Strengthening Vinyasa Yoga

This powerful yoga sequence is inspired by Ashtanga Yoga and will help you learn to connect your breath to your movement for strength building and ease in stretches. Feel the breath and the movement unite for a strengthening, powerful body response.

Transcript

Welcome to our strength-based Ashtanga inspired yoga sequence today. We're going to start in child's pose. So come onto your knees and let your knees open slightly wider than the hips. And then sit back onto your heels, Toward your heels, As you reach forward. We'll just let our forehead drop down And we'll connect our breath from here. We want to feel our Ujjayi breath beginning to build. Slow and steady. In and out just through the nose if you can. And in this position of child's pose, You can really feel the expanding of the rib cage. You should feel deep breath into the belly. There's the diaphragm there. When we do any kind of yoga practice, We always want to connect with the breath. It is our partner. It will be our guide. As we move and flow today together. Let's press up onto our hands. Lift up and let your heels drop downward and the hips reach high. This is Atamukha Svanasana. Or downward facing dog. We can feel the heels pull toward the floor and we can feel that lifting up. Through the hips. If you need to shift and move in this position, Feel free. Pedal your feet. Bend your knees slightly. We'll be here quite a bit. This is an Ashtanga-inspired sequence after all. So Adha Mukha Svanasana is a tenement of the practice. We want to feel ourselves getting comfortable in this position. Let's come forward to a high plank. And we'll just lower down onto our knees for a moment. Extend out your right arm and your left leg, So your opposite arm is leg. A little spinal balance. Feel lifted through your center. And if you need to, If you want to go a little deeper, You can reach back and grab your toe with your hand. Then gently press the foot into the hand to open up your shoulder, Stretch your quadricep and hip flexor. If this is too much for you, Stay here, Right? Lots of good options. Take a breath in whatever position. Inhale. Exhale place it back down. Let's do the other side Inhale lift the left arm right leg looking straight down at the ground Feel that reaching through the fingertips and through the heel. And option to again reach back, Grab onto the toe, Open up that shoulder, Open up the chest. Stretch the quadriceps and hip flexors. One more breath. Inhale. Exhale, Lower it down. Roll onto your toes again. Push back. Atamukhasvanasana. Relax your neck. Keep breathing as we start this warming, Strengthening flow right here at the beginning. Let's come forward to a plank now. Take a breath, Inhale. Exhale lower down halfway chaturanga hold feel free to drop to your knees if you want to Inhale. Exhale, Lower all the way down. Hands right by your side, Elbows by your ribcage, Tops of the feet on the floor. Cobra pose three times. Inhale. Exhale, Lower. Inhale lift. Exhale, Lower. Maybe a little higher each time. One more. Inhale, Lift. Exhale, Lower. Good. Roll onto your toes. Press with your hands. Lift straight up to your down dog. I'm sorry, Plank pose. And then exhale back. Atamakasvanasana or Downward Facing Dog. Bend your knees. Look forward. Let's step up to our hands this first time. And hang forward in Uttanasana. Now traditionally in Ashtanga, We would bring our toes together, Heels slightly apart. But if that is too deep for you through the hips, Just keep your feet parallel, Hip-width distance apart. Fold down into this Uttanasana. Inhale. Bring your hands up to your shins. Halfway lift. So we'll roll our shoulders back. This is Ardha Uttanasana. Some of us might be able to keep our hands on the floor. We'll do that as we move deeper into our vinyasa. But for a moment, Breathe here. Feel this lift in the center. Reach your arms apart like an airplane, Keeping the strong. . . Hold at the center of the body. And then reach all the way up to the sky And bring your arms by your side for Samastitihi. And we'll take Sura Namaskara A three times for Sura Namaskara A to get our body really warm and to connect that breath with the movement. So here we go. Inhale, Reach your arms up overhead. Exhale, Swan dive forward. Maybe you can touch the floor, But maybe you can't. Just let your hands hang or press them against your legs somewhere. Inhale look up halfway lift my hands can stay on the ground some of you might have your hands on your shin Exhale hands down first