Body Reset- Shoulder, Back & Hips (MFR)

This is recorded from Sunday's live Myofascial Release class. Filmed on my screen porch with a forest background. There is the sound of rain and birdsong. We focused on shoulders, back, and hips using therapy balls (tennis balls) and a foam roller. Starting at the upper traps, we move down the spine, working into the hips, glutes, psoas, and pecs. You will find techniques to help release stagnation, reset the nervous system, and bring in nourishment. This helps release tension in the body, mind, and spirit. Props recommended: 2 balls, foam roller, blocks, folded blanket, and water.

Transcript

All right, So welcome. I'm Rebecca, And Nova happens to be here today. She's my little helper, But she might run away. And Luna's here, Too. She's on the chair. So I've got a foam roller. I've got two blocks. I've got. . . My balls. And we'll start. On our backs and constructive rest just arriving. Glutes, Eva, Okay. Hips and we can bring the glutes in with the hips. So have the balls. If you have balls. If you don't have balls, You could use a foam roller. You could use your fingers. You could just take in this knowledge or techniques and try it when you do have some balls. But tennis balls work great. I have these myofascial release balls. So we'll start in constructive rest, But have your balls nearby and have a block nearby. We're going to start at the shoulders. But at first, Let's just arrive. I'm going to push Sweet Nova out of the way a little bit to lie down. Yeah, And just noticing what you're starting with. Your knees can be bent or your legs can be long. You could even start standing if that felt better. And just seeing how your body feels. Breathing in. Filling up to the crown. Breathing out, Letting go. Beautiful. Reach the arms past the ears and if your knees are bent, Straighten them out long and just Do a big stretch, Noticing the right side of the body. And noticing the left side of the body. And maybe you move a little side to side. Beautiful. Okay, Bend the knees. And then just hug your knees into your chest. And this invitation to bring in love and compassion. And to know that less is great. You don't have to really push and hurt yourself. It's all about being kind. And less is more, As they say. Beautiful. Okay. The first place will go to. . . Yes. The upper traps. And it's the midpoint between the neck and the shoulder. So right at the center between the neck crease and the shoulder will bring the the balls if you have those. If you have a foam roller, You can lie on your foam roller instead. And we're going to lie on our backs. You watch out for your hair. I did not find my hair tie this morning, But just bringing your hair to the side. And I have one ball in each hand. So I have two balls, One ball in each hand. So you can take your right ball and place it underneath your left side. It's just a little easier way to get there. And your left ball you can place underneath your right side. Beautiful. Yeah. And you might not feel a lot at first, But just notice, And you can adjust your balls with your fingers. You could stay here or lift your hips and bring your block underneath your sacrum. And the block has different positions. You could do the lowest position to start with. And just notice how that feels. This is also an acupressure point. Gallbladder 21. And it's a great place to pull energy out of the head if you've been thinking a lot and maybe feeling stressed. And worry, This is a great point to pull that energy out of the head and into the body. It's a great place to work if you do have shoulder pain or if you have a headache. Neck pain. Or if you've been working at your desk, So many things. So you could stay still and just relax and you could see the ball underneath me. Hopefully it's the blue ball. You can just relax or you could move your arms. You could think of yourself like maybe snow angels. Or you're like some seaweed in the ocean and like very calm ocean and you're like moving a little side to side. So just adding movements that feel good. I like to reach my arms past my ears and move a little side to side. This practice is really nice calming the nervous system. So if it's helpful to bring in calming images, That's great. But if that doesn't work for you, Then you don't have to do that, Of course. You are in charge here today. That's the cool thing about myofascial release. You're in charge. And if you find that you want more, You could always lift your hips. If you don't have a block, You could just lift your hips. Or take the block away and add less. Beautiful. We'll be here for maybe three more rounds of breath. And just know you can always adjust the balls if they roll away a little bit. You just want to avoid any bones. You don't want to press the balls on the bones. Beautiful. Okay, From here you could take yourself off of the block. We're just