Hi,
Alok here,
Really excited to make this video.
As someone who had back pain most of my life,
Since high school,
And has found a way to cure that and be pain-free for the last 10 years,
As well as I have the genetic tendencies for kyphosis,
As my dad had in his older age,
And I'm just noticing,
Spending a lot of time computing this motion of the thoracic spine that starts to curve in and the chin forward syndrome that so many of my clients have that I wanted to just make this quick video to share just a few easy stretches that you can do that will help reduce and reverse this hyphosis and also strengthen and hopefully alleviate any low back issues.
So let's get right to it.
Number one is just start on your back.
Laying totally flat So just in this,
If you already have kyphosis,
It might be hard to have your head flat on the floor.
So if you need a little support,
That would be okay.
But I would encourage you,
Even if it's uncomfortable,
To try to lie flat.
And this is one of the ways that just on a hard surface,
Laying flat can be very therapeutic for someone who's getting their back straightened out.
So from here,
Just noticing if your chin is tucked into your chest,
Try to lengthen and open the throat a little bit,
But not so much that you're open here and there's a shortening of the neck.
So finding that neutral place for the neck and then notice your space under your low back.
So normal spine curvature you should be able to kind of reach your fingers under there.
And so what we're going to do is first just find that strength in the core to try to flatten the low back down the lumbar spine.
So as you can see you'll just lift the pelvic bones up and tuck the ribs in and that will cause the low back to press into the mat.
And notice how that causes this contraction to occur.
So you can just breathe into that Take a couple breaths while you're holding that contraction and then release and let go back to neutral and you'll feel the low back float back off the mat.
So we'll do that one more time.
Inhale.
And then exhale,
Press that low back into the mat as much as you can.
It's okay if you can't get it all the way down,
But you're just encouraging and strengthening these muscles to contract and lengthen that low back.
And then slowly relax.
Okay,
So from here,
We're just bringing the arms overhead and grab one elbow and the other.
So you'll feel a good stretch through the armpit chest area.
And unless you're really flexible,
The arms,
The elbows will be floating off the floor.
If I spend some time here,
Eventually my elbows can touch,
But that's not the goal.
And then from here,
Again,
Noticing that low backs,
Often the ribs have lifted here.
When you lift the arms up and so the idea is to use that same motion that we just did to try to contract bringing the ribs toward the pelvic bone and lower back comes toward the mat.
So inhale here,
And then exhale,
Try to press that low back into the mat and see how that's strengthening the core while you're opening the armpit chest here.
And hopefully getting a little bit of release in that.
Armpit area.
And then slowly release.
Any contraction,
And then switch which arm is on top.
So just grabbing the elbows the other way,
And we'll try that same thing here.
Inhale deeply,
And then exhale,
Pressing that low back into the floor,
Contracting your abdominal muscles to Reduce that lift of the ribs and bringing the ribs down toward the pelvic bone.
Keeping that contraction,
One more breath here.
And then release,
And just release the arms up,
Bending both knees here.
We'll just bring the knees all the way into the chest.
And this is just a great way to release any immediate stress or strain in the low back.
If you're having pain currently,
This is a great way to just bring the subtle rotation.
So you can just do little micro circles with the knees and you can kind of feel your sacrum and low back getting a nice massage.
So don't push this if it's hard to grab your knees and bring them in this close.
Just finding ways to create little movements,
Micro circles,
Stretching that out.
Nice,
From here we'll just place the feet on the ground.
So you can touch the heels with your hands.
And they should be parallel about hips distance apart,
Your feet that is.
And from here,
We'll press the feet into the floor and then press the low back into the mat.
So you'll feel a little bit of contraction again in the core.
And then from here,
Slowly peeling one or two vertebrae off,
Take a breath.
And then upper spine.
And pause and then all the way up if you can even a little more.
Pause and then as you exhale slowly lower the whole spine all the way back to the mat.
So we'll try that a couple more times.
So one third of the way,
Lift,
Inhale.
Pause.
Two-thirds.
Pause.
And then third.
All the way up and let go.
One more time,
Inhale one third of the way.
Exhale here.
Inhale,
2 3rds.
Exhale.
And inhale.
Pressing the hips as high as you can.
And exhale all the way down.
All right,
So that'll not only strengthen the back muscles,
But it'll also help bring more mobility in between the vertebrae.
So from here,
Just letting the knees fall to the right and just feel a nice stretch on that low back.
Deep breath here.
And then slowly reach back to the center and to the other side.
So just a breath on each side.
Come back to center.
And then you can just go back and forth,
Exhaling to one side,
Inhale to center.
Exhale to the other side.
So again,
We're not pushing this,
It just should feel.
