Melting Back: Yoga To Stretch The Back

Spent long hours at a desk, or put a lot of load on your back during exercise or work? This gentle sequence from Katy, filmed among lush green nature in Dubai, focuses on stretching the back and spine. She starts seated with neck rolls, then guides arm and shoulder stretches, seated twists, tabletop, puppy pose, child pose and cobra. Lying down, Katy adds bridge pose and a gentle spinal twist on each side. She invites you to release tension as you exhale and to feel the back lengthen. The practice closes seated, with a thank you to yourself for the time you gave it. Move at your own pace and skip anything that does not feel right for your body.

Transcript

Salaam. Welcome to the soulful lush green nature of Albaradi. A hidden gem in Dubai. Today's stretch and de-stress sequence will focus on the back. It will help stretch and relieve back pain, Discomfort and stiffness. This gentle flow will nourish your spine. And melt away your ache. This is the perfect opportunity to set your intention for this session. I set mine on healing today. This is your time to connect and reflect in one. Swirl out your mouth and enjoy. Mouthing back. Today We will focus on stretching the back muscle. So when you're ready, The socks seated on the mat. Cross your feet in front of you. Straighten the back, Straighten the neck. Close your eyes here. Just a couple of breaths. To ground. The body. And prepare yourself. This practice today. Let's take one more breath. Open your eyes. And let's begin. Let's start with some neck rolls So from here, Take the right ear to the right shoulder. And roll your neck. A full circle. Take it slow and be gentle with yourself. Feel the connection. Between the neck muscles. And the back muscles. Let's do two rounds to the right. And then reverse the side and take the left ear to the left shoulder. And reverse that rotation to the other side. Gently. Enjoy the stretch. And the night. Now from here. Come back to center. Inhale, Lift the arms up to the sky. And as you exhale, Bring the right hand and place it on the back. With the palm touching. The back. And now the left hand will grab from behind the head into the right elbow. Look forward. Now feel a stretch in the tricep muscles. Look forward, Open the chest. Keep the back straight. With every exhale. Release any tension. You might feel in the arm. One more breath. Extend both arms up. And let's switch sides. Bend the left elbow, Bringing the left palm to the right. To the back. Great stretch for the arms here, Opening the chest. Scratching the shoulders. So keep your gaze straight. Straight through the body. With every exhale. Go deeper into that stretch. Allow the tricep muscle to open up. Or to release. Exhale bring the palms down let's go to our eagle arms, So bend both elbows and bring the left arm under the right arm. See if you can interlace the palms together. Open the shoulders, Drop the shoulders away from the ears. And feel that opening between the shoulder blades. Once you drop the shoulders, You can feel that muscle between the shoulders and the back. And the next. So open and release. Now let's switch sides Bring the right arm under the left arm. Keep the elbows bent. See if you can interlace the palms again. You can notice perhaps one arm is more flexible than the other. Exhale, Drop the shoulders. Away from the ears. Push into the palms. And feel the extension between the shoulder blades. One more breath. Release the arms. And extend them up to the sky. From here, As you exhale, Drop the right palm down behind the back. And bring the left hand around the right knee. Open to the side here, Open the chest. And look towards the right. Take a deep breath in and as you exhale, Twist from your belly button. Twisting the spine to look over the right shoulder. Take it slow, Be gentle with yourself here. And as you exhale, See if you can go deeper within that twist. Keep both arms straight. Keep the back straight. One more breath. Exhale and bring the arms up to the sky again to center. Let's whisk to the other side. Deep breath in, Inhale. And as you exhale, Drop the left palm behind the back, Keeping the back extended and straight. And grab the left knee with the right hand. First look to the left side. Take a deep breath in. And as you exhale Twist from the belly. Twist the spine. And look over. The left shoulder. With every exhale. Go deeper into that twist. Take one more breath here. Exhale. Bring yourself back to center. Now let's place the feet. On the ground. We're going to go into our seated cat cow. Bring the hands