Time to Flow

Hi, everybody. Welcome to class. I'm glad you're here with me. The hardest part's over. Right? You've committed to yourself, and we're just gonna kinda flow through some full body workout. Today, I did bring a towel.

I'm gonna use it partly for spacing and a tiny bit of resistance here in the beginning. It's a hand towel. You may want a slightly longer one than I have if your shoulders are really tight, but let's aim for about this size hand normal hand towel. And then I'll move it aside where we might wanna use it as an assist a little bit later in the workout. Okay? So let's begin. You're standing upright on your feet, feeling the ground, feeling yourself rise up above it, taking a split second in your mind to decide how do you want to feel when you're finished?

Because a lot of that has to do with how you approach each exercise. So with your arms just hanging heavy, shift your weight ever so slightly forward and feel what your feet are doing, just kinda level them out a bit, meaning rolling in and out, kinda balance that. And then slightly back, not so much that your toes lift, but just we're trying to find center. Yeah. And let go a little bit. You can, you know, breathe however you want. Yeah.

A little shimmy. Sometimes I just gotta shake off a bit to get started. Let go of some tension. I just don't need. How about you? So from here, just rotate your arms outward so the palm face the sidewalls. Take a deep breath in.

You can look up. You can feel energy come in. I turn my palms away, and I push out anything I do not want. I'm balanced between the center, hopefully, inhale lift up. Oh, why don't we go higher, stretch those shoulders way high, find some space between the ribs and hips, and then turn the arms out and exhale down. We'll do one more and we'll finish that with a roll down. Inhale lift up. Exhale push down.

When your hands get about shoulder height, start rolling your head forward, round forward. Try to keep your balance where it is rounding forward towards that towel you have placed in front of you and bend the knees a little just kinda loosen up. And the the emphasis is really trying to loosen up your back, your body, and even your mind straighten the legs if you can and begin to roll back up stacking the hips over the knees. Stacking the ribs over the hips, stacking the shoulders over the ribs, inhale lift up. Arms go up. XL, press down. As you press down, almost imagine getting more space between the bones, head goes forward roll down.

Arms are basically heavy. Caller bones are wide. Take a moment, shake out your head, shake out tension, let go, bend the knees a little if you need to. Your hands can be on the floor, exhale straighten and start to roll back up. If you can't fully straighten right away, do it as you come up.

And then just inhale one more time. Exhale roll down. We're gonna grab the towel this time as we come back up. Hold wide on the towel and roll yourself right back up so it's at the edges of the towel. You're nice and lifted, inhale the arms go up.

From here, step wide, on your mat. So you're still confined to balance between the big toe and the little toe. Right? Hips aren't tucked way under. They're not way behind you for sure. You're still in an alignment where you're gonna stretch our bodies. Here we go. We're gonna lift up and over to one side.

Exhale to come back up. Easy, peasy. Right? Try not to drop into your knees. You are lifted. You're tall. You're proud. You're here. Inhale up and over.

Try to find a arc, exhale come back up. Inhale up and over. And exhale. Check if you're shifting the weight in the hips. You don't wanna do that.

We're just trying to get that upper body kinda activated, involved, engaged, inhale over. Starting to find some fluid motion. You'll hear me throughout class talk about starting an exhale before you go into the depth of the movement. So, like, here, inhale, that allows you to stretch a bit. Start that exhale Notice how it really helps you back up inhale over. Your body will help you.

Gonna relax the shoulders. I'm not pulling hard on the towel, but I have it a little bit. It reminds me to drop my shoulders. And up, over, and up just one more each way, feeling the side line of your body, and up, last one, and over. Alright. Just nothing fancy.

Step together. I'm gonna just place my towel off to the side here in the front, keeping it rolled like it is. Have a seat. And from here, just roll down. Bring your feet so you're in the center of your mat. Feet are flat relatively close to you.

And I'm also gonna say comfortable. From here, your back is just relaxed. Your shoulders are on the mat as much as you can. We're doing a pelvic curl. Inhale. Start that exhale.

There it is. Right? Roll your spine up when you need to use your legs, do use your legs. Keep rolling through every bone in your back that you can find until you are in a upright slant board position. How do you know? Put your hands on top of your hips. And and and if there's a real strong divot there, what I would say meaning a crease, what I would suggest is to come down a little bit, re tuck your pelvis or re round your back. Step into it and see if you can stretch out the front of the legs a little bit more. Alright.