one. Let's just step back to our plank And we'll take chaturanga. Again, You can drop your knees in this hold. Inhale, Slide on the tops of the feet. Press your chest forward and through. Urva Mukha Svanasana. Exhale, Roll back through your toes, Drop your heels back down. Adam Kasvanasana. We did that one nice and slow just to get used to the sequence. So the next two will pick up the pace just a little bit. Bend your knees, Look forward. Inhale, Step up to the hands. Exhale, Fold deeply down into your legs. Inhale reverse swan dive reach up to the sky Exhale, Samasthiti. Good, Let's pick up the pace just a little. Inhale, Lift. Exhale, Swan dive forward, Uttanasana. Inhale, Look up halfway, Lift Ardha Uttanasana. Exhale, Hands down. Step or hop back to plank. Take chaturanga. Feel free to drop to your knees. Inhale, Urva Mukha Svanasana. Exhale, Adho Mukha Svanasana. Relax. Pay attention to your breath. If your breath ever feels like it's getting a little out of control, Then drop into a child's pose again. Maybe return, Reset just a little bit. Bend your knees, Look forward, Inhale step, Or you can hop. Up to your hands. Exhale fold into your legs Uttanasana Inhale, Urva Hastasana as you reach to the sky. Exhale samasthiti good one more for now inhale lift Exhale, Swan dive forward, Uttanasana. Inhale, Ardha Uttanasana, Halfway lift. Exhale, Step or hop back, Chaturanga Dandasana. Inhale, Urvamukha Svanasana. Exhale. Atomakasvanasana, Downward Facing Dog. Nicely done. Let's come forward to plank. Shift our right hand to the middle of the mat then roll yourself on to the right side So option to be on the pinky edge of your foot as you see me now if that's too much Drop down onto that right knee. And this is a really great variation. So take whichever way is best for you. You can keep your hand on your hip like I'm doing. You can reach your arm up to the sky. Look down if you have the balance make sure your shoulder your wrist and your elbow is stacked on top of each other and we can feel this tight squeeze in our obliques Inhale. Exhale, Release the hand to the floor. Let's shift. Bring your left hands to the middle. Roll to the left pinky edge or you can drop down onto your knee again. That's perfectly fine. And feel this hold. Nice and strong through the center. At our oblique. Good. Inhale. Exhale, Bring your hands down, Press back. Atta Mukha Svanasana, Feel yourself equally pressing back through both shoulders. Bend your knees, Look forward. Inhale, Step or hop up to the hands. Exhale, Fold into your legs. Inhale, Reverse one, Dive, Reach up. Exhale, Samasthiti. Good let's take sira namaskara b just two of these bend your knees inhale lift to utkatasana Now you want to make sure that you're lifting through the center of your body so you're not putting too much strain on your back. Inhale. Exhale, Fold forward, Straightening out your legs as you go down. Feel that length in the back of the knees. This next part we know well. Inhale, Look up. Ardha Uttanasana. Exhale, Hands down. Step or hop back. Chaturanga Dandasana. Inhale, Urvamukha Svanasana. Exhale, Atamukha Svanasana. Now this part is a change. Inhale, Step the right foot forward and drop your left heel down to the floor. Raise up. Virabandrasana A. Let's pause here for just a breath, Really strong and stable in our feet. Inhale. Exhale bring your hands back down step your right foot back if you want to you can hover it I will take chaturanga. Inhale, Urvamukha Svanasana. Exhale, Adhemakasvanasana. Good. Left side. Inhale. Left foot forward. Right heel swings down. Connect to the floor there. Raise up. Virabandrasana A. Take that extra breath right here. Inhale. Exhale hands come back down step your left foot back you can hover it or put it down your choice chaturanga Inhale, Urva Mukha Svanasana. Exhale, Atamukha Svanasana. Good. Now that sequence is a little bit more powerful, A little bit more up and down. Your breath might start to be a little deeper. You can hear me. Breathing a little deeper. Slow it down. Child's pose if you need to, Huh? Let's bend our knees, Look forward. Inhale, Stepper, Hop up to the hands. Exhale, Fold into the Uttanasana. Inhale bend your knees come through Utkatasana Exhale, Straighten up. Samasthiti. Good. One more time. Hopefully you're feeling real warm by now. We'll just keep that going. Here we go. Inhale, Bend and lift. Utkatasana. Exhale, Fold forward. Uttanasana. We're going to add a little thing in here. Bakasana. It's an arm balance. You can try it if you want. So, See