Latest / Ten-Minute Mornings / 10-Minute Morning Yoga for Tight Back, Shoulders & Tired Legs
Transcript
- James @ Daily Flow: Hello friends. Thanks for downloading the audio version of today's 10 minute mornings practice. The YouTube video is linked in the show notes. And if you're staying with just the audio, don't worry about doing it right. Just move and breathe in a way that feels honest. That's enough. James: Tight back, shoulders, sore feet and legs. Well, we'll cover all of that today in our Friday flow. Hello, friends. Welcome to your daily flow 10-minute mornings practice. My name is James. Be sure to practice till the end. We'll pull a card, set some intentions, some grounding for the day, and of course be sure to hit like and subscribe on your way out. That's the business out of the way. Come to a child's pose. So take your knees nice and wide, big toes together, reach your arms forward. Look forward, lift your chest, inhale, and exhale, guide your heart closer to the mat. So, child's pose can be fairly passive, but we're looking for an active one. So think about reaching through your waist, wrapping the tailbone under, lift your heart, inhale, exhale. So this gets into that upper shoulder, upper back step. Walk your hands over to the right. Actively pull your left hip back and reach your left pinky finger forward. Inhale. Walk through the middle. Go to the other side. It's not particularly graceful. Wrap the right hip back. Reach through the right pinky finger. Feel that stretch through the right sidebody. Inhale. Exhale. And then come back to center. Coming to all fours. Step back to a plank position. Inhale. Exhale. Lower your knees, your chest and your chin. Limb press down the abdomen, pull your The toes. Downward facing dog. First down dog of the day, at least for me. So feel that sense of the fingertips pushing forward the knuckles. I can actually lift my wrists off the mat a little bit. And then pull the hips up and back. Tuck that tailbone. Inhale, come forward to plank. Lower your knees onto the floor. Then keeping your hips lifted. I'm gonna scoot back, keeping your hips lifted. Walk your hands a little forward, puppy pose, which we haven't done a ton. But if this is too much, then go back to child's pose. But feel that opening up and then bring your hands to prayer. Now this is dialing it up a bit more. And bring those prayer thumbs behind your head. So if your upper back feels tight, this is the thing to do. Feel that breath moving. Inhale. Exhale. And then Walk everything back to your quadruped. Step the left foot back. Down dog split the right leg. Inhale. Exhale, step the right foot between your hands. Come up to a warrior one. Spiral the back heel down. So we're warming up, so I don't feel like it has to be your most impressive anything, but wrap that left shoulder blade under. Maybe hands to prayer. Overhead. Inhale. Exhale, straighten the right leg, fold forward. We did this yesterday. Pyramid pose. Now can you shift forward and come to chair? Step the left foot to meet the right. Sit into your chair pose. Inhale. Exhale. Fold forward. Hands to the mid. Inhale, lengthen. Exhale, bow. Back into chair. Inhale. Now ground down in the right foot. Come up, give the left knee a hug. A little balance moment here. You know I love that. Inhale. Big step back. Warrior two. Open up. Straighten the right leg. Triangle pose. I try to keep it fairly flowy on Fridays, as you know. And then re-bend that right knee. Warrior two. Cartwheel your hands down to frame the right foot. Step back to your plank position, inhaling. Exhale, knees, chest and chin, or you can chat around if you'd like. Cobra pose or up dog. Then downward facing dog. Roll yourself forward, release the knees down. Take a brief puppy. Arms forward, hips high. Inhale. Exhale. Welcome back. Come to all fours. Step the right foot back, left leg high, down dog, split. Inhale. Exhale. Step the left foot all the way forward. If it doesn't make it, use your hand to help. Spiral the right heel down. Come up warrior one. Maybe hands to prayer. Feel the pinky edges of both feet. Wrap that right shoulder blade under inhale. Exhale, straighten the left leg, fold forward, pyramid. Getting into those legs. Then step the right foot forward to meet the left. Sit into a chair. Inhale. Exhale, bow. Hands to the floor if you can. Inhale, chair. Now shift your weight to the left foot. Rise up. Find a balance in your right. Maybe give the knee a hug. And then a big step back. Warrior two. Adjust your feet after they get there if they need it. Inhale, straightens the left leg. Exhale, triangle pulse. Look up with that right hand. Exhale, warrior two. Pause for your inhale and then cartwheel, hands down. Step back. Take your flow. I'm in a chidaranga this time. Up dog, thighs hover off the mat. Downward facing dog. Down dog split the right leg. Step the foot forward, Warrior One. Standing split. Shift your weight, float the left foot. Chair pose. Shift your weight to that right foot. Rise up with the left knee. I'm gonna come into a figure four chair, but you can give that knee a hug again like you did last time. Now, if you really want to dial it up, left piece fingers, left big toe, right hand on the waist, ground down in the right foot, carry that left leg out to the side. So maybe you stay right here, maybe you lengthen the leg a little, maybe all the way. Maybe you turn your head to the right. Take your breath. Warrior two is next. So release the foot, step it back. How'd you do? Straighten the right leg. Inhale. Half moon or triangle. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Step it back. Remember it's not the what the shape looks like. Take your vinyasa. It's not what this shape looks like. It's your experience of it. Just looking for a bit of grounding and a bit of concentration and connection. Down dog split the left leg. Inhale. Exhale. Step it forward. Come up. Warrior one. Standing split, shift your weight. Now you can do pyramid pose again. That's just fine. Keep both feet on the floor if you like. And then we come to our chair. So either way, you step the right foot forward and then shift your weight to the left foot. Rise up with that right knee. Maybe a figure four chair. Or maybe you're standing and hugging the knee. If you want to dial it up, if you're hugging that knee, that counts too. Right piece, fingers, right big toe. Use the strength of your legs. So I'm not pulling on my foot. I'm using my lower body to do a lot of this work. So this is fairly easy. Maybe I open out to the side. Left hand is on the waist. Maybe you turn your head to the left. Hello. Take a breath. Big step back. Warrior two. Straighten the left leg. Inhale. Triangle both. Open up. Feel that wrapping under the left hip. Inhale. Exhale, warrior two. Lunar landing control control. Then cartwheel, hands down. Take your vinyasa. Or skip it. Just breathe. Coming to sit. So just bring your legs forward and have a seat. Ground your feet, reach your arms forward, and just roll down one vertebrae at a time. We don't do many inversions in our practice here together. And I'd like to do a simple one today. Because they're important, especially if your legs feel tired or you have sore feet. Maybe you stand a lot. Maybe you're doing this in the afternoon or evening and not in the morning. I'm just going to flex my feet to the ceiling. Another variation of this is that you take your legs up a wall. So you kind of. Scoot your bum close to a wall. It doesn't have to touch it and float your feet. But just being here does a lot. It reverses circulation, so gravity is actually helping the blood get back down into the heart. It also activates that parasympathetic rest and digest. Now if you can do a fuller expression of shoulder stand, that's fine. You can stand on your head if you want, or your hands. Although that. Starts to become more arm balancey. This is just about feeling an easing in your feet and in your legs. Knees can be a little bent if you'd like. Take a breath. Bend your knees, cocoon everything in. Cross the shins. See if you can hold the outer edges of your feet and rock yourself up to sit. How'd you do? So maybe you close your eyes. Maybe while I'm shuffling, you hit like and subscribe. I'm not kidding, but I'm kidding. If I did this for the likes, I would have stopped a long time ago. Let's see what comes up today. Maybe we'll get a new card that we haven't gotten. Looking. yeah, look at that. It's child's pose. Trust and surrender. Humble yourself to the intelligence of life and allow it to guide you. Humble yourself to the intelligence of life and allow it to guide you. In our asana practice, we trust the floor, the mat. We feel that connection. We recognize that if we cultivate our connection to that which is stable and unmoving, that our own balance and our own grounding is bound to improve. So, how does that translate into life? Look for what is worthy of your trust. Look for what is stable and steady and then allow yourself some bit of surrender. Maybe a lot. Maybe just a little more than you found before. You don't have to do it all. Provided you find something, someone worthy of your trust, worthy of your surrender, a real human or a real tenant on which you can truly rely. Provided you can find those things. First of all, congratulations. Second of all, allow yourself that support. I end all of my live classes, all of my in-person classes with the same little bit of reflection. And I'll offer it now. So as we're still lying down after Shavasana at the end of class, we take a moment. A moment to reflect on all that is supporting you. Literally, this mat, this floor, this building, energetically, the lives of all beings who have inhabited this land, as well as your own ancestors, your chosen family, and anyone, everyone whose sacrifice makes your life possible, regardless of whether that sacrifice was voluntary. You may be calling to mind someone specific and offering a bit of gratitude. Let me know how that goes for you. The light that is in me bows to honors and is so grateful for the light that is in you. Namaste. Thank you as always for spending this time. Be sure to hit like and subscribe and leave comments and ask questions. I'd love to hear from you. And I'll see you Monday morning. Have a great weekend. Thanks for spending this time. Namaste. James @ Daily Flow: a follow or review goes a long way. And of course, you're always welcome to practice live with me on YouTube, 8 a.m. weekdays.