Yin Yoga for Back Flexibility - Beginner Yoga for Back Pain

Must welcome Yogis in today's Yin yoga practice .

We are going to focus on the spine .

So this practice is great for anyone who wants to improve their posture .

But it's also a very beneficial practice if you're trying to get into some deeper back bends or some deeper forward folds .

So Alaa , you have two blocks somewhere close by and our first as sauna that we will begin in is melting heart or puppy pose .

So , starting on your hands and knees , you're welcome , feel free here to prop something underneath your knees .

If it's hard and uncomfortable to stay this way , you can either fold up your mat or just put a blanket .

There , hips need to be directly over the top of your knees and you're simply going to walk your palms forward until the forehead and the chest can melt down to the mat .

Now , having the arms extended is your first option .

Another option you might enjoy would be to press the palms together and to bring the thumbs towards the back of the neck and the back of the head .

This will go a little bit deeper into the triceps and into the chest So it just depends on what feels best for your body today .

And while the belly does drop to the floor here in a pose like this , try to draw the low belly into the low bank .

So you're not hyperextending too much through the low back or not pinching and compressing this area .

We're really instead trying to focus on the upper back and upper body , draw your shoulder blades down your back , relax your neck and just breathe into the space .

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So Pelvis stays planted down to the floor and you can widen your elbows and your palms lifting through the chest and through the heart .

So think of drawing and pushing your shoulders back , squeezing your shoulder blades behind you as you pull your heart forward , breathe into the front of the body .

And if this feels like too deep of a back bend , you can always walk your arms further out in front of you to lessen the intensity of the pose .

Otherwise stay tall and lifted .

You're welcome to stay here for the second half of our time in this pose or you can progress a little bit deeper by lifting up into seal .

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One of the most nurturing as saunas we can do for our spine .

And so keeping the knees pretty close in towards each other as you bring your hips to your heels , arms extend back , forehead down to the mount .

So letting your spine naturally curve here , arms are heavy by your sides , relax fully in this pose .

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Let's roll up .

No , you can bring your legs out in front of you .

We'll make our way into caterpillar , which is a forward fold .

So feed are about hip with distance apart or so .

And this is a pose where you might want to have your two blocks somewhere close by .

You don't need them , but I do like to do this one with blocks .

So let yourself naturally round as you fold over your legs and a little bit of a bend is perfectly fine here in your knees .

You don't want to hyperextend or lock into the joints and you could choose to just let your head dangle and gravity will slowly lower you into the pose or if you're somewhere close , you can always use a block or two stacking them underneath so that you have something to rest on .

And I like to turn the palms to face up so that I'm not tempted to push or pull .

We really need this , this fold to be passive .

So gravity is doing the work for you and this is an intense a sauna for the spine .

Can you breathe into it as if you could breathe into every single vertebrae , engaging the entire posterior chain or stretching the entire posterior chain .

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So start to push your hands into the ground .

Keep breathing as you slowly lift up and unwind , inch by inch , taking your time .

Keep one block somewhere close by .

We're gonna lower all the way down onto our backs .

So two more poses before we move into Shawana , let's come into supported bridge , pushing the feet into the floor and lift the hips off the mat and you can make put your block underneath the hips underneath the tailbone either on its second or first height , really , whichever height feels the most comfortable and the best for you .

First option is to keep your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor .

This is a great way to recalibrate the spine .

If you'd like to get into the hip flexor , you can extend both legs out in front of you , just make sure it doesn't compress your lower back or cause any kind of pain in there .

If you had your legs extended out in front of you , you can bend the knees one at a time and we're gonna push into the feet to lift the pelvis and move the blocks out to the side , we won't need them anymore .

And before going into Shebas , now we'll take a lying spinal twist .

A great counterpose after all of those more intense uh Yin poses .

So arms can reach out to the sides and you can move your hips a couple inches to the right before letting both knees drop down over to the left , either keeping one thigh stacked over the other or you can wrap your right leg over the left one before letting the knees drop , try to keep your right shoulder blade in contact with the floor .

And if you had your legs crossed , you can unwind and float the knees back up and we'll go and switch over to the other side .

So you can move your hips over to the left and the knees will drop over to the right side of your mat , either keeping one thigh over the other or wrapping your left leg over your right one , try to ground and press your left shoulder blade into the mat .

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Take up some space , get comfortable here , palms face up to the sky , let your body relax fully with your spine leveled .

Just notice the effects of your practice on your spine .

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So you can wake back up , take a great big stretch lengthening your spine , reaching fingertips all the way down to the toes , roll to one side , use your arms to help yourself .

Come up and take a seat .

You can keep your eyes closed as you do this .

Just sitting any way that is comfortable .

OK ?

Closing your eyes once you're there joining the hands together at the front of your heart .

Let's close our practice with a chant of 01 time inhaling to chant big breath .

Mhm And I must stay .

Thank you so much Yogis for doing this Yin Yoga practice with me .

I would love to know what you thought and how this went for you .

Please leave me a comment down below and if you are new to my channel , please do subscribe .

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Thank you all so very much and I hope to practice again with you soon .