Stiff Back, Weak Core—No More!

Join me for a 30-minute yoga session where we will honor the way our back feels when it is really stiff. This means we will use movement and gentle stretching to warm our backs slowly as we go, breath by breath. Combining core work with this movement will help us strengthen our core and ease back pain.

Transcript

Welcome to yoga today. We are laying on our back so that we can feel the support of the floor under our spine Now to begin you'll want to lift your hips just a tiny bit So you have just lifting them a tiny bit and then lower the spine back to the floor the hips go down So that that curve of the spine is completely flat and with the knees bent It helps to keep that pelvis tilted so that the back can be flat And then just take your arms out to the side for now and close your eyes for a moment. And let's just establish our breath. Breathe in and out just through your nose. Now we want our body today to respond. We want to relax our back. And we want to energize our core. So we'll do that in a couple of different ways. We'll do it by stretching and moving. And we'll do it by squeezing the core and holding. And go back and forth between the release and between the energizing. And hopefully that'll make us feel the strength. And that'll make us feel like we are a family. We are engaging our body. To find release and have no more stiff back. But a strong core and a mobile back. So there'll be a lot of repetition today and we'll make sure that we do all of it with breath and that's why we're establishing this breath right here. Now let's open our eyes and bring our right knee into our chest and just hug it in. Feel how this pushes that curve of the spine to the floor. If you've got tightness in your hip and in your low back, Hopefully this is getting right into that place. And then let's engage our core. Just bring our nose toward our knee. No, It doesn't have to touch. You can touch if you want, But just feel that squeeze through the lower and you can feel it in the upper abdominals too. We just keep breathing. And just feel that hold. One more breath here. Inhale. Exhale, Release your head and extend the left leg And then let's just roll this right leg around. In that hip socket. To feel that releasing. In that low back area and the hips. And a little bit of length through the abdominals since we're now laying down. Back again. Good. Very nice. Release that right leg. Bend your left knee again. Adjust your hips if you need to. Put that curve of the spine on the floor. And then bring the left knee into the chest. We're just holding it here, Pushing that curve of the spine to the floor. Think of this as kind of your warm-up. Just releasing whatever tension is there to start with. Very nice and then bring your knee to your chest. I mean your your nose to your knee. Squeezing and feeling that abdominal integration. Keep your breath slow and steady. We are holding the body, But we don't hold perfectly still. There's always breath. Very nice now lengthen out that right leg put your head down and let's roll this knee. Feel that motion within the hip socket. Good. Very nice. Bend our knees again, Put the feet on the floor, Back to our home base. We'll be here for a little while, Just coming back and forth. And let's take We're going to put our right leg on our left knee. So we're making a figure four now. And then extend out your left arm and take your right, Oh sorry, I'm saying it backwards. We're going to put our left elbow, Left hand on the head and then the right arm extends out to the side. So that we can bring our left elbow to the right knee. I don't quite touch and you might not but you might touch I don't know but you're feeling those obliques and lower it back down. Now let's get some breath right here at the bottom. Exhale, Twist. Inhale at the bottom. Exhale, Twist. Can we feel those obliques, That side body? Inhale. Exhale. One more time, Inhale. Exhale. Good. Very nice. Now extend out your right arm as well. So both of our arms are at the floor right at the shoulder height. And then let's lower this right foot to the floor so that the toes touch down. So you can see how this is twisting through my back body. And then as we bring it back, We have to use our abdominals to bring it back to the center. Let's do that again. Twist the foot down, Let it touch. And bring it back to the center. Twist it down. Can you feel those obliques working and that twisting is helping to release tension in the back? And bring it back to the center. Let's do two more. We're doing things kind of in sets of five. Bring it down, Let the foot touch. And back to the center. And last time, Drop the foot, Touch the floor if you can. And bring it back to the center. Nice job. Now, Let's move one more time to the floor. And we're just going to stay there in this twist. Now I'm going to take a little extra using my left hand to press on that right knee. And I can feel this nice release through the hips. Outer hip and into this low back. Do as much as you want with that. You don't have to hold the knee if you're really tight. See if you can release tension, Letting that breath get a little bit heavy maybe. Good. I'm also looking at the camera, So I'm turning my head. You can do the same. That feels nice on the neck as well. So it's just a release all the way up the spine. Good, That feels good. I could stay here all day, But let's move on to our other side. Switching legs, So put your right leg down and put the left foot into position, That figure four. And then our left arm is on the ground and our right hand to the back of our head there. Let's start with our oblique twist. So inhale here on the ground. Exhale, Twist elbow toward the knee. Inhale. Exhale, Nice squeeze and rotation. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. One more, Inhale. Exhale. Good. Very nice. Release the hand. Take it out. And let's do those drops. This time the left foot is going to drop to the floor on that right side. So let it come down. Keep both shoulders on the ground. And bring it back up to the center. Feel those obliques working to pull our legs back up. Drop it down. A little stretching in the hip and the low back. And back into the center. Drop it down. And the center we're still supporting our back because we're laying on the ground feel that support two more times drop it down And back to the center. And last time, Release it down. And back to the center. Now we'll twist one more time. This time we're just going to go down and stay. So drop it down if you want to use this right hand to put a little bit of extra along that outer hip. And then if you want to turn your head over that left shoulder, You can get a little bit of a neck twist as well. And just feel ourselves. Low back, Hips. Neck, All the way up the spine. Very nice. Take one more breath right here. Inhale. Exhale. Good, Then come back to the center and let's put both feet down. This will be our last exercise here in this position. Next, We're gonna work on strengthening the back with some bridge poses. So we'll just lift the hips and lower with our breath. Here we go. Inhale, Lift them up, Shift all the way up as far as you can towards those shoulders. You can feel that space right in between your shoulders. It stretches our neck a little bit too. And exhale, Lower it down. We're going to do it just that slow, Five times. So that was one. Inhale, Lift it up. Feel all that strength build from underneath. Exhale, Lower it down. Inhale, Lift it up. Exhale, Lower it down. Good job. Keep controlled. We have two more. Inhale, Lift it up. Exhale, Lower it down. Last one, Inhale, Lift it up. Exhale, Lower it down. Good, Now take your feet a little wider than your hips. Here's your reward. We'll just windshield wiper back and forth. It's not a fast rain, It's a slow gentle rain on your windshield wipers. And I like this because it stretches out our quadriceps too. So it's giving motion to our hips and our low back. And a little stretch into the front of the legs. Hip flexors and quadriceps. Good. Let's just do one more time each side. Very nice, Come back to the center. Pull your knees into your chest. Squeeze your head up into the knees. Feel those abdominals right there. Feel how that presses the curve of the spine to the floor. And then just gently roll over to your side. So that you can come up. To all fours Great, Now here's the place if you want to put a blanket under your knees. Feel free to do so. We're just gonna start out with some cat and cow, Beginning slow and then speeding it up. You'll notice that as we speed it up a little bit, You'll start to engage those abdominals and that's what we want. So some back release and then some engagement. Nice and slow to begin, Three times. Drop our belly down, Shoulders roll back, Inhale, Send the gaze up. Exhale, Round through the spine, Tuck your chin, Pull your hips inward. Inhale, Arch, Drop the belly down, Send the gaze up. Exhale, Round, Pull and lift. One more time, Nice and slow. Inhale, Arch. Full range of motion if you can. Exhale, Round. Good, Now faster. Inhale, Five times faster. Exhale, Round. Feel those abdominals squeezing each time. Inhale, Arch. Exhale, Round. Inhale, Arch. Exhale, Round. Two more, Inhale, Arch. Exhale, Round. Last time, Inhale, Arch. Exhale, Round. Good. Back to neutral. Let's add an element. We're going to lift our right arm, Left leg. Now even here, Just holding still, We have to use our abdominals to work because we're a little off balance. We have to find a new center between our hand and knee that are on the floor. Inhale, Lengthen a little bit. Exhale, Bring your knee, Elbow to the knee. Inhale, Lengthen. Exhale, Elbow to knee. Feel those obliques working. Inhale, Lengthen. Exhale, Squeeze. Good, Now put your right hand down, Extend your left leg out to the side. And let's roll ourselves onto our side. So I'm on my right knee, My right hand, And then that left arm up into the sky. Get yourself centered. We're gonna lift this left leg. See if you can feel those obliques working as you lift. Now you're welcome to stay right here, Or