Yoga For Back Pain, Low Back Pain Stretches For Beginners, Sciatica Relief, Part 1

hi my name is Mira and this is a five-part yoga series for back pain this video we’re focusing on low back pain so those of you that sit at a desk or have sciatic pain this is going to be great for you and we also have a fun giveaway so today’s video giveaway is this litleo coccyx orthopedic cushion super comfortable and it comes with fun little covers so if you want to color coordinate with your office or desk space you can click the link to find out more about how to qualify for this contest and giveaway and it’s really great for helping support and better posture while you’re at your desk so let’s go ahead and get started for our low back pain relief so laying down on the ground on your mat just getting nice and comfortable and we’re going to work on strengthening just a little bit into the core because I find a lot of times people and that have low back pain have kind of a weak core so I’m pulling my toes towards my head engaging and pressing my low back into the floor so really trying to create as much contact between my spine and the ground so as I do this you’ll start to feel the front of your legs activate and then even hopefully into your abdomen you can keep your hands face down along the ground and we’re just going to inhale and raise the right foot all the way up to a 90 degree angle so I’m trying to walk on the ceiling and exhale the right leg down we’ll take a nice deep inhale and raise the left leg up and exhale the left leg down inhale right just moving at your own pace definitely listening to your body exhale write down anything doesn’t feel comfortable feel free to skip it inhale left and exhale down do two more one on each side inhale right and this time we’re going to hold you can gather your hands either around the back of the hamstrings or if you want to and take this a step deeper you can inhale and start to walk the legs up the back walk the hands up the back of the legs and once you’re here you kind of want to relax just a little bit keeping the toes pulled in towards the head we’re going to get a nice stretch along the back of the hamstrings oftentimes when we sit at a desk our hamstrings tend to get shortened over time and so this can definitely be a cofactor in some of that tension and strain that you feel into your low back and exhale releasing the hands bringing the leg down to the ground we’ll inhale the left leg up and just holding here taking a breath in on your next inhalation you can either wrap the hands around the back of the hamstring this feels comfortable here you can stay here or if you want to get a more intense stretch we can inhale walking the hands up the back of the leg and holding a little bit further on the calf definitely just trying to avoid holding on the back of the knee so it’s just going to want to make your leg Bend and that’s kind of preventing you getting the full effect of the stretch here so taking some deep breaths here allowing your bodyweight to just gently pull on your leg pulling it closer to the ground closer to your chest getting a nice deeper stretch along the back of the leg toes are still engaged and on your next exhalation bringing the hands down bring the leg down to the ground so already is starting to get some nice strength and stretching in and I’m just kind of rocking my legs back and forth to kind of give them a nice little break and we’re going to tuck the hand’s underneath the buttocks so fingertips pointing down and this is just kind of giving me a nice little cushion and stability so like we did before with the single leg raises if that was enough for you and you can just do a single leg raise again or if you want a little bit more of an intense and core strengthener we’re going to do double leg raises so pulling both toes back towards the head really engaging the front of the legs pushing the low back into the ground so really trying to scoop the pelvis kind of up towards your ceiling and we’ll inhale bring both legs up and then exhale coming down with control trying to keep your low back really engaged and pressing into the floor and inhale again up exhale down inhale up and exhale down last one inhale up and then exhale down with control I’m tucking the hands letting the legs kind of rock apart just giving them a nice little break we’ll take some very deep breaths into your abdomen and just noticing and feeling any sensations on your low back and your core muscles just really trying to imagine that you’re sending fresh oxygen vitality relaxation into those areas we’ll bend the legs bringing the feet onto the ground knees up into the air and then I’m going to cross my right leg so my right ankle is over my left knee just like you would crossing your leg out while you’re sitting at a chair at the desk and we’re going to inhale and kind of fold the legs towards your torso and reaching the hands between my right hand between my legs and then the left hand goes out and around so this is called threading the needle and then I’m just going to use a nice gentle static pressure of my arms to pull my leg inwards and create a nice stretch from the IT bands on the outside of the hips really good hip opener so for some of you you may be able to reach around the