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Day 19: Front Body Opening

When we think about doing back men's, we often think about just the back, especially where we've been the most, which is in the low back. What we don't realize are, at least for most of us. We don't realize that back men's really happened through the shoulders and through the hips, so as a hip flexors. So the more that we open up into the front body, meaning into the belly, the chest, shoulders and the hips, the deeper that we're able to go into the back body often have students that are trying to get into wheel or upward facing bow pose. And they can't do it because they don't have enough mobility and their shoulders, and they don't have enough openness in their hips. So this video is really about opening up into those parts of the body. That way, we could get more mobile so we could actually do things like back men's or even get deeper into our back bends. Let's start on our hands and knees. If you have a couple blocks handy, you're going to need them for this video. So grab either t...

o cork blocks or to to phone blocks. It doesn't really matter which one for this first part. And then we're gonna find her height and the high. It's going to depend on how open up our shoulders are, you know? So let's commented that we could start with this one. It's a nice wide one. Bring the hands together or bring the elbows down onto the mat. First, send the knees back. So there, underneath the hips, bring the palms together. Bring the head down. Take the hands behind the heart. Now this we really want to think of relaxing down. So it's just a soft, gentle opening of the shoulders in the chest. We think his shoulders. We usually think of justice shoulders, but we're in terms of opening up into the shoulders and opening up into the chest. Really, the pack miners come into it. Ah, lot. And so we want to stretch out. The chest will stretch out these chest muscles as well as opening up in the shoulder, so just sagged down and meltdown. Maybe you could rest ahead on the mat. If this is not enough, for you could always come up and in just two blocks to take him higher, you know, and If that's too much, you could go lower. And the more we open up in the shoulders, the higher the blocks are. You know, the more open that we we will become softened down. Relax, will hold it here for another about 15 seconds or so. Maybe use this time to get in touch with the breath. Really important as we move into back bends or any kind of opening Where would change in the shape of the body to keep the breath? It's really hard to breathe in a back bend, so that doesn't mean we should hold our breath. What it means is we should take more effort into breathing. Last few breaths that inhale press into the elbows. Rise back up, walk the knees in, set the blocks off to the side plant the hands come into downward facing dog. You know, I haven't really talked too much about downward facing dog yet unless you've gone through these videos already. But wrap the traces back, turned the heels out, lift the hard up and again we're still gonna look for this opening of the chests of Melt the Heart down right wrap the try substandard to find this nice opening through the back. It's OK if the heels are down and these are bent, you know, we're not worried about that right now. Just kind of feel your way into the post. Step the right foot forward. Lower the left knee down. You take the hands onto the blocks for most of us were probably right here cause we're not that open into our are so as or into a hip flexors. But if ah, if you are, you don't need the blocks and you could always adjust the height of the blocks. We're gonna start with the all the way high. Let's plant the hands underneath the shoulders. Now what we want to really think about doing instead of being all the way on the knee. Now, if you have any issues with the knees, you could always put padding down underneath it or double off the mat. But we want to start thinking about taking this back foot back a little bit and sending the thigh down into the mat. And as we put the thigh down and Samat open the chest up, bring it back. We're gonna pulse into this for dynamically opening up into the front body. Nine eight every time. Think of sinking the hips, Ford and down bringing the but towards the heels. Seven. Open the chest up. Gaze up. Six, five, four, three to last one. We're gonna hold this. Pull the shoulders back. Lift the chest up, sink down. You want to keep a nice little engagement through the core. Anytime we come in any back men's, it's really important that, of course, stays strong. So flex a core. A little bit. Sink down. Pull the right hip back towards the left. He'll send the right butt cheek down towards the right. He'll sink down. Work the left thigh into the mat. You're five for three to one. You can keep the hands on the block. Sing it back. Curl the toes under step back. Step the left foot Ford. Bring the right knee down to the map, sink the hips down again. You can untucked the back toe or keep the back toe curled under whatever feels better for you. But work and sinking the hips down. Keep the hands on the blocks, Poulson, and pull the shoulders back for 10. Bring it back. Nine A seven really trying to find the stretch through the front part of the the right hip. Six, five, four, three to one. Plant the hands. Step forward. You place the blocks off to the side, Separate the feet slightly, sink the butt down. Just