Stretch Your Back

Welcome. Thank you for being here. This is a stretch your back practice, targeting the low back, tight hamstrings, hips, and designed to offer relief and increase mobility. So for this practice it will be helpful to have a blanket on the mat to just allow the spine to move a bit more freely in our spinal undulation work and then a strap and two blocks might be handy. So as you're ready find your way onto your back. Meet you there. Just take a few moments, bend the knees, bring the feet wide, let the knees rest towards each other and bring the hands onto the belly. Taking a few moments together to arrive in our practice. Be inviting a settling of the mind and beginning to draw your awareness towards the breath. Bring the presence of your back body on the floor and the weight of your head releasing upper back and the weight of the pelvis sinking. Stay with this and as you're ready we'll open the arms up into the shape of cactus or goal post arms. This has been a theme of our season. Get about hips width apart and as you're ready we'll move into our spinal waves or cat cow on the floor. So as you inhale let your back arch, lift the lumbar spine, soften the chin towards the chest and with your exhale keep your pelvis on the floor, curl the tailbone under, navel to spine. Notice how the head wants to rock back and up. Again inhale, big breath into the belly, arch the back, clear the floor, chin softens down, exhale, curl the tailbone under, navel towards the spine, head rocks back and up. A few more rounds here. Finding your own pace with this, coordinating with breath, feeling the movement of the spine, the articulation of the spine and the joints and that ease all the way up from the pelvis up into the base of the skull. A few more rounds, inhale arch, chin softens down, you're in the shape of the back bend, exhale, curl the tailbone under, navel to spine and take a moment to pause, we'll interlace the fingers behind our head and add the sit up action here. So pressing the elbows down towards the floor, let the back arch again, finding a range of movement that feels good in your back and with your exhale curl the tailbone under, lift your head up as you draw the elbows towards each other, you're in the sit up position. Slowly lowering down, elbows wide, arch the back, open the lungs and chest, exhale curl and lift up, navel to spine, tailbone draws under. Let's explore about three more together, inhale arch, opening the chest, exhale lift and curl, tailbone draws under, releasing the back of the body as you do this, inhale to arch, exhale lift and curl. One more together, inhale to arch, elbows wide, opening the lungs and chest, exhale lift and curl, tailbone draws under, elbows towards each other. Good, lower down, we'll add the cross body movement, inhale arch, exhale right elbow to left knee and you might draw that left knee towards the elbow. Place the foot down, lower the upper body, again inhale arch the back, open the lungs, exhale lift up, left elbow to right knee, cross body, lower down, elbows wide, arch, exhale right elbow, draw the left knee up, lower down, inhale arch, finding your own pace and rhythm, exhale left elbow, right knee, lower down, let's find one more on each side, inhale arch, exhale right elbow, left knee, cross body, lower down, inhale arch, last one, exhale left elbow, right knee, lower down, one more arch here and then exhale, relax the effort, let's release the arms out, release the legs out and check in, just notice how you feel, finding the shape of shavasana, yeah, noticing any sensations or pulsations through the body, nice and then just draw the legs towards each other, next to each other and let's draw the right knee into the chest with the left leg long, you can draw the left toes towards your face and then soften the shoulders down the back, this feels like it's too much on your low back, just go ahead and bend your left knee, ground the sole of the foot, just taking a few breaths, feeling into your right hip joint and making any little adjustments here, so you might even bring that knee a little wider towards the right or back it off a little bit, finding a little bit more space through the joint, knees through the eyes, one more inhale, exhale stretch the right leg out on the floor, let's draw that left knee into the chest, interlacing the fingers around the knee, again if it feels like it's a little too much strain on the back, go ahead and bend the right knee, ground the foot, kind of feel into your left hip joint, again shoulders softening, face and jaw releasing, you might find a little bit of movement or oscillation through the hip and the knee and really customizing it for your body, your hip, how you can perhaps direct the breath into the low back here and exhale stretch that left leg out on the floor, let's bend both knees again, hug them into the chest and rock from side to side, kind of feeling into the back body here and go ahead and look for your