Welcome to your mat.
My name is Samantha and I'm going to take you through some movement to show your lower back some love.
So to get started.
Let's head on to our back.
Once you come onto your back,
Let's come into Ardha Shavasana.
You'll toe your feet wider than your hips.
Let your knees fall in towards midline and take a hand to your heart and a hand to your belly.
Love to ground and connect with breath and body before beginning any type of practice,
Any type of stretch.
You can insert this practice.
Post-workout.
If you've been on your feet all day.
If you're feeling a little bit of lower back crankiness and you just need to show it some love.
Or if you wake up stiff,
Do our best to keep this going.
Class to less than 25 minutes,
So.
Hopefully in these minutes together we can just start to unlock some tension and tightness that a lot of people hold here in the lower back.
Taking five breaths here,
Hand at heart,
Hand at belly.
Maybe allowing yourself to set an intention.
What do you want to achieve?
What do you want to focus on for you in your practice?
In our minutes together.
Following your next breath,
Let's just keep our hands where they are and start to sway the legs.
Start to feel the body wake up.
Good,
We'll head to center,
Take knees to the chest.
And one hand to each knee,
Let's separate the legs nice and wide,
Push them away and then pull the legs back in towards the body.
Big circles.
And change.
And stretch your legs all the way up.
And just check in with how the back of your legs feel here.
Are we feeling a little bit of tension,
Tightness,
Point and flex through the ankles?
Give your back of the legs,
Your hamstrings a little bit of love and a little rub,
Rub through the side of the legs and the hips.
And then take a bend through your knees.
Good.
Bring your nose to your knees.
Roll up into a tiny little ball.
Give yourself a great big hug.
Send yourself love and gratitude for making this time for yourself.
Maybe add a little sway from side to side.
Let's take the feet down to the floor.
Cross your right ankle over your left knee.
And find that space just above.
The ankle joint.
And rest that space.
Just below your knee.
Open your arms up into a cactus bent arms.
If you have the space,
Feel free to open up the arms wide into a T position.
And if the shoulders are not really in favor of elbows being parallel with them,
Then just drop your elbows a little bit lower than the shoulders and adjust accordingly.
We're going to take a breath here and let the legs fall over to the left.
And just feel how the body,
The lower body specifically responds.
Use your inhale and then come over to the right.
Good,
And then let's move with our breath here.
Inhale through center,
Exhale to the left.
And then inhale through center,
Exhale to the right.
Do that two more times.
And then pull your figure four legs in towards the chest.
You can interlace your fingers behind the thigh or interlace fingers around your shin.
Maybe you can use your right elbow to keep that right leg.
Drawing away from the shoulder.
Now let's take our left hand to the right foot.
And then take our right hand to the right knee.
And then release your left foot down to the floor.
And you're just going to go left.
And right with that right leg.
And then eventually you'll cross your right leg all the way over your left.
Pick up your hips,
Move them to the right,
Open arms back up into a tear cactus and twist left.
Once you're in your twist,
If you feel okay,
You're welcome to drop your gaze.
Over the right shoulder or keep your head in a neutral position,
Eyes closed or open towards the sky.
Take one more breath and then bring everything back to center.
Stretch your legs out long,
Reach your arms overhead,
Big inhale.
And then exhale,
Sigh it out.
Pull your right knee into the chest.
Compress,
Wrap your fingers around your knee,
Behind your thigh,
Or over your shin.
And compress your right leg in towards the torso.
Bring your right knee wider than the rib.
And then pull back in towards the shoulder.
Breathing into this external position,
Take two more breaths.
And then after your second exhale,
Land your right elbow onto the floor.
Support your right leg like a kickstand.
Then start to straighten and bend your right leg.
Straighten and bend.
Next time you bend your right leg,
Keep it there,
Cross it over your body,
Open up your right arm,
Left hand on top of the knee.
Pause when your hips reach center and then stay.
Three deep breaths.
For your last two breaths here,
Imagine that right hip can draw towards your left foot.
So even if you take that right hand and shift.
Your right hip.
Giving yourself some space into that joint.
