Yoga in Practice

Support for Yoga in Practice is provided by the ETV Endowment of South Carolina. Welcome to Yoga in Practice. My name is Stacey and I will be your teacher. Close your eyes and welcome a deeper breath. Yoga reminds us to feel an inner dignity and to cultivate self respect. How often do we forget who we really are or how much we have accomplished in our life, pretty often. One frequently practiced yoga pose beautiful in it's shape is pigeon pose. How wonderful that a common bird like a pigeon can be so beautiful and filled with an inner grace. Think about how a pigeon struts around with a full chest. Can you too feel the sense of pride and honor who you are today? Let's begin. Joining our practice today is our married couple Chris and Jackie. Please sweep your legs out in front of you. And sliding forward hold the backs of your legs and slowly roll down onto your backs. Have a strap or a tie or an old belt handy for this first series of poses that we will practice. Keep your knees bent and your feet planted. And then arch your back off the floor and then flatten it back down. Do that a couple of times. This is similar in nature to the cat and cow pose we do on our hands and knees. It's just to warm up the lower back. So enjoy the breath here just beginning to move the spine rhythmically. Now pause just in a neutral position and using your strap take your strap and slip it across the ball of your right foot. And stretch your leg up Now walk your hands up toward your foot without over stretching. So if your lower back has now flattened onto the floor, you've probably gone a little too far. So you may want to back off a little bit in re-arch the back. Keep your toes active and your left knee bent. Press your right thigh away from you, moving the thigh bone in toward the hamstring muscle. Now hold the strap in your right hand only and open your left arm out to the side. As you exhale open your legs apart taking your left knee to the left your right leg to the right. And then balance your hips. So here arching the back and then from your inner thighs extend out keeping your right ankle strong that it's not bending or sickling in anyway. It's okay to smile and enjoy the stretch at the beginning of your practice. On your inhale, raise the leg back up and pause. Now shift hands holding the strap in your left ham. Raise your hips up and shift them off to the right side and then slide your left leg onto the floor. Please open your right arm wide to the side. And then exhale bring your right leg across your body. go ahead and roll onto the side of your left thigh. And then keeping your right shoulder anchored and your foot working, roll the hip down and away. And feel that you're arching the back and feeling this twist through the waistline, you'll also be feeling this into the hip and hamstring. On your inhale, raise the leg back up. Release your strap and bend both knees and slide your hips back to the middle of the mat. Let's do the second side. So take your straps slip it across the mound of your left foot and extend. We'll often wanna take the strap across the arch of the foot but you'll have better control if you put it across the mound of the toes. Now press the leg away from you and arch your lower back. Don't struggle here. Just pause where you are and enjoy the pose. Now open your right arm out to the side and as you exhale take your legs apart from one another for an inner thigh stretch. The inner thighs as a muscle group are quite large. But they can often be tight and weak for most of us. So you wanna balance your hips rolling your belly back to the right so you have as much weight on your right hip as you feel on the left. Inhale, lift back up. change hands. Move your hips to the left. extend your right leg on to the floor. Open the arm wide and then exhale, go across your body. now if you tend to be a little stiffer across our hamstring into the hip, it's fine to bend this knee. And then just over time reaching out through the heel. Roll your hips down and away from your waist and extend your bottom leg as well. Inhale. Raise the leg back up to center. Exhale, release the strap. Bending both of your knees slide your hips to the middle. Now maintain the hold of your strap and slip the strap across your ankles. Pull on the strap and roll your shoulders back, lifting the side of your chest. Inhale. Raise your hips off the floor. Bridge pose. Setu Bandha Sarvagasana. Try to get up on your shoulders as much as possible and then feel the side of your chest lifting as you take the top of your shoulders back. This movement or the separation between the chest wall and the arm bone is important for upper body health, shoulder health. Exhale, lower the hips back down. Please clear your