strap and I'll bring the strap around the bottom of the right foot and you may have done this a hundred times together or more, I love this, so just start by bending and extending a few times, just easing into the hamstrings and the knee joint, being a slight little micro bend in the back of the knee, if your head is dropping back and there's strain in the neck, consider bringing a blanket or a pillow underneath your head for support, eventually extend your right leg up towards the sky and draw your toes towards your face, finding a little bit more space through the back of the leg there, a bit more sensation, soften through the hands, the shoulders and feeling the presence of your back body, back of the lungs down into your mid ribs, deep into the kidneys and the low back and if your low back is a bit tender you might keep your left foot on the floor to support your low back or you might stretch your left leg out on the floor, really draw the left toes towards your face, feeling the energy through the left leg, bring the strap into our right hand and from the right hip joint just let your right leg float from side to side, just nice and easy, doesn't have to be bold or dramatic here, just enough to feel sensation, inner leg, outer leg and hip, yeah, finding that stability through your pelvis, a sense of weight through the left hip and thigh bone, you might stay with this, you might stretch your left arm overhead, maybe there's a soft bend through your elbow, perhaps the whole left side of the body is opening and lengthening, might keep the leg floating from side to side, you might for a few breaths let the right leg open out to your right, moving in the direction of your right shoulder and then you might experiment here with lengthening a little bit more through the inner right heel and perhaps exploring a little bit of a deeper rotation through the hip joint, it's so subtle, it's so slight, rotating the heel towards the sky a little bit, toes towards the floor, last few moments here, notice the quality of your breathing, where you can soften, as you're ready, inhale, draw your right leg back up towards the sky, go ahead and pass the strap into your left hand and we'll begin to bring the right leg across the body towards the left and it's just enough to begin to feel sensation through the IT band, through the outer right leg and be deep into that piriformis muscle, you might find a little bit more space through the right hip joint, bringing your thumb into the hip there, finding the ease out through the neck, if and as it would feel wonderful, you might explore the spinal twist a bit deeper as you bring the right leg across the body towards the left and maybe stretch that right arm out from the heart, more breaths here, exploring the spiral through the spine, now take your time with this, when you feel ready, inhale, draw the right leg back up towards the sky, bring the strap into both hands, you might stay low here for a few breaths or you might on your exhale draw your chin into your chest and begin to lift yourself up off the floor, really tap into the strength of your abdominal muscles, feel how you can draw your forehead towards your shin bone and maybe even float the left heel up off the floor for fun and feeling your strength here and then slowly rolling your spine back down, pause, from here go ahead and remove the strap, keep your right leg high, bring your hands onto your hips, low belly, flex the foot, lead with the heel and then slowly, slowly lower down, feel how you can draw the lower abdominal muscles in towards the spine, stabilizing your hips, really hugging the muscles into the long bones of the legs, reaching through the heel, and then eventually relax the effort, take a few moments here, relax the arms, the legs, relax the effort of your attention and track the feeling tone through the right hip and down through the leg, just noticing circulation and flow here, blood, your limbs, clearing breath, inhale, exhale, release, take your time as you're ready, bend your knees again, I feel good to hug your knees into your chest and rock a little bit side to side, easing into our second side, look for your strap and bring it around the bottom of your left foot, start by bending and extending, easing and warming up the hamstrings, be mindful of the back of your left knee joint here, notice where you can continue to soften and relax any unnecessary effort or gripping or ambition, eventually you might extend your left leg up towards the sky, draw your toes towards your face, increasing the stretch there and check in with your lower back, it might feel good to keep your right foot on the floor, finding a bit more support or stretching the right leg out, flexing the foot, really feeling the thigh bone, kind of anchor into the earth, nice, feel the back body really widening on the floor, releasing, let's go ahead and bring the strap into the left hand and then from the left hip joint, slowly let the leg