Mike’s Yoga

Daily

Please start by doing this routine 3 days a week. We go carefully. Little things, especially little things repeated, can hurt you, and I’m not hands-on checking your progress and form. Go easy and be nice to yourself; enjoy it. And also learn in your flesh a feel for how the simple and smooth work strongly.

• Sit well
• Shoulder roll open
• Closed nostril breathing
• Sit crossed legs
• Closed nostril breathing — while sitting on your mat
• Pyramid rest — for a minute or two
• Reclined crossed arm extend
• Sphinx
• Pyramid rest — for a minute or two

Neck

• Pyramid rest supported neck relief
  Gently get down and lay on your soft mat in the pyramid rest pose. Use a thin pillow under your head that helps your neck feel comfortable and relaxed. Roll your arms open, your palms open upward.
  a) Smoothly pull your shoulder blades toward your butt to gently pull the back of your neck and shoulders. Hold the gentle pull for roughly 8 seconds then smoothly release. Pause then repeat. And once more.
  b) Gently turn your head to the right. Pause and rest into the position for a few seconds. Then gently pull your left shoulder blade toward your butt. Hold the gentle pull for roughly 8 seconds then smoothly release. Smoothly turn your head to face upward and pause. Then gently turn your head to your left and pull your right shoulder blade toward your butt in the same way. Smoothly turn your head to face upward and pause. Then repeat right and left two more times.
• Neck rotation
  Sit well. Look ahead in a way that your neck feels good. Turn your head smoothly to your left as far as you can comfortably. Pause at that point for a moment and focus on the muscles in your neck doing the work. Now slack those muscles slightly as you turn your head back a few degrees from farthest. Focus on learning the feel. Then tilt your head away from your front gently, just enough to feel a slight pull on the front of your neck. Hold for roughly ten seconds then turn your head smoothly to the front. Now turn your head to your right in the same way. Then repeat left and right two more times. We do this to train your feel for your neck and train these muscles to work smoothly with softer contractions.
  
  Do you want this as part of your current daily routine or do you want it as part of your yoga routine? Do you want to merge them? Please write me a list of your current daily routine.

Shoulders

Sit well.

• Roll open
  Let your left arm fall straight down from the shoulder while you sit well on the hard chair. Roll your left arm open, rotate your left upper arm outward at the shoulder joint, and face your palm gently forward to the extent that is comfortable. Hold for roughly ten seconds then smoothly relax. Repeat two more times. Then put your left palm back on your left thigh and do the sequence with your right arm. This is subtle, and we are asking small muscles to work against big muscles; don’t do it forcefully or it will make you hurt.

Chest & Torso

• Reclined crossed arm extend
  Lay back in the pyramid rest pose. Firmly reach your hands, palms down, along your side toward your toes. Hold and then focus and smoothly release the reach. Bring your arms together crossed over your chest with each hand securely holding the other elbow. Bring your arms up together over your head as far as you can comfortably. Relax your shoulder blades toward the mat. Focus on being stable as stability will allow your muscles to relax into greater range. Hold for roughly ten seconds then bring your arms together smoothly back to rest on your chest and pause. Repeat two more times smoothly. Then reach your arms hard down along your sides and smoothly release.

Breathe

Pranayama is a branch of yoga that works on breathing. There are many techniques you can read about and watch but please don’t experiment as some could harm you.

Start by sitting well on a firm chair.

• Closed nostril (nadi shodhana)
  Hold your right palm in front of your mouth and let your elbow relax down. Close your right nostril with your thumb and breathe normally ten times. Take a few breaths through both nostrils. Close your left nostril with your index finger and breathe normally ten times.

Future:

• 5 ways
• Diaphragm isolation

Back

Make for yourself a nice mat, perhaps a pile of good soft blankets. Comfort is important and also very useful. Comfort helps you feel good and also helps you relax. Allow yourself to enjoy the soft and fuzzy; it will help you.

• Sit
  Sit in the middle of a hard chair, away from the back, like a dining chair. Have your feet bare or in socks firm and square on the floor. Have your shins vertical like strong and stable posts. Have your knees apart at a comfortable width without effort (touch your groin muscles to check). Have your shoulders relaxed toward the back with your elbows hanging straight down. Rest your palms on the top of your thighs. Look in a direction that helps your neck feel good. Rock your pelvis smoothly front and back a little to feel the three points of your seat, sit bones and root, on the hard chair seat. Then just sit well with your back upright and relaxed for part of a minute and notice how all of you feels. The feel from your feet, root, palms, and eyes are central to how the pose works.
• Sit crossed legs
  Get down slowly and carefully. Sit on your mat and cross your legs. Get your knees as wide as comfortable. Relax and do nothing for most of 20 seconds. Then focus and press all three points of your seat into the mat but otherwise relax. Notice how this shapes your back. Hold for roughly 10 seconds then relax smoothly. Change which leg you have closer in then repeat relax and then press.
• Pyramid rest
• Sphinx
  Get into the pose. Spend up to 20 seconds relaxing into the pose. Then engage the pose in two steps. Pull your shoulder blades toward your butt and together and hold. Then press your pubic bone firmly on the mat and hold for roughly 10 seconds. Then smoothly relax. Pause and relax for a few seconds then repeat two more times.

Next Time

We will practise and improve your routine. And if you can again give me more than an hour, we will also do a mini intensive to improve your feel for opening your chest, hip flexors, and low back.

• Sit
• Shoulder roll open – demo pelvis & back form
• Closed nostril breathing – focus on legs, root, back, & shoulders
• Sit crossed legs – with folded cloth & bolsters
• Closed nostril breathing – feel back of lower ribs
• Sit crossed legs – gaze demo & adjust
• Pyramid rest – focus T-Ys: pubic, base, knees triangle, xiphoid breath, chest – nudge headward – arms roll open, palms open
• Pyramid rest neck relief
• Pyramid rest self massage – nudge, sartorious, femoris, iliacus, medius, ql
• Reclined leg extend
• On side leg extend
• Side arm extend
• Reclined lateral extend
• Sphinx adjusted
• Child’s pose or pyramid rest

Future

• Seated supported forward fold
• Child’s pose
• Grab butt
  Move forward on the hard chair and sit well keeping your root on the seat. Reach back with your hands and grab your butt just above the seat of the chair with your fingers almost touching over your coccyx. Firmly pull your shoulders back and down, pull your shoulder blades together, and pull your elbows back and down. Hold the firm pull for roughly ten seconds without bowing your back, then smoothly release the pull keeping your hands in place. Repeat two more times. We do this to engage your trapezius, rhomboids, and lats, open your chest, and increase the suppleness of your breathing.