if you'd like a little more, You can bend the knee to the elbow. This is going to take a lot of balance. And then lengthen it back out again. And bend it, Feel those obliques. Feel those hips. Lengthen it back out. And bend it. We have one more. Lengthen it back out. We got it. We're all stable and bend it. Whoo. Nice job. Put the leg down. Extend your arm overhead and just feel that stretch. Oh, It feels nice to stretch out that whole left side of the body, Right? Good. Nice job. Bring yourself back around. Knees on the floor again, Let them open a little bit wider than your hips and just sit back to child's pose. This is like our reset. Feeling ourselves just right in between those hips, That release across your sacrum. Across that low back. Nice stretch. Good. One more breath right here. Inhale. Exhale. Very nice. Lift up. Now I'm going to turn myself around so that when we go to the other side that I won't be facing away from you. You face whatever direction you need to. This way I'm just still facing the camera. I like to make sure that you can see me. Okay, Let's go back to our cat and how we got to do all of this on that left. Side. So nice and slow to begin, Drop your belly, Shoulders roll back, Inhale, Send the gaze up. Exhale, Round through the spine. We should be feeling pretty loose in our back by now, At least I hope so. Drop your belly, Send the gaze up. Exhale, Round. Inhale, Arch it. Exhale round all right five times a little bit faster inhale Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale, Feel those abdominals so warm. Exhale, Two more. Inhale. Exhale. Last one, Inhale. Exhale. Good, Come back to neutral. Extend your left arm, Right leg. This will get us on that other side. Looking down, Feeling those abdominals. Good, Now let's add that motion. Inhale, Lengthen here. Exhale, Elbow to knee. Inhale, Extend, Feel those obliques. Exhale. There they are. One more, Inhale, Lengthen. Exhale round Good, Now put your left hand down, Right foot extends out to the side, And let's turn ourselves. Oh, Gotta get my balance. Use my obliques. Turn ourselves. So we're on our left knee and left hand. Reach that right arm to the air. Good, Now our next step. Is to hover that leg. You can stay here if you want, Or you can add that really fun motion of bringing the elbow and the knee toward each other. There's those obliques. And open. And bring it together. Certainly looks really cute, Right? And open. We're like some weird little frog thing or something. Squeeze it. And open, We did it. Put the foot down, Stretch your arm over. It feels so nice now to lengthen through that side body. Good, You've done all the work, Should be feeling warm. I'm hoping so. Now we get the reward of another child's pose. So let's let our knees open a little wider than our hips. And we'll sit back as we reach our arms forward and drop our head down and just relax. And feel all that work that you've done today for your hip. For your low back. Sides of the body even. My goal is always to help you feel different than when you started. And the hope is different in a positive way. Maybe a little bit more awareness of our breath. A little bit more awareness of our body. How we can hold ourselves up. Let's just breathe. Okay. Ah. Ah. Good. Gently lift up, Let's come to sit. Sit in a comfortable cross-legged position, Whatever that is for you. If you've got your blanket, You can put it under your hips and that will help elevate you a little bit. My legs are not quite stacking on top of each other, So I'm not doing lotus. They're parallel to each other, Because we're going to fold forward over our legs. Just get a little bit of outer hips, And one more time, The low back. So just pick a side, We'll do both sides, It doesn't matter. Let's do this with breath. Inhale, Lift up to the sky. Exhale, Fold forward. And whichever leg is in front, We're gonna feel that hip the most. I've got my left leg in front so I can feel my left outer hip. And that space right in between our back, I mean, In between our hips, At our back, That's the sacrum. Feel that. Good. Very nice. Walk your way up. Take the opposite leg in front. This may be the less natural leg. That's okay. The other hip deserves a stretch too. Always good to be balanced. So let's take our breath again here. Inhale, Lift. Exhale, Release it down. Watch yourself fold right over that outer hip. Feel it in the low back. Sometimes our hips give us trouble. And that affects the low back, So it's great to work them as well. Stretch them out a little bit. Everything in balance, Right? Food. Gently raise yourself up. Very nice, Let's take one more breath together in unity. Inhale, Raise our arms to the sky, Press the palms together at the top. Exhale, Pull it down to heart center. And just breathe here, Feeling a new awakening of your core. Releasing of your back. And I hope that you have no more back pain today. That we were able to stretch things out. And stimulate for strength and feel that balance among our body. Thank you for your care and your time here today. Namaste.