going to move the balls a little closer to the spine and down just a little bit. So I'm just lifting up my head and doing that with my hands. You could always come off the balls, Readjust yourself, And then lie back down. And you're avoiding the spine. This time I'm going to take my hands and cradle my head. And you could stay still and maybe move. It's like your windshield wiper and your elbow side to side. You know how we do that with our knees. It's almost like you're taking the right elbow towards the left hip just a little bit and then you're taking the left elbow towards the right side. So you're just kind of moving side to side. Or any other movements that feel good. You could lift your pelvis. Your sacrum and move a little back and forth, Just tiny movements. For me, This is pretty intense area to work. But I'm just moving my body over the balls. And if you have a foam roller, The foam roller will be across you and you'll just be rolling on the foam roller. Just avoiding anything that's sharp, Any sharp pain. And lifting your pelvis and moving it back and forth is more active. And you can take a break along the way. And when you take a break, Maybe you drop your head down, Open your elbows out to the side. And there might be this nice exhale of release. Beautiful. Now we're going to lift the head, And we're going to just move the head up so the balls move down. And we're just going to go in between the shoulder blades. I'm just going to check the chat. OK, If you have any questions, Please let me know. So I've got my balls. And I'm going, We started at the upper traps. And then we got closer to the spine on each side. And now we're going down. Kind of inside the shoulder blades, But it might be up a little bit still. And we're just going to roll down that way. You might see like a little redness, You know, On your skin just where you're moving, But that's good. You're getting that blood moving. So you could just move your body or you can always just adjust your balls and lie down. See if you land in a spot that feels good. OK, And again, You could. Cradle your head or you could bring your head on your blog. And just stay still. I like to just move my arms, But you could also hug yourself and maybe rock a little side to side like that. It's kind of like a hurts so good feeling, But if it's sharp and doesn't feel good, Then you can move the balls to a different spot. If you're hugging yourself, You just change the cross of the arms. Beautiful. And then we're just going to roll our head towards the top of the mat. To another spot. If you have a foam roller, You could just roll back and forth. And see, Now that I've gotten further down, It's not quite as intense. So I can lift my sacrum and rock a little back and forth. These are just tiny movements. But you're just exploring. It's like being an explorer. Okay, I'll demo the foam roller. Thanks for asking, Anne. So you've got your balls, And if you're doing those, You're just moving down the spine with your balls, Not outside of the spine on the erectors. If you've got a foam roller, You're going to lie back. So you can start up at the upper traps. It's a little more broader. So you can lie back and then lift your pelvis and then just roll up and down. Watch out for your hair because, You know, It's kind of like a little, It can pull your hair. And I'm cradling my head in my hands and I'm just rolling. Up and down and you could pause in one area and maybe move your body a little side to side there. And this would be really nice if you are using the balls. It would be like a little calming to like do in between. Another thing you could do is kind of come on your foam roller. Okay. I have my head on the foam roller and the foam roller is going up the spine in between the shoulder blades to the head and you can move your arms. So you almost like you're making windshield wipers. I mean, This feels really good actually. I do this before I work out usually. Before I like work the upper body, I'll lay on the foam roller and it's also great to do like kind of like tree huggers kind of with your weights, You know, So you're just kind of opening and closing your arms and you're just moving your body and the muscle and the connective tissue is staying in place and it's the shearing motions happening in the. . . The tissue and you're just hydrating the tissue. And if you're using the balls, You're just going down the spine, Being really careful. I hope that helped, Anne. And thank you for asking. If you have any questions or suggestions or you want to see something, That's wonderful. So let's see. So once you get past the shoulder blades and you're kind of going towards the. . . You're kind of on the ribs. Lift. You could move your block so it's underneath. Your sacrum. Maybe, Or it's underneath your head. So you could decide. I think maybe underneath the head's better. And