Gentle Yoga For Lower Back Relief

This gentle yoga practice is designed to support you when your lower back feels tight, tender, or constricted. Through slow, mindful movement and breath, you’ll create more space and ease through the lower back, hips, and surrounding areas. Move at your own pace and only do what feels supportive for your body, whether that means enjoying just part of the practice or completing the full session. Suitable for all levels, this calming practice supports lower back relief, mobility, relaxation, and a deeper connection with your body.

Transcript

Namaste and welcome to this gentle practice. That's going to help relieve tension and contraction in the lower back. Depending on what's going on for you, Particularly today, There might be some things that feel really good. And there might be some things that don't feel so good. So please just do what feels really helpful and leave the rest aside. So we're going to perhaps use a bolster or a cushion, You might want to get one just so you have it for support at some point during the practice. I'm going to just move this to the side for the moment and we'll go ahead and lie down onto your back. So let's begin placing the soles of the feet on the ground and have them almost as wide as your mat so that you can rest your knees against each other. And then we're going to just place our hands onto the lower belly. And take a few slow deep breaths into the lower belly and the lower back. So let's exhale everything. And then inhale like you're filling a balloon, Breathing into your hands, Feel the belly expand. Breathing into the belly and the lower back. Breathing in through your nose and pause at the top. Hold it for a moment. Through the nose, Exhale, Release smoothly and slowly. Feeling the hands lower, The belly soften. Beautiful. And breathing in through your nose, Bringing in healing energy into your belly. Your lower back, Your pelvis. Slow, Deep, Full breaths. Pausing at the top. And a smooth, Gentle breath out through the nose. Exhale with control, Just feeling softening and lowering of the belly and the hands. Beautiful, Again, Breathing a long, Slow, Deep breath in through the nose, Into the belly and the lower back, Healing energy. And exhale slowly, Smoothly, Quietly. And just take a natural, Easy breath in and out. Just allowing the lower back to feel the holding of the earth beneath you. We're going to take that breath one more time and on the exhale invite you to make the sound of Om. Setting our intention for this practice to bring healing to the physical body and also to any related energetic components. Often the lower back is connected to stories of lack of support. When there's pain in the back or. . . Lack of financial support. Issues of connection to the earth, Our tribe, Our grounding. So just whatever is going on there for you. As we make the sound of Om, Just letting the intention for healing and balance and support to come back into your life. To feel strong and held in the lower spine there. So exhale. Inhale into the lower back and belly. Exhale with the sound of Om. Deep breath in and out. And then we'll release the hands. I'm going to invite you to make a very subtle movement maybe bringing the feet about hip width apart or a little wider and as you exhale you're going to just very gently tuck your tailbone under so it's like you're lifting your sit bones up to your knees but your lower back is pressing down the small of the back is pressing down into the earth and then as you inhale you do the opposite so it's like you make a little rainbow with your lower back over the earth and you're just lifting the small of the back up. And as you exhale you press the small of the back down and you slightly tuck the tailbone under. And then as you inhale, You arch the lower back, Just gently lifting the small of the back up off the earth. Exhale slightly tucking the tailbone under rounding the lower back and inhale slightly lifting the small of the back up off the earth. Just feeling a little movement happening there in the lower back, Very gentle. One more time, Inhale arching the lower back. And then as you exhale. Round, Tuck the tailbone under, Draw the right knee in towards you and take a long deep breath in. Relax the shoulders as you exhale. One more breath here. Just offering your breath, Your breath is the healing agent. Offering your breath to that tender lower back, And then exhale, Release that right foot down. Inhale, And as you exhale, Tucking the tailbone under, Drawing the left knee in. Slow, Long, Deep breath here. Breathing into the left hip, The lower back on the left side. Relax the shoulders. One more breath here. Feel the hips soften and release that foot back down. Inhale. Exhale, Slowly draw the right knee in. And then the left knee also, Bringing both knees in towards you, Long deep breath into the lower back. And the belly. Relax the jaw, No pushing or forcing, Just breathing. In to whatever it feels like it needs it. Nice and you might rock a little side to side maybe massaging the lower back on the ground just feel it out what's okay for you today Nice and then we'll bring both feet down onto the ground extending perhaps your right leg, Your right arm out to the side so you can just roll over onto the side and come up to a sitting position. Here is where you might want to sit on your bolster. To lift the hips up so that when you forward fold it's a little easier. Let's bring