Yoga For Low Back and Hamstrings | Yoga With Adriene

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- Hi everyone! Welcome to Yoga With Adriene. I'm Adriene and this is Benji, and today we have a practice that focuses on the low back and the hamstrings. I think you're gonna love it, it's super stretchy, low to the ground, and sure to make you feel good. So hop into something comfy and let's get started. (upbeat music) Alrighty, my friends, welcome. We're gonna start seated because today's practice is all low to the ground, nice and supportive. So come on down, you're gonna come to the center of your mat. If you want to kick it old school, you can move the fleshy part of the buttocks aside, just really feel your sits bones kind of ground down. Hats off to you for taking time for yourself, we're gonna jump right in by taking a big, deep, loving breath in through the nose. Exhale, relax your shoulders, and you're gonna come into a little position here with the knees up and the feet kind of grounded on the earth. Then take your hands back to support you, fingertips can turn out here towards the back edge of your mat. And again, another big breath in. Maybe lifting the chest, the heart a little bit, and then exhale, relaxing the shoulders down. And then one more big, loving breath just to kind of ground down in this moment. Awesome, then when you're ready, we're gonna allow the knees to fall gently to one side, any side, and pause there. As you do this, you're gonna think about drawing the thigh bones, this femur bone here, up into the socket on both legs so you kind of find a little lift, and take a deep breath in. And use your exhale to come through and take it to the other side. And same thing, when you get to the other side, pause here and best you can, your thigh bone, imagine this thigh bone kind of hugging in and it just kind of lifts you up, you find this kind of gentle lift from the pelvic floor. Take a deep breath in. And as you exhale, come back to center. Now you're just gonna rock and roll, back and forth, and as you do this, your bum will come closer towards your heels. Benji's already sleeping. (chuckles) We just started. And then eventually, you're gonna come all the way to your back and your sits bones are gonna be close to your heels, knees up, and if you want to center yourself in the mat, you can. And then three nice long breaths here. Inhaling in through the nose. Maybe feeling the belly rise as you breathe in. And relaxing the weight of your body into the earth as you breathe out. For your next two breaths, maybe close your eyes, trust me, trust yourself. Trust the video. And feel your back supported by your yoga mat. You know, what if this practice could help change the course of your day, could guide you to feeling more balanced. We're gonna stretch you out today so that you can feel closer to your optimal health, because when you feel good, everything's better. (laughs) Brilliant, quote me on that. (chuckles) But it's true, right? When you feel good, you're in a better place to help others, to do your best, to spread love, whatever it is you're going for, right? And it'll be different for everyone. Okay, so knees are up, we're gonna really ground down through the left heel and draw it a little bit closer to your left hip. Feel that strong connection through all four corners of your left foot and from there, we'll slowly take the right foot up towards the sky. So rather than focusing on straightening the right leg here to start, send your awareness, your mind's eye, to your low back, what's going on. See if you can scoop your tailbone up towards the sky, let your low ribcage get really heavy, your abs kind of turn on here, (snaps fingers) hey-oh, and your low back becomes nice and flush with the mat. So start with the foundation, right? That which is touching the earth. Left foot nice and planted, low back nice and flush with the mat, now we can start to pay attention to this extended leg. Go on and bend the knee generously here to start, and you can take your fingertips and if they can, maybe interlace them behind your thigh. If they don't reach, you can maybe pause the video and grab like a dish towel just to kind of give you a little extension, or if you have a yoga strap, awesome. A neck tie works, a small rope, whatever. Okay, but make it work here, don't get discouraged. Alright, then same action as before, imagine your thigh bone really dropping down into the hip socket and here we kind of have gravity to help us. And wherever you are today, take a deep breath in and as you exhale, see if you can draw your knee closer towards your face. And if the leg starts to straighten, awesome, if not, no worries, keep it nice and bent. Then let your shoulders get heavy, keep the chest open here, and we're just gonna point and flex the right foot as you deepen your breath, nice and easy. Tuck the chin slightly to lengthen through the back of the neck, and now, again, if you feel comfortable, close your eyes. Maybe rotate the ankle one way and then the other. Great, take one more cycle of breath here, option to peel the nose up towards the thigh bone here, just lifting, creating space in the spine. Breathing, breathing, breathing. And then releasing it on an exhale, nice and slow. Okay, keep your right foot lifted, you're gonna bend your right knee, from here we're gonna take the hand and we're gonna grab the outer edge of the right foot. If the hand doesn't make it, you can use the dish towel or the strap here, you can also just hook your fingers on a pant leg or clasp your right shin. So