10-Minute Yoga for Back Pain

I'm Kate Laing, and I'm here for your 10-minute yoga for back pain workout. Okay, we're gonna start out simply with some breathing today. So I want you to find a quiet space, and hopefully you have a mat to use. Hands come to the knees. Sit nice and tall for me. Close your eyes if you're able to, and just big breathing. Inhaling in through that nose , exhaling out through the nose. Keeping that breath internal, continue. Inhaling in, filling up those lungs . And exhaling to deflate them. And one more breath just like that. Inhaling in. And exhaling out. Now keeping the hands on the knees, we're gonna do a little bit of a flow, extending and bending your spine to open it up a little bit. So, for extension, we'll inhale, and lift the crown up towards the ceiling, arching our back slightly. And then we exhale, hollowing out the abs and rounding that low back. Inhale, lift. Exhale, round. Inhaling to reach that crown up. This should feel good. And exhale to round back. And one more just like that. Inhale up. And exhale back. Coming to your center, let's bring one hand down to the mat. The opposite arm will come to the ear. And we'll do a little side bend or what we call in Pilates, mermaid. Lifting high in those sit bones. I want you to really anchor that opposite hip as you bend, bend, bend a little bit further. And then using the abdominals, bring yourself all the way back up. And let's alternate sides. So again, lifting. So this hip will anchor now. Reaching up and over. Keeping that hip anchored on that mat, getting a really nice stretch in the side body. Oh, it feels so good. And bring it back up. And let's do it one more time like that. Lifting to reach. Opening up those hips a little bit. And lift. One more time, just like that. Up and over. And lift. Now we'll add a little bit of upper body rotation with that. So coming back to the original side, we lift up and we bend over. And now rotate that top arm back just slightly, looking at the ceiling. We come back to our side bend, going on a little bit deeper, and then lift all the way up. On the other side, our arm lifts and we bend. We rotate up. Ooh, that's a deep stretch. And bring it back. And back up again. One more set, guys. Lift to bend. Open, back and return. Last side. Lift to bend. A little rotation, bring it back and return. Wonderful. While you're here, let's go into a nice side twist and really open up that spine a little bit. So arms are gonna go out to the sides. And I want you to lift nice and high on those sit bones. So just nice, tall spine. One hand past the knee. The other is behind your spine. And we're gonna look over that back shoulder, keeping our spine tall. In this position, I want you to take three big breaths for me. Inhaling again through that nose . Exhaling out through the nose . And inhaling in . And releasing out. And inhaling, filling those lungs with air. And exhaling to deflate them. Ooh, that was a deep twist. Bring it back to center and let's do it on the other side. So again, lifting up nice and high, getting very tall for me. Hand passes the knee. A little pressure into that knee and we look over that back shoulder. You can even rotate your palm to the back wall to go a little bit deeper. And three big breaths, inhaling in, exhaling out. And two more, inhaling in, exhaling out. And last one. And out. Lift up. Come back to your center. Let's just try a nice forward stretch, reaching those arms forward, keeping the sit bones and hips back into that mat. Walk those hands out to the left. You'll feel this on the opposite side. Back to your center. And one more stretch. Just walk the opposite direction And bring it back to center. Scoop up. Stack nice and tall. Let's come to all fours, so hands and knees. So back to a different variation of cat and cow. So flexing and bending that spine to really open up the space between each vertebra and give you some movement. The hands go nice and wide, starfish fingers, below the shoulder. We don't want to lock our elbows, so a little gentle bend. Knees are directly below hips. We'll inhale and reach the crown and tail towards the ceiling . And exhale, round down . Inhale and lift for your cat and cow. And exhale, arch. Three more here. Really opening up that sacral area. And down. Lifting as you inhale. Arching from that navel. And last one here. And exhale, round. Bringing yourself back to a nice flat back or neutral spine. We're going to next thread the needle. So I want you to bring one arm up towards the ceiling. Inhale and twist, dropping the shoulder, dropping the ear towards the mat. And stay here for two big breaths. Again, inhaling in. Exhaling out. Reaching actively through those fingertips. Inhaling in and exhaling out. Okay, come back to your center. One side might be a little bit tighter than the other. The elbow lifts, and we'll do it on the other side. And thread that needle, reaching long. And out. One more breath here. Inhale in. And exhale out. Good, come back to your tabletop position. And after you've thread the needle on both sides, I want you to press yourself back, starfish fingers again to an extended child's pose, pressing those shoulders down and back, feeling a nice stretch in those shoulder blades. Bring yourself up, tuck your toes under, coming to a nice, long plank. Then