you could always bring your knees into your chest. So as you move down, You could Bring your knees into your chest for a little more weight. So you can play around. And you could always add. There's just lots of things you could do. Maybe rock the knees side to side. Beautiful. And we're slowly going towards the lumbar kind of curve. And when you get there, It's below the ribs. That lumbar curb is the kidney area. You could pause there. That's a good nourishing spot. And there might be this long, Slow exhale letting go. Yay, Thanks Anne. Yeah, So we're kind of going towards gallbladder, I mean bladder 23. It's the deepest curve of the lumbar spine. It helps nourish. Kind of like a battery pack for your laptop. For your body. In Chinese medicine, They imagine stagnation or stress as stagnation, And stagnation is what causes pain. So we're just kind of clearing any. Stagnation out of the way. That's kind of like the idea or tension. All right, Awesome. So you could stay as long as you want here, You know, Just moving down the spine. And we'll pause when we get to the sacrum. And you'll place the balls outside or just above the sacrum sounds good. And again, Knees can come into the chest. I like to kind of lift my knees up and I kind of have my glutes off of the mat too. And it's like you can kind of. . . Press down, Like kind of move your weight back and forth. So kind of like you're just pressing down into the balls and then you're coming off of them a little bit. I'm just kind of moving my hips back and forth. It's raining here, So it's a light rain, But you might hear some kind of noise. On the roof or in the leaves of the trees. All right, Beautiful. And now we're come. Right outside of the sacrum. So the sacrum is kind of like this triangular shape. Bone and you're just outside of it. And you can rock your knees side to side. And if. . . You are feeling too much, You could always bring both the balls on one side and just stay on that one side. So I have two balls that I'm bringing on one side and that would just make it a little less intense. And if I had my foam roller here. Kind of lower down. And I would rock back and forth here. Along the sacrum and the low back. I mean, That feels really good. Foam roller. A handy tool and you know you could even use like a rolled up yoga mat could be like a type of foam roller until you you got one if you're don't have one. It just doesn't roll as easily, But you can get that compression. And you could bring your knees into your chest with the foam roller. You could even kind of walk your legs back and forth and that's gonna do a little shearing for the sacrum. And that's really fun too. That's the thing. Remembering to have fun, Like we're rolling around on balls. And foam rollers and what a way to start the day. It's so fun. Okay. Now we're going to get into the glutes. So we worked along the spine, Got into the upper traps. We worked along the spine. Any of those places that you want to stay at, You can. And then we're going to go to the bullseye of each glute. So, You know, The bullseye of each of your buttocks. The center of each buttocks is what I'm trying to say. This is gallbladder 30. It helps, It's a great way to release tension. So I've got my balls right underneath each buttocks. And I'm just arriving. You could just bring your knees together, Feet out wide, And just stay here. Maybe there's like an open mouth exhale and you're just letting go of tension or stress. Or thoughts. You could even straighten your legs out long and just kind of relax as much as you can. Or you could add that knees rocking side to side, That windshield wiper. In my Hatha classes. That I do, I usually, This is one of the rollouts will do before class. It's just so great to to do before you are moving on the mat. It's great for if you've been sitting at your desk. If you ride a bike. Here, Play pickleball, Just being a human, Driving a lot, Just a great place to work. You could always do this sitting in a chair too. You just put each ball under your buttocks at the center. And if you have one ball, Just do one side at a time. And next add-on is to bring the left knee into the chest and drape the left leg over the right. And you can remove the right ball, And you've got the left ball underneath you. And you can roll. So lifting this foot is just helping us roll. On the ball. And we're also opening the hip in this figure four. And the piriformis is the muscle we're working into, And it's attached at the outer part of the hip, Like the outer part, The widest part of the hip, And attached to the sacrum at the inner part where we were just rolling out. So you can roll side to side. And there might be one spot that you want to hang out in. For me, A lot of the time it's the outer part of the attachment that I want to hang out in. And when you find a spot, You could just stay still. Or maybe move