a slight men in the knees. Because when you reach the arms up, take him like gold posted. Sick the chest. Ford, they're gonna pulse down as we pulls down, We're gonna lift the chest up. Open opening up across the front of the body in a pulse like this for 10 nine A seven. Pull the elbows back. Open up. Six five, four, three to one. Reached the hands behind the back. Interlacing fingers. Draw the shoulders down. Fold forward to take the hands up to the sky. Relax. Back. Open up through the back body. Now, if the hands don't come together, go ahead and grab a strap. Take the strap. You could use Ah, strap that you buy from the store belt or anything. And just hold it in the hands like this and reach it up overhead. He knows we get more flexible. You could bring your hands closer together and then eventually you know, hands together or even palms together. Keep the knees slightly bent. Still, release the hands down. Inhale. Come up halfway, exhale, fold and just relax. Maybe grab the opposite elbows and hang for a second. Inhale slowly roll up, come to standing. We worked through one of my favorite movements that I dio through all the levels of the practice. Whether you're a beginner or the most advanced, I really think you could benefit you and we're going to start out just doing it for about 30 seconds. So not too long. If you could do it for longer, you know we'll take it for longer. But let's start here and build up into it. Ah, this is a shoulder pump exercise. The purpose of this exercise is to open up into the chest also to strengthen the shoulders, and you're gonna feel its reach the arms up like this. Spread the fingers wide. Face a palm's ford, take the hands back, try to bring the biceps behind the ears. So as we do this, we open the chest up. We kind of stick the chest out, but keep the core engaged the core tight and then bring the arms, Ford. So we're pulling this shoulders together and kind of rounding out through the back. And we're gonna do this kind of quick, We're gonna pulse it for only 30 seconds. I say only 30 seconds, If you haven't done that is before 30 seconds. Could feel like an eternity. And he moves slow or as fast as you want. If you have shoulder pain or shoulder injury, you could take the arms out a little bit wider like this, You know, open up into it. Just accommodate for where you're at. I know a lot of people deal with rotator cuff injuries and that kind of stuff and doing stuff like this even if you do have a rotator cuff injury, unless you're active, terror will actually help strengthen and open the shoulders up. And if you don't having mobility through the shoulders like this will help prevent them in the future. Go for another 10 seconds. Nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three to one. Release the arms down. Shake him out. Probably cooking by now. It's good. The blood flowing. Move him out. Second round. Reach the arms up. Go for 30 more seconds. This is too much, you know. Put the hands down, shake him out. But if you could hold up, if you could just do another 30 seconds with me, that's great. You're gonna feel in the shoulders in overtime. The chest is going to get more open. The shoulders are going to get more open shoulders. We're gonna get stronger. More developed. Just another 10 nine A 7654 32 one. Release the hands down. Shake him out. Now that we're warm up through the shoulders who are a little bit more open, grab a chair. If you haven't handy a Bantus stool or anything that's roughly about hip height. I'm just using this little would block thing here. It really doesn't matter. Chair works great for it. Come down onto the knees. Place the hands about shoulder width apart. Someone actually understand this sideways here just cause it's a little bit wider for me. Sink down. Melt the heart ford on a melt down into it. Take your butt down towards the heels and just relax down. No one. She that we're going to strengthen the shoulder slightly the same time opening suppress firm into whatever surface he have the chair block or whatever it is, and then start toe lift up through the chest and wrap the triceps down, engage, pull the armpits up, spread out through the back and then softened back down into it. So those were opening first. And we're gonna find the engagement to support because just like having flexibility, pull it up, engage three to one. Come back down. Just like having flexibility is important to be strong. If you only have flexibility, you need to have strength to have support. Otherwise, we have instant unstable joints, you know, and we're more prone to injury. That's really key to keep this mounts. Last time, pull up pressed down into the hands, engaged to the side body for three to one. Melt the heart down. Relax ahead. This is often this being able to relax down. And this is really where people lack the flexibility and why they can't come into poses like wheel upward facing. Both pose, you know, lift up, walked unease in Move the block Where your chair off to the side, The shoulders A little shake little roll through. Oh, sorry. Actually, we're gonna still need this chair bring it back working to opening up into the front body here a little bit. Once you plant the right hand on onto the block, reach back and grab the top of the ankle square. The hips off is much as you can open up into the left. So as first, so use the the chair for support or stability. If you're really good in the balance and you don't need it, then you know you could take