The Sage's Twist: Level One

Transcript

hi everyone welcome to class today our practice is called the sages twist today so sage is in the yoga tradition like a wise person so this pose that we're going to work on is named for the sage marichi the pose itself is called marichyasana and whenever you hear the sanskrit names of the yoga poses we always hear that word asana at the end like this pose i'm sitting in now we call sukhasana so every pose has that word in it like the word triangle pose would be trigonasana and that word means pose and then marici the first part of it is the name of the sage that this pose is named for so um was the sage and he is said to be the son of brahma so in the yoga mythologies brahma is the creator so in other words god so some people say that marichi was kind of like adam in the christian tradition so he's the son of brahma the creator so after the creator made the heavens and the earth he then created conceptualized seven sons so we also think of like our seven days of the week right um so of those seven sons one of those was marici marici literally means a ray of light whether it's from the sun or the moon and he was said to be the chief of the shining ones doesn't really say what that particular phrase means the shining ones but he went on to have his own children and his grandson became known as the sun god surya surya is where we get the name surya namaskar the sun salutations that we do so the grandson of marichi is the sun god and then it is said that his great grandson great said grandson is mamu his name's manu and manu is basically short for man so in other words it kind of shows this lineage of here comes manu then that is uh that is who we are right who man is so that's the sanskrit root that gave birth to the english word man but this pose is uh a twist so one leg is going to be out one leg is bent and we're going to do different variations of it in the practice today that's marichyasana name of the pose so what do we have to do to prepare our bodies to do the sages twist so we want to be wise about it we want to be smart about it and get the body prepared in ways that will help us have the optimal alignment so we can feel that kind of sense of being a ray of light in the pose so in this pose with one leg straight we've got to deal with hamstring here so if our hamstrings are tight it tends to pull us like this and we can't quite sit up straight when that hamstring is tight so if we warm that area up a little bit that might be able to help us set up taller in the bent leg side we've got a lot of knee flexion so be able to bend that knee we need a little bit of our hamstring strength to pull that in so we'll work on that a bit we also have the rotational component so the rotational component is the twist and a lot of us are pretty stiff in through here into our thoracic spine so we'll get a little bit warmed up in through the body and through the rib cage and the back and then another thing we need to do is make sure our backs are strong so to be able to sit up tall like this if our back muscles are weak we're going to want to sink downward so we got to be able to get our core strong our back strong so we can sit up nice and tall and support our spine so those are kind of the basic components of what we're going to work on today in this practice you will maybe want something to sit up on i've got a pillow here a set of blocks they're always helpful a strap is always helpful sometimes we might do some variations where we want uh have a strap nearby so have all those things nearby we might not get to them all but that way you have them if you have them available if you don't just a pillow from your sofa cushion even a bed pillow could work folded up blankets can work so grab some things and then we're going to come on to our backs when you come on your back you might wish to have a pillow under your head particularly if you tend to have more of a rounded upper back it'll feel more comfortable on your neck to have something underneath the back of your head we're going to start with our feet flat knees bent and just have a moment to settle into our bodies into our breath so starting to breathe in and out through your nose if you can and breathe down into your lower abdomen i'm going to ask you to do that for about a minute so keep going i'm going to get my earbuds in forgot to put them in sometime able to hear me better i hope okay so staying with it breathing into your belly letting your sacrum be heavy which is that triangular bone at the base of your spine let it drop let your rib cage release into the ground let your shoulder soften and then hands could either be at your side or on your belly and as you breathe in and out through your nose can you get that breath to come below your naval center so nice and low sometimes it requires us to slow down in order to get that breath to go deeper so if i do a quick breath it's going to maybe go more up into my chest but if i breathe slowly softly i'm going to be able to get that breath to go lower and deeper there are many benefits to being able to breathe in this more um calming way as opposed to breathing up in the chest which is very um let's say activating for our nervous system so i'm going to get the nervous system to calm down slow down let's take three more cycles here i always think it's really important when we begin a yoga practice not to jump right in to the practice from whatever we were doing so i consider this almost like our palette cleanser before we start our yoga practice to just clear things out prepare the mind prepare the body for this time on your mat with your mind your body your spirit your breath okay so from here on your next inhale we're going to come into a full body stretch so i'm going to take my pillow out for now if you want it again later you're welcome to grab it but this way you can get your arms overhead your legs out without anything in your way now we're going to interlace the palms flip them press the palms toward the wall behind you and then reach out long through your legs we're just going to try and get as much length through the side body as we can now as we do this notice if your ribcage pops off the ground can you slide your ribs under your hand on your back ribs if you can you need to let those ribs drop down