Back Relief - Part 2

Hi. My name is Olivia. This is back relief part 2. It's a continuation of part 1, and we'll be working a lot today with these four points, lower ribs, frontal hit points, and bringing these four points towards each other. And so many times I'll be queuing you to take your hands to these four points and bring them together. But to begin, You'll have two blocks, two blankets, and we'll use the blankets stacked to make a bolster shape, and they'll come underneath your feet.

And so we're picking up right where we left off from our part 1 class, but it's fine to start here. Batakanasana, suptabatakanasana, souls of the feet touch, knees wide, feet, engines, resting, on the bolster, on the blankets. And let's start with some settling. You can close your eyes or lower your gaze. And start by stopping, let yourself release and rest as you focus on the inhalation and how that spreads wide open, the rims, the abdomen, especially if you breathe in deeply, it'll create extra space.

And on the exhale, there's a coming together, an inward motion of the ribs. And with your hands on the abdomen, notice that rise and fall of the breath as you inhale and as you exhale. At the end of your next exhale, place your hands on your outer thighs, lift your thighs. Place the soles of the feet on the blankets and take a block. You'll place the block in between your thighs on its narrowest width or its medium width And then as I mentioned earlier, place your hands, thumbs on the ribs, pinkies down on the frontal hip points, the frontal pelvic bones, those ASIS places, take a breath in and let the belly rise again with the inhale. And as you exhale, flatten the lower back gently to the mat and notice how those four points come together.

Inhale, release the four points spread away from one another. And exhale. In particular, the front ribs towards the frontal hip points and the frontal hip points come towards the ribs. And then inhale, that opens up. Like, the abdomen is yawning open and exhale. That's like the yawn ends. The lips come back together.

And the belly contracts. One more time like that. Inhale. And this time, exhale. Extend your arms straight up.

Palms face the knees. Inhale arching the back again. Exhale, take the belly to the lower back and peel the tailbone, the sacrum up off the mat, start to come up into a bridge pose vertebra by vertebra. Once he at the top, lower your arms down alongside your ears. Palms face the ceiling, fingers spreading. Take a breath in up here.

And then exhale coming down first through the ribs, then the lower back. To do so, those four points coming together, belly is firming. As you release the lower back, as you release the belly tall, lift your arms, inhale, neutral spine, exhale, flatten the lower back curl up tailbone sacrum. Lumbar spine coming up vertebra by vertebra. Holding onto the block for further stability, take a breath at the top, and then exhale roll down vertebra by vertebra firming the valley, finding that connection.

Abdomen contracts and lower back becomes spacious. Inhale. Little arch in the back and then exhale the flattening of the Barry, lifting the hips, reach the arms back and down. At the top inhale and exhale. Find that connection again in the abdomen and roll down through the spine. Lift your arms up and release the block.

Setting your block aside. Roll over to your side and then come up. And we'll rearrange the blankets. This time, take one for your head, one for your ribs, and then lie down again. Space in between the blankets for your shoulders.

Down on your back and extend the arms out to the sides either with the arms straight or the arms bent. And initially just relax here and notice how when we come into a supported backbend and we relax, the abdomen is naturally open. That contraction is not present when we relax. And often in our daily life, when we just come out of our regular posture into a more neutral posture, that requires a bit of a backbend. And in regular life, it's good to come up out of the slouch postures, but still have some abdominal contraction supporting the spine.

So we're gonna work with that here. This indeed is a passive backbend. But now you're gonna take your legs, turn them in, roll your inner thighs down, and make taasana legs so you can have your feet either hip distance apart or together. Rolling the inner thighs down front of your legs face the ceiling, backs of your legs face the floor, and then place your hands on the ribs, on the frontal hip points, those four points. And when you exhale, you're you're not able to flatten your lower back to the mat, but can you a little bit bring some abdominal contraction those four points come together?