front side of your shin if you can that’s great if you can’t you can just come behind the hamstrings and if you can’t even reach there just like hole gently wherever your hands reach you really don’t want to be straining a lot so the nice more passive stretch just taking some nice deep inhalations and allowing that stretch to really accentuate and feel the sensations along the outside of your leg and to your low back into your SI joint just anywhere that you feel it just trying to take some nice deep breaths and relax that area and on your next exhalation we’re going to bring the legs down and reverse so now my left leg is coming across my right knee I’m going to inhale my left hand is going through the loop and my right hand is reaching around to the front side of my right leg again if you can reach the shins awesome if not and you can grab behind the hamstring or you know if you’re more just here just wherever you can kind of hold on and just sort of encourage the legs to come in to your torso and taking some nice deep inhalations here really expanding the abdomen breathing nice and deeply and exhaling releasing any tension or holding so sometimes I notice I’m holding there’s like a little bit of shaking in my legs and that’s okay just really working to see if you can let go of that tension and then exhale bringing legs down so we’re going to close with some spinal twists and you can keep your knees in the air with your feet on the ground we’re going to extend the arms so we’re getting a nice T shape so they’re expanded out to either side we’re going to take a nice deep inhalation and as you exhale drop the knees to your right side so really just allowing yourself to bring your knees as far down towards the floor as possible so if you can reach the ground great if you’re more like this that’s totally fine if you have a blanket or a pillow nearby I want to give yourself a little support underneath the knees I totally encourage you to do that really what you want to do is create a relaxed passive pose here so however you can really let go taking some nice deep breaths into your hips and spine and even as I was going into this twist I got a little pop on my low back which always feels nice kind of release some of the tension in that area if you want you can look out and gaze towards that opposite hand just kind of carrying that twist a little bit further throughout the length of the spine and when you’re ready we’ll inhale the legs back up and this time we’re going to exhale them over to the left so trying to keep both shoulders on the ground you can see that my shoulder is kind of starting to rock up so really we want the stretch to be more in the low back so if your knees don’t come all the way to the ground again that’s okay you can grab a little pillow and then if you want you can turn your head looking out towards the opposite arm taking some nice deep breaths here really breathing into your low back breathing into that stretch and then we’ll inhale little things back up and then we’re going to take this a step deeper so that was kind of variation one to your spinal twist the next variation is we’re going to extend the left leg we’re going to take the right leg and step it over so my right foot is on the outside of my left knee and from here you can help guide with your hand if you’d like we’re going to reach and roll wringing that knee that right knee all the way down without farside now you can really see my shoulder wants to come off the ground here so I’m going to try and come out of the twist just a little bit to bring it back into contact with the floor and then my gaze is going to go out towards my right hand so before we’re getting sort of this gentle stretch on the low back now we’re getting a much more dramatic twist and stretch not only through the low back but up into the middle back and the upper back as well staying with your breath taking those nice deep inhalations and exhalations you’re really giving yourself permission to listen to your body and stopping anywhere that it feels good to you not pushing too far and we’ll inhale bringing ourselves out of the twist extend that right leg and now we’re going to bend the left leg stepping the left foot outside of the right knee you can bring your right hand up to that knee to help facilitate the twist opposite direction then again I got a little pop there you might have heard it and then I’m going to look out towards my left hand and if you want to close your eyes and just focus on your breathing focus on the sensations you’re feeling in your back I’m working to keep that shoulder on the ground and inhaling bringing the knee up extending the legs out and you can bring the arms back down alongside the body and so that was it for our first part of our low back pain series thank you so much for watching this video I hope you got some good relief from the poses that we showed make sure that you subscribe to our channel so you can stay tuned for parts two through five will help show you some other great moves to help you with low back pain and just general back pain my name is Mira Hoffman you can find out more about me and my practice at Mara Hoffman com thank you again for joining
Video source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DK6ANE2xpWk