Yoga For Back Care

This half-hour class is for anyone experiencing issues in their back. We will move our spine in all directions; gain stability, range of motion, and flexibility; and get in touch with our breath. Find ease and release tension in your back in this all-level session.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to this half-hour session which is featuring yoga-based movements and stretching to help with back care. This is meant for anybody who's having issues with their back and I'm hoping as you take this session that you know if there are any conditions that you have that might make you not want to do a certain movement. If you do have some issues with your back, I hope you've talked with your health care provider and are aware if there's anything that you shouldn't do. Perhaps you shouldn't rotate, Perhaps you shouldn't flex or extend. There's various conditions that might lead you to not want to do certain things so do be aware of that. And that said, Take this class at your own pace, At your own level. Honor anything that's going on with your back today. If anything doesn't feel right then please don't do it. Take a break when you need to. Make it easier if you want, Make it harder if you want, A little more vigorous. This is just meant to be for anybody that might be experiencing back pains. We're just going to move our spine in all the directions that it's meant to move and might even throw in a few strengthening exercises in there to help stabilize your spine. So let's start on our backs and if that's not comfortable for you then find a position that is comfortable. We just want to focus on our breath for a few minutes. So if you are lying down then do support yourself however you might like, Something under your head, Something under your knees, Something under your hips, Whatever you might like. I'm going to have my knees bent and feet down but you might like your legs straight or in some other position. So as much as possible try to soften and relax into the support beneath you and just allow it to support you and start to bring awareness to your breath. You don't necessarily have to make any changes right now but just notice how your breathing is, The location, The quality of your breath, Long, Short, Tight, Easy. Maybe you breathe more up in your shoulders and upper chest. So just notice that and then let's begin to lengthen the breath if possible. So you don't want to strain or be uncomfortable but as much as possible try to take a deeper inhale and as you do that feel like you're drawing the breath into your belly all the way down your spine. Allow your belly to expand, Maybe even place your hands on your belly so you can feel that. Inhale and exhale. You might find yourself now taking a little deeper breath while thinking of drawing it all the way down to your belly and that might mean a longer exhale as well. So keeping the awareness of drawing the breath into the belly, Start to be aware of bringing the breath into your torso, Into your rib cage, Maybe placing the hands on the sides of your ribs and feel the ribs expanding as you take an inhale. Coming together as you exhale. Lengthen the breath as much as possible, Especially the exhale. And now keeping the awareness in the belly, In the rib cage, Feel like you are filling your chest. Maybe it's the sensation of your chest expanding, Floating, Filling up like a balloon. And are you able to really lengthen your exhale now? Through the nose, Nice long exhale, Softening things with the exhale. Let's pick up the feet now and you can take hold of your legs behind your legs. Take a nice big inhale here and as you exhale, Draw your knees to your chest. Inhale, You can open up a little bit. And exhale, Knees to chest. One more time, Big inhale and exhale, Knees to chest. As you set your feet down, Set them wide, So edges of your mat, And take the arms out to the side. Draw a nice big in-breath and then as you exhale, Allow both knees to release down to the right. Keep your shoulders grounded. Inhale breath, Let's bring the knees back up to center. And then exhale, Knees to the left. So your movement is following your breathing. Begin your inhale, Begin lifting the legs, They reach the top as you finish your inhale. Begin your exhale, Lower the legs and they reach their lowest point as you finish your exhale. Inhaling up, Exhaling down. A couple more times. Next time you bring your knees to the right, Hold them there. Ground your left shoulder and just feel that rotation in the base of your spine. And if you might like more sensation, You can put your right ankle onto your left thigh. Just the weight of that foot lets you rotate a little more. Taking the foot off of the leg if it was on, Lifting the knees up, Still keeping the feet wide apart and exhaling down to the left. Let's hold down to the left, Ground your right shoulder. If you like, You can place your left ankle onto your right thigh. How's the breathing? Exhale, Soften. If you have the foot on the thigh, Take it off, Lift the legs up. And then let's roll all the way over onto our right side. Okay, Knees bent. Take your left arm, Reach it in front of you. On an inhale breath, Reach it up to the sky and then reach it back behind you, Allowing that shoulder to come down. And if it's not making all the way down and you like some support, You can slide some kind of, You know, Blanket or pillow or whatever under that shoulder. Otherwise, Just opening up, Releasing. Rotation through the upper spine now. And let's inhale the arm back up to the sky and then reach it forward. Now sweeping it along the floor, Reach it overhead, Reach it all the way back behind you, Reach down towards your feet and then to the