Keep that. Extend your arms up to the ceiling. Inhale and then exhale lower the arms slowly down alongside the ears. Being mindful of what's going on, particularly in the front ribs, move the front low ribs towards the frontal hip point. Maintain the abdominal contraction, even as you lengthen through the side ribs and reach the arms Barry. Inhale. I'm bringing the arms back up and then exhale firm the belly So the lower back might move incrementally towards the mat, but we're not trying to flatten the lower back to the mat.

We're just trying to engage the belly towards the lower back. Inhale. Arms go back up. And last time, exhale. Engage in the abdomen. Arms reach back.

Inhale. Take the arms up and then exhale. Lower the hands to the belly again. Bend your knees. Separate the knees Barry to bottoclonal legs, but this time, we're active. Press your heels together from the buttocks in.

So those two things happen together. When you squeeze the heels, push them against one another, the outer hips, the buttocks that contract, the hips will lift a little bit, buttocks are firm. And as you firm the buttocks, let the inner thighs release. So softening through the groins, affirming in the outer hips. And in the abdomen.

So taking those four points towards one another, get your abdominal contraction, and then we'll keep the right leg just as it is. Lift your left knee to the ceiling, foot on the floor, and then straighten your left leg forward into that tadasana leg. It's very similar to tree pose on the back. Maybe the right foot's not quite touching the left leg. That's okay, but let's keep the right buttock firm.

Attempting to release the inner thigh, left thigh, press it down and rule the inner thigh down. And then the abdomen engaging, extend your arms up, inhale, exhale, lower the arms down alongside the ears. And as you exhale take the front ribs towards the frontal hip points and the frontal hip points towards the front ribs. Inhale arms back up, exhale hands to the belly, bend the left knee, and place the feet together again. You can let the belly release a little bit, but press your heels together firm the outer hips in.

Outer hips firming in. Now let's engage in the abdomen again. Front ribs towards frontal hit points and vice versa. And then steady with the left buttock firming, take the right knee up, right foot to the floor, then flexing the right foot skid your heel forward on your mat straightening the leg. And so as you hold, the left buttock firm has a couple of contributions to this shape. Not only does that keep your leg externally rotated, but it will help you Keep some weight down through your right thigh, right hip.

Also press your right thigh down to help with that and then engage you in the abdomen, reach the arms up, and then down alongside the ears. And even as your arms reach, alongside the ears, take the front low ribs towards the navel towards the frontal hit points, and then bring the arms back up, lower the hands to the belly, lift your left thigh, send that leg forward to straight legs, and then just relax for a moment into a passive back then once again. The breath in, let the abdomen spread. Exhale. Relax the shoulders, the neck. And bend your knees.

Place your feet on the mat. Roll over to your side and come up. Okay. Setting your blankets aside. Come to all fours.

Place your wrist, shoulder distance apart, knees, and feet, hip distance apart, and then curl your toes under downward facing dog, Adam Mukesh Vanasana. From here, shift to plank. Shoulders come over the wrists and walk the feet back a bit and or lower your knees down. So you make a straight line from shoulders to hips to ankles or from shoulders to hips to knees. And with that, it would be challenging here to put the hand on the four points, certainly to put both hands.

So we'll just find it from our memory now. Recall those 4 points, front ribs, low frontal hit points moving towards one another, find the contraction in the abdomen, and the spreading in the back. And then exhale downward facing dog releasing that contraction in down dog, lengthening the front and the back of the torso evenly. Inhale, shifting to plank. Find that contraction in the abdomen. It gives so much relief to the back and exhale downward facing dog.

Now if you're not finding that relief in the back, coming back to plank. That's an indication to put the knees down and find the work in the abdomen. So the back feels free, and the belly is working. And then downward facing dog. Walk your hands back to your feet.

Inhale. Ardhautanasana fingertips either on the floor or your shins. Exhale. Place the hands on the hips. And then notice what the front of the body is doing when we reach the chest forward, it's tempting to release the belly too. But for the sake of the back, let's place the hands on the four points, bring them together, find some abdominal contraction, and then lift up.

