Back Strengthening - Part 1

Hi. My name is Olivia, and today's practice is about strengthening your back gently. And so if you feel some lumbar lower back instability or just in general, the back feels weak, This practice might help you. So to start, you'll have two blocks, a strap and a blanket, and we'll come either into child's pose at the back of the mat, If child's pose isn't accessible for you or just doesn't feel good, you can take a blanket under your knees and come onto your knees and your forearms, or even prop your temples onto your hands. And release down that way. Whichever you've chosen, release the tops of your thighs down, Breathe into the back body as you inhale puff the Barry ribs to the ceiling.

And as you exhale, release them down towards the mat. Relaxing through the tongue and the jaw, inhale back ribs, and side ribs expanding out and up. Exhale releasing down. Connecting into the upper back and also noticing the lower back. At the end of your next exhale, we'll all come on to hands and knees.

And again, if your knees are uncomfortable on the mat, you could place your blanket there underneath them. And the blocks on their medium height underneath your hands. Bias the blocks just a little to the left of the mat, step your right foot forward to the outside of the block under your right hand, and let the pelvis release down and forward straighten the arms, open the chest, and slightly lift your gaze. You might wonder how this relates to back strengthening, and it's that for many of the back strengtheners, we actually need to be in a slight backbend and backbends feel better when the hip flexors are open. So we're aiming right now to stretch the front of the left thigh, the front of the left hip Barry releasing the pelvis down, down down.

Inhale. Exhale into the lower abdomen. Draw the abdomen back and begin to straighten the right leg by drawing the hips back. And options here, you can flex and point the right foot, a little bit of nerve gliding. You don't have to straighten the knee all the way, but if you can, you can take that.

You could take your blocks higher, move them around. Forward for more stretch back for less. So just finding your way into some hamstring opening back of the right leg opening. And then go ahead and take your right leg. Barry. Lock your blocks a little bit to the right and step your left foot outside the left hand, release the pelvis forward and down, and we'll find ourselves again in a hip flexor stretch now.

On the right side, take the pelvis towards the left foot, pelvis is heavy. Inhale. Lift the chest. Lift the gaze. Exhale. Smile. The collar bones open. For now, you can relax the back a little bit.

Let's let the pelvis be heavy. Take a deep breath in and exhale draw the hips back. Working towards a straight lash knee point and flex perhaps the left foot. And then drawing the hips back, take the left leg back. Okay. Moving on. We'll set the blocks aside.

And the blanket as well. And you'll take your strap and fold it into the right height for you. And so what that means, you'll feel it when you go down, but We're going to put the strap on the mat at the middle of the abdomen. So about midway between your navel and your pubis, you want to lie down over the strap. It it doesn't matter so much how high it is.

What's important is just that you could feel it. And then you can place your a forehead on your hands or on your forearms or on the floor or on a blanket and we're gonna focus on the lower body. And so as you lie here, you'll feel the belly when you relax releasing into the strap. On your next exhale, lift the abdomen away from the strap by taking the pubis and the tailbone down towards the mat. So the lower belly lifts away from the strap up and the pubis down into the mat. Then again, inhale to feel the opposite.

You could let the belly go into the strap. That's the default. And then exhale creating some support lift the lower abdomen up even off of the strap. Tailbone and pubis go down. Now can you keep that engagement lower belly lifting up and start to send energy back through your legs straightening your knees?

Hug your outer ankles in so you reach back through your big toes, second toes, straight back through the toes and roll your inner thighs up towards the ceiling, outer thighs down towards the mat. Checking in with the abdomen will do this many times that it's still not resting on the strap, but instead lifting up off the strap. And then on your next exhale, lift also your right leg. Off of the floor. Notice here as you inhale if the abdomen is dropping, keep it, lifting 2, and then lower your right leg down.

On your next exhale, lift your left leg and your belly up It's the pubis that goes down. The tailbone down. Now we don't wanna squeeze hard with the buttocks together, but the buttocks can firm down. So as you lift your right leg, we'll be alternating legs slowly. As you lift your right leg up, you confirm the right buttock down, but still the belly scooping off of that strap.