straps. Move them off of your mat. Cross your right ankle on top of your left leg. Reaching through your legs, hold on to your left hamstring interlocking your fingers. Take a breath relax the eyes, back the shoulders and push your left leg into your hands. The focus here is on the rotation of your right leg in the hip socket. So taking your right sit bone and angling it in toward the left sit bone. You should feel the side of the hips stretching open. Good. Release your hands. Plant both feet on the mat Let's change sides, cross your left ankle, threading your hands through the leg, hold on. We call this pose eye of the needle. So pressing your leg into your hands, keep your ankles flexed. And then turn the leg in it's hip socket and breath. Relax your jaw. This is also always a nice modification for pigeon pose, if you have any issues. So keep this in mind. And then exhale and release. Good. Now roll to your side. Push down through your hands. Lift up to seated. And then shift into table pose. Come again onto your hands and your knees. Spread your fingers. Line up your wrists. Take a deep breath and softened down. Inhale. Look up, arch through your back. And then exhale round in. Inhale look up. Reverse and round. One more time. Inhale, look up. And then raise back into downward facing dog. Stretch out. You may need to adjust the length of your downward dog from table, just making sure the arms are strong, the spine is stretching and you're rooting down through your heels. Please widen your feet here. Take them apart as wide as your mat is and then bend your knees. Spread your knees. Lift higher with your inner thighs until you create an arch in the lower back. Hold the arch relax your head down. So soften the weight of the head and then just stretch back through the hips. Press your legs a little straighter. But try not to disturb the quality of your lower spine. Good. Exhale, lower your knees back to the floor and take a breath and settle. Look up. Arch the back. Downward dog again. Lift back. Now deliberately on this downward dog, walk your feet a little bit closer to your hand so you're shortening your stance for stability. Please take your right hand, thread it up underneath your body and hold on to the outside of your left leg wherever you can hold on. Now turn your head and look up and underneath your left armpit. Keeping your hips level find the rotation through the sides of your body and the waistline. And the release the hand back down. Take a breath and settle. Second side. Taking your left hand to the outside of your right leg. Look underneath the arm, keep the right arm strong and just focus on turning through the waistline. Relax the eyes. And then take your hand back down, downward facing dog. Good lower the knees. Exhale, table pose. Raise your right hand out to the side and lift it at all the way to the ceiling. And then slide this hand up underneath your left wrist. Slide it way out to the side and rest your left shoulder on the floor. Let your head come down but try not to have your neck and head weight bearing. The primary weight is here in your right shoulder. Now push down into your left hand and deepen the rotation, sending your left hip back. Inhale, push up. Come back through table. Second side take a breath. Please raise your left hand out to the side and twist open, look up. And then thread the needle coming through. Rest your head. Push down through the right arm. Draw your right hip back. And feeling the broadening here so I want the twists to come from the left side of your back your left kidney. Keeping this hip drawn back. Inhale, come back through table position. Then shift to downward facing dog, stretch back. Take a deep breath. Walk forward. Uttanasana. Bend over. Bow over your legs and breath. Please move your hands next to your feet. Inhale. Step your left leg back. Lunge. As you exhale lower your back knee. And lower your left hand and twist open to the right side of the mat. This is an open lunge. You can also deepen the pose by raising up and hooking your left arm onto the outside of your right thigh and joining your palms together in Anjali Mudra at the heart. Curl your head back regardless of the variation. You can hold here keeping the knee down or adding more challenge, raising your left knee off the floor. Wherever you are have pride in the effort that you're putting forth in your practice. Exhale bring your hand back to the mat and step through downward facing dog. Come forward to plank pose. Exhale to a push up. Inhale to cobra. Downward dog, exhale. Walk forward Uttanasana. Do the second side. Stepping your right foot back. Lunge. Exhale, lower the knee and make sure it feels comfortable. Now put your right hand down on the floor turn and twist