Props: Blanket

Tags: 4 part breathing, humming nasal clearing, breath retentions, peak pose: pigeon, hip therapeutic, sneaky abs, balance, Stronger practice.

Today the students joining me were 2s and 3s, and cold. There was a request to warm-up on this below freezing day, so we worked at a stronger level to build muscle engagement and heat in the body.

We started seated with spinal movements before sitting for pranayama with 4 part breathing, humming, nasal clearing, and breathing retentions/kumbhakas. We moved on to seated hip openers and weight bearing poses like half-circle, table, down-dog, puppy, and sunbird. After lunge variations, we moved towards laying on our bellies for prone hip openers and back bends, before moving on to pigeon. In pigeon today, I offer a very strenuous option to move from sleeping pigeon with yoga mudra arms to raising your torso into lifted pigeon with yogamudra arms. This is a very difficult transition, and in hindsight, we should have done more pec opening before leading this pose. Be safe!  Practice ends with free form movement of your choice, followed by either shavasana or seated meditation. Wrap up in a blanket if you ‘re in the chilly places! Enjoy!