Practice with Me - Gentle Yoga for Healthy Joints

Hi, here's another short yoga practice. This is a standing practice I call, "Gentle Yoga for Healthy Joints". It has a video version for those of you who are more visual on my Yogi MD YouTube channel. The link is in the show notes. Before beginning, make sure you are wearing comfortable clothes, you have water nearby, and if you need extra support today, stand next to a sturdy chair without wheels or wall. Shoes are optional and remember, never do anything that causes pain.Pain is sharpness, numbness, burning or stabbing sensations. This is your practice and you decide what is right for your body.Let's begin in Mountain Pose first, standing. Stack your joints so that your ankles are underneath your knees, your knees are underneath your hips, your hips are underneath your shoulders. And if you take a line and draw it down the middle of your ear, it lines up with the center of your shoulder.Make sure your gaze is forward, your shoulders are relaxed away from your ears, and your neck is nice and long.Inhale, set your intention for your practice.Exhale to let it go.Let's focus on breathing for energy.Inhale, thinking about increasing your energy from the bottom of your feet to the top of your head.Exhale, releasing tension from the top of your head to the bottom of your feet.Imagine your inhale sending energy, oxygen to all of your muscles, all of your cells, and exhaling relaxation from the top of your head and out through your toes.And now either place your hands on your hips or you can interlace your hands behind your back.Begin gentle head circles, bringing your chin down towards your chest as you exhale and lifting your chin gently towards the ceiling as you inhale.Let's do 10 in this direction first.And be careful not to let your head fall back too far.and 5-4-3-2-1Change directions 10 times beginning now.5-4-3-2-1Now release your hands down by your sides a2nd let's begin simple shrugs. Inhale slide your shoulder blades up your back. Exhale glide your shoulder blades down your back2-3-4-5Do five more at your own pace.And let's change this motion by relaxing your shoulders, relaxing your arms. Nice, strong Mountain Pose. Don't lock your knees.And let's begin squeezing the shoulder blades towards one another on the exhale, being careful not to arch your back and on your inhale, releasing the squeeze. Perform a total of 10Slowly, mindfully, make the motion flow.Use your breath.And relax this movement.Lift your arms to shoulder height.Think strong arms from fingertip to shoulder to opposite shoulder to opposite fingertips.Begin waking up the muscles in your arms. Circle forward and make them as wide or as shallow as you like, 10 times. Don't hold your breath.And now go backwards.Slowly bring your arms down by your sides. Take a breath in and exhale.Lift your arms forward to shoulder height. Relax your shoulders away from your ears. And begin criss crossing your arms. Alternate which arm criss crosses over the other each time for a total of 10 times.As you open your arms, inhale, as you bring your arms forward, exhale.In 5-4-3-2-1, release your arms down by your sides.Turn your palms forward.Lift your arms up slightly. Exhale. Inhale, touch your shoulders. Exhale to lengthen your arms.Let's do this a total of 10 times.Halfway there.And release.This is a lovely exercise, simple shoulder touches when you're feeling tension.You can think about releasing tension through your fingertips when you release on the exhale.Now with your arms down by your sides, let's begin warming up the muscles around the wrists. Lengthen your fingers all the way through your fingertips, widen your fingers away from each other.On your inhale, curl your fingers in...