walk or jump your feet forward to the edge of the mat. Bring yourself up for a nice, big swan dive . Arms out to the sides, flat back, stretch out those hamstrings. Forward fold, head heavy, melting into the mat. Halfway lift, hands to the shins, crown and tail lifting towards the ceiling. And fold again , rounding over. And press into those shins and lift up. And exhale, round . Last time. And lift. Great job guys, and round. To lift. Fold yourself all the way over. Let the hands find that mat again. Let's keep one leg forward and bring one leg back to find a nice runner's lunge, opening up that hip flexor on the leg that's long. So really letting yourself balance in this position, getting uncomfortable that you have some tension in those hips. The hip girdle is so related to low back issues. We really need to stretch those hip flexors and take care of them, okay? So in this position, if you can't go any further, if you're having a hard time staying here, just breathe and stay present. If you're able to go a little bit deeper, let's open it up to a nice rotation, reaching the top hand towards the ceiling. And breathe three times deeply. Getting a really nice stretch. And now that back of my glute is also opening up and connecting to my low back. Hand down to the mat and let's switch sides, bringing the opposite hip forward and knee forward. My back hip flexor is again, open on this side. Bring this hand in slightly and open up for that nice twist. Three breaths here. Maybe you can go a little bit deeper on this side than the other. Be mindful to just listen to your body today. That hand's gonna come back down to the mat as well. And let's flow a bit, shall we? So elbows bend to the sides, hugging in tightly for a nice chaturanga. We come down to the mat, curl our toes underneath. Hands again are underneath the shoulders. And I want you to press back and up for a nice updog. Inhale, curls toe underneath. Press yourself up and back into a nice downward dog. And pedal for me four times. Three, two, and one. Good Find that nice, high plank again. Second round. Bend at the elbow. Nice, tight chaturanga. Uncurl those toes. Press up into your updog. Come back to a neutral spine. Curl again. Press yourself up to plank. And then back to that nice downward dog. And bring that left leg and fly it high for your three-legged dog. Reaching the opposite heel down towards the mat. Your top leg, that foot's flexed. And bend that knee slightly and open up that hip, getting a deep stretch and breathing here. Bring that knee back down. And bring yourself back to your plank. And come down to your chaturanga. And back up to your updog, pressing into the hands and lifting that chest up. Curl the toes underneath. Find your nice, long plank. And press back to your downward dog. Now the left leg's gonna fly high, or your right rather. Reach that heel to the mat. Flex that foot on top. Bend that top knee and open up that hip. So we're doing one on each side. And three breaths. Bring yourself back to a centered position. Both feet come down. Find that nice, long plank for me. Here we go, chaturanga. Hold it one little inch off that mat. Uncurl the toes and lift for your updog. Curl the toes underneath. Bring yourself back and reach back into your downward dog. Let's wag that dog's tail a little bit. So just shift your hips from side to side ever so slowly. Try to reach those heels down towards the mat. Really deep hamstring and low back. Let's do it one time in each direction, wagging that dog's tail. Come back to your center. Good. Let one leg come back up for that three-legged dog. And we'll bring it right through for your wounded pigeon. So bending that knee, bring the knee in line with your hip bone and bring the foot down to the mat. Uncurl your back leg and keep it nice and straight for me. If you're very tight, this is probably as far as you want to go today. If you care to go a little bit deeper, I encourage you to breathe a little bit before you make those moves. So stay here for one solid breath. Then bring yourself a little bit lower. And breathe again. This is releasing that hip and low back. And if you're able to, maybe you surrender into that mat. We bring ourselves out of our wounded pigeon ever so slowly. Wake up that leg. Bring ourselves back. Reach back to your downward dog and let's flow one last time. Find that chaturanga. Uncurl the toes and lift to your updog. Curl the toes under, solid plank, and reach back to downward dog. Again, wag that dog's tail. That leg flies high and we thread it through for wounded pigeon, lining up the bent knee with your hip bone. Back leg nice and long. And each side can be a little bit different. So if you're not able to come down to the mat on one side versus the other, that's okay. Just listen to your body. One big breath here. And we come down. And again, really surrender into this posture. We want it to bring you to the edge where you're feeling that stretch but no pain. And one more big breath, hands to the mat. We press up, curl the toes underneath. And find that nice, long plank, reaching our hips high and anchoring the heels to the floor. One final downward dog. Now walk the feet forward, criss-cross the legs and come to a seated position, bringing your hands to heart center. Namaste. Thank you for joining us today.