And so this strap is just a kinesthetic, kind of like a teacher. So you can feel, get some feedbacks and kinesthetic feedback to your body about what's going on in the abdomen as you strengthen your back. So the left leg, when you lift your left leg, the left buttock firms down, abdomen lets up. And you might wonder, is the back strengthening? Because I'm cueing you to firm your abdomen and firm the glutes.

But when we lift our legs, the deep little muscles of the lower back the stabilizers, they do turn on. However, they turn on best when coordinated with the other core muscle groups, the hips, and the abdominal muscles. So that's what's going on here. We started on the right. So take one more on your left and then release your forehead to the mat and take the arms into cactus, bending the elbows at your sides.

And we'll lift now the right leg and the left arm, forearm upper arm, shoulder, head stays on the floor for now, and then opposite right arm, left leg. So more going on but can you keep the same work through the pelvis and thighs? And if not, just go Barry. Go back to where we were. It's more important to keep the stabilization works through the pelvis and thighs than it is to get the arms and legs moving in fancy ways.

But that said, if you'd like to move on with the arms, stretch your left arm all the way forward as you lift your right leg, and then lower the left arm down. And when you lift your left leg, it reach the right arm forward. So we're not going for height here. It doesn't matter how high your arm and leg go. It's how stable the lower body is that will get the back muscles working optimally in the places where most of us have back discomfort or feel unstable or weak.

And the next time you release down, let's lift both arms and both legs. Notice how tempting it is to drop the belly into the strap. See if you can scoop the belly up off the strap. Keep the arms and the legs up. Tailbone down, pube is down, and then optional, lift your head up. Keep the gaze down, head is up, lower belly lifting off the strap, and maybe reach your arms forward palm space in. Inhale here, lift a little higher, and then exhale.

Interlace your fingers behind your head. Place your forehead on the floor and place your elbows on the floor. And then keep the forehead down and just lift your elbows up. When you lift your elbows up, the upper back, it starts to activate and strengthen, and then scoop the lower belly up again, pubis tailbone down, but roll the inner thighs up. And now lift head and chest shoulders.

Hands light on the head. Take a breath in and exhale. Lift your legs as well. Makaasana. Press the back of the head into the hands.

Feel the back muscles firing. And then notice in the lower valley again. Is it dropping? Lift it up. Inhale. Exhale.

Release down. Okay. Coming up onto your forearms now. A little sphinx pose. Elbows in front of the shoulders, and then you'll bend your knees. Flex your feet and kiss kiss the heels together.

Now you can let your spinal bones, the vertebrae release towards the front of the Barry, squeeze the heels together and firm the buttocks down. Notice what happens in the lower belly. When we squeeze the heels together, the buttocks, it's okay. In this case, if they firm together, your legs are turned out a little bit. Take the buttocks down, tailbone down, pubis down, and scoop the lower belly again, up off the strap.

And then in your upper back, melt. Melt the thoracic's mind forward. Open across the chest, across the heart center, and maybe feeling into the the power and the strength that you've cultivated in the spinal muscles along the right and left sides of the spine. Okay. We're gonna come back into this shape of the spine, but with the legs straight, straighten out the legs, roll the inner thighs up again because they were turned out. So now we re, turn the legs in.

Place your forehead on the floor. Bring your hands alongside your ribs with your wrists near your waist. So the classic cobra set up and then lift your shoulders up away from the floor. When you do, the shoulder blades narrow. The shoulder blades cup the spine, and it's like sphinx, even though your head is down, the bones of the spine are dropping towards the earth.

They're moving towards the front of the body. Let's do that, especially with the tailbone and the pubis, take them down, and then scoop the lower belly up off that strap. Reach back through your legs, press down through your hands, reach forward with your chest, and lift your head and shoulders. Take your gaze forward and down. In nail, Exhale.

Lift your legs. Keeping the legs straight. Reach back through the balls of the feet. Roll the inner thighs to the ceiling. Take a breath in.