so we're going to try our best not to flare the rib cage now slide out through your right leg see if you can get even longer through the right side of your body and then slide out through your left leg excuse me slide out to your left leg let that left leg even longer and then go side to side this is called up slip down slip some of you've done it with me before you feel like you're kind of stair stepping walking on one foot than the other and as my right leg lengthens my left leg gets a little shorter i'm just trying to tease out some length through the spine and the lower back so that when we come into our sages twist we have a nice long spine okay we're going to release and bring the right knee into the chest and let's just hold it there for a moment and flex your foot and keep holding that knee into the chest the opposite leg is going to extend long reach through your heel and send that thigh into the ground we're going to add a little resistance so take an inhale as you exhale press your right shin into your hands and at the same time pull with your hands just feel that little bit of work activating keep your back ribs down don't pop them up to do that work all right release that and then stretch the leg up straight interlace your hands behind the back of your thigh and again adding resistance press your thigh into your hands and then pull with your hands at the same time without popping your ribs up and then release hug that knee back in keep it hugging in but now bring your hands down to your mat so i'm allowing the leg to be pulling in without the use of my hands so can we use the hip flexor muscle to pull that knee in and now reach down and hold the edges of your mat and you're going to pull with the hands pull towards your feet and extend through the crown of your head feel like you're lengthening through your spine keep pulling that knee into your chest and then let the shoulders be heavy don't pop the ribs one more breath and then release bring the hands onto the knee again hug it in and this time we're going to come across into a twist so bring the right leg over to the left side if there's any strain here stick one of your blocks i'll show that one of your blocks underneath your knee or your shin as a little bit of support those of you who are okay so i'm going to lose it now just let that leg drop over now to get a little bit more even in our twist pull your left shoulder blade a little to the left so that your chest really faces up toward the ceiling your right arm could be out to a t or you could drape it over your body if the shoulder is floating and you feel a lot of discomfort there definitely go for the supported version if it feels okay to get out now as you hold here can you let your right shoulder arm rib cage reach a little bit more to the right let your head roll to the right and come a little deeper into the twist all right head back to the center slowly bring that knee back in one more time hug it even yourself ouch if you need the pillow again you might be able to use it here and then let's switch sides so bring the left knee and right leg out straight and we'll start with just that knee hug with the resistance so right leg is straight foot is both feet are flexed and then we're going to pull that knee into the chest at the same time push your shin into your hands keep your back ribs long on the ground so don't pop them off the ground and then go ahead and straighten the leg interlace your hands behind the back of your thigh again adding resistance press your thigh into your hands hands pull on the thigh keeping the shoulders grounded so it adds a little bit of hamstring work which again we'll need on that straight leg to have that hamstring nice and open on the bent leg side we're going to be using that hamstring to bend the knee okay hug it back in again and this time we're going to let go and hold on to the mat so make sure you're even that you can get a hold of each side of your mat pull your hands towards your feet to lengthen your spine and then try to squeeze that knee into the chest without the help of your hands we're using the hip flexor to pull that knee in hold there one more breath and then we're going to release and hug the knee in again okay here comes the twist bring your hand to the outside of the left leg bring that leg over to the right remember you can always use a block to support your leg and then pull the right shoulder blade out to the right try to get your chest more facing the ceiling and then this left arm if it's floating it's not releasing drape it over your body if it is releasing and comfortable you could have it out to the side now we're going to let the left side of your rib cage shoulder arm and let your head turn as well drop a little bit more to the left so we get into the twist breathing into your belly for one more all right and now slowly releasing coming back hug back in one more time and then release adjust yourself come into your full body stretch again and then as you exhale we're going to bring the right knee in for a squeeze and now rhythmically inhale full body stretch exhale left knee into the chest and just go ahead and continue a few more cycles inhale we stretch exhale we draw in one more on each side now next round full body stretch and we're going to bring both of our knees in you could rock a little bit across your lower back if you like okay arms out to a t so if you have any props in your way you're going to need to move those bring your knees over your hips plant your back ribs down as soon as i press my back ribs down i feel a little bit of connection to my core here really root through your arms and then we're going to drop the knees over to one side until you get to be balancing on that hip pause and turn your head to the other direction and then inhale come up exhale to the other side so roll till you're on the hip you're balancing and then let the opposite arm head shoulder press inhale come up exhale maybe you'll go a little farther you can always just go right to that hip and then come up so we're using our core strength muscles our obliques here maybe a little intercostal let's go side to side and each time if you're able to go a little bit lower while keeping the opposite arm heavy into the ground now this next time we're going to see if we can