Yoga for Back Pain

Namaste, welcome to Yoga & You. I am Rasika. Today we are going to be practicing yoga for back pain. Now back pain could be due to various issues, it could be due to weight gain, due to bad posture, weak hips or stiff hips and weak legs. If it is any of these issues, it can easily be managed through a consistent yoga practice. However, if you face persistent pain in your spine, it is best to seek medical help. Today's practice will be a very gentle flow for the spine which will help to alleviate any tension or stiffness in the spine. Let's get started. You might need two blocks for today's practice.

Alright, let's start our practice in a tabletop position with my favorite, cat and cow. Best posture according to me to help alleviate any tension in the spine initially and to warm up the spine. Inhale and arch your back, exhale and round the back. Inhale and arch the back, exhale and round. Inhale and arch, exhale and round. Now inhale, find neutral spine and then sit back on your heels and we will find a moment in child's pose.

Now in child's pose there are two things that you can do, either have the knees together if you're looking for more support for the back. So if you're having some lower back discomfort it is best to bring the knees together and then bring the head down. But if you're looking for more space then take the knees lightly wider and come all the way down. So whatever it is that you feel like today, do it. Breathe.

Alright, now slowly come back up into the tabletop position. From here we're going to come into bird dog. So you're going to extend the right leg back and up and the left hand forward in line with your hips. Okay, from here we're going to tap the toes and the fingers down to the mat and back up, one after the other. Okay, five times, let's go. One, tap, lift. Two, lift. Three, lift. Four, lift. Five, lift. Bring the hand down, knee down.

Let's switch sides. Extend the left leg back and up, right hand forward, and let's go. Tap, lift. One, tap, lift. Two, tap, lift. Three, keep the core engaged. Four, tap and lift. Five, hand down, knee down.

Take one round of cat cow here, inhale arch, exhale round the back. Inhale come back to a neutral spine and come all the way down to your belly. With your hands by the side of your chest, we lift up into cobra, three times. Roll the shoulders back and down. Inhale, lift up. Exhale, down. Inhale, lift. Exhale, down. Inhale, lift. Exhale, down.

Now inhale and lift yourself up. Lift the hips up and send the hips back into child's pose. Inhale, come forward into upward dog. Hips down, chest lifted. Roll the shoulders back. Exhale, come back into child's pose. Inhale, lift the hips up and come forward into a tabletop position.

From here we're going to come into puppy pose to stretch out the shoulders and the chest. Extend your hands forward and drop the chest and the chin down. Hips remain in line with your knees, hips over your knees. Breathe into your shoulders. Keep dropping the chest further and further down. Feel like someone is sitting on top of your mid-chest, or rather behind your mid-chest. Breathe deeply. One more breath.

Alright, now slowly bring your hips forward and down. You will land up in sphinx pose. Elbows under your shoulders, your forearms are on the mat. Keep the shoulders away from the ears, so draw them away from the ear. So as you do that and as you drag the elbows towards the back of your mat, you will feel this in the lower back. At the same time you will also feel a lengthening in the front body. Stay here and breathe. This is a lovely posture for anyone who has suffered from any herniations in the spine or if you've had any kind of back injury, this is a great and gentle way to strengthen your spine. Stay and breathe. One more breath.

Slowly come down, go ahead on the mat. Now we're going to work on the front of the shoulders a little, the anterior deltoids, and we're also adding a twist to it, a gentle twist. Take your right hand out to the right side, shoulder level. Bend the left knee and roll towards the right side of your body as you bring the left foot behind the right leg like so. You can rest the head down if you're comfortable. If it's too much on the neck, you can slide a pillow under your head.

Good. Now from here, you can take your left hand all the way back behind your lower back and take a half-bind here. Once you do that, you want to think of constantly rolling towards the back of your body. The more you go towards the back body, the deeper the twist gets and the deeper the stretch in your right shoulder. So stay where you feel this is enough and breathe.

Good, slowly now extend that left leg. Roll back onto your belly. Stay there a moment, just allow that blood rush to return to the right shoulder, and then we'll do the same on the other side. Extend the left hand out to the left side. Bend your right knee and roll over towards the left side of the body, and like you did on the other side, take your right hand behind. You can take a half-bind, and for those of you who are very flexible you can take a full-bind as well, and then you can continue to roll towards the back body if you're comfortable. Learn to breathe into the sensation and not react to it by fidgeting or constantly wanting to come out.

Lovely. Now gently come back, release the leg, come back onto your belly, and from here let's press back into child's pose. So lift up, lift the chest, lift the hips and come back into child's pose. Exhale. Inhale, come forward, bring the hips down into a cobra or an upward dog, and exhale, move back into child's pose. Good. Now inhale, come up into a tabletop position.

Now we're going to practice the same puppy pose but we're going to add in a little element to work on the triceps a little bit. You will need two blocks for what we're going to practice now. If you don't have yoga blocks at home, you could use hardbound books or boxes, tubs, anything that serves the purpose which is steady and stable.

