Prana - Day 5

I'm sorry, what's that? Oh, hello everyone. Welcome to Prana, your seven day yoga journey. Benji wanted me to tell you it's Day 5 so high five everyone. Thank you for showing up. Let's get started. Alright, let's begin today's session on all fours. As always, take your time getting into your first position. Honoring your body, honoring your energy level as we step into our practice today. We'll come to Tabletop Position. Press away from the yoga mat. And a good old classic Cat-Cow to start. So inhale, drop the belly, open the chest. Lift the chin, exhale, start at the tailbone. See if you can climb slowly up the spine until the crown of the head is the last thing to release. Just play here. Warming up the body and focusing the mind. Allowing the breath and the body to sync up here. That prana body for me is when the breath and the body are united. I should say conscious prana body because you're always a prana body. Okay, the next time the navel is drawing to the spine and the crown of the head is released and the next time you're in Cat Pose, stay there for a breath or two. Breathing into the back body. Feeling the rise of your inhalation and the fall of your exhalation. Lovely, now take it through once more. Belly drops, heart opens, heart center. That energy radiates forward and take a breath here. Feeling all four sides of the torso expand here. Tailbone is lifted up towards the sky. Lovely, then come back to neutral. Drop the elbows where the hands are and walk the knees back. Heart to Earth Pose, Puppy Posture. Open up through the shoulders. Take three deep breaths here. Forearms are parallel. Palms are pressing into the earth. And if you feel any pain in your shoulder, just come up a bit. You don't need to go so far down. Before we move here, just close your eyes or use your creative mind to see this line from the crown of the head to the tip of the tailbone. Now let's move this line of energy by carving a line with the nose forward as if you're a little kitty cat pressing a ball of yarn so really thinking of the neck as part of your spine. And then we'll slide through bringing the hips down, belly down to come into a Sphinx Pose. Take a breath here to inhale, lift your chest. Find length in the back of your neck. Turn your nose to the right. Feel the stretch in the left side of your neck as you press into your left elbow and turn your nose to the left. Same thing, press into your right elbow. Feel a deep stretch. Come back to center. Interlace the fingertips. Elbows are underneath the shoulders still so give that a check then curl the toes under, inhale in. Short, sharp exhale. So an explosive exhale lifts your hips up to Forearm Plank. Can always lower the knees for Half Plank. Inviting a little fire here as you reach the heels back, crown of the head forward. Inhale in deeply with me here. Exhale completely with me here. Again, inhale deeply with me here. You got this. Exhale completely. One more time, press away from your yoga mat. Keep the neck nice and long. Inhale and exhale. Slowly lower the knees. Come back to all fours. Shake the hips a little left to right and when you're ready, make your way up to Downward Facing Dog. Take a couple breaths here to find any movement that feels good. Bending the knees, listening and responding to the sensations in your body as you breathe deep. And then when you're ready, we'll make our way to the top of the mat, moving with your breath. Inhaling to look forward. Exhaling to make your way to the top. Feet hip width apart or together, your choice. Just nice conscious footing. Allow the weight of the head to relax over here. Take a couple breaths. Uttanasana. Then check it out. Bring the left fingertips to the front of your mat. If you have a block, you can also bring a hand to a block. Inhale, we're gonna find a little twist here but you're gonna move slow. You're gonna imagine you're drawing like a bow and arrow with your right hand as you trace your right fingertips across the left arm and then across the chest. Bend your left knee, keep straight through your right leg as you reach the right fingertips up high to the sky. Yep, inhale in. Exhale, bring it right back down the way you came. Right hand replaces the left and we slowly trace a line with the left fingertips up the right arm. Right knee slowly bends. We cross the chest and lift the left fingertips up high. Big breath, big stretch. And exhale all the way back down the way we came. Forward Fold. Good, inhale, halfway lift here. Bring the palms to the tops of the thighs. We're gonna be here for a couple breaths. Crown of the head reaches forward. You're creating this figure seven shape in the body. The legs are starting to really get engaged here. And we'll draw the shoulder blades together and just find length through the crown of the head. So you're really relying on these stabilizer muscles to hug to the bones here. You got this, breathe. Inhale in and then exhale, just keep pressing into your feet and let's lift the heart and come up to standing. Keeping those legs nice and strong. Excellent, turn your gaze past your right shoulder. Lift your heart. Come through center, turn your gaze past your left shoulder. Keep the heart lifted. Lovely, inhale back to center. Exhale, relax the shoulders down away from the ears. Cool, inhale to reach up high. Exhale, Forward Fold. Bend the knees as generously as you need. Inhale, halfway lift, come back to that position. Find strength by hugging muscle to bone here. Extending through the crown of the head. Good, exhale, soften and bow. Left foot's gonna step back into your lunge. Lower the knee, inhale, reach the arms up high. So we're here. Back toes can be curled under or not. Whatever feels most stable for you. Good, inhale to reach all the way up. Exhale, press the palms down, open the chest. Interlace the fingertips behind you. Lift, lift, lift up through the sternum here. You got this. Pad that left knee whenever you need to. A little trick for padding the knee if you don't have a blanket handy is to just double up on your mat like