Yoga in Practice

opening music Support for Yoga In Practice is provided by the ETV Endowment of South Carolina.

<Stacy> Hi, my name is Stacy Millner-Collins.

Welcome.

Let's enjoy our practice.

Joining us today are Mika and Joel, my son-in-law.

Please take a good seat.

Sit up higher on a cushion or a folded blanket if you need it.

How many of us have felt tightness in our neck and shoulders.

Because we have spent too much time looking down at devices or slumped over at a desk.

In time, that forward action of our head and shoulders can lead to all sorts of discomfort, and even injury if we do not address it.

Good alignment is good therapy for injury.

And when we feel more freedom in our body and from pain, we are also able to enjoy our life a bit more.

We will be using a strap and two blocks today for our practice.

If you do not have a strap, you can also use an old belt or a necktie instead.

Let's come to our hands and knees for table position.

...

Setting up and table take particular care for lining up your outer shoulder over your middle wrist, spread your fingers and press down building strength from your hands all the way up into your upper back.

Now, we're just going to lower our chest down and then push it back up.

Just do that a few times just drawing down and back up.

And what you should feel is the head of your arm bone moving into the back of your body.

Going down and up.

And one more time.

Go down and back up a whole table.

Press through the hands and then cat and cow inhale look forward and round in.

Twice more look up.

Consider what's going on in your upper back.

Exhale and round.

Good.

One more time.

Inhale.

Look up and exhale round.

Hold into a neutral table position.

Keeping your hips above your knees.

Walk your hands forward to the front of your mat for puppy pose.

Stretching out, lift to your fingertips.

Pressing your fingertips into your mat.

Lift the arms gently toward the ceiling, but move your chest down toward the mat.

So again, you feel that head of the arm bone lifting into the shoulder joint.

Stretch out and elongate and avoid collapsing in your mid back not letting your ribs sink down, but toning the abdomen to support the entire spine.

Lower your palms, walk the hands back into table position.

Check the alignment of your wrists that they're straight and your fingers are parallel.

On your inhale look up and take downward facing dog stretch back.

Hold your downward dog.

Make sure first that it has enough length to it.

If you're too short, that will bunch you up not only in your low back, but across the neck and shoulders as well.

Now back out of your downward dog slightly by pulling your arms forward.

Bend your elbows out to the side.

Keep your elbows bent and slide your shoulder blades towards your spine.

Holding that re extend the arms and lengthen from your shoulder blades towards your fingernails.

Stretching back through your hips and down through your feet.

Look forward and walk up to your hands into Uttanasana standing forward fold.

As you exhale, fold closer to your legs.

You can always put your hands on your knees if you need to.

Inhale, lift halfway.

Extend.

Exhale and fold.

Inhale, extend, lengthen.

Exhale and fold.

And inhale, lengthen.

Good.

Fold one more time and rise to Mountain pose.

Lift your arms.

And then release your hands next to your hips.

Exhale down.

Inhale, lift overhead.

Moving your arms, exhale and go down.

Now if you have a shoulder injury, don't lift the arms quite so high.

Just go up as high as you can.

And then exhale and come back down.

Good.

Let's begin a sun salutation.

So joining your hands to your heart, take a deep breath.

Release your arms.

Inhale, lift overhead.

And then bend over into a forward fold touching the floor or your legs and then lift halfway forward.

And step to plank pose.

So reach back and get your body parallel to the floor, toning your abdomen.

Lower your knees, exhale and come through a push up.

And then lift open to cobra pose.

Good roll down, move to table and go back through downward dog.

Reaching out, remember the shoulder engagement.

Keep the head of your arm bones lifted.

Draw your shoulder blades toward your spine.

And now lengthen your pose by stretching out towards your fingers.

Look forward and step up to Uttanasana.

Bend over.

Inhale.

Raise to mountain.

Join your hands lower than to the heart.

Take a deep breath.

Lower your arms.

Inhale, lift overhead.

Bending over exhale, touch the mat.

Step to plank again, and from plank into a push up.

You can go straight down into a push up or lower the knees, lift to cobra and then downward dog.

Finding that extension arching through the lower back.

Look forward.

Step to your hands.

Fold to your legs.

Exhale, and rise to standing Inhale.

Join your hands exhale.

Let's do it.

One more time.