move out a little bit and across, kind of floating from side to side, finding that stability through your right hip and leg, notice the quality of your breathing, exploring the landscape of sensation through the hip, hamstrings and honoring your body, you might stay with this movement, feel really good, you might begin to open your left leg out towards the left and moving in the direction of the left shoulder rather than kind of flopping straight out on the floor and find that sense of weight through the right hip and thigh, you might keep your right hand where it is, it might feel good to stretch your right arm overhead, the whole right side of the body is opening, lengthening, letting yourself take up space here, again you might explore with that left leg, lengthening a little bit more through the inner left heel, perhaps exploring a bit of rotation, external rotation through your left hip joint, ease up through the neck, breathing into where you feel it, might stay here a bit longer, when you feel ready, on the inhale draw the left leg back up towards the sky, pass the strap into your right hand and just slowly bring the left leg across the body towards the right a little bit, just enough to feel something, pause, you might take your left bum and bring it into your left hip crease there and soften eyes and jaw, you might stay right where you are, you might explore the spinal twist a bit deeper, left leg moves across the body, stretching the left arm out, find that ease in the neck, if you are moving into the spinal twist, usually it feels pretty good to stretch that bottom leg out, just to allow for a little bit more space through your pelvis, feeling the presence of the back body again, so you might explore a full breath down into your lower back, the back ribs, the kidneys, take your time with this, you might stay longer, when you feel ready inhale draw your left leg back up towards the sky, pause, you might stay here, bring the strap into both hands and with your exhale draw your chin into your chest, begin to roll up, feel the strength of your abdominal muscles as you walk the hands up, forehead draws towards the shin and maybe float the right leg and heal up off the floor, feel how you can draw everything in, curl, pause, take your time slowly rolling the upper body down, pausing, keep your left leg high, remove the strap, bring it off to the side and then flex the foot, lead with the heel and slowly lower it down and can you feel the energy from the heel through the crown of the head and feeling the stability of the pelvis, the lower belly towards the spine, really hugging the muscles into the bones of the leg, like you're reaching through the wall down into the earth, and then relax the effort, take a moment to pause and notice how you feel, sensing the inner sensations through the left side, the hip joint down through the leg, perhaps a bit more space or warmth, vibrations, knees, hearing it out, inhale, exhale everything, hug the knees into the chest again, a little wobble and rock from side to side.

From here let's go ahead and just flip on over onto our belly coming into the prone position for some back bending exploration and go ahead and bring your elbows wide and let your forehead rest on the top of your hands, just take a moment to pause here and notice, yeah feel the organs spreading on the floor and the weight of the pelvis sinking into the floor and at any moment in our back bending you might find this shape, this position. From here moving into a variation of cobra we've been exploring in the season, go ahead and start by tucking your toes under so you'll feel the hamstrings here begin to wake up, the quad muscles, the knee caps, feel how you can, as you draw the toes towards the face you're stretching your heels away from you, feel the weight of the pelvis sinking into the floor, now your upper body your arms stay where they are and as you're ready inhale just begin to lift your chest up a little bit and you can look down so your neck can lengthen here, nice and then feel how you can internally kind of drag or draw your navel forward towards your hands and you're coming up as high as it feels right for you so maybe it's just an inch off the floor, keep your legs active and engaged so you'll feel the hamstrings, the quad muscles, the glutes, paraspinal muscles, hugging into spine, beautiful inhale to lift, exhale to lower, relax the effort release the head, point the toes, nice full exhale, nice, you might stay here join me for a second round tucking the toes under lifting the knee cap, strengthening the legs, reaching the heels back and inhale lifting up again, you can feel how you can use your arms to find a little bit more traction and lengthen your spine, at least strengthening the back body as well as shortening, and easy in the neck, inhale lifts you up, exhale lowers you down, pause, untuck the toes, feel the sense of the breath here in the back body and then taking a nourishing breath