come all the way over and if you can't do it like this you can just maybe rock your knees to the side and then you'll let those knees stay let me let the hand rest on the knees pull the left shoulder blade to the left all right so staying here for another moment we're going to change it up from here we're going to extend the bottom leg and see if you can hold that foot with your hands i'm going to move back a little bit so make sure you can see that so i'm going to hold the bottom foot if i can't reach my foot here's where you could use your belt so you'll hold that foot either with your belt around the foot or hold it with your hand now from here bring the other foot flat to the ground and the kneecap is going to point straight up again and you're going to shift a little bit so you can get that left hip out from under you a little bit so i'm holding my left leg if you're holding your right leg shift your right leg out from under you doesn't matter hold here another moment extend through that straight leg a bit more and then from here we're going to come back onto our side stack up the knees you can repeat that if you want or we're going to try and straighten both legs out on our side go ahead and then we're going to take the top arm open it up inhale and go into the twist it's a lot of twisting today so let your shoulder adjust you can pull that left shoulder through if you are um on your left side holding it there another breath both legs straight and that's too much you can also just keep them bent that's another option now we're going to bring that top arm back up on an inhale like you're going to touch the ceiling and then reach around and see if you can hold both feet if not use your strap and then we're going to tuck the head in between the arms push out through your feet through your legs and come into a side forward fold one more breath and then slowly release bend your knees and carefully make your way back to the starting point we're going to do that on the other side and i'm going to flip around so i make sure i'm still facing you guys so you're going to do that same sequence now to the other side so knees over the hips arms out to a t and we're going to just start to go side to side balance on the hip and each time you come back to the first side can you draw a little bit farther the opposite arm and shoulder are going to stay heavy into the ground time getting a little lower to the ground if that's appropriate if it's not then just stay going to one hip and don't go any farther the next time you come back to your first side let's come all the way over so if you can't drop this way with the feet in the air just keep your feet down and drop them over and then scoot your knees up towards your elbow so you have a little bit of a deeper twist okay so open up now scoot your left shoulder blade or sorry in this case your right shoulder blade a little to the right so if you are on an opposite side of me just kind of the direction your knees are pointing that shoulder blade is going to pull out from under you which will help get your chest a little more facing the ceiling all right we're going to come around inhale reach the arm up toward the ceiling and then come around to the side and we're going to straighten the bottom leg and see if you can hold that foot with your hand or if not you're going to use your strap and then the other leg is going to come foot flat knee facing the ceiling scoot your right hip out from under you and then you might let that leg lift up a little bit off the ground so you get a little more balanced here in your sacrum you can gradually let that leg drop back down a little bit hold here another breath and then we're going to come back this time if you can both legs are straight if not bend both knees that's fine too if you can both legs are straight and we're going to reach the top arm up on the inhale open it out into the twist pulling that bottom shoulder through to get more vertical or the chest more facing up toward the ceiling breathing in and out through your nose on your next exhale we're coming back to the side and see if you can hold both feet or if your knees are a little bent that's okay tuck your head in between your arms straighten your legs if you can here's where you would use your strap if you can't get your feet or bend your knees slowly release bend your knees come back to the center even yourself out and then let's bring the knees into the chest and a floor sequence we're going to rock a little bit side to side and then from here we'll roll to one side and come on up into a seated posture so we'll grab onto something to sit up on it so pillow or a folded blanket whatever you've got okay give me a chance to fix my hair it's always all over the place after the floor sequence okay so seated position cross leg sukhasana and we'll sit up tall like that ray of light sit bones are rooting down cage is lifting up crown of the head pressing up but let the outer shoulder arms space belly be soft so we want the structure of the length of the spine but not creating any unnecessary tension so whenever we do a twisting practice one of the most important things is to first find length so we inhale and lengthen and then on an exhale we would be twisting if we don't find that length first we're kind of shrunken down and then we try to twist doesn't feel so good on the vertebra so i'm going to create space between the vertebra imagine elongating cream space so really elongating the tissues to make space between the bones interlace your hands above your head flip your palms and reach up tall so we're going to let the sit bones really press into the ground and then reach the arms up notice if your rib cage has done the pop so no pop keep the ribs directly over your pelvis you'll notice that if you pop your ribs you're going to get really tight in your lower back you'll feel more tension in your back but here when you're even we're just going to feel that lengthening so a ray of light we're thinking of it's being very straight okay now keep the arms up release the palms to face in and we're going to take an inhale to reach tall as you exhale turn to your right come into a twist so bring your left hand to right knee right hand behind me and pause there so when we do a twist again we're inhaling to lengthen exhaling