- Hi everyone, welcome back to Center. It's Day 21, Strength. Let's giddyup. (light music) Alright, let's start today on our backs. Jumping right in. Come on down to the ground, and when you get there, you can hug your knees into your chest. Start to drop in to the observation or the witnessing of your breath. Then bring the feet to the earth, palms down to the earth, tuck the chin slightly, toes are pointing forward. We're gonna press into all four corners of the feet. And rock on the pelvis, tailbone lifts up as we engage the muscles of the core. Press into the feet to lift the hip points up to your Bridge. Deep breath in. Stay here as you exhale, draw the navel in a little more. Good, and then slowly release. Take it all the way down. Nice, one more time. Inhale in, exhale, lift the tailbone. Draw the hip points, imagine drawing the hip points together here to really engage the low abs. You can tell how it changes my voice here, beautiful. And then keep moving up slowly, keeping that connection with the abdominals, pressing into all four corners of the feet. Inhale in deeply here at the top. Exhale, without moving the legs, squeeze the inner thighs together, hug to the midline and draw the navel into the spine. And then slowly roll it down whenever you're ready. Hug the knees into the chest once again. Rock gently side to side. Take a deep breath in through your nose. And exhale out through the nose or the mouth. Good, extend your left leg out long. Hug your right knee into your chest. And then switch. Left knee comes in, right leg goes out. Point or flex the feet. Now we're gonna do that back and forth. Right knee, left knee alternating. First with the head down. See if you can engage the low abs by again imagining your hip points drawing together in towards the middle. Pelvic floor drawing up in towards the middle. And low ribs hugging down towards the mat. Stay here breathing, moving at a pace that works great for you here as we warm up. Or you can start to lift the head, the neck, the shoulders. Keep the shoulders relaxed and keep that connection in your core strong. So we're actively drawing the navel down as we work here. Again, feet point or flexed. Keep it going. Hi Benji. And slowly release. Excellent. Hey buddy. Extend the legs out long. Inhale, reach the arms up and overhead for a nice full body stretch. You can open and close the jaw here. Maybe you take a yawn. Nice. Now interlace the fingertips behind the head and we're gonna bend the knees, bring the feet back up to the earth. But keep the elbows instead of keeping them wide like I usually guide, we're gonna bring them in just a bit. Inhale in, exhale, from your core, so your core tightens first then lift up. Again, elbows are in just a bit and you're looking, you're sending your gaze towards your navel here. Now stay here. Listen carefully: Just breathe in. And as you breathe out, see if you can see your navel draw down. Again, inhale in. Maybe lift up a little higher and exhale, contract. Inhale in. Exhale, contract. Now you can keep working here. We're gonna lift the knees. Shins parallel to the ceiling, knees right over the hips and continue. Inhale in. Exhale, navel draws down. Inhale. Sharp exhale. Keep it going. Lifting up from the shoulder blades. Skin of the face soft. Neck relaxed. (rhythmic breathing) Three more. And slowly release. Great. You can bring the palms now to the knees and just draw a couple of circles one way and then the other. And then soles of the feet come back to the mat or shins lifted up to the ceiling. So you have options here. Both work great. Interlace the fingertips. Hug the elbows in just a hair. Inhale in. Exhale. Lift the head, the neck, the shoulders up. Again, think about lifting from your shoulder blades here. Good, inhale in. Again, exhale. Take your left shoulder over towards the top of the right thigh. Keep the hips where they are. Left shoulder to the top of the right thigh. Hold. Then keep it lifted as you slide their center and take it to the other side. Right shoulder towards the top of the left thigh. Keep your right hip down. Good, slide through the middle. And then find that exhale as you take it to the right. Slide through the middle. Keep it lifted. Exhale to the left. Inhale through center. Exhale. Inhale through center. Exhale. Keep the hips where they are. One more to each side. And slowly release. This time bring the hands to the backs of the thighs. Hug the knees into the chest. Rock gently side to side. And then when you're ready, we're gonna rock up and down the length of the spine. Massaging the back body. You may find that maybe the toes touch behind you. And if you're like, "No way, not today," maybe another day. Give it a couple of rock and rolls. Maybe finding a little Plow Pose with the toes behind you. And then eventually we'll all meet in a seated cross-legged position at the top of the mat. Inhale, sit up nice and tall. Lengthen through the crown. Lift your chest. Close your eyes for just a moment. Observe your breath. We're building strength in the body, but we just cannot underestimate the mental strength that we're building, that we're cultivating each time we show up here. Take a deep breath in. And a long breath out. You can open the eyes. Let's rock on. Just a gentle twist to the left. Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Sit up a little taller. And breathe out to come back to center. Take it to the other side. Gentle twist. Inhale. Exhale to stay. Inhale to get a little bit taller. And exhale to release back to center. Alright, we're gonna take it all the way back down to our backs. And you're gonna now bring your hands to the backs of your thighs and we're gonna rock up to maybe a Boat Pose. So just let's just see what happens. Inhale in. Exhale, lift up. If you don't quite make it, that's all right. Inhale in. Rock back. Exhale, lift up. Inhale in. If you don't quite make it, you can use your hands on the ground to support you. Peek at me. We're gonna go back and then lift up. And is this very humbling? (laughs) Absolutely. Build strength again in more ways than one. The next time you maybe make it up or maybe you're still rocking and rollin', you might try to extend the legs. You can bring the hands behind the thighs. Lift up through the chest, everyone. Hug the low ribs in. Or you can keep it bent. Option to send the fingertips out. Palms face up. And then everyone, cross your ankles and release. Come back to a seat. Take a deep breath in here. Exhale to let it go. Great. Come forward onto all fours. You can center yourself on your mat here. We're gonna come into a Tabletop Position with the toes curled under. Spread the fingertips. Send your gaze straight down to the center of your mat. Lift up through your shoulder blades here so you have this doming effect in the upper back body. Now before we lift the knees, inhale in, draw the navel up and in, on the exhale, you feel your low abs draw in. And from there, lift the knees. Let them hover. Good. Inhale to lower. Exhale to lift. But again, it comes from those low abs. So that moves first and then the knees lift. Try to be disciplined about these steps. So you inhale, lower. Exhale first, you feel the low abs lift and then the knees lift to follow. Inhale, lower. Exhale, lift. Inhale, lower. Now you can start to find that audible sharp exhale as you lift. Think low abs here. Strong arms. Strong shoulders. Low ribs hug in. Neck is long. Crown of the head reaching forward. Three more. And release. Beautiful. Draw the elbows down where the hands were. Drop, rather, not draw the elbows down where the hands were, press into all of your fingerprints, keep that rooted, that foundation rooted as you walk your knees back, send your tailbone up towards the sky, ooh and feel the front body get long as you stretch here, allowing the heart to melt down. Puppy Posture. You have the long puppy belly here. Breathe into it. Nice, and then carve a line with your nose. Try to keep your soft gaze here. As you slowly come forward, we can take a moment here to bring the hips down. We're gonna bring right back up. (chuckles) So we're gonna interlace the fingertips here, option one. Option two is to stay exactly where you were with the hands for Puppy on the forearms with the hands spread or on the forearms with the fingertips interlaced. Alright, curl the toes under. Inhale in. Exhale, from your core, lift the hips up. Heels reach back. Feet are hip width apart, hip point width apart. Neck is nice and long here. Breathe in. Breathe out to reinforce that connection of the navel drawing in and up. You got this. Stay here breathing deep or option to tap right knee down to the earth and then lift it up. Left knee down to the earth and lift it up. Right knee. Left knee. Right knee. Left knee. Now both knees, you got this, lower and lift. Lower and lift. One more. If you've taken a break, come on in for this last one. Lower and lift. Lovely. Stay here Forearm Plank for three, two. And on the one, melt everything down. Take a break. You can use your hands here stacked as a pillow. Bring your forehead to your hands and you can just rock the hips gently left to right. Close your eyes and breathe. Alright, last bit here. You got this. A little conditioning today mentally and physically. We're gonna press all the way back up to all fours. We're gonna walk the hands out, spread the fingertips wide. Now shift your weight so that your shoulders are directly over your wrists. Then we're gonna extend one leg out and then the other coming up into a strong Plank. Quietly whisper to yourself, "I am strong." I am strong. Now we're gonna turn the heels to the right. Press away from the earth with that right hand. There's lots of space in the shoulder here. And we're gonna reach the left fingertips up towards the sky. Option to stack the feet here. Everyone lift the hips. So we're here or here. Another option is to bend the top knee and bring the left foot to the ground for a little more stability. Everyone lift up through the right obliques, lengthen through the crown of the head. Option to lift the left leg for a little more of a challenge. Deep breath in. Stay here. Long breath out. Deep breath in. Exhale, come through to center. Reset. Alright, inhale in. Exhale, navel draws in and we twist the heels to the left toes to the right. Right fingertips slowly trace a line all the way up towards the sky. Stay connected to your core, your center here. You may stack the feet. You may bend the top leg for a little kickstand action. Everyone lift, lift, lift the hips up high. For a little extra challenge, you might lift the top leg. Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. And slowly come back to center. Reset. Stay lifted. You got this for five. Four, breathe. Two and one, lower the knees. Send it back. Child's Pose. Inhale in deeply. And exhale to let it all go. Find a comfortable position here to rest in. So knees together or knees wide or maybe you come to lie down. Close your eyes and just observe your breath. Notice how you feel. Great work today. Way to show up and rock it out. Whatever you do, do not miss tomorrow's practice. Thank you for joining me today. Take good care. (light music)