- [Amelia Thorn] - Today we're gonna move through about a 15-minute yoga flow to help create a release in the lower back. If you're walking around dealing with lower back pain, it's hard, when you're physically disconnected from your body, to become emotionally or spiritually connected to yourself. So let's work on releasing the body so that we can get back to connecting with ourselves. So first, we're gonna start in a little cat cow place, just kind of warming up the hips, warming up the low back. Now cat cow can look like straight up and straight down or you can start to move in a little bit more of a wild cat cow. So, you might take your eyes closed here and just start to breathe yourself around in this wild cat cow Letting your breath move in and out of you. And once you felt like you really moved through your low back, your upper back, you might start to move through more spinal waves, moving your entire spine like water all the way up and then reaching it all the way back. Now you might meet an upward facing dog and you might pull all the way back toward the child's pose, and you might find some of those cat cow moments right in between. Again, using your breath as you move forward, inhale. Exhale as you push your way back. Now come rest down in child's pose now. A little bit of a sway side to side here. Then you might walk your hands over to one side and the other. So right hand on top of left, and lean into that right shoulder, and then walk your hands over to that other side. Left hand on top of right, leaning in to that right shoulder. Really nice. Hands back forward, back towards that cat cow, maybe those spinal pigs. We're gonna find a puppy pose now or I like to call this a heart melting pose. So we're melting our heart all the way down towards the ground, hip up towards the ceiling. Hips right over the knees. A little bit like a puppy, just wag your tail. Chin up, melt that heart down to the ground. Good, swim your way forward toward the sphinx pose. Resting down on your forearms here. Energetically roll the shoulders up and back, hold those elbows towards the back of the room. A little sway side to side. Now you can always stop wherever you want in this practice. This is a really great place, if you're just hanging out, to feel that low back release and feel a nice stretch. You might even turn this into a seal pose, feeling that low back really start to stretch out and release. Nice. Now we're gonna lower all the way down towards the ground, arms out to a T. Roll onto your right shoulder. Left leg's gonna step right behind you. Let that head fall down to the ground and just roll back onto the shoulder. You'll hear, feel your whole spine really start to twist and just melt away. Good. Up and over to the other side. Nice, and back towards your stomach. Lift all the way up through that upward facing dog, push back to that child's pose. Now we'll continue on here. From here, we'll move on to that cat cow again. But we're gonna pull this into more of like a squishy cat. So you're gonna crawl your weight back into your knees, walk your hands back, crawl the fingertips over to one side, one hand right in front of the other, round through the spine. Feel that nice long pull in those deep, long back muscles. Just a little rock back and forth. Over to the other side. One hand on top of, in front of the other, pulling those big, long, deep back muscles all the way back. Good, back forward. Really nice. Crawling all the way back towards a Malasana squat. This is a really nice low back release, kind of hanging out here for a second. You might even find a little bit of a stillness right here, connecting back with that breath, connecting back with yourself. Nice, hips up towards the ceiling. Walk the hands out, finding a downward facing dog. Nice. We're gonna continue here, in this downward facing dog, pedaling through the feet for a few moments. Eventually lifting that right leg up towards the sky. Now you might take a little bit of a moment here, feeling that leg move around, opening through the hip, and eventually we'll take a big step all the way between the hands, lower down onto that back knee. Now, roll the shoulders up and back, melt forward into that psoas, right here. Now the psoas is really where we experience the most shortening and where a lot of our low back pain really comes from. So the more we can extend that psoas muscle, the better we'll release in our low back we'll get. So melt forward into that low lunge, hinge it on back, half splits, let the hip release, crawl it back forward. Let's hang out here just for one more second. Roll the shoulders up and back. Maybe even grab a hold of the arms behind you or of the hands around the front of the knee. Peeling back just a little bit deeper. Nice. Plant the hands down. Take a big step back, three-legged downward facing dog. Melt that leg back down. Let's move to the other side. Left leg lifts up tall. Any kind of movement you want on this side, a big step between your hands, lower down onto that back knee. Roll the shoulders up and back, melt into that psoas. Even if this is the only pose that you come back to when you're feeling some tension, that anxiety, you need a little bit of movement, this is a great pose to come back to. Melt it on back, half splits. Let that hip release. Let's do that one more time on this side. Maybe shake it up just a little bit. You might interlace fingers behind the back, you might open the chest up wide. Feeling that back really start to open and bend now. Good. Come all the way back. A big step back. Three-legged downward facing dog. Melt that leg back down. Right leg lifts back up tall this time. A big step on the outside edge of that front hand. Now, you might stay up high just taking some little circles here, in this lizard pose. You might lower that back knee down, peeling that knee out to the side. We're really focusing on the outside edge of the hip. Trying to stretch that out. Now, lots of options here, but again, focus on bending the back, stretching through the front of your body. Nice. A big step back, downward facing dog. Let's move over to the other side. A big step on the outside edge of that front hand. Hang out here if you'd like. Maybe some circles rolling that around. Pushing that arm all the way against the knee, opening that wide. Nice. A couple deep breaths here and back out. Really nice. A big step all the way back. Exhale, lower that down to the ground. Nice. We're gonna move on to a little bit of a slow down section here. Right leg lifts up tall, pulling and drawing that right knee forward, a pigeon pose here. Roll the shoulders up and back. Peel everything back, feel everything. Open up to the sky. And when you're ready, surrender on forward. Now you might stay right here. This is a great spot to hang out. This is a great space to decompress. You might even take a little bit of a twist here, reaching one arm through, lifting an arm up, or planting that down on your back. Pigeon pose is a really deep release so you might feel a lot of emotions bubble up right here. Just let it happen. Go ahead, bring that back leg all the way forward. We're just gonna take a little twist towards the back here. Twisting through that spine, roll the shoulders down. Nice. Counter-twist towards the other side. Nice. Just rock your way forward. Crawl the feet on back, pop the hips up and back, downward facing dog. We've got that other side. Left leg lifts tall, drawing through and forward, lower back on down, roll everything on and back. When you're ready, surrender on forward. Now again, staying on the forearms, maybe taking that little bit of a twist here, lifting that arm up tall or letting it come all the way behind. Starting to feel that release to your body and also through your mind. Really nice. Hurdle that back foot all the way forward now, take a twist towards the front, and take a twist towards the back. Nice. Wrapping up here. Swing those legs up and around, wrap the arms around the fronts of the legs, take your forehead down to your knees and really pull yourself together while you pull yourself apart. Nice. A few big rocks all the way up and down onto your back, rolling all the way through every vertebrae here. You might take a plow pose, you might take a happy baby, you might even take a little bridge pose here. Just feeling that back lengthen out and release, lowering back down. Extend the legs out long. This is a great place to end your practice in a Shavasana, letting everything melt away. If you'd like to move yourself more to your bed to take your Shavasana and find a meditation there, it's a great place to end this practice. Or you might find another couple ways to really center that breath. But for now, let's end this practice with a deep breath in. Exhale back out.