Day 2: Go Low

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome back to your workout. This is day two. Happy you came back and showed up for yourself. We're gonna start with going low, working that low body, getting it all in connection. So we're gonna turn to the side and we're gonna get on all fours.

We, me and you. Let's go ahead and take our palms to the floor. Really interesting thought here, you see this letter L, I want you to make that letter L on the mat to make sure that your shoulders are in line. Elbow, wrist, and shoulder are in one line. Check the hips, knee, and hip in one line, and then pull that belly towards the ceiling.

And neck goes long. Look about 45 degrees in front of you, and just set yourself up right there. Pull that belly button toward your spine and feel like a little crunch happening in the front of your belly. Low belly there. Pressing the palms into the floor.

I want you to turn your triceps, so back of your arms, turn them towards each other and get a little bit longer and open that chest up a little bit more. Fingers stay wide. Tailbone is long. Like you have a long line from the top of your head, through your tailbone, that there wagon see that tailbone. Yes.

So holding that there, we're gonna get into our sixth stretch. What does that mean in English? So six stretch for me. I like to stretch my spine in six different directions. So we'll start with the cat cow, tuck your tailbone under, look towards your belly.

Maybe look between the knees and really exaggerate the curve of your back. Pressing your heels, the heels of your hands into the mat. And now we'll go in the opposite direction. That's a word. And chest opens up, head and gaze looks towards the ceiling, tailbone points up to the ceiling.

So these are two different directions. One direction this way, not the band, but you, and then open the chest up. I have no idea why this is called cow, but this is definitely why this is called cat because we have an angry back, angry back. Really feel like your tailbone is coming towards the floor and exaggerate that to open the back and then chest open. Tricep spin towards each other.

We'll go through one more cycle. Look into the belly, push the hands in, and then open the chest, tailbone tips up towards the ceiling. So those are two of your directions. Bring your spine back to neutral, neck is long, line through the top of your head to the bottom of that tail. Now we're gonna take our ear, left ear comes towards the left hip, and you're gonna bend just a little bit, wag the tail if you want to say that.

So the right, what is this called, ear goes towards the hips. So this is your other two directions. So we're moving laterally side to side, ear towards the hip. Try to keep the hips as square as possible. This is like a little warm up cycling through.

We'll do one more each side. So you're bending through the side body and really exaggerating the other side as you open that chest and hip and work through those arms and shoulders. We're getting a full body workout. Come back to center. So keeping the length in that spine, we're gonna take our right hand, put it in the center of our mat, and then we're gonna take the left arm out, let it float up and then we'll take it to the ceiling and twist the body for little side action twists.

This is position five of our six stretch. Hold that stretch. Look at those fingertips, say hi, and then bring the palm down to the floor. Reset yourself, take a little second. And now we'll take that left hand and put in the center of the mat and then we'll twist and open our chest up to the ceiling, looking at that right hand, and make sure you're not dumping in the shoulder.

So if you're like, yeah, like no stay proud in that shoulder and really press the floor away to keep that shoulder activated. So hold that puppy there. And then we'll bring ourselves down back to the mat, tap that booty back for a little child's pose action, really quickly. And then we'll turn over and come to a seated position on our mat. Legs are long in front of us.

So long legs here. Go ahead and point and flex those feet, just say hi, because everything in the back of our body, the posterior chain, that is affecting our hips too. So just kind of play around with the articulation through the foot. Yes. Tall spine.

Give yourself space in your hips if you need to. And now we're gonna roll back. So give me that tuck that we did before yesterday, tuck the tailbone under and then let the hands reach in front of you and just reach all the way back. And then we're gonna keep our hands right here and we'll roll up just halfway to see what that feels like. And if you don't go so far this it's okay.

We can try it again. We'll do two more. So think Frankenstein or Dracula coming up. Woo. See that second one got stuck.

See teachers are people too. And roll up. See what happens. Let's go. Oh, there it is.

See the second one didn't count. Reach forward take a yawning stretch forward. Yes. And I love puffing up that back. Taking that deep stretch and then stack your spine up tall.

