Lucky Legs Hatha Yoga Full Hour Class

Leg muscle activation, strengthening and stretching.

Props needed: 2 bricks, belt/strap, blanket for knee padding (if desired)

Please work at your own level.

Participation is subject to and governed by English law and the exclusive jurisdiction of the Courts of England and Wales.

Transcript

Welcome to today's session. We're going to start laying down. So just finding yourself into a comfortable supine position. Perhaps you'd like to have knees bent, Maybe legs outstretched. And maybe have a little wiggle between shoulder blades get that kind of spaciousness And then just allow everything to kind of soften and relax down. Let's allow for that sense of. Settle in to be helped with our breath. Just allowing the inhale to draw in and the exhale to leave. We're not going to change the breath. We're just going to keep it quite natural right now. And as the inhale draws in, Perhaps finding that sense of spaciousness. Into the body, That sense of lightness. And as you exhale, Allowing anything that you don't want to carry into your practice today to kind of just disappear with that breath, Breathing it out, Whether it be a sensation in the body, Whether it be a thought or. . . Something that is keeping your awareness there rather than focusing on your practice. Let's just allow it to exhale. Let's stay with those inhales. And excites. Steady breathing. So we draw the breath in. And allow that breath to leave. Taking anything that isn't serving you right now with it. And take another couple of these breaths. Then with your next exhale, Allowing your breath to move all the way down to your feet. Let's check in with toes. With the soles of our feet. The tops of our feet. Checking in with our ankles. How do they feel today? With our shins and our calves. Let's check in with knees and thighs. Maybe you're noticing the thighs resting onto the earth if we've got our legs outstretched. Then taking the awareness up to your hips. Down to your tailbone. And to your sitting bones. And then move in. Up the back a little to your sacrum, That bony triangle. Near the lower back. Moving around to the front to your tummy. To your navel. The area just above your navel that solar plexus moving that awareness around the sides of your waist to your back. Checking in with the spine, All the way up the spine. And then with the ribs, As they wrap around the sides of the body to the front and chest, Maybe noticing that rise and fall of the bracket. Taking the awareness down to our fingers. Backs of our hands and our palms up to our wrists. Forum. Elbows not to the tops of our arms. And all the way to our shoulders. To the back of our neck, The sides and the front of our neck. The jaw. The back of the head, The base of the skull where that's. Skull Joins the next. And then let's take our awareness all the way up our head. Past our ears, Past the back of the head, Past features of the face, All the way to the very top of the head. Then letting go of that sense of scan in through the body and just allow another few nice natural easy breaths There's inhales and exhales. And then from here. Maybe just allowing yourself to blink, Eyes open. If legs are outstretched, Let's give them a little bend. I'm going to hug those knees towards the chest. I'm going to start with a little bit of a rock from side to side. So keeping that length through the spine and just allowing yourself to gently take that rock, Maybe noticing how the spine feels, Noticing if there's anywhere that feels quite nice when you roll over it. Perhaps you'd like to. Pause into that area. Just take a few breaths there. Just working with art movements. Really nice. And then. When you're ready, Coming back to neutral, We're going to allow feet to come down to the earth. And let's take a nice big stretch. So allowing for those legs to stretch out, Reaching arms overhead. Sorry, I had to yawn when that happened. Pushing the heels away, So we're stretching through the backs of the legs. Pushing the toes, So we're pointing the toes, Stretching through the front of the legs. And on the exhale, Let's release that stretch and re-bend our knees. So from here, Taking the arms either into a T-shape or cactus arms with palms facing up, We're going to take a little bit of. . . A supine twist. So on the exhale, Let's allow knees to gently come to one side, Doesn't matter which side. A little engagement in solar plexus as we come to center. And on the exhale, Let's take it over to the other side. So let's just keep working with that nice dynamic but gentle movement. Inhales and exhales. Really good. Just staying with those breaths. Really nice. Lovely work and then working once more each side And then gently coming back to neutral. Okay, Nice. So from here, Let's take hands to hips. We're going to draw the knees in towards the chest. And we're going to take not quite a pedaling action, But we're going to push our heel up towards the sky and then re-bend our leg. And we're going to do