what you can do. Bend your knees. Take your hands down to the floor. And see if you can bring your knees right up high onto your forearms. And then shift your weight forward. Maybe you'll pull one foot off. Maybe you'll pull both feet off. And you're hovering. In this position. Now this is not what you want to be doing this day. And just stay here, Right? Stay in this Bhutanasana, And that's great. Let's try it one more time. Go back into it. Maybe you're already in it. I'll get back into it. Good. Now from here, We're going to shoot our legs out to our plank. Take a breath, Inhale. Exhale, Shoot it out, And chaturanga. Whoo! Inhale Urva Mukha Svanasana Exhale. Adhamukhasvanasana. Good job. Let's keep going with our vinyasa. Inhale right foot forward left heel down Raise up. Virabandrasana A. Just going to give ourselves a breath right here. Inhale. Exhale, Hands down. Step your right foot back. Option to hover it. Always an option. Chaturanga. Inhale urvamukha svanasana Exhale. Atamukasvanasana, Left side. Inhale, Left foot forward. Right heel down. Raise up. Virabandrasana A. Hold just a breath. Inhale. Exhale, Hands down. Step the left foot back. Feel free to hover it. Chaturanga. Inhale urvamukha svanasana Exhale, Atamukha Svanasana. Nicely done. Good job. Let's move on to some of our standing poses. We're going to put them together in a vinyasa flow. So lift your right leg up and back behind you. Inhale. Exhale bring it forward in between your hands this time spin your right left heel So it is heel lined up with the arch of your foot Windmill your arm around. And we are in Virabhendrasana B, Warrior 2. Look down. Make sure the knee is stacked right on top of your ankle so you've got good alignment and you're not putting too much pressure on that knee. Nice and open through the chest. If you feel like your arms are tight today, You can turn your palms upward facing the sky so that you release a little shoulder pressure. Good. Now let's move into Parsvakonasana. You can take your right forearm to your thigh. And reach your left arm overhead. You can reach your right arm to the floor. There's an option. Here's a way that you might be able to use a block. Place the block on the floor by the pinky toe side. And extend that arm. So three really great options. And we can start to feel this right hip. We're putting lots of good pressure on that hip and enjoying such a nice. . . Beautiful link through the torso and the rib cage. Nicely done Inhale, Lift up. For a moment, Let's just straighten our knee. Take your hands behind you. Clasp them together. Press into the fingers so our shoulders roll back and our throat opens and our gaze goes up. Exhale, Re-bend that right knee. Move forward toward your right leg and pull your arms overhead. So this is Humble Warrior. We're bowing toward our leg and feeling the hip, Feeling the low back and our upper back. Just make sure your neck stays so nice and loose. Inhale, Lift all the way up. Again, Straightening our right leg. Exhale, Release our arms. Inhale, Let's move to trikonasana. Exhale, Reach down. Take your hand down your leg. If you've got your block right here, You can move it to the big toe side of your foot. And we've got this nice beautiful pull open through the chest. And shoulder. If the block seems too easy for you, Let it go. Reach down for your foot. Traditionally, It's to grab the big toe. Wrap your index finger and thumb around your big toe. Take one more breath here. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale, Lift up. Nicely done. Exhale, Take your hands to your hips, Where we will guide them, Guide our feet, So that our feet are now pointing straight forward, Both feet. And we can move into Parsva Uttanasana. Bring your arms behind you. You can bring your fists together. Grab your forearms or come to reverse prayer. Look up, Inhale. Exhale fold forward over your straight right leg If you keep your hips going directly back behind, Shifting back, Then you'll feel your hamstring, You'll feel your glute. Primarily on that right side, Of course. And we'll send our gaze between our legs so that we'll really relax our neck down there. Beautiful position here. Feels so nice. To stretch out the legs. One more breath. Inhale. Exhale. Gently lift up. Good. Bend your right knee again release your arms reach up virabandrasana a inhale we're just transitioning now Exhale, Bring your hands back down. Extend your right leg up and back behind you for three-legged downward defacing dog. Feel free to stay right