You're on your own. Inhale at the top here. Start rolling back down. It's almost like a melting. We don't wanna overwork yet.

We're still warming up. Inhale at the bottom. Exale starts to exercise. Roll up. You make minor adjustments along the way.

There's a tendency, of course, for the shoulders to hike. Watch for that inhale, and exhale melt it down. There you are. Inhale at the bottom, exhale roll up. If you're over using your glutes or your quads or anything, really, your knees will probably splay to the side. I would suggest you not go as high and keep that long line where as as long as it can be, exhale roll down.

We'll do two more. And this is a time for awareness. What's your body doing? Is it wobbling side to side? It's okay. It just is. You start to pay attention.

It's one of the best features of doing this work. Arms are nice and long. I'm I am using them ever so slightly. I'll give you one more chance to feel what I mean. We're coming down.

Inhale. So with the arms down and flat, you can as you go up, you know, how you're standing on your feet, you can also stand on those upper arms a bit. Try to keep the wrist flat, but do stand on those upper arms too. So you're helping yourself. Good. Inhale. And from your throat, start to roll down from your chest, from the sternum, from those front ribs through the belly button all the way down.

Take your arms up above your chest, turn them out to toward each other so the hands face each other. Reach them out to the side. Almost to the ground. Reach longer. Think Michael Jordan, that poster. I know you know it. XO come right back up.

Inhale or think albatross giant wingspan way out there, exhale come back up. This time, we're gonna go out there and hold and maybe you'll feel a neural stretch through the arms. That's okay. It's okay. It's a little awkward, but it's okay. Set the arms down on the ground, bring both knees up to a tabletop position. They're together completely.

Rotate the lower body toward the front. Inhale. Look at your knees. They're lined up completely, and those that wing span is on the ground in the same way it was before, exhale come back. Wirming up the spine here really critical over and exhale come back. I'll tell you the knees want to slide on each other.

It's kinda natural if you're not paying attention, but we're not gonna do that because we already decided we're paying attention. So you inhale go over. That means that opposite hip comes up. You can stretch as far as you want, but keep the shoulders down. Start that exhale and feel the middle of your body.

The legs are just weight right here. So weight against the middle. And back up. So far so good. Just preparing. You gotta prepare for really moving, but we're just gonna keep flowing one to the next. Looking good.

I bet. And back. One more each way. I think I was let's do it. Do it. Oh, go longer, longer, longer. Almost reach the top knee further.

I exhale center and last one to the back and center. Okay. Now we're gonna stretch out our legs. Just keep your arms there for a second. Stretch out your legs. You might have to situate yourself on the mat.

Take the arms back up, right above your chest, turn the palms away from you, reach them back. My legs are together, so are yours. Reach your arms back, but not to the ground. And just take a minute. Inhale, On your exhale, can you press the backside of the rib cage down a little more? It might raise your arms. That's okay. I want the backside of the rib cage down as we start.

From here, you're gonna exhale reach the arms forward. Bring your head with it. Look towards your feet. Your arms are Almost like you're pressing against an imaginary solid, press down. Look at your feet and go back down. Right where you were.

Check those ribs. XL curl up. Looking, looking forward. Looking forward. Yes. Go back down. Okay. This time, we're coming up.

We're gonna stay there for a second. Curl up. No big deal. When you get here and my arms are a little bit above my size, right, about which is wider. From here, I want you to imagine you're gonna lift both leg. Don't do it. But imagine what would it take? So inhale and go, I'm gonna lift my legs right now, but you didn't. Do you feel the middle contraction?

It's so key. Go back down. In health, just do whatever it takes to get up. You don't have to overthink it. Just get there. Look forward. Collar bones are wide.

Imagine you're gonna lift both legs. Feel it. And go back down. That slap slap slap was me on my firm tummy when I was doing that. Here we go. XL curl back up. This time, imagine you're gonna lift one leg.

Just one. I'll take my right leg and actually do lift your leg right from there. Set it down. Same leg. Just think it first. That's key. Think it first. I'm reaching forward and up to get that leg up.

