Side Body Stretch

Side Body Stretch is a gentle yoga and mobility practice designed to create space, length, and ease through the sides of the body. Through mindful stretches and flowing movement, you’ll explore the muscles around the ribs, waist, shoulders, and hips; areas that are often overlooked in everyday movement.

Transcript

Hello everybody! Today we're going to be doing a twist but also a hamstring stretch. This is one of my favorite series. I recommend if you have tighter hamstrings or a little bit more restriction in your lower legs to do a class before just so your body is more warmed up for these deeper stretches. Let's get started in a butterfly shape. So, Soles of the feet touch, Opening up the hips here, Holding on to your ankles, Ground the sit bones into the mat. On the inhale, Lengthen your spine. On the exhale, Hinging forward. So you don't have to hinge all the way down. We're not looking for range here. We're looking to keep a straight spine. So try to keep a flat back. The head would come down but the chin wants to tuck into your chest. So from the base of your sit bones all the way to the crown of your head, Can we keep that line long? Every exhale you take, Can you hinge from the hips a little bit more without dropping the shoulders, Without dropping the head. See if you can maintain the flat spine. Two more rounds of breath here. Okay, Slowly coming all the way up. Let's take your left leg out to the left. Sole of the right foot to the left inner thigh. Now flex the left foot. We're just going to go for forward hinges. So let's take your hands behind your head. Rib cage softens, Side waist stays equal. So notice how not one of them is collapsing. We want both of them to be nice and lengthened. Rib cage in, Hands will come behind your head. Inhale, Toe. Exhale, Hinge from the hips, Folding forward. So again from the sit bones, The top of your head should be in one line. Now you might feel the inner thighs over here. You might feel hamstrings. That's where we want to feel. And coming up, Four more like this, Hinging down. Feel the inner thigh stretch. Left leg active and back up. Last three and back. Good. Last two and back. Pushing your left thigh into the floor. Last one. Good and coming back. Now take both arms over your head. Inhale, Toe. Exhale, Twist and rotate towards your left. So now you want the rib cage to face the left leg as much as you can. Let's all bring our hands to your rib cage and notice where it's pointing. Try to bring it more towards your left leg without twisting your head too much. And back to center. Again, Inhale, Toe. Exhale, Rotate. Back to center. Inhale, Toe. One more time to the left. Good and back to center. Now from here, Let's take both arms up. Inhale, Reaching up. Exhale, Twist over towards your left. Now stay in your twist. Inhale again. Exhale, Fold forward and take the right hand outside the left foot. Can you reach beyond the left foot? Hinge from the hips and reach even more lengthen. From here, Can we grab onto the left foot or the left shin? Left hand to the floor. Inhale, Lengthen the spine. Keep your twist. Exhale, Bend the elbows. Fold forward. So what we want to avoid is we want to avoid rounding in. For this stretch, Can you slide the chest forward? Maintaining a flat back so we get into the side body, The QL over here. Maintain your twist and reach forward. Very good. Slowly coming back to center. Both arms up. Now take your left hand to the right thigh. Roll the left shoulder under. Inhale, Reach up tall and exhale, Side bend. Try to send the fingertips towards your toes. Lengthen the right arm really long and lean the upper body back. Breathing here, You should feel the stretch in the right side body. Very nice. Slowly release and then switch. Let's bend the left leg in, Right leg comes out. We'll start with your hinges. Make sure you're sitting tall, Sitting on your sit bones. Right foot is flexed. Hands come behind your head. Inhale, Reaching up. Exhale, Hinging forward. Pay attention to your alignment and coming back. Again, Inhale, Tall. Exhale, Hinge. And coming back. Inhale, Tall. Exhale, Fold. And back. Last two. Inhale, Exhale, Fold. And back. Last one. And return. Take both arms up towards the ceiling. Inhale, Exhale, Rotate towards the right. Now place your hands on your ribcage. Notice your alignment. Can we get the ribcage to turn more towards the right leg? Good. And back to center. Again, Inhale, Exhale, Twist. And return. Let's go two more here. Rotate. Good. And return. Last one. Inhale, Exhale, Rotate. And return. Now take both arms up. Inhale, Reaching up tall. Exhale, Twist over towards the right. Keeping this. Inhale, Exhale, Hinge. Left hand slides outside the right foot. Let's take the hand to the floor. Inhale, Spine straight. Reaching up tall. Exhale to fold forward. Make sure you maintain the rotation. Reaching forward. Keep the right leg active. Sliding forward. Breathing deeply here. Slowly release. Take both arms up. Now right hand to left thigh. Roll the right shoulder under. And now the right side will shorten. The left side will lengthen. So coming up into your side bend. Left fingertips towards the right toes. Open up the chest by rolling the left shoulder back. Good. Now you don't have to catch the toes. Wherever you are, Prioritize an open chest. Open chest. So even if you're up here and your chest is open, That is already really good. Eventually with time, With practice, Your body will get used to the motion, The movement. And then it'll develop a deeper range. Breathing deeply wherever you are. And then return back to center. Okay. Let's take your feet, Your legs into a cross-legged position. Inhale, Arms over your head. And exhale, Release. Inhale, Arms up. And exhale, Release. One more. Inhale, Arms up and stay here. Inhale again. Exhale, Hinge forward. Hands to the floor. Fold forward. Now in this rounded position, Walk the fingertips forward to lengthen your spine. Now we're just going to end with some breathing awareness. So inhale, You want your sides, The sides of the ribcage to expand, The back of the body to expand, Front of the body to expand. So looking at the breath in a 360 degree way, Not just belly breathing. So breath goes to the back body, Front body, Side body. And here we really get to activate the full potential of your breath. Very nice. Come back to center. Take both arms up. And exhale, Release. Okay, That's it for today. Thank you for joining me on the mat.