into the low back and the kidneys, from here as you're ready lower your forehead down to the floor and sweep your arms down alongside the body, walk your legs in a little closer towards each other and we'll explore a variation here of shalabhasana locus, as you're ready on an inhale lift your chest up a little bit, lifting the chest and the head and then from here you might lift the legs, maybe even lift the arms as you rise up into your locus, again look down so the neck can lengthen and as you inhale draw the back body in towards your spine, feeling the strength, feeling the energy through the fingers and the toes, the inhale lifts you up, feeling the broadening of the chest and collar bones, exhale lowers you down, maybe it's forehead or turning one cheek and ear towards the floor, allow for an exhale. Beautiful last round if you'd like to join in, forehead finds the floor and as you're ready inhale begin to lift the chest up, again maybe the arms, the legs lift, really working that internal rotation through the thigh bones, so the inner thighs spinning up towards the floor, you can feel the strength of the back body here, the space through the front body, the inhale lifts you up, up, up, exhale lowers you down, forehead or maybe turn opposite cheek and ear to the floor, pause and relax the effort, let the bones sink into the floor, nice work you might stay here a bit longer, when you feel ready bring the hands underneath your shoulders, hug your elbows into your ribs, tuck your toes under, inhale and with an exhale just gently press yourself up onto your knees, come into the rounded position towards a bit of a child's pose here, let it be kind of an active rounded child, so your toes might tuck under to get a nice stretch through the bottoms of the feet here, getting into the fascia, the connective tissues and feel how you can take a nice full breath wide into the back, for me it feels like a kind of a dull, achy, warm stretch in the back body, release the head, if a full child's pose would feel really nice for your body, your knees and your hips, you might sink your hips back towards your heels and rest your forehead on your hands or the floor, few moments here to settle, releasing the back, as always you're welcome to stay where you are a bit longer, when you feel ready to transition, join me in rising up, we're going to explore some lunges from the ground, so you might kind of readjust your blanket, like to have a blanket supporting the knees and go ahead and find yourself into a table top position, spread the fingers nice and wide, shoulders over the wrists, let's go ahead and extend back through the right leg first, tuck your toes under and just begin to wake up, hamstrings a bit more, the back of the leg, the toes rocking forward and back, you know you can draw your front ribs up into the back body rather than kind of dumping into the back, nice and then switch, extend through the left leg, reaching back through the heel and then pressing through the ball of the foot, nice and then release, from here let's explore first downward dog together, spread the fingers wide or first downward dog of our practice and find your downward facing dog, feet might be just a little wider than the hips, go ahead and bend your knees here, generous bend in the knees and then reach your sitting bones up towards the sky, yeah feeling that length and space through your spine, really let the weight of your head release here, kind of feeling the shoulders draw up the back, the back body, upper back broadening, really a sense of rooting through the hands and the fingers, allow for another inhale here, lowering down as you're ready exhale pause, good, let's go ahead and if you have two blocks, let's go ahead and grab a block, one on each side, coming up onto the shins and let's go ahead and step the right leg forward between the blocks, just kind of reorganize through the back knee, so make sure you're finding a nice stretch in the back left knee, you might bring a blanket underneath it for padding and take a moment here in your lunge, it's up to you if you want to keep the back toes tucked under or maybe release the top of the foot, whatever feels best for your knee, and then soften the face and the jaw here as you feel most likely sensation through that back left hip and hip flexor and then together as you're ready inhale draw your hips back, extend through your right leg and draw your toes towards your face and then with your exhale bend your right knee and sink into your lunge, be feeling the hips draw forward, the heart lift and then inhale draw your hips back, lengthening through the right leg and hamstrings, exhale right knee bends, finding your lunge, one more together inhale draw the hips back, exhale right knee bends, finding your lunge, might stay low here in your lunge, you might bring your hands onto your front right thigh and feel how you can begin to lift up through the spine, broadening through the chest, feeling