under the knees. For a deeper stretch. Grabbing the opposite elbows. So on your inhale, Bring the chest forward and bring the gaze up. Opening the throat, Opening the chest and the calves. Hold on these. Closer to the chest. Inhale. And as you exhale, Pull away from the knees. Rounding the back, Bringing the gaze down. Feel the shoulder blades pulling away from each other. Feel that nice stretch in the back muscles, In the spinal cord. Inhale, Bring the chest forward. Lift the neck up. Opening the throne. Opening. The chest. Exhale, Bring the gaze down, Round the back. Keep that grip under the knees. Opening the shoulders away from each other feels good. One more time, Inhale, Bring the chest forward. Look up. And a nice stretch in the chest. Exhale, Bring the gaze down rounding the body. Pulling away from the news Stretching the shoulders. Rounding the bar. Now from here. Come back to neutral, Straighten the back, Release the arms. And make your way to tabletop. Come down to your fours. Check that the wrists are under the shoulders, The knees are under the hips straight in the back Now on your next inhale. Lift the left arm off the mat, Opening the chest to the side. As you exhale, Bring the left arm from under the right arm, Sliding it down on the ground. Placing the cheek down. And extending the right arm forward. Thread the needle. It's a great stretch for the shoulders. Releasing any tension between the shoulders and the back. Keep the lower. Body as it is. Knees under the hips. And just focus here on the upper body. Breathe into the shoulder. And release any tension. Now slowly walk the right hand back. Is that removing the left arm from under the right. And come back to tabletop. Let's take it to the other side. Inhale, Lift the right arm off the mat. Opening the chest, Stretch out the arms. Exhale, Bring the right arm under the left knee Slide it down on the ground. Extend the left arm to the top of the mat as you keep the right arm extended to the sides. The palm. Is facing upwards. Relax the cheek on the mat. And take a deep inhale and long exhale. Release any tension stored in the shoulder. One more breath. Now start walking the left hand back. As you. And twist. Come back to your table top. Now extend the arms to the top of the mat. Extend them fully to the sides of the mat. And from here. Drop the chest down while keeping the lower body as it is. Go down to our puppy pose. Bringing the forehead down to the mat. For a deeper stretch, Bring the chin down. To the mat. And loop. Forward. Opening the shoulders, Straightening the back. And the arms and the fingers. And stretch out. One more breath. Inhale, Walk the arms. Back towards the body. And then push the palms against the mat. Pushing. The sepons to to our child pose. You can open the knees. Bring the big toes together. And drop the chest and the forehead down to the mat. Child pose, Great pose again to release any tension in the back. Bend the hips. Take a moment to enjoy this release. Now on your next exhale from child pose we are going to transition to cobra Let's see how. Nicely we can move from this pose, Bringing the chest leading with the chest forward. Then dropping the thighs down Extending the legs, Extending the feet. Lifting the chest. To cobra. Reversing that stretch in the back. We will do this for a couple of times. Now exhale, Bring the chest down. Let's push back to child pose. You'd want to keep the knees a bit closer than the wide child pose. Now from here, Exhale, Bring the chest forward to cobra. Walk the arms. Lift the chest. And open. That's so great. Stretch for the back. Moving the spinal cords here. Now exhale. Again, Push back to child pose. Bending the knees, Dropping the sit bones down, Rounding the back muscle. Slide the arms, Open the chest forward. Strong back, Working here the lower back. Now from Cobra. Bring the chest down. Slide the hands next to the chest. And when you're ready, Inhale, Extend the arms. Open the chest and lift the knees and the thighs off the mat. Opening to our upward facing dog. Open the chest. Keep the arms extended and look up. One more breath here. As you exhale, Tuck the toes in and push yourself back to your downward facing dog. Keep the arms extended, Straighten the body. You can bend the knees one knee at a time stretch out the hamstrings. If you need to. Now let's walk the feet. To front of the mat. Small steps. And then remain at your forward fold. Allow the back to stretch even more. So allow the arms to hang here, Relax the neck. And slowly when you're ready, Inhale start lifting up. To standing, To