Take that right leg over the right ankle. Go over the left knee around your thigh. And we'll do a figure four stretch here, just to start opening up that hip. So tall, tall spine, left foot is flexed. Breathe here, wide collar bones, wide shoulders, roll those shoulders down and back.

And if it feels to available today for your practice, go ahead and just lean forward. Maybe take your hands to the floor a little bit. Maybe reach towards your heels. If you have blocks or pillows or bolsters, you can use that to bring the floor up as well. Take that stretch there, and we're gonna breathe into this.

So when you inhale, the exhale should take you a little bit further into your stretch to open that hip. We'll do one more deep breath here. Yes. Go ahead and walk the hands back. Let's switch that leg.

So left ankle will come over the right leg, keeping that right foot flexed. Find your tall spine. Nice and proud. And the more you dig that heel into the floor, you're gonna feel that stretch to the hamstring there. So just hold that there you're, like but Mychele my hamstrings, are a part of your hip complex.

Yes. (laughing) If you were wondering, that's the secret to this exercise. So then take a little stretch forward again. Find your happy place. Find a comfortable position for you.

I'm gonna let my head fall forward. Today this leg feels super stretchy, so I'm gonna let it do what it needs to do. And again, be careful not to put the ankle on the knee. It's above the knee, anywhere that's comfortable. And let's say neither one of those are comfortable as you're breathing through this, you're breathing remember, you can also take that heel and put it inside the leg.

So remember that. You always have options. You're at home watching this. You're watching this on your device and you are the captain of your ship called your body. So let's walk ourselves up.

Deliciousness. We like the stretch. Left leg goes back onto the mat. Both legs are nice and long, let's point those toes, point the toes. Hello.

And right knee as you come towards me, give a little bend, little table top and let's hold onto it. Let's bring it into our chest. Yes. So we're gonna ride this puppy down. Hi.

Ride it down. Oh my goodness. Here we are. We are low. So you might find that your knee is pointing out to a diagonal, tell that knee to come more towards your midline.

So maybe pull it towards the center and feel a stretch to the back of the leg there. So this is like a modified single leg stretch. Yes. And we did this yesterday, we'll do it again today. We're gonna take this leg up to a 90 degree angle.

Again my hip is hiked here, so I'm gonna just level that hip off and make sure I'm nice and square. Keeping that there. It can be pointed or flexed. I'm being all dancing right now. Here's the difference on this one, hands are at your side.

Want you to turn that foot out. Turn it out. So now you're getting a rotation in the hip. Hello? Turn it out and then turn it back.

We'll do this two more times. Turn it out, and turn it back. Last one. Turn it out. I know, I know.

Just do it. (laughing) bring it back and let's give it a hug and the squeeze. Hello, how you doing? My toe is getting angry. All right let's take that leg back up to 90.

Now we're gonna keep that knee facing our face and give it a stretch like we did yesterday. So give it a stretch here. Holding on the back of the leg, the calf or the ankle, as far as you wanna go. Elbows will stay wide wherever you choose to hold on at. Yes.

Oh yeah. One more breath here. And then bring that puppy back to 90 degrees. Flex that ankle. Now I want you to walk on the ceiling right there and then we're gonna stretch across.

Let that hip lift, keeping the foot flex and try to keep both shoulders on the floor. Yes. See how far you can go today. Bottom leg is chilling out. It's active, but it's not trying to be pointed flex, it's just being, it's a natural foot.

And then bring that leg back to the center. Now we're gonna let that leg come out to the side, check those hips. I'm gonna bring this other knee, make sure it's pointing towards the ceiling and then bring it back. Hello, how you doing? Nice.

And give it a hug and a squeeze. Thank you right leg. Shoot that leg out on the mat, and let's tell the left leg to come party with us. So that same single leg stretch that we did on the other side, we didn't ride it down, but we're still gonna hold onto it. Hold at the knee, the shin, the ankle, whatever makes you happy, make sure you're pulling that leg into your midline.

That it's not splayed out on the side like that. So bring it in, take that stretch. And as you're stretching, really push the back of the opposite leg into the mat. So you can get a little gentle stretch in the hip flexer. Yes.

Ooh. She is alive. (laughing) My left leg is like not today Mychele. Let's take that leg up to the center. Nice straight long leg.

