Hi I'm Jean Mazzei. This is about juicy hips and we're gonna work your splits so if
you need a nice down and dirty way of kind of getting into the hips get a nice
and open all the way around leading you into a better splits practice, this is
your jam. So let's enjoy. It's gonna be a little non-traditional to start- go
figure. That's kind of what I do, but we're gonna
get into some other more traditional things. You can do this at the
beginning of any practice, again a stand alone practice- anything you need. Okay?
First we'll start with the legs pretty wide- not too wide. Those of you that are
really wide like this- no. Make it functional wide. So because we're gonna
be getting in and bending the legs. Take the body over and the first thing it's
the figure eights. So you're gonna draw a figure eight with your tailbone. So it
like you could have a big paintbrush on the bottom of your tail can be drawing a
figure eight and as I draw a figure eight with my tail my head and my hands
will follow like a paintbrush. Notice that I'm bending one leg and then
the other leg so the idea is to keep again that fluidity, that sensualness,
that connection through your feet, knees, ankles, and hips. Not necessarily in that
order however. Feet, ankles, knees and hips may be sequentially and move it up the
spine just to work out any kinks-any large kinks-and get that connection to
do between hips and spine because one of the reasons we love to open our hips is
because it really makes us feel freer in our backs and once we get our things
off our backs life is better if you've done enough of those to feel a little
bit more juicy just take it over to the side a little pyramid pose for those of
you like a little block action if this is too deep for you right out of the
gate please feel free to use the blocks as you will need to otherwise hands can
be on the floor but the idea here is that are just going to be breathing
probably about a one to one breath ratio here as you just take that sense of
space really feeling the foundation move up to the legs down the back if you're
starting to feel I got enough stretch going there flex that front foot again
you may be on blocks here you may not be on blocks
that's me unblock invisible block and once you flex the front foot if you
want that's to get that gastrocnemius that back calf muscle to get the other
calf muscle the underneath one the soleus you can bend the back knee
keeping the knee right over the toe keeping my hips pretty square thinking
of my sit bones putting straight back to the back wall on that upward diagonal
and then relax my head so I can get the maximum amount of length through my
spine then we start to peel through the feet moving all the way to the tippy
tippy tip toe and then flex that front foot again hands may be on blocks here
if that if you need the support but cuz right now I don't I'm gonna use the
floor cuz that's just how it's rolling so really articulating all the bones
muscles ligaments tendons of the feet to connect and strengthen the feet the feet
go all the way up to the hips you might have noticed that about yourself and we
want to make sure that we acknowledge that connection as we do this series
okay then you just peel all the way up into a standing split now depending on
where you are with your hamstrings it may not be the highest or the deepest
standing split you've got but take the one you've got and work with that again
hands maybe on blocks here after you've held your spanic standing slip for a
while just keep breathing inhale for five six seven eight counts exhale the
same amount and then we're gonna start to pull everything into the navel Center
now you may notice in my standing split I like an open hip here I think it's
very rare that a person can actually pull off a standing split with square
hips then to me it's like just like a warrior three with your board Bend for a
split you really want to get into the inner thighs a bit so that's my
preference and what's worked for me over the years and then exhale bend both
knees pull everything into the navel Center and then inhale extend it back
out from the belly exhale pull it all in and then inhale expand out from the
belly so I'm really feeling everything come into my Center feeling more
centered and then expressing out through the limbs so now I have a nice balance
between my internal reality and reaching out into my external world we'll do one
more of those at the same time I'm getting this out
tip of my standing legs and I'm starting to actually feel this stretching then
place that foot down on the ball of the foot curl the toes under stretch out the
feet hand to Kharis is on the floor here or again on the block depending on you
and then lift that other arm up you're stretching this outer hip here breathing
through nice long spine I call this Fosse asana Oh to Bob Fosse
if you don't know who he is you should look him up so I breathe deeply through
feeling that nice stretch gentle twist through the spine then release that foot
activating that inner thigh also getting more stretch in that back hip then spin
it around float it down to the floor and then if you've seen some like the flow
videos that I made slide it down into pool boy pose so really feeling that
sense of length through the side body there hug the knee into the chest let
that shoulder blade rise up so I can get underneath my shoulder blade from there
hold that a few breaths and then spin yourself gently around to your lunge
feel free to pad underneath your knee with a blanket or flip your mat handy
trick because you will be on your kneecap for the deeper stretch if that
your kneecap can't take it or you need a little easier way in you keep the toe up
or down can control I when I curl my toes under like this I can control
what's happening in my knee a little bit more so if my knees feeling a little
tender then I can take less weight on it by having more weight in my toes
otherwise top of the foot gives a nice stretch there too after that you can
grab the back foot either hand will do today this is the one I'm choosing so
you can press that knee if that heel into the buttock if you can if not don't
worry about it if you get a cramp in this back thigh that is your body
telling you stop I'm not ready to for you to grab me right now foot saying to
your body stop not ready so listen to your body or choose a different way but
enjoy the cramp and press that in notice that I'm not on
kneecap at all I'm actually on the top of my thigh I'm actually on my femur
here so if you're on your kneecap I'm gonna say no that's telling me that you
need a little bit more stretch in the quadriceps before this movement it's
really gonna mean much to you at all in a happy way after that then rotate that
front leg out into everybody's favorite pose pigeon rolled laid all the way down
for me I'm not a big fan of putting a block under the hip and doing it this
way because it puts a lot of weight in the knee and the ankle so I prefer they
just lay the butt all the way down and from there rolling on over that way my
ankle knee and hip are all in the same plane and I feel totally safe about not
having gravity having this be like the high heel shoe of my body putting all