one, Then the other. So let's start with one leg, Pushing that heel up against the sky. So we've got a nice length through the leg, Bringing it down. Taking the other side exhale as you stretch it up inhale as we re-bend so we can go any speed we want but let's just work with the breath exhale as the leg extends inhale as it rebends and what we're doing here is we're kind of working into those muscles a little so working into the backs of the legs working into the fronts of the legs taking a little stretch at the same time it's got a nice Movement. To really get warmed up into the knees into the joints Lovely. I'm going to take two more. Very good i can't remember which one i started with How are you in? That's it. And then we're going to give those knees a little hugging. And once again, Let's take that rock from side to side. And again, Feeling that sense of. . . The spine down onto the earth, Noticing how that feels. Lovely. So when we're here, Coming to neutral, We're going to allow for our right leg to come down onto the earth. We can hold around the shin or behind the thigh of our left leg. And I'm going to get you just to allow for that foot to point and flex. Point and flex. You might feel your calf muscle doing something different when we do this. You might feel the muscles at the front of the leg doing something different when we do this. So even sort of around the knee, That lower part of the knee. And then let's circle the ankle if that feels okay. If it's circling doesn't feel good, We can still point it and flex it. And then let's change direction going the other way. If you want to do a couple of points and flexes again, Just to bring everything back to feel a bit more normal, We can. And then when we're ready, Let's bring that leg down and you might want to stretch both legs out for a moment. And notice if they feel different. Maybe one feels different to the other. Let's re-bend our knees. And we're going to allow for the other leg to come towards the chest. So from here, We're going to point and flex with the ankle. And once again, Holding either around the shin or behind the calf and the thigh. Just noticing perhaps that movement of the muscles. As we. . . Make this movement. So all that movement helping to warm up into the muscles, Bring that blood flow there. And then let's circle. Gosh, My uncle made the most horrible clicking noise then. Hopefully my microphone didn't pick it up. And then let's change direction. And then maybe point and flex a couple more times. And then let's bring that leg down. And we're going to lengthen out those legs once again, Maybe take a nice stretch. Perhaps point to the toes. Perhaps flexing the feet. And then let's bring the arms down by the sides of the body. Releasing the stretch. Rebending our knees. Now from here, I'm going to invite you to come to a seated position. You can rock and roll up tailbone to top of the head. Or you might like to bend knees and roll over to one side and find your way up to seated. I don't mind how you get there. If you do like to bring yourself onto the edge of a block, Then by all means, Please do. We're going to sit with legs in a V shape. So just allowing for that nice wide V if that feels good. We can keep softness in the knees if we know that that feels better in our hamstrings. But we are going to be having a little bit of hamstring movement today. So hopefully. We'll get nice and warmed up there. So let's allow hands to come to the heart, Nice soft shoulders. And we're going to start just gently swaying from side to side. And as always, Let's try and keep both sitting bones rooted down. This can be a bit challenging when we are. Working with not cross legs because it's different sensation. I want to do a lot of work maybe with that waist. Feeling like we're pushing both sitting bones down onto the earth. Really nice. And then when we're ready, Coming back to neutral. Going to allow arms to relax down. Now from here, Let's take a little wiggle into toes. So just waking up toes. Toes are, Or big toes especially, Are responsible for a lot of our balance. So. It's always good to kind of have that kind of mind-toe connection. I don't know if anyone's ever said mind-toe connection before, But just being aware of what your toes are doing. Sometimes it's quite hard to control toes, But if we practice, We can gain more control over our toes. We can have feet like a monkey. Who doesn't want feet like a monkey? Then from here, Let's allow for that little cross into the legs. We can then work into wrists a little. So let's allow for cactus arms. And we're going to squeeze and flick, Squeeze and flick. Now, We're not going to do this super fast. We're just going to do it really intentionally today. So squeeze and flick. And when we squeeze and flick, We are working not just the muscles in our wrists, We're working muscles in our hands. We're working the muscles into the arms. So there's quite a lot going on here. You might start to feel a certain degree of fatigue as