Yoga for Back and Spine Health

This hatha style yoga session focuses on building strength in and increasing flexibility of the spine and surrounding muscles. Back care is essential in maintaining a healthy body. This guided sequence of movements takes you through forward and back bends, twists and stretches, in addition to poses that engage muscles enabling you to build strong support for the body.
We end with a short relaxation to rest the body and allow for the effects of the practice to be consolidated.
The practice aims to leave you feeling supple with increased energy and a sense of freedom in your movement.
Please work at your own level.

Participation is subject to and governed by English law and the exclusive jurisdiction of the Courts of England and Wales.

Transcript

Hello, I'm Vicky from Equanimity Yoga. Welcome to my session today. My session is We've Got Your Back. So just a couple of things before we start. Please work at your own level. If anything doesn't feel good, Don't do it. It's not like bootcamp. You don't have to do everything. You can sit things out. And if you have any questions, Please do type them in the question box and I will get back to you later. So if you'd like to find yourself into a comfortable seated position, You can bring your sitting bones, There's two little bony parts on your bottom down to the earth. You can sit on a chair if that feels better for now and just allow for that sense of length to come through your spine. This is where we're going to be focusing today. Now to help our spine engage, The area just north of our belly button, We can give that a gentle hug back with our muscles and that helps us grow a little bit taller. Let's allow shoulders to relax, Hands can rest wherever they want to. And maybe allowing your eyes to close or allow for your gaze to just lower down to the earth. And we're going to start by focusing on our breath because our breath is one of the cornerstones of yoga. So when we breathe in yoga, We breathe in and out through our nose, If that's possible for you today. Now, We're not going to change our breath. We're not going to make our breath super long or super deep. But let's take 10 breaths. Just gently allowing the inhale to come in through the nose. And the exhale to leave through the nose. Now the reason we breathe in this way at the beginning of our session is to just allow us to come to our mat, Come to that sense of settling. Just in your own time. Just take in. Six more nice easy steady breaths. No rush at all. And just let each breath Allow for. A sense of smoothness as you breathe. Take in one more breath this way. And as we exhale. Just taking a moment noticing. How we feel. And maybe opening our eyes or raising our gaze once more. So we may feel like we've landed on the mat now and that's great this is exactly what we want so from here we're going to start working into the hips just a little so let's allow for our awareness to come to our waist and we're going to start to allow for our waist to move and our shoulders might stay still. So it's almost like we're hula hooping an invisible hula hoop. As we go gently round and round. Really nice now perhaps we'd like to then get shoulders a bit more involved Maybe our head wants to get a little bit more involved. See what works for you. Just going round and round. And then let's come to stillness. I'm going to start going in the other direction. So once again, Just the waist, That invisible hula hoop. We're working into our spine here. Quite a lot of work going on into all the little muscles that control the movement of the spine. And then if you feel you want to make it bigger, Again, We can get shoulders involved, Maybe get the head a little bit involved. Just see what feels nice. And then when. . . You feel like it? Let's come to. . . Stillness. If you need to take a little derotation then please do. So from here we're going to bring the other foot in front if you've chosen to sit cross-legged. Just to make everything nice and evenly balanced. Sometimes one knee's higher than the other. So let's swap them over. And this time we're going to work into the sides of the body. Now, Sometimes we come to a lateral bend to do that, But this time we're going to come to a little bit of a stretch. We're going to work into the hands too. So I'm going to get you to imagine you're climbing a rope or a vine. So let's inhale, Reach up with one arm, Close the hand and then pull down. We're going to work the other side. Inhale, Reach up with the other arm, Pull down. In between our ribs. Our intercostal muscles to expand and contract. And when we do that, That allows for the muscles either side of the spine to get a little bit of workout too, Because we're gently leaning to one side as we work. So we're climbing our rope. Let's take a couple more. We're almost at the top. And when we've worked equally each side let's allow for that hand to just gently pull down and find that length through the spine once more now we're going to change back our way of sitting now so we're back to letting our legs feel like they're our own and from here we're going to take a little twist now i'm going to give you a couple of options here you may want to keep hands at what we call anjali mudra at the heart this is a hand gesture that symbolizes compassion work with your arms too if you're feeling a bit more energetic So if you're feeling like you want to raise the arms, Let's raise the arms. Let's shoulder soften. Exhale. We're going to twist from the waist area. So we're going to imagine our ribs are like a lampshade. Our spine is like the base of a lamp. Let's twist those ribs to one side. Touch down with the arms. Inhale arms back up or to the heart as we come to