Panda Guard Inversions: 81-Min Flexibility & Core Class

And breathing just steadily through the nose. And then you can grab your belt. Just place your left foot down, right foot up, and bring the belt to the ball of your right foot. Just push the leg into the belt and here you will notice if your foot is way in front of your hip, then you just bend the knee and pull the leg so the ankle is right above the hip.

And if it feels okay, you can also stretch out the left leg, push the left heel into the floor and you will also get a nice front of the hip stretch on the left leg. And just move the right leg around a little bit, a little bit maybe to the right, a little bit to the left. And notice if your leg is shaking. That means probably there's a lot of resistance right now.

So you try to work around that. Try not to bring your leg to a place where your body is going into full sparring mode. Trying to ease into the pose with as little resistance as you can. For some that means to move around, for some that means to breathe deeper, for some that means to back off a little bit, not try so hard.

So you're just learning, you're just learning about your body where you have less freedom right now. That doesn't mean that it's forever, you have to feel stiff or tight. You're working on it right now. So try to just breathe through the shaking or whatever that goes on in your leg.

And then take your belt in the right hand, stay heavy on your left side and bring the right leg over to the right. Also notice here if you need a slight bend in the knee or if you can straighten the leg. If it's too much you can bend the left knee, put the left foot down and use the weight of the left leg over to the left as an anchor if you feel like you're falling to the right. And breathe.

So this class will focus on flexibility but also like I said core connection and those two together will help you to be more safe in the inverted position. So you will have more control in the transition between poses and when you're able to do these things really slow that means you will of course be able to do them fast also. But it's not the other way around that if you can do something really fast then you can do it slow. So today is kind of like a test and you just work towards getting more both more flexible but also to be able to slow the movement down.

Okay bring the right leg up just switching legs, right foot down, left leg up, bring the left foot into your belt and again taking your time noticing where you need what you need to do with your left leg to be able to get the nice stretch. So if the leg is far in front of you bend the knee bring the ankle over the hip and move around, breathe, try not to tense up and fight your own leg. If it's available you can release the right leg down, push the right heel into the floor and just breathe. Maybe you feel like you're tensing up a lot just breathe out through your mouth, inhale through the nose and release through the mouth.

So if you've ever been nervous you know how you just without thinking about it tend to go to your breath. You will breathe all the way down into your belly and maybe you will sigh out or maybe you will if you will trying to get yourself excited or ready for a fight maybe you will breathe really fast. So we all know that our breathing affects how we feel so try to play around with your breath during this class if you feel like you're tensing up go back to your breath see what you can do. Okay bring the left leg out to the left belt in your left hand stay heavy on your right side.

If it's a lot you can bend your right knee put the right foot down use the weight of the right leg to balance out. So whenever you feel like you're stuck like your body is stuck and you're able not able to move the way you want to just try to breathe a little bit deeper relax a little bit more and try again be patient. It's the same as when you're a white belt you come into Jiu-Jitsu and you see someone who's been training hours for decades it's not like their bodies were just meant to do this they've been they've been spending a lot of time and dedicated themselves to be able to do what they do. It's the same with these poses and what we're doing it takes time so breathe be patient and give yourself time and bring the left leg up put your belt to the side and take your right ankle on the top of your left thigh don't use your hands just rest the hands down and start to circle the legs around so try to bring your right leg and shin as close as you can to your body over to the left and then bring the weight of the legs away from your body engage your core and bring them over to the right as close to your body as you can maybe try to lift the hips a little bit and over to the left and away from your body so you're using your core to hold yourself here try not to lift the low back away from the floor as the legs go away from your body and then the other way bring the right the legs to the right away from your body engage your core draw the ribs in and over to the left close to your body as you can one more round over to the right breathe over to the left pull everything in as close as you can try to lift your head your hips a little bit off the floor and release switching legs left ankle on top of the right thigh and start to move towards your the right first away from your body over to the left try to bring the left leg as close as you can to your own body and over to the right away from your body engage your core over to the left as close as you can lift the hips and move over to the left the other way away from your body so you're holding your legs with your core over to the right close to your body over to the left away from your body to the right and bring everything as close as you can try to lift the hips squeeze everything in and release okay so right leg up starting to warm up our core grab behind your right thigh or behind your right calf and then straighten your left leg right above the floor point your feet or just be active through the legs and start to lift yourself up and then lift up a little bit more and then we're going to move here so switching the legs without laying back down pull the left leg in and then ten nine just keep breathing to your nose eight seven six five four three two one and put the feet down hands behind your head and just allow the knees to go from side to side So some of what we're doing today is to create some movement and heat and also after that we will do some nice stretches to open up more and then we will see how the combined stretches and the strength and the heat will help us to move deeper.