we do this. Yes, I'm getting some nods there. Okay, And then from here, Let's shake that off. We can have a little flap around. It's a good way to warm wrists up, Though. And then when we're ready, Let's allow shoulders to relax. And we are going to stop traffic. So let's push those palms away. Shoulders relax. Oh, Breathe in here. Inhales and exhales. Steady breath. So this is apparently a good stretch for tennis elbow. So if anyone suffers from tennis elbow. This is your stretch. I'm currently suffering from tennis elbow. They say yoga teachers shouldn't have injuries. It's not true. And the thing that hurts most, Picking up a cup of tea. Oh, It's tragic. I can lift up chairs, But picking up tea and drinking tea is one of my favorite things to do. So I'm having to do it right handed. So let's flip down. Just taking that nice kind of relaxation in shoulders. Lovely. And then let's shake those wrists out, Shake the arms out, Get a sense of just loosening off. Great stuff. So from here, We are going to come into tabletop. And I'm going to invite you to have two bricks. At the top of the mat and we're going to pop them up onto their high side just so that they are ready when we want them. So I recommend padding knees if you do like to have knees padded. So we're going to work with a little bit of cat cow to start off with. So nothing too fancy. So let's allow for that nice alignment in our cat cow. So knees are underneath the hips. Hands can be underneath the shoulders, Maybe a little bit further forwards, Maybe a bit wider out, Maybe spreading fingers if that feels good. And with cat cow, You're familiar with it. We're going to just work with our regular cat cows. So you might want to close your eyes. On the inhale, Sitting bones gently lift, Tummy drops down, Head and chest shine forward. So that sense of a nice long neck. We're not going to kink the back of the neck. On the exhale, Sitting bones tilt down, Drawing that belly button up towards the sky, Maybe having a look between your knees or towards your belly button. Let's work with the breath. Inhale. We take that cow tilt. Exhale. Cat stretch. And as you work with this movement, You may want to think about really pushing down through the shins, Through the feet, Through the knees, And through the hands. Because the more we push down. . . The more feeling we get of rebounding energy back up into that body. So you might notice. The sensation of the movement becoming A little greater, You might notice a little bit more movement. As we exhale, When we push down, As we inhale. Let's take three more. Really nice. And then come into neutral after our next exhale. And from here, Come into your version of child's pose. So we can have the knees a little bit wider if you like. You can stack the fist, Resting the head onto the hand, Whatever feels good for you. And as always, There's the invitation to breathe into the back of the body. Nice options. And of course, As always, If child's pose isn't working for you, We can come to Sukhasana, To easy pose, Just a cross-legged position. But taking that nice kind of forward fold so we get that sense of just release. So let's take another couple of breaths into the back of the body, Finding that expansion, That inflation. Exhale. Inhale. And Lovely. And from here, We're going to find ourselves back into that tabletop position. Okay. So I'm going to invite you to come into a low lunge. Now to do this, We're going to gently find our way up into a high kneel. And we're going to step. Let's go with the right foot, Right foot forwards. Now, This is your first option. This is proposal position. We can be here. When we come into our twist, Which we're going to, We can come like this. If you want a little bit more stretch into the kind of top of the thigh of the other leg, We have the foot further away, And then we come into that low lunge. Now, We want that column of strength. We want knee coming down directly over the ankle. Then we lose that column of strength. So working with whatever works for you. If you are seated, Because neither of those work for you. We can take. . . This option so you can bring that knee in and push the foot out and that is that same kind of lunge kind of feeling so from here I want to remember which foot I had forwards. This one, Either in our proposal or in our lunge, We are going to allow for those sides of our hips to feel like they're squeezing together. So they are our gluteus medius. Feel like there's a belt tightening around those hips. On the inhale, Let's allow arms to float up. Exhale maybe sinking a little lower let's take another breath here Lovely. On the exhale, We're going to bring arms down. Find your breath. Okay one hand onto each brick from here allowing our left hand to stay down and on the inhale we're going to allow our right arm to peel up towards the sky a little twist towards that bent knee beautiful let's take a breath here exhale let's bring that hand down now from here you might want to walk bricks back