here if you want. Maybe you'll bend your knee. Start opening up that hip a little bit. Maybe your right foot will fall to the floor on the left side, Flipping you over. Into wild things. Beautiful chest opener. Beautiful reach. One more breath. Inhale. Exhale, Bring it back around. We'll just set that right foot down. And return to Adamukha Svanasana. Nicely done. Let's try all of that on the left side. So inhale, Lift your left leg up and back behind you. Exhale, Bring it through. Spin the left heel to the floor. Windmill your arms up. And around Tavira Bandhasana B. I'm going to change sides so that I can see you. Just if you do the same, Make sure that your left knee is now bent. Send your gaze over that left hand. Maybe turn your palms to the sky. We're priming up this left hip making sure that it's going to open up and give us a nice sensation for our day Remember to look at the alignment knee stacks on top of ankles so you're not putting too much pressure on your knee. And let's deep into parts of the konasana. So left forearm to the thigh. Right arm pulls overhead. Or you can reach your hands down for that block. Or your hand can be on the floor by the pinky toe side of your foot. Just feel that good pressure into the left hip, The balance of the length of the torso. On that right side. Love that connection. Beautiful. Inhale, Lift up. Let's straighten the leg for a moment. We're giving it a break. Take your hands behind you. Class them together. Press into your fingertips. Look up inhale Exhale, Re-bend your left knee. Fold down toward that left side and pull your arms away from your back. Second time we're in this position, At least for our shoulders. Maybe it seems easier this time. Maybe it doesn't. That's okay. Just notice. Good. Now inhale, Come all the way up. Let's release our hands. Straighten out our knees. I've gotten a little wide. I'm going to. . . I'm going to straighten up. Inhale. Take trikonasana. Exhale. Reach down. If you're using your block, Bring it to the big toe side of your foot. If the block is too easy for you, You can be traditional index finger and thumb wrapped around that big toe. Send your gaze up if you feel like you have your balance. If you're a little tender with your balance, Then just look down. Plus, That's a little bit gentler on the neck. So you get to decide, Right? We always get to decide. Inhale lift all the way up nicely done exhale hands to your hips so that we're guiding our feet parallel to the top of our space here with the left leg forward parsva uttanasana fists together grab forearms come to reverse prayer Inhale, Look up. Exhale fold forward hips guide directly back So we can feel that nice length. Along the left hamstring. Cass. Perhaps even your glute there. These stranding poses are so great because they require our muscles to work really hard to hold us up. But yet as we fold, We're stretching them. We're lengthening them. Such a great combination. One more breath. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. As we come up, Let's release our hands. Exhale bend the left knee Inhale, Reach your arms back up. We're in Virabhendrasana A, Transitioning down to the floor. Exhale, Take our hands down. Extend the right sorry left leg lift it up and back behind you inhale Maybe you'll stay here. Maybe you'll bend your knee, Start to open up your hip. Maybe you'll let your foot. Come to the floor. And flip open. Too wild thing. Nice backbend. Opening up of the chest. Inhale. Exhale bring it back around good job and press back to Atamakasvanasana. I like to sigh out my mouth every once in a while. Release a little pent up energy. Bend your knees, Look forward. Inhale, Step or hop up to the hands. Exhale fold in. I'm going to face you. We're going to twist a little bit here. So let's bend our knees and return to Utkatasana Chair Pose. Bring your hands to heart center and guide the right elbow to that left side. So press into your leg and then push with your elbow. Open up. The shoulder, The left shoulder. Feel free to open your arms if you want to go a little deeper here. A great choice Inhale. Exhale, Bring your hands to heart center. Let's bring our hands to the floor and just straighten up our knees. Give our legs a little break for just a breath. Inhale. Exhale. Good. Now bend your knees again. Come back up to Utkatasana. We've got one more side, Don't we? Pull your hands to heart center and guide the left elbow to the right side. Press into the leg. Pull that right shoulder to the sky. Maybe open up