your, Just slight movements, Just moving your knee back and forth. It's not even moving your knee. It's just like you're kind of rocking back and forth. And when I think of this practice, I think about. . . Each area that we work, Dropping these tiny seeds of gratitude for this area of the body. I'm just dropping tiny seeds of gratitude throughout my body. Beautiful and you could stay for a long time and you could also do this see that with your hands down and roll around like that. And that feels good too. Just a different way to get into them. The connective tissue and the muscle, And you might think of something that I've never thought of. So feel free to share anything that's come up. And we'll do the other side. So I've got my ball and placing it underneath the right. Hip, The right knee comes into the chest and the right leg is over the left thigh, So I'm on my figure four. I'm staying still or I'm rolling side to side. I think of this one as clearing the slate. Like any kind of. Even emotional or spiritual gunk that you've picked up, You can kind of let it go. Maybe it's expectations that other people have for you or you know you were preparing for a big test. Just kind of let that go right now. So then when you do pick up whatever you need to do, You're coming from a place of like fullness where you've you're not depleted. Beautiful. I'm using my fingers to just move the ball a little bit. If it rolls out, I can just move the ball and adjust. You can go a little higher up, Like towards your sacrum a little bit more. Or lower down. Beautiful. And stay here as long as you want. When you're ready, Just slowly come off and remove the ball. That leg down, Stretch the legs out long. Stretch the arms out long and get really big. And you might feel warmth in the shoulders, In the back, In the hips. You can move a little side to side. Just removing the skin layer over that. Fascia layer, Right? Superficial. Layer right underneath the skin. So my heels are on the mat, My calves are on the mat, My hips are on the mat. My shoulders are on the mat, My head's on the mat, And my arms are on the floor. Okay, Beautiful. Let's get into the side of the hip. So You've got the pokey bones of your hips in the front here. You're going to bring the ball to the side. And we're gonna lie down on the side. So the pokey bone of the hips, You can feel those, And you're gonna go along the side and then place your ball there. You could always place two balls there if it's a little intense. Grab like a blanket or a bowl a block since the cat's laying on the blankets I'm going to use the block. And I'm going to, So you're just going to lie on your side. And the ball is right, You just feel that pokey bone and you follow it down and place the ball on the side of the body. You can use your forearm to just stay upright like this. Or you could lie down. And it might be a little intense and you could always roll kind of Back a little bit. I don't know that seems a little bit more So just staying up. You could even come up like this a little bit and make it less. Staying here. Or what I like to do is take my top leg back so it's like a little kickstand, Straighten the bottom leg, And I'm just lifting and lowering the bottom leg. That pin and spin. And now we're getting into glute minimus and medius. So any movements that feel good, You could even go back and forth and do a little shearing. Beautiful, Or you're just like kind of just lying down and resting. And you could take two balls instead of one ball. So you could do that if you have your foam roller. You're lying on the side, And I forget how I do this, But maybe like this. I'm lying on the side. I'm just rolling it on the side. This is just fun. A foam roller is fun. So you could do this. You could always straighten and lower that leg, Even on the foam roller, And roll at the same time. Yeah, The foam roller is really fun. I use the balls more often than the foam roller. Because it's easy to take with you, The balls. But the foam roller is a little bit kinder. It seems more like the palm of the hand instead of the thumb with the balls. It's more like a massage therapist's thumb. Okay, Beautiful. When you're ready, There's no rush. And if you have the foam roller and you want to try that too, You can take time to do both. And when you're ready, We're just going to slowly come off. And then lie down and just feel the two sides. And it might feel like the, Like the left hip, The hip you just rolled out feels like a little more connected. It's taking up a little more space than the right side. But let's try the other side. So we've got the pokey bone of the hip and we're falling off. You could do one ball. Or you could do two balls like this, Or even like this. You could try and see which feels better. I've got my block from resting on possibly. I'm kind of. . . Just going to place it here and then