open. Head back shoulders back. Please extend your left arm. Curl back feeling the shoulder blades drawn to your back. Hook in a little bit more deeply if that is available to you by hooking your right arm and joining your palms together. If you're in this variation push your top hand down with more strength. That will help in the steadiness. Go ahead and lift your right leg. These variations can change from day to day. So listen to what you're able to do today in honor of that. Exhale bring your hands that to the mat. Step back, downward facing dog. Draw forward to plank pose. Lower your knees and come down. Push up position. Once you're down, shift your hands out in front of you. And then inhale. Roll up to cobra pose, lifting your shoulders. And then exhale. Roll back down. Move your hands back a little further. Inhale, roll back up. And exhale roll back down. Move your hands beside your chest. Inhale, curl up to cobra pose and taking the head of your arm bones back, as you move the chest wall, the heart forward. And then exhale, roll back down. Please prop your forearms up underneath you, staying up on your forearms. Lengthen your legs. Bend your right knee and reach around for that right foot. Hold the foot comfortably. And pushing the knee down, raise your right hip off the mat until it comes higher to your heel. And now bring the heel a little bit closer to your hip. When you find that relationship, roll your hip back into the floor and tuck your tailbone. Now push out through your left arm and lift up through your shoulder. Good. Exhale. Release. Take a breath. Second side. Reach back for your left foot. Hold comfortably. Push your knee down, lift your hip up, draw the heel in and then roll slowly into that left hip. Lengthen both of your legs and press your right arm down and forward. And then exhale release back. Please rest your forehead on your arms. Raising your feet off the floor. Bending your knees, allow your legs to sway from side to side. Enjoy the breath. Rest your feet back down on the mat. Bring your hands alongside your body and push up to child's pose. Bow down. Child's pose reminds us to honor our inner dignity. In your yoga, it is thought that we are worthy simply because you are, simply because you exist. So we bow here to that dignity you hold yourself with respect. And you fill yourself up with an inner grace. Please inhale to table position. Take a breath. Tuck your toes. Good. And take downward facing dog. Stretch back. Just walk your dog. Lower your knees come back to table position and I'd like you to pick up a block or two blocks if you need them. Let's go into pigeon pose. So slide your right knee forward, pull it up all the way to your right hand and swing the knee out to the side. Now moving the foot a little bit wider, walk your left leg back and then fold down on your forearms or you can put blocks underneath your forearms like Chris is showing. Please press into both of your knees and pull the knees towards each other resisting them against the stickiness of your mat. Enjoy the breath. Extending out and bow to yourself here. Inhale, come to a lifted position raising your chest up. You can keep your hands in front of you. You can move the blocks beside your hips or lift your hands onto your pelvis. Now rise up and feel the side of the chest wall move forward, take the head of your arm bones back and let your head curl back, rising fully, rising with that open chest. Add a thigh stretch here if that is available to you like Jackie is showing. That can be pretty challenging, so determine how well you can do that. Keep hugging in and turn everything more to the right. Exhale release. Bring your hands back down. Please take table pose. Slide back. Adjust your legs and set up for the second side. Left knee forward and out. Walking back. Bow forward onto the blocks or just directly down. You can fold your hands here. Hug the knees in. Stay steady. Then inhale, come up onto your hands. Lift your torso. Move the blocks or hold your hips. And then lifting allow yourself to gracefully flow back. Open the body with the breath. Open the body with that sense of light on who you are. Please add the thigh stretch if that is available to you bringing the heel down toward the hip. And twisting more to the left. As you exhale, release the foot back. Please take downward facing dog. First side again. Right knee forward pigeon. This time we're going to stay up and add a rotation to this pigeon pose. So walk both of your hands to the right. Slide your belly over and then lower down onto your left elbow. You could also hook the elbow into your leg. That's pretty deep, so decide where you need to stop today. Turn, keep the hand on the floor. Take the hand to the hip if that's possible. Raise