And we'll come to tadasana standing with your feet together or a bit apart. Rock forward and back a little bit in your feet towards the balls of the feet towards the heels. And then we're gonna land slightly bias towards the heels. Place your hands on your front thighs and dry your thighs back over your heels. Then switching the hands to the hips and ribs draw those four points together. So there's the memory of plank here with the abdomen engaging, and the lower back has space.

Keep that. Extend your arms forward and raise the arms up alongside the ears. Notice if the splaying comes, contain in the front of the body. And then if the arms don't go as far back, that's okay. You just work with your range of motion, what you have, and then release your arms down. Okay. Take your right foot, turn the foot out, place the heel on the left inner shin. And this could be what you do with the legs.

This would be fine. Shift a little bit back into the left heel. Take the hands. Encourage the frontal hit points up towards the front ribs, the front ribs towards the frontal hit points. So this gives some density to your center of gravity.

It does help quite a bit with balance. So maybe, Barry, a foot tissue or even reaching down and take the foot high on the inner thigh. You can keep your hands there. See how that feels to have that kinesthetic touch. And maybe just leave them there or extend the arms forward with the memory of them and let's be arms up.

Palms back to the chest and release. Hands to the hips. Now another way of thinking about the lower abdomen in particular, in addition to scooping the front of the pelvis up, you can wrap the thumbs around the buttocks and take the buttocks down. That's another cue. We often use in yoga to create this alignment where there's space in the back, but some firmness, some firmness in the belly without excessive hardening. Just enough.

To feel stable, secure, and that your back has that relief. And so now turning your left foot out, post your heel on your right shin. Then we'll take the hands back to the front. And really at any point in the practice, you can do either Whatever is working best for you. They both go after the same goal where there's a engaging of the front of the abdomen.

Center of gravity has some density around it. It's like the gravitational pull of the earth. There's a gravitational pull of you. Let that help you engage in the abdomen and maybe move left foot up higher on the right leg. You could also catch your ankle and place the foot all the way up.

Recall earlier all that bad of Canaccano we did on the ground firming the left buttock to hold the knee out. So buttocks firm, abdomen fur, perhaps bringing your arms up overhead. Lower back free. Hands to the chest. Release. Take your arms down. Okay.

Let's move along. For this, you can put some blocks. If you're only using one block, just have one on your on your right. Let's step wide. And let's bring the hands back to the front to start.

Turn your legs to the right. And then bending the right knee, notice what happens just naturally. If you if you're not conscious of it, there tends to be a splaying of the abdomen and the buttocks rise in the back. So straighten the leg again, and let's engage here before we bend. Draw the frontal hit points up, front ribs down, and then bend and see if you can keep that.

And straighten. Go ahead and bend. And straighten. And then bend again. Extend the arms out.

Turn your head to the right warrior too. Inhale here. Exhale. Right forearm. Onto the right leg. Alternatively, you could put your hand down on the block, fingertips, or palm, and place your left hand now on your hip with the left thumb atop the left buttock and give a little press of the left buttock And your thumb tip might be on your sacrum, the sacrum, even the right buttock, they all flow here towards the left heel and see if that length can help contribute to the length in your lower back and the firming in the belly.

And then you can stay here or extend the arm up, rotate, and bring the arm over overhead or over the cheek. Inhale. Come all the way up, exhale hands on your hips, parallel your feet, and turn your feet to the left. Okay. Let's find the abdomen control. Contraction. Lift the frontal hit points. Take the front ribs down and bend the left knee.

Inhale. Straighten. Exhale. Bend scoopy in the lower belly. Inhale straightened. So press the right thigh back and bend.

Taking the left forearm to the left thigh, or you can bring, again, your hand down to the block. Switch your right hand to the buttock, take the thumb there, and encourage the back of the pelvis towards the right foot. It's like those bridges we did at the beginning of class when we were rolling up and down through the spine. And buttocks were lengthening away from the lower Barry, same here. And so the density is more in the front, that muscular density, more in the front of the body and the shape.