front. Do that again. Big circle around, Behind, To the feet, In front. One more time, Overhead, Behind, Reach down. And let's reverse that movement. So reach down to your feet, Open the arm wide behind you, Reach overhead and in front. Do that again. Around, Reach, Overhead. One more time around. And in front. Okay, Let's do the other side. Lying on your left side. Take the right arm, Reach it in front of you. Reach the arm up and reach it all the way behind you. Again, Propping up underneath your shoulder if you need to. Try to ground the knees in front. Get that rotation through the upper back. Then inhale the arm up and reach it forward. And then let's sweep the arm around along the floor. Reach it overhead, Reach behind, Reach down to your feet. And reach in front again. Reach overhead, Reach it around, Reach down to your feet and in front. We have one more. Overhead, Around, Down to the feet and in front. Let's come on to all fours. So a little bit of strengthening here. Draw your midsection together. So pull the ribs in, Pull the spine and the belly button together. Coming into all fours, Pad something under your knees and or your wrists if you need to. All right, Do have your wrists right under your shoulders, Knees right under your hips. So nicely squared off here. Keeping the shoulders and the hips nice and straight. Keep the hips level. Reach the right arm forward and reach the left leg back and maybe lift. Now be aware if you've lifted a shoulder or a hip, You want everything level, Even, Not moving. Lengthen here and release down. We'll do the other side. Opposite arm and leg. Lengthen here, Keeping the shoulders level and the hips level. And release down. Let's do one more time each side. Reach and lengthen, Strong core and release down and one more time, Reach, Lengthen and down. Keeping your hips above your knees, Walk your hands forward and allow your head to come between your arms, Maybe your face and your feet. Forehead and your chest come down towards the mat, Head falling between your arms. So just working this to your own level, Getting a stretch through the shoulders and the upper back. Allow the forearms to release down, Bringing the hips down onto the mat. Then draw your shoulders away from your ears, Down towards your hips. Float the chest up. Gaze down at the front of your mat so that the back of the neck is nice and long. Gently pressing into the forearms to get an extension in the spine. So allow the feeling in your pelvis, A little forward tilt, Maybe feeling like the hip bones are coming down to the mat, Tailbone is lifting up. Lengthening here and if you like a little more sensation, Imagine you're trying to pull yourself forward on your forearms. Right, So it's almost like you're getting a little traction there, The base of your spine. Then release all the way down. Bring your forearms underneath your forehead to strengthen the spinal extensors, Those muscles that run alongside your spine, Give it a lot of support. Reach your legs back. On an inhale breath, Floating head and chest up and then exhale, Releasing. Now you can continue with that or if you would like a little more work here, As you inhale, Float the head up, Bring the arms along as well and then exhale down. Inhale, Floating up. Exhaling down. Let's do one more. Inhale, Float up and exhale down. Bringing hands under your shoulders, Press yourself up through hands and knees and then release back, Hips to heels. Counterpose to that. If the hips don't get all the way down, That's fine. It's coming to whatever works for you today. Come back up to hands and knees, Little rotation. Take your left hand palm up, Reach it underneath you behind your right arm and then sink your hips back to your heels again and come on to the back of that left arm. Take your right hand down and maybe gently use that to help rotate. Open up that right side. It's like you're looking under your armpit here. Keep reaching that left arm out to the right. Then come on up and we'll do the other side. Right hand palm up, Reach it behind the left arm, Out to the left, Come down onto the back of your right arm, Sink your hips back to your heels and then maybe gently using the left hand to press open that left shoulder. Coming back up, Let's stand on the knees and again if you need some padding under your knees, You know, Maybe a towel or a blanket or you could even just double up your mat and put your knees on that, Okay, If you want a little padding there. But we'll stand on the knees. Let's stretch the front of the hip flexors. The hip flexors are very tight from doing a lot of sitting. Maybe that kind of brings you into forward tilt, Right, And it can cause a lot of issues in the low back. So we'd like to open up those hip flexors, The front of the hips. So take a big step forward with your left foot and then bring the hips forward and you can place your hands on this left thigh to help lift you up. You'd like to have your knee right about above your ankle. If your knee is way, Way forward, You didn't step forward enough, So just take a bigger step forward and then release the hips down. We want the shoulders down and back, Chest lifting up, All right, Nice and long here, Floating the chest up. Keep bringing the hips forward. If you'd like a little more stretch, The right arm can reach up, Lengthen here, And then slightly across as you keep the hips going forward. And then let's open that up and we'll do the other side. Big step forward with the right foot, Release the hips forward, Allow the shoulders to release down and back, And chest is lifting, Lifting. Hips releasing forward. If you like a little more stretch, Left arm can reach up, Reach slightly across, Keep the hips driving