Inhale, lift your arms up.

Exhale, fold forward over your legs.

Step to plank pose.

Spread your fingers, keep your head lifted.

And then go down through a push up.

Inhale.

Lift to cobra.

Drawing the head of your arm bones back.

Good.

Downward Dog.

Exhale, stretch back or you can move through table position and then transition into downward dog.

Lengthen out, reaching from your shoulder blades out through your hands.

Good.

Look forward, walk up into Uttanasana and bend over.

Inhale.

Rise to standing.

Anjali mudra again, raise your arms, inhale.

Lower the hands, bend over.

Take downward dog one more time.

And now apply what you've learned.

Start from the hands.

Build strength in your arms, Pulling the shoulder blades onto your back lengthen out.

Good.

Lower your knees into child's pose.

Open your knees apart.

Come down, and just sit back as much as your knees allow for bowing your head and your chest toward your mat.

Now keeping your arms extended forward, join your palms together and then bend your elbows and lift the hands above your head.

Not only is this a beautiful pose, but it allows you to align your shoulders pressing your elbows into your mat and feeling the armpit the head of your arm bone lift into the back body.

Good.

Please release.

Lift to seated.

Sit comfortably.

It's also fine to kneel here if you prefer.

Or if you want, you can also stand up.

Please take a strap.

We're going to un-roll a strap.

And if you don't have a strap at home, you can also use a neck tie, a belt if possible.

So open your hands apart about three feet and you may need to adjust this depending on your shoulder flexibility.

As you inhale, lift your arms over your shoulders.

Good.

Now we're going to take the hands behind our back and here's where you may need to adjust the pose.

Pull out through your wrist and just feel how you're opening your chest.

Adjust as much as you need to, to find the proper length for yourself and don't overdo.

Now lower the hands behind your back.

Keep the shoulders lifted.

And then inhale, pull the arms up and bring them forward.

We'll do this four more times with your breath.

Inhale up.

Exhale back.

Inhale overhead and exhale forward.

Inhale, lift.

Exhale back.

Oh!

Good stretch through your chest.

Inhale, come up.

And then forward.

We have one more.

Inhale, lift.

Keep pulling on your strap, reaching through your wrist, come all the way down.

And then inhale, come all the way forward.

Good.

Nice work.

Shorten your hands on the strap just a little bit.

So perhaps you have about a two foot long edge between your hands.

Inhale, raise your arms up.

Now, pull on your strap, bend your right elbow and lower your left arm down next to your body.

Feel how you're opening up the back of your right arm, your tricep muscle.

Inhale, raise up.

And let's change sides.

Coming down.

Good.

And moving with the breath.

So, inhale up.

Exhale down.

Inhale, lift up.

Exhale.

Three more.

Inhale...Exhale...Inhale.

Exhale...And again, come up...And down.

And up.

And down.

One more time.

Inhale, and lower down, working your shoulders.

Inhale, keep the head of your arm bone back and go down one more time.

Good.

Lift the arms overhead.

And take your hands in front of your chest.

Good.

Walk your hands closer, just a little bit.

Tug on your strap.

And now from your hands, pull your arm bones back.

So again, you're setting the head of the arm bone into the shoulder joint.

Inhale, raise your arms up.

Now, bend your elbows behind your head, tugging squeeze your shoulder blades in, try to keep your head lifted.

Inhale, raise up and lower the hands in front of your chest.

We'll do that for more times.

Inhale.

And exhale, squeezing.

Inhale and forward.

Inhale, pull down.

hug in.

Inhale and forward.

twice more, come up.

And down.

And up.

And forward.

This is your last one.

Notice this, how it's warming up your shoulders, you're gaining flexibility, even in the middle of all of this.

Come up and down.

Good.

Last one, walk your hands a little bit closer, about a foot apart if you can.

Remember to take more space if you need it.

Lift your arms overhead.

And now we're just gonna go down and up with the breath.

So pull down.

Lift up.

Exhale.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Inhale, three more.

Exhale, lift, pull.

You've got this.

Go up.

Last one.

And lift.

Nice work, you guys lower your hands.

Good, Please clear the strap off of your mat.

And we're going to use our blocks now.

So, taking your blocks, turn them to their middle height.

And you're going to place them at the front end of your mat with a space between the blocks, enough space that your head can rest down between the blocks.