Okay so curl up into a ball bring the knees together hands behind your thighs and just start to rock and roll you can curl up into a ball when you come up and try to be a ball when you roll back down. So right now you're using a little bit of momentum to just rock and roll warming up One more time and all the way up into a seat just cross your legs sit up tall take your right hand on the back of your head a little bit up on the back of your head and push the head up into the hand so you're active through the head your head is not just falling around so you're pushing actively into your hand and then you start to move your head around just feeling into your neck and try to find a sweet spot here. When you find that sweet spot maybe you want to stay and maybe add the left arm out to the left just notice how it feels one more deep breath and release left hand back of your head pushing the head actively into the hand and move around push the head into the hand and notice if you have anything going on in the neck, top of the shoulders and then when you find your sweet spot try to stay there maybe add the right arm out to the right one more breath and release taking the legs in front of you and switch to a little bit forward on your mat because we're going to to roll a little bit on the back of our mat so push down into the legs roll to the front of your hips so you're not sitting on your tailbone inhale push down lift up inhale exhale try to reach for your toes maybe you can't find your toes that's okay just plant your hands wherever you can and please know that I didn't start by being able to grab my feet I could barely reach my knees when I started yoga okay so just take your time to get there one more breath you're actively pushing through the legs and pushing through your hips to lift the spine and then inhale arms up and exhale squeeze everything together and start to roll down and then come on flat to your mat arms overhead so squeeze the legs together draw the ribs in and down and then start to lift your legs off the floor without using any momentum stop when your legs is over your hips and without using any momentum keep squeezing the legs together draw the navel in and start to bring your legs towards your hands or your feet towards your hands and see if they can reach maybe you have to cheat a little bit in the beginning and bend your knees breathe here squeeze everything together keep the legs as close as you can to your own body and your face and start to roll down let's try to keep everything as close as you can keep reaching the toes towards your hands and when the hips slowly come down you start to reach your arms for your toes at the same time you're drawing the legs away from you so you come up into what we call a boat pose and then lower the heels down rock forward inhale and exhale reaching for your toes or whatever you can find and if this was hard that's fine we just practice more so this like I said will reveal some of our limitations right so limitations are not bad so we're lowering down it's good that we know of them so we can do something about it arms overhead squeeze the legs engage your core and pick the legs off the floor breathe stop when the feet are over your hips without momentum start to bring your legs overhead and try to reach your toes or your hands or the floor take a breath notice how comfortable or uncomfortable you are right now and then keep the legs as close as you can to your body and start rolling the hips down so our goal here is to become super comfortable and being able to stop our body whenever we want not just falling back and forth when the hips are down inhale start to reach for your feet and rock up into boat pose exhale release the legs down inhale rock forward to your hips and fold over your legs one more time inhale up exhale lowering down inhale arms overhead exhale squeeze everything together feet above the hips inhale start to reach the legs for your hands and exhale slowly lowering the hips down inhale reach for your feet boat pose exhale feet down rock forward inhale exhale fold we're adding on inhale up exhale squeezing everything to the center inhale arms overhead squeeze the legs bring them over your hips and trying to bring the legs or the feet overhead and this time taking your right arm down by your right side bringing the right knee to the floor so we're basically rolling over our right shoulder pushing into your left hand placing both hands and left leg out to the left inhale up so your hips are over your right knee exhale side stretch to the left inhale up exhale right hand down side stretch to the right and inhale up one more time exhale left inhale up exhale right inhale up and exhale hands come down to the front of your mat bring your left foot to the outside of your left hand tuck your back toes lift your back knee inhale hips down gaze up chest up exhale try to straighten your front leg and inhale hips down maybe knee taps the floor exhale try to straighten your leg and fold a few more inhale and exhale inhale and exhale last one inhale this one exhale step the right foot to the outside of the right hand on your fingertips try to straighten your back maybe they're on your your shins and then start to bend your knees and squat down so chest up hips down exhale fold lift the hips drop the head inhale hips down squat down exhale fold two more inhale and exhale last one inhale and exhale squat all the way down and sit all the way down stretch your legs in front of you the last round now so squeeze everything together inhale up exhale folding