to twist but we're trying to use these side waist muscles give them like a squeeze here as if you're cinching in you want to zipper up something really tight so we're squeezing these side waist muscles as we are in the twist so inhale lengthen as you exhale squeeze in your side waist muscles and turn so rather than yanking with your hand there is a little bit of that but focus more on the muscular strength rather than the mechanical strength um to get you into that twist be aware of sensations in your lower back so if you get a little bit of compression there can you lift out of your lower back particularly your back ribs lift your back ribs away from your lower back breathe one more breath here into the lower abdomen and then to come out inhale to come out and that's important too because again we want that length so that we're not kind of scraping those vertebra against each other so we don't want that compression we want decompression okay let's switch our legs so the opposite leg is in the front we even ourselves out and we'll do the twist on the other side so feel even on your sit bones feel the strength of your spinal muscles and the crown of the head lifting you up and then let's inhale interlace the palms press the palms up as you root your sit bones down try not to pop your ribs get as tall as you can on the inhale as you exhale let's twist every inhalation we're lengthening upward as we exhale we're going to turn by using those side waist muscles to squeeze and breathe here like you're wringing out a wash rag in the center of your body there one more breath and then next inhalation lengthen and release and come back to the center okay lean back bring both feet flat and just hug your hands around your shins and lift up tall really press into your feet try to keep your spine long hold it here one more breath and then release so it's kind of part of the twist being with the feet flat and the spine long let's come into tabletop pose we're going to just do a little bit of more movement and we'll revisit at the end with a couple of different versions of our twist so come into table top pose all fours feel free to pad your knees with a blanket if you're on a hard surface and then we'll take a few rounds of cat cow so take an inhale exhale push through your palms drop your tailbone drop your head and come into cat pose as you inhale lift your gaze your chest your sit bones turn your elbow creases a little forward to open the chest and then exhale and round moving at your own pace let's do a few more so notice that we're slowing things down we don't want to rush through our yoga practice we do enough rushing in the rest of our lives so let the practice be a little more mindful so you can stay present for what you're feeling in your body we'll do two more cycles when we're not present it's when we tend to hurt ourselves because we're sort of bypassing our own sensation one more cycle come into tabletop pose take your knees apart move your hips back and we'll come into child's pose we'll stack up the hands underneath the forehead and just rest for a moment so i'm gonna ask you to take three more breaths where you are just letting your body release into the ground on your next inhalation let's come back up into tabletop pose and i'm going to start a little bit of standing work i'm going to have a shorter standing sequence today but let's take the hand slightly forward of the shoulders tuck the toes and we lift up into our first downward facing dog so in downward facing dog we're going to keep our knees a little bent lift our sit bones up create a lot of length in the spine push down through your finger pads and then press down into the heel of the hand and the finger pads at the same time spiral those inner elbow creases a little forward and sort of twist your hands into the ground without moving them so it's very isometric get the arm muscles to engage one more breath and then from here slowly begin to walk your feet toward your hands as you inhale we're bringing the hands up on the thighs halfway lift we want the spine pretty much parallel to the ground try not to lift your chin to look at me lower your chin and lengthen the back of your skull as you exhale fold forward over your legs getting into those hamstrings two more cycles inhale halfway lift lift your shoulder heads exhale fold forward one more time inhale halfway lift exhale fold forward inhale reach the arms all the way out and up and exhale release arms down at your side i'm going to do a couple of half sun salutations and then a couple of full sun salutations to continue to warm the body up so we'll stand in mountain pose nice and tall engage your legs zipper your low belly and lengthen the tailbone down take the shoulders back as you turn your palms forward and lift through the crown of your head very good okay inhale the arms reach up as you exhale slight bend in your knees as you fold forward keep a long spine as best you can inhale to halfway lift try not to look up keep the gaze down exhale fold forward you can give a little squeeze to your belly as you fold and then inhale rise up exhale draw your hands to your heart let's do that two more cycles inhale reach exhale fold inhale halfway lift exhale fold forward inhale rise up exhale hands to your heart one more time inhale reach exhale fold inhale halfway exhale fold forward inhale rise up exhale hands to your heart okay so we'll go through now uh two rounds of a full sun salutation you're welcome to modify as needed i'll cue you some modifications those of you a little more seasoned in your sun cells you can do it without the modifications so stand in your mountain pose neutralize pelvis arms at your side inhale arms reach exhale fold forward slight bend inhale to your halfway lift same start but now plant your hands step back to plank pose top of a push-up and you can stay in a high plank or drop your knees to the ground i'm going to show modifications today press your hands down corkscrew them open a little bit without lifting just a little isometric and then slowly lower all the way down tops of the feet flat shoulders back inhale lift up cobra pose exhale down press to all fours or right to your dog and then we'll meet in downward facing dog hold here for a breath lift the sit bones up and then when you're ready