Exhale notice the pelvis. Can you again take the tailbone down? The pubis down, inner thighs are rolling up lower belly lifting. So we are definitely strengthening our back here, but not at the expense of letting the belly sink while we're belly lifting, not at the expense of the glutes not working. Glutes confirm down to lift the legs up We're just not squeezing the glutes together here. Just down.

The last thing for an added challenge, float the hands up, keeping the belly scooping up too. Inhale everything a little bit higher on exhale. Let it go. Down. Take a deep breath in.

Exhale. Push onto your hands and your knees. Will come into a Virasana or another comfortable seated position if you prefer. Just sit for a moment and notice the state of your spine and the kind of support that's coming now. From the muscles of your Barry.

And take one hand where that strap was. So on your lower belly, place one hand there, another hand on your lower back. So we know lower belly to lower back. Most people know the abdomen works by hugging in, and we just did a lot of that with the strap. Now it's more subtle, but there is a sense of the lower back hugging towards the abdomen.

It's far more subtle, but it may not feel that subtle to you right now because your lower back muscles are on. And so with the hands and then maybe without, However, it helps you to feel into that more. Can you just sense that support that you have cultivated for yourself? So we imprint this in our memory so we can reactivate this muscle engagement pattern at other times when we're not on our mat. Then interlace your fingers.

Press your palms together. We're gonna keep the same neutral spine be right on the tops of the sit bones. Press forward through your palms, elbows, straight, and inhale lift the arms all the way up or partially up. Staying within a pain free range of motion for your shoulders. As you exhale, soften the upper trapezius release the upper trapezius down.

Inhale, getting tall through the crown of the head Exhale, revolve to the right. Turn your chest to the right. Stay there. Inhale. Get tall through the side ribs, the back ribs, and then exhale draw your navel towards the right waist.

So you're encouraging your abdominal muscles to hug back but also turn from left to right. You may also notice, feel into your lower back muscles how they're turning on and helping too. And this is one of the things strong back muscles help us do. Help us rotate. Come back to the center, inhale. Exhale. Revolve to the left.

So we move, and then we feel a bit stuck. Like, we can't move more. The breath helps, inhale, and the way we work the abdominal muscles, exhale, turn the front, right waist to the front left waist. And feeling into the lower Barry, how those muscles are contributing to this twist. Come forward with the chest, lower your arms, and then we'll change the cross of the fingers, other index finger on top. Press your palms forward.

Inhale. Lift the arms up. Exhale. Revolve again to the right. Inhale tall through the crown of your head, exhale soften the upper trapezius, and twist some more. Inhale Barry to the center, exhale rotate to the left. Exhale, exhale, exhale, rotate more.

And inhale, come back to the center. Release the arms. I'll set the strap aside. Okay. We're gonna come back up on our knees briefly. So you could put the blanket there for your knees.

It won't be long, though. However, there is an option in this next sequence to keep the back knee down. But otherwise, we'll take the the blocks just a little wider than the shoulders and step the right foot on now on the inside of the right block. And this is where you do have the option to keep the left knee down. Otherwise, tuck the toes under and straighten the left knee up, straighten the left thigh up.

Reaching forward through the crown of the head, and we've taken our torso from sitting upright to horizontal to the floor but can you find that same contraction lower belly to lower spine? And it can be helpful to imagine a block between the inner thighs you're hugging in, like scissoring the inner thighs together. And with that coming up onto your fingertips and then fewer fingertips. And so at any point you may hit your edge, and that's where you stay. Alternatively, you could take the arms Barry.

Side, like, wings, drawing the outer right hip to the left heel, stay firm in the lower belly, not to let it drop. Hold up there. Bend the elbows like we were doing when we were lying on our bellies. And then stretch your arms straight forward palms face in. Stay here for a few breaths as you lift your arms taller, higher. Your upper back strengthens more. And the lower back is working, working.

Let the abdomen help your lower back. Lift the lower belly as well. One more inhale and exhale. Hands come down. Left knee down. Step the right leg back. And we'll step the left foot forward.

