Enjoyment is a very valid reason to practice yoga. Sometimes we place the benefits of our practice in the future, just out of reach of our present awareness. Today, let's grab the fruit of our practice and gobble it up right now. The mat can be an excellent place to practice learning what we want in the moment and making choices that personalize our experience and prioritize what serves us. Props: blanket

By establishing a strong, nourishing breathing practice at the start of class, we cultivate the tool that supports us as we engage with slow, focused, and longer-held postures which challenge our strength. Reclined, we explore movements that support the low back then transition to the aforementioned strength-based poses, make some time for hamstring stretching, a low lunge balance exercise for the sacroiliac joint, and a reclined figure-4 with a surprise twist (spoiler: there's stretch AND strength involved). Round out your practice with a final relaxation. Props: 1 blanket, 2 blocks

Through mindful movement, we practice staying with ourselves, inhabiting the body, embodying our strength, building our resilience, listening to and honoring our body, while growing our awareness and deepening our presence. We also do other stuff like breathing and moving. This class includes doing all of the above-mentioned while strengthening the shoulders and arms with multi-directional isometric holds, freestyle push-ups, following the breath through forward and side lunge transitions, and settling into stretches for shoulders, neck, and hips. Finish with a restful exploration of the feeling of care. Props: 1 blanket

Could your joints use a spa treatment? Gently coax space and movement into the chest, ribcage, mid-spine, neck, jaw, tongue, and shoulders to invite top-down relaxation before transitioning into twists and some hamstring love. Personalize your backbends in sweeping camel pose and stargazer. Chair pose with heel lifts adds some heat. The wrists, shoulders, ankles, knees, and hips get focused attention as well, leaving all of your major joint articulations well-pampered. Props: blanket, strap, 2 blocks

Ease into your practice with gentle sacral rocking and hip wheelies to ready the low back and hips to support us in dynamic weight-bearing movements. The hamstrings and sphinx pose receive the majority of our attention in this class, with stretching and strengthening for the former and variations of the latter that access the core and shoulders. Props: blanket

The shoulder girdles, that is!! Because the glenohumeral joint (where the upper arm bone connects to the trunk of the body) is fairly shallow, shoulder stability relies on strength all around the shoulder girdle, including the chest, scapulae, and rotator cuff muscles. This class will touch on and incorporate strength and stretch for all of those integral parts to support the whole. Props: blanket, strap, 1 block

A generously long figure 4 stretch and dynamic standing Warrior poses warm and prepare the hips to explore a side-sitting position where we will use voluntary muscular contractions to strengthen the hips while simultaneously internally and externally rotated. Stretch the front of the thighs in an an adaptive half hero's pose (ardha vajrasana-- you will be the full hero of your practice by personalizing the shape to keep your knees content). Props: blanket, 1 block

Step out on your strong stems! Gradually activate and build strength in the outer hips with side-to-side movements leading up to a dynamic transition from chair to temple dancer (aka standing figure 4). Get a little core burn going in half boat pose then cool down the hips with a cross-legged forward fold. Props: blanket, block