center. Exhale to the other side. Just gently touch down. Inhale to center so we're going to keep working this rotation into the spine So when we work with the spine, We are working the spine in all the different planes. We've taken a little bit of a lateral movement. Now we are taking rotation. In a moment, We're going to be coming to some flexion and extension. So some back bends and forward bends just to keep our spine nice and movable, Nice and supple. So let's inhale, Reach up. And then when we've come to neutral, Let's bring the palms together. If we had the arms in the air, Bring them down to the heart center. Now from here, We're going to take a little warm up into our wrists because we are going to be coming to tabletop position in a moment. And start just gently circling those risks around. You can freestyle this if you prefer. And let's change direction of those wrist circles. Really nice and let's shake them out and this is also a nice one to do if we find ourselves using computer slots because it can really help to just mobilize those wrists ease out some stiffness So from here, Let's bring ourselves to a tabletop position. Now, If you do have sensitive knees, You can always put a blanket underneath your knees or double your mat up just to allow for a little bit of padding. And before we start doing anything, Let's find a nice setup. So the knees are underneath the hips. That is going to provide a column of strength. Hands can be underneath the shoulders. Or if you feel that you are a little bit tight in the wrist or if we have carpal tunnel syndrome, Anything like that, Just move the wrist a little bit further forwards. Fingers out if it doesn't feel good but you may want to. So from here, We're going to work into cat cow, Which is a very classic yoga pose. Works into the spine. So those bony parts we were sitting on before, Our sitting bones. Let's start by thinking about those sitting bones tilting up towards the sky. So we're really poking our bottom up. Tummy can drop down a little bit. And your head and chest, If you imagine there's a light shining from them, Let it shine forwards. And let those shoulders just gently move away from the ears. This is our inhale position. As we exhale, We're going to reverse that. So our sitting bones will tuck down towards the earth and we're going to arch our spine like we're an angry cat, Maybe looking between the knees or looking to the belly button, Pushing through those hands. So let's work with our breath here. Inhale, Sitting bones lift, Belly drops, Head and chest shine that light forward, Space between shoulders and ears. Exhaling angry cat sitting bones tilt down really feeling that push into the earth of the shins the feet and the hands let's work with our breath Inhale as belly drops into our cow tilt. Exhale into our cat stretch. So let's just allow ourselves to keep working. With this movement and if you want to just do one yoga pose before you start moving in the morning if you get up this is my go-to one lovely bits of mobilization for the spine We're coming into extension when the belly drops down and flexion, So a forward bend when we come into our cat stretch. Let's take one more each way, Inhaling. And exhaling. You can mow as quickly or slowly as you want. And then inhale. Let's come to center. So from here, We're going to gently bring our sitting bones back and we're going to find child's pose. Now, It may be that your bottom doesn't come close to your heels. That's absolutely fine. And you can always stack the fists to rest the head onto the hands or bring the head to the floor. And we're going to take two breaths here. And once again, If you can, Can you breathe? So that you're feeling like you're expanding into the muscles of the back, A bit like when we were sitting upright, That sense of. . . Lengthen in. Really nice. Inhale and exhale. Lovely. So from here, We're going to find our way back up to all fours. Let's realign. And we're going to work what's called a tiger stretch. Now, Tiger stretch is really good for allowing for the muscles in the lower back, The multifidi, To be strengthened, But also a little bit of core strength. So where we were talking about before, That area just north of the navel, Let's hug that back. Nice lot of core strength. And we're going to allow for our leg, Doesn't matter which one, To kick back. Want to bring the opposite arm up check that bony part in the lower back our sacrum make sure that's level if you want to then inhale out that arm with the hand facing the head inhaling exhaling keeping that strength in the belly keeping that length keeping that foot flexed kicking through the heel and the sole of the foot one more breath here exhale hand comes down knee comes down really good so let's take the other side so kicking out that other leg again flexing that foot toes towards the earth pushing through the heel if we want to opposite arm can check that we're leveling that lower back and then maybe extending that arm out keep breathing inhaling and exhaling Really nice work. Steady breath. Exhale hand comes down knee comes down and from here we're going to just gently come back either into a high kneel or into a low kneel and we're going to find our way up to standing so however you get there just get there nice and safely So we're going to find a standing pose, Which is called mountain pose, Tadasana. Now, When we come to mountain pose, Let's feel nice and tall through the spine. So we're thinking about not slouching. One top tip, If you do get lower back pain and you feel like your lower back always has weight dumped into it, Soften the knees a little. You may feel the pelvis just tilt ever so slightly and it can feel a lot nicer when we find ourselves