over your legs inhale up exhale squeeze everything together inhale arms overhead exhale pick the legs up and keep engaged your core and start to draw your feet towards your hands left arm on down on your left side and bend your left knee place the left knee down roll over your left shoulder right leg out to the side inhale arms up and exhale side stretch to the right inhale arms up exhale to the left inhale one more round exhale to the right inhale up exhale to the left inhale back up exhale hands to the front of the mat right foot to the outside of the right hand and tuck your back toes inhale chest up and forward exhale try to straighten your right leg inhale hips down maybe knee down exhale fold just keep rolling with your breath inhale and exhale inhale and exhale last two inhale and exhale inhale come forward exhale left foot to the outside of the left hand inhale straighten your back you can toe heel your feet to hip width and exhale just fold over your legs and notice when you're folding if you're folding like this it doesn't necessarily mean that you're super tight it just means that you're trying to fold from from your back I used to do that too I used to take my arms overhead and fold from my back and then it's the floor is far away so try to bend your knees hinge from your hips so straighten your back and hinge from your hips and then try to drop your body down so it doesn't matter if you have your knees bent here or not and then maybe here from here you can see how it is to try to lift the hips up if it's too much to stay take breath and then rolling up the spine coming on to what we call coming into what we call mountain pose standing steady on your legs inhale arms overhead and then exhale again hinge from your hips forward and down inhale straighten your back to your shins or fingertips exhale hands to the floor just step back into a plank pose take a moment connect to your core connect to your legs especially inner thighs and then inhale lean slightly forward exhale bend your elbows close to your body and come all the way down flatten out your feet inhale to Cobra so roll the shoulders back draw the shoulder blades together and lift the chest exhale lower down push back up into our downward facing dog so hips up and back and again if you feel like you're rounding your back bend your knees and bring your hips up and from here maybe you start to push maybe one heel down and then the other drop your head relax your neck and then roll forward to all fours release the feet inhale right arm up exhale try to bring your right arm and shoulder as far as you can over to the left and then again inhale arms up or arm up exhale right arm and right shoulder as far as you can one more time inhale and an exhale right shoulder down you can come on to the top of your fingertips on your left hand and maybe if you want you can bring your left foot to your right hand and then you can bring you can grab your outside of your left foot and push the leg into your hand so you get some traction here if you want the left arm can go up or over or rest on the inside of your right eye and see if you can breathe here just as much as we're trying to get the physical body to be more ready for where situations like this we also want to work on be able to breathe in these situations so to keep good and steady breath so we can help to keep our mind calm when things get a little crazy release the left hand down push back up to all fours and then left arm up to the ceiling and then exhale draw the left hand and shoulder all as far as you can over to the right push down into the right arm inhale exhale through the left arm underneath your body as far as you can one more time inhale exhale this time you stay on your shoulder you can walk the right hand forward on your fingertips and stay or bring the right foot to your left hand push the side of the foot into your hand same time you're pulling the foot towards you breathe maybe right arm stretches to the ceiling or moves away from you or rests on your back or inside of your left eye notice if you feel stuck somewhere in your body if you can breathe freely if you can stay relaxed stay calm and then release push both hands down come back to all all fours and lift your hips up and back downward facing down take a deep breath through the nose maybe out through the mouth and then just bring your right foot one foot in front of the left and you can be on your fingertips on your knuckles whatever you need to get some height but try to push back into the legs and then bring the left foot a foot in front of your right lean a little bit forward and then push back into the legs breathe right foot one foot in front of the left lean forward first and then push slightly back into your legs one more time left foot forward lean a little bit forward and then back into your legs and both feet to the front of the mat either together or hip distance inhale and exhale drop the head fold inhale all the way up and exhale to your mountain pose okay inhale arms up exhale fold forward and down inhale half lift exhale plank pose take it inhale through the nose exhale through the nose low push inhale Cobra or upward facing dog just reach the chest up and forward exhale downward facing dog take a breath drop the head relax your neck and then inhale right leg out behind you try to keep the toes pointing down and walk your hands back towards your left foot take your left hand behind your left calf and see if you can start to pull yourself down towards your own left leg at the same time you reaching through the