Unlock the Upper Back

Hey, everyone. Welcome back. This class will work to get into our upper back. So it could be a perfect class for you. If you work on a device, you sit out of desk a lot. Or if you're just feeling stuck.

So whether you're feeling stuck physically in your shoulders and upper back, or emotionally, this could be a great class for you. So let's grab some props. Two blocks will be great for our camel variations today. You can start by sitting on a blanket. I'm gonna do that to get a little higher up in my hips, and that blanket could come in handy later in the practice. And then I am gonna give you an option to use a little bit of weight today.

So you could have a one or a two pound weight. Maybe you work up to three pounds depends on how delicate your shoulders feel in the movements. And you could also use a water bottle or a soup can. So that'll work as well. Let's begin in a seat, and you can take a moment to arrive.

Maybe you close your eyes, you land and locate your lower body. And let your skin trust your bones. And maybe consider opening a doorway today to something new as a way of self care. You could roll your shoulders open your eyes. And let's start by taking our arms right out to the sides.

And you can start with some wrist circles. So it's almost like a little flamenco move with your hands and really flick out through your fingers. You could also do this with your thumb in the center point of your palm curling your fingers around, and you might get a little more juice when you turn your knuckles towards the floor. Take a couple breaths here. And then moving into your elbows, so we'll take our hands towards our face, externally rotate our upper arms, and flip our hands up towards the ceiling.

If you could do that with your hands in those fists or opening your fingers up. And maybe switch directions. So there's a bit of movement in your shoulders and also in your elbows. And then end by taking your fingertips to your shoulders. And let's make some shoulder circles.

And when you pull your elbows back, can you really squeeze your shoulder blades together? So maybe even press your chest bones forwards. And then you can switch directions. Feel free to make it a little dramatic. With your breath. And then you can take your hands and interlock them behind the back of your head and then keep your low spine fairly lifted and then round through your upper back, flex.

Forwards. You don't have to pull on your head. You could, but let the weight of your arms just drop your head down. Take a breath. You can roll back up and stay with that holding of the back of your head. Now, can you encourage your elbows to go back. Just so much that it feels safe, but squeeze your shoulder blades together and then find a big around the world.

A circle. You might go back a bit. And allow the cradling of your head to relax your neck and really work into your upper back. So, and liven the muscles of your upper back here. You could switch directions a couple more rotations with your breath. Maybe you close with that nice curling flexion movement through your upper back. Rolling back up.

And we'll come to a prone position on our abdomen where you could have your blanket nearby for support. As well as whatever you're using for a weight, which is optional. Let's have that forwards. Come all the way down onto your belly, and we'll turn our left temple to the floor. So I'm gonna do that by placing my blanket there from my mic. And then our right hand in a cactus arm position, so like a little cactus arm elbow out from the shoulder hand down, and our left hand palm face up down by the side. So your left shoulder is quite relaxed.

We'll start with some somatic work of lifting our elbow, like we're going to peek underneath it and then lower it down. So about five times exploring that. And you can notice this by you can explore if you are initiating the movement by pressing into your hand to lift or if you're doing it by squeezing the muscles in between your shoulder blades or your right inner shoulder blade towards your spine. And I'm gonna encourage you for the purpose of this video with a session to try to initiate the movement from your upper back muscles, like you're squeezing your shoulder blade in towards your spine and your hand is kind of following. And then we'll switch so that our right hand is underneath our temple. Can you glue your pelvis to the floor? And this time, we're going to come up head and upper back and lower down.

We'll do this about five times. And I'm gonna encourage you to Try to do this by lifting your chest first and then let your head follow. Many of us wanna do this by lifting our head and neck first. And so you could try that just to see how it feels. Or you could try to lift your chest first and then let your head follow.

So is it possible to have a little more relaxation? In your neck. It might take a moment to figure this one out. One more. Okay. Come down, wobble your hips and we'll add a leg to this. So it's going to be our left leg across body pattern.

So when you lift your chest, let your head follow, let your left inner leg lift up. And keep going with it. Try to go chest first, head follows. And maybe even when you lift your head, your hand is sort of cradling your head. And your inner leg is bright.

Maybe one more with your breath. I like to inhale to go up here. Project out from center and exhale to release. And then you can wobble and soften. Okay. Now with your your blanket might be in front, can you take your forehead? Just your space in between your eyebrows to that prop, keep your left hand by your side, and then reach your right arm all the way forwards, palm facing in to the middle.

And then see if you can lift your arm or lighten it off the floor. Lift it. Then take it out to the side like a giant wing. Turn your palm back behind you and reach it back so your palm faces the midline. And then can you bend your elbow, palm faces the sky and place your hand in the small of your back? Maybe you relax a bit there.