walk your feet to meet your hands inhale halfway lift exhale fold forward inhale reach the arms all the way up and exhale arms down at your side let's do that one more time through inhale reach [Music] exhale fold inhale halfway lift maybe a little bit faster this time but do what works for you step back plank pose drop your knees if you like lower down inhale cobra exhale downward facing dog to knees first or right up to your dog hold there another breath and then go ahead and either step or jump your feet forward if you like to jump forward inhale halfway lift exhale fold inhale rise all the way up and exhale hands to your heart good grab your blocks and set them at the top of your mat if you have them if you don't have them you can make do without but it will make it a little bit easier for you on your spine if we can have the blocks come back to mountain pose standing at attention for a breath on your next inhalation arms reach up as you exhale hands down to the blocks inhale to the halfway lift hands on the blocks and we're going to step the right foot to the back of the mat into a lunge now i've got to move the blocks back so they're under my shoulders drop down onto the back knee and then top uh the back foot can go flat or it can stay tucked whenever it feels more stable and better for you and then inhale reach your arms up interlace your palms like we did before and press them up notice if your ribs pop and keep their ribs over your pelvis hug around her hips in and keep pressing those palms up up up hold here another breath so lengthening before our twists and we're going to do a twist so from here release your hands back down to the blocks you can lower those blocks if it feels right for you you can also have hands on the ground and we're going to lift the back knee off the ground so now tuck your toes and lift that back knee up you can always keep it down if this is too much try to have your chest kind of parallel to the floor try not to be rounded in your back like this more of a neutral spine now my right hand is going to stay on the block which is right under my shoulder and then i'm going to take my left arm and open it into the twist as i exhale so begin here both hands on the blocks inhale reach your chest forward and then exhale open that arm up into a twist now we're going to stay here inhale reach that arm up higher and now as you exhale turn from your ribcage into the twist don't throw your arm back so much but turn and squeeze those side waist muscles that we worked on when we were in our seated twist one more breath and then go ahead as you exhale release that hand down maybe you want to put your blocks up higher again walk them forward and then a big step forward folding over your legs inhale reach the arms all the way up exhale hands to your heart and let's do that on the other side inhale arms reach exhale fold hands to blocks inhale lifting your chest step your left foot to the back of the mat move your blocks back in line with that front foot and then drop down onto your knee decide on your position for your back foot hands come up on your thigh lift the low belly and then circle the arms out and up trying to find a nice straight line interlace your palms and reach up be like that ray of light really reach for the sky with your arms and reach for the ground through your tailbone one more breath and then as you exhale hands down to the blocks and we're going to now tuck the back toes lift the back knee up pausing here hug your inner thighs in reach your chest forward and if you feel like it's available you might lower those blocks or bring hands to the floor some of this depends on body proportions how long is your leg compared to your arm we might need the blocks so it's not like it's a bad thing to use the blocks just use them if it feels good as you inhale reach your chest forward as you exhale right arm opens up into the twist now don't let the hips sway to the side keep the hip in now as you inhale reach higher as you exhale turn from your ribcage don't throw your arm back and then do that again inhale reach the top arm exhale turn your ribcage try to squeeze those side waist muscles also squeeze your inner thighs that'll keep your pelvis more neutral we won't want to twist there all right release hand down move your blocks up high again if you need to and then we're going to take a big step forward root into your front foot step forward fold over your legs inhale reach the arms all the way out and up and exhale release arms at your side okay set the blocks off to the side for a moment and back into mountain pose inhale reach the arms up exhale fold forward inhale halfway lift and step it back downward facing dog and we'll bring the knees down and just take a brief child's pose breathing into your lower back lower belly all right so from here we're going to come back to our downward facing dog walk your hands toward your feet hands to hips press into your feet knees are bent as you come up to stand and then we're going to come into a wide leg position it's our last standing pose and we're going to be coming down onto our ground some of you might want to have a block here and you're going to place them in the middle of your mat and step your feet apart wide i'm going to do about three three and a half feet and have your feet parallel to the sides of your mat into each other so they're not turning out not turning in too much maybe a tiny bit in more so than out root into your heels and then hands on your hips lift your chest neutralize your pelvis by lifting your belly and lengthening your tailbone on your next inhale arms out to the sides and overhead interlace your palms press the palms up be like that ray of light through your upper body nice and tall try not to flare the rib cage hold another breath really elongate your spine and then exhale bring your hands to your hips but try not to lose any of your height bend your knees a little bit keep the tall spine take an inhale as you exhale hinge at your hip creases and we're going to bring our hands down to the block if you've got a block you can also go right to the floor if you can easily reach the floor so i can easily reach the floor so i'm going to lower my block just to show it for you guys and i'm going to put right hand on the block left hand on the hip