right leg try to not open the hips so engage the inner thighs breathe then both hands down walk the hands to the front of the mat inhale lift the right leg high exhale roll the knee forward place the right foot between the hands standing split on the right leg the right hand behind the right calf try to pull yourself down and towards your right leg same time try to have your toes pointing down on the left leg and lift the left heel towards the ceiling one more breath next inhale half lift exhale both feet to the top of the mat and forward fold inhale all the way up exhale right back down folding down starting to build some heat inhale half lift exhale either walk or take a soft float to the low push-up inhale Cobra or upward facing dog exhale downward facing dog take a breath relax your neck left leg up behind you walk the hands back to your right leg this time try to grab your right ankle with both hands either stay or start to drop your head down at the same whoops same time your head goes down your left leg goes up one more breath reach to your left heel hands come down walk the hands to the top of the mat inhale lift the left leg high exhale roll the knee forward step the foot down standing split on your left leg grab the left ankle here also you breathe through the nose and you can pull yourself down at the same time your right leg goes up breathe observe and learn next inhale hands down reach exhale forward fold inhale all the way up and exhale mountain pose so inhale arms overhead exhale clasp the hands behind your back roll the shoulders down lift the chest inhale bend the knees bring your torso towards your thighs drop the head if this is plenty you stay or maybe you start to straighten one leg and change sides go to center release the hands down grab your big toes with your peace fingers inhale half lift exhale elbows out to the side and start to pull yourself down towards the floor you can bend your knees or engage your thighs lift the knee have caps up and start to fold down just relax your neck your face steady breath steady body and next inhale half lift keep the grab on the right big toe left hand to your left hip bend the knees so you can straighten your back push into your left leg and start to bring your right knee up so here just want to find your balance on your left leg and see if you can start to straighten as much as you can your your right leg forward you can also grab your belt if you want to try to straighten it but you can't reach the toe push into the left leg reach through the crown of the head keep engaged to your core one more breath and then bring the right leg out to the right keep pushing into the left leg keep reach up through the crown of your head and your chest one more breath bring your right leg forward see if you can keep the leg but drop the hands one breath and release the right foot down inhale arms up exhale hands down make sure you have hip distance between the legs place the palms underneath the feet so you can again bend your knees inhale straight back exhale allow the elbows to draw out to the side lean into your feet and your hands and breathe maybe you start to straighten one leg then the other or maybe you stay with a little bend in the knees next inhale straighten the back grab the left big toe right hand to your hip bend the knees so you can straighten your back lean into your right foot and start to pick your left leg up so you find your balance and then slowly start to straighten your left leg notice if you're leaning back or forward try to stand with the right shoulder right whoop above your right hip and your right hip right above your right ankle breathe one last breath and then bringing the left leg out to the left keep pushing through the right leg keep reaching to the ceiling through your head and notice your breath can you stay calm can you breathe steady whoop what if you almost fall or fall what can you do one more breath and bring the left leg forward try to keep the leg up without holding with your hand and slowly release the foot down okay next heat building sequence inhale arms up exhale fold forward and down inhale half lift exhale low push up inhale Cobra or upward facing dog exhale downward facing dog right foot between the hands left heel down right knee stays over the right ankle inhale arms up warrior one exhale clasp the hands behind your back inhale lift the chest exhale call it the humble warrior so drop the head and bring the arms overhead try to keep your right knee moving same direction as your right toes and breathe next time you inhale put into the legs come back into your warrior one exhale straighten the right leg so you're in a wide pyramid pose come onto your back toes take a breath here where you pull the right hip back and try to stretch your chest forward and then draw your right foot back so the right foot is underneath your hip lean into your straight arms and you're going to change the legs straight legs so left leg behind the left hand right foot down right heel down keep the left knee above the left ankle inhale warrior one exhale clasp the hands inhale lift the chest exhale humble warrior drop the head relax the neck notice your left knee move the same direction as your left foot so this first round we're going to move slow and then we're going to pick up the pace the last two rounds to really create some heat in the body so next inhale back up warrior one exhale wide pyramid pose so straighten your left leg left hip moves back you're on your toes on the back foot and you reach forward through your chest and then