And then swim your arm all the way back. Spiral your palm towards The midline is you take it over your head and release. Maybe you do that with your breath a couple more times. So it's a big swimming arm. Palm faces back, then up towards the ceiling.

And maybe your hand comes a little higher, like, towards your shoulder blades even and out to the side and forwards and then release. I'm gonna give you an option to add a weight to this movement. So you could start with the weight over your head, whatever you're holding, and see if you can lighten it a little off the floor. If that feels safe, maybe you lift it a little. And then lower it back down.

And you can bend your arm to take your weight out to the side, and can you imagine lifting it, maybe lightening it, and then come down. And bend your arm and take your weight behind you and lighten it, maybe lift it and come back down. So if that felt okay, you might try the whole swimming arm with the load. Trying to stay evenly grounded on your pelvis, and can you take it out to the sides? Rotate your arm and then take that weight into the lower back.

Swim it all the way forwards. And this is quite challenging with a two pound weight for me. So I'm gonna go slowly and try to keep the left side of my body glued down. Watching for the feedback that this has given me in my shoulder. Let that go. Okay.

We'll take the weight to the side. You might stack your hands in front, wobble through your hips. In between those, you could come up and back into a child's form hips towards your heels. And let's do that all on the other side. I'm just gonna flip so that you can get a better viewpoint for me of me, and I'll take my weight with me.

So now on our abdomen, we'll take our right temple to the floor. Our right hand palm facing up right shoulder relaxed, and the left hand an arm in that cactus arm position to lift our elbow. If you can try this by pressing your hand into the floor peeking under your elbow and do it by activating your whole arm, First, and then how would it feel to do this really initiating the movement from the muscles in between your shoulder blade and your spine? And follow your curiosity. It's a different thing to do it from a different place, even though it might look sort of the same.

Right? And then you can take your left hand under your right temple. Glue both hips to the floor, and we're lifting into a locust or a Shalabasana. And you could try doing it by lifting your head and neck first. That might feel familiar, but can you open a doorway to doing something new by lifting your upper back first and then letting your head follow? Maybe that's not new for you, but work with something a little bit different.

I'm working with upper back first and then head and neck follow a couple more times. Maybe with your breath. You can rest there, wobble your hips. And now we'll lift the right leg as well. So just first, inner right leg.

And it's a cross body. Movement. Chest first, inner right leg. Couple more times. Perhaps you're curious about the difference on the two sides.

The ease, the challenge, how your upper back might slowly be waking up more and more. One more. Okay. And then you can stack your hands and wobble out through your hips. And we'll try forehead on the prop, your blanket, left arm forwards, palm facing in, and a lift or a lighten of your arm.

Arm goes out to the side, spin your arm, palm faces back behind, palm faces in, arm behind you and then hand to the small of your back or in between your shoulders. Swim it all the way forwards and lower. And notice if your right side wants to get light in this movement, or can you keep it pinned down? So you're continuing on with this cross body pattern. By engaging your right side.

Okay. That might be enough to keep going with it. You might wanna add a little bit of load. So you can begin by taking the prompt forwards hips heavy lifting it or lightening it, lowering back down. Bend your arm. Take the prop out to the side.

Light in or lift. And when you do this, can you work your upper back muscles first? Instead of your shoulder. Come back down, bend your elbow, weight behind you, upper back engages first, and then your shoulder follows, and lower back down. You might do that again, or big swimming movement with the weight with your breath and a strong pinned down right side.

Your shoulders are so different side to side lately. All of ours have some asymmetry so you can respect each shoulder and let it be where it wants to be. Couple like this. Hips evenly pinned down if you can. And then relax it.

And you can stock your hands and wobble your hips. Let's come up and back into that child's form facing the front of your mat. Notice if your shoulders feel any different here. And then we'll roll up, shift our shins to one side and come into a loose baddha konasana soles of the feetway forwards. Hanging onto your shins.

You can sit up on a blanket here with your hands on your shins, inhale and arch your spine, squeeze your shoulder blades together and exhale and round your spine Open your shoulder blades apart. It's like you're hanging off your hands on monkey bars. Art forwards. Squeeze your shoulder blades together. Round back. You might even get a back crack here.

I just let it feel good. Follow your curiosity like you're following a toddler. Sometimes you're surprised where you end up. Okay. You can come forwards and forward fold any amount. You might take your hands behind you, interlock your hands, interlock your fingers, and forward fold like that.

Take it to where you'd like to go. You can roll on up. Release your hands. And we'll cross our ankles come into a tabletop position. Circle around your wrists.

Shifting into your finger pads, switch directions. Walk your hands closer towards your knees, and then take the backs of your hands to the floor, bend your elbows, and then straighten your arms just to where it feels safe in your wrists. Bend. And straighten. One more like that bend.