just a little way we're going to keep nice and long through the crown of the head we're going to allow ourselves and i'm just going to move my brick so you can see to draw back flex that foot so we're getting a little stretch through the hamstring keeping that length through the body Lovely. Inhale, Coming forward. Exhale, That little length. And the more you draw back and the more you flex your foot, The stronger it will be. So we just moderate this to how we need to. Inhale, Coming forwards. I'll keep it so you can see there. Exhale, Drawing back. Lovely. So this is our half split. You can do it seated by stretching the leg out and just gently leaning over the leg. Inhale back to neutral. And from here, I'm going to invite you to find your way back to that high kneel. Okay. Really nice we're going to work with the other side So when we're ready, Step in that left foot forward. Decide whether we want to be in the proposal position. Or whether we want to have that foot a little bit further forwards and find our lunge this side. So once again, Column of strength from knee to heel. We're going to squeeze the sides of the hips in towards each other, So those glutes are really kind of glutamus medius, The sides of the glutes, Squeezing in. Inhale, Let's float our arms up. Exhale, Maybe drop down a little. Beautiful. This is like a little crescent moon lunge. On the exhale, Let's bring both arms down. Hands onto brick. We're going to keep our right hand onto the brick. I'm going to have to twist away from you. I apologize. Inhale, Twisting over to the left, Feeling that nice sense of lift into the hand. Really nice. Arm up towards the sky. Exhale, Bringing it back down. Now from here, Walking those bricks just a little bit back if you feel you need to. We're going to keep that length through the spine. The sky if that feels good inhale gently coming back Exhale, Another little hamstring stretch. And the more you lean over the leg, The stronger that hamstring stretch gets. So we can moderate this. Inhale, Back. And then exhale. Another little half monkey Half humananasana? Inhale back. And from here, We're going to find our way to that high kneel. And from here, Finding our way to standing. So you can use your bricks. You can come up however you wish. We're just going to pop bricks. To one side Really good. So let's find our way to Tadasana, To Mountain Pose. I'm just going to close my window because I've realized it's getting dark and I'm going to have all sorts of creatures coming in because I've got lots of bright lights on. Apologies for that. So let's allow feet to root down. Now, Finding your focal point, Find your drishti. We're going to take a few breaths here, The inhales and the exhales, Allowing that breath to flow nice and freely. Now, When we work with yoga, We often think about engaging solar plexus, Which we're going to do right now. But also we think about engaging our quads, Those big thigh muscles. So we're going to do that. We're going to allow kneecaps to lift, Engage your quads. Now, Maybe you'd like to feel what's going on with your hamstrings at the back of your legs. We can give them a little squish. Maybe they're still squidgy because that front engagement doesn't do anything for our hamstrings. So what we're going to do. . . Is we are going to take a little movement into hamstrings. Now, We've got a choice here. We can stay on the earth or if you want to and you've got a little bit of wall you want to hang on to because balance might need it, We can stand onto one of our bricks. Okay, So wherever you feel that you want to do, We're going to work into quad and hamstring. You can do this without a brick because we were doing it last night. So we're going to imagine that we're standing, Even if we're on our brick, I'm going to get you to bring your leg forwards maybe that hamstring gets a bit nicely firm and then without leaning forwards we're going to bring that leg back a little bit and you might feel sorry the quad feels and then the hamstring feels nice and firm Bringing the leg forwards, Quad firms up. Taking the leg backwards, Hamstring firms up. Now this is because muscles work in pairs. So when one contracts, The other one lengthens. Okay let's go with one more forwards, Quad contracts. Backwards, Hamstring contract. And then coming back to neutral, We can step off our block. And we're going to take it the other side. If you're on your block, Stepping on with the other foot. Don't know why, But I'm a little bit wobblier on this side. When we're ready, Going forwards, Quad contracts. Coming back, Hamstring contracts. Try not to lean. That's it. So just keep moving. We can hang on to wall. This isn't about balance. This is about kind of moving those muscles more. So we're really thinking about working the muscles rather than balancing. Really good. So I've lost count. Shall we do two more? Really nice. And then once we come back, Allowing that leg to come down. We're going to step off our block. Okay. Lovely so we've got