Yoga For Low Back Pain (20 Min Practice Along)

hi i'm kathy welcome to your yoga for low back pain i wanted to make this video primarily for the people that are in low back pain or have a kind of chronic pain in their low back a lot of the muscles that surround the low back that cross the hip joint into the legs will get really tight and locked up and there's over 20 muscles so it can get really kind of confusing to understand which of the muscles are tight and which are limiting your mobility so today's class will be primarily on your back you could consider it like a gentle yoga class that really serves to start to unlock all of the muscles that kind of attach at the low back and also strengthen at a deep level your core if you have a blanket and a long strap i know i'm showing a short strap but i just don't have my long one today but i'd love for you to grab something that you can put around the sole of your leg and stretch your leg out so something long enough let's get started we'll get started on our backs and if your chin is lifting up and your neck is compressed here you can slide your blanket underneath your head place your feet hips distance apart knees hips distance apart and just bring your fingers or your hands to your frontal hip points the bony part that sticks out of the front of the pelvis that's pointing up to the ceiling and what i want you to feel here is that you have a natural curve in your lumbar spine underneath you there's space right so i want you to take your hands to your frontal hip points take an inhale and as you exhale you'll actually lift them up towards your chest and that will flatten your low back that's called a posterior tilt here now release that so bring your natural curve there and then we'll keep going every time you exhale you'll bring your frontal hip points up towards your chest i really just want you to flatten your back so however that makes sense to you and then release it and we'll keep going so flatten your low back frontal hip points reaching towards your chest and release and now we'll add in pelvic floor muscles so that's essentially your kegel for us ladies and just basically holding in your pee for uh both men and women so take an inhale here as you exhale flatten your low back draw your pelvic floor muscles in and up so all of the pelvic floor muscles and the deep core muscles just release we'll keep doing these these are pelvic floor tilts or pelvic tilts will help to strengthen your deep core muscles which will help to stabilize both your pelvis and your spine which is one of the main functions of the core so in today's class we'll be primarily doing some core work here in this deep way and stretching the muscles around the low back and the hip joint let's take a few more here and we'll take two more here belly pulls in to the spine as well okay so keep your low back flat bring your legs up now so they're at a 90 degree angle and we'll reach our arms up as well so bring your arms here fingertips point up to the ceiling so these are called dead bug it's a dead bug exercise it's classic core strengthening exercise so good for your low back here you'll straighten your left leg and straighten your right arm now do your best to keep your low back flat and kind of i like to envision like a lever like pulling back up and press your belly button in towards your spine and we'll switch sides so this does take some coordination here just think opposite leg opposite arm so right arm and left leg straightens low back remains flat and come back and then we'll switch pull back and then just observe and notice here if your low back has a tendency to come off of the mat as you move your arms and legs belly pulls into the spine as you come back to our starting position working our deep core muscles inhale lengthen exhale belly button presses to your spine essentially engaging your transverse abdominis deepest corset muscle i'll keep going here and last one release and just let your knees kind of go side to side okay so next i want you to take your right toes and slide them behind your left ankle there and i'm just kind of loosely wrapping them and then you can just relax and let your right knee just go out to the right here just breathe so a lot of the stretching maybe you don't feel much of anything or maybe it's very subtle that's okay when you're in low back pain you don't want to force anything and you need to send signals to relax things and get out of this space of trauma and even if you're not in acute pain if your kind of ebbs and flows these are all great exercises so i don't want you to be concerned you're not doing enough you're doing plenty here another couple breaths now from here slide your right knee out to the side a little bit more straighten your left leg and place your hands again on those frontal hip points and just notice if you're tilting and leaning over to the right i want you to take your hand onto the left hip point and pull it down to the left so you're actually kind of opening the hips here breathe those of you that are familiar with yoga you could think of this as like a supine tree pose another breath if this is also too much here on this right leg you can slide a rolled up blanket and place it right under your right knee okay we'll bend our right knee bend your left knee slide your left foot behind your ankle left knee goes out to the side so i've got my hands on my hips here just for awareness we're just gently opening up the inside of the left leg so those adductors and so your inner thigh muscles and take another breath begin to bring your left knee out to the left we'll straighten the right leg and again notice if your hips are kind of leaning over to the left take your hand to the top of your right hip and pull it down to the right and again you could place your rolled up blanket underneath your knee and breathe i like to think of opening in this way as easing into your body taking a more gentle approach take one more breath and we'll pull the left knee up bend both legs and this time you will just let your right knee go out to the right and then pull it back up so legs are still hips distance apart here out to the right and back up and again i'm kind of stabilizing my pelvis here by just placing my hands on those frontal hip points to minimize the movement through the pelvis and really try to isolate it more in your thigh bone just in the leg going out to the side and back and will switch so in a way you could think of these as if you've ever done clam shells those exercises that work your glute medius this is a more gentle kind of version of that we'll take two more out to the left and back in and out to the left and back in good now from here i want you to hug your right knee into your chest and you'll take your strap and again i want you to have a longer one uh place it around the sole of your right foot and you can bring it to the inside of your leg and i just want you to pump your right leg bent and straight now i'm at a 90 degree an