Straighten. Come back to a tabletop. Come up onto the knuckles underneath your fingers. And pulse your armpits over your knuckles. Five four three two One.

Let it go. Shake out your hands. Step up and back to downward facing dog petal at your feet. Couple of breaths. Right leg high behind you. And then right knee to right elbow shoulders over your wrists and reach it up and back to a three legged dog. Again like that, right knee, a right elbow.

Maybe a top. Three like a dog. Exhale come forwards. Inhale back. And then bring your foot right in between your hands.

And you can come up onto your fingertips here and roll over your back set of toes stretching the top of your foot. And lower your knee to the floor. And come up so you're in a ninety ninety lunge. So you're welcome to take a blanket underneath your knee if you need that extra padding. Interlock your hands out in front.

Flip your palms forwards. And take your hands up above your head arching your spine a little bit, opening your upper back. And then take your hands right out in front of you like you're saying no to something. And Curl your spine into a c curve. Tuck your tail. Tuck your chin.

If you're looking at your hips, maybe you can drop your right hip a little. Take a breath. Two more times like that. Reach up. Your arms don't have to be all the way by your ears.

They could be a little forwards. Art your spine a bit, arch your upper back. Breathe. And then hands forwards and c curve, like you're saying, no to over scheduling. Up you go.

One more time. How can you do something a little different here? And then press. And then release that. Take your arms out to the sides, come up onto your right tippy toe. You can even tuck your backs at a toes.

And can you lift your right leg and just see if you can balance? Come out of it, come back in. And then lower it down. This time, think about compacting your outer hip muscles into the middle as you lift that leg and take it back. So you're kneeling. Might take a couple steps.

If you want, take your blanket underneath your knees, and your blocks might come in handy here. So you can take your blocks mid shin. Left hand on your left hip. Circle your right arm out to the left, so you're coming into a side bend, and then up and back, and then go back the way that you came, circle to the left, and back into a kneeling position, right hand on right hip. Circle across articulating your upper back into a side bend, and then into an upper back bend, maybe look up, go out the way that you came.

Couple of times like that. Can you think about your low spine staying a little more upright and really getting your upper back to move? Maybe that means thinking about initiating the movement backwards with the muscles in between your shoulder blades. Okay. One more time both sides. Inhale to open, maybe exhale to close.

And then come into the center, take your hands on your low belly. You can tuck your toes for this, lean back and think about having some tension across the front of your abdomen. Lean back, keeping enough tension in your abdomen that you are not dipping down into your low back. So there's like a closure of the front. And an opening around the sacrum and low back.

Okay. Now if you like your left hand can come to the block or your ankle as you go to the side, and then into this dancing camel variation. You can always adjust where you want the blocks if you want them a little more forwards. A little more back. Go at your own speed. I use your breath. That closure of the front of the abdomen, can you keep it a bit?

Especially at the top of your arch. Alright. Let's come forwards, untuck your toes and stretch back into a child's form. I like to come a little bit higher in this one and really circle my upper back. It's like a jumping rope, skipping rope in your upper back. Up and back to downward facing dog.

Left like high, three legged dog, and then left knee towards left elbow. Left like high. Left knee to left elbow. Left leg high last one breathe with it into the elbow. Hi.

And this time through, for a lunge. You can come up onto your fingertips if you want. Roll over your back, set a toe is getting a stretch to the top of your foot. Lower down. Feel free to blanket your back knee. Come on up, interlock your fingers. Bring your hands up wherever you get. Art your upper spine.

Lift your shoulder blades and widen them. And then come on forwards and say no to something. Push it away and c curve your spine. Tuck your chin. Arch. Open a door to something new.

Press away. Push c curve. Contract your front side. One more. Art.

And press. Take a breath. Come on out. Arms out to the sides. You can tuck your backs at its toes. Maybe you try balancing on one knee. Come on down.

And then compacting through the outer hips, can you balance on that one knee? Let it be messy and come back into your kneeling position. Feel free to put a blanket there. And you might take your blocks back. So we're second time our dancing camel. Let's begin with our hand on our hip. Going side, stretch, upper back extension, and coming out the way that you came.

So if I'm going a bit to fast for you. Take it at your own pace. Make it yours. And then you can come into the middle and you might try the lower and lifts. Maybe even with your top of your foot down to make this more challenging. You could for sure take your arms over your head.

Little shaking maybe. Feeling that opening of the back closure of the front. Yeah. And then maybe you take your hand to your block or your ankle. And there's another option here to come all the way around. And circle back.

And maybe it's a that around the world movement. And circle back. I'm gonna show you one more. Now if you felt strong with the weight in the swimming arm, you could also try that here, and the weight will perhaps pull your shoulder into a bit more flexion, and you'll need to control it with closing your abdomen a little bit. But it might give you a little more feedback.

