Spacious Back Release

Hi. Thank you for being with me today for this practice for lumbar spine. I've got quite a lot of props. So I'm on two mats, one extra squishy and a blankie on top. I have a bolster, another blanket and a block, and then this chair for the blanket on top. So we're going to begin, we're going to lay for 10 minutes in static back. So get yourself comfortable on the chair. Lay down and creep yourself up a little bit towards the chair and bring one leg up at a time. We need to come in a little more, just shuffle your way in so that your back is completely supported. Thigh bones are pretty vertical, on the way to vertical and the lower legs are supported on the chair. Bring your hands onto your belly and give yourself a minute to settle in here. Check in with your breath and see how your natural breath is moving at the moment. Does it feel very shallow? Does it feel long and smooth? And start to deepen your breath. Pause at the top of the inhale and lengthen your exhale. Pause at the bottom of the exhale and breathe in again. Pause and exhale. And keep going with this long, full breath. And notice how your body moves, how you feel your chest cavity expand, your belly expand, your upper chest. Having our legs in this position is quite neutral for the pelvis. This is pretty much as supported as we can be, even more so than legs flat down because often with back pain, lying flat on the floor even can be painful in itself. If you've been sleeping on one side or moving around throughout the day and have been emphasizing more one leg than the other, as most of us do, taking time on a stelae like this allows our whole pelvis to relax, the musculature around the hips to relax and bring us back into this neutral And maybe now after a couple of minutes of lying here, you can already feel something start to relax and soften around your hips, around your sacrum. So if we're habitually holding all through the day, it can be a brand new experience to lay like this 10 minutes and just let everything, long exhale. And you can see here, if you feel like you would like more padding underneath your sacrum, you can slide in another blanket or make sure you have an extra one next time. Stay with this four part breath of inhale, little pause, doesn't have to be for long, long exhale, little pause at the bottom.

And we're giving a chance here for our nervous system to settle, not feeling of being on the subside. Notice if you can feel your back body expand into the mat when you breathe in. The back ribs expand. The area of the kidneys feel full. The tendency with especially lumbar pain, lower back pain is to contract and get more stiffness in there. So we use the breath and the supported state and the openness to be able to let it go. If you're drifting in and out a little bit here, that's fine. Allow yourself to relax. Give your awareness to your body, expanding and contracting with the breath. A few more breaths here. And we make gentle movements to bring ourselves up. Everything's had a chance to settle, loosen up a little bit, hopefully relax a little bit. So we keep the movements very simple. Take one leg off at a time. I'm going to get this chair out of here. Now we'll move to the wall and take our legs up the wall. So move close, bring your hips to the wall. As close in as you can get, we'll lay down and take the legs up. So use your arms to support you as you come down. Scoot in a little bit. Having the blanket and the mat is really good for this as well, rather than a sticky mat. And bring the legs up the wall. So we keep the legs straight here and the feet pulled back. So there's no movement coming from the knee. There's no movement coming from the ankle. Everything's coming from the hips. Find your breath. We begin this movement of rotating the feet out. Well, the movement is the hips, but we'll start with the feet turning them out and then turn in and out and turn in. Keep the movement with your breath. You go as far as your range of motion allows you to go before you hit compression in your joints. You might not get a massive movement and that's fine. I don't have a massive movement. Five more.

And rest. I'm going to scoot a little bit closer to the wall and go. So there's about a 45 degree angle from the floor to the ceiling. And the same thing with the breath. If it feels like you're too close to the wall to have your legs straight, scoot back a little bit. You can also do this variation with your legs on the chair. Legs supported by the chair and turn in and turn out. And rest. Five more. Bring your legs back up the wall and rest for a moment. And slide back a little bit on your mat. And without sitting up, reach for your block. Take one knee up at a time.

Place the block between your knees and start to roll. So I'm inhaling to a count of four. And exhaling to a count of four. One more cycle of breath. And settle into neutral. Feet back on the floor and set your block to the side. And shuffle back more on the mat so your legs can come down flat one at a time. So one leg stays with the knee bent towards the ceiling and the foot flat on the floor. And the other leg goes straight out in front. Flex the toes back. Pull your toes back. Find your breath. And inhale the leg up. Exhale, squeeze in towards your chest. Inhale up. Exhale down. Relax at the bottom. Inhale up. Exhale. Inhale up. Exhale. Keep going with your breath. The breath moves just before the body does. One more. Rest the leg at the bottom. Let a full leg to the side. Flex your foot again. So your leg is active. Unroll the foot out to 45 degrees.

Same action. Take a breath. And lift. Exhale in. Inhale up. Exhale down. And again. Breath moves first. Inhale. Two more. Inhale. Inhale. Last one. Relax the leg completely. Slide your right leg down. Let it roll out. And notice the difference between the left and right legs. Slide your left leg up. Foot flat on the floor. Begin with the other side. Flex the foot. Breath moves just before the body moves. Inhale up. Exhale to the chest. Inhale up. Exhale down. Inhale up. Exhale in. Inhale up. Exhale down. And again. Exhale. Exhale down. Two more. Inhale up. Exhale in. Lift again. Exhale down. Last one. Inhale up. Exhale. Rest the leg on the floor. With anything related to back pain or relieving back pain, always listen to your body primarily. More than anything, listen to your body. If it feels like too much, it's probably too much.

