Free Bird - Yoga Practice for Youthful Fluidity with Sherry Zak Morris, Certified Yoga

Hi, Sherry here with a fascia renewal practice that will open up our body and make us feel a lot freer. I have a pose I call free bird, and I love it, and I hope you do too. But the first thing we're going to do is just warm up a little bit. So we're going to do the pony. So just take your hands on your hips, and we're just going to move those feet. Yeah, up and down. Yeah, you're on your tippy toes, lifting your heels. Good, good. Now a pony with a little attitude, like yeah, get those hips moving. Yeah, good. Back to the pony. Good. And now incorporate the swim. Yeah. Now do you see how swimming is so good for you in terms of the fluidity of the movements? Take it a little slower now. Yeah, we're just lingerly going around swimming. Feels good, huh? Good. Backstroke. Yeah, backstroke. Backstroke. Be gentle with the shoulders. You know, if it really is bothering you, always can put your hands on your shoulders like that. Just as good. Good. And then keep the pony going, and we're going to do the breaststroke. Good. Multitasking, huh? Upper body, lower body doing different things, huh? Yeah. Good. And the last one is the big old butterfly. Up and over. Yeah. Up and over those waves. Keep that pony going. Good. You got it. Good. Now ragdoll. Boy, they got the heart rate up a little bit. Why is that? It's because the calf is the second heart. Remember, the calf is pumping things. Good. And just a little sway. Good. All right. So here's the free bird. So let's take out our wings first of all. Back in the day, back in the long, long days ago, right, our arms were our wings. So let's pretend that we're just flying. And you can have a soft knee bend in there if you want to. Fluid movements. And remember, if your shoulders are bothering you, take a low little swing of those wings. And if it's feeling okay, maybe a little bit bigger. Feel that fluidity. Good. Then bring it back to your heart center. And we're going to take one arm up and one arm down. So it looks like this. Yeah. And like that. Good. Do you think we're stretching the fascia right now? Opening up space in those little fiber threads. Maybe releasing some of those nerve endings that are kind of bound up in there. Good. You got that? Good. One more cycle. Now we'll incorporate the legs. So we're going to kick out a leg and we're going to reach up and then back and reach up. Good. And again, reach up and down and reach up and down. Good. Now take it a little bit wider. And we're going to get a little bit into the hips. So you know those hula hoops are going to do that. Just slowly moving around one direction and the other a few times. And I want you to take a little bit of a squat. Your toes are out. Your heels are in. Just a little bit. And you're going to take one hand to your side. The other hand is going to reach across. And then come back in. And then you're going to reach across. Come back. And this is going to get the low back area. Oh yeah. Good. And then one last time. Reach across. Hold that. And breathe into that. If you want to like get a little bit more stretch into the shoulder and the arm and the wrist. As if you're like pulling and bringing it back in and pulling and reaching and changing the vector a little bit. Good. Come back in. Other side. We're going to reach. Bring it back in. Exhale. And inhale. And exhale. And inhale. Strong legs. And exhale. Good. Keep reaching. And then a little movement. Remember change the vector. That will get little different angles in your low back, your hip, your shoulder. Yeah. Just move it around. Good. Back to the center. Now we're going to clear the table. So here we go. Swoop and swoop. Clean that table. Smooth. Very good. And one more round. We really need to clean that table. Huh? Good. Very good. Heel toe back in. All right. So now we're going to take it all the way up to a V. And take it all the way down to a V. All the way up to a V. All the way down to a V. And again. Up. And take it down. And last time. Take it up and hold it. We are in our modified chair, which we call stool these days, right? Good. Bring your hands together. Take them back to your heart. Beautiful. Take it into a little twist. So just turn one way. Twist. Back to the center. Turn the other way. Twist. Good. Back to the center. Open it up. Back to the center. Open it up. And back to the center. Two more. We can do it. Inhale up. And exhale back to the center. And inhale up. And exhale back to the center. Good. Stand up and kick your butt. Because remember, we were holding those quad muscles quite strongly. So just kick your butt. Very good. So we're going to work a little bit in the low back area. There is a fascia area in our low back. It's the shape of a diamond. It starts a little bit below your bra strap. Goes all the way down to your tailbone. And it comes out like a diamond shape. And that area usually is very thick in people who have back pain and people who just have overall stiffness in the hips and the back. So we're going to grab the mat. We're going to come down on the floor. So grab your mat and I'll meet you down there in a second. So we're going to begin on hands and knees. So you want to position your hands in a way that you're spread wide. So you're bearing your weight across all the angles in your palm. And their arms are over your wrists so that you feel nice and strong. You're not going back and you're not going forward. Nice and parallel. Good. And your knees are hip width apart. Your toes can be flat or your toes can be tucked. Doesn't matter. Good. So we're going to start to work a low back movement. So we're going to inhale into our cat position. So we're going to round the back. And we're going to exhale and we're going to come into our cow position. So this is called a pelvic tilt. And release. It's a beautiful rocking motion. Using your breath. And remember the inhales and the exhales can always alternate depending on what your effect is. So for me I'm inhaling into the strength of my upper back and lower back