Breathe with it. Wherever you are. Take your time. And you can Come one out whenever you're ready. You could settle your hips down, come into a child's form.

Maybe you jump rope your upper back with your hands a little closer in. And let's shift our shins to one side And come back into our wide legged baddha konasana, hands on the shins, arching your spine, and then hanging off your shins. Like you're truly hanging from your hands. And if you're used to going a %, what would it feel like to go 60. Maybe there's a circle through your upper back one way and then the other.

And then you can fold and you might fold with your hands on your feet forwards or you could take your hands behind you. And fold with your hands clasped. Taking space around your neck. I'm coming back up. Okay. Let's cross our shins.

We're gonna roll to our abdomen and close with the swimming arm. So you might use a blanket for underneath your temple. You might be done with the load or you might bring your weight with you. And you can come on down and take your space in between your eyebrows. If that's comfortable on to your prop, blanket, your left palm up by your side, and your right palm facing in.

Hips heavy, even weight in both sides. You can start by lifting or lightning, your right hand off the ground, and then big swimming movement to take it behind you, palm facing up, hand towards your low back, or maybe in between your shoulder blades. Rotate your arm to take your palm to face into the middle line and relax. Couple more like that. Now depending on how tired you are or how curious you are about the load, you might add one or two more on.

With the load again. Slowly moving, mindfully moving from the muscles in between your shoulder blades. And then let that go. And you might stack your hands and wobble your hips. Before we go to the other side, let's stretch back. You could do a downward dog or a child's form.

Keep that magic moment wherever you are and notice which side feels more spacious. More relaxed. You will come forwards to explore the other side. I'm just gonna flip so you can see me a little better. And we'll take our forehead if that feels comfortable onto. The prop, right hand palm up by your side, hips heavy. Left arm over your ear, swim your arms so you know the movement now.

You might explore doing it in a slightly different way. Or maybe it feels interesting to see how much you can get the muscles in between your shoulder blades, around your shoulder blades to wake up. Maybe enough to do this without the load, or you have your couple more times to explore it. With weight. Slowly and mindfully.

Does your neck wanna help out, or can you keep a lot of work in your upper back? And then you can let that go. And you might stack your hands and wobble there. If it feels right, you can take your hands by your low ribs and roll up into a cobra and roll yourself down. We'll transition to our back body for a twist.

I'm gonna keep my weight nearby. You can roll on down. And keep your weight nearby. Bringing your feet underneath your knees. Taking your hips a little to the left, not your chest.

And you can bring your knees in and let your knees fall to the right. It might feel good for some of you to take a block in between your inner knees. You could do that. There are so many different ways to land in a twist. So find the one that works for you. Some folks like to crisscross their top left leg over there. Right? And let their feet catch them.

How does your twist feel today? Do your shoulders feel a little more willing? To let go and come closer to the ground. Let's take a couple breaths. If your legs are criss crossed, you can unhook them. Bring your legs to center.

Hips in the middle. Hips to the right. Bring your knees in, knees to the left. Maybe a block in between them. Maybe a crisscross of your right leg, top leg over your bottom leg, and let your feet catch you, and let your arms reach to the sides.

Okay. We can unhook if you're hooked. Come back into the middle. Preparing for your Shavasana. So grab anything you'd like for a final relaxation. And I'm gonna invite you to either have your feet planted or stretch them out and imagine that there is a ball of breath between your belly button and your sacrum.

And when you breathe in, it fills and hits the back of your pelvis, the front of your pelvis, your low back, your belly, and your sides. And then from that ball, can you lift your left arm a little off the floor, wherever it is? And then let it drop. It's sort of satisfying to really let it drop for some of us. So then you can lift your right arm a little off the floor from that ball of breath and then let it drop. And then from that ball of breath, breathe in, and lift your left leg a little off the floor or even lighten it, and then let it go.

Breathe into that ball of breath in between your belly button and your sacrum back of the pelvis. And from there, lift your right leg. And let it drop. Now if your next feeling okay from that ball of breath, breathe in. Fill your low back, your sides, your front. And can you lighten your head a little off the floor?

Like you could slip a piece of paper under it, or maybe even lift it a little bit. And then let it drop. And I'll invite you to take five breaths, five counts in, five counts out in silence. Okay, friends. So you might be glued to the floor here and wanna stay a little longer. You might stretch your arms out, point your toes, circle your wrists and your ankles and roll over to one side curling into a fetal position.

Take your time to come up and take that magic moment in a seat maybe. Your hands can be wherever you like. Scanning your body noticing any differences in your field of awareness, in your physical form, and acknowledging you took time to support yourself today. Peace. Shawnee.