Good.

Come into table position and place your fingertips right behind the blocks.

Good.

Now your head is going to go down and I want you to lean forward, walk your knees back a little bit and lower your thighs onto the mat.

Now, the blocks are teaching us how to keep our shoulders lifted when we move through cobra and push up position.

So if these blocks were electrified, your shoulders would lift up, keep that in mind.

Lower your forehead to the mat.

Now notice, if you keep your shoulders up off the block, feel how much your upper back muscles are engaging.

Good.

Lift to cobra.

Inhale.

And then lower back down.

Exhale.

Inhale and lift, and lower without touching your shoulders.

One more time, lift back up.

Make sure your hands are wide enough, and then go back down.

Good.

Push to table position.

And now we'll practice push up position on this.

So start first on your knees.

So lean forward and get your shoulders beyond your blocks, and then bend your elbows and as you come down for that push up, keep the shoulders lifted.

Good and now lift to cobra and then roll down without touching the blocks forehead to the mat and then push to table or you could go to plank pose here.

Good.

We'll do this three times.

So depending on how strong you are legs up, or knees down, lean forward, come through a push up.

Inhale, lift to cobra.

Roll down exhale, back to table or to plank pose.

Good.

Lean forward again.

Push up position.

Inhale, lift to cobra.

Roll down.

Table or plank pose.

Good.

One more time.

Lean forward.

Push down.

Cobra Pose.

And roll down.

Everyone to table position.

Push back up.

Ah!

Good work.

Release.

And shake out your hands and clear the blocks from your mats.

Ah, you should feel your arms feeling pretty warmed up right now come to Child's Pose.

So lower down.

Now your arms can stay forward in front of you.

You can also sweep your arms back alongside your thighs here.

Sometimes that feels really nice.

After you've done a set of shoulder work.

Sit back through your hips.

Enjoy your breath here through the back of your body.

And just feel the head of the arm bone lifting a little bit.

Good.

On your inhale, move back to table position.

From table, walk your knees back a little bit further, get some length and then lift into downward facing dog.

Stretch back.

Breathe.

Good.

We're going to pick up the arm.

So again, like we were doing in puppy pose earlier, so the arms come forward.

Then the upper back moves in.

Shoulder blades squeeze up onto your back and then lengthen back through your waist.

Keeping this midpoint of your back nice and full.

Spread your fingers and really press your fingers into the mat.

And then from the shoulder blades reach out through your fingers and you're going to feel a nice stretch of these rotator cuff muscles.

Lower to your knees and puppy pose if that feels better.

Good.

Enjoy your breath.

And then exhale, come out of the pose.

Come in to table position.

Take a deep breath.

Shake out your hands, and breathe.

...

Roll your shoulders back.

Good.

Let's come to standing and walk forward to the front of your mat Inhale, lift your arms overhead.

And exhale, bend over Uttanasana.

Good.

Inhale, lift halfway.

Bring your hands to your hips.

Lift through your shoulders stretch forward, look up, engage your core and then raise back to Mountain pose.

Good.

Shake out the hands.

And let's use your strap one more time.

So we're going to stand sideways on the mat.

And for this one, if you do have a shoulder injury, you don't have to use the strap.

Mika is showing you the pose without using the arms.

Joel and I are going to use the strap we're going to have a loop in the strap.

Take the loop behind your back and put your wrists between the loop and tug on the loop.

Now pushing down through your legs bend forward between your legs into Prasarita Padottanasana, a standing forward fold wide legged.

Push your wrists out against the strap if you're using the loop, and then bow forward.

Lifting the front of your shoulders up, open your chest and then allow gravity to take your arms even more fully into the pose.

Your shoulder should be nice and warm a little looser than when you began.

So it's nice to open the back here.

Good.

re-engage your legs, Inhale, rise back to a standing position.

Good.

Step together and clear your strap.

Nice job.

Walk back up to the front of your mat.

And from here plant your feet.

Good.

Lifting from inside, turn your hands open toward the ceiling.

Roll your elbows forward.

Roll your shoulders back.

And now do a little backbend here, curling the shoulder blades into your chest.

Root from the hips down through your feet and lean back as far as you're able to go back.

Feeling that back bend.

And then rise to center.

Inhale, lift your arms up and lower your hands down.