Switch sides, you're still curled up. Think I'm gonna lift the other leg. How am I gonna do that? Without it make it look effort less. And then both arms back down. Okay.

So I think you're getting where I'm going here. We're gonna curl up and think about lifting that right leg just before we we do. Here we go. Curling up, I'm thinking right leg. And then by the time I get up, so is that right leg? Inhale, everything goes back.

You know what we're doing. Other side, curl up, think start thinking, I'm gonna lift the left leg. How am I gonna lift the leg? And then it lifts. It's like that intention prior to it makes a world of difference and and keeps you where you wanna be when you do lift it. Wanna go up, stay up, right leg again.

And from here, keep it here. Imagine that leg is reaching from right out from under your chest, reach it, and pump the arms for five. In two, three, four, five, exhale two. Three, four, five, into three, four, five, out to three, one more, into three, four, five, out to three, four, five. Lower the legs, reach the arms back. Take a deep breath.

And good thing we get to do it again. Inhale, exhale curl yourself up, start thinking about that left leg lifting. It naturally will float up and we pump inhale two, three, four, five, exhale two, three, four, five, into three, four, five, out two, three, one more. In two, three, four, five out, la la la. Take it down. Reach it back. Shouldn't we try both legs? Yes. And you know how important it is, you can already start thinking about lifting a ball.

We'll only do one round of breath. Here we go. We curl up. We're thinking of lifting those legs, and look at that. They did five. In two, three, four, five.

Out two, three, four, five. Bend the knees in and take a rest. Yes. From here, we're just gonna rock ourselves up. Yeah? And I'm gonna offer you this towel for an assist. It's just even if you don't need it, it's sometimes nice to use it.

I'm placing we're gonna do what's called a roll up. And I'm placing the towel It's a it's gonna land right about the top of my pelvis or my sacrum. You may have to adjust it if it doesn't work out. But the idea is when you when you feel the towel, you're gonna push into it. You're gonna really exaggerate that.

Not about the legs. Nothing else. You're just gonna feel that towel. It'll also be something you wanna push in when you come back up. Alright. I'm gonna start it this way. The legs are starting straight.

We're upright as much as we can. If you can't do that, keep them bent because I'm about to bend them anyway. You reach forward. The end position is shoulders over hips. Right? And this c curve of the body, you can see the c in the spine, arm just right. We are going to begin to roll back.

You can drag the heels towards you when you feel that towel you press into it and reach the arms overhead. Now I'm gonna adjust mine because I didn't do it quite where I want it. I'm lowering mine a little. And then while arms are straight back, the knees are still bent, we inhale curl up press into the towel, exhale, and straighten your legs out and end in that starting position. Boom. Enter thighs together. Inhale.

You just keep the seat. Exhale start to roll back. Drag the knees in so you can curve even more. Press into the tail. Reach the arms back.

Are you graceful? Yes. No matter what's happening, keep trying, exhale press into the towel, stretch the legs out. It'll help you continue. Nice and long. Keep your neck in alignment too. So you're not looking straight ahead.

That's really a tendency. To do. And roll back, exhale, exhale, drag the knees in. Find the towel. Find the towel. Push in the towel at your friend. It's not a cheat.

It's really actually keeping you connected, hopefully, inhale reach forward. Start your exhale press into the towel. Let the legs stretch out. Let's do one more inhale and exhale roll back. Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes. And, yes, we gotta come back up. Finish it.

Nice wide collarbones. Well done. We'll call that the roll up. Move the towel out of the way again. And I'll I'll suggest options for using it later if if I find it. Alright. We're rolling down easily and heading into leg circles.

I have both knees bent. My arms are just down by my side and my knees are slightly apart. Sort of like that pelvic curl position. Take your right leg up, leave your hip on the floor for now, and actually move the lower the leg on the ground out away from you just a little. It'll make this feel better. We are going to take the leg on the air in the air, flex it, and just push straight up to the ceiling so that hip rolls. Like, you're just, like, gonna press the foot, like, you're gonna hit the ceiling and then roll it back down.

Do it again. Up Just kinda loosen it up through the hip joint, through the low back a tiny bit more, one more like that. And then we hold point to two. What we're gonna do is cross the leg over the body, circle it down around, and stop at the top. We're gonna inhale, cross it over, circle it down and around, stop at the top. Try to keep your pelvis still now inhale over, down and around. Stop. Two more. Inhale over, down and around.

