Yoga Stretches for Back Pain Relief, Sciatica, Neck Pain & Flexibility, Beginners Level Workout

new videos every [Music] day psyche truth life wisdom hey guys Jen hman here and today I have a very special video for you that's part of my series for yoga to relieve your back pain I'm going to show you some really simple stretches that you can do to relieve your upper back pain can also help to Target pain in your neck and shoulders and some of these exercises are going to be great for relieving pain in your lower back as well so go ahead and favor this video so you can come back and follow along with me and even if you can't practice with me today keep watching this video because I'm also going to be sharing some of my top five tips for helping to reduce your back pain now so let's get started we're going to start seated and most of the poses that we're going to be doing right here at the beginning are going to be seated so just find yourself a comfortable seat no matter where you are and you can follow along with me today so we're starting from a comfortable seat and it's great to note that we do spend a lot of our time sitting sitting at our desk sitting on the couch even sitting in your car sitting in traffic I know a lot of you commute and have a long drive to work and I'm wondering do you live close to your job or do you live far away you spend a lot of time commuting it's different for everybody but these stretches that I'm going to show you are really awesome pretty much anywhere anytime you can do these stretches to help relieve your back pain I'd also like to start by telling you my first tip for reducing back pain is to think about your breath and to breathe deeply consciously so that's where we're going to begin with our exercise today just by taking some deep breaths so start by breathing in through your nose feel your lungs EXP expand and feel your belly expand as you fill up with [Music] air then starting with your abdominals compress your belly in and breathe out through your nose feel your ribs and lungs compress all the air out and try again breathing in filling up your lungs and breathe from your belly as you [Music] exhale and continue like this taking a few more deep conscious [Music] breaths and the great thing about breathing deeply is that it forces you to open your chest and expand your ribs in all directions so it forces you to take a stronger more supportive posture and posture is one of those things that contributes to back pain so just by simply taking some deep conscious breaths you automatically start to improve your posture and reduce your back pain take one more full breath in and [Music] out see if you can stay connected to this deep sense of rhythmic breathing throughout the rest of this video we're going to get into some movement Now by moving your head from side to side lowering one ear to your shoulder and then to the other side so we're incorporating some movement just allowing the joints in between your vertebrae to start to get lubricated and starting to feel a gentle stretch on either side of your neck you can move at your own pace just noticing where it feels good notice where it feels [Music] tight and with each movement you may be able to stretch a little bit farther now go ahead and bring your right ear to your right shoulder and we're going to pause here deepening into this stretch reach your right hand up and over to the outside of your head then bring your left hand to your left shoulder now gently pull your hands apart creating a little traction and adding to this stretch and slowly begin to roll your chin down towards the floor it's almost as if you were going to sniff your armpit which of course you wouldn't do then slowly start to turn your chin up towards the sky and just notice how this little movement changes the stretch as you feel it in some different places come all the way back to the right side and slowly come up to Center notice how that left side of your neck feels stretched and opened then lower your left ear to your left [Music] shoulder then gently bring your hand up and over and your right hand to your right shoulder and apply a steady traction so you deepen the stretch along the right side of your neck and sometimes for people it's difficult to bring your hand here to the side it may be easier to bring your hand in the front and that can work as well just want to have a little assistance to help you take this stretch deeper then roll your chin down towards the [Music] floor and slowly roll your chin up towards the [Music] ceiling and let's come back to Center and bring your head all the way up nice so now that you're feeling a little more lengthened from side to side we're going to come back to that movement bringing your chin down this time and up so look up looking down and up working at your own pace according to what serves your body the [Music] most this time as you look down pause here then bring your hands behind your head into interlace your fingers then let your elbows drop down towards the floor so now the weight of your arms will apply that gentle traction along the back of your neck don't forget your deep steady breath [Music] one more full breath in and a full breath [Music] out then release your head and come all the way up to a seat you can roll your head in a circle going all the way around and here I'll give you my second tip for reducing back pain is to move your body more our joints get stiff and our muscles become weakened when we sit still all the time change directions of your circle [Music] so if you remember the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz He was stuck in that standing position for so long when they finally found him it was hard for him to move his joints and that's how it is with our bodies when we don't move we become stiff and achy so whatever you do you even if it's just these simple head and neck stretches or taking a walk getting up and walking around the office bring your head back to Center any kind of movement you can incorporate into your day it's going to help your body keep limber and strong let's move down into our shoulders start to roll your shoulders back and as you do hug your shoulder blades together and spread your chest wide rolling your shoulders [Music] back and let's reverse directions so this time we roll to the back up and [Music] forward so let's just really think about your shoulder blades you want to get those shoulder blades moving as much as you can let's reverse directions again going to the back feel your shoulder blades squeeze closer to your spine and move farther apart as you make these big circles