your arms. Feel that nice squeeze through the back. Inhale. Exhale back to the center and let's straighten up our knees and fold forward. But now we should be really warm. So let's step our feet hip width distance apart. And if you are able to, Wrap your index finger and thumb around your big toe for Patagustasana. If that doesn't work for you. Hands on a block or even just hands behind your legs. So do something where you can hold on and use your biceps to pull your torso toward your legs. Just relax your neck down there. We can feel such great length through the back. Hamstrings, Hips, Spine. One more breath. Inhale. Exhale. We're going to go one step deeper to padahastasana. Inhale, Look up. Exhale bend your knees so that you can take your hands under your feet some of us will just get our fingertips under our feet Some of us can get the whole hand. Now you can either keep your knees bent, Which feels nice on the back. Or you can straighten your knees, Which is going to give you a deeper pull through the hamstrings. Either way, Choose your way. It's all good. One more breath here. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale, Look up and remove your hands from your waist. From your feet, Exhale, Bring them to your waist. Inhale, Lift up. Nicely done. Exhale, Samasthiti. Beautiful. Let's balance with Vrakasana, Tree pose. So shift your weight to your right side and pull your left foot up your leg as high as you can go. Bring your hands to heart center. We're going to feel like we're growing through the right hip here. Pulling our pelvis under opening up through that knee. Hands can start at heart center. Feel free to raise them up if that is in your practice. Focus on something that's not moving, Something that you can keep your mind's eye centered on. And just focus your breath. Balancing poses use concentration, They use core strength, They use ankle strength So many good things here. Inhale. Exhale, Bring your hands back to heart center. Let's release our foot. Shift over to the left. Pull that right leg up this is my weaker side i'm going to lower my foot just a little bit sometimes we have one side that's stronger than the other I am working to get them more balanced. Keep your hands at heart center if you want. Maybe reaching them up if you want. Feel that lift. Feel the strength in your core pulling in through the center of your body. Good. Whew. One more breath. Side is a struggle for me. Inhale. Exhale. Bring it back together. Let's take a vinyasa. Sometimes when we balance, We forget to breathe. So let's breathe together. Here we go. Sierra Namaskara A. Inhale, Lift. Exhale. I'm gonna sigh it out. Inhale look up halfway lift Exhale, Hands down. Stepper, Hop back. Chaturanga. Inhale, Urva Mukha Svanasana. Exhale. Atamakasvanasana. Heels drop down. Relax your neck. Relax your gaze. Great job. Let's bend our knees and come to sit. So you can hop through, You can walk your legs around, You can crawl, However you get there. Let's try, If you want to with me, Try hopping through. Come onto your hands and bring them to the edges of your mat. Then lift up onto your toes. So you're in a nice high pike here. Bend your knees. Take a little tuck. And swing your legs through. We can try that again in a moment if we'd like. So let's grab our straps. If you have one, So you can take Pashimottanasana. Our body is now very warm. All of our muscles are warm so we can get a nice deep stretch for our body. So if you're using a strap today, You take it around your feet. This is just in case you're not able to reach your toes. We've got the strap to give us a few extra inches. Take a breath. Inhale. Exhale walk your way forward if you find that you can touch your toes then you don't need the strap you can wrap index finger around big toe or your hands around your feet just depending on how deep you can go Let's really use our Uddiyana Bandha. Inhale, Pull in through the navel lock. Exhale, Fold back down. We're just going to breathe and hold. In Ashtanga, We have a balance between moving between each pose. That's the vinyasa part. And the hold. And that's to allow our body to relax and to get deep. Into each pose. One more breath. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale, Lift up. We're gonna set the strap off to the side for a moment. Just keep it close. Take your hands behind you. Fingertips face your hips. Point your toes. This is Purva Uttanasana. Option A is just to straighten your arms, Pressing your chest forward and letting your head lift to the sky. Option b is to lift onto the hand so that we're feeling the back body strengthening and that deep opening through the chest. Nice job. Feel that lift balancing out our strength. All of our forward bends, We need the strength of the back body too. Inhale. Exhale, Come on down. Nicely done. Let's pull our knees into our chest. Inhale we're doing a vinyasa from the floor just so you know Exhale, Come forward. Hands down. Step, Hop, Or walk back to our plank. And let's take Chaturanga. Inhale urvamukhasvanasana Exhale. Aramukasvanasana. Now we can try that lift through again if we want. So take your hands to the edges of the mat again. Lift onto your toes. Walk forward just a little bit. We will lift through and swing our legs down and end up on our back. Okay? So bend your knees. Pull in, Inhale. Exhale, Keep going. To the floor. And we're ready to begin. Satyubandha Sarvangasana. Urva danurasana so two different options for us today three different bridge pose variations So. Before we start we should feel the curve of our spine flat on the floor adjust your hips a little bit tilt your pelvis up just a little bit And then lower it back down so that curve of the spine connects. That's a good rest position there. From the base of the spine, Roll up one vertebra at a time. And we'll take our hands underneath, Clasp them together. And see if we can shimmy toward the edges of our shoulders. So we're getting nice and high. On those shoulders. Really opening up our chest space. Again, Like I was saying, Balancing our energy. We did a lot of forward folds. Ashtanga does a lot of forward folds. So we need to have just as many back bends. So that our body remains strong. And we can move the way we want. Inhale. Exhale, Let's release our hands and we'll roll down. As you roll down, Connect that curve of the spine to the floor. Nicely done. We're going to try that again. If you're feeling like you want to be gentle today, You could take a block underneath your hips. Just elevate on the hips and hang out there that feels really great So feel free to modify if you'd like. Good. Then, So either way, Let's go up again. Maybe you're on a block. Maybe you are following me, Clasping hands underneath. Second time. We can feel our strength building. We can feel how much strength we already have. Sometimes we don't give ourselves credit for all the strength that we do have. Take one more breath. Inhale. Exhale. Release your hands. Roll down. Rest. Good. Now last one, If you feel like doing wheel pose, Urbha Janurasana, I'll talk you through it. If this pose is not for you, Even if you get halfway through and decide that it's not for you, Just go back to the bridge pose, Grab your block, Elevate your hips, Yeah? So take your hands back and your fingertips are facing your shoulders. Then as we press into our hands and feet, We're going to push our chest forward. So press up. And then go forward. Definitely a strength building pose here. We can definitely feel that stretch through the front of our body, Through those abdominals, Shoulders, Chest. Love it. If you need to come down, Come down. Don't wait for me. I'm just giving. . . Those Ashtanga warriors out there enough time to really enjoy the post. Take a breath. Inhale. Exhale come down tuck your chin as you come down Nicely done. We made it. Let's pull our knees into our chest This is going to feel nice now, Pressing that curve of the spine into the floor. I like to do a little rocking. You can tell we've worked hard already. We're almost done, But we're not quite. We're going to keep our energy for a little bit longer. Now take your hands underneath your hips to give you a little bracing and extend the legs up to the sky. This is a really gentle position here. If you feel like you have a lot of hamstring tension, You could use your strap again. Placing your feet in your strap. That'll take some of the tension off the hamstrings and not have to work so hard in your abdominals to hold the legs in place. So this is option A, Really great option. If you feel like doing a little more with me today, Then follow me through a shoulder stand sequence. Starting with halasana, Plow pose. So we're going to pull our feet overhead. And bring the toes toward the floor. Now your toes don't have to touch, But some of you might. And then that's great. Do what you can. We always just do what we can. This is such a great pose to bring blood flow into our forehead. You can feel it right away into your sinuses. Your senses. Let's support our back