same concept we've been working on inhale reach your chest forward this time i'm going to send my inner thighs back my pelvic floor back and my sit bones back just so i feel more length in the low back and then as i exhale i'm going to turn push in your right hand turn towards your left side keep rooting into your feet keep pushing into the bottom hand turn from your rib cage and then if you like you're going to reach that opposite arm up toward the ceiling keep pushing into the bottom hand reaching through the top hand hold here another breath and then release bring your hand back down to the block put that hand center right hand onto the hip inhale extend through the spine center inner thighs back pelvic floor back and as you exhale start to turn turning to the right pushing through the left palm keep the left shoulder rolling back and try not to turn into your hips too much you don't have to fix them completely but move more from your rib cage and then the opposite arm might reach up if that's okay on your shoulder inhale reach that arm up as you exhale turn your rib cage open hold here one more breath and as you exhale fold forward over your legs now you can keep your hands on the blocks you can use two blocks or one block those of you who can hands to the floor bend the knees a little bit stick your sit bones up into the air like you're just gonna tip them up and exhale fold over your legs maybe hold your ankles or your big toes only if that feels stable otherwise hands both on the ground stretching the backs of the legs we can always keep a little bend in the knees but keep working your sit bones up and chest down if you've got ankles or big toes bend the elbows toward the sides one more breath try not to get all your weight back in the heels here a little more even and then hands back out under your shoulders come up to a straight spine and then heel toe the feet in bring hands to hips strike the heels down and press yourself all the way up to stand into your mountain pose just pause for a moment we've been inverted sometimes you can get a little light-headed a little dizzy so just give yourself a moment to adjust and then once comes to sit we're going to grab that um pillow that we were sitting on before and we'll get ready to do some variations of our sages twist okay so keep a block nearby we're going to use that in a moment and make sure you have something stable to sit on and first let's just take both legs out straight so we come into dandasana staff pose flex your feet spread your toes bring the heels of your hands into your hip creases and press those thighs into the ground to help you lift and lengthen through your spine shoulders back holding it here now this is challenging and you're sitting up a little higher on a prot i'm going to give you guys some options grab a blanket yoga blankets are great because they're a little less slippery but if you don't have a yoga blanket you could use something else you could even use a pillow put that underneath the backs of your knees and see if that helps you be able to sit up a little taller so you can press your legs into the blanket roll press your hands into your thighs shoulders back so those of you don't need it that's okay you don't have to have it so i'm looking to keep my lower back in as opposed to rounding out okay so keep that lower back drawing in without popping your ribs so that's the boundary okay if you're keeping the blanket you're going to move that blanket over so it's just under your left knee so i'll show the blanket that way those of you who want to use it know what to do with it if you don't want to use it that's fine so it's just under my left knee so i can bring my right leg in and bend it so now i'm getting a little closer to this position of the twist keep that blanket far enough to the side that you can now stick a block in between your bent knee and your straight knee and hug that block and that will keep you a little bit more kind of drawing to midline and then interlace your hands around your shin pull on your shin and let your chest lift up so this is kind of like the pose we did on our back when we're trying to bring that knee into your chest roll the shoulders back okay so from here use your left hand to hug onto your right knee and take your right arm and reach it up as you inhale try to touch the sky lift up as high as you can and as you exhale bring it onto the ground behind you and pause now inhale lengthen again reach up tall and as you exhale use your side waist muscles to bring you into that twist and then hold here every inhale be like that ray of light reach the crown of the head up reach your sit bones down and then squeeze the side waist muscles come into the twist think about your back shoulder roll it open so it's not popping forward keep that shoulder head back and then next inhale back to center and release so now we'll switch sides slide the blanket over to the other leg so it's just under the right knee left leg is going to be the bent leg and then you'll put your block in between so it's in your foot and your opposite knee and then hug your shin sit up tall so if i pull with my hands it helps bring the spine in and lifts me up taller you'll be on the tops of your sit bones inhale reach taller root your straight leg down and then as you exhale we're going to hold on to that chin and reach that opposite arm up good inhale now reach exhale bring that hand onto the ground behind you pause inhale again lengthen up as tall as you can be the ray of light and then turn squeeze your side waist muscles as you turn holding it here each inhale we're trying to create length each exhale we're squeezing those side waist muscles and then next inhale lengthen first and then unwind back to the starting point okay so we're going to switch out back to the side one we're going to increase it now so we're going to go a step further if you feel like that was enough you're going to repeat it and you'll notice that the more you repeat a pose the better it feels the more loose the tissues are the more we can get into the pose back to the block bending the right knee pin that block between your foot and your leg hold the shin inhale lift your chest shoulders back and then hold on to that shin next inhale reach that right arm up and take it behind you so starting