Morning Flow

Hi everyone, I'm Rohini and welcome to the third part of this series. Now if you're somebody that wakes up with a lot of tension in your lower back and your legs, this is the sequence just for you. It's going to find movement to open up your hip flexors, your lower back, all over the thighs and the legs, especially if you're a runner or a player, a lot of footballers and cricketers - it's the perfect morning sequence to come into, okay? So let's begin.

So as we meet in the front of the mat, I want you to start by just lifting your hands up. Imagine that the wings of a bird reach your hands up, slow and steady, like you're just stretching from your morning wake up. Interlace the hands above your head and reach up to the sky, seeing if you can grow a little bit longer. Now just make sure you're not arching the body, tuck the tailbone, and just reach up, like you're growing through all the length of the spine.

From here, reach your hands into a namaste mudra, also known as the Anjali mudra. Shift the weight into the right leg as you slowly set up, bend your elbows, bring it down. And as you do, simultaneously learn to balance and slowly lift the left leg up. First thing in the morning, learning to concentrate and steady the body is sometimes hard, but I promise you it'll create a very fruitful practice.

From here, with this knee, imagine you're tracing a semi-circle. So tilt the foot out as you just push the knee out and slowly, slowly, slowly trace a semi-circle like you're leaning. Trace the semi-circle all the way to the back, just opening up our hip joints and meeting me in a beautiful Virabhadrasana III, or Warrior III, okay?

Then from there, we'll need to just work on tightening and lengthening this leg. So we're just going to bend the right knee, get really tiny, and then open and spread our wings and fly, like you're a beautiful bird. Trying this again, bend the knee, get really tiny, and open your wings and fly again. They say good things happen in threes, so let's do it the last time. Bend the knee, get super small, and then open your wings and fly.

Take a pause, just notice how the legs are feeling from all that extension. Slowly, just drop the left toes down as you reach the hands up into this beautiful, beautiful lunge. Don't overarch the body, just keep the tailbone tucked in as you reach up and sit lower. I want you to feel the stretch down the front of the left thigh and also engagement on this side.

Take a second, we're going to drop this left knee to the floor slowly for the count of five, four, three, two, and one, relax. Now reach the hands forward, reach it, reach it, reach it, reach it, like you're going to reach something or somebody there, leaning the chest forward. And you'll feel a very nice stretch, both down the front of the left thigh and the inner right thigh.

Take a second look - those of you that are really flexible, drop down to the elbows; if not, stay on your palms; if not, you can even stay on the fingertips if you're getting a really nice stretch. So with me for another four, we breathe, feeling the body relax, especially around the hips and the lower back, for two, for one, moving your hands back so they're in line with your feet.

Lift the left knee off and step the right leg back into our first high plank. Shoulders pull back, your gaze is forward, and slowly drop your knees, your chest and chin down to the floor. Again, take a nice Bhujangasana, shoulders are pulling back, your head is lifting up, creating space in your upper back and the front chest. And then you curl the toes, pop the knees, and take a downward-facing dog.

We're going to end this, right? So we're going to lift the left leg as high as you can. Stretch it up to the sky like you literally want to tickle the ceiling. Try not to bend the right knee, don't lift the heel off, keep the heel down and lift as much as your body will allow to let the leg go. And you'll feel the stretch even on the back of the right leg. Try not to tilt, keep the shoulders in the same line, engage and lift.

Now look forwards and land the left foot outside the left hand. We're dropping the right knee down, again, in slow motion, slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly, meeting it down. Once the knees come down, untuck your toes. Again, remember, reach forwards like somebody ran away and you're just trying to catch them.

If this is really hard, then come back to being here. If that's really easy, from here, drop the elbows down. There's always options in yoga to make things harder or easier, depending on what the body is capable of as of that day. It really doesn't define you as a better yogi or a worse yogi. It's just what happened to your body and what we're doing to release it.

So, shoulders back, head forwards, feel the stretch, try to hang out there, so let the hips melt to the floor, just for another four. Few more seconds, my dear. For three, sinking your hips if we can, a little bit closer to the floor. For two, lengthening to the heart, looking forwards. Last breath. And for one, slowly coming to our palms again, shoulders pulling back, curling those right toes, lifting it up and allowing it to meet your left leg.

Grab hold of either elbow again, feeling that nice, beautiful stretch in the back of your hamstrings. The key in any good forward fold is actually leaning forwards. When we lean back, we tend to get shorter, so lean forwards and pull the elbows down. Let your hair cascade like a waterfall, pull the elbows down, inches deeper, inches deeper, inches deeper.

Release the hands and roll yourself up, almost like a little zombie that's rising from the floor, for another four, three, two, and one. Shoulders feel back, reach your hands up really slowly, all the way up to the sky. And gently bring your hands right back to heart center.

So you can repeat this stretch also on the opposite side. I started on one leg and I finished, and I want you to try it on the other side as well so that both sides get done evenly. Stretch out both sides, do this at least two times in the morning and you'll notice the legs feel really nice, long and very flexible. Thank you so much for sharing this practice, and I hope you have a lovely day. Namaste.