Stop stirring up that hip joint. Switch side or directions. Out or around in a hold. Oh, I wobbled a lot on that one. So I'm gonna make mine smaller, two out of five. Three, four, and five. Reach up. Grab onto your leg where you can. It's okay if you bend it a little, but rather I rather you pull the lower leg in more and just give yourself a stretch.

Think I'm reaching my tailbone down, my shin towards my head, my hamstring towards the ceiling. That's enough of that. Bend the knee. Put it on the ground. If you wanna start in the the sort of neutral or first position too, but then walk that leg we just worked in the air a little bit away from you. The other leg goes up Your hips are level at the moment, flicks the top foot and just push the ceiling away roll.

So you're gonna feel that rotation in the hip and then drag it back down fully. Push it up and bring it down. I'm trying to keep my knees still. But it's not critical. I'm just trying to get some motion.

I'm a do one more. Okay. Point to toe. You're nice and stable. We're crossing over the midline of the body. It's not half it doesn't have to be far because now we're not moving our hips.

We exhale down around, make a circle stop. Inhale. XL around. Stop. Three. Here's four. Here's five. Switch directions. Take it out or around.

And as best you can, you just stay stable wherever you can without too much strain. I know. It's a lot to ask. I think we have one more here. Wala. Hang out with it.

You might bring the lower leg in close to reach for the shin, the calf, or even behind the thigh, that's cool. Tail bone though goes down. You don't wanna lift it. Right? We wanna stretch. Woo hoo. Okay. Ben that knee, bring the other one up to match it.

Hold on behind your knees. Lift your head neck and shoulders pushing your thighs into your hands so you make, like, I don't know what this looks like. A scoop a boat or something. Keep that shape rock a few times. Now, feeling the back a little looser, come up, stay up, and we're going into rolling like a ball.

So you can stay here. Try if you do stay with your hands underneath your legs, put your knees together and your feet together and don't kick the legs. So it would look like this if you're watching. It goes back, comes up, and you hold. If you wanna challenge it a little, put your hands on top of the chins, push into it.

Still don't get to kick your legs. Let's roll back and up. Hold. It's fun. If if it doesn't work, That's cool. You get something to work on because there's this connection that happens through the whole body and it lands right in the center it seems. So if we can just control that, even if it wobbles, you'll you'll your brain will start to figure out what your body is trying to do for you.

Couple more. Is it easy? Bring the heels to your butt. Oh gosh. Did I just say that elbows wide? Let's see. It goes faster just so you know.

Keep those knees glued together. You're tight like a ball. Where you start, you stay, even if it's stretched out, that's fine. That's enough of those. Feed her down. Separate them again.

Roll yourself down. Arms by your side. Bring the feet in comfortably like you're gonna do a pelvic curl because you are here. It goes like this. Inhale. Exhale, roll yourself up.

Up. Find the long line. In fact, go ahead and take a peek. And if you can see your knees, but not your hips, again, I suggest you come down a little tuck more, press only as high as you can even if it's not a straight line, but work towards a straight line. Arms are gonna be needed.

So keep them close and flat on the ground. Take your right leg straight up to the ceiling. Your hips did not move. We are going to point down flex the foot at the bottom and kick up and nothing else moves. We're gonna go faster though.

Here's number one, one, and up, two, and up. Watch your ribs three. We'll do six, four, five, and six stay up. And just bring that foot down. Roll part way down. This is just a regrouping.

Retuck your pelvis so you feel the scoop. Step into your feet. If you cramp, by the way, not uncommon, you you kinda have to just shake it out and come back. Other leg comes up. Hips are still level.

You might have to pick your head up and check it. You're your own teacher here. We point down flex up. Here's one, two, three, four, five or was it six? There we go. Put it back down.

Reta reestablish your position. Roll yourself down and bring your knees in. Push your knees into your hands. Look forward and roll yourself up. For the spine stretch.

It goes like this. Let's re you can straighten your legs. For the flexible people, go ahead. Right? As long as you can keep your back flat, I encourage those who feel super tight in the hamstrings, for now to slightly bend them. But your feet are about the width of your mat, maybe a little wider. These point up, that is the hard part to do when your knees are bent.

