Yoga Pose Breakdown - King Pigeon, part 1 | 19-minute Intermediate Flow with Jen Hilman

Transcript

[Music] so you can go ahead and just make yourself comfortable lying onto your back and we'll just start with shavasana so as you get settled onto your back you can just go ahead and start to go inward you know you can close your eyes start to tune into your breathing and really feel into your body notice the parts of your body that are making contact with the floor feel the weight of your body allow yourself to tune into a feeling of relaxation washing over you like a gentle wave and take a deeper breath into your belly and as you exhale feel the density the weight of your body melting into the earth and just allow yourself to let go of any distractions that would take you away from this practice really drop in take another full deep breath in expanding through your belly your lungs your chest and exhale slowly and deeply just gently begin to wiggle your fingers and your toes awakening the extremities you can roll your wrists and ankles around and as you inhale reach your arms up over your head and take a long full body stretch from your fingertips to your toe tips then curl your knees into your chest wrap your arms around your shins and hug your legs tightly to your chest you can rock yourself side to side a little bit just kind of massaging the sides of your back rolling the hips around in the hip socket and slowly begin to make your way back to stillness coming back to center just hugging those knees towards your chest then extend your left leg out in front of you hugging the right knee in give it a nice good squeeze then gently twist yourself towards the left side bringing the right knee down you can open your right arm off to the side so we'll just start with a little twist here and stay connected to that deep fluid breath and expand into the spaces where your body may feel tight slowly roll yourself back onto your back hugging the right knee in now take your left hand and reach down to grab a hold of your right foot then pull your right foot towards your left shoulder so we kind of open up the angle of the knee pulling your right foot towards your left shoulder you can even take your right hand place it to the inside of your knee and start to press the right knee away so this is a nice kind of greeting for the hips and the it band all right then from here begin to extend through your right leg still holding on with the left hand you don't have to extend your knee all the way straight but you just want to extend the leg enough that you start to feel a stretch across the it band as your leg crosses your midline and you kick out through the heel and slowly release and hug your knee back into your chest and now we're going to take a half of a happy baby so reach your right hand to the inside of your leg and wrap it around to the outside of your foot okay then begin to extend the sole of your feet to your soul of your foot towards the sky stacking your ankle over your knee press that knee down towards the earth try not to roll to the right hip too much but see if you can really stay grounded through your pelvis and your hips so that you're really ex accessing a deep stretch into the inner right hip okay then we'll slowly hug your right knee back in giving it a good squeeze then go ahead and extend that leg out and we'll draw the left knee up in its place hugging the left knee in feel that squeeze feel that deep compression in the hip and we're going to start with a twist drawing your left knee over to the right side rolling your palms open we work into a gentle twist one breath at a time slowly easing your way deeper and deeper just tuning into those subtle sensations subtle vibrations try to move your breath deeper into your body then gently make your way back onto your back you can give that left knee a hug and we'll reach down with the right hand to take a hold of your left foot then we'll pull your left foot towards your right shoulder and you can bring your left hand to the inside of your knee and just kind of give it a little counter pressure so the foot is coming in and the knee is going out and it's this leverage that really allows you to get deep into the hips but that really takes the stretch right into the outer hip rotators and you may also be feeling that stretch along the it band this is all those muscles are connected and they work together all right then from here we'll begin to kick out through the left foot still holding on with your right hand slowly slowly extending through the leg we begin to kick it out and just take it into that gentle it band stretch and when i say gentle like it might be an intense stretch for you but right here in the beginning of class you don't have to go too deep with it you know just go easy you're like knocking on the front door or maybe you just stepped in and you're taking off your shoes you know just kind of greeting the body then we'll slowly release and hug your left knee back in and prepare to move for that happy baby so we'll reach the left hand around and take a hold of the outside of your foot open the sole of your foot towards the sky stacking your ankle over your knee then using the strength of your arm you want to give it a little pressure and drive your left knee down towards the earth anchor through the hips anchor through your pelvis so that you have a little counter stretch and you're not just rolling over to the left side so we give it a good deep stretch here ah and we'll slowly release hug your left knee in give it a squeeze and we'll draw the right knee up in its place or to meet it so both knees coming together now so we give both legs a good squeeze and then we're going to start to roll front and back so we're kind of rolling up and down your spine a little rock and roll so you can take this rock and roll a few times and try to relax into it letting yourself play with a little bit of momentum you actually start to feel a nice little massage along the length of your spine and when you feel complete we'll go ahead and roll all the way up to sitting coming all the way up into your seat bring the soles of your feet together and your knees apart holding on to your ankles here we'll inhale to lift your heart up roll your shoulders down your back lift up through the crown of your head and exhale to gently hinge forward at your hips leaning into the stretch let your knees press down towards the earth as you extend through the crown of