If you like, you can extend your arm up, rotate, and bring the arm alongside the ear. Inhale. Come all the way up. Exhale. Parallel your feet, heel, toe, step, or hop your feet together. Taasana. Find it. Take your hands slightly to the front of the torso, hug the frontal hip bones up towards the ribs, ribs down to the frontal hip points, bend your knees step wide.

And turn your legs to the right. Bend again the right leg. Take the right hand down. We're gonna keep the left hand where it is. You could move it to the center of the belly, the right or the left, wherever you need it, but to keep that kinesthetic intention and attention in the abdomen, even as we transition into half moon.

So stepping forward with the left foot, take the block or your hand underneath the right shoulder, before you lift your left leg, connect to that density around your center of gravity, and then go ahead and lift the leg, straighten the right leg, Keep the left hand where it is and maybe turn the head look forward. And if you can maintain the connection in the abdomen, also raise your left arm. If you've raised the left arm, bring the hand back to the belly, bend the right leg, lower the left, and we'll transition back to triangle pose. This time straightening both legs Same same in the torso. And, again, the option of lifting the left arm on your inhale come up and exhale parallel the feet.

Hands to the front of the torso. Turn the legs to the left. Inhale. Exhale. Bending the left leg. Lift the frontal hit points.

Inhale. Exale, left hand goes down, right hand remains front of the pelvis, front of the abdomen, or even hip, if that works better for you. The connection lifting from the pubis to the navel looked down, Move the right foot forward. Take your block, your hand, about 12 inches in front of the little toe on the left. Now before you lift your leg, so that as that foot leaves the floor, you have your contraction.

Be mindful there and then lift. Be mindful in the abdomen straight in the left leg. This pose can give tremendous relief to the lower back. Notice the spaciousness in the spine. The activity and the abdomen and the hips, and the spine lobs being horizontal to the floor.

So you've got that going for you too. Maybe turning the head, perhaps lifting the arm. Transitioning back to Trikonasana hand to belly, bend the left leg, and coming back with the block, right foot, straighten both legs, find the connection again, and then extend if you like the right arm up. Inhale coming up. Exhale. Parallel the feet, hands to the hips, and bring your feet together.

Hands on the hips, bend the knees, step wide. Draw your elbows back. Draw the inner thighs back. Thumbs on the buttocks. Go from the back of the body first.

You're gonna take the buttocks down, the top of the buttocks down, sacrum down, still thighs back, inner thighs back, and then begin to lift the chest and look up. And now looking up, place the hands on the front of the torso, and draw the front low ribs down. You're still looking up. Another breath in, and then exhale. Reach your chest forward and bring your fingertips to the mat.

Now we're gonna turn the legs to the right, walk all the way over to the right with the hands, and you'll bring your block medium or high height as you need inside the right foot. Post your hands on the block. Draw the right hip back, turn the left hip forward, connect through the feet to the earth, take a breath in, And then exhale, begin to firm in the Barry, take one hand to the 4 two points, and then the other. And you're gonna hold on there with your hands and your abdomen to help you come up. When you come up, again, lift the gaze and look up, draw the front ribs down with your thumbs, and then look forward and bend your right knee.

Like a mini verabradras in a one, again, finding the connection. This is a pose where we do press the left thigh back, which tends to pull down on the front of the pelvis, pressing the left thigh back, rooting the left heel, lift up in the front of the pelvis. It's the front lower ribs that come down. And notice how that makes again some space, some space in the lower back. You can keep the hands there or take the arms to the side, palms up, inhale looking up, maintaining connection in the abdomen, and then exhale straighten the right leg.

Hands come back down to the block. Setting the block aside or taking it with you if you're just using 1, come back to the center and over to the left. Find your block again. Place it on the inside of the left foot. Draw your left hip Barry, swivel the right hip forward.