muscles. And I'm exhaling into the lengthening of those muscles and the fascia of course. And let's do two more. So inhaling up and exhaling down. And one more time. Inhaling up and exhaling. Good. Come back to flat back. And now we're going to wag the tail. So we're going to take the hips off to one side and look behind us. Come back to the center. And the hips go off to the side and look to the other direction. Good. And you're just going to take that back and forth. Oh, what are we doing here? We're stretching all across that little diamond area. The raccal lumbar fascia. That's the area that we're getting into. Lumbar means the lower back. Thoracic means the middle of the back. So there's that little junction there. And that area of the spine gets a little bit tweaky or tight. We're just loosening that up. Good. Now you can change the dynamic a little bit by rounding your back like that little cat position and then taking it off to the side just a little. Remember, changing the vectors gives you a whole different experience. And one more. Good. Then flatten your back again. And we're going to come back to child's pose. So the big toes touch. The knees come out a little wider. And if you can sit back with comfort with your knees, feel free to do that. Otherwise you can stay right here and come forward with your arms all the way out in front. That's a big long stretch for your spine. So feel free to tuck your chin down and just lengthen. Maybe grip the mat a little bit forward and then just breathe into that nice long stretch underneath the arms, underneath those armpit areas. Beautiful fascia stretch through the arms. Yeah. When we stretch our fascia, we can have beautiful arm tone so that those muscles can expand and have space and not be all condensed and jammed into those fascia nets that are all tight and bound up. And then we'll walk over to one side. So feel free to just walk it over to one side. Remember, we're just changing the vector. For those of you who can go a little bit deeper, maybe your hips go back towards your heels a little bit. Be careful with those knees. You can always use a blanket under the knees or a bolster. And then let go. Just soften. And then breathe. And then breathe. And then breathe. Lifting the head, walking the fingers back to the center. We'll go to the other side. How's that feeling so far? Yeah. You're just going to walk those fingers as comfortably as you can and then just take the bow. You'll notice that one side might be a little different than the other. It's okay. And only by exhaling in this pose can we go a little bit deeper. And breathe a little bit more. A little bit more. And surrender one more time. And then walk it all the way back to the center. And then walk yourself back up. And we'll bring those knees in. Very good. Now we're going to take it into a circular motion in our hips. So I want you to take your big toes together. Touch them. Knees go out a little bit wider. And we're going to take the right hip towards the right heel. So it's like a little diagonal. Good. And then swoop it over. Left hip towards the left heel. And then take a circle and bring it all the way back to the center. Good. So here we go. Slow. Maybe tucking the chin as you're going down and around. And you're over to the other side. And you're coming up and maybe looking up. Integrating the lower, middle, and upper back. Nice, gentle, slow movements. Exhaling as you draw back. Inhale as you come up. One more round. Getting into that fascia diamond, that thoracolumbar fascia area. Yes, good. We're back to kneeling. Good. Let's go the other way. Left hip down towards that left heel. Around and inhaling up. Lifting the chin if that feels good. Exhaling, tucking the chin. So remember you're incorporating not just your hips now. You feel it. I know you do through your side body, through the upper and lower arms. Good. Finding that beautiful nourishment. Movement nourishes your fascia. As one of my favorite students says, motion is the lotion. Around we go. Good. All the way back to the center. We'll take it back to a full child's pose. If that serves you, please do it. If not, find some modification that feels good for you. If you want to take those arms forward for a nice long reach underneath the arms. Or you can stack your forearms together and rest your head. And just take some breaths into that lower back area. There might be some micro movements you want to take there. You might just want to rest here. But if you want to take some micro movements, maybe you just shift your weight to one side a little bit. And back to the center. And shift it to the other side. And back to the center. So just back and forth. Remember these are movements that are slow, deliberate, as we're stretching those fibers in all different angles and directions. Very good. And when you come back to the center, reach your arms out in front. We're going to come back to our tabletop position. And we're going to make our way to standing. So if you want to, you're going to take one foot forward, the other foot forward. Keeping your head looking forward, bend your knees. And we're going to inhale gently all the way up. And bring it all the way back to the center. Very good. Fix your shirt if you need to. Very good. So we're going to end it with free bird again, because it's just the perfect pose for really experiencing what it feels like to open the fascia trains in our body. So taking it to the heart, we're going to reach up. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. And exhale. And inhale. And exhale. Flap your wings. Glide smoothly and freely. Back to your heart center. Thank you so much for joining me in this fascia renewal practice. I hope that made you feel good. I hope that made you feel a little bit more open. Remember the low back area is always an area that we need to pay attention to. So all those hip movements, all those little hula hoops, and all those little rag dolls, they all help with loosening up your fascia and making you feel free again. So thank you again for joining me. Namaste.