So again, the option to keep the right knee down. Otherwise, tuck the toes under. Lift the thigh straighten the leg. Inhale. Reach the chest forward. Exhale. Draw your left hip towards the right heel.

Make your hips side by side. Inhale again. Exhale. Firm the lower belly. Let it support the lower back. When the hands are down on the blocks, the lower back isn't strengthening as much as it will when the hands come off the blocks or get lighter on the blocks, but we can still call in the abdomen and the legs, scissor the inner thighs together.

And then here comes the back coming up on your fingertips and fewer fingertips and then float the arms maybe. From there, take your arms side, Notice if you're relying on the back to do everything. It's common. Let the belly help support lower belly up to lower back. Like, when the strap was under your belly lift right there, bend your elbows, cactus arms, And then palms turn in, extend the arms forward. The higher you lift the arms, the more the upper back engages. One more inhale.

Exhale. Lower the hands this time, lift your hips up and step back downward facing dog. And then walk your blocks to your feet. Coming into Ardutamasana. Extend the chest forward.

And then again, coming up on the fingertips, reach the chest forward, look towards the front of your mat, legs are strong, firm the quadriceps lift your thigh muscles, shoulder blades pull them away from the ears, and then notice that lower part of your torso. And imagine the strap touching the lower belly. Lift, lift the lower Barry. Support your lower back before it works so much. So just like what we did, birming the lower belly to the lower back, extend your arms back, and then inhale with a long spine stand tall. Extend the arms forward.

Exhale. Bend your knees. Lift your toes and sit back towards the heels. Shift your hips back and then take your hands, interlace your fingers on the back of your head, and draw your head back. When your head goes back, the chinless up, elbows back. The lots back.

You're back in the heels, back with the hips, back with the head. Notice when you take the head back, how the spine starts to back bend a little bit, and the muscles firm whenever that happens, it's a good idea to check-in with the belly and make sure it also firms back. So when we strengthen our back, we have to strengthen our front too. Keeping that firmness, front and back straighten the legs and lift your heels, inhale up, exhale, heels down. And here we go again.

Lift the toes. Sit back with the hips, with the head, and then straighten the legs. Lift the heels up, lower the heels down, and again, bending the knees, toes up, hips Barry, head back, belly back, straighten the legs, lift the heels up and lower down, bend the knees, shift back toes up. Now, taking a breath in long spine, exhale rotate turn to the right, use those abdominal muscles like we did earlier. And as you turn the front waist muscles to the right, draw your left thigh back. So the knees stay the same distance from the wall that's out in front of you.

Come back to the center, inhale, head Barry, exhale, turn to the left, turn your chest, turn the navel from right to left, draw your right thigh Barry. Legs side by side. Again, inhale center, exhale rotate. Right? Inhale center, exhale rotate left. Inhale. To the center, exhale, hands down.

Crawl your blocks forward. Downward facing dog on the blocks. Draw your hips back. Lyft the heels up. Breathe in.

Exhale. The knees come down. And then you can take your blocks or without the blocks and walk them off your mat to the right and shift your hips to the left. So now we're just stretching out our back muscles. And then other side, we'll walk the blocks to the left and shift the hips to the right. Here we go again.

Walking your blocks to the right, you could repeat that. Or take the hip straight back child's pose legs. And coming up, walk to your left. And again, either shifting the hips to the right or back towards child's pose, keeping the arms, head, chest off to the left. Coming up, walk to the center.

And at this point, you can either lie down for Shavasana, or just stay in child's pose? Child's pose can be a Shavasana as you are in a symmetrical, fairly neutral shape through the spine. Let your elbows be heavy or arms at your sides. Completely relaxed. And, again, with the breath, breathing from the inside out, giving your muscles of your back a massage from the inside out, inhale spread the back muscles.

Exhale at the meeld. Let that softness penetrate through the cheeks and jaw and forehead muscles, entire face, even the scalp letting go. Feel free to spend more time here. Or in your Shivasana. Thank you for your practice.