Let me adjust that hip to make sure I'm nice and square. Hold that puppy there. She likes it. She likes it. Oh my goodness.

All right holding that leg there, now taking into that stretch. Oh my goodness. So when I'm stretching, I have a little bit of resistance and I wanna crunch here and pull my hips up. No hold to relax and maybe take that stretch a little bit less serious. So this is like doing too much for me find where you're comfortable.

So that's where we wanna live in that comfortable space, but we wanna give it a gentle pull so we can stay active in that leg. Oh yeah. She don't like me. And then we take the hands to the side and then I'm gonna flex that ankle, flexy, flexy, still pulling my abs down towards the mat, holding it there, then I'm gonna take that leg across my body. Whoa.

Oh, you see that? Ugh. As you're reaching that heel, try to keep the heel flexed. Let the other leg relax. Spin those hips.

Yeah, there she is. There she is. She's going. She's going and bring her back to the center. Now we're gonna take her outside.

Oh my goodness. Oh look at that. She's really good this way, but she didn't like it the other way. (laughing) Who knew? All right.

And bring it back. Let's give her a hug and a squeeze. Let's bring that right knee to meet. We're gonna hold both of those really nicely. And then we're gonna take our hands to the side and bring both legs up to about a 90 degree angle.

A little bend in the knee is great. If you feel like your hips are reaching up, really let the hips be heavy and maybe bring those legs down a little bit less. We're gonna do a little lift and lower here to squeeze those abs, pull the abs in and back, press the back of your arms into the mat and just lower, just ever so gently and bring it back up. So inhale as you go down and exhale as you come up. We'll do one more inhale.

Exhale. Yes. I'm gonna drop this right left leg. Leave that there. Now I'm gonna flex that ankle and I'm gonna circle that leg around, down and round it up for our single leg circle here.

Two we're only gonna do three, and three. Hold it there. Reverse your circle. Three, two, one. My legs are getting a workout.

Let's scissor switch, gentle switch. Here we go. You know what I realized? I forgot to do the turnout on you. So we're gonna stay right here.

We're gonna turn you out since you're up there. Left leg turns out. Hello. See you thought I forgot. I didn't forget.

Bring it back to the center. We got two more. Turn it out. You thought you were gonna get away with that didn't you, and take it out. Woo and bring it back.

There she goes. Now we'll take it into our single leg circles. Take it down and around and up, across the right side of the body. Two, and three, hold her there, reverse the circle. Three uh oh, two, right leg is having too much fun.

And one, I'm starting to feel it. Ah! Gonna hug the knee and hug both knees in and then rock ourselves up to a seated position. Find the top of your roll. And then I'm gonna turn to face you. Hi, how you doing?

Great. All right. Legs will go long in front of you. So legs are long, natural position of the feet. Adjust the hips as much as you need to, gonna reach the arms up, and then take a yawning stretch forward.

Let it be messy. Let it be dump. Just dump into it. No form. Just relax and enjoy.

If you need more of a stretch here, go ahead and flex the feet. Oh, totally different stretch. Again, always have permission to go to the quads or to their shins for your stretch, and then come up. I'll reach up and we'll do it again. Reach.

Let it be messy. And stack the spine to come up. On this next exercise we're gonna open up our straddle. So we're gonna straddle natural position of the feet. I am a dancer, so my feet are gonna wanna point and be deliciously pointed.

Check your knees. So if your knees are rolling in, knees go to the ceiling, knees don't roll out. They stay up. Okay? So knees are up.

Leave it there. Find your tallest spine. Reach your fingertips towards me. All right. Fingertips towards the front, right at the level of your shoulders.

Now I want you to pitch yourself forward. So a modification on the spine stretch forward, stretch yourself forward as much as possible, and then come back. Yes. Now we're gonna lower that down. Thinking like throwing up a diamond, right?

So lower down and do that same diagonal stretch towards the floor. Yes. And come back to the top. Now again if you have a bolster, a pillow, a yoga block, something to bring the floor closer to you, totally use that. Hold this stretch this time.