the support around the back of the heart, you might stay right here, if you'd like a challenge a bit more of a challenge you might inhale and reach your arms up towards the sky and feeling that lift from the back of the heart, the space through the chest and the throat, breathing, always balancing the ease and the effort through the shape, one more inhale and then exhale go ahead and bring your hands back down to the blocks or the floor and then draw your hips back, so extend again through that right leg, finding a little bit more laying through the spine or you might exhale let your back round and stretch as you breathe into the back body, if you need to feel more through the hamstrings you can press a little bit more through that right heel and then take your time bend the knee and just draw that right knee back to meet the left and then we'll switch sides, draw the left knee and foot through gracefully however you'd like to do it and then reorganize that back right knee, so you're looking for a stretch in the quad, back of the thigh and hip flexor, take a moment or two to pause and settle, check in how does it feel today in this moment and as you're ready inhale draw your hips back, extend through your left leg, feeling that big stretch through the belly of the hamstring, muscle drawing the toes towards you, exhale left knee bend, sink into your lunge, inhale hip straw back, lengthening, exhale left knee bend, lunging, spine one more together, inhale hip straw back, exhale left knee bend, lunge and you might stay right here with your hands on the blocks, you might begin to bring your hands onto the front thigh and just steady the gaze, feel the space through the front body, shoulder softening down, that internal lift through the spine and if you'd like a challenge you might inhale and stretch your arms up towards the sky, feeling the lift and support through the back of the heart, the essence of the back bend there, knees through the neck and the throat, breathing, more inhale here, when you're ready exhale release the hands back down, draw your hips back, extend through your left leg and you might stay long through the spine or you might exhale let your back round and stretch breathing into the back body, drawing the hips back and maybe pressing or digging the left heel into the floor a little. Take your time as you're ready, bend the front knee and just draw that leg back, take a moment you can bring your blocks off to the sides, we'll find our second down dog, spread the fingers wide, tuck the toes under and then just go ahead and lift yourself back and up, might pedal the feet and walk it off a little bit, taking a moment to pause in your down dog, last few moments of the down dog you might bring the feet wide as wide as your mat, bend the knees and then wiggle and reach the sitting bones up, so this variation of down dog here, maybe the heels getting heavy towards the floor and as you bend your knees the sitting bones can lift and reach as the back of the neck continues to lengthen, oftentimes here in this down dog inversion I can feel the spine reorganizing itself with the traction, a bit more space, nice, if your feet are wide just walk the feet back about hips width apart and nice and easy lower the knees back down, from here we'll transition onto our back again so however you'd like to get there, you might open your blanket up, find your way onto your back, make sure you have space, we'll set up for a round bridge here, make sure your feet are on the mat and not on your blankets, so there's extra stick, bring your heels in line with your sitting bones, feet about hips width apart, again feeling the essence of your cat cow, and that spinal work on the floor, arms down alongside the body, allow for an inhale and as you exhale curl the tailbone under, press through your feet, lift your pelvis up and palms might press down towards the floor slightly and as it's available in your shoulders you might experiment with rolling the shoulders under the back and maybe finding an interlace around the sacrum, feeling the thigh bones internally rotate and that lift and buoyancy through the lungs and spreading the effort evenly through the body here, so if you have a tendency to kind of press towards the shoulders, if you find a little bit more length through the thigh bones and the knees and a soft through the eyes, pressing a bit through the heels, feeling the hamstrings working, the glute muscles, if you're clenching for dear life, see if you can find a little bit more and a space through the low back through the sacrum, beautiful, let's release the hands up towards the sky, stretch the arms up, lift your heels up, come high up onto the balls of your feet and then roll your spine down slow like a wave, upper back, navel to spine, mid back, arms lowering, low back and pelvis, beautiful, take a moment to pause, notice how you heal and from here let's go ahead and bring the right ankle on top of the left thigh, opening