Nice and relaxed as you let the knees fall from one side to the other.
If you want a little more strengthening for the core here,
You can lift your feet off the floor and do the same motion,
Maybe not come down as far.
But by keeping the feet off the floor,
You're strengthening the oblique muscles in your core.
As you go side to side.
One more time to each side,
Either with the feet down or lifted.
Nice.
And then from here,
We'll just roll to the side and come on up.
So just noticing.
Your spine now,
If it has any more mobility feeling.
Coming to your hands and knees,
Spread the fingers,
Knees under your hips,
Hands right under your shoulders.
And we'll just do our simple cat-cow.
So exhaling,
Round the spine,
Look towards your belly button.
Inhaling as you lift the gaze up.
Tailbone,
Let the belly drop.
So just a few of these,
Exhaling all the air out as you round the spine.
Inhale as you arch.
Really use the breath here and you're not pushing again in any extreme way.
Finding mobility in the spine.
Strengthening and healing.
Loosening the muscles.
Again,
Inhaling as you drop the belly,
Exhale as you round.
And then slowly sitting back on your heels.
Finding your child's pose.
Again,
If this is too much for your knees or your back at all,
You can Always bring a pillow in between your chest and your thighs.
Or having more cushioning under your knees always helps too.
But if you can,
Let the forehead come toward the floor.
And just relax.
Breathe into the stretch.
Lifting the gaze.
Lift the hips up,
Walk the hands up.
Further forward so they're about a foot in front of your shoulders.
And again,
We'll start to sink the hips back,
This time keeping the arms engaged.
So you can let the forehead maybe drop all the way,
But keep the elbows lifted.
So it doesn't matter if you can get the forehead all the way down,
But if you can,
That helps to relax the neck.
And you can always walk your fingers a little further away to get this nice stretch from the fingertips to your tailbone.
Press into the palms,
See if you can lift your armpits even higher.
They call this Anahatasana,
Heart melting pose.
So feel your heart melting toward the floor.
Then come up.
One more time,
Let the elbows come down.
And bring the palms together in a prayer.
So one more stretch here for the thoracic spine,
Helping to reverse this rounding.
So again,
We'll let the hips sink back,
This time bringing the palms up toward the ceiling and let the forehead relax toward the floor So from here,
If the forehead can reach the floor,
Great.
No problem.
Either way,
Just letting the head relax.
And then you can walk your elbows further forward if you want more stretch.
And then pressing the elbows into the floor.
Feel how that resistance creates a little more Stretch.
One more breath here.
And then softly release.
The hands come down,
The pinky fingers touch.
See if you can keep the forehead down and just lift the elbows.
So straightening the arms.
Pressing into the pinky fingers.
Slowly release.
Come forward.
Palms down and then walk the knees back so we'll come into our Sphinx pose.
So feeling this pose,
Wanting the elbows right under the shoulders here.
Forms are parallel.
And then pressing.
The elbows into the mat,
Feel this.
Lift of the heart,
Shoulders reaching away from the ears.
So we're just gonna hang out here with some deep breaths.
Opening the thoracic spine.
Help reverse any kyphosis here.
And again,
Noticing if your shoulders start to shrug up and pressing those shoulders down.
Should feel a nice stretch in the abdomen as well.
One more deep breath here.
And then slowly release all the way to the mat.
Turn your head to the left to start.
Left arm comes straight out to the side.
Right arm can reach overhead.
So again,
If any of this is uncomfortable,
Try to make adjustments so that you're comfortable.
From here,
You're just gonna try to lift that left arm up.
So it might just be an inch off the floor,
As much as you can,
Straight up.
To the sky,
Keeping that arm straight.
Notice tension in your hips or other areas.
And just try to lift and hold.
Again,
We're strengthening the.
.
.
Muscles that will help prevent this forward curvature.
One more deep breath here,
Lift a little higher if you can.
And exhale,
Release.
And we'll go to the other side.
So left arm reaches up.
Right arm to the side.
Take a deep breath and lift that arm off the floor.
And we'll just count five deep breaths here.
While you're holding.
Noticing any tension elsewhere in your body,
Try to relax the rest of the body as you just engage this rear deltoid and rhomboid muscles to help strengthen that area of your back.
One more deep breath.
And softly release.
We'll bring our hands back toward the chest.
Elbows close to the ribs here,
Pressing up to your hands and knees.
And we'll end in our child's pose one more time.
If you can comfortably bring the forehead down.
Great,
So I hope that video was helpful.
If you do this exercises about three times a week,
That should be enough and you might notice differences within the first week.
So,
I hope that helps.
Please reach out if you have any questions.
Namaste.