pulling the left foot back so it's underneath your left hip lean into your arms and do what we call the switch leg handstand so right foot comes down left heel comes down inhale warrior one exhale clasp the hand inhale lift the chest exhale humble warrior inhale warrior one exhale wide pyramid pose take a full breath here pull the right foot back lean into your hands switch the legs inhale warrior one exhale clasp the hands inhale lift the chest exhale humble warrior inhale warrior one exhale wide pyramid pose take a full breath pull the left foot back lean into your arms switch legs inhale warrior one last round exhale humble warrior inhale lift the chest exhale head down inhale warrior one exhale wide pyramid pose take a full breath inhale pull the right foot back exhale switch legs inhale warrior one exhale clasp the hands inhale lift the chest exhale fall down inhale come back up warrior one exhale wide pyramid pose take a full breath inhale pull the left foot back and this time exhale into a low push-up where you switch the legs so jump up low push-up inhale cobra upward facing dog exhale downward facing dog moving into a wide-legged child's pose or turtle pose as Sebastian calls it big toes together knees out and try to wiggle your torso between your thighs and stay low rest your forehead down to the floor or into your forearms and breathe just notice the heat and hopefully starting to build in your body and that's you will start to feel hopefully more ready to go deeper so one deep breath through the nose and release through the mouth and come on back to downward facing dog drop your head relax your neck take a deep breath and then inhale right leg up exhale right knee to the outside of your right arm put your right foot down on the outside of the hand see if you can use both the arms to push the floor away around the back and try to be as light as you can on your right foot bring the left leg through the arms and sit down right foot to the inside of the left thigh rock forward to your hips inhale exhale again reach for your left foot or your ankle wherever you can grab if all this heat or you're already kind of flexible maybe you can grab your left foot for some it might be possible to take your right hand and grab your left wrist and then push your own ball of the foot into your wrists and use that to help you lengthen more and also to be to be slightly more active in the stretch okay pushing the foot into the side and ground down into the hips two more deep inhales and exhales through the nose and the next inhale come back up exhale release the legs working on our core a little bit more just scoot back on your mat this time because we're going to roll forward take your right shin in front of the left feet off the floor and use your shins to pull your feet close to your body lift the chest inhale exhale push the heels down push the hands down lift your hips up switch the legs left shin in front pull everything down inhale maybe without the heels exhale lift off the floor inhale right shin in front exhale with or without the heels lean forward into your arms use your core to pick yourself up last one left leg in front pull in exhale lift up and inhale roll back and exhale roll forward so you can have your hands in front of you you're on your ball of your feet you can have the heels off the floor you're in a tight little ball and you want to keep that shape bring your hands back knees on top of your upper arms lift the hips keep the torso close to your sides lean into your arms and see if you can pick the feet off the floor inhale here exhale low push up inhale cobra or upward facing dog exhale downward inhale left leg up exhale left knee to the outside of the left hand and left foot down to the outside of the hand push into your arms be light on your left foot see if you can bring the right leg through left foot to the inside of the right thigh inhale arms up exhale reach for the right ankle or whatever you can find here maybe the foot maybe the left hand can find the right wrist and you push the foot into your own hands and again just have to remind you that it won't come overnight this type or this kind of flexibility just like anything in this world that is worth getting it's not something that will just happen after a few tries you have to commit you have to dedicate some time and just try to be clear with yourself why you want something then it's easier to to arrange the time to actually do it one more deep breath here and inhale come up exhale release again scoot back on your mat same thing just going to roll back so take your left right shin in front of the left draw everything in roll back and if you can roll up push into the floor switch your legs left shin in front roll back and roll up you can use your feet to push down but use your core and arms to switch the legs roll back exhale push into the floor lift up switch the legs roll back and last time push into the floor with or without the feet lift up and now releasing the legs rolling back and try to roll straight into the arm balance into crow so feet down knees on the upper arms lean into your hands pick off the legs full focus inhale exhale low push up cobra or upward facing dog and downward facing dog drop your hand take a breath and then step the right foot behind the right hand straighten the leg like we did in pyramid pose you can be on your fingertips but bring the left heel down the right hand either on the outside of the right foot or on your right shin push the shin into the hand left arm up triangle pose so notice if you have your