there's always options, use the mantra find what feels good to help guide you moment to moment, really make it your own. It's all good if the legs are tight, you're not alone. (chuckles) If the low back is tight, you're not alone, that's why we all selected this video. Alright, coming into a little Half Stirrup Posture, your version, when you're ready. The action here is again drawing that right thighbone down, right hip crease down with it, and then sending the sole of the right foot up towards the sky. Left hand can rest gently on the belly or the ribcage, and we're gonna slowly drop the right shoulder down, allowing the right hamstring to get a good stretch here as you again pull that right hip crease down towards the front right corner of your mat. Keep your left knee pointed up towards the sky, so we're working to create full body awareness here always. More loving awareness with each practice. Take one more deep breath in here, see if you can soften the skin of the face. Awesome, and then slowly release, right foot comes to the earth, it plants. Same action as before, we're gonna take the knees over towards the left side of your mat. Great, hands come to the low ribs here or you can take them out, Texas T, whatever feels good. Take a deep breath in here, low back can come off the mat here for sure. If you need a little more, we're gonna take the left ankle and cross it over the top of the right thigh. Try to keep both feet active, so not relaxed here, but a little energy in the toes. And then returning to the breath here, you can close your eyes or just gently soften your gaze, and feel your breath as you continue to extend the inhale and lengthen your exhales. Alright, draw your navel in just a bit, and from center, begin to roll it back up, both feet planted firmly on the ground. Good, scoop your tailbone up, let the low back get flush with the mat, low ribs get heavy, and one more time kicking the right leg up. This time, flex your right toes actively towards your face or your third eye, and you can repeat what you did before, interlacing the fingertips behind the hamstring or taking a modification with a homemade prop. Or this time, we might try to slide the hands to the calf or if you're ready, you can take your index finger and thumb to the big toe. Sorry, it's index finger, middle finger, and thumb, and bring it to the big toe and breathe here. Use your foundation, navel drawing down to the spine, abs turned on, left leg firmly planted. Find your breath. Awesome work, take one more cycle of breath here. Option to peel the nose up toward the top of the thigh. Good, and then slowly release. Right foot comes to the ground, check it out, right knee, just right knee's gonna open towards the right for a little Half Baddha Konasana. So you can keep the left leg firmly planted or we can start to extend the left leg out long so you're in kind of like a Reclined Tree Pose here. And resist the urge to try to force things here, just kind of notice and use your breath and take a more restorative approach. So left foot can be active or relaxed, I'll leave that to you. Hands can rest on the low ribs or if you're feeling it, take the arms all the way up and overhead. Again, little Reclined Vriksasana, Tree Pose. Take the deepest breath you've taken all day, big inhale. Good, exhale, bring everything back, knees come up, feet return to the earth, we'll walk the heels up and take it to the other side. One cycle of breath in and out here, inhale lots of love in. Exhale, lots of love out. Walk the right heel up towards the hip, plant it firmly, dig into your right heel, feel your center turn on, find your foundation, and then when you're ready, from there, take the left leg up high. Keep the left knee bent here to start. Again, imagine that thigh bone getting heavy, dropping down in the socket here, so lots of awareness. Great, and then maybe we interlace the fingertips behind the hamstring. Maybe you were taking a modification here. Good, and then just take a second to point and flex the left toes, breathing. And then maybe rotating that ankle one way and then the other. And pay attention, notice what's going on. I'm noticing my left ankle is a little sticky. And after a little articulation in the foot and ankle, you can work to straighten the leg just a little bit if it feels right, if not, no worries. Peel the left hip crease down, breathe, breathe, breathe. Excellent, for this last cycle of breath, option to lift the nose towards the top of the thigh. Feel this excellent kissing of the low back to the earth, should feel good, hips drawing down in the socket, lots of awareness in the whole body. And then slowly release. You can bend your knee, keep your left foot lifted. Left foot lifted, say that five times fast. And we're gonna take the left hand to the outer edge of the left foot as you're ready. Pay attention to the sensation in your left hip, feel that awesome compression in the left low back. And when you're ready, take it to your version of Half Stirrup. So the stirrup is here, of course, on the arch of the left foot. Your pose does not have to look like mine. Just work with your body here today and use your breath. If you're not breathing deep, then take a step back and let's enhance that. Remember the breath always come first. So left hamstring now getting some sunlight. Notice if you've lost awareness in your right leg, maybe the knee's coming out or the foot has come unplanted, reestablish. You should be feeling a strong, beautiful kind of like pressure point in the left low back, upper hip, should