standing for periods of time. So from here, Let's find a little bit of lateral movement. So I'm going to get you to just allow for one hand to come up towards the ear. We're not going to put our hand behind the head. We're just going to take all the ear with the fingers, Take an inhale grow tool, Exhale, Little lean over to the side. Just let the other arm dangle. Keep breathing. Inhales and exhales. Really good. Inhale come back to center i'm going to take it the other side so other arm comes up inhale lengthen Exhale, Little lean over to the other side, Other arm dangles. Keep breathing here. Getting that nice opening into the ribs, That lateral movement into the spine. Inhale let's come back to neutral and allow the arm to float down now from here we're going to work some forward bends into a half sun salutation so when we work with this you can come all the way down or half the way down doesn't matter we're going to hinge from the hips we're going to keep that solar plexus that area just north of the navel engaged so let's take hands to the heart inhale reach up with those hands exhale bending knees bending elbows as we allow ourselves to hinge down from those hips keeping that length through the spine coming as far as feels good for you we can allow the head to drop down if we want to and then bending those knees we're going to hinge from the hips sweeping the arms up generous push through the thighs using the glutes hands back to above and then down to the heart let's take that one more time inhale reaching up Exhale, Soft elbows, Knees. Engaging your core as we hinge down. Beautiful. Take a moment. Inhale, Sweeping the arms out and up as we push up like we're pushing out of a chair. Palms touch, Exhale, Hands come to neutral. And then allow for everything to just soften down for a moment. Just take a moment here. Maybe allowing for that sense of the feet to ground into the earth and maybe feel like we're growing tall. This is mountain pose after all. You may want to find something that isn't moving in front of you to just softly focus on. That's called your dristi. It helps with balance. So when we're here, Exhaling, Breath comes down to the feet, Feeling those feet really sturdy like the base of a mountain. Inhale, Maybe feel like we're lifting, Growing tall through the crown of the head. So that peak of the mountain in the cloud, Nice and tall. So from here, Let's allow for everything to relax down. And we're gonna take a little bit of extension into the upper back. So I'm gonna turn to the side so that you can see with this one. So we're going to allow for the feet to stay where they are. And I'm going to get you to think about engaging into the buttocks and engaging into that area just north of the navel. We're going to take hands to the heart and imagine that someone is lifting your chest up and we're just taking a little lean back, But we're not taking it into the lower back. Those buttocks are going to help us not take it into the lower back. It's going to be almost from that bottom rib up. Let shoulders relax. We can look forwards or we can look up. See what feels good. And then on the inhale, Lifting up. And place nail sales back into that neutral position. Okay, Really nice. So we're going to take that once more. Inhale, Lift in tall. Exhale, Little lean back. Really nice. Inhalen. Lifting up exhale back to neutral really good so from here we're going to release the arms and then let's come down to sit and we're going to have our legs lengthened out to the front Now from here, Let's make sure sitting bones are down onto the earth. Going to bend the knees once more. And this time we're going to come to another twist. This is our teepee twist. So we're going to make sure we've got enough space between our tummy and our thighs. And let's inhale, Grow tall. So that sense of a golden thread pulling up the spine. On the exhale, Let's twist those ribs, That lampshade to one side. And we can maybe wrap the hand around the legs if that feels good. The other hand, We're not going to lean back. We're just going to tickle the floor with our fingers. The back of the waist with the palm facing out. Take a breath here. Inhale, Groin tall through the crown of the head. Exhale, Shoulders soft. Really nice inhaling let's come back to center and we're going to take the other side so let's inhale lengthen through the crown of the head exhale gently twist maybe the other hand wraps around the back of the waist let's take a breath long through the spine on the inhale. Exhale, Shoulder soft. Beautiful. And then inhale back to center. Now from here, We can lengthen the legs out a little bit if we want to. We can allow the knees to come out. We're just gonna take a slouch over the legs. So let's start tall, Inhaling, Hinging from those hips like we did in our half sun salutation, And just allow yourself to hang out here. Allow the head to drop. Let the shoulders drop. If you want to, We can walk the feet away. If it's your usual practice, You can have nice lengthened legs and come into that forward fold. But let's take care. Let's not take us anywhere that we don't want to be today. And then on the inhale, Gently allowing ourselves to lengthen through the spine before hinging back up, Maybe rolling the shoulders back. So from here, We're going to allow ourselves to come to a supine position, Laying on our back, And we're going to work with a little bit of bridge pose. Now, Bridge pose is really nice for mobilizing the spine, And I'm going to give you a little hint as to how you can get full mobility in the spine when we use bridge pose. So let's allow for ourselves to make space between the shoulder blades, Maybe reaching up towards the sky, And let's walk the feet so the heels