your right hand to the sky. Keep the rotation. Keep the hip opening and then draw the arm over your ear and stretch from the back heel through that top arm. And then exhale touch the mat. Step back to downward dog. Second side move your left knee forward and out. Walk your right leg back. Take a breath. Engage your legs. Walk over to the left and then come down on your elbow. Just pause. Breathe, add the twist. So using your left hand to deepen that twist, hook your hand into your hip. Curl your head back. Please raise your left hand up, twisting. And then turning your palm forward, draw the arm over your ear and stretch out. Extend through the wrist. And reach back into your right heel keeping your right leg strong. Press your knees down. Good. Exhale, release. Touch the floor. Please step back downward facing dog and walk it out. Let's lower our knees. Good. Swing your legs forward and sit down. Have a strap handy and you may want to set up on a folded blanket if your lower back or your hamstrings are tight. With your legs extended, take your left knee bend it in and fold the food into your inner thigh. Place your hands behind you and pressing down, lift up through the chest. And then fold forward. If you're using a strap, take it across the ball of the foot like we did earlier or you can hold your hands on to the foot. Using the breath to slowly the journey down, you just use the exhale to pause, to fold, to bow to yourself. We use this pose, a half forward fold just to open our back after the back bending portions of pigeon pose. So breath across your back and keep your hips level with each other. Inhale. Rise. Take a breath. Both legs out, shake them gently. Second side. Keep your left leg forward. Fold your right foot into your inner thigh and squeeze your legs against each other. Now rising up, exhale. Extend forward. Your hands can also help you by pushing down in a way. Use the strap across the ball of your foot or hold the top of the foot. And keeping the legs strong, bend your elbows and allow yourself to flow forward. Notice your waistline the mid part of the back full. Honor yourself as you fold here. The dignity, respect, remember all that you've accomplished. With your inhale, raise back up, and stretch your legs out. And then slide forward slightly, planting your feet. And again we'll use our legs to support our rolling down. So hold your legs and roll down once again onto your backs. Take a deep breath. Hugging both knees into your chest, press you lower back into the mat and just rocked gently side to side. Soften your eyes. Let's take happy baby pose. So raising the soles of your feet up to face the ceiling, go ahead spread your knees apart a little wider. And this pose has a push and a pull. You pull down with the arms to deepen the pose but you push up with your legs to engage the hamstring. So holding that, heels over the knees, take the inside of your foot, the mound of the big toe and the inner heel and stretch it out. And using your hands, try to pull the outer edge of the foot down and don't forget your toes. Now rolling your hips into the mat, try to arch your lower back gently, which is often more of a thought than too much of an action. And enjoy. Good. Release your feet. Plant your feet onto the mat. Take a deep breath. Walk your feet apart from each other and just let your knees rest together. This broadens the lower back again. Taking your hands across your abdomen, enjoy the breath. Relax your eyes. Feel the corners of your mouth turn up slightly. And it often helps with the quality of the pose. Good. Now, slide your legs out onto your mat. Go ahead shake your legs a few times. Separate the feet a little wider and then go ahead and shake your hands out. And roll your shoulders back into the floor and close your eyes. And just let gravity press you down. Soften your fingers. Let your fingers curl in gently. Relax your eyes, your tongue. Enjoy the breath here. As Lao Tzu says out of the Tao Te Ching, When you are content to be simply yourself and don't compare or compete. Everyone will respect you. Please remain in Savasana for as long as your mind and body need. However when you're ready to roll off of your backs bend your knees. Roll to your right side. Push down with both of your hands and lift back to seated. Adjust the seat and just settle. With your eyes closed. Join your hands in front of your heart. In this gesture you honor yourself, that deep inner dignity. The worthiness of who you are and all that you have done. Thank you for practicing with us today. Namaste. Support for Yoga in Practice is provided by the ETV Endowment of South Carolina. To purchase Yoga in Practice on DVD. Order online at shop scetv.org Thanks for your support of public television.