Hello and welcome to this daily laying down flow for low back pain.
I need to find a better name for that.
Also going to be working on the hamstrings as well.
A lot of low back pain originates from tight hamstrings,
So we'll be doing that as well.
And we are on a nice little deck together actually at a mindfulness summer camp that I'm getting to be a part of,
So it's like we're camping together.
And doing some yoga for our low back pain.
So we're going to come down onto the mat.
I'm just laying down.
For a moment.
Touching the soles of the feet and opening up the knees.
Just breathing down low into the belly.
Allowing your breath to be low and slow.
And just noticing how as you breathe deeply.
Maybe the muscles in the hips and inner thighs.
Begin to soften their grip just a tiny little bit.
And then bringing the legs in and stepping the feet out as wide as the mat with bent knees.
And just gently windshield wiper the legs from side to side.
Dropping the legs over one way and then the other.
Beginning to massage out the low back.
And the next time the knees are over towards the right side,
Let them hang out there.
And if you'd like,
You can take the right ankle and place it on top of the knee,
Deepening the twist a little bit more,
But really listening to your body,
Asking yourself,
Does this feel good on my low back or not so good?
We're always gonna be approaching this entire practice with that question in mind.
And then releasing the top foot if you have it stacked.
Moving the knees through center,
Letting them hang out towards the left.
Option here to have the left ankle on top of the right knee.
Breathing down low into the belly.
And then releasing,
Moving the knees back through center.
And planting the feet firmly on the ground,
And we're only going to do a few pelvic tilts.
So a pelvic tilt is much smaller than a bridge pose.
Think about your pelvis and just tipping it up and then gently pressing it back down into the mat.
So it's almost like we're giving the low,
Low back,
The sacrum,
A tiny little massage as you do these small pelvic tilts.
And then releasing the hips down.
We'll hug both knees into the chest,
Giving them a squeeze.
First,
Just gently rocking from side to side.
You can play around with how it feels if the knees come in even closer,
Perhaps keeping the knees a little bit farther away,
And noticing if that changes where you feel it in your back as you gently rock from side to side.
Then come back to center,
Taking your knees together,
And begin to draw small circles.
Switching directions with your circles.
Coming back to center,
One hand on each knee drawing circles with the knees going in opposite directions.
So when we do these different circles,
What we're doing is,
Of course,
Massaging out the low back,
But also working on some hip mobility,
Switch directions with your circles.
And opening up the hips,
Getting the hip joints to be a little bit more mobile,
Maybe move a little bit more fluidly for us,
Can also help to contribute to supporting your low back.
Coming back to center,
Hugging the right knee into the chest and bringing the left leg long.
And with this right leg only with the knee massaging and doing big circles here.
So often we think about low back pain,
We think that we just need to only do postures that are for the spine and for the back.
When you support and open the surrounding muscles and joints like the hips and the hamstrings,
Opening through the pelvis,
Which directions,
It really helps to also loosen up the low back.
And then take this right knee and bring it in towards the chest,
Out towards the right shoulder.
And if you'd like,
You can also circle out the right ankle.
And then taking this right foot,
If it feels good to you with your hand,
Or you can grab your strap,
Which mine is around here somewhere,
You can lasso it around the right foot,
Coming into a half happy baby.
Option here to keep a bend to the knee,
Or if you'd like,
You could straighten the leg.
I personally like to do a little bit of both,
So I like to flow between a bent knee and a straight leg,
But you do what feels good to you.
And then holding that half happy baby.
And releasing,
Setting the strap to the side.
Switching sides,
Right leg is long,
Left knee comes in.
Hugging that left knee in towards the chest,
Giving it a squeeze.
And then drawing big circles here,
Massaging out the hip.
Switching directions with your circles.
Taking your left knee in towards the chest and out towards the left shoulder.
Option to circle out the left ankle if that feels good to you.
Making sure to go both directions with your ankle circles if you're doing that.
And then grabbing the inside sole of the left foot with the hand,
Or you can use your strap,
Finding a half happy baby.
So that could be keeping a strong bend to the knee,
Working on straightening out the leg,
Or perhaps doing some dynamic movement between the two.
And then releasing here,
Hugging the knees into the chest once again,
Just giving them a squeeze.
And then left foot goes long,
Right foot find your strap.
You're going to put it around the ball of the right foot.
And bringing right foot up towards the sky,
Left leg is long.
Toes on the right foot come back towards the forehead,
Finding this nice,
Deep opening down the back of the right leg.
Hmm.
Holding on to the strap,
Opening the right foot out towards the side.
Pressing through the heel.
And inhale,
Moving back through center.
And we'll switch sides,
So strap will go around the ball of the left foot,
Right leg will go along.
Pressing through the heel,
Lengthening out the back of the leg.
Maybe noticing that this side feels different from the other side.
And then opening your foot out towards the left.
Creating that nice opening in the inside of the leg.
Bringing the leg back through center,
Getting rid of the strap,
Setting it off to the side,
And we'll find figure four legs.
So left ankle crosses over the right knee,
Hugging that figure four in towards the chest.
You could also use your strap here around the thigh if the hands don't find one another.
And then release,
Figure four the other way,
So right ankle over the left knee.
Then hugging both knees into the chest,
Giving them a squeeze.
We'll begin rocking forward and back,
Small at first,
And eventually rocking yourself all the way up to seated.
And that is the end of our flow for low back pain.
So this is one of those practices that you can return to time and time again,
And over time you'll feel it becoming a little bit easier,
A little bit more open,
And maybe some of that tension and pain in the low back begins to go away over time as well.
Thank you so much for joining me,
And I hope you have a beautiful rest of your day.