that sense of what it feels like for the quads to contract what it feels like for the hamstrings to contract what it feels like to stretch the hamstrings From here, We are going to really work our legs with a little bit of chair pose. So we're going to come into chair. Once in our regular way, We're going to work dynamically. So three times. And I say come into chair, We're going to come in three times. And then we're going to take a modified version if you wish. So let's allow solar plexus to engage. Shoulders nice and soft. Taking that weight into the equal parts of the feet, The front and the back. Let's engage legs, Drawing those kneecaps up so we get a bit of engagement. And on the exhale, Let's sit down into our chair. Facing each other. Beautiful. Making sure we've got that balance between both feet, Between fronts and backs. Inhale, Coming up. Lovely. Going to go two more. Exhale, Coming down. Solar plexus still engaged. Inhale coming up. Exhale, Coming down. Lovely. Inhale, Coming up. Now from here, I'm going to invite you to lift one of your heels up. So we're on the toe of one foot, Other foot flat on the earth. Solar plexus engage. Exhale, Coming down into our chair with one heel lifted. Inhale, Coming back up. Let's replace that heel down. We're going to work the other side, Lifting the other heel. Exhale, Coming down. Inhale, Back up. Let's alternate. Exhale. Inhale and it makes that leg that's on the earth fully Work a little bit harder. Lovely. And then let's come up. Now, I'm going to give you an option here. You may want to lift both heels and come down. See how it feels. You can always just keep your normal chair with both heels onto the earth. So, Solar plexus engaged wherever we're at. Maybe lifting both heels. Get that balance. And on the exhale, Gently coming down. See what legs want to do? I look like my knees are shaking from side to side. Lovely. Inhale, Pushing up. Bringing everything down oh nice effort and then they shake those legs out So when we're thinking about working legs, Really thinking about those muscle groups getting a good lot of work today. So from here, We are going to come into a little half sun salutation just to get a little kind of more upper body movement too. So let's allow hands to rest at the heart. My softness in the shoulders. Inhale, Let's reach up, See the thumbs. Soft shoulders, Soft knees, Solar plexus engage. Exhale down that center line of the body as far as feels good. Inhale, Halfway up, Length between the crown of the head and the tailbone. And then let's sweep the arms out to either side pushing up use the glutes use the legs exhale has the heart really nice one more inhale Exhale, Folding down. Inhale, Halfway up, Length through the spine. Exhale, All the way down. And then inhale, Pushing up. See the thumbs once more. Exhale, Allowing hands to rest at the hop. Pause in here. Take in a moment. Really nice. And then let's just gently release those arms down. Okay, So our next pose we're going to work on. Is half moon pose now half moon pose is a little bit of a balance but we can use a piece of wall if we need to so i'll show you how we are going to get into half moon pose so i'd like you to imagine the wall is behind me because i don't think i can do this with maybe okay so i'm going to try and do it with the wall Okay, So we think about. . . Coming into a half moon pose because we're going to be kind of opened up against the wall. We think about doing it first off, Finding length through the body. So I'd like you to imagine with your brick down there that there is some sort of like obstacle in front of you, Whether it's a fence, A bush, Whatever it may be. And we've dropped something. We really need to get down over the other side of that bush. So what we do is we allow arm to reach up and we get really tall before we go anywhere. Now, There happens to be a willow tree behind us too. What we then do is, With extension, Start leaning over. I'm going to have to take my leg out to do this because furniture's in the other way. The other leg lifts. We kick through the heel. Maybe that arm comes down to the brick. Maybe the other one comes up and we hold on to our willow branch. But what's really, Really key here is kicking through that flexed foot. So nice strong leg here, Nice strong leg here. Also, These toes need to be pointing forwards because if they point any other way, They are going to want to walk. Okay. To come out, We soften the front knee. Coming back out how we came in now you don't have to be up against a wall it's a nice place to be if you've got a little bit of war we can do it center of the room. I recommend keeping your gaze down because as soon as we turn head, It shifts and everything kind of shifts balance wise. And we're thinking more about the strength with this today. So when you're ready. Finding that brick, I would say shoulder to pelvis length in front of you, Having your little bit of wall, If you've got that little bit of wall. Let's engage solar