feel good. Let's take one more breath to kick the left heel a little higher towards the sky. Relax the left shoulder down. And then use your exhale to release it gently, left foot comes to the earth. Inhale in deeply here. And on your exhale, melt the knees towards the right side of your yoga mat. Let the hands come out Texas T or let the palms gently rest on the low ribs. Tuck the chin again, lengthen through the back and the neck. And breathe, taking the right ankle across the top of the left thigh if that feels right for you today, if not, just hang here. If you haven't already, maybe try a couple audible breaths, really anchoring your mind, the busy mind, in the sound of your breath, with the sound of your breath. And then from center, activate the core just a bit, let that be what brings you up back through. Alright, take a deep breath in. Long breath out. Ground through your right foot and when you're ready, inhale, send the left leg up high. Activate the foot by flexing the toes towards your face so your left heel is reaching up towards the sky. It's okay to bend your left knee generously, right? Find what feels good. Try to stay in the moment with your body. Let whatever sensations show up any given day. Let them be, right? That's the way we really progress in our practice anyway in a nice, sustainable, feel-good way. So no forcing, no pushing. So, that said, find your bind here on the left side, maybe slide it up to the calf today, maybe you take your peace fingers, the middle finger, index finger, and thumb to the left big toe, draw the left shoulder down. Work to extend your inhale here and elongate your exhale. When we work with the breath in this way, kind of prioritizing the breath first, you're going to reap more benefits of your yoga practice. For the last cycle of breath here, feel free to peel the nose up towards the thigh bone, inhale in deeply, and use your exhale to release. Left foot kisses the earth, we open the left knee wide. A Half Baddha Konasana here, Supta Baddha Konasana. You can extend the right leg out long. So for some, that hip's just gonna open. For others, you're gonna get caught here, so you're gonna need to breathe real deep and let gravity slowly, slowly, slowly open that hip up. Should feel a nice little compression in the left glute here. Hands can rest on the low ribs or you can take it to the Texas T or, if you like, big inhale to stretch all the way up and overhead, soften your gaze, crawl the shoulder blades down towards your low back, or maybe close your eyes here as you take a couple deep, loving breaths in and out. In and out. Pay attention, notice what you feel. Alright, on your next inhale, my darling friend, think about breathing wide, whatever that means to you. Like breathe into all four sides of your torso. Feel the ribs expand and then use your exhale to ground through center and slowly bring it all the way back up, bend your knees, hug them all the way up into your chest. Yeah, baby, and then slowly we're gonna rock onto the left side. Rock onto the left side. Okay, so for this next beat, we're gonna end with a little Sleeping Vishnu Pose, or a reclining leg stretch. So I've guided you to come onto your left side. Logistically, if you can't see the video and you want to switch to your right side now, go for it, otherwise, just use the sound of my voice that's kind of low today, it's like Austin allergy season, so I'm like doing my best Lauren Bacall today. Okay, so use the sound of my voice to guide you either way, here we go. So we're coming onto the left side here and I'm gonna start by inviting you to extend your left arm out long and rest your left ear on your left bicep, your left shoulder. Then straighten the legs, and if you already feel like, "Whoa, I'm gonna tip over here, girlfriend," draw the navel in and up, find that little connection, that Uddiyana Bandha, that centering, right fingertips on the earth. So here we are, just like kind of a Sleeping Vishnu, take a deep breath in, just gather your bearings, and I'll take you through a couple different steps here. So you're already on step one here, so smile. (chuckles) Feel the side body get long as you pull your right hip crease kind of down and start to activate the feet, so press into your heels. Yes, excellent. So inhale in here, exhale again from center, we're now gonna lift up, bend the elbow, fingertips come forward, you create a nice little stacking of the left shoulders, excuse me, over the left elbow. Neck is still nice and long, we use all of our Yoga With Adriene practice and our Find What Feels Good kind of awareness to keep the neck nice and long always. And then to start, I'm gonna invite to pull your heels back, bend your knees just a bit, so nice little even bend. Great, if you're feeling good here, take a deep breath in, exhale, reinforce a nice centering here by hugging the low ribs in rather than splaying out. That's something else, right? And then we're gonna bring the right knee up, work to grab the right big toe, maybe it happens, maybe it doesn't, then use this action we've been doing all practice of drawing the right femur in, hugging that right hip crease in, to slowly experiment with straightening the leg. So I'm not forcing it, I'm doing this from the hip socket. I'm activating and pulling in with the femur, muscles engage, and I create a little stretch here. So you can also maybe hook one arm here, you can grab a pant leg, or you can just work in a nice bent leg position, being like, yo, this is where I'm at today. Find what feels good. So wherever you are, now