Self Massage

About This Class

Bryan Kest leads a wide-ranging flow class framed as "self massage" — the idea that every pose, when approached with sensitivity and moderation, is a healing touch offered to your own body. The class opens in child's pose with breath-setting (nose breathing, full lung capacity), then moves through progressive sun-salutation-style flows combining downward dog, plank, cobra, and locust variations. Standing balance sequences build on each other: from one-legged down dog to knee-to-elbow core work, deep low lunge, twisting lunge, crescent lunge, and balancing lunge. Floor sequences offer thorough attention to the hips (lizard/pigeon-style openers with elbows down), hamstrings (straight-leg stretches with foot flexion and hip squaring), and spine (bow pose, full cobra with even spinal distribution). A supported inversion (shoulder stand / legs-to-the-sky) is introduced with careful neck cuing. The class also includes seated baddha konasana, a boat-pose-inspired wide-leg balance, supine twists, and an unusual sequence of pelvic-floor and facial-muscle exercises. It concludes with a gratitude meditation in savasana. Throughout, Kest consistently invites students to find personal "sweetness," discourages comparison and ego-driven effort, and emphasizes breath as the primary meditative anchor.