So if you're comfortable here, I have spider fingers here. We can stay here. You can come onto your forearms, but keep those knees facing the ceiling and hold the stretch here. Stay long in the neck. We'll hold for three counts or three breaths on each inhalation and exhalation, this is the second one.

Get a little bit deeper into your stretch. Yes, yes. Now we're gonna walk ourselves over to the left side and wherever you find your comfortable position I want you to stretch your forehead towards that shin and hold that stretch. So you're getting a stretch in the lateral body, a stretch through the hip complex on your right side. Keep that right hip digging into the floor.

Don't let it rock out. Stay right there. And now we're gonna walk it over to the other side. Walk it over to the other side, walk it out and hold that stretch. And then bring yourself back to the center and see if you go a little bit further than what you did last time.

Oh, oh yeah. Hello? Hello, hello, hello. So as we walk our hands back towards our hips and stack our spine, I'll turn to the side so you can see this modified open leg rocker. All right.

My heels are a little bit wider than my mat, and I want you to find your tallest spine. So in finding the tallest spine here, I want you to tuck the tailbone under right there and the right leg will come towards me. Just bend that right leg to table top. You're like Mychele you're crazy. It's okay.

Take it back. If you need to use your hands, fingertips will go towards your bottom, you can do that. So give that little lift there and bring it down. Let's do the left side two sides two times on that side, bend it and straighten. Keep those arms active.

Really press into the floor. Good. Now here's the catch, ha ha, play on words. (laughing) So I'm gonna trust myself to let my right hand go, bend that right leg, and then I'm gonna hold on to the right leg here. Hello.

What? Yes. Hold that puppy. And we're gonna bend her and then straighten her and let her stay there. Other side does the same thing.

Left hand comes off and then I'm gonna bend that left leg and then catch the ankle and give myself a little hold there. You look great. I see you. You're doing great. Hold that there.

Now we're gonna drop that leg carefully. Now we'll try to do both legs. You ready? Option. (laughing) Bend both knees and keep those hands on the floor or just hold onto the back of the knees, the back of the thighs, or if you're feeling real froggish, hold both sides.

Hold that puppy there. We are not rocking. We are not rocking. (laughing) Hold that there, and then bring the legs together. Let the legs go down low and keep the elbows behind you.

So I'm stacked up. My elbows are behind you. You have permission to stay here or if you need to get a bit higher. You can go higher, like a little tricep dip, but I'm gonna stay a little low here. Yes.

So holding this here, I'm gonna just bring my right leg to tabletop. Left leg comes to tabletop. Hold that there. Just pull the spine down. Tailbone goes towards your toes and hold that position.

Stay nice and tall in the shoulders. Don't dip down. Very nice. Straighten those legs to a 90 degree angle and we're gonna go for a little bit of a cork screw. So I'm gonna take my legs down to the right, down and around, and come to the center, and then to the left, down and around, and center, and only go as far as you're comfortable.

So again, right side, little massage to the hips. Yes. Left side. One more cycle through each side. Ooh.

Yes. Last time left side. I'm feeling it. Come to the center and bend the knees. Place the feet on the mat.

All right. Readjust anything that's happening with the hips. Check those shoulders. And then we're gonna do a little can can, so take both of the legs up. Hold that there.

And I want you to drop the knees to the left side or this is the right side, right side. Tap the toes down. Extend the legs out to an angle. Come back. Left side, extend the legs out.

Come back to center. Right side, kick out, bend, switch sides. Kick out left side, bend. Come to center. Last one each side, side, kick.

Bring it in, center. Left side, kick, center it out, legs to the floor. Woo. We are burning. Oh my goodness.

We're supposed to do one more exercise here. Let me go back. All right. Tick Tock. Not the app.

All right. Legs come to your mountain pose here. You have your feet on the floor. Elbows are into the mat. Go ahead take the right and left leg up.

And we're gonna just gently tip over to the right and tip over to the left. Modified Tick Tock. One more each side. Yes. I'm feeling it.

And other side, come back and then drop those legs down. Let's flip over to our quadro pad position. All right. Hips, elbows, wrist. Everything's in check.