that weight into my knee joint am i torquing my back absolutely not
have you done ardha chandrasana you're in this position so there's nothing to
me everybody's body is different but this is much better I come from the land
of the tight hip tribe so I understand tight hips and if you are a bendy person
this will not be you'll feel I'm not feeling anything then for horse pull
that leg out square those hips off do all those other things but if you come
from the land of the type hip tight hip people my people this will change your
life and make pigeon a friendly place we hold her a couple more breaths and then
bring your body back up inhale take that leg back to the lunge and now you're
ready to rock the hips back again pad underneath your knee if you want to you
will be on your kneecap here curl the toes under if you need a little bit of
pressure off hang here in half Hanuman or half split and when you feel ready
start to slide that heel out into your split now if that doesn't happen
magically for you today it will over time but this is where you can also
bring in the heavy machinery and place a block underneath this top buttock here
or here which gives you a really great place to hang out or use both blocks
here and just hold yourself off the floor
use some shoulder awarenesses or you could actually just hoist a crane from
the top and have something hold you up from the ceiling that also works if you
happen to have one of those on hand otherwise you're down the splits for the
bendy people of course grab the back foot etc etc etc and then from there
roll yourself open into oppa be stackin asana oh yeah now you're feeling the
inner thigh love and just take a little moment of a forward fold here for some
of you you're gonna go yikes not in my not on my day today I'm just gonna hold
back here press the pubic bone down just just to feel the inner thighs this is
not about feeling your back muscles stretch it's all about feeling juicy
hips so as I stay here waiting for my juicy hips to cook let's share shall we
okay I think we're done slowly bring the legs back in be slow there seriously it
was deep and then we do the other side so legs wide again again figure Eight's
you're gonna feel way different this second round because you're way more
juicy get deeper more lush if you like jungle cat let all that melt off the
back this we can let tension melt off your back down your arms into the earth
drain all that stress melt your brain and then flow it around to the other
side again pyramid pose here breathing blocks optional I won't demonstrate with
them on this side feel that nice sense of space that nice sense the breath
really feel that length
oh the relationship of head and tail relationship of hips sit bones and feet
flex the front foot to get some stretch in the back calf front calf and then if
you want to get that back Catherine you're going to go a little bit deeper
just bend that back knee slightly it's not going to be a very big Bend okay
the heel stays on the ground so don't do that job because you really want to get
that calf muscle it may not feel like much to some but you're getting it
stretched just the same interesting tip the gastrocnemius which is the outer
calf muscle your leg has to be straight in order to get a stretch for the soleus
which is the calf muscle that's underneath that's underneath the grass
gastrocnemius then he actually needs to be bent for you to stretch it and then
start to peel the feet tippy tippy tip toes flex that front foot tippy tippy
tip toes again finding that fluidity between feet ankles and these hips
allowing your spine to just follow so I'm not trying to stabilize with my
spine I'm just taking my spine for a ride then peel it all the way up to
standing splits breathe nice and deep get hands maybe on blocks here feel free
to open that hip because you really want to get a sense of verticality a sense of
that openness as as opposed to that closed midline thing this is more of a
side opening thing side of the legs that is and then exhale bend it all and now
you can feel that midline navel to the spine back to the knees both legs Bend
inhale float it back up and then exhale pull everything into the navel like
squeeze the light inside and an inhale Express that light through your limbs
feet hands head and tail pull it on in exhale pull that light into the belly
and then Express to the limbs and then again bring it on into the belly Express
through the limbs love that motion and then pull it back on in tuck that toe
behind Fossey asana feeling outer here here so I am feeling a lot of action in
this outer hip again feel free to put your hand on a block here to bring the
body up and you may opt to not lift the arm if it's just you're feeling plenty
otherwise lift the arm here give a nod to Bob Fosse and jazz hands everywhere
lift that back leg activate that inner thigh go around the blocks that are
floating there lay it back down slide through that shoulder whoo yeah
pool boy pose nice length of the side body stretch it's starting to connect
the juiciness of the hips up into the shoulders so by doing this practice you
may feel more shoulder relief as a side benefit bring it back around to the
front now we're into stretching the quad again again lift the mat if you need to
or want to this is courses for more
flexibility this would be more stability binding which would be building which
would be a different type of practice but you could modify of course keep
breathing down deep into the hips can use the back toe to modulate pressure on
that back knee or for more connection you've been a deeper stretch for me I
put the flat of my foot down if you get if you find you're having a little cramp
you foot days though toe under because you know me feeling crappy cuz no cramps
aren't very comfortable and then bend that back leg heel into the buttock
stretch that quad even deeper again notice that I'm not on my kneecap here
I'm all the way on top of my thigh so my knee is free and clear that's what it
feels good if you're here I'm not thinking you're getting that much of
more of a quad stretch than this okay so go here guess we can do modified poolboy
with your shoulder and then release rotate that front leg out into pigeon
again feel free to lay that hip all the way down on the floor roll the opposite
hip forward and then just gently walk yourself forward breathe into the belly
exhale the debris out through the legs so that flow that
juiciness through your belly hips knees ankles and feet and then also feel that
flow right coming floating off your spine just let it go
feel that flow now if you've had a few breaths here of delight and he'll bring
the body up can also be grabbing the back foot here if you want to bring the
leg forward and then rock back for half hanumanasana again you are on your knee
here so I'd like to keep my toes under for that reason so I don't have to put
so much weight on my kneecap this could be fine this is we want to block up get
your blocks ready heavy equipment or then we can just slide out into the
splits over time this too will be you in your own unique way of course and then
roll it open into loop Avista konasana and then one more through the center so
we just had juicy hips we worked our splits enjoy
you