the same way inhale lift tall exhale squeeze your side waist and turn this time let your left leg push forward a little bit and let your right hip pull back a little bit and you'll notice you can get a little bit more turned towards your right so this leg shooting forward this hip is shooting back so you're offsetting your hips a little bit but your pelvis is still kind of feeling very neutral okay next phase keep the right arm on the ground lift the left arm up this time inhale reach it up above and as you exhale see if you can hook your elbow past your knee now for some of us our arm bone is not quite long enough and then we feel like we gotta like round and struggle to get it we're not doing our yoga anymore once we're doing that we're just going out of ego we're trying to push ourselves so decide is this appropriate for me today if it's not stay here i'm still going to give you something else to add on those of you who can hook the elbow inhale lift the chest exhale turn left leg shoots forward right hip pulls back and then press elbow and knee into each other a bit breathing here trying to keep that low back in not rounding now inhale lengthen as you exhale turn your head to look forward so we're de-rotating the head looking over your left shoulder still hooking and then hold there for another breath as you do so keep turning your torso to the back and your head to the front so we get like a double spiral good now inhale release your arm lengthen the spine unwind it back to center and we'll swap out so we're going to move that blanket over to the other side block comes in between that's it okay and then flexing that right foot hug the shin sit up tall shoulders back holding on with your right hand inhale left arm up touch the ceiling bring it behind you inhale lift your chest exhale turn squeeze those side waist muscles staying there or inhale reach the right arm up exhale hook elbow past the knee keep that knee drawing in inhale lift exhale turn keep turning the ribcage to the left into the back and then turn your head to look forward good keep moving your ribcage back head forward elbow and knee connection one more breath lengthen the spine and then inhale release lengthen and release that leg out good okay so set the block and the blanket to the side we're going to try another version so let's take a moment in neutral in dandasana how's your spine feeling if it's too much we can take a break otherwise we're going to try another variation this time i'm going to go in a side view still sitting up on the prop and take your legs out in front of you so yours you can still be facing the same way i just want to be sideways because what i'm going to be doing is being able to hold on to the edges of the mat to help me get a little bit more into the twist so from here i'm going to bend that right knee again and cross it over this time do that cross the foot over so you create a little bind there hug your shin sit up nice and tall shoulders back and then from here holding on with your left hand inhale right arm up and take it down behind you now i'm going to scoop over a little bit more toward the left because i want to be able to hold the left edge of my mat and if you're too far away it's going to kind of really crank your shoulder so be all the way over to the left side so let's try that just realign okay so if you're not there be at the very edge of your mat all right so inhale right arm up come into the twist again lift your chest option if you want to go for that bind i'm going to skip it this time so i can concentrate on talking about your other arm those of you who easily can do that without rounding your back go ahead and do it otherwise kind of push your hand and knee into each other and turn and see if you can take your right hand and reach back and hold that left edge of your mat so get a grip of it in your hand and then as you do that pull on the mat pull the mat toward the wall behind you pull and that'll help you open this shoulder open the chest and come a bit more into the twist hold it there lengthen up and then inhale unwind it back to the start and uncross your leg pause inhale and exhale now we're going to shift over to the right side of the mat so be as far over as you can and then we're going to bend the left knee hug that left knee sit up tall right leg extending good and then we're going to hold on with the right hand inhale left arm up and take it behind you into the twist and then again some of you might cross the elbow or you can kind of press your leg and hand into each other inhale lift up tall exhale turn towards your left side and see if you can reach back and find the edge of your mat so my cushion's a little bit in the way but i've got it now pull toward the wall at the side let that right leg shoot forward and open the chest extend through the crown of your head breathe wide into your chest and back and then inhale unwind coming back to the starting point all right i think that's enough twisting i hope you feel wise as a sage right now we're gonna take a blanket roll under the backs of our knees and do a forward fold which will feel nice to relax our spinal muscles after all of that work so if you have a blanket roll it up in a log you can also use a folded and half bed pillow that under the backs of your knees pull your sit bones back so that when you tip forward your pelvis will be freer to rotate root your thighs down inhale reach your arms up interlace your palms press your palms up up up root your sit bones down another time to be that ray of light on your next exhale we're going to fold forward hinge at your hip creases bring your hands to either your shins your ankles or your feet you could also use your belt around your feet right here now before we completely fold and melt into it let's inhale and lift your chest up find a little bit of a back bend in your spine and then as you exhale just go ahead and melt everything down let your head drop breathe here imagine the breath going wide into your back body we're going to take a few more breath cycles here two more let everything release and then on your next inhale first kind of extend your spine a little forward draw your belly in and then walk your hands up your leg so we carefully come up without yanking on our back muscles and pause at the very