up through the hip, stretch your arms out to your sides and then just begin to rock from side to side, nice and easy, love this one, rolling onto the inner outer edge of that bottom left foot and you're exploring a range of movement that feels good on the back, so if you're working with pain, you want to stay in front of that sensation, so finding that appropriate edge without flaring anything up, nice, you might stay with the rocking, you might as you want to feel more draw that left leg in towards your chest, flexing the right ankle, coming into your figure four shape, maybe weaving your right arm through the window there and finding the back of the left leg, you can also work with a strap here behind the back of the left leg, if your head is dropping back in space again you might bring a blanket or a pillow underneath your head, so the shoulder blades can release, allow yourself to wobble and rock from side to side, you might play with rocking it over to the left a little bit like a few inches, as you find a little bit more space through the outer right hip, walking it back through center, more moments here and breathing into where you feel it, you might stay right where you are, you might on the exhale draw your chin into your chest, peel yourself up and bring your forehead towards your right ankle and curling up, slowly lowering down, take your time, release the fingers, ground the sole of the left foot, let's stretch the right leg up to the sky for a moment, just point and flex the foot, circle out through the ankle joint, feels so nice and then go ahead and bend the knee, ground the foot, take a moment to reorganize, clearing breath, as you're ready, left ankle across the right leg, opening up through the hips, stretch your arms out and begin to rock from side to side, easing on to inner outer right edge and your head might rock away from your knees here, notice if your knee or your foot want to touch or fall towards the floor, you might stay with this movement, nice slow gentle rocking, you might draw that right leg in towards your chest, feeling more sensation through the left hip, flexing the left ankle and maybe threading, weaving your left arm through the window, finding the back of the right leg, working with a strap around the back of the right leg, let yourself rock a little side to side, maybe rocking it over to the right a little bit, finding a little bit more space through outer left hip, rocking it back to center, breathing, easy through eyes and jaw, you might stay right where you are, just allowing your left hip to release in its own way and its own timing, you might on the exhale draw your chin into your chest and lift up for a moment, drawing your forehead towards the ankle, curl and then just slowly lower back down and you might stay with this a bit longer and each side feels different, take your time when you are ready, go ahead and release the right leg, ground the foot, stretch the left leg up to the sky, point and flex a few times and then just circle out through the ankle joint, bend the knee, ground the foot, reorganize the spine and notice, clearing breath, exhale, go ahead and toe heel the feet nice and wide, stretch the arms overhead, soft bend through the elbows, windshield wiper the legs side to side, nice fluid spine, knees through the hips and the head might rock away from the knees, letting the body kind of unwind before you pause and shavasana for a few minutes, nice. When you feel ready, let's hug the knees into the chest one last time, you might stay here, you might curl up bringing your forehead towards your knees and then slowly lowering down and you might for shavasana bring the feet wide, knees resting towards each other in a constructive rest shape or if and as it would feel good for your low back and your body, you might stretch the legs out or even bring support underneath the back of the legs, maybe a pillow or a bolster, stretching the arms open, feeling the bones releasing, sinking into the floor, relaxing the effort through the body, the mind, letting yourself let go, take up space, let your awareness gently expand.

Good. I'm feeling the support beneath you, drawing your awareness towards the breath. You have the time and the space, you might stay where you are a bit longer and feel ready to transition, it might feel nice to find a full body stretch and eventually bending your knees, roll to your side, just rest in the pillow of your arm and you feel ready taking your time to press yourself up, use the support of your hands, head last, just take a few moments to sit together. You might sit up on support, coming into a simple cross-legged position, settling in for a moment, drawing your hands together, gathering up the energy of the practice and offering it up and out for the benefit of all beings everywhere, breathing in, and exhale bowing forward and in, thank you so much for taking this time for yourself today, wishing you a beautiful day or evening, namaste.