plexus. Okay. Don't mind which arm you reach up with. Let's reach up with that arm. Find that length through the body. Imagine you're reaching over an object. So we're finding that length, Bringing the arm down. The other leg starts to lift, Pushing through that heel, Maybe holding onto the brick with the hand. Kicking through the heel. That's it. Other arm might come up towards the sky. Let's breathe. Can we open those hips out to the center of the room? Really nice. Keep breathing. Keep that breath flowing. Muscles need the oxygen. Looking good. On the exhale, Let's soften the front knee. Taking it down as you came in. It's just allowing yourself to land. Beautiful. Really nice. Half moon pose. A lot of work into the legs, A little bit of work into balance if we're not using the wall. So that was really, Really great. Let's work the other side. So swapping that brick over to the other side. Once again, We're going to start rooting through feet, Toes pointing forwards. We're going to lift up the arm, Find that length through the body. Imagine we drop that, Whatever it may be, A phone, A million pounds, Piece of jewelry. Tall exhale starting to lean bringing the other leg up nice and slowly kicking through that heel really good and then maybe bringing the other arm into the air beautiful so we're really kicking through that heel inhales exhales lovely i'm cheating here i've got my foot on my bureau let's breathe opening hips out to the center of the room really nice and then on the exhale softening that standing leg Gently bringing. Leg down, Coming up. We can allow for a little shake off. Into everything really nice so from here we're going to climb up into a forward fold having belts nearby, Because we will then either come back up and come to seated with leg lengthened out, Or we can crouch down and find our way to seated. So let's allow ourselves to come to the center of the mat. And let's come in from our sort of half sun salutation. So let's allow hands to reach to the heart or hands to come to the heart. Inhale, Reach up. That's the one. Soft shoulders, Soft knees. As we exhale, Hinge in down. Hands can come to thighs all the way. And we're going to hang out here for a moment. Uttanasana, Full forward fold. Let's allow for each exhale to let everything feel like it's just gently coming down towards the earth. Now, If you are this way inclined, You may like to have a little length through your legs and just experiment with how those hamstrings feel. Maybe lengthening one leg a little bit at a time or maybe both of them. Notice if your forward bend kind of gets less, If your back goes up. If it does, Then the hamstrings maybe aren't ready to be lengthened. But perhaps you can make them just a little bit longer than you normally do because we have been working into those areas. Nicely warmed up for that little bit of stretching. So from here, Either generously bending the knees and hinging up, Or we can bring fingertips down, Coming into a little crouch. Heels might raise like we did in our chair. Maybe coming up to toes if we want a little bit of balance. Length through the spine. Ooh, Nice. A little bit of balance challenge here. And then when we're ready, Let's sit down with legs lengthened out. And if you do like to sit onto the edge of a block, By all means, Please do. So we're going to work into a twist now, But we're going to be using our belt. So I'm going to think about sitting, The sitting bones really rooting them down. And we're going to take the belt. Around our right. Ball of the foot. Okay. The belt comes into our left hand. So opposite foot to hand. Okay. Now from here, A little engagement in solar plexus. So we're nice and tall. Option to keep foot onto the earth. Or we can lift that leg up and maybe bring the hands down the belt a little. From here, Allowing for that leg to come over to the left a little. So I might cross over a little. Out to the right. Really nice. So we've got that kind of opposite directions going on. A little bit of a twist, A little bit of a stretch into the hamstring. Let's take another breath here. Inhale, Long through the crown of the head. Exhale, Shoulders soft. Lovely. Inhale coming back to neutral. Let's bring that leg back to neutral. And we're going to work the other side. So taking the ball off the foot into the strap. I'll just swap over so I haven't got my back to you. Length through the spine, Taking that strap into our right hand. If you wish, Lifting the leg, Taking it across to the right a little. And then on the inhale, Opening out to the left. Length through the crown of the head. Exhale, Shoulders soft. Really nice. And then we can push through the heel of that leg. That gives us a little bit more stretch into the hamstring. Let's take another breath. Really nice. And then on the inhale, Gently coming back to neutral with the spine, Bringing that leg back down to where it started. Okay, How are we doing? Are we all right? So from here, We are going to still use our belt, But we are