so. And reveal this cool color of my mat. Inhale in, exhale, bring it all the way down. Pull the right hip crease back for a little runner's stretch. Inhale, lengthen through the crown here. Exhale, roll forward. Plant the palms, step it back to Downward Facing Dog. Inhale in deeply here. Exhale completely. Inhale to look to the top of your mat. Exhale to make your way to the top of your mat. Forward Fold, let everything go. Big breath, soft bend in the knees to find that stretch in the lower back. And inhale, halfway lift, find that flat back position. Pause here, take a couple breaths. Draw the navel up towards the spine. So you're defying gravity here at center. Sits bones are reaching back. Draw the shoulder blades together. And then keep pressing into your heels. Let's lift the heart, come back up to Tadasana. Nice, turn your gaze to look past the right shoulder and the left shoulder. And back to center. Inhale, reach for the sky. Exhale, Forward Fold, rain it down. With your breath, inhale, lift halfway. Exhale, soften and fold. Fingertips to the mat, step the right foot back, lower the right knee. Your choice, whether you uncurl the toes or not. When you're ready, sweep the arms forward. Deep breath in. Exhale to relax the shoulders. And then slowly pressing the palms down, we'll interlace this time. See if you can interlace them. Take the bind the other way. So the opposite direction of what you did before usually is gonna be the one that feels more funky. Then draw the knuckles down and away as you open up through the pecs, the chest, and lift your sternum up high. Find the stability in the lower body by connecting to the muscles of the pelvic floor, your core, breathing deep. Then inhale, reach the arms up, and exhale to release it down. Let's send the hips back for a little counter-stretch here, runner's stretch. And then rolling through, press into the palms, step your left foot back, come back to Downward Facing Dog. Let's take a lion's breath here. So bend your knees, inhale in deeply. Don't think about it too hard. Exhale, tongue out. One more time, inhale, bend the knees. Deep breath in, nice cleansing breath, tongue out. On your next inhale, lift the right leg up high. Exhale, step it forward into your lunge. Pivot on the back foot. Let your left fingertips lead the way by reaching forward as you rise up, and then take it all the way back, coming into Warrior II here. Take a second here to find your footing. Build this pose from the ground up. Challenge yourself by maybe taking a nice wide stance, and then find your focus out past your right fingertips. Inhale in here to get really tall. Exhale, bend your right elbow, extended side angle. Left fingertips are going to reach either up towards the sky or all the way up towards the front edge of your mat. Inhale in deeply, exhale completely. Good, one more inhale in here, and exhale to release. Come back to your mat, plant the palms, step the right foot back, Downward Facing Dog. Second side, inhale, lift the left leg up high. Exhale, shift it forward. Pivot on the back foot, move with your breath. Let's go, right fingertips forward, up, and back, Warrior II. Strong legs, nice wide Warrior stance. Lengthen through the crown of the head. Keep in mind this powerful line from the crown to the tail. Deeply bend your front knee. Actively press into the outer edge of your right foot. Beautiful, inhale in here. Exhale, left elbow to the top of the left thigh. Find your arm position, either right arm opening all the way up, just gives you a little more space in the shoulder, or we'll take it forward towards the front edge of our mat. Breathe in deeply here. Exhale, one more time, inhale in, and exhale brings you all the way back to your lunge. Nice work, from here we're gonna plant the palms, step it to Downward Dog. Take one more full breath in here, and then as slow as you can go, slow motion, we'll begin to bend the knees and allow them to descend as slow as you can possibly go. Slow, slow, slow, slow, slow, and then eventually they kiss the ground, and if they kind of collapse to the ground, way to be human, all good. Take a second here to round through the spine in Balasana, just a breath, and then we're gonna flip to our backs. Take a second to get there, I'm gonna go this way, and when you get to your back, I'd love for you to choose either a Bridge Pose with arms or a Happy Baby, so you can choose if you wanna sneak both in. That's good, Happy Baby. We grab the outer edges of the feet or the inner arches of the feet, and we send the soles of the feet up towards the sky. The tailbone lengthens forward. In Bridge, of course, we ground through the feet, just like we've been doing, we lift the hips up high. Whatever you chose, or maybe you're trying to sneak both in, it's good. Let your gaze soften once again, and return to your breath. And then we'll meet with the right knee in, the left leg out, just for a little twist. Take the right knee over towards the left side of your mat, breathe in, turn your gaze to look past your right shoulder, and breathe out, bring it back to center, send the right leg out, left knee in. Same thing on the other side. Slowly melt it all back to center. Extend the legs out long, get comfortable. Snuggle your shoulder blades underneath your heart space. Once you're comfortable, let's take a deep breath in. And this time, as you exhale, make a ha sound as if you're fogging a window, pain. Shavasana. Finishing with a quiet moment of being. Bringing your awareness back to your breath. Beginning to, perhaps, wiggle the fingertips or toes, or moving the thumbprint across the pinky finger, ring finger, middle finger, index finger. Drawing the hands together, prayer position, thumbs to third eye. Inhale, lots of love in. And exhale to close today's practice. Two more days, unless you already know about the secret bonus, day eight. Guess you'll have to keep moving through this journey to discover that, but thank you for showing up. I can't wait to see you for tomorrow's practice, day six. Till then, take good care. Namaste.