roll on it. But you could also just come side-lying and rolling. My forearm is down. You could always come up more, And that's going to take off the pressure, So it's not as much. Or lie down and be relaxed like this, But it's a little more intense possibly. And breathe in pressing into the ball. Breathe out, Letting go. And sometimes that clenching is our body just protecting itself. So we're clenching really, Really tight. And we're just like it's like you're taming a wild horse and you've got like you're whispering to it to come closer or you know like you have a little carrot and you're just trying to to get closer and that's kind of how I think about muscles and as you relax it's like you're tame almost like you're taming the muscle because it's trusting you so it's trusting the tool It's like letting your body know it's okay. This is nourishing, It's not hurting. Unless it is, Unless it feels tense, Unless it feels really sharp, Then it is hurting. So stay here, Bring the back leg up, Knee up, And then you can. Lift and lower the leg. You could even, You know, Make circles with your leg or anything that feels good. I like to do that little bit of shearing where I kind of come up a little bit and do a little moving back and forth. And you might even lift and lower. And if you're doing the foam roller, Just having fun on the foam roller. Yeah, Anything is available here that you want to work at, Just watch out for the bones. And people's bodies are so different, And they do make bigger balls. If you have a bigger hip area, You might want a bigger ball, Like my trainer. He's like, You know, This ball would get lost in him. His hips are so much, You know, He's got more muscle. All right, Beautiful. When you're ready, Slowly come off. And again, Lying down, Just noticing. I think that taking the moment to notice is really powerful, Those transitions. Bringing your awareness to that area and bringing some love. So we're working our way back up towards the head, But we'll do the psoas really quick. So we're getting all into the hips. And this time, We're going to go, And I do this a lot because it's one of my favorites. You just go inside those pokey bones that we were feeling earlier. You're going to go inside and down just a little bit, And you're lying on your belly. If that doesn't feel good, You could take your blanket and roll it like a burrito and place it from your belly button down. It's going to roll down. And I haven't tried the foam roller here, But I'll try that too. I'm lying down on my belly. I'm just lifting up and bringing the ball inside the hip bone and down just a little bit. And I'm doing the other side. I'm on my forearm. And just notice how that feels. This is an area that it. You might not get worked very often if you get massaged. It's just like an awkward area to get massaged sometimes. And when you're in that fight and flight, When you're like stressed. This the psoas tightens and shortens because we're kind of in that protective state so now we're just kind of bringing some shearing in, Some hydration and compression. So you can stay still. You could bend your knees and rock a little side to side. So I'm just kind of, You can see the ball, Because now I'm bringing more weight on the other side. And I'm rolling side to side. If you've done this, If you come to this class or my classes a lot and you hear, Do whatever feels good to you because you know what to do. You can bring the toes down, Lift the knees and roll, Do that shearing. To me, This feels so good, But it didn't always feel so good. At first, I was like, Whoa. I'm talking a lot through the class, But you can just bring in silence when you're doing this at home by yourself. And I'll try the foam roller. I think what I would do is lie down over the foam roller. Yeah, And I'm just going to roll. You can roll into the belly too. I've got my microphone so I can't do that, But you can roll into the belly. And this feels good and it's fun. And you can also bend your knees. Maybe windshield wiper side to side. Or maybe just kind of roll. Just being really kind to yourself. And if this is kind of an odd area to work, You could just bring in little bits of it when you think about it, And your body will get used to it. The foam roller is a little less intense. It's a little more friendlier. Beautiful. When you're ready. Or slowly come off. So if you're on the balls or the foam roller, Just bring your hands underneath your shoulders, Lift up. And maybe do some cat cows if that feels good. Or you can press back into child's pose. And feeling that warmth in the hip crease. And knowing that that blood and lymph and fluid is moving now, We compressed it, And now it's moving freely, Getting rid of any stagnation. Anything we don't need. The next place we're going to go is the pecs in the front. So there's a few different options. You could take your