And so when we're here with sort of 4 paws on the ground, 2 feet, two hands, we can kind of hang out, especially if you're a little looser in the hamstrings. You can be almost in, like, the equivalent of a cow pose here, and it's not unsafe. In fact, in some cases, it's indicated, but for the sake of relief in the lower back, generally, we need to engage in the abdomen, especially for transitions and movement. And so we're about to let go with the hands and come up just through the weight of our legs, and it can be a lot of stress on the spine. So preemptively take one hand to that abdomen, engage, connect, and then the other, and with the connection rise up.

And then you can come up, lift the gaze. That's gonna try to pull the front ribs really tall. Keep some descending of the lower front ribs as you lift the gaze. And then look forward. There's more in my neck class about how to be safe in the neck when you lift the gaze.

That would combine well with this. But for now, we're gonna go into the mini warrior 1, bend the left leg. The right thigh does press back. We resist the right thigh Barry. Press the right heel down, and that tends to pull the front of the pelvis down.

Which compresses the lower back, and that's not released. So let's lift the front of the pelvis up and make that nice space in the lower back. Even if it's a little bit in this kind of a shape, a little goes a long way. And so if you're going to let go with the hands, it's fine. More important, though, for today's purposes, keep the connection, even if you keep the hands there. But otherwise, we'll turn the palms up, lift the arms, lift the gaze, inhale.

Exhale. Bring the hands back down. Straightening the left leg. Set the block aside or bring it with you. Come back to the middle. This time, we'll take the hands all the way down.

Either on the blocks or on the floor, head down, lift your shoulders. This can be very relieving for the lower back unless you're quite tight in the hamstrings. In which case, You might bend your knees to become a little more vertical in the spine. Get a little more traction that way. With the legs bent or straight come forward, now up onto your fingertips, inhale, reach the chest forward. You might come into that cow shape initially. But then exhale and firm in the Barry.

Put your hands there if that's helpful. And inhale coming up. Look up as an option. Exhale. Look forward. He'll toe. Step your feet together.

Fatasana. Alright. Coming off the legs. Let's come down to the ground. Virasana. So you'll come on to your shins.

Take as much height under your hips as you need. So that your knees feel okay. Knees are classically together, but if it feels better for you to have them a little apart, it's fine for this sequence. Draw your sit bones back. You can reach back and take the buttocks flush and sit bones back a little bit.

And then place the heel of the hands at the top of the thighs release down there. So the soas, let's go a little bit, and the abdomen remains on a little bit. Sometimes the soas takes over, and the belly hangs. So we release in the sew as and engage in the abdomen. Okay.

Now we're gonna take the right foot forward. Place the foot on the floor. And then walk your hands back. You can walk back on your fingertips or come down on your palms. Press down through your right heel, your left shin, scoop the buttocks up off the block, lengthen the buttocks forward towards the right foot, towards the left knee, then you might recognize again This is the motion of the four points coming together, particularly the frontal hip points moving towards the chest.

And hopefully you're getting a decent stretch in the left thigh. It's also similar to the bridge codes from the beginning of class. So we've lifted the hips, but we're lengthening the lower back. And then release down with the hips. Walk your hands forward.

Come back up on top of the sit bones. If you have a second block, you might put it behind you. Inhale. Lift your left arm and exhale. You can either catch the shin with the hand, wrap the elbow around the front of the shin, or hook the elbow outside the leg, and twist. Inhale. Tall through the spine.

Exhale. Turn the spine. Now with so much awareness in the front of the abdomen, it's a nice time to turn the belly from left to right to help you twist We only have a little bit of rotation in our lumbar spine and our lower spine, but that turn of the belly will help you access it. And releasing that turn the chest forward. Take your hands underneath your right foot.

Make like a stirrup around your foot with your hands. And then lean back and see if you can lift your foot off the mat. And then depending on your flexibility, you'll straighten the leg somewhat or all the way. And so the good old hamstring stretch is sort of a first line of defense against back pain. If you have more length, even to be sat here, bend your elbows, lift your chest, and lift the leg.

To relax the tops of the shoulders. Bend your knee and release. Take that foot back to Virasana. We'll take that sequence on the second side, but before we do, just notice. Notice how one leg feels relative to the other and the sense of release and the hip flexors, one relative to the other.