hand to the floor and you're kind of closing your chest down try to take the hand further up so you can turn your chest around keep the neck long keep the legs active and the breath steady one more breath and then use the left arm pull yourself up take all ten toes towards the left side of your mat inhale arms up exhale again notice how you fold if you're just folding from your back try to hinge from the hips and put your hands down so for some even though you're hinting from the hips the floor can be far away so if you feel like your back is not flat but rounding try to keep the hips where they are and walk the hands away from you and you stay here and you breathe but don't allow the hips to follow the arms keep the hips in line with the ankles if you are fine here your hands can easily find the floor then drop your head and walk your hands between your feet roll the shoulders back if the head easily touches the floor then you can walk your feet closer together so it's the floor is further away just explore do what you need let's stay active in the legs you're pushing down into the outside of the feet and you're slightly lifting up through the arch of the feet steady breath steady mind steady pose next inhale straight in the back exhale turn the right toes forward walk your hands to the inside of the right foot come on to the toes on your back foot so you can stay here or you can maybe take your left forearm down maybe both forearms down lizard fold pose stay here and breathe maybe you want to rock a little bit forward and back just stay active through your back leg one more deep breath come back onto your hands if you were on your forearms this time we're going to see if we can come through without using our right foot if that's just not your thing right now just use your right foot doesn't really matter it's just a fun fun way to see if you can do it without the foot so if you want to try release the right foot bring your left leg through so it's like a half sit through and you might want to use your belt let's see how it goes so first just take your right foot on your left bicep right arm around the right leg and just start to move your hip and move the leg around at the same time you're pushing into your left leg trying to sit up tall without if you're feeling like you're falling back it can help you to bend the left leg so just choose what is best for you right now okay you can use your belt or your left hand left hand to the outside of the right foot right hand underneath your right calf push the leg up but also bring your knee back so you're lifting the leg up pushing the knee back then when you can't go any further the right hand comes down next to your right hip and you see if we can push the leg into the hand and maybe gaze underneath the left arm if that was no go then you take your belts and you use it around your foot take it in your left hand and you give as much space as you need so again maybe it was better for you to bend the left knee and then maybe you straighten the leg just breathe remember we all have to start somewhere i did not start with straight legs so just breathe wherever you feel like you need to be right now so just remember we're doing this to hopefully feel freer in our bodies to not have so many limitations but we don't have to get it all at once so just be happy you're here practicing right now one more breath and then slowly release and see if you can come back again and roll all the way up onto your feet lift the hips take the hips a little feet a little bit wider than your hips and then starting to walk your hands behind your feet so this is i know really weird but bring your hands to the back of your calves and start to pull yourself back in between your legs again if this is no then you just stay and you try to bend and straighten your knees and get comfortable here if this is okay then you wiggle your legs on the top of your arms you put the hands behind your feet and you sit down on the on your upper arms you look up maybe you fall on your butt then you just come back up if you feel like you can you lift the legs off the floor the feet off the floor and you squeeze the feet together and lift the feet towards your own face and then again you find yourself here in this awkward pose can you breathe can you stay calm can you find space one more breath and then release the feet push the feet down inhale try to lengthen your back exhale vinyasa low push up go row upward facing dog and exhale downward facing dog take a breath drop your head relax your neck and then left foot to the outside no on the inside of the left hand and then right heel down so it's like the wide pyramid but with the heel down left hand on the outside of the left leg or on the shin push the scene into the hand if you go for the shin and right arm up triangle pose so again trying to bring your chest around trying to keep long in both sides keeping the neck long and free and breath steady through the nose breath one more deep breath next inhale pull yourself back up turn your toes to the right side of your mat push into the legs inhale arms up exhale fold down so again you notice if you're rounding the back walk your arms forward but keep your hips in line with your ankles if you are comfortable here you walk your hands further back keep your legs active maybe walk your arms through the legs and you breathe so if you feel trapped like if you feel like you're again shaking or anything alternate between straight legs and bent knees help yourself to relax and stay calm and stay calm one more breath next