15 min Gentle Morning Yoga - Lower Back Stretches

Transcript

hi everyone thank you for joining me my name is Cassandra and I'm going to take you through this short morning yoga practice which is really great for releasing tension through your lower back so if there's any pain or stiffness in that area hopefully these poses will help and alleviate that discomfort this is great for all experience levels and no props are required so we're just going to begin sitting I'm doing this cross-legged I just have one Shin in front of the other and I want you to focus on lifting the crown of your head up rolling your shoulders down and away from the ears and toning the lower belly back a little and you can close your eyes just centering yourself here making sure that you're not leaning forward or leaning back we're really stacking the spine take a few breaths in and out through your nose and we'll do some side bends and twists in this class which are really great for lower back health so you can start by extending your left arm all the way up towards the sky right fingertips can crawl out to the side and find your first side body stretch so as I'm reaching my left arm up and over I'm thinking of pushing down into my left sit bone and see if you you can relax your head relax your neck and your jaw and really reach out long through that left hand use your right hand to push into the floor to come up and we're just going to bring that left hand to our right knee right fingertips go behind us for support lift and lengthen and maintain this length even as you twist over to the right so I'm using a little bit of arm strength to open through my chest but my hips are still facing forward one more deep breath in Here and Now release just so you're at an angle facing towards your right knee and your right right thigh and you can kind of just crawl the fingertips out and round through your upper body so round and contract chin to chest pulling the lower belly in and really just crawling and reaching those left hand that left hand further forward and let's release walk your hands back uncurling from the pose and we'll go and do the same thing to the other side I'm just going to switch the cross of my legs so I'm even evening things out left shin in front of the right and this time right arm stretches all the way up to the sky really feel that length along the side of the waist left fingertips down and reach it over so again I'm thinking of pushing into my right sit bone so I'm not lifting and tilting myself over breathing in and out through your nose letting your head be heavy straighten your left arm so you're lifting up and we'll find a spinal twist RM here right hand to your left knee left fingertips behind you inhale straighten out and maintain the straightness through the spine even as you rotate so belly button facing forward and trying to get our chest and shoulders to face over to the left think of lifting even taller through this [Music] pose exhale to release staying at an angle towards that left thigh and left knee you can just crawl your fingertips over a little bit and then round and contract coming on up and let's release just two more seated poses before we move on I'm going to turn to the side just to make it easier for you to see what I'm doing you're going to extend your right leg out in front of you and bring your left foot to the inside of that thigh anchor down and we're going to make this a passive forward fold so allow your spine to naturally round if you need to bend a little bit through that right knee that's perfectly fine stretching the hamstrings can be a great way to alleviate some of the tension through our lower back so don't force this pose and this stretch let gravity take you deeper into it targeting all of the muscles along the posterior chain from the crown of your head down the neck down your spine and all the way down the back of the [Music] leg push your hands into the floor slowly roll back up and we'll lift our left knee up and cross your left foot over the top of that right thigh coming into a little spinal Twist Again here this time you're going to grab a hold of your left leg with your right arm really squeeze your thigh in towards your belly and then twist open to the left so my left fingertips are just behind me for support [Music] here keep stretching the crown of your head up pushing into your big left toe dra drawing the lower belly in and release second side head to knee pose left leg extends out in front of you bend your right knee bring the foot to the inside of that leg and a passive forward fold so let gravity just pull you into the stretch I'm turning my Palms facing up so that I'm not tempted to push or pull or force my way into the fold especially first thing in the morning you're probably stiff and tight so less is always more [Music] [Music] and let's walk our hands in lifting out of the forward fold setting ourselves up for that seated twist you're going to lift your right knee up cross your right foot over the top of that left thigh I'm going to wrap my left arm around my leg and hug the thigh and the knee in towards me right finger tips go behind me for support and we open to the [Music] [Music] right make sure you're not slouching or rounding forward in this pose one more deep belly breath and release facing forward and we're just going to lower all the way down onto our backs I'm just going to turn the other way here so however you'd like to get there you can pull both knees into towards your belly giving them a big squeeze and maybe Rock a little bit side to side massaging your lower back and probably the movement I like to do the most when it comes to lower back health is just a little knee pumping motion so you're just going to place your hands on the tops of your knees and as you inhale straighten the arms moving the knees and thighs away from your chest and then exhale slowly bringing them in and I like to just do this straight forward and back you can always do it in little circles if that feels better to you but try to relax your legs fully relax through your hip flexors and let your arms do all of the work and you'll notice how when you bring your thighs in your lower back pushes into the floor a little bit more and then lifts off of the ground a little bit as the knees move away we'll take about one more here [Music] when you have your knees in keep the right leg where it is and straighten your left leg to the mat so the more you're able to extend and straighten that left leg the more you'll feel this through the hip flexors sometimes tight hip flexors it is what causes our lower back pain and discomfort so push into that left heel and keep trying to pull that right knee a little bit more in towards your belly relax your shoulders one more deep breath in here and we'll carry this over into a Twist so my right knee is going to cross over my body towards the left I'm using my left hand to help guide it along and I'm going to reach my right arm out to the side trying to encourage my right shoulder blade to push down into the mat [Music] [Music] releasing the Twist and you can straighten your right leg out we're going to switch sides so this time you'll pull your left knee in towards your belly you can either hold on to the back of the thigh or the front of your shin but the emphasis is really on the length that we're trying to cultivate through that right leg so stretching out through our hip flexors and at the same time pulling that left knee in keep both shoulder blades grounded on the mat make sure you're not lifting your head up we'll carry it into a Twist so my left knee is going to cross over towards the left trying to stack my left hip over my right one my left arm is going to reach out so you might get a little bit of a chest stretch in here as well [Music] releasing The Twist Bend both knees bring your feet flat to the floor we'll take one last little pose here working a little bit more on strength so you're going to bring your feet hip width distance apart bring the heels in pretty close as you push your feet into the mat squeeze through your seat and then lift your hips low back and midback off the floor hug through your in your thighs try to relax your shoulders away from your ears engage and strengthen through your legs through your seat press those hips up a little bit higher and let's release slowly inch by inch and you can just roll to one side we're going to come up to take a seat with my short morning classes I like to finish sitting instead of in shavasana so that we don't fall back asleep so sit in any way that is comfortable to you here find that length and just notice if that area of the low back hopefully feels a little bit more open and you can bring your hands together at the front of the heart we'll close by chanting M together one time let's inhale to chant breathe in [Music] deeply thank you so much everyone for doing this short morning flow I hope you feel ready to begin your day if you'd like to make this a daily habit I have hundreds of other short morning classes I'll be sure to link them down below thank you again and I hope we'll practice again together very soon