Start by lying on your back with knees bent.

Place your feet onto the mat about hip distance apart and have your toes pointing forward.

If possible, walk your feet toward your buttocks, so that your knees are stacked directly over your ankles. If there’s any tenderness, pain, tension or torsion under or around your kneecaps, change position of your feet to find knee happiness.

Avoid pressing your low back into the mat. Instead, aim to to maintain natural curvature of your spine.  Pressing your back into the mat will shorten and tighten muscles between your ribs and your hips, and also will prevent small stabilizer muscles along your spine from working properly.  Reach one hand underneath your back - there should be some space between the small of your back and the mat. 

Place your fingertips on your hipbones, then slide your fingers about 1 inch toward your belly button to have the flesh of your belly underneath your fingers (this is to give you a sensory feedback on how your low abdominal muscles are firing.) Exhale, and gently draw your inner core up and in – feel the muscles of your low belly engage underneath your fingers. 

Lift your right foot 1 to 4 inches off the floor, and see if you can maintain a stable, non-rocking pelvis (yes, no moving in the pelvis at all!).

Lower the foot down to the ground and try on the other side.

 

Repeat this a few times: exhale, gently draw in your lower abdominals, and lift your right foot of the mat. Inhale to replace. Exhale, engage your core, and lift your left foot. Inhale, and replace. Repeat several times to the point of fatigue (but not beyond that), paying attention to the quality of your breath and stability of your pelvis.

 

This exercise only sounds easy.

Try it for yourself!

 

 

 

 

Lie on your back with your knees bent and stacked over your ankles.

Place your feet about hip width apart, with your toes pointing forward and distribute your weight evenly between your right and left foot, as well as between inner and outer edges of each foot.

Have your arms at the sides of your body with palms facing down.

Exhale, press into your feet, and lift your pelvis up and off the mat.

 

We are not practicing the Full Bridge pose, but rather its variation where the torso moves as a unit and spinal curves are still preserved. "Pushing the floor with the feet" imagery can help you find more glut engagement.

 

With your inhalation begin the slow descent toward the mat, working carefully and patiently to articulate the movement through each segment of the spine. Notice which areas of your spine aren’t moving well, and spend several repetitions learning how to move through those frozen areas.

 

 

 

This is an advanced exercise; please attempt it only once you have reached efficiency in the Core Primer Exercise while lying on your back.

Start lying on your back.

Stack your knees over your ankles, and place your feet hip width apart with toes pointing forward and outside edges of your feet parallel to mat’s edges. Distribute your weight evenly over both feet, and between inner and outer edges of each foot to ensure proper alignment of your knees and thigns.

Exhale, and lift your hips. Take a moment to check your alignment – make sure that the weight is still distributed evenly between inner and outer edges of each foot. 

Now exhale, and gently draw up your inner core.

You should feel slight hollowing in your lower belly muscles.

Keep your pelvis level  - pelvic stability is our focus here! - and lift right foot off the floor 1 to 4 inches. Inhale, lower the leg to the ground and try on the other side. Repeat 4 – 5 times on each side, and then gently release your pelvis to the mat.

 

 

 

Lie on your back and bring your knees towards the chest.

Keeping your sacrum (the base of your spine) on the floor, draw your knees toward your armpits and your thighs toward your chest. If this shape feels accessible, try lifting your feet up toward the ceiling.

 

From there, bring your heels directly over your knees, and then reach up to grasp your feet. Rock gently from side to side. To finish, release your feet, bring your feet onto the ground, then extend your legs forward.

 

 

 

 

• Breathe slowly through your nose.
  Inhale; exhale, and at the bottom of your exhalation & before taking another breath, very slowly draw your lower abdomen in and up, away from the ground. Can you do this without changing the shape of your back?
   
• Focus your attention on the lower part of your abdomen – between your pubic bone and your navel. Imagine you are wearing a bikini and the front of it is shrinking.
  Make your core contraction gradual and only up to 25% of what you sense would be your maximum effort.
  Once you are sure you are activating the right muscles, sustain the feeling while you are breathing through your lower ribs.
  Start with one full breathing cycle and work up to 5. 
   

• Again, start on your hands and knees (or forearms and knees.)
   
• Engage your core and then gently press your hands and left shin into the floor as you slowly slide your right foot out behind you until your knee is straight. Sustaining your core contraction, lift your leg until it is hip – height and in line with your trunk. Keep your kneecap facing down toward the floor. Avoid turning leg outward when lifting it up. 
   
• You may feel yourself leaning into your left hip as you raise your right leg. To avoid this, push firmly down into the mat with your left shin and the top of your foot as if you were trying to make an imprint in the carpet with your leg. If your ankles are too stiff, place a folded towel under them and press into that. 
   
• To prevent shoulders from collapsing as you lift your leg, press down with your hands as if to make hand prints in the carpet.
  Keep your elbows straight, but not locked.
  Broaden your chest and collarbones and keep your shoulder blades down along your back.
  Have your neck in line with your spine and let your eyes gaze at the floor a foot in front of you. Finish by resting in child’s pose for several breaths. 
   
• To retrain and strengthen your core, do 3 reps on each side once a day. Build up to holding your leg up for up to 6 breaths. 
   

 

 

 

Take Downward Facing Dog (Refer to WEEK 2 ALIGNMENT E-MINDER)
Exhale, and engage your lower belly (core) muscles. 

Sustain your core engagement.

 

Exhale and hover your right knee into the chest, while keeping your pelvis level; inhale to stretch your right leg back behind you, lift it to hip level. 

 

Keep your pelvis level through out the whole range of motion – the focus of this (as well as previous exercises) is to gain the range of motion in the hip along with stability in the pelvis.  

 

Repeat this movement several times, only to the edge of fatigue, and then replace the foot on the mat and re-align your body. 

Rest in Child’s pose if needed, then come back to the Downward Facing Dog to work on the other side.
 
Work patiently with left leg movements, again, making sure that your pelvis is quiet and your breathing is unimpeded.

 

 

 

 

Start in Tadasana – Mountain pose.

Look forward, about 5 feet ahead and to the floor.

You may also choose to stand with your side to the wall - so you can find balance support in case you need it.

Place your hands to the front of your pelvis (also called "hip bones").

We place our hands here to remind ourselves to keep the pelvis "quiet", and focus on moving through the hip joint.

 

Shift your weight to your left foot, and then bend your right knee just slightly to lift your left heel off the ground but leave the left big toe on the mat.

Keeping your pelvis non-moving and quiet (make sure your hipbones are pointing forward), turn the right knee out to the side and bring your right foot to the inner left foot, ankle, shin or thigh. The goal here is not to go as high as possible, but rather keep the pelvis steady.

Once you have found your balance, bring your hands together in front of your heart center. Alternatively, place one hand on the wall for support.

Hold for 30 seconds to a minute, and then repeat on the other side.