Do fewer rounds. Rest more. Your breath stays flowing smooth and long. Activate your foot again. Turn out to 45 degrees. It's the same movement. Inhale up. Exhale, squeeze in. Inhale, reach through the heel. Exhale down. Inhale up. Exhale, squeeze. Extend. Exhale down. Three more. And again. And exhale down. Relax the leg on the floor. Exhale down. Relax the leg on the floor. And slide your right foot up. Flip your feet as wide as the mat. Let your knees fall in towards each other. Stay with your breath. Rest. Send your breath into your lumbar here. Breathe all the way into your belly. All the way down. Bend up one knee at a time. Take hold of the top of the knee. Let your arm be straight and hold here. So the feet hang. Full breath in. Start the exhale, then move. Bend your elbows. Pause at the bottom of the exhale, and when the inhale comes, the breath moves first, then straighten your arms. Keep going with the rhythm of your own breath. If a shorter movement feels like it would be more beneficial for you, do the smaller movement. And lower your feet onto the floor again, one at a time. Breathe into your belly. And bring one hand onto your chest. You get a sense of the breath coming to your upper chest first. Expanding all the way down your torso. And roll over onto one side and come up onto your knees. So gentle movements. Take it easy. Use your arms to push yourself up. Come back around. And we're going to roll up a blanket.

Do some work on tabletop and lying on our belly. So grab hold of your blanket. And it's about as wide as a yoga mat. So we can fold it a third here. You can use a towel for this as well. And then start to roll it up. So you get a little squishy roll. I'm just going to go by halfway. That's going to be enough, I think, for me. And come into tabletop. Stay with this neutral spine supported by legs and arms. And breathe all the way down your back. Full breath here. Full breath in. When the exhale starts, bend your elbows a little bit and sit back. Relax your neck. You get a curve here in the lumbar. When the inhale comes, follow it up. And exhale back. Ride the inhale back up to tabletop. Go down again. And do three more breaths like this. Here the breath moves first. So I'm going to lay down over the mat here. And this roll is going to go right at the base of my body. So between the two hip bones and above the pubic bone. So it goes right in low. And you can start off with a very small roll as well. You don't have to go even this far whenever you start. And come forward and find the spot. Lie down over the blanket. Bring one hand on top of the other. Place your forehead on the hands. And breathe. If you feel a very strong pulse in your belly here, shift your spirit up the mat slightly so the roll moves lower. Remember again your four-part breath.

So inhale, pause, exhale, and pause. As you breathe in, you can push your belly into the roll. And as you exhale, soften over the roll. This can feel quite intense the first bunch of times that you do it. Quite intense and also strangely relaxing. It's certainly for me been a go-to relief for quite severe lumbar back pain. It takes a little bit of getting used to but it was worth it in my experience. So inhale, pause, and breathe. If it feels like too much for you, you could also lay over a bolster, which would be a little more supportive of your hips. And you could spend longer here as well but we'll move on to the next part of the sequence. So stretch your arms out in front and rest your forehead on the floor. And use an inhale to start to lift up a little. So press your hands into the floor for support. And the upper back is working. Notice straight away if you start to hold your breath. And if you do, you come back. Just back up. Let the breath be the most important thing in the fluidity of the breath here.

Pushing beyond a range of movement that is comfortable or where you can still breathe is totally counterproductive. Bring your elbows down a little bit and keep the movement. So the hands are here for support. You're not pushing massively into the hands. And stay down for a cycle of breath. Bring your elbows back a little further, palms back a little further. So the first one of these might be enough for you. The second one might be enough. Only if you can still breathe and it doesn't feel uncomfortable and go to a higher level. Let your belly press into the roll as you inhale up and soften over the roll as you come down. Stay down for three breaths. Begin the movement again with the breath. Pushing beyond a range of movement.

And notice as I come up here, I keep the back of my neck long. Three more. And soften over the roll. Bring your hands in one on top of the other. Rest your forehead and breathe. Place your hands underneath your shoulders. Keep your knees on the floor. And important here that you keep your back long. Not going into a back bend on your way up, but use the strength of your arms and engage core to lift yourself up to tabletop on an exhale. Stay here in neutral.

A little bit of cat and coy, gentle. A little sway from side to side. Breathe all the way into the lumbar. And walk your hands back. Sit down on your heels. If you roll out of the way and come into an extended child's pose. If you bring your knees a little bit closer together in child's pose, you might find that helps feel the breath in your back body. Bring your hands back underneath the shoulders again and press yourself up with your arms. Come up slowly. Stay with your breath. Walk your hands up your legs. Take a breath there. Now reach for your bolster. Place it on the mat and sit across it. The hips are elevated and if you needed an extra bolster or blanket you could put that on as well. Rest your hands on your thighs. Find your breath. And bring your hands just onto the soft part of your low back. Below the ribs. Maybe the heel of your hand is just on your ribs. Fingers pointing down. And consciously send your breath all the way into your hands. See if you can feel that part of your body expand. And use the exhale to relax and let go of any tension there in the lumbar. Thank you for joining me with this practice and go easily about your day. Namaste.