forward. All right, Bring that arm, Release it down and let's come to a seated position. Make yourself comfortable in a seated position and that may be on a chair or you might like to prop yourself up. So if you have a cushion or pillow or a blanket or something that you can prop up on or if you have your yoga block handy, You can sit up on that. So you'd like to be in a comfortable seated position where you don't have to worry about trying to hold yourself upright. Okay, And legs just comfortable position for you. Let's do a little side stretch. So ground that right hip, Reach the right arm up, Lengthen here, Get the shoulder softened, Reach up and start reaching side. Keep the hip grounded so you're getting a lot of length here through this right side. Reach, Reach, Reach, Lengthen here and then open up and release down. Rotation, Inhale, Lift up, Turn and look over that left knee. All right, So lengthen your spine as much as possible and then rotate as you exhale. Let's come back to the center. Ground the left hip, Inhale the left arm up, Reach up and lengthen here, Getting a stretch across the left side. Make sure to keep the hip grounded. Lengthen and lengthen and then open that up. Take a big breath to grow super tall and then rotate over the right knee. Lengthen every time you inhale here in this rotation and then exhale a little more and then release. Come forward. Okay, Let's do a little bit for the cervical spine, Right, The neck. Sometimes we can hold a lot of tension there or it can get a little locked up which can cause issues. So let's see about loosening that up. Take your right ear to your right shoulder, Keep your nose pointed front and then make the left shoulder very heavy. Holding ear to shoulder and keeping gazing front, Start to nod your head, Yes. And hold it center. Look down towards your knee, Look up to the sky, Shaking your head, No. And then come to center, Chin to chest, Lift up. Other side, Left ear to left shoulder, Right shoulder very heavy. Keep your nose pointed front, Start to nod your head, Yes. And then come to center, Look down to your knee, Look up to the sky, Shaking your head, No. And then bring chin to chest and lift up nice and tall. Okay, Set your feet down with knees bent. Take hold behind your legs and lift up nice and tall. Try to have a nice neutral spine, So not rounded over, Right. Chest lifted, Wide collarbones, Lean back until the feet just float up. Core strengthening, Okay. It's going to help stabilize your spine, Bringing knees and chest together. And maybe you're able to let go or extend the legs or both. So keep lifting up, Keep lengthening. And then let's set the feet down and we'll come down onto our backs, Extend the legs. Let's bring the right knee into the chest. Have your hands behind the leg and then press through your left heel. So right knee to chest, Soften your shoulders down, Press through the left heel. So here we are working the pelvis, Two sides of the pelvis, In opposite directions, Right. One is inflection, One is an extension. There's a little bit of movement available in your pelvis between the two sides, Very little. Okay, And sometimes that can get locked up, Cause some issues, So just extend, Press through the heel, Draw the knee to your chest, And then other side. Knee to chest, Press through the heel, And then release that. Let's pick up both feet, Draw knees into your chest. If you like, You can lift shoulders off and round up. And then release the legs, Set the feet down with the knees bent, Taking the arms out to the side, Crossing the right thigh over the left thigh, So thighs are touching. Let's shift the hips to the right, And exhale your knees down to the left. You can look over your right arm. With an exhale, Soften. If you're holding any tension in the thighs or in your hips, Try to let that go. Round the right shoulder down, Then inhale the knees back up to center. Even out the hips, Let's uncross and do the other side, Left thigh over right thigh. Thighs are touching, Shifting hips to the left, And exhaling knees down to the right. You can look over your left shoulder. Exhale to soften through the hips. Let's inhale the knees back up to center, Uncross the legs, Even out the hips, And come into a position for a few minutes of final relaxation. So whatever is comfortable for you, Perhaps lying down, Legs, Whatever is comfortable. If you like your knees bent, Maybe separate your feet and let your knees fall in, Right? Or you can bring bottom to top, Or you can bring your feet together, Let the knees open out, Right? Extend the legs, Whatever is comfortable. Maybe you like some props underneath, Something under your head, Something under your knees, Perhaps covering yourself with a blanket or something over your eyes. Bringing the awareness back to the breathing, And noticing the breath, Belly, Ribs, And chest as you inhale. Slowly exhaling, Trying to make the exhale as long as possible, Maybe pausing at the end of the exhale before beginning your next breath. Let's bend the knees and bring the feet in. The next inhale, Reaching the arms overhead, Taking a nice stretch here, And then bringing the arms back to the side, Rolling over onto one side. Pause there. Now the back happy way to get off floor, Take this top hand to the mat in front of your chest, Use that hand, Press into it to push yourself up to have a comfortable seated position, Sitting nice and tall. Take a nice big inhale, Let's reach the arms up, Palms coming together at the top, And exhaling down through center, Pausing at the heart. Thank you so much for joining me for this session today. Till we see each other again, May you be safe, May you be happy, May you be at peace. Thank you so much.