the handoff. But for the purpose of this video, we're gonna use it. Flex a left foot, gonna lift up, open up into the chest into the back body notices the back body happens. This is really happening through our noses. A. The bend happened. It's really happening through the front part of the body. Pull it up and down, Justus. High as you can go. If even if it's this high and you feel a stretch, you're doing something something's working. Remove it into it, and over more time it's going to get better. So we'll do this for 10. Nine, eight, seven six five for three to one. Take it over to the other side, plant the left hand, bring the right hand to the right ankle. Pull it up, flex the foot. You know, if you can't even grab the ankle, you could always use a strap here to modify for your body. Lifted up for nine eight every time going, trying to go a little bit higher. Seven, six, five, four, three to one. Released. The foot said it. Now grab the hands behind the back. Slight bend at the knees. Fold forward reaching overhead sink the But now place the but on to the Met. Take the left foot towards the right, but she could take the right leg. Cross it over the top of the left. I reach the left. Arm up this guy long. Stretch the side body deep. Inhale, exhale, twist Inhale. Lift the chest up a little bit higher. Exhale twist just a little deeper and here exhale back to center. Switch it out to the other side across the left foot over. Reached the right arm up deep, inhale, exhale, take a little twist and here exhales with a little deeper. Dan now acts a little deeper untwist when we give you two options. The first option I'm going to give you for a little restorative Backman. That we're gonna take here at the end is restorative bridge. So you gonna plant the feet, lift a block up. Now, I'd like to turn the block sideways here, so it supports War of my sacred and put it underneath. Sometimes a phone blocks a little bit nicer because it's softer on the back. I prefer a cork block because I feel a little bit more supported. So this is a nice restorative bridge, and you could always play around with the height of it. The 2nd 1 which is a little bit a little bit harder to dio, is more of a yin pose called snail. We're gonna come onto our knees. So whatever the body is ready for is what we're going to come into like this. Sit down on the block. The other block is going to go behind us for underneath the shoulders, right? You come down, lay down onto the block and maybe reach the arms overhead. Yeah, adjusted to where it feels good. But this is a really nice posed to stretch out the front body cause it's stretching out through the front. So as and into the back, but this might be too intense for you. So take whatever option feels better and play around with both whatever option you took into close the eyes and kind of relax often down into the pose, softened in the body and really try to release the muscles so that gravity could start to open up. You know, we're coming thes poses like this, especially when they're difficult. We we think, you know, contract. And that's the body's natural way to protect the joints, eyes to contract the muscles, you know. But if we want to open up, you know, first of all, if you feel the need to contract and you can't relax into it, you're probably too deep. You know, you're gonna injure yourself. So back off. You know, come into a more gentle version of the post until you're ready for it. But if you're in the proper pose, you need to learn how to relax into it that way that the muscles could release around the joints. And you could really open up into this post. Take just a few more breasts here. Opening the back takes time. Opening the front body takes time. You know. So the more time that we spend in it, the better off that we are. The more progress that we see that you you is like anything you have to find the balance of of putting in the effort and then putting in too much slowly come back up, remove the blocks, come on to the back on the news and take both knees over to the left. Just a little twist to release the back over to the right center. Straighten the legs out. So we enter into Shiva Sena, roll the shoulders under point the palms up, take a less deep inhale for your practice. Open the mouth and exhale. Take two or three minutes at least in Shiva Sena toe. Let the body rest and recover from the practice that we just did. No, we don't really work these kind of movements. If you haven't done yoga before, you haven't practiced yoga. Your back bends and your front body is gonna be really tight. It's just because if you don't work, if you don't use it, you're not gonna have it. So give yourself a little bit of understanding as we work through these postures and you work through it, know that it's gonna take time and repetition. And you're gonna have to come back to this this class in this practice, over and over before you start seeing any results or any openness. But when it does, everything is going to move better. You're gonna work better. You're gonna feel better. You're gonna sit up better. You know, it's it's having an open front body. It means having an open back body, you know? And we're just going to find more of that, uh, equal liberty, the equality that whole meal spaces through it. So thank you so much for letting, allowing me to share my practice with you with love and gratitude. Low cost Semesta. Suki No bottom to Mel means be happy and free home. Shanti, Shanti, Shanti No Must a