with our hands. And lift up. And walk your hands. Up your back. And you'll find yourself in shoulder stand. Anybody can join in this shoulder stand if you're wanting to give it a try. Go ahead. Or you can stay with your hips on the ground. Always an option. Of course. So we're trying to take the bend out of our waist. Trying to squeeze our elbows toward each other. And inversion poses do a lot of good for our metabolism. Our digestion, They flip the blood flow the other way. So it kind of speeds everything up. And then you can feel all this good blood flow into the head. That's going to give us good clarity of mind and focus. Throughout our day. Take one more breath here. Inhale. Exhale. Let's guide our legs back down to that plow pose. So with control, Using your abdominals. On the way down See if you can make contact with the floor. Then release your hands. And let's roll the rest of the way. Now those of us who are in. On the hips on the floor right about here you can join. Let's slowly lower our legs. I'm going to put my hands just kind of under my hips for a little support. Slowly lower down. Down down. We made it to the ground. Release your hands. Now we need to open our chest and our throat from all of that squeezing that we just did. So lift onto your elbows, Pull your chest forward. And take the top of the head to the floor If your head doesn't quite touch it probably means that your elbows are too bent So see if you can straighten your elbows a little bit more and try it again If you want to feel a little more abdominals you can lift the legs. And let them hover. You can even take your hands and press them together. This is Uttanaparasana. Take one more breath. Inhale. Exhale. And lower down. Good strong hold. Nicely done. Let's take it easy. Reach down, Grab the arches of your feet, And move into a happy baby. Oh, This feels good about now. So much room for breath. And you can just Play around on those hips and on that sacrum. If it's hard to grab your ankles, Grab your knees. Either way, It's great. We do what we can, Huh? We always just do what we can. Good. You've worked really hard. This has been a great class. Let's finish off with a gentle spinal twist. To ease any last remaining tension that we might have in our body. So let's pull our knees into our chest. And take our arms out to a T. I like to place my palms facing upward. So the shoulders relax nicely. Let's just drop the legs down to the right side. You can use your hand if you want to put a little pressure on that leg. Then I would turn my gaze. To the opposite arm. So we've got a little bit of neck twist. We've got opening through the chest We've got. . . Pulling gently through our hips and into our low back. And just feel your breath starting to relax Like I said, You've worked hard. Now it's time to start moving into the place where we can feel like we can rest. Called Shavasana. Rest from our labors and take in all of the good work that you've done. This twist is starting. Starting that process of easing out any last remaining tension. Take one more breath. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale bring your legs back to the middle. Let's lower them all the way down to the floor on the other side Again, We can use our hand on our leg if you feel like it. That's your choice. And gaze over that opposite arm that I'm waving here. And see if you can let go of any last remaining tension. We've been holding our body. We've been holding our energy kind of in a tight. A tight bound. So now we want to let it go. We want to ease it. Take one more deep breath. Inhale. Exhale. Bring your legs back into the middle. And extend them out one leg to each edge of your mat. Take your arms by your side, Palms facing up. And begin to sink into your Shavasana. I'm gonna leave you here. On your own I will wake you up when it's time. So just allow your mind to float your body to grow heavy and relaxed and and take in all of the good work that you've done Start to wake yourself up. Rotate through your wrist. And your ankles. Point and flex your feet. Stretch your arms overhead to lengthen through the entire body roll over onto one side in fetal pose which signifies a reset, A new beginning, Starting over. Let's press up to a comfortable seated position. And bring our hands to Anjali Mudra, Heart Center. And we'll finish off our Ashtanga-inspired practice with this quote. For breath is life. And if you breathe well, You will live long on the earth. Thank you so much for your practice today. Namaste.