We're gonna do a little ISO Ab hold here. So again, long spine long tail, pressing the hands into the floor. I like to spin my triceps towards one another. Hold that there. Hip work is starting right now.

Right leg will just shoot back. Shoot it back. Stay low, top of the foot is on the floor. Lift it up. Squeeze that glute.

If your hip is out, point that hip towards the floor to make sure you stay nice and square. Hello. And then bend that knee, left side takes over. Left leg shoots out. Check the hip.

Lift squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze. Yes. Bend it, replace it. Next side we'll do the same thing. Right side shoots out.

Bend that, what's it called, not a wrist, it's called a ankle. (laughing) Flex your ankle. And let's kick the seat two times and straighten. Kick the seat two times. Boom, boom.

And straighten. One more. Kick, kick, straighten, switch sides. All leg work. Shoot the left leg out.

Find that center. Check that hip, flex the ankle, kick, kick, point. Kick, kick, point. One more. Kick, kick, point, and rest back in child's pose.

Hello. Doing so great. Let's shoot ourselves out and come to a sideline position. So checking my side. I'm on my right hip, but whatever side you like pick that one.

Always check your palms, shoulder, and your elbow. Now you have permission to stay here or you can go lower and reach long like this. I'm think I'm gonna stay here today. So my opposite hand right hand is on the floor. Yeah.

And left hand's gonna give these spider finger right next to me. I'm gonna bring my legs to a 90 degree position. So right there in line with my hip and we're gonna do some clams. So for my clam I'm gonna lift up that left leg just about hip distance and lower. We'll do two more like that.

Lift and lower. Una mas. Lift and lower. Now keep the feet together. Just open that top leg, open the top leg and squeeze down with resistance like you're squeezing and resisting.

Closing the leg. Squeeze. Ooh, two. We do one more. Open.

Yes and squeeze. We squeeze. Now fun stuff. We're gonna take the same leg, shoot the top leg out, and then we're gonna bend at the knee and grab for a quad stretch here. So this other leg is still staying in a 90 position, but if you want to lower it and lift it out, you can do that too.

And then press the hip flexor forward to get a stretch through here. Yes. Stretch, push, push, push. Now we're gonna take that leg and put it in front of us, flat on the mat, spider fingers in the front, and we're gonna stretch that hip and press the hip away, press the thigh. So we're opening up in the hip.

It feels great. I'm happy about this. And we will come out of that. Shoot the leg over and teaser or switch over to the other side, doing the same thing. So again, the setup is here.

You can stay here, or you can go low. I'll keep it even. So I'm gonna lay myself down straight line, bring those legs to a 90 degree angle. Boom, right there, spider fingers here. And now I will lift this top leg up to the level of my hip lifting here and lower.

And lift again, and lower. Last one, lift just activating that hip. Keep the feet together. Now we're gonna open that top leg, keeping it and then closing. So open and close the car door.

Right? Open that hip and close it. Yes. And open and close. My goodness.

It is all activated in here. So activated. All right. I'm gonna lengthen this leg out and then I'll take a little stretch and hold that ankle. The other side I showed you a long lead.

This this time I'm gonna leave this leg where it is and just press the hip forward and find length in the top of my body to stretch this hip flexor. Yes. Woo. And we'll come out of this stretch, and then we'll just flip over to our bellies. I'm gonna flip this way and we'll come onto a prone position.

Prone means on your belly. Find that plank. So we're gonna go into a plank. So here's a fun part. You can gimme whatever plank you like.

I can take the high plank, a forearm plank or a modified plank, but here's the exercise, so again, always thinking about the next thing long away from the shoulders, my hands are gonna come out to about a little bit higher than shoulder level if I'm going do about a forearm plank, tuck my toes under, I'm gonna go a little higher. Yeah, let's do this. Let's go into our Cobra Sphinx thingy. Swan. All right.

(laughing) I like this position here. Tucking my toes under I'm gonna lift my bum up and keep that belt line in line and hold that plank. Hold the plank for three, two, one, lower down. Now we're gonna add rainbow. So we're gonna tip the hips both sides.

So that same lift. I'll show you a modification or a progression actually. Let's go to a high plank, high plank. So here's my high plank. I wanna dip the right hip.