going to come to a supine position. We're going to take a three-way leg stretch. So if you want to just stay seated for a moment, I can show you what it looks like when we come down. Making that space keeping knees bent we'll bring one leg into the chest belt around the ball of the foot one end of the belt into each arm shoulders can relax down now we're going to keep the tailbone pointing towards the end of the mat so we're not going to allow it to lift up there's a temptation as soon as the leg kind of comes towards the body everything starts curving up into that lower back we're not going to push through the foot what we're going to do is we're not going to for that leg to come just as close as it wants to with the exhales then the belt swaps into the same side as the leg so i've got left leg left hand we can wedge elbow down onto the earth i'm going to take my right hand to the hip to make sure that doesn't raise up and then we can allow for that solar plexus to engage to keep that stability in the pelvis as the leg comes out to the side lengthen the other leg out to make a little bit of space swapping that belt over hand onto the hip on this side as we exhale take it across make sure we're not twisting into the back so everything kind of should remain down into that hip area it's only the movement coming from the leg inhale back to center we can bend both knees swap it over to the other side okay so when you're Thanks. Lovely. Okay. So keeping knees bent, We're going to allow for the right knee to draw into the chest, Taking that belt around the ball of the right foot, Each end of the belt into different hands, And just allow for that leg to lengthen towards the sky. Now, This is where we are taking our little hamstring stretch, Making sure that we haven't lifted to that lower back. And if it feels like you want to on the exhale, Maybe just take in a little bit of encouragement. To bring that leg a little bit further towards. The head but we are not going to tug we're not going to force we're just going to allow there we go let's allow it to happen take another couple of breaths here. So we worked into these hamstrings, They should be nice and warm, Nice and happy to stretch. Lovely. And then let's allow for our right hand to come to that belt. Other hand rests onto our left hip. And when we're ready, Just gently allowing for that leg to come out to the right, Maybe wedging elbow onto the earth. Solar plexus engage, Making sure that left knee isn't coming out to the left. So that solar plexus engaging will really, Really help with that stability, Keeping the hip down, Keeping the knee in line. Let's breathe here. Inhales and exhales. Steady steady breath. Lovely. And then really engaging the solar plexus. Inhale, Bringing that leg up to neutral. Let's lengthen out the left leg along the mat. And remember, We're just taking this to the point that feels good, Allowing for the belt to come into the left hand. Right hand can come onto right hip, So we're going to make sure that stays down. And on the exhale, Just taking that leg over the body just as far as it wants to go to the left. And let's breathe here. So this can be quite an intense feeling, Depending on whether we are a hip out or hip in person. People love this. Hip out people find this quite challenging. So let's take another couple of breaths here. And you might notice all different stretches going on. With each. Of the three-way stretch we take. And then inhale, Gently bring that leg back to neutral. I'm going to invite you to re-bend the left knee. We're going to take that belt into the right hand. And if it feels good, We're going to bend the knee and bring that foot closer to the face as solar the foot up towards this guy, Half happy baby. See how that feels. Might feel quite intense, Might feel too much. Let's not take it if it does. And then gently release that leg. We're going to bend both knees, Drawing them into the chest. And then let's allow for that step in with the other foot. Bring in our right foot down so that the belt. Is around the ball of the left foot once again keeping that knee bent on the right and extending that left leg skywards and one end of the belt in each hand elbows can rest down and again we're going to work with the breath so we are not going to allow for a lower back to lift going to keep that nicely down but just allow for Maybe that leg. To lengthen out. Maybe that leg to come a little bit further towards the head we're not going to tug not going to force just working with the breath inhales and exhales Really nice. And then let's take both ends of the belt into our left hand. Right hand comes onto right hip. We're going to check that that stays where it is. Solar plexus engages. Let's allow for that left leg to come out to the left. Remember, We can wedge the elbow onto the ground, Support the leg with the strap, Making sure that that right knee isn't coming out to the right. Sometimes it wants to. Solar plexus really engaging can help that to