Six moves of the spine beginning with cat and dog. From hands and knees, inhale and lift the tail bone, lower the belly, and gaze upward. And as you exhale, curl the spine in deflection pressing down through the hands and lowering the head. Tie this motion with the rhythm of your own breathe, inhaling tail bone up, belly down, shoulders low gaze forward, and exhaling, scooping the pelvis, rounding the back and releasing the head. See if you can tie the action completely to your breathe, so that as you are finishing your push into cat tail, you are becoming totally empty of air and the entire trip into this dog pose is the progression of the inhalation.

This articulation of the vertebrae is wonderful for your spinal health. It’s great for tension release as well. The final inhalation here and using exhale to settle back into child’s pose. Hips over the heels, arms long down the mat press into the hands and settle down. Now we’ll take the hands over to the left side of the mat, lateral child’s pose, stretching the right side of the rib cage. The sensation intensifies as you breathe in, separating the ribs stretching the intercostals and the sensation decreases as you exhale.

Now as you inhale, lift your forehead to clear the mat to slide the hands over to the other side, exhaling, settling down, stretching the left side from the waist up toward the shoulder. Let there be space between the top of the left shoulder and bottom of the left ear. Settle everything down into the floor. Coming to your next inhalation, bring the hands down the mat in front of you again. And exhale deep into child’s pose, and in inhalation back up to table. Threading the Needle twist; let’s slide the left hand forward and enter to in and bend the right elbow; either down to the floor underneath you or all the way down to the ground.

To make this more intense you might bind the right arm behind you, being careful the weight is borne by your shoulder and not by your head, you might float your arm up or you might just pause, keeping the left hand down and working the twist by pressing into the left hand. Finish your breath, unwind with an exhalation and press the floor away. Second side, weights in the right hand the left elbow bends and slides underneath the right side of the body Threading the Needle to take the weight on to the shoulder and not too much in the head. Loranz keeps her right elbow bend over her right wrist. I have my arm up for a chest stretch and down has wound his hand behind his back, nestling the fingertips into the left hip crease.

Please choose the variation that feels appropriate for you on this side and on this day. Try to keep your hips stable over your knees you will free to add cushioning beneath the knees as you practice this pose if they feel sensitive. We’ll use an exhalation to push the floor away, and come back to table pose once more.