10 min Morning Yoga for Beginners - Yoga for Your BACK

Good morning .

Thank you for joining me .

My name is Cassandra and I'm gonna take you through this beginner friendly short morning yoga practice to help you improve your posture and to also alleviate back pain .

So , really working on the spine , very simple yoga poses and this is definitely a sequence that you can do on a regular basis if you know that you do tend to suffer from either lower back , mid back or upper back discomfort , no props are required and we're gonna begin in belo a child's pose making this a more restorative version of the pose .

So , rather than having our knees wide , we're gonna keep our knees about hip with distance apart , big toes together to touch and you can rest your hips over your heels , keep your arms back behind you and just bring your forehead down towards the mat , local authorities .

And as you settle into this first pose , you can find a breath rhythm that feels easy for you to maintain .

Throughout our practice , inhaling and exhaling through your nose and specifically breathing into the back body .

So when you inhale , feel your shoulder blades spread apart a little bit more try to fill up the space at your lower back .

These morning practices are also a great opportunity for us to set an intention for the day ahead .

Take one more full breath in here and staying as you are just grab a hold of your heels with your hands and we'll transition into rabbit pose .

All you're gonna do is lift your hips off of your heels and sort of roll towards the crown of your head .

Keep grabbing a hold of your heels or of your ankles or your calves .

And we're just trying to stretch along our spine .

Not too much pressure on your head .

Here , it's mostly on your knees and let's release .

Come up , table top , poses , palms underneath your shoulders , knees underneath your hips .

So you might need to shift a little bit , spread your fingertips wide as you inhale , drop your belly , lift your gaze , curl tailbone up , cat and cow .

Let's reverse this motion .

Exhale , push the floor away from you as you round and drop your head .

Keep going here a few more times at your own pace .

Inhale and exhale round .

Draw your belly button in towards your low back .

Breathe in big stretch through your chest .

Exhale last one here and now come back to a neutral tabletop pose .

Pull your lower belly in really flatten out through your lower back and you're going to extend your right leg up and back behind you roll that right hip in So the front of your thigh is facing the mat and notice if this made your lower belly drop , pull it in , really hug and squeeze through here .

So strengthening is definitely something that plays a huge part in proper posture and alleviating back pain .

We're just holding .

If you'd like to make this a little more challenging , you're going to reach your left arm forward again , be super mindful about not dropping your stomach and caving through your lower back , one more full breath in here and bring your left hand back to the mat .

Step your right foot forward into your low lung .

Your knee is over the top of the ankle , push your feet into the floor , go ahead and lift on up .

Same thing .

Tailbone lengthens down .

Lower belly draws in really think of lifting through the sides of your waist , getting a nice stretch through your hip flexor , maybe add a tiny little back bend just by shifting your gaze up , broadening through your chest and now bring your hands back down towards the mat .

Let's just add a little twist .

I'm gonna keep my left hand down right hand to my right thigh as they push against that thigh .

Looking over my right shoulder twists are really nurturing for the spine .

They can really help to alleviate whenever you are experiencing pain .

Great to do also at the end of the day , yes , back into your table top pose .

So bring that right knee back next to the left one before we do this on the other side , let's add thread the needle .

So another spinal twist the other way , right hand reaches underneath , you keep your hips over your knees .

As you bring head down to the floor , lean your hips a little bit more over towards the right .

Push your right arm into the ground and maybe straighten your left arm up over head .

Also pushing down into that left palm .

I want you to try to really feel this between your shoulder blades through your upper back .

Breathe into the space you're creating , try to relax your neck one more big breath in here .

Bring your left hand back in towards your face first .

So you can push into the floor , lifting on up , tabletop , pose on hands and knees , realign yourself balancing table on the second side , left leg stretches back behind you , roll that left hip down , draw your lower belly in , flatten out through your lower back .

I like to imagine that I'm trying to balance a tea cup or a bowl on my lower back and I don't want the water to spill .

You're welcome to just hold here for a few more breaths or you can make this more challenging by reaching your right arm forward , bicep along the ear .

Think of stretching your hand further away from that back , left foot , right hand to the mat , low lunch step your left foot through to the top of the mat , your knee is over your ankle .

Find that foundation first and then go ahead and lift up on Jan Asa , not collapsing here , really maintaining this integrity through the core as we press our hips forward and lift up , stretching through the sides of our waist .

Maybe a tiny little back bend here as you arch and lift up and circle your hands down .

Add your little twist , keep your right hand under your shoulder , left hand onto your thigh and just push and resist against it .

As you look over your left shoulder , let's release tabletop pose .

We'll find thread the needle on the other side .

So make sure you still have your hips over your knees .

And we're going to reach and thread that left arm underneath us .

Shoulder and ear come down to the floor , press your hips back to the left , push your left arm into the ground and maybe straighten your right arm to also push your right hand into the floor , breathing in and out through your nose .

Yeah , you are setting the tone for your day , maybe try to think of one word that you can use as your intention today .

Something that captures how you want to feel what you want to focus on what matters to you right now .

Bring your right hand back in towards your face , push into the floor , lift on up table top pose and now let's bring our hands a couple inches past our shoulders .

We'll find downward facing dog tuck your toes under and lift your hips up and back .

So you can absolutely keep a very generous bend in your knees here .

The legs don't need to be perfectly straight .

Especially first thing in the morning , we tend to be really tight through the hamstrings .

So go easy on yourself , come forward into your plank poles and we're gonna lower all the way to our belly , feel free to lower your knees down first .

If you prefer , point your toes back .

Three little baby cobras as you inhale chin , chest and your hands lift off the floor , squeeze your shoulder blades back , exhale , lower back down .

Two more just like this .

Inhale , lift up , push your feet down , exhale to lower last one and release , press back .

Just come to kneel here .

So sitting in your hips onto your heels , add a little twist , left hand to your right knee , right hand behind you open through your chest , facing forward , keep your left hand over your right knee and just reach your right arm up and over a little side bend , coming back up and through to center .

Let's twist to the other side , right hand to your left knee , left hand behind you try not to slouch or round here into your side bend .

Keep your right hand where it is , reach your left arm up and over and release , take a seat in any way that is comfortable to you .

In my short morning yoga practices .

I tend to skip Shabana in case I fall back asleep where we can close by joining our palms together at the front of the heart , close your eyes and really think of your intention for your day maybe by settling on a word and let's chant together one time .

Breathe to chant inhale .

Mhm mhm I must say thank you so very much for doing this short morning yoga practice with me .

I hope you feel really good and that this worked all the muscles along your spine to help you prepare for whatever kind of day you're about to have .

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If you are new here , do leave me a comment before you go to let me know what your intention is and hopefully you'll tune in again tomorrow morning for more morning yoga .