hand and palpate. So underneath the collarbone and you get into your armpit. So you could take your fingers into your armpit and you could take your thumb and press into this area underneath the collarbone above the breast tissue. At the PAX. You can even move your arm a little bit as you bring your thumb there. And that's a great way to work. And you could just do this. We're also, When we're rounding, We're shortening the pecs. When we're trying to protect ourselves, We're shortening the psoas and the pecs to keep ourselves safe. And really, You're trying to open up the heart. Especially if your back's bothering you, This is a great place to work. And if you like the low back, The piriformis is a great place to work and the psoas. Or the iliac is where we were working. So we're going to get into the pecs. I've got to block. And a ball. I'm going to lie down and the ball and the block are going to go like this. And this is going to be on the mat. I'm going to move my arm a little side to side. Or to stay still. So that's one way. The other thing you could do is bring your block underneath your arm and roll and that pokey bone of the block will press into the pec area or the foam roller. I'll bring it underneath my arm, And then I'm going to roll, And this part, The rounded part of the front is going to press into the pecs. Okay? Let's try it. This isn't like a tedious place to work, But it's so important because As humans, We're always rounding. Texting, Driving, Gardening, Caring for our loved ones. Okay, So I'm going to start on the right side just because my mic's not here. I've got the ball and the block and then I'm going to lean over. So I have the pokey bone, The pokey part of the block near the corner. It's kind of diagonal on the mat. And then I'm lying down. But you might have to adjust your blocks. And you might have to, You could bring it up higher. And you can also come to the wall and do this. Block. Ball. Block ball and then I lean against it. So it's the exact same thing that you're doing on the mat, You're just doing it on the wall. Okay. So staying still. This is intense, So just noticing how you feel, Or it's intense for me. I'm going to use a block for my head. And it's cool to think about your breath, Breathing in. And breathing out. You might feel with the ball. Beautiful. I'm going to turn the other way, Maybe you can see a little better. You can kind of see the ball, The block, And you can move your arm back and forth like you're saluting the sun. My heart is facing the floor. Or you could just stay still, Not moving an arm. I'm just using my exhale as a release valve. Letting go of pressure. Speed. Expectations, Tension. You can lift up and move the ball a little bit to a different spot. Underneath the collarbone and sometimes you have to move your breast tissue out a little bit and a different what you know different like move it to the side. To get into the area. Or you could try the wall. Beautiful. One more inhale. Stay for the exhale, Letting go. Use your hands. Press yourself up. To sit and you might feel like the right shoulder might come down a little bit more than the left. And now we'll do the other side. The thing about foam rolling is time gets away from you, And I just realized we're a little bit over our time, So I'm sorry about that. To just foam roll with you guys all day long. Okay, So you can use your block and your ball Or you could lie on your side and try the foam roller. Or I just wanted to demo it. So I'm lying here and then I'm rolling. So I'm rolling over it and I'm just resting my head. On my hands. And you can move your arm and add that shearing. So I've got it underneath my chest, And then I'm moving my arm, Adding that shearing. And you can rest your head down. Feels good, That compression on the chest just feels good with the foam roller. The ball is a little more pointy, You know, It's a little pokier. And the blocks the same way. Lie on the block. And you would turn so the pokey part of the block is pressing into your chest and that's a little more intense than the foam roller. Or you're using the ball. Staying still or adding movement. At pin and spin. I like to use my breath, Breathing in, Pressing into the ball. And exhale, Softening, Letting go as my body melts over the ball. And this helps with the neck. Shoulder. Rotator cuffs. One more inhale. Stay for the exhale. Slowly help yourself up. Being really kind to yourself. Pausing and noticing. Maybe the shoulders feel like they're dropping down a little bit. Maybe the heart feels more open. You can have like a big exhale. Another tool for release is the breath. So if you're driving, You're feeling tension, You can use your breath. To let go. And you have a big. Decision to make. Is to take some time to Bring your awareness into your breath. And then make your decision. Thank you so much for practicing with me.