10-Min Magic Circle Stretch

Hi. I'm Gia, and we're gonna do a simple release class using the magic circle. So you're gonna start seated on your mat with your legs open as wide as your mat. If you have tight hand strings or tight back, you might wanna bend your knees or you can even have your feet flat on the mat. If your legs are straight, or even if they're bent, you wanna push your heels into the mat and flex your feet. Alright. So you're just gonna be out in front of you.

I'm just gonna do a little breathing to start. Just take a deep inhale. And as you exhale, you're just gonna squeeze the circle a little bit, not as hard as you can, just a gentle squeeze. Inhale release. Exhale squeeze. Just kind of wake up your arms.

Wake up your abdominals. Inhale release, exhale squeeze, and release one more, and squeeze, and release. Now you're gonna squeeze gently and just hold it before you can maintain it. It's gonna inhale as you bring your arms in toward you, exhale as you bring your hands back out. Inhale, bring your arms in, exhale as you push back out. Think of your elbows going straight behind you.

Trying to maintain that long spine. One more and out. Now keep that gentle squeeze. You're gonna twist to one side, keep your hips where they are, and then back to center. And then twist to the other side. And center. So you just wanna go as far as you can without changing your legs or your hips and center and twist and center.

Two more. Each side. Center. Keep growing up tall through your spine. Last one, twist and center and twist. Now, we're gonna keep your spine where it is. Just bring your arms up as high as you can.

Try to get your arms by your ears and then lower back down. If you don't get all the way up, that's okay. Reach the arms up and lower back down. Try to keep your shoulders away from your ears up Spingers are reaching long and lower. Find that length. One more reach and lower. Now I'm gonna place the padded part of the circle down on the mat.

Your both hands are gonna be on the other side. You want one hand on top of the other. You're just gonna take a deep inhale, grow a little taller. As you exhale, you're gonna round forward, push that circle down, a little spine stretch. Inhale, come back up to a straight spine, exhale, push down, pull your abdominals in, round your back.

Keep pulling all five toes back as you come up, and then keep them coming back as you round forward. And then one more. And then push down around. Come back up. Just place your circle down for a second and just relax your feet and go ahead and stretch. Just reach your arms where you can.

Breathe into that stretch trying to get into your spine, into your back. And then when you're ready, roll up one bone at a time. I wanna come on to your belly. So you're gonna bring your circle in front of you. You're gonna have the padded side down again. And then depending on how, flexible your back is, if you are really flexible, you can have both hands on top of the padded part. You might wanna just keep it, like, more to the side or at the top corners, like, at two and ten.

Leggs are reaching long. You want them hip distance apart, abs are pulled in, shoulders are down. I'm just gonna push down in that circle, lift her chest up, and then lower down as you release the circle. Email, push down in the circle, lift your chest up, and then lower down, release the circle. Push down, lift up, And lower. Try to keep the shoulders down away from the ears two more.

Push down into the feet, keep your legs active. And lower. Last one. And lower. And just place your circle down and push back into child's pose. Be together needs apart.

Push all the way back to your heels and stretch. Try to keep your arms active, really push yourself back to your heels. And then roll up. I wanna come on to your back to stretch out your legs. So you're gonna grab your circle. You're gonna place the circle, the padded part on one foot right on the ball of your foot. The other leg can either be all the way straight or you can bend it with your foot on the mat.

Whatever feels good to you. With the foot in the circle, you're gonna use the circle to kind of pull all five toes back, stretch leg as much as you can, and just gently pull it toward you. It should feel a nice stretch in your calf and your hamstring wherever you're tight. Just breathe into that stretch. Reach out through that heel, try to let that leg release.

And then when you're ready, you're gonna place the circle in your opposite hand, bring the same hand down. Cross over towards your opposite shoulder. Let's shut your IT band. Keep pushing that heel up, pulling all five toes back. We'll use a circle to help pull your toes back.

Let's breathe, especially if this tent this stretch tends to get a little more intense. So really try to relax into it. Now switch hands. And then I like to bend the free leg and turn it out to the side just so my hips stay even. And then you're gonna open this leg out to the side.

Try to keep both hip bones facing up to the ceiling. It'll stretch your inner thigh. When you're ready, bring that leg back up. We're gonna place the other foot down on the mat, keep that leg bent. Hands on the circle.

You're gonna make a little circle around with your leg. And circle around. So it's not like leg circles where you wanna stop at the top. Just kinda loosening up your hip. Reverse your circle. Try not to rock in your torso at all.

You wanna try to keep that as still as you can. One more. And then we're gonna switch legs. Just stretch both legs out for a second. Feel the difference.

One leg should feel fairly long. The other one might feel a little tighter, so we're gonna work on that one now. So you're gonna place that ball of your foot right on the padded part of the circle. Again, the free leg can be bent or straight, whatever feels good to you. Flex the foot in the circle and pull it toward you. Reach out through that heel.

But try to stay relaxed. Now from here, take the opposite hand in the circle. The other hand's gonna come down by your side and just cross over to your opposite shoulder. Make sure that pinky toe is pulling back just as much as a big toe so you can really stretch that side, IT band. And then switch hands.

You can bend the other leg if it's not already, and then turn it out to the side, and then bring the leg in the circle out, stretch your inner thigh. Both hip bones facing the ceiling again. You can even use your hands to kinda help feel what you're doing with your hips. Now bring that leg back up. You're gonna place the other foot on the mat both hands in the circle and just circle it around.

Think of stirring your femur in the socket and then reverse. And then you're gonna bring that leg out of the circle and then come on up to a seated position. So you can put the circle down from, now you're gonna sit with your feet together. And a little diamond shape. Let's make sure your circle's out of your way.

Arms are gonna come out to a tee. You want your diamond to be fairly long, not right all the way into you, kind of away from you. Sitting up as tall as you can, you're gonna reach over to one side for a little side bend. Try to keep both sips phones on the mat, shoulders away from the ear. I have to check myself too. And then back up.

Other side. Reach over. And then back up one more each side just because it feels good. Reach to the first side. Try not to just let the arm bend really reach long. And then back up last one.

And then come back up. Hands on your ankles. Just kinda round forward. I'm gonna stretch your back one more time. And then slowly roll up.

And I hope you feel released and relaxed, and I'll see you next time. Thank you.