Little self-adjustment.
Breathe space into that right hip.
And then gently unravel,
Come back through center,
Stretch out long,
Hold it here.
Breath in.
Breath out.
Now just for a moment,
Close down the eyes and feel your right side.
And feel your left side.
No judgment,
Just acknowledgment and awareness.
Between the space that you've created on one side of the body.
And now let's create that same space on the other.
Slide your right foot flat to the floor.
Find that space just above the ankle joint and place it.
On top of your right leg this time.
Open arms into a cactus.
And then sway over to the right.
Take a breath in and come over to the left.
And then follow your breath for four more rounds just like this.
After your fourth round,
You'll pause at center,
Pull your legs in towards the body.
Maybe use your left elbow against the left leg.
And then place your right foot down on the floor.
Take your right hand to your left foot,
Left hand to left knee.
And then take that leg away from the right.
Just go side to side.
Cross your left leg all the way over the right.
Open up the arms.
Pick up your hips,
Shift them to the left,
And twist to the right.
Good.
Bring yourself back to middle.
Realign your hips.
And then take your left knee,
Pull it into the chest and extend your right leg long.
Right hand to right hip.
Open up your left leg wider than the ribcage.
Hold it here.
And then take your left elbow down to the floor.
Create a kickstand for your left leg.
And start to bend and straighten left leg.
Good,
Now take that left leg across your body,
Find a twist.
Open up your left arm.
Let your hips stack over the right.
And then take your left hand.
Bring it into the left hip crease and gently Push your left hip toward your right foot,
Lengthening out through that side body.
Two more breaths.
Beautiful.
Gently unravel,
Come back through center.
Let's take both knees back into the chest.
This time we'll take the knees wider than the ribs.
Big toes to touch,
Hands on the outside of the leg.
Good.
From here,
Let's take our hands and press down into the shins for a passive child's pose.
Feel the spine long on your mat.
One more breath.
Bring the knees back together.
Go ahead.
Lower your feet down to the floor.
All right,
Let's take the right arm,
Reach it overhead,
Roll to your right side.
And then press yourself up to a seat.
From here,
We'll take the soles of the feet together,
Knees open wide.
Create.
Some space between your heels and your pelvis.
Nice little rule of thumb for this butterfly pose is the further your heels are away from the pelvis,
The more passive the opening.
Closer your heels are,
The deeper.
We want to find that medium place.
Make sure your spine is still tall wherever you are.
We'll take an inhale all together.
And then on your exhale,
Little tuck of the chin to lengthen through the back of your neck,
Lead with your heart and hinge forward.
You can take your hands and wrap them around your toes.
You can even use your elbows.
Against the lower leg.
Do your best here to keep the spine long.
Take one more breath here.
And then you'll slowly sit yourself up.
Let's find an easy pose.
If this is too much on The hips.
As in,
Your knees are up really high.
You're either going to reach for a block and place it under your seat or a pillow or a blanket.
Just to bring some ease into your seated position and some space into the hips.
So take a moment to do that if you need to,
And then when you're ready,
You're going to join in with hands on the knees with some seated cat cows.
So we'll take a breath in together,
Lean forward,
Lift up your heart,
Maybe look up.
And then on the exhale,
You'll lean back onto the tailbone,
Round your back,
Bring your chin to your chest.
Inhale to lift up.
Look up.
And then exhale,
Round through your back,
Chin to chest.
Follow your inhales and exhales here.
One more round.
And then sit up tall.
Take a side bend.
Left hand will come down and then right arm will reach overhead.
Take an inhale,
Come up,
And then over to the other side.
Good.
Inhale,
Come up.
Both of your arms overhead.
Exhale,
Hands through to your heart.
Let's seal our practice.
Take an inhale,
Reach the arms up,
Gather energy.
Exhale,
Pull it to your heart.
Thank you so much for allowing me to guide your research.
Practice today.
Be well.
Go in peace.
Thank you for practicing with me.
Always an honor to guide you through your yoga practices.
If there is something that you would like to see come through,
Please let me know.
Otherwise,
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Until then.
I will see you soon.