your head we'll take another inhale here lengthening out and exhale and gently roll yourself all the way down let your shoulders relax let your head relax down relaxing through the back of your neck we'll just take three or four good deep breaths here allowing yourself to gently open and relax into this stretch so each breath offers you an opportunity to let go a little bit more you can begin to soften little by little and deepen your way into this stretch breathe into your hips say yes allow it to gently open then we'll slowly roll yourself all the way back up to your seat all right then place your hands down to the floor behind you close your knees in like a book and bring the soles of your feet flat down to the floor okay we're going to practice a seated pigeon variation just kind of taking it a little further each time we're going to cross your right ankle over your left knee pressing your right knee out towards the side now press your hands into the mat to lift up your heart and your chest the more you sit up and extend up through the crown of your head the more stretch you're going to feel in the outer right hip so really let yourself press that right knee open to the side as you simultaneously lift up through your spine now you can stay here if you enjoy this variation if you'd like to play with a little bit of movement in this stretch you can just play with gently rocking your shape right to left so i'm just kind of rocking my knees side to side and exploring how that movement changes the experience of the stretch that i feel and you may come across a moment that feels particularly juicy feels really really good so you can hang out there and then from here we're going to take this entire shape this whole figure 4 we're going to rotate 90 degrees bringing the right foot flat down to the floor so now we're prepared for a seated twist so wrap your left hand or wrap your arm around your knee bring your right fingertips to the floor take a deep breath in as you extend up through the crown of your head and we'll exhale to gently twist a little deeper lifting up we create space in the spine for even more movement even more depth in the stretch finding your way to your edge then we'll slowly release letting yourself come back around to the front let's extend your right leg out in front of you bringing the sole of your left foot to the inside of your right thigh we're going to inhale to lift up through your chest and we're just going to pause here for a moment walk your sitting bones back so there's a slight hinge forward lift up through your chest reach up through your fingertips and feel the strength in your back take another inhale here really reach up tall lift through your belly lift out of your waist then as you exhale we'll go ahead and reach forward try to keep your spine long as you fold over the right leg finding your edge you know once you stretch as far forward as you can let your hands come down to the mat support yourself there and let each breath carry you deeper into the stretch you can think about reaching the right sitting bone back towards the back edge of your mat that will increase the stretch in your hamstring taking it right into the belly of the muscle lengthening all of those fibers and we'll inhale to lift your heart up extending through your spine reach your left hand to the outside of your right thigh or right ankle i know body parts i'm a professional glide your right fingertips back behind you inhale to lift and extend your spine as you twist your heart around then we'll exhale and fold your body down over your right leg maintaining that twist so this is going to take your stretch a little more into the lateral hamstring you may be feeling a stretch into the it band for me i'm also getting a stretch across the left side low back so wherever this stretch is hitting you breathe into those spaces and work your way to a safe comfortable edge and we'll slowly rise coming all the way up ah okay from here swing your right leg around behind you we're bending into the right knee so you've got this kind of zigzag shape with your legs okay place your right fingertips down to the floor circle your left arm up and over so we're moving into a nice side body stretch opening up through the left side of the waist you can look up underneath your left arm to really take it lateral into the obliques and the side body reaching out creating space between the ribs will inhale and slowly come all the way up letting your left fingertips come down then sweep your right hand across touching down to the floor so your hands are parallel to each other okay so your shoulders are square around to the left side press into the earth to lift up through your spine so you can stay here and really work this twist and create a lot of space for yourself if you want to get a little deeper you can start to fold forward over your left leg reaching your fingertips as far across to the left side as you can so wherever you are in this pose is great there's lots to feel lots to experience so choose your experience based on what you need today wherever you are take another full round of breath a deep inhale and a deep exhale and slowly walk your hands back in pressing yourself up we're going to plant the left hand down then roll up onto your shins lifting your hips away from the earth you'll reach your right arm up and over so we're taking up a full body stretch opening through the front of the hip the front of the tummy reaching back with the right hand and we'll slowly release and let your hips come back down to the floor and we'll come back around to the front placing your right foot flat to the floor cross your left ankle over your knee you can bring your hands back behind you to support yourself here open the left knee out as you press into the earth to lift up your chest and again this is another place just kind of throw back to monday you could have your fingertips on the floor your palm lifted so you can practice the spider-man hand even in this position so just kind of reminder from monday and we'll lift up through the spine finding more space and more length as you actively press the left knee open and again you can play with a little bit of movement here if you want to play with rocking the shape side to side and just feel what that does for you you know it just kind of gives you a new dimension of experience and if you find a sweet spot that's like the money spot you can hang out there for a breath or two