that right shin in front of the left. Aha, Nice. And then bring the hands onto the knees and exhale gently tuck the chin in as you round the back making a c-curve with the spine and as you inhale slide the heels of the hands to the hips look up and make a d-curve with the spine opening the heart Exhale, Hands to the knees, Rounding chin to chest. Inhale slowly, Moving with your breath, Lifting the heart. Exhale, Slowly rounding that lower back. Nice and one more time, Inhale gently arching the lower back. This softening nice and then release that exhale beautiful let's bring the fingertips out to the side and just breathe into the lower back just notice how it's it is right now notice if this is helping it so if you need to back off And then inhale, Reach the arms all the way up, Interlace your fingers and press your palms up to the sky. Get really nice and tall. And as you exhale, Can you draw your navel, Your belly button in and up. So that you create a little bit more length there through the lower back. Inhale lifting up and as you exhale draw the navel in and up as you exhale. Nice and we'll do that again. So inhale lift up, Exhale this time reach the tailbone down to the ground but draw the navel in and up. So you're creating space and length in the lower back. Again inhale lift up exhale send your tailbone down to the ground but draw your navel in and up creating length there in the lower back. Beautiful, One more breath in. And as you exhale, Slowly come forward. Just bring your fingertips onto the ground. Inhale, Lengthen out of your hips. Exhale, Send your tailbone down to the ground and draw your navel in and up. And maybe this is where you need to stay or maybe you can start to walk your hands a little closer forward. Just come to the place where it feels okay for you to fold forward and drop the head and neck. And then direct your breath, Your healing breath, Into your lower back. Breathing into the lower back. As you exhale, Drop the tailbone to the ground and draw your navel in and up. Create space in the lower back. Breathing slowly, Deeply into the lower back. Exhale, Send the tailbone down to the ground and draw your navel in and up. You might even come down lower to see how you are today. Long, Slow, Deep breaths into that lower back. Keep creating space on the exhale. Breathing in and out through the nose. Just drop the head. Inhale, Lift the head, Walk the hands back towards you and then we're going to walk the fingers over to the left. And walk your right hand as far away from you as you can. Drop your head down. And feel as you breathe into the lower back on the right side there. Hopefully this is a useful stretch. Keep sending your right hip back and down as you reach your right arm away from you. Long deep breath into that lower right side. Drop the head. Slow breath. One more. Inhale, Lift up and walk the hands back to centre. And all the way back behind you. So you're just going to bring your fingertips behind you and place your feet on the ground. So as you exhale, Drop the knees to the right and look over your left shoulder. Inhale knees up to centre and exhale knees to the left, Look over your right shoulder. Inhale, Knees up to centre. Exhale over to the right, Looking in the opposite direction. Inhale, Knees up to centre. And exhale over to the other side. Beautiful. Inhale, Come back to centre and this time we're going to bring the left leg shin in front of the right. Okay, Just get comfy, Maybe you're still on your bolster or sitting on the ground. And just pause, Hands onto the knees, Take a deep breath in, Big breath out, And just check in with your lower back, How is it feeling now? What does it need from you in this moment? Another deep breath perhaps. Relaxing the jaw. Beautiful. Inhale, Reach the arms up. Interlace the fingers, Press the palms up to the sky and again remember how as you exhale you can tuck your tailbone down, Send it down to the ground but draw the belly, The navel in and up. And create more space there in the lower back. Inhale, Lift up. And exhale coming forward, So firstly just fingertips on the ground. Inhale, Lifting out of the hips. Exhale, Send the tailbone down to the ground, Draw the navel in. And up And then just slowly come forward any amount, Wherever you're comfortable. Drop the head and the neck, Really let the head go. And find some deep breaths into that lower back. Slow breath through the nose. Maybe coming lower, Maybe staying where you are. With each exhale, Send the tailbone down to the ground, Draw the navel in and up. Creating more length through the lower back. Send the breath to the lower back. Relax the head, Neck and jaw. And then inhale, Lift the head, Walk the hands back towards you. Walk the fingertips over to the right and then walk that left hand as far away from you as you can. Exhale, Drop the head down. And keep pressing your left hip back and down. Send the breath into your lower back on the left side. And slow healing breaths. One more breath here. Inhale, Lift your head. Walk your hands back towards you, Bringing them back to centre. And then place the hands behind you again and one more time bringing the feet out onto the ground, Knees in the air you're going to drop the knees over to the right as you exhale look over your right shoulder or this time if you want to you can bring the hands in the same direction as the knees behind you bend the elbows and just drop your head down to the ground