with your shoulders let's go forward one more time this is also going to build a little bit of strength in your traps your upper back back muscles so they get tired and weak from sitting and so this is going to help wake them up and get them strong all right so now we're going to move into a side body stretch so reach your right hand way over to the right and reach your left arm up and over if you're sitting in a chair you can bring your hand down on to the seat of your chair to give you some support while you lean up and over so wherever you are however you're seated think about your left hipbone grounding down towards the Earth so this is your anchor then stretch with your left arm reach all the way through your left fingertips so that that the entire left side of your body is activated and stretching lengthening you should feel some sensation here and let's come all the way up and switch sides so bring your left hand over to the left or onto the edge of your seat if you're s sitting in a chair then reach your right arm up and over at the same time that you ground down with your right [Music] hip reach all the way through your fingertips so that even your elbow is straight that's going to intensify the stretch and that's good so you really want to get into it don't be scared creating a nice opening along the right side of your body reach as far as you can then we'll come all the way back up and we're going to get into a little movement again here I call this a full body swoop so you're going to start to the right side and just swing your body your torso through the center and come to the left and just sweep around from side to side be nice and gentle with yourself no need to get crazy but just allow that movement to reverberate through your spine and stretch all those muscles that get tight and [Music] tired so again you're moving at your own pace take your time and just enjoy the movement last time and then come to Center and just stretch your body forward you'll probably feel a little stretch in your hips that's a good thing our hips get really tight so a little stretch is nice we're going to start coming back up to a seated position now but I want you to go really slow and think about stacking your vertebrae one on top of the other so you go slow your head will be the very last thing that comes up as you unroll your spine [Music] and when you come all the way up right you'll notice that you are in a really great healthy posture and that brings me to my third tip for reducing your back pain is to think about your posture remember when your back starts hurting and things get stiff sitting upright mindfully is going to help build the strength of your deep core muscles and help you to reduce your back pain by having a healthy and supportive posture so from here we are going to do a little cat and cow seated so you're going to start by opening your chest squeeze your shoulder blades together on your spine you can even lean your body forward a little bit open your throat then round your spine tuck your chin into your chest and rock back on your sacrum so you stretch your spine and come forward again take an inhale here a big breath in and as you start to round your spine exhale come forward on the inhale move back on the exhale so again you can move at your own pace honor the rhythm of of your own [Music] [Music] breath last time [Music] here and come all the way back up stacking your spine stack your vertebrae nicely as you come all the way up into that healthy and supported posture the more you can practice this upright alignment the more you're going to build a muscle memory and build the strength of these muscles so it's going to get easier all the time let's take a Twist reach your left hand across to your right knee and bring your right fingertips behind you lift up on your spine sit up nice and Tall then twist your heart towards The Right Use Your Arms to give you some traction to help you get deeper into this twist keep sitting up tall and keep breathing [Music] deeply then make your way back to Center and let's move to the other side reach your right hand across to your left knee bring your left hand behind you take a big breath in as you sit up nice and and tall and as you exhale twist your heart towards the [Music] left so the more you can sit up straight the more space you will have in between your vertebrae to twist even more of course you don't want to force anything thing don't go beyond what's comfortable for your body but find the edge your maximum [Music] twist then come back to Center and from here we're going to move onto our hands and knees so you'll come into a tabletop position so in your tabletop make sure that your shoulders stack directly over your wrists and your hips stack directly over your knees then we'll take this cat and cow again so just like when we were sitting down on your inhale lift your chest lift your tailbone squeeze your shoulder blades to towards your spine and open your throat then as you exhale round your spine by tucking your chin to your chest press your hands into the floor to help you stretch your spine up towards the [Music] ceiling inhale to lift your head and your tailbone Towards the Sky spr spread your collar bones apart then exhale and round your spine press the floor away so you get a nice stretch along the back of your spine so we'll take this a few more times move with the rhythm of your own breath as you inhale to open and exhale to [Music] close [Music] we'll finish up with one more round full inhale and full [Music] exhale and we'll come back to Center so we're going to take another twist here so sweep your right arm up towards the sky so you twist your spine [Music] open then lace your right arm underneath your left arm bring your right shoulder all the way to the floor and you can bring your head down too so now you have a Twist in your spine and stretching into your upper back reach across with your right fingers really [Music] stretch and slowly press yourself back up nice and easy and bring your right hand back down to the floor and we'll switch sides so sweep your left arm up open through your [Music] chest and then sweep your left arm underneath your right arm bring your shoulder to the floor and bring your head all the way [Music] [Music] down [Music] and let's slowly come all the way back bringing both hands down we'll take a small child's pose here so sit your hips back back towards your heels bring your forehead towards the floor reach your hands forward as far as you can so you'll have a gentle stretch through your shoulders as much as you can let your hips sink down