These and toes. Armed straight ahead. Like, whatever this image is for you that makes you feel strong. And again, my lats are involved. I'm kinda gently pressing, so I feel like I'm pressing on something.

We inhale The goal is to round forward the spine and get all your air out. Go ahead. Don't let the knees turn out. Don't let the knees go arms just keep going straightforward. Imagine putting the top of your head on your mat. I've been imagining for forty two years.

And exh inhale come back up. Keep going. It's we've we've inhaled. Now exhale forward. Honestly, if you can truly blow out all the air without rolling back in the pelvis, it it almost springboards you back up with an inhale. Let's go.

Go. Go. Go. Go. Go. Go. It's not about forward. It's about rounding downward. Inhale back up. Two more. Again, you can straighten your legs.

Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. And up. One more. Round. And we're up. Bring them feet together. Again, I'm gonna go bent knees. Some of you've taken my class, we can do it in a diamond that kind of frees up the hip flexors if they're starting to take over.

But eventually, this one is also straight. So carry on, those of you who are comfy with there. We take the arms out to a t position, and you could see that just by looking. Right? One's not in front of the other. Flipip the entire arm over.

Settle squeeze of the shoulder blades. I'm gonna ask you to come towards me on a rotation. Legs don't move. It's gonna go faster than this, but it's gonna be reach reach come back to center. Other way, one, two, center.

So it's twist twist and center. I'm gonna exhale, exhale. You can do whatever breath, really, but I kinda think of Let's and I'm trying to go further on that second pulse. Let's go. Twist twist. You're not leaning back.

Are you? No. Last two. Back to center. Just release your arms down. We are going to, go into the open leg rocker, which I think you're gonna like. It's a fun one. It's not always easy, but fun. So I scooted myself forward just so I know if I get crazy, my head's still on the mat.

And I'm gonna bring my feet in close to start the my feet are apart. To start this, I'm gonna hold on behind my thighs. Roll the pelvis back so I'm just behind the tailbone. Right? And and maybe far enough that you can easily float the legs up. Right? You don't wanna have to lean back and have to yank yank. It's truly like a natural.

I roll back. I roll back and it fine. I feel like my legs can just lift off. Once you're there, support your calves. So your feet are about as wide as the mat from there. There's a lot to this one, actually. You're gonna stay back on this tailbone, but you can try to elongate your back.

Some of you will feel it more as a lift of the chest. We're gonna roll backwards like that rolling like a ball and land here. Good luck. Roll back, exhale come up, hold. Little wobble wobble. That's cool. You'll you'll find it.

And I'm supporting my calves and gently pressing into them. It it does help that opposition back and up. Hold. So you did you get what appears to be a straight spine at the end, but, yeah, there's that little tuck at the bottom. Roll back. Come up. Hold. Keep going.

Play with it. If you wanna play with it a little more, extend your legs. It's gonna make you go faster. Keep your shape. Right? Don't yank your head back. Nothing changes. In fact, I like to look forward a bit and straighten out at the top.

Roll back. Sometimes I think of it like this to get me going. I think of pulling my legs upwards and then pushing them back downwards. And then somehow putting the brakes on. One more time. And there we are.

You can just fold your knees in, and we're going to turn around face down. For a little single leg kick. So for this version of it, what we're doing is I'm I don't know what shape that is. I guess a diamond of the elbow. So my hands aren't right.

My elbows are not right underneath me, but they are forward. So I'm basically at the almost the sternum, almost. Then this sense of dragging the elbows down and back, but not actually moving them. So you have a upper back extension just to start. From here, reach those legs long. And together if you can, a little part's fine.

So you you feel the back of the legs. It's that idea of I'm about to lift them. So get that contraction first, then actually lift them. Slow them. Just float so the kneecaps are off. We're gonna kick one leg in and straighten it.

Looks like this. We go kick, kick, straight, switch, kick, kick, straighten, kick, kick, kick, stirrating, you're super powerful in your upper body. You don't have to work that hard, but you have to hold it. Let's do it again. Out, and in. Out one more.

Out, and in. And, oh, nice work. You can just rest down. Let your forehead rest. And then we're gonna if you need a rest position, take it, but I'm gonna just move us right into our side kick. So come on up to our elbow.