And then inhale, Come up. Bring both hands behind you, Knees come over to the other side and exhale both hands onto the ground. Look down between your hands as you drop the head down to the ground. And one more time, Each side. Inhale to centre. Exhale, Placing the hands on the ground, Dropping the head. Between the hands. And over to the other side. Mm-hmm so that should feel good for your back if it doesn't just stay with the original version Nice. And then come back to centre and pause for another moment. Take a deep breath in. Big breath out. Just notice any energy in your lower back, Any movement, Any vibration. And we'll come on to hands and knees. Just having your wrists underneath your shoulders, Knees underneath the hips. Exhale and round the spine. Inhale slowly, Drop the belly, Roll the shoulders back, Look up, Lift the chin. Through the nose, Exhale slowly. Keeping your attention on your lower back. Inhale gently, Looking up. Exhale, Rounding. Inhale, Gently lifting the chest, The chin. This time, Exhale, Round. Look at your navel, Tuck both of your toes, Your feet, The toes underneath, And then draw your pelvic floor muscles in to support the lower back. Lift the knees an inch off the ground and just feel your core strength there. And then you're going to lift your hips all the way up to the sky. And let's bend that right knee and drop the left heel down to the ground and breathe into the back of your left leg. And we're going to bend the left knee, Dropping the right heel down and breathing into the back of the right leg. Play a little bit here do that a little couple times or just dropping the hips to kind of feel into. The stretch in the lower back that Downward Dog gives you and allow a little movement, A little play here. And then we're going to lift both heels, Bend both knees, Look at your thumbs, Press through your thumbs and as you're looking at your thumbs reach your hips away from your thumbs so you get length, Length, Length through the lower back there draw the belly in to keep that length happening, Nice, And then drop the head and drop both heels down to the ground but keep the length in the lower back. Long, Deep breath in. As you exhale, Draw the navel in and up, Away from the hips. Breathing through the nose. And space through the lower back, One more. And then bend the knees a lot and walk your feet up towards your hands. Keep the knees bent to protect the lower back. And then we're just going to soften forward, Maybe hands on the shins. Keep the knees really bent, Maybe you dangle the arms or maybe the hands come to the opposite elbow. And as you exhale keep drawing your navel in and up away from the hips and drop the head a little more. Long deep breath in. To the lower back, Exhale And one more breath here. Keep drawing the navel in and up. And you keep the knees really bent to protect the lower back, You can release the arms and bring the hands onto the thighs, Really bend the knees, Drop the head Exhale, Firstly draw your pelvic floor muscles in and up to protect the lower back. And then slowly, Slowly roll one vertebra up at a time, Keeping the head heavy. And coming all the way up. Inhale, Reach the arms up, Lifting, Interlacing fingers, Pressing palms up to the sky and lifting up and out of the lower back. And then exhale, Release the hands down. So bring the feet about hip width apart and let the knees bounce. Can you feel how to do this? As you inhale you lift up and as you exhale you bend the knees and you bounce a little bit. We're going to do that with a little twist. So we'll inhale. Bring the hands over to the right and as you exhale breathe out. Bend the knees, Drop the arms and just swing them over to the left. Inhale, Then as you exhale, You come through and you let the arms swing. So it's like you're just letting go of something that you're holding. So inhale, Exhale, Just let it go and swing over to the other side. An inhale will bring you up, The legs straighten and then an exhale, Bend the knees. And just take it really gently and just kind of feel into this little bit of movement here in the lower back. Exhale, Swinging arms round with bent knees. In health center. And then try lifting the hands a little higher, So maybe around the waist. You'll get a little bit of a twist in a different area in the back. Maybe even higher up around the shoulders. And again, It might not be okay for you today, So just feel what's useful. And take it really gently. Aha, Swinging those arms. With the breath. Nice. And then just shake it out a little bit, Kind of shake your legs a little, Your hips, Your hands. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh come to stillness and take a deep breath in and out. Just feeling any energy in your lower back, Awakening, Movement, Unlocking. Tightness beautiful and then we'll just come back to the front of your mat Inhale, Reach the arms all the way up. And with the feet hip width apart, Exhale, Bend the knees a lot. Then just drop the arms, Chin to chest and roll down very slowly, Keeping that length in the lower back, Keep the knees bent. Come all the way down. Long deep breath in here, Maybe the hands are on the shins, Knees are bent. And exhale, Release the hands down, Let's step back again into a downward dog. Just finding that length through the lower back. Inhale. Exhale, Drop the knees down. Gently look up as you inhale. And then bring the knees really wide. Touch the toes. And slowly walk back