inhale lengthen the back exhale turn your toes on your left foot walk forward turn on your toes on your back foot lizard pose you can stay or come on down maybe to your right forearm or some maybe both if you want to rock back and forth you can go for that if not you just stay still just stay active in your back leg one more breath and come back onto your hands if you were all the way down so again you can try without the left foot as a support or you can push it down if you want to try try to bring the left foot off and draw the right leg through and sit all the way through your arm okay again taking our left leg this time onto our right bicep grabbing around the left leg and just starting to soothe our hips if you're noticing you're falling back you can try to bend the right leg it will help you maybe to lean slightly more forward if you can you have the legs straight and you push the leg down and you breathe in one more breath and then let's check out the other side right hand to the outside of the left foot left hand underneath the left calf pushing the leg up but also pulling the knee back so pulling the leg up pushing the knee back and then placing the left hand down see if you have anything here if you don't if this is your body screaming in protest don't push through you're only going to hurt yourself so use your belt to see if you can find anything more here more space so it can also help you to to cheat a little bit to lean forward into the right leg and maybe straighten and bend straighten and bend and just work your way through this phase where there's a lot of protesting from your own body so you're not going to push the body body into poses using force you're going to be smart so you're breathing you're testing you're moving and helping the body to trust you you're moving slow enough so you can stop the movement anytime you would want to you're taking control one more breath and then release one more roll now so scooting a little bit back on your mat rolling back this time stop with your feet over your hips bring the legs out to the side so wide legs arms overhead see if you can now again bring the legs towards the hands without using momentum and then grab your big toes with your peace fingers take a few breaths here can you feel comfortable here is there anything you can adjust to be more comfortable so and then rolling up into both posts with the wide leg variation so rolling down with the hips pushing the feet into the hands to find balance maybe with bent knees maybe with straight legs you can try that a couple of times rolling back rolling into the the wide-legged boat one more time take a breath so you can be smart and just release the legs down wide here if you want to try a traditional yoga transition it is that you push the heels forward you keep the chest lifted and you allow yourself to just fall into the floor like this if you don't want to try i totally understand inhale use the feet to pull the chest up exhale see if you maybe can fold forward and down if this is again no go hands behind your hips keep the spine long and then walk the hands closer and see if you can hold yourself leaning forward so you're not like this so used arms to lift you up and maybe push you without force forward but if you have the toes or the ankles you can slowly see if you can pull yourself down and breathe so you're active through the legs toes pulling back lifting up thighs pushing down maybe arms are on the inside just breathe can you be comfortable or can you practice become more comfortable baby steps one more deep breath in long breath out and coming back up if you're all the way down going to move a little deeper so again don't be discouraged if you are on the first step that's usually where we all start so if this is new to you just be again happy you are doing this and working on yourself so bending the knees toes and knees pointing slightly out to the side hands underneath your own legs so for some this is it you just try to walk the feet closer and you try to breathe here with the knees bent maybe you grab your own ankles or feet and slowly just breathe and pull yourself forward so maybe this is you this is perfect if you have more in you right now you feel open enough you again start to wiggle yourself underneath your own legs and then you take the arms out to the side and you come onto your heels and you start to slide the legs forward keep the legs active so toes pulling back for some maybe forehead down for some maybe shin down so again this is not something we have to do the first time we we try this class this is maybe something you want to work against just um towards to become more comfortable being in this tight little package right here this is actually the turtle pose in yoga so a little bit more intense for most people than the child's pose but just breathe wherever you are observe again where is your limitations right now right now and is it necessary for you to go as deep as i am right now maybe not so that's not the point to look like me in a pose or look like anybody else you just use these poses as tools to create more space and freedom one more breath um and wherever you are just slowly start to pull your legs back and walk your torso up hands behind you fingers pointing towards your hips lift the chest and just allow the knees to go a little bit from side to side so we're getting there just one more of those active poses to combine the all the stretching we've been doing with the connection to our core and center just to see how it can fit together in one pose and then some