Second side, step your left foot forward. Walk your hands Barry, fingertips, or palms to the floor, and then pressing down through your left heel, your right shin, scoop the hips up off the block and lengthen the back of the pelvis towards the left foot, the right knee, and you can engage in the abdomen the way we've been doing so that you draw your frontal hip points towards the ribs, towards the chest. And the right thigh there on the front of the right thigh, let it yield. Let it open. This is one of the sort of anti workstation moves where instead of being closed at the hip flexor, we're opening. And then release down, walk your hands forward.

Prop yourself back up on top of the sit bones. Lift the right arm inhale. Exhale. Take the right hand to the shin or elbow around the front or over the outside. If you would like, you can take your second block behind for the left hand, or the left fingertips can reach to the floor.

If you're not too high, if you're very high up on many blocks, you can just put your left hand on your hip and roll the left shoulder back. In any case, inhale, tall through the spine, shoulders soft, exhale, turn and turn in the abdomen from the right front waist to the left. You can also turn and look back over your left shoulder with your gaze. So once again, the way we're working this twist today, that there's a sense of more density in the abdomen than in the lower Barry. Very often with back pain.

It's the opposite. The back seizes, and the belly is not working enough. So even here in the middle of this twist, sends into the quality of the soft tissue in front of the spine and behind it. And there should be a little more going on in the front than in the back. The back is working, but let's bias the effort to the front and then release and you'll stir up your foot, lean back, and lift the leg.

Yeah. And here, the front is dense, but not so much because we're engaging. It's just there's some roundedness in this shape. But lifting up lifting up and out of that any amount, lift the chest, maybe bend the elbows. If your knee is bent, same. Relax the tops of the shoulders.

Breathing here. And then bend your knee and release. Coming off of your block onto your hands and your knees, set your block aside, and we'll lie down on our backs. If you like, you could put a pillow of blanket underneath your head. Especially if your hips are a little tighter or your shoulders, that might be helpful. And lying down on your Barry, bring your knees to your chest, rock gently, right, and left across the lower Barry.

Massaging out any residual tension that might be stuck in the lower Barry. Let it release. Notice any emotions that might be flowing out with the physical tension in the lower back, a lot of stress can be released. Allow for that with some longer exhales, maybe even a sigh or 2. And another place we wanna release is the outer hips for back relief.

And so one way is thread the needle. A little more intense, so you can cross your thighs for gomukastana lengths. The thighs are flush, flex your feet reach over the tops of the shins for the outer shins. And then as you draw your feet slightly up and towards your shoulders, Be aware that what we're actually trying for here is to turn the thighs out. So we're holding the feet and the shins are moving, but we don't want the knees to rotate.

So consider what's happening through your thighs, your upper thighs, And here, the inner thighs are actually rolling towards your face and the outer thighs away or the quadriceps away. Then we'll change legs. Taking either thread the needle with the left ankle over the right or keep going cross the left thigh on top of the right reach up and over for the shins, feet are flexed, and draw ankles towards shoulders. Incidentally, if you feel any pinching in the hip, then pass on this. Return to thread the needle.

Just giving a little more space between the two hip sockets. And releasing the legs, last, hug, knee to chest, knees to chest. And then you'll release. And for this shavasana, it might be nice to take a block right onto the lower belly in between the pubis and the navel. We'll tuck the shoulder blades under.

If that doesn't feel good on the abdomen, feel free to remove the block. And the block will move gently with the breath if you've kept it. Particularly with your exhale, even the touch of a light foam block can help the belly release down and wide passively now. So even when we're passive, There are times when the abdomen moves towards the lower back. The gesture of a hug, a hug of the belly, it's there to support your back. The block is still there.

You can remove it and then notice the residual sensations from the block having been there. And feel free to spend more time in Shavasana. Otherwise, bending your knees, turn to your side. Using the strength of your arms slowly come up. And I wish you lots of back relief. Thank you.