7 Yoga Poses For Low Back Pain
Video
Description
Yoga For Low Back Pain: Celebrity Yoga instructor Kristin McGee walks through 7 yoga poses to help decrease tightness and relieve pain in your lower back.
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Transcript:
MARK: Hi, I’m Mark Perry the creator of BuiltLean
and today I’m joined by celebrity
yoga instructor Kristin McGee who’s to
my left and this is our second segment
in kind of a series, which is covering
yoga for men.
And so one of the biggest challenges I find
men have
is tight lower backs,
and even experiencing pain in their lower backs.
Specially in New York City,
where a lot of people are kinda sitting at
your desk all day,
you know, a lot of people experience chronic pain
even men and women.
And so, we’re gonna go through seven
yoga poses
to help decrease the tightness in
your lower back.
And with that said, I’m gonna hand it
over to Kristin McGee.
Kristin: thank you Mark. It’s so
true, so many people come to me
and come to yoga looking for relief
for the pain in their low backs.
And, it’s sitting at the desk all
day shortens our hip flexors,
weak abdominals can lead to lower back pain,
stress in general, we just holding carry
that tension in our lower back
so this is not only 7 great poses you
can do for your lower back,
but also a little sequence you can do.
so it’s a really great way to kind of
remember this
and add these poses to you repertoire
at the end of the day,
you know, three or four times a week
if you can
and you’ll really start to
notice some difference.
Now, of course check with your Dr.
before you do anything, make sure you are not
you know pushing yourself too hard,
but I’ll take Mark through this gentle
Yoga plow, we start with the Boat Pose,
he’s gonna sit down on his hips
and this is to strengthen your lower
abdominals, particularly the
transverse abdominals which is that
deepest layer of lower abs.
You can see he supported himself here
with those lower abdominals.
And that’s like a girdle that supports
your lower back and spine.
You are gonna hold this for about
five breaths,
trying to breath in and out
through your nose,
and then he’s gonna lower his legs
down on the floor
and sit up kinda straight out of your
lower back,
you can bend your knees
if you need to,
keep that same activity in your lower
abs and start to hinge forward on your hips
until a forward bend.
So tight hamstrings can pull in the lower back.
So here we’re stretching the hamstring
and the lower back. Again, hold each pose
for maybe five to eight breaths
really listen to that gentle breath through the nose,
and exhale out the nose.
Then come out and sit, and take
a seated twist.
His going to cross his right foot over
his left knee,
left over outside right knee, and turn
to the right.
So getting that mobility in the spine,
really stretching and twisting
such a great motion for the back,
and then you can come forward
and you’re gonna repeat on the opposite leg.
and then I’m gonna show you after the twist,
a great way to open up your hips.
And this is kind of a precursor to that,
because already he’s getting a little bit
into his internal hips here.
And come forward, and place that top
ankle over the bottom knee.
It’s an ankle to knee pose. And you feel the stretching
that outer right hip.
This an ankle to knee pose, a really great way to
get that pressure out of the hips which can
really intensify low back pain.
And then try the other side,
and again, maybe 3-5 breaths eight breaths
however long you can hold the pose
and feel comfortable, and after you’ve done
the external hip rotators,
you’re gonna move into the front of the hips,
so now Marks gonna come around on all fours,
and we’ll start with some Cat Cow Pose.
This is an excellent way to really warm up
your back, inhale hard and arch to the ceiling.
Look up and drop your hips, control it with your
lower abs,
specially if you have a lot of low back pain, and
then round your back and hollow,
and again only do it if it feels
comfortable for you
but you can do a few cycles, so now go
back to the horse, way back horse,
and then come to the angry cat. After a
few rounds of that, just stretch your
quads and your flexor, so step your
right foot between you hands,
release the toes and back, so you are
on the top of the foot,
and come up onto your finger tips
or take your hands to your front knee,
and it’s gonna stretch out the hip
flexors, the quads, all of that area
that really gets tight and short when
you’re sitting at a desk all day long
we’ll repeat on the other side
and finish up with a beautiful
relaxing pose….