Inhale, lift up and lower your hands down.

Last time.

Inhale, and exhale.

Good.

Please sit down on your mat.

Have your strap ready again.

Slide forward to the front end of your mat Hold onto your legs and roll down into a supine position onto your back.

Make sure your head is on the mat.

Taking hold of the strap and using the loop if you made one, slip the loop across the ball of your right foot, the arch of your foot and stretch your right leg toward the ceiling.

If you have the flexibility you can hold the inside of the loop and just pull down creating resistance.

Now the single strap what I call the tail of the strap, put your hands down on that tail.

And then slide your hands down the strap.

Reach your arms beyond your head and try to get your arms down to the floor without bending your elbows.

So use as much strap as you have available to you and keep this right leg strong.

Arch your lower back so there's a little space under your low back between the floor and your body.

And you can hold here or slide your left leg flat to the mat.

Just tugging on the strap, I want you to feel that you're opening the sides of your shoulders into that side waistline.

Good.

Now, walk your hands back up the tail of the strap.

Bend the knee.

Clear the strap.

Take a breath.

Bend both knees again if you brought your leg straight and let's change sides.

So slip the loop across your left foot and raise up.

Good tugging down on that loop.

First of all, get good alignment in your low back the arch of your back and your left leg strong.

Now place your hands on the tail of the strap and sliding your hands down the tail Reach your arms over your head.

Good.

The key here is not necessarily the hamstring stretch, it's more the shoulder stretch.

So, you can back off your leg a little bit and just pull on the strap.

Try to take as much bend out of your elbows as you can.

And then feel free to slide your right like flat to the mat.

Flex that right ankle.

Pull on the strap and feel the opening along the side of your shoulder blade into the upper ribcage.

Remember to keep breathing.

Good, walk your hands back up the strap.

And then bend the knee, clear the strap and slide your leg out.

Take a deep breath.

Good, exhale.

We're going to use the strap one last time for bridge pose.

So, bending both of your knees.

Take your strap in its straightest position, not using the loop just the length of the strap.

Walk your feet apart as wide as your hips and place the strap across the front of each ankle.

Now we're going to tug on the straps and again, I want your arms to be straight here.

So walk your hands towards your feet just to get that full extension.

Pull your shoulders towards your ears.

Roll your shoulders backward into the floor and feel your sternum, your breastbone rise.

Inhale.

Lift your hips.

Bridge pose.

Once you get your hips off the ground, walk your shoulder blades towards your spine and press the upper arms into your mat and press your head into your mat.

Try not to let your knees splay apart in this pose.

And then exhale and lower your hips.

Good.

Relax your clasp on the strap.

Wiggle your fingers a few times.

Enjoy your breath.

Good.

Let's do it one more time.

Tug on the strap.

Roll your shoulders backward.

Lift your sternum.

Inhale, pick your hips up.

Bridge pose.

This is so good for your shoulders, for your back.

Try to keep your knees hugging in towards each other.

Walk your shoulder blades closer.

Good.

Now remember the yoga of the face off in your face.

It always helps to smile a bit more here.

And then on your exhale, lower your hips back down.

Clear the strap off your mat and bring your knees to your chest.

Hug your legs in and rock a little side to side.

Enjoy your breath.

Good.

Lower your feet back down onto the mat and touch the soles of your feet together for reclined bound angle pose.

Pressing the feet in your big toes, your inner heels.

Enjoy the breath.

Now slide your feet out one at a time toward the corners of your mat.

Shake your legs and wiggle your fingers.

Move your wrists with the arms down beside your body.

Give yourself that freedom so that your shoulders feel more open.

So don't have your shoulders pinched in tightly.

Open out.

Just keep in mind, Adventures are all very well in their place, But there's a lot to be said for regular meals and freedom from pain.

Please stay here for as long as you need.

Enjoy the pose, enjoy the relaxation and just enjoy the freedom that this practice has brought to you.

When you're ready to come to seated, I invite you to bend your knees and roll onto your right side and using your hands, press yourself up to seated.

Take a good seat.

So if you need to sit up on some height find that, and then fold your hands to your heart as a way to honor the effort you made in this class.

And I thank you for practicing with us.

Namaste.

Support for Yoga In Practice is provided by the ETV Endowment of South Carolina.

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