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As a yoga teacher, I’m frequently asked how I come up with creative yoga flows. I always have a hard time answering that as I’m inspired by so many different things, whether a quote or the weather or a pose or a feeling. Sometimes it’s nice to get out of your head and simply move without a plan. Just see where your body wants to take you.
Recently, I heard Nathan Ball’s amazing cover of “Crazy,” originally by Gnarls Barkley, and it made me want to move. I put the song on repeat and started to flow with the music without any idea of where I was going. This sequence is what resulted.
Feel-good yoga flow
Practice this sequence or use it as a basis for your own practice, allow yourself to be inspired by whatever moves you today.
Figure 4
Start in Downward Dog. Come onto the ball of your right foot and bring your left foot to your right thigh for a figure 4 shape. Bend your standing leg, bringing your chest toward your calf.
Plank Crunch
Come back onto the ball of your right foot and roll forward, bringing your shoulders over your wrists and your left knee into your chest.
Cat Stretch
Lower your knee and shin to the mat as your bring your chest forward into a slight backbend. Keep your right leg straight and strong. Think Cat Pose in your upper back. Then lift your left knee back toward your chest, keeping your shoulders stacked over your wrists.
Wild Thing
Shift your weight into your right hand as you roll onto the outer edge of your right foot and then step your left foot behind you, coming into Wild Thing.
Three-Legged Dog
As you roll back into Plank, take your lifted leg back and up for Three-Legged Dog.
Quad Stretch
Step your left foot forward between your hands and lower your back knee to the floor. Bend your back knee to bring your back heel toward your glutes and reach back with either hand for your foot for a quad stretch.
Extended Pyramid Pose
Bring your hands down to frame your front foot, tuck your back toes, and lift your back knee. Shift your hips back and straighten your front leg for long Pyramid Pose.
Warrior 2 Pose
Bend into your front leg with your front knee stacked over your heel and ground your back foot so the edge is almost parallel to the back of your mat. Reach your arms out from your shoulder and stack your shoulders over your hips in Warrior 2 Pose.
To finish this side, windmill your hands down to frame your front foot. Step your left foot back and come to Downward Dog. Either pause here and walk your legs out or take a Sun Salutation A before practicing the sequence on the other side.
About our contributor
Brittany Bryden is a yoga and movement teacher whose aim is to help others feel better in their minds and bodies. She has been a yoga teacher for seven years and a student for much longer. To her, yoga is the self-exploration of our authentic selves. She has found the true source of self-care, both physically and mentally, on her mat, and she considers it a gift to share this with her students. You can follow her on Instagram and practice along with her on YouTube.