top have a breath all right you finished the hard work let's come on to our backs keep that blanket roll you're going to put that under your knees and if you've been sitting on a cushion you're going to put that underneath your head but let's take a moment before we come into shavasana we did a lot of twisting so i want to do a neutralizing of the spine so if you have that blanket roll you can even put your feet up on it and then lift your hips and pull your tailbone away towards your knees so you're lengthening your lower back and then either let your feet stay your knees rather stay in line with your feet or your feet are wide as your mat let your knees drop together to touch and this is a constructive rest pose that helps to relax our lower back our psoas muscles you can breathe into your low belly breathe into your lower back and just find this nice neutral position to calm all those muscles of the spine that just worked so hard your side waist muscles can relax your face can relax let those back ribs drop into the ground once again find that breath coming below your navel take just a few more breaths here and then let's go ahead and separate those knees and bring the knees into the chest give them a squeeze and rock a little bit across your lower back just let that be a nice soothing sensation and then we'll take the legs up straight separate them a little bit and just circle your feet around a little bit go the other direction and then bring the legs together flex the feet push up through your heels keep the legs kind of right over the hips if you can this is a lot on your hamstrings just bend the knees a little bit shoulders relaxed so i'm just letting those sacrum drop let the back ribs drop so in this neutral position here and then bring those knees back into the chest so i just want a couple neutralizing things because of all that twisting and then take your knees wide feet are together reach down hold on to your ankles your shins wherever you can coming into kind of an air bound angle pose your feet might be touching they might not let those knees drop away from center and then sacrum heavy shoulders relaxed keeping the spine very neutral take one leg into a happy baby position and then you can keep it there or maybe straighten that leg out to the side get a little more inner thigh stretch and then bring it back in back to the bound angle and then the other foot half happy baby and then extend that leg through the inner thigh and then back to the bound angle and then both feet can come up to happy baby if you like you can hold the ankles you can hold the thighs or your feet depending on your body here let's let those shoulders drop sacrum heavy back ribs heavy you can even rock it out here a little bit if you like and then let's bring the knees in last time and then we'll come into our resting pose shavasana so position that roll so it's under the backs of your knees and that'll help give you a little bend to help relax your lower back you might even first like kind of scoot that tailbone out from under you especially if you feel a little cranky in the low back and then arms can be either on your body or at your side and allow yourself to just drop into the earth let it all go so i'm going to be coming up i want you to take more time in your savasana so let's have a few minutes just to rest let go of all work in our practice there's always the time for working and then there's the time for releasing our effort releasing the work and just being still being calm being quiet allowing the mind to be at rest and that is the journey that our practice takes us on you know from when we first show up on our mats our minds might be full our minds might be overcharged our nervous system might be a little jacked up and then the magic happens when we do our practice and we are in kind of this communion with breath body spirit at the end of practice we're a little closer to that wisdom of the sage settle here another minute or two so you are welcome to stay in shavasana as long as you wish for the sake of video time we're going to start to come out for a brief seated meditation practice you want to stay on your back stay on your back you can let the video play out and get more rest time i always recommend that you stay longer if you can but rather than have a full 10 minutes here of quiet time on the video let's start to deepen the breaths and come out if you are ready to do so we'll finish together seated if you want to take that extra time and rest you can always rewind the video and do a brief meditation at the end so let your breath deepen take a little bit of movement very gentle at first and then gradually you can make some bigger movement move over onto your side roll into kind of a fetal position rest your head on your upper arm having a brief pause there and then when you feel ready you can go ahead and press into the ground take your time and return to a seated posture you can sit on a cushion again if you like find the tops of your sit bones be that ray of light through the center of your body and then let your chin drop toward your chest just enough that you feel the back of the skull lengthen don't drop it all the way or you start to round your spine so you want to lift the back of the skull drop the chin slightly and then either down cast the eyes or close the eyes hands can either be face down or face up you can touch thumb and index finger if you wish it's a gesture of wisdom and knowledge and allow the spine to be really nice and straight and strong as the outer body softens face soft breathe into your belly the belly be like a nice buddha belly nice full breath into the belly we keep that belly sucked in all the time we just reverse breathe and that causes more stress and anxiety breathe into the belly very calming let the mind be quiet let the crown of the head float upward breathing in and out through your nose again you might stay as long as you wish in your meditation if your time is limited you'd like to close with me now bring your hands together in front of the heart space a nice deep inhalation and as you exhale bow your head to your heart thank you for joining me namaste all right thank you so much i hope you enjoyed this practice of the sages twist and i will see you next time on your mat have a great day thank you