towards your heels [Music] feel the length that's created along your [Music] spine keep breathing deeply as you settle for a moment in this restorative [Music] pose [Music] at the end of your exhale start to press yourself all the way up draw your hands in and roll up your spine just like we did before slowly start by stacking your vertebra one at a time one on top of the [Music] other and your head will be the last thing that comes all the way up and you'll find yourself again in that nice strong centered posture now we're going to make our way onto our back so sit your hips over to one side so you can bring your legs around in front of you and if you're on a yoga mat like me you might scoop forward a little bit but if you're just in your living room or somewhere you can just lie down right where you are so once you are on your back bring your feet flat on the floor and your knees up to the ceiling and I'll mention my next tip for reducing your back pain is to do some self massage so you can use your hands to massage your traps the tops of your shoulders if that's an area where you get a lot of tension so you can just just squeeze those muscles and it can really help to increase the blood flow you can also squeeze the muscles in your neck if you have a lot of headache tension this could be helpful another great self-massage technique is to lay on a tennis ball or a pair of rolled up socks so you can put the tennis ball underneath your spine anywhere that you have tightness or tension and laying on that tennis ball will also help to put some nice pressure in there and help relieve some tension foam rolling is another great way of self-massage that helps to relieve tension and ease back pain so finding ways to massage yourself is an awesome way to reduce back pain and our next stretch here you're going to bring your right ankle over your left knee and press your right knee out towards the side once you have this shape in your legs draw your left knee in towards your chest and you can reach to grab around around your knee so this is going to stretch into your hips a little bit so maybe you're wondering why are we stretching our hips I thought this was for back pain but the truth is that your glute muscles are one of the largest muscle groups in your body and so when those muscles get tight they have a direct effect on what's happening in your spine so keeping your hips stretched out and opened up is really going to have a powerful impact on the health and alignment of your spine so we'll switch to the other side just release your left leg down and bring your right leg down and just notice the difference here and then cross your left ankle over your right knee press your left knee out towards the side and draw your right knee up towards your chest try to reach for your knee to grab and pull your right knee closer towards your chest and I'll remind you again about taking those deep conscious [Music] breaths it's our first tip of the day and the most important one we should remember all the time taking slow full deep breaths will help you to alleviate tension in your body and help to reduce your mental and emotional stress so I can't say enough about the power of conscious breathing so just take that big full breath in expand your belly feel how good it feels to breathe and exhale just release any tension any blockages just let it go and let's slowly bring your right foot all the way back down and bring your left foot down and just feel your hips more open and we'll take one more twist here before we finish today so extend your left leg all the way down to the floor bring your right knee back up towards your chest give it a little squeeze and twist your right knee across to the left side of your [Music] body so twist all the way over I got a little pop in my back I think that's a good [Music] sign you twist as far as you can then open your right arm out to the right side and you'll get a gentle stretch across your [Music] [Music] chest [Music] and let's slowly unwind coming back to Center roll all the way back onto your back and extend your right leg all the way down then bring your left knee up towards your chest squeeze it [Music] in and twist your left knee across to the right side of your body as far as you [Music] can then extend your left arm out to the side for a gentle stretch in your [Music] chest [Music] for [Music] and let's slowly come back to Center rolling onto your back and extend your left leg all the way down let both arms come down by your sides let your palms rotate up towards the ceiling let your breathing be slow and deep and gently close your [Music] eyes take a moment here to notice how your back feels differently than when we first [Music] started let yourself rest and we'll finish with our final tip for relieving your back [Music] pain is just simply to favorite this video and come back and practice a few times a week I'm sure by now you can feel feel the benefit of this [Music] work so the more often you can practice the more it's going to reduce your pain and if you can remember some of these easy stretches you can do them anytime anywhere [Music] feel free to stay and rest as long as your body [Music] needs and whenever you're ready to come back up start by rolling over onto one side coming into a comfortable fetal [Music] position you can take a moment to rest here feeling nurtured in this space and to come up use your top hand to press down and push yourself up to a comfortable seat seat so as you sit all the way up return to this nice tall supported posture that we've been practicing today and notice how it's easier now than when we first [Music] began bring your hands to a prayer position at your heart and bow to the wisdom and love Light Within your own self give yourself some gratitude for taking this time to stretch and take care of your body and if you haven't leave me your comments below I'd love to hear how this practice is helping you like to know what other ways we at psych Tru Tru can help you feel better in your body visit my website Jen Hillman dcom to learn more about me and my practice subscribe to the psyche truuth channel to get access to all of our videos thanks for watching feel [Music] better [Music] [Music]

Channel: PsycheTruth

Views: 5,453,085

Keywords: Yoga for Back Pain Relief, Yoga for Back pain, Yoga for Flexibility, Yoga for Beginners, Beginner Yoga, Yoga for Neck Pain, Yoga class, Sciatica, Neck Pain, Back pain, beginners, flexibility, yoga workout, at home, Jen, Jen Hilman, psychetruth

Id: Q00u-60XM9Y

Length: 40min 41sec (2441 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 02 2015