are relatively close to our sitting bones. Toes pointing forward, Hip width apart, Knees over those feet. So let's allow the arms to be down by both sides of the body palms facing down this will help us to cantilever a bit and when we were talking about the sitting bones earlier those bony parts in the bottom where we were tilting them in our cat cow we're going to take that same idea but here we are going to allow for that area just north of the navel to gently hug back and tilt those sitting bones towards the sky a little okay so we've taken our exhale as we do that on the inhale let's start pushing through the feet squeezing the buttocks a little as we lift those hips just as high as we want to okay so we're into our bridge pose here on the exhale start allowing for that solar plexus to gently hug back that area north of the navel tilt the sitting bones towards the sky and it will help us to gently roll down on the exhale so it's almost like a string of pearls being lifted and put back onto a table pearl by pearl your vertebrae of the pearls so let's work a few times here so exhale hugging back into the area north of the navel both tilt up. Inhale gently lift the spine pushing through the feet engaging the glutes Really nice. Exhaling as we allow for those sitting modes to tilt up and then exhale all the way down with control Now, It's very easy to work with bridge pose really quickly. The slower we work, The better. So let's exhale. Engaging. Inhale, Lift in. We can push the arms down a little bit too if you want to get a little bit more lift that sensation And exhale, Sitting bones tilt up. And allow yourself to roll down gradually. Little pilot. Let's take one more of these. As we inhale. Tilting up and lifting, Squeezing the glutes. Pushing through those feet exhaling as we come all the way down let's allow the spine to just settle for a moment here allowing the glutes to release. And if it feels good once the spine has settled, I'm going to bring the knees into the chest. Maybe place one hand onto each knee. I'm going to give you some options here. You may want to take the knees together, But in little circles to massage into that lower back, Maybe taking it into the other way too, Or perhaps hugging the knees and rocking from side to side. So this gives you a little bit of self-massage. If you hug the knees in tight, It gets the upper and mid back. If you allow the knees to be further away, Just gets that lower back. So whichever feels good for you, Your choice today. Really nice. Then from here let's allow ourselves to come to neutral i'm going to bring our feet down to the earth And from here, You may want to just take a little sway, Allowing those knees to sway both to one side and then both to the other side. They don't have to come all the way over. But again, We're just working a little bit of gentle rotation. So hopefully the movements we've been making will help your spine to feel supple, To feel a little bit more mobilized. If we keep using our spine, It keeps allowing for that mobility to be maintained. It's when we stop moving, Stop using our spine that we start to stiffen up and everything starts to feel a little bit more difficult movement wise. So let's keep those spines nice and supple, Looking after our backs, Building the muscles around all of the supporting structures. So from here, Let's allow ourselves to come to neutral and we're going to come to our relaxation. So I'm going to give you a couple of options. If it feels nice to have the knees bent, You can. You may even put a cushion underneath the knees or you can allow legs to lengthen out and just let them relax down. Hands can be wherever they want to or if it feels better for you, You can come to a seated position. Now I'm going to come to seated just so that I can speak easier. And we're going to just take a few moments to relax. So just allowing for. The eyes to maybe close. And we're going to just let the body feel heavy. The effort is over. Now we're consolidating our practice. So from here, Let's come back to our breath. Allowing for the breath to move in and out through the nose. Just an easy, Effortless breath. No change to that breath needed whatsoever. And perhaps in your mind's eye. You'd like to imagine your breath moving up and down the spine. From the inhale, Maybe that breath moves from your tailbone to the crown of your head. And on the exhale, Maybe it moves back down to your tailbone or even to your toes. Breathe in that sense of the inhale, Breath moves up the body. And that gentle exhale breath moves down the body. This isn't too much effort. Just allow yourself to stay with the inhale. And the exhale. And maybe with each inhale. A sense of ease floods through the body from the feet to the crown of the head. And perhaps with each exhale, That sense of relief. Flows from the head down to the terms. Just let in each breath. Wash over you like the ebb and flow of the tide. Bringing with it ease. And allowing for that sense of effortlessness. On the exhale. Inhalen And exhaling. Just allow yourself to be here. Just for another few moments. Just letting yourself be at ease. And when you're ready. Just allowing for that breath to deepen a little. Getting ready to come back to your day, Maybe wiggling through fingers, Wiggling through toes. The legs are outstretched, Perhaps bending the knees. And allowing yourself to gently roll completely to one side. And then help yourself up. Your top hand into a seated position. So let's all meet at seated and we're going to take one nice deep breath to close our practice today. So let's allow hands to come to the heart. Taking our inhale as we reach up and out. Exhale as we allow those hands to rest at the heart space. Namaste.