to hips back. But keep your fingertips forward. So you're lengthening through the lower back as you send the hips back. And you might not come all the way down. You might even put a bolster beneath your legs or between your legs or beneath your hips. And then just keep that length looking forward for a moment as you drop the hips back. And then head might rest on a bolster, It might rest on your hands, Your arms, Just really be wherever you can be comfortable and breathe into the lower back. As you exhale, Remember how to draw your navel in and up to create a little bit more length. Slow deep breath, Healing breath into the lower back. Exhale, Draw the navel in and up, Creating that Nice, One more breath here. Let's take a humming sound on the exhale, So inhale into the lower back. And hum into the lower back. One more time, Inhale. Deep breath in. Take a big breath out. Beautiful. Walk the hands back towards you slowly. Come back up and go ahead and lie down onto your mat. Have your bolster or your cushion nearby. So find yourself lying on your back again in constructive rest with the soles of the feet on the ground nearly as wide as the mat, The knees resting against each other. Just taking a long deep breath into the lower back and the belly. And exhale. Before you draw the knees into the chest, Engage your pelvic floor muscles. Lifting the pelvic floor muscles slightly will help to protect the lower back. And then draw your left knee in, Draw your right knee in. And hold the knees in towards you a little bit, Taking a big deep breath in here. Big breath out. Again, It might feel nice just to rock a little side to side. We're going to bring the arms out from the shoulders with the Knees together, The feet flexed and drop the knees over to your right. Bringing your right hand onto your left knee. And the left arm reaches out to the left. You can either look up or look all the way to your left to increase the twist. Just breathing here into the lower back. So this might be a bit much for your lower back. If you're comfortable here, Stay here or you can use a prop like a cushion or a bolster. To just support the knees so that they're not all the way down to the ground or even to bring them between the knees can feel really nice. For the twist. So just finding what works for you today. And as you're here in the twist, Breathing slowly and deeply. Relax the jaw. One more breath here. Inhale, Head back up to centre and just moving that prop over to the other side if you're using it or just bringing the knees back to centre. And we'll set up for a twist on the other side. So arms out from the shoulders. Shins parallel to the ground with the knees together, Feet flexed and drop the knees over to your left. Bringing that left hand onto the right knee, Right arm out to the right. Inhale looking up or maybe twisting and looking over to your right and again using the prop if that's helpful. Long deep breath into the lower back. Exhale, Keep drawing the navel in and up as you exhale. Creating more length, More twists. But be really gentle here, Don't press. Don't push in any way. Just breathing gently into what feels useful and helpful and kind. One more breath here. Inhale, Bring the knees back up to centre. Gently hugging them in and then we'll exhale and go ahead and get your bolster or your cushion for underneath the knees as we just rest for a moment. If you don't have one, You can choose to stay in constructive rest with the feet on the ground, The knees resting against each other as we did before. Or maybe it feels okay to lie flat, So just see what's good for you today. And let everything rest, Long, Deep breath in. Exhale with a ha. Place the hands on the belly one more time and we'll take a couple of those humming sounds into the lower back as we finish here. So exhale. Inhale into the belly and the lower back. Humming on your exhale. This is a very healing vibration, So we're directing it into the lower back. Inhale for humming. One more time, Inhale for humming. Just feeling everything soften. And relax. You can release the hands away from the body. One more deep breath in. Take a deep breath out. Relax the jaw. Relax the skin across the forehead, The mind. Shoulders relax. Arms are heavy. Palms of the hands, Relax. There is so. Lower back is soft. The legs are heavy. And the soles of the feet relax. Feeling how the ground is supporting you and holding you. And in this moment, If it feels true for you, Just internally repeating, I am held. I am supported. It's safe to relax. I am held in this moment. I am supported by the earth. It's safe to relax. Deep breath in. Deep breath out. So you may stay here longer. Take as much time as feels good to you. If you're ready. Just take one more deep breath into the belly and the lower back. Big breath out. Reach that right arm overhead and just roll to the side. Bending the knees slightly coming down. Comfortably up. To a seated position. So finding a really comfortable position, Lifting up through the spine, Up through the crown of the head as you inhale. And as you exhale, Tailbone reaches down to the ground and the navel draws in and up. And just feeling how you have created some length there in the lower back. Perhaps feeling a little heat, A little warmth. Noticing any change after this gentle practice. And bring the palms of the hands together. Thank you so much for joining me today. Look forward to seeing you again soon on the mat. Namaste.