more curled up ball poses before we just stretch it out okay so rocking all the way up into a squat again again lifting the hips one more time taking the feet a little bit wider than our hips lengthening our back and starting to bend the knees and walk the hands behind the calves trying to put like you're putting putting on a back pack just trying to put on your legs over your shoulders and walk the heels in maybe reach the hands down pull the head head through your legs and then see if you can put the hands behind your heels sit back onto your arms gaze up this time see instead of crossing the ankles if you can straighten the legs and breathe here squeezing the legs into the arms keeping the chest lifted and breathe very weird situation you're in right now balancing on your arms with your legs in front of you so try to breathe try to stay calm one more breath and slowly put the legs down inhale half lift last vinyasa put the hands down plank pose all the way down cobra inhale and exhale pushing back downward facing dog so if you want to try to jump both legs through the arm arms at the same time you can if you want to try to jump straight into the what we call the arm pressure pose you can if you think you're not going to break your own elbows so it's jumping the legs around the arms but just don't do it if you think you're going to break your own elbows so save that for jiu-jitsu so if you're not sure you bend the knees and you bring the legs through the arms again this might not be necessary for you it just can be something fun to practice so we're going to roll back and bring our feet over our hips again take a breath and then cross the right chin or the right ankle in front of the left so knees are out to the side and then bring your hips up you can first use your arms to support your hips and have your weight in your shoulders and then see if you can bring your hands to your knees or lower thighs and push the hands into the legs and the legs into the hands so you have your hips over your shoulders use your core to find balance and again see if you can stay calm and breathe if you have open hips healthy knees and you have practiced lotus before this is also a place where you can do lotus pose so you just stay there or i'll show you the other way if you are up here you can take your right foot to your left hip crease and then your left foot to your right and you can do the same pose with lotus legs where you push the hands into the legs legs into the hands if not you just stay where you are with or without the lotus legs you bring the knees toward your face and you see if you can maybe hold your arms around your own legs maybe you clasp them together so wherever you are just stay and breathe breathe two more deep breaths trying to stay comfortable and calm finding your breath breath and then slowly release the legs and then slowly start to roll the hips down when the hips are down the feet can come down to the floor hip distance just take a moment take a breath in through the nose out through the mouth and then walk your feet a little closer towards your hips push into your legs start to roll the hip up and walk the shoulders underneath your chest maybe stay here maybe you clasp the hands together and walk the hands even further under your back push into both feet roll the inner thighs down and try to lengthen your tailbone forward and pull your chest toward your own face and breathe into the front body push the floor away breath two more deep breaths if you have the hands clasped release the hands roll all the way down and just allow the knees to go from side to side and then one last pose to just try to balance out all of that curling up we have another class just for balancing out inverted or the panda guard with just de-imposes to stretch the front body but for now you can have the hands underneath your lobe but for now you can have the hands underneath your low back palms facing down or actually underneath your your tailbone and hips and then straighten the leg forwards walk the elbows in lift the chest and start to reach the crown of the head back towards the floor engage the legs push down and breathe into the throat the chest breath one more deep breath breath and then push into the hands chin to chest and then slowly release all the way down take a moment if there is anything you would like to do maybe roll the head from side to side so just noticing how your body's feet feels after this class if all this is new to you might even feel a little sore after that's completely normal so we're we all have tightness and weaknesses in our bodies and we all have different proportions so for some of this some of us these poses come more easily than others and the same with back bends or hip openers different proportions things some things will be easier for you some things will be harder but the flexibility most of us can can work work a lot on like i said my my hamstrings were some of the tightest areas in my body when i started to practice yoga over good over a decade ago i could not touch my own toes barely touched my knees when you're ready just release your body into shavasana so drop the weight of the legs drop the weight of the arms relax the head relax the shoulders and fill up the body with a big inhale through the nose maybe try to hold the breath at the top and drop sip in a little bit more and release through the mouth good job now you just stay here in shavasana and observe your own efforts and how they're taking place in your body in your mind stay as long as you can or need here in shavasana