your fingertips.
They're just flat on the floor.
And then come up to your forearms.
And come up to your knees.
So knees and forearms.
Take your right arm out to the side and then thread it beneath you.
Right hand moves to the left side.
Palm toward the ceiling.
Come into a nice shoulder opener.
Stretch that arm out as much as you can.
Again,
Breathing is very important.
Allows you to open the joint.
Increase the blood flow.
Soften anything that needs to be softened.
Release that right side.
Come back to your forearms.
This time left side.
Left arm starts out toward the left first and then thread it through.
Comes up under the body.
Reaching toward the right palms or toward the ceiling.
And then explore this side.
Might be tighter than the first.
This might be your better side.
Wherever you are,
Breathe and open here.
Then exhale and release that.
Come back and sit on your heels.
Take your right elbow up right by your head.
Drop that right hand back to the middle of your back.
Left hand holds the right elbow up straight toward the ceiling.
That left hand encourages that right hand to go farther down the back.
You can stay here or if you want to go farther,
Keep that right elbow there.
That left arm pivots behind your body and maybe your two fingertips will touch.
Right elbow up toward the ceiling.
Head of the left arm bone back toward the back.
Soften and open.
And then release.
This time the left elbow straight up toward the ceiling.
Bend that elbow.
Left hand is on your back.
Right hand to your elbow.
Let your right hand encourage that elbow to stay straight up toward the ceiling and your left hand to go farther down your back.
Again,
The next step from here is release that right hand.
Swivel all the way back.
Maybe the fingertips touch and work on taking the elbows away from each other.
Open the left side of your body.
Release that side.
Shake it on out.
One more time come back to Anjuli Mudra behind your back so the palms are facing each other.
Or you can grab opposite elbows and just take a releasing backbend here.
Pull the elbows down.
Lift the body up.
Release that.
Shake out your hands.
Shake out your wrists.
That's our practice for today.
Nicely done.
Namaste.