Ben the lower leg. Just a little more freedom in the hip joint. K? The similar feeling as you were pulling on the, mad a moment ago with your elbows, imagine that here. It's like you're sliding the mat towards you. So you're gonna hold yourself up, lift the top leg.

Nothing else moves from here, but the leg. Can kick it forward, forward, sweep it back. Forward forward, sweep it back. Forward forward, sweep it back. Forward forward, sweep it back. And we'll make this the last one.

Hold it back there. Take the top arm. And just reach it on the diagonal so it would be opposite to the leg that's behind you, roll the top hip forward, forward more, and maybe you'll feel a tiny stretch there through the body. Come in, set that leg that was just moving on top not on top. In front of the other one, you still have this strong triangle of space between your shoulder and your elbow and ribs. We're just gonna lift up for a side bend.

Lift your body. Take the arm off. Hold. Just breathe. Yeah. Where do you need help? Find it? You can. I can't tell you, like, is it hard on your shoulder? Think of lifting your hips.

Think of lifting waste. I'm not sure. Let's find it. Alright. Come down. Bend the knees in. Just take a little mermaid stretch. Oh. So nice.

Other side. We started with the side kick. Lower leg is bent 90 degrees. I like to pull the foot away because you can use whatever you need. So you can use that that whole leg, lift the top leg.

Your chest is open. We're not rotating. You know what to do. Let's kick forward, forward, sweep. Forward forward, sweep.

Forward, forward. Sweet. For now, we're keeping it really stable. Right? It gets fun when we really let it go. But for now, it's important. We got one more here. Take it to the back, hold it to the back.

It check it. Is it to the back? We have to pay pay attention. Right? That top arm just reaches forward on the diagonal. You can turn your upper body. You can even push that leg further back to find a stretch. And then we come in, set the the leg working leg in front of the bottom leg.

Both legs are now straight. The triangle of space is still here. If that doesn't work for you as a cube, make sure you're not resting like you're watching TV, you're up You can help yourself up on this first one, a nice long line, no rotation arm comes up, and just breathe. Follow moment. Just hold it. Yeah. Field in strength even as we flow.

Alright. Come on down. Bring the legs in. You could either stack them or spread them apart for a little mermaid stretch, which is The arm that was on the ground gets a little break. We're gonna swing around again for one more thing, which is swimming. Everybody's favorite.

I wasn't okay. Here we go. So what we're doing, we got our arms stretched out. If your shoulders are tight, you're you're more than welcome to go wider. You do wanna have some space with between your ears and shoulders. Your feet about hip distance.

From there, we take an email. I'm not going anywhere yet. Think Spider Man, push down on the tops of the feet and the palms, What does that do? It allows your belly to come up a bit or tighten or firm. Because you're gonna want that sense as we really do pick them up on this next one. Relax inhale.

Start the sense of drawing the belly and then float the arms and legs up about the height of your head with the arms. And level to your hips with the legs. So we're gonna take the right arm and the left leg up. Slowly, switch. You're gonna have to breathe how you want as we concentrate on keeping it in opposition.

If that's no problem, kinda look forward, by the way. If that's no problem, pick up the pace and just inhale and exhale. Inhale. And exhale. Inhale. XL, you got one more, and you come on inhale.

And exhale. Stretch everything long. Lower yourself down. Take a second, shimmy it out. Whatever you need.

We'll take the hands by the shoulders, press ourself up into a rest position. Which means hips back toward the heels, or if that doesn't work for you, you can just round your back. Just something to loosen you up, then walk your feet forward, curl the toes under, and we're gonna end like we started with the shoulder or the roll down. So feet go flat. You're forward folded over your legs.

We inhale. And think I don't know what I want you to think. Don't think. How about that? Just start to roll up and stack your bones so that you end up completely upright, not backwards, not forward. Arms are heavy. We lift up. I'm just gonna face you.

You can stay there. And when you're at the top, shift your body weight forward again. Shift it back to see if do you feel any different? Do you feel better? Do you feel strong? Do you feel whatever? And then come back and see if you can make it more so or less so depending. Turn your palms out inhale, reach the arse up, up, up.

Oh, you deserve it, create as much space as you want. Exit let go of anything you don't. And one more time, inhale. And exhale. Shake it out. Go have a good day.

Go have a good night. Do go go do happy. Thanks for being here. Bye.