Flying hips and twists

(upbeat music) - Hi, we're going to work our hips and do a little twisting in our airline seat. So I'm just going to go through a few ways that you can do that whenever you're flying. So, first off, just notice how you're sitting in your seat. We're going to be using our armrests here, so just notice if this armrest next to you is available or not. We'll show some alternatives for that as we move through all the exercises. First thing you're going to do is find your feet flat on the ground, scoot up just a little bit, and all you go do here is just take a deep inhale and you exhale. We going to twist to the right first and you can keep your hands right on your leg and keep it super confined to your space. And most necks don't like to wrench all the way behind them. So you might just want to keep a neutral stare kind of looking at the person next to you, Hi. (laughing) You might want to just keep your head neutral and in line with your body. If it works for your neck you can kind of twist a little bit more through the neck. I like to drop my chin ever so slightly. And then if it works for you and your space on this flight you can go a little bit deeper by holding onto the armrest to pull yourself a little deeper into the stretch remembering to breathe, inhale, and exhale. So your neck can either be here, center or actually all the way forward. This is still a twist. One more breath, remembering to breathe here inhale and exhale and release center. And when your center just so we can get a little bit more connected with the lower back and the hip region, you going to inhale, you going to arch, if it feels good for your neck, you can look up. Exhale round chin tucks, arms are straight, pulling on the knees, leaning back. Inhale arch, hands slide toward you elbows next to the ribs. Exhale round chin tucks, upper back rounds leaning back. And this sort of, they call it cat cowling yoga. This cat cow movement can be done in any space, no matter how confining, no matter how small. And coming center, we going to twist on the other side. So you're going to see my back for a moment. Inhale first and exhale, let your hands come to the outside of the left leg and twist. If you're in a window seat, you can really hold onto the armrest to pull yourself a little bit more around. Our habit might be to hold our breath in a twist, it's really important to breathe. Inhaling and exhaling, my neck can either be neutral to the front or behind me and say hi to your neighbor behind you, hi (laughing) and breathing inhale, and exhale and release. Again we're going to go into that cat cow arching motion with the back. Inhale arch, look up if it works for you, exhale round, inhale arching, exhale round. Going a little bit faster this time around really waking up the body and exhale round. Excellent. So if it works for you for this next movement, it's called eye of the needle. It's not going to make much sense but that's what they call it. First, we going to start with the left leg. So all you're doing here is aware of your neighbor next to you. You going to bring your left ankle to the top of your right thigh. That might be the most hip stretch that works for you. And this might just be where you are. So if this is the maximum for your body, place one hand on your knee, one hand on your ankle and it's that cat cow motion again. Inhale arch, exhale round. Three rounds of that arch and round last time, arch and round. And if you want to go a little further with the stretch you can inhale, I like to shake my chin out, ever so slightly, exhale everything. And as you exhale, you can start to lean forward over the leg. And this is about where I feel it in my hip, your body is going to be different. So really tune in to where you're feeling it. And again, you should feel it, but it should feel good, right? You'll know just be in tune with your body and remember most of all, keep breathing. Awareness of the breath, inhale and exhale. So if you find yourself like straining shoulders up by the ears, that's a little too much and you just back off. One more breath here, I find it really useful to what my chin kind of wobbles side to side and released with great care. I'm going to put my leg back and I'm just going to rub the leg upper thigh, rub down the thigh and shake out the wrists. Same thing other side. So this time I'm in my window seat. So I might have a barrier here with the side of the plane, but I'm working it pretty good here. Your body might be different, the length of your legs might be a little different but take a moment to adjust and find your spot. Right ankle on the top of the left thigh, one knee, my right hand on my right knee, left hand on my right ankle. I'm going to inhale arch look up, exhale round. We're going to do this three times. This is number two. Last one and round. I'm going to pause here for a moment. I'm just going to let my chin wobble a little bit side to side. I'm going to inhale the neutral, and then if it works for my body and my hip, I'm going to start to on the exhale lean forward. And depending on how you're made, how your body works. It might be useful to let your chin come to your chest. My elbows are kind of next to my side ribs. I'm pulling with my hands, but I'm aware if I'm tensing in my shoulders. If I am, I'm going to relax my shoulders. Breathing here, (breathing) allowing the stretch to release tension, allowing the stretch to wake up the body. Go on coming up, releasing the leg Huh? One nice breath. Rubbing the leg, upper thigh, sides of the calves. And if you have access to an armrest on both sides, just for me to get centered I'm going to inhale a lot and I'm just going to scoot side to side and lift up slightly in my seat, press my feet into the ground and release down. Shoulder circle back, shoulder circle forward. And that's it. You should be feeling a lot better in your body and specifically in your hips. Have a great flight. (upbeat music)