Okay, so you're going to place these blocks shoulder width apart. I'm going to use the medium height of the blocks. You could use the lowest height if you're very, very new to the practice and you have very stiff shoulders, or if you're very flexible, you could use the tallest height as well. Bring your elbows to the center of the blocks, bring your palms together. From here, just walk the knees back so that they're in line with your hips, and then you're going to drop your chest in, chin towards the back, as you lift your hands up and bring them to the nape of your neck. The thumbs will touch the upper back or the nape of your neck.

Keep dropping the chest down. The way to feel this the most in the triceps and the lats is by pressing down into your elbows. So press the elbows into the blocks and feel for squeezing the elbows towards each other. That's going to help you feel it in the right places. Breathe. Long, deep exhalations, focus on longer exhalations. Exhalations help you release. So with every exhalation feel for releasing one thing that does not serve you. Any negativity that was brought into your energy, feel it, this past day or week or month, and let it go. Stay for another breath.

Now slowly lift your head up, bring the hands forward again. Very slowly release the blocks away and now you're going to come all the way down to your belly. Come up into sphinx pose, what we did previously, same thing. Glide the elbows towards the back of your mat, feel that in your lower back. Inhale. Exhale, all the way down. Go ahead on the mat.

Bring your hands by the side of your chest. Tuck your toes, engage the core and see if you can press up into a plank pose. If that's not happening, then you can move through cobra and come into downward dog. Otherwise, let's try and find that strength to push up to plank. Exhale to downward dog, Adho Mukha Svanasana. Drop your knees down, come into tabletop position.

From here we're going to work on the back of the shoulder. We worked on the front of the shoulder in the previous one, now we're going to work on the back of the shoulder. Inhale and lift your right hand up. Exhale and thread the needle, loop the right hand through the left. Bring the back of your right shoulder down, rest the right side of your head down, and then once your right shoulder has landed on the mat, lift the left hand up. Take it behind your back, find your right inner thigh and feel for twisting the spine open. Twist that left shoulder open more. Stay here. This is a beautiful posture to target the back of the shoulder, and the gentle twist also allows access to the lower back area.

Good. Slowly bring that left hand back under your shoulder. Inhale and lift that right hand back up into that open twist, and exhale come back into tabletop. Let's repeat on the other side. Inhale, lift the left hand up. Exhale, thread the needle. Bring the left side of your head down and take your right hand all the way back. Feel for reaching the left inner thigh and once you do, you can use that to actually twist open a little bit more. Slowly bring that right hand under your shoulder. Inhale, lift that left hand back up. Exhale, come back into tabletop position.

From here, let's take it into an upward dog. Okay, so all you're going to do is take the hands lightly forward. Take your hips down and find your upward dog position. Exhale to downward facing dog. Inhale, exhale, drop your knees down, come down to seated.

Bring your feet out in front of you and you're going to hug the thighs in close to your chest. Now take your hands around, wrap your hands around as though you're hugging your knees, and from here you're going to allow your thoracic spine, your mid back... okay, so feel for taking the mid back behind, so the chest kind of moves away from you, and bring your forehead towards the knees. You're creating separation between the upper vertebrae here. Relax the face.

All right, slowly lift up. Now continue to have your legs here. You can just take the feet apart about hips width, parallel to each other. Take your hands back behind, fingers pointing forward. We come into a reverse tabletop position from here. Inhale, lift the hips up. If comfortable, send the head back. Exhale, come down, and from here hug your knees close to your chest and then roll down onto the mat on your back. So as you do that you will land in this Pawanmuktasana, hugging the knees close to your chest.

Over here you can also rock your body side to side. It's a great way to massage your lower back. It feels really good, especially if you have some lower back discomfort. Good, and then bring your feet onto the mat.

We'll work on Setu Bandhasana, one round. Inhale, lift the hips up. Slide the shoulder blades under, maybe interlock your fingers under your body. Lift up, feel the strength in your spine. Squeeze the glutes together and stay, three, two and one. Slowly release your hands and come down one vertebra at a time. Very good.

Now bring your feet together and roll the knees open into butterfly. So you're going to bring your hands to your thighs, to the tops of your thighs, and feel like you're pushing your thighs down. So feel for pushing the thighs down away from you, like you're sending it towards the other side of the mat, and when you do that you will feel the lengthening from the crown of your head, and this really helps to decompress the spine. And gently release, bring the knees back together.

You can take your feet apart as wide as the mat and bring the knees together in a constructive rest pose. This is a lovely way to settle the SI joint. You can relax here and spend your shavasana in this position for as long as you require.

Thank you so much for practicing with me today. Back pain, although it is very common, can be very, very uncomfortable. I hope this practice gave you some relief from the pain that you're having. Thank you.