Come onto the hands and knees.
Let your knees be hand or mat distance apart.
Take a few rounds of this wide-kneed cat and cow.
Inhale to arch your back.
Exhale to round it.
Now come to neutral back.
Move your left knee over to meet your right knee.
Lower your left hip down.
You can keep your knees and ankles primly stacked,
Or you can let them spread however feels good.
Step your right hand to the center of your mat or underneath your face.
Move your left hand over to the left.
Press some length up your spine.
Look back over your left shoulder.
This is why I call this sequence Christina's World.
You look like Christina in the field in the Andrew Wyeth painting.
Now,
You'll probably get the most sensation if you stay high here.
You'll feel it in your left obliques.
But if you'd like to come down slightly lower,
You could bring your arms to a sphinx pose arrangement,
Forearms parallel.
You could stack your hands into a pillow for your forehead.
You could even reach out to hug the floor with your right arm moving to the right and your left arm moving to the left.
We'll be here for a little while.
And if,
As you continue to practice along with this video,
You realize you'd like to stay even longer,
You hold the power.
It's called the pause button.
It can feel nice to let your head hang heavy,
Or you can prop it on something like a stack of fists or yoga blocks.
Take about five more breaths.
Bring your hands back underneath your shoulders.
Come up to sit again on your left hip.
Move your torso over to the right and as you do,
Take your right knee near your left foot.
If you're using a mat,
Your left shin is parallel with the long edge,
And your right shin can be roughly parallel with the short edge.
But feel free to arrange your legs however really suits your body best.
Your right hand can step over.
Your torso is now oriented above your left knee.
You could stay tall here for this pinwheel version of pigeon pose.
Or you could bring your arms down to frame your legs.
Again,
Your head could hang heavy or you could stack it on something.
If there's some different variation of pigeon coes you'd rather be doing,
Take it now.
Let's stay about five more breaths,
And if that's not enough,
This is a good one for your pause button.
Now creep your torso back toward the head of your mat.
You can park it on your left forearm or up on your left palm.
Float your right knee free of the mat and see about a hand to foot connection.
That might give you some room to come into a quad stretch with your knee free of the mat.
This lets you internally rotate your leg to stretch your outer quads and externally rotate your leg to stretch your inner quads.
If the hand-to-foot connection doesn't suit you or your knee,
You can set the sole of your right foot down on the floor and press your knee away from center.
Let's take at least three more breaths.
If this is still working for you,
Continue here,
Or you can return to the pinwheel legs.
Lift up to the left palm.
With an inhale,
Sweep up to your shins and reach your fingers out over your left hand.
You could stay up or you could come down and rearrange however you like.
If it doesn't work for your knee,
You could do this with a straighter right leg.
If you're liking this backbend,
Wherever you've landed,
Stay for a few more breaths.
I need to hold my head here so my neck does less.
In time,
We'll lower hips back down to the mat.
Lift your torso up.
Stack your knees.
Push your hands against your mat as you lift your hips up.
Separate your legs.
You could come to child's pose or you can resume some cat and cow movements.
Inhale to arch your spine.
And exhale to round it.
As we move through these shapes on side two,
Remember you hold the power to stay longer in any shape and also to leave the shape sooner.
Alright,
From a neutral back,
Let's work both knees over to the left.
Come to sit on your right hip.
You can keep your knees and ankles stacked or let them spread.
Left hand beneath your face.
Right hand beneath your right shoulder as you press your spine long.
You might like to stay up here looking back over your right shoulder.
Here's where you'll get the most sensation for the right oblique.
But there are also some fine choices.
A round coming down to spank some worms.
Or stacked hands.
Or a pillow.
Or arms out to the sides.
If this starts to feel like too much in your back remember you can spread one or both legs back.
If you don't feel anything,
You can also hike your knees a little closer up Stay another five breaths or so.
Next up is pinwheel pigeon,
For which you will lift your torso and work it over toward the left.
Along the way,
Your left knee will move back,
Maybe till your knee is in the arch of your right foot.
You can rest on the top of your left foot or on its big toe side,
However suits you best.
Frame your right knee with your hands.
Start coming down on an angle where your sternum is oriented over your right knee,
But feel free to move more to the right or the left as you descend to find a personally appropriate place to hang out.
That could be high,
That could be quite low,
That could not look like this shape,
But instead like some other version of pigeon.
You can hold this shape to your heart's content.
When you feel ready to address the front of your left thigh,
You can move your torso over to the right,
Maybe to arrive on your right forearm,
Maybe on your right palm.
Float your left knee free of the mat and see about a hand-to-foot connection.
Now remember,
If that doesn't suit you,
You can be pressing your left knee away from center instead.
If it does suit you,
With your left knee free of the mat,
You could spend a few breaths with your foot up toward your hip and your knee down toward the floor.
As well as a few breaths with your knee up and your foot down.
Stand out of three breaths or so.
If you'd like to forego the back bend,
You can continue here.
Or you can pinwheel your legs again,
Left knee near the arch of your right foot.
Maybe your left toes point back here.
Your right hand comes underneath your shoulder.
Your left hand starts back.
Then we inhale,
Roll up to the shins.
You could stay exactly here.
Where you could come down and reposition any way at all and lift up again.
If this isn't working for you,
You might be able to get away with your left leg extended and simply propped up on your right shin.
You also can hold your head or keep your arm free.
This can feel like more of a back bend,
More of a side bend,
Or it can always still be.
Your glutes stretch.
Take another two breaths.
Use an exhale to settle your hips down.
Once more,
We'll stack our knees.
Lift our hips up.
Think of yourself the time to come through some cat and cow or back to child's pose or through anything that feels like the right thing to do now.