we're gonna bring our awareness back to our foundation. Notice if you've collapsed here, we all should, you know, if we're learning something new, it's all good, you can only spin so many plates at once. But now bring your awareness back, try to reinforce this hugging of the low ribs in and nice, strong base. Maybe from here we extend the leg out long. And maybe if it's too hard to balance here, you do all of this in the reclined position. So take a second to experiment, and if you feel a little wobbly, you're not alone. Hug the low ribs in, draw your navel in and up. Great, take one more deep breath in and try to think of this as a full body thing, so what can your shoulders do? What can your feet do? Is there anything else you want to do here to refine this shape, then take a deep breath in. And then exhale with control, release it, slowly press up, and we're gonna come to the other side, nice and slow. So you get a little compression on the left glute, left low back. If you are also wearing a mic pack, it could be a good idea to move it to the other side right now. If not, you're golden, baby. Here we go, second side. Last little bit before we take a couple calming breaths and call it, so go ahead and keep a nice active breath, try to stay curious, let's go. On the other side, we're gonna lay the right ear on the right arm extended, extend the legs just so you get a little sense. If the hips are tender, you're not alone here, you can put a little towel or a blanket underneath the hips if you want to practice this, but you feel a little tenderness in the hip. Alright, just gather your bearings here, bring your left fingertips up. Inhale in, from center, hug the low ribs in, nice and easy. You're gonna press up, come to the right arm. Now that you've done it on one side, maybe you keep it nice and low, maybe that's better for you. Alright, and then just for to start, we're gonna bend the knees and the hips back, nice active feet if you haven't already. Hug the low ribs in. Find that connection to center. And then here we go, bend the left knee, bring it up, maybe we grab the big toe, maybe you grab the outer edge of the foot just like Stirrup, maybe you take another modification, and inhale in. Exhale, from the hip socket, remember, hip socket rolls out, femur hugs down and in. And then from there we find extension, extension, extension. Cool. Breathe. Notice how this side is different. Left upper arm bone needs to rotate out. Then maybe you extend the right leg out, strong legs. Breathing deep here. Neck nice and long, not hanging. If you roll onto your bum, enjoy the humility of it all. I love yoga for that reason too. Trust me, yoga has taught me a lot of things, humility is definitely one of them, especially going on YouTube every week of my life. So if you're at home and you topple over, take that practice as well for what it is, humbling. Alright, and then maybe from here, you choose to take it all the way down to the ground. Just playing, oh gosh. (laughs) And then just notice if you've lost sight of your breath here. Let's see if we can reinforce a nice, beautiful, long breath here for a couple more cycles. In and out, in and out, in and out. Good, inhale, use your exhale to slowly release. Come all the way back up. Criss-cross applesauce, bring it. I was just around kids, so that's why I'm doing the criss-cross applesauce. But that's for our inner child in all of us. Just come upright, any seated position actually here will work, one where you can get the spine nice and long. And once you have the spine nice and long, make it even taller, even longer. And then just take a gentle twist to one side, any side. Take a deep breath in, smile, life is good. And exhale, come back through center. Take it to the other side, inhale, lift the corners of the mouth, gently smile, life is good. And then exhale back to center, bring the palms together at your heart. Close your eyes. You can soften your breath now and just let it return back to its natural rhythm. Relax your shoulders. Let's take one quiet moment here before we seal the deal. Just to be still and be with ourselves. Sweet, awesome work. So one of the coolest things, one of the coolest discoveries, I think, of my lifetime is that when you do Yoga With Adriene, you connect to yourself, but while you're practicing, you're inevitably also connecting to millions of people across the globe. This is cool, so just in case you need a buddy today, please know you have tons of buddies all around the world, me included. From my heart to yours, I wish you a wonderful rest of the day wherever you are. Let us know how this practice went for you in the comment section down below. Let's take one more deep breath in together. And we'll close by bowing the head to the heart and saying "Namaste." (upbeat music)
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Channel: Yoga With Adriene
Views: 3,569,896
Rating: 4.9290366 out of 5
Keywords: yoga for back pain, yoga for low back, yoga for lower back pain, yoga for low back pain, back pain, yoga for hamstrings, low back pain, yoga for lower back, yoga for spine, low back, yoga for flexibility, sciatica stretches, back pain relief, yoga for hip pain, yoga for back, free yoga videos, yoga at home, morning yoga, home yoga practice, 30 days of yoga, yoga for beginners, beginners yoga, yoga, free yoga, yoga with adrienne, adriene mishler, online yoga
Id: 2xF_teT2_V0
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 29min 0sec (1740 seconds)
Published: Sat Oct 05 2019
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