not happen. Let's breathe here. Really good. Nice inhales and exhale. Steady breath. Lovely. Then super engagement in solar plexus let's gently bring that leg up to neutral i'm going to lengthen out along the right leg Allow for the belt to come into the right hand. Left hand onto the left hip. And when we're ready, On the exhale, Just allowing for that leg to come across the body just as far as it wants to. Ooh, Maybe those interesting stretches. I can share with you that when I do this I feel like I've got, I don't know, Some sort of electricity down the back of my leg. It's quite an interesting sensation. I think they call that nerve flossing. Let's take another breath here. Really nice. And then gently coming back to neutral. We're going to re-bend the right knee, Placing the foot on the earth. Belt into the left hand, And if it feels good, Gently bend in that knee so the foot comes closer towards the face, But we're going to keep the sole of the foot towards the sky. Half happy baby. If you don't wish to take this, Then there is no reason to take it. Take another breath. And then on the inhale, Releasing that leg, We can take the belt off carefully without hitting ourselves in the face. Bring in that foot down to the earth. And let's allow for a nice big t-shape or cactus arms we're just going to take a little gentle sway from side to side so on the exhale taking knees to one side inhale to center exhale knees to the other side so let's just take a couple of these just to give ourselves just our little bits of reset. And then coming back to neutral. And from here, If you want to take a nice full body stretch, By all means, Please do. Perhaps pointing the toes away, Perhaps pushing the heels away. Maybe this feels different when we first did our stretch. And then on the exhale, Gently releasing. And I'm going to invite you to make any movements and preparations that you wish to for Shavasana today. So just allowing yourself to. Do whatever you need to do, Whether it be. . . Change lighting, Change playlist. Popping on extra layers. And just allowing yourself to find that comfortable position. To relax it. Now, You may want to have legs up onto a piece of furniture. Even up against the wall. Maybe knees bent. Maybe legs outstretched, Whatever feels best in your body. So just kind of checking in with that, Just seeing what is going to feel good today. And let's just allow ourselves to get settled here. So maybe allowing eyes to softly close or just gently defocusing your gaze if you'd rather not close eyes. Let's find. . . Ourselves kind of settling down so maybe taking a nice big exhale allowing yourself to oh just start to soften down. And let's allow for that breath to start to flow. So the inhale drawing in. Exhale, Gently leave in. So staying with those breaths. Every inhale. Once again, Maybe bring in space. And lightness into the body. Each exhale. Maybe allowing for a sense of. . . Attention to Leave. Any effort to lead. So keeping the breath nice and natural. Maybe you like to start to imagine. That breath is flowing up and down the body, Almost like the ebb and flow of the tide. On the inhale, The breath moves from feet to crown of the head, Washing in ease, Washing in that sense of calmness. And on the exhale, As the breath moves from the head down to the toes, Maybe feel like it's gently dragging back out anything that you don't want to keep with you now. That sense of the breath. Drawing in and leaving like the ocean. Each inhale, The wave up the body brings ease, Brings lightness, Brings calmness. Each exhale washing away effort. Washing away any residual tension. Maybe washing away any clutter in body. And mine. So let's now for These gentle waves. As we inhale. And exhale. Inhale. And exhale. Every breath. Allowance. To feel. A little easier, A little more. At ease. Than the last. Any residual tension. Effort. Clutter. Just being washed away. Dissolving. In the ocean. So you're invited now to either stay with that sense of the breath washing over you. Or maybe just allowing yourself. To release that sense of the breath. Just let yourself just be. Effortless, Being at ease. For the next few moments. Now just allowing for your breath to just gently start to deepen. And as you inhale, Drawing in that renewed energy, That sense of. . . Feeling refreshed. Starting to allow fingertips and toes to get a little movement back. Just becoming aware of the sense of your body onto the earth. And let's allow that movement to become a little bit greater, Maybe bend in the knees. Perhaps hugging the legs in, Maybe taking a stretch, Whatever feels good. And then maybe roll into one side or however you wish to. Just gently finding your way back to a seated position to close our practice today. Let's find that length through the spine. Hands can rest at the heart. Going to take one nice deep breath as we inhale, Reaching up and out. Exhale, Let's take it back up and rest at the heart. Namaste. Thank you so much for practicing with me today.