mountain pose. Lift slowly one vertebra at a time. And so you come all the way up. Open the chest, Roll back the shoulders, Opening the palms to the sides. Now extend the arms up Bring the palms together. Let's go to our sun salutation. Exhale. Swim dive forward to forward fold. Inhale, Hands to chins, Halfway look up, Open the chest, Straighten the back. Exhale release the hands down to the mat, Bend the knees Ascend the right foot to the back. Left foot to the back. Call the blank. Engage the core. Now exhale Chaturanga Dandasana. Keep the elbows near the body. Inhale, Upward facing dog. Exhale, Push back to downward facing dog. Now from here. Let's transition to Upward Facing Dog again. Wave the back forward. Opening the chest. Let's do some hip dips. Let's dip the right head down. Looking over the left shoulder. Look to the back of the mask. Now let's switch to the other side. Dip the left hip down to the mat. And look over the right shoulder. Look all the way to the bottom of the mat. Now from here, Let's come back to our upward facing dog. And then push back. To downward facing dog. Bend the knees from here. And come down to child pose. Drop the forehead down to the mat. Now make your way to tabletop. Swing the legs and come to seated pose. Bring the feet down to the mat. Place the hands behind the back. And from here drop the knees to the right as you move forward. To the left side. Hold here. Release any tension in the lower back. We'll take it to the other side. Drop the knees to the left as you look over the right Feel a twist in the spinal cord. One more time, Knees to the right, Look over the left. Now switch to the left. Just look over the right. Gentle move here. Swinging from one side to the other Now come to seated and bring the back flat on the mat. From here, Have an opening between the feet. And bring the feet closer towards the glute. Place the hands next to the body. And when you're ready. Press the feet down, Lifting the glutes and the back often. Bridge pose. Stretching the back and the shoulders here. Engage the glutes and the core. Now exhale, Release slowly one vertebrae at a time. When you're ready, Inhale, Push from the feet, Engage the glutes and push up. To bridge pose. Push the arms down. Exhale release one vertebrae at a time Inhale. Push up. They'll feel the back working here. And as you exhale, Releasing down to the mat. One last time. When you're ready inhale, Push the glutes up. Breathe here. Then exhale down to the mat. Now hug the knees and rock the knees from one side to the other. To release the tension in the lower back. To massage the lower back. Now release the feet down to the ground. Now cross the right leg over the left. Extend the arms to the side. Now release the knees. Towards the left as you look over the right. Keep both shoulders grounded. Your knees don't need to go all the way down to the ground. Just keep them where they are, Where you can feel that spinal twist. Come back to center. The switch legs cross the left leg over the right. Took over. The left. Arm. As you release the knees towards the right. Take a deep inhale in. As you exhale. Release tension in the back we'll come back to center Release the legs all the way down, Extend them. Bring the arms next to the body, Keeping the palms open towards the sky. Arshavasana, Last pose for the day. This is your chair. To scan the body. See where you're storing the tension. And release it. So allow the legs to relax. Release the arms. Relax shoulders, The neck. And feel the back melting. To the ground. Relax the face. Connect with the breath. Take a deep inhale in. And send it to the back. Send it down. Down the spine. All the way to the legs. The feet and toes. Now's your exhale. Release any tension. Any stress. Only relax. Of the spine. And out of the body. And let it go. Feel the back. Relax. Spine, Long and strong. Now you can remain in this meditative pose. You like to. If you're ready. To come out. It's that we're giving the fingers. Start wiggling the toes. Now slowly bend the knees. As you make your way. After seated. Keeping the eyes closed. Cross if you've in front of you. Bye. I'll bring him in. Straight through the body. And take a moment here. To feel grounded, Relaxed. And strong. Feel the back elongated. Now inhale. Bring the arms up to the sky. Stretch the arms out. Bringing the palms together. And bring them down. To your heart center. Bring awareness to your breath. Now send some positive healing energy to every cell of your body. Thank yourself for this practice today. And thank you for joining me. Salaam Namaste.