This is my left hip, left hip, right hip, left hip, right hip left hip, right hip, one more, left hip, hi, and right hip. And then bring those knees down, press back into a child's pose. Just to move through some deliciousness right here, I want you to keep this child's pose position here, and I want you to roll through your spine forward. So roll through your spine forward, reaching over the wrist and let your hips come towards the mat. So I call this like a frog or it's like a up dog and then press back.

Yes. Mm-hmm. And then come back through center, rowing through your spine, waving through your spine, let your feet do what they want to. I'm more concerned about your hip flexors getting stretched, and take it back one more time. Boom.

And then come forward for that final stretch. If you need a little extra credit, you can turn your head either direction to get a deeper stretch and the side body. And then I want you to tuck the toes under lift the hips, press into the floor for your wide dogish up dogish elephantish thing. So hold that puppy there. I'm gonna take my feet out wider than my mat and that's what makes it a wide dog.

And I want you to walk your hands in just a smidge more and really let your head be heavy. Maybe spread your arms out a little bit wider to really press through the hamstrings, those lovely hamstrings, nice and long. Holding that puppy there. It's a puppy. I said dog, and it's a puppy.

Okay. (laughing) So we gonna hold this position. I want you to bend your right knee towards the floor and get a stretch through that left leg. Look at that I'm showing you my microphone and then come to the other side. Left leg bends and stretches, and then come to the center.

You can actually make this more of a caustic stretch or a side lunge. Bring your hands in closer and then do that same bend, right side. And then the left side. I'll do one more center. And I want you to watch your head because I'm looking cuz I'm teaching, but I want your head to just really be heavy off of your shoulders and get length.

Maybe go the longest and the furthest that you can on this one and come to the center. Last one this side. Yes, yes and yes. And come back to the center. So in this stretch we're here in our wide dog.

You can take it into a dolphin and drop the elbows. Whoa, hello. Nice. And then we'll come out of that stretch and we'll come onto our backs for a bridge. So go ahead and flip yourself over in a sexy manner and lower everything to the mat.

Arms are at your side. Heels are next to your bum and here I want you to just really do a hip lift and lower. So we're just gonna squeeze the bottom tailbone, we'll tuck towards the heels and lift the booty off. Squeeze your bums and then lower down. We'll lift up and lower.

One more lift. Hold here again for this position this is a reverse plank. Your knees are going towards the opposite side of the room to really stretch the front of your thighs and really activate those quads and work the hips. Keep that there we'll do some butt taps. We'll just tap it down.

Tap and lift, tap, press and lift. Two more and lift. Hello and last one. Lift. Hold that puppy and roll down your spine to lower everything.

All right, bring those legs together. I love windshield wipers. This time we're gonna change the modification to just lower the right leg. Let that stay there. And now we'll let the left leg chase it.

Option to stay here with both shoulders press to the floor. Option to have the arms wide. If you need more stretch you can definitely turn your head opposite the legs. And then come back to center head and legs, left side will drop to the side. Let the side of your foot feel the floor.

And then the right leg will come to chase it. Again stay here or turn the head, and come back to the center, right and left leg. Here's the fun one. So go ahead and take your right ankle over the left thigh. And now do that same hip drop.

Hello, delicious stretch. Oh my gosh. If this is available to you, great, if not go back to the one that we just did before and really get into that stretch and press that leg into that thigh. So you get a deeper stretch all through the side of that hip. It's so yummy.

And come back to the center, change the cross of your legs. So again, left ankle comes on. Right leg will fall to the floor. I call this a pretzel. I'm getting hungry.

Yes. Oh my gosh. This side is so tight and it absolutely loves it. So there's your pretzel. There is your pretzel.

Keeping those shoulders on the floor, wide shoulders, come back to center, bring that right and left leg to the floor, your feet are flat. Bring those legs into your chest. Give them a hug and a squeeze. Draw a circle on the ceiling with the knees, one direction, try the other direction. Just to massage out that low back, set it the legs, hold onto the shins and roll yourself up to seated as many rocks as you need, all the way to the top.

Find your balance and you are done loosening that hip up. (laughing) See you for the next workout.