Yoga For Upper Back Pain | Yoga With Adriene — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00Hey, everyone. Welcome to Yoga with Adriene. I am Adriene. Today, we have
2. 0:04an awesome sequence for the upper back. I rarely meet anyone that doesn't
3. 0:10complain about upper back achiness or stiffness, shoulder pain, craving
4. 0:14neck relief.
5. 0:16So this is a sequence that you can incorporate to your daily routine, your
6. 0:20daily practice. You can return to it five days a week, seven days a week.
7. 0:24So be sure to favorite the video so you can return to it easily, because I
8. 0:28think this is something that everyone can benefit from. So let's get to it,
9. 0:32hop on the mat, and let's learn this upper back sequence.
10. 0:36Okay. So to begin, we're going to start in a nice cross-legged position,
11. 0:50sukhasana, or the pose of ease here, just pressing into the sit bones and
12. 0:56slowly lengthening up through the spine. I'll bring the palms to the knees
13. 1:00here, and jumping right in, I'm going to inhale, loop my shoulders, draw my
14. 1:05shoulder blades in together and back, as I lift my heart.
15. 1:08Now, I don't have to crunch the neck here. Ouch. Just going to keep it nice
16. 1:12and open, but I am actively drawing my shoulder blades in and together and
17. 1:16down, shoulders away from the ears.
18. 1:19Take a deep breath in here, long belly, tops of the thighs draw down. Then
19. 1:23on an exhale, I'm going to slowly draw my chin to my chest, draw my naval
20. 1:28back, allow my shoulders to round forward, kind of get a little booty
21. 1:32massage here as I roll through the buttock and allow the weight of my head
22. 1:37to drop over.
23. 1:38Now, I'm going to hang here for a couple breaths, catching the weight of my
24. 1:43palms to the knees here and really just breathing, feeling that upper back
25. 1:50stretch, creating a little bit of space here with each inhale and each
26. 1:58exhale.
27. 2:07Then rolling back up, I'll loop the shoulders, rolling through, pressing
28. 2:11into sit bones, again lifting the heart, drawing the shoulder blades in
29. 2:16together and down, and really creating space between the ears and the tops
30. 2:21of the shoulders. Take a deep breath in. Smile. Relax your jaw. Then send
31. 2:27it back down.
32. 2:28I like to call this Mr. Burns' posture here, but we'll put a positive spin
33. 2:35on it here. Breathe some space into that upper back. Then inhaling, back up
34. 2:51to center, head over heart, heart over pelvis.
35. 2:55Okay. Sitting up nice and tall, I'm going to send my fingertips forward
36. 2:59like I'm swimming, crossing them over, swim around, and then I'm going to
37. 3:03interlace my fingertips behind the back.
38. 3:06Again, a good marker is to keep the head over the heart center, the
39. 3:09sternum, the sternum over the pelvis. Just notice whether maybe you tend to
40. 3:13sit back like this, which is normal, or maybe you're overcompensating and
41. 3:18shifting the heart forward. Let's try to stack is nice and tall. I'm going
42. 3:22to interlace the fingertips, and then I have a couple options here.
43. 3:25If I can . . . We'll turn to the side here so you can see. I can bring the
44. 3:28palms together. Check that out. If that's a little too intense at the
45. 3:35moment, I might keep the wrists nice and square, but I'm actively drawing
46. 3:39the shoulders down, away from the ears, shoulder blades together, kind of
47. 3:42wringing it out in the upper back here, getting rid of that achiness, kind
48. 3:47of massaging that area of the body.
49. 3:50What will help with that is, of course, taking a nice, juicy, deep breath
50. 3:56in and a nice, soft sigh out. Let's do one more deep breath in. Notice my
51. 4:04neck is getting a little involved here. It feels good. Slowly release and
52. 4:11palms come back to the thighs.
53. 4:15Okay. So now, I'm going to come to an extended child's pose for a couple
54. 4:20breaths. So I'm going to open the knees nice and wide. Big toes are going
55. 4:25to kiss together here. You can pad these if you need to here. If this is
56. 4:29too much extension, hyperextension in the knees, you can put a little
57. 4:32blanket here between the knees, a little cushion.
58. 4:35Then I'm going to sit up nice and tall. Inhale. Reach the arms up towards
59. 4:39the sky, and then exhale. Keep the spaciousness in the side body as I dive
60. 4:44forward into this extended child's pose.
61. 4:48Fingertips are going to reach towards the front edge of the mat. Palms are
62. 4:53going to spread wide. Notice I'm still looking forward here, drawing my
63. 4:57shoulder blades in together and back, shoulders rotating externally away
64. 5:02from the ears. Breathing here, and then slowly bowing forward, opening up
65. 5:09the shoulders, melting the heart to the Earth.
66. 5:13Forehead kisses the mat, and the arms don't go limp here or lazy. I kind of
67. 5:18stay active here, reaching fingertips towards the front edge, connecting
68. 5:23hastabana [SP], that hand/Earth connection.
69. 5:26Shoulders are alive as I breathe into the upper back. Then breathe into the
70. 5:35mid-back. Then send a nice deep breath to the lower back. Then slowly, when
71. 5:49you feel satisfied, drawing a line with the nose, looking forward, and then
72. 5:55using the palms to walk it back up.
73. 5:59Okay. So now, we're going to come to all fours here, tabletop position. I'm
74. 6:07going to walk my right palm in towards the centerline here and, on an
75. 6:12inhale, send my left fingertips all the way up towards the sky.
76. 6:16Now, I'm not going to collapse into this right shoulder here. No way. I'm
77. 6:20going to press up and out of the right palm, keeping the spaciousness that
78. 6:23I've built in this little practice all along, breathing into the upper back
79. 6:27here. Maybe the arm goes all the way up. Maybe it only goes to here. Just
80. 6:30seeing where that space is today, taking a nice deep breath in, and then
81. 6:36exhale coming back to center.
82. 6:39Left palm replaces the right. Right fingertips reach up. We'll just do this
83. 6:42side really fast, inhaling. You can move at your own pace, drawing that
84. 6:47shoulder away from the ear, breathing nice, long, deep breaths, and then
85. 6:53exhale back to center.
86. 6:54We're going to do it one more time. This time, keep the palms a little bit
87. 6:58wide. Instead of drawing the right palm into the center, I'm going to keep
88. 7:02it right where it is as I inhale. Open the left palm up. Take a deep breath
89. 7:07This time, I have the needle. I'm going to take my left fingertips under
90. 7:11the bridge of the right arm and come to rest on the outer edge of my left
91. 7:17shoulder. Left ear comes to the Earth, and I begin to breathe into the
92. 7:22upper back here, particularly the left side.
93. 7:24For more leverage, I can tent the right fingertips here, maybe bend that
94. 7:28right elbow up to find a little bit more in that upper back. The toes are
95. 7:36going to want to come together. I really don't mind that. But if you like,
96. 7:39you can just keep a little integrity here by keeping the tops of the feet
97. 7:42pressing into the Earth.
98. 7:45For more leverage or for a little bit of a deeper stretch, you can also add
99. 7:49extending the right leg, just kind of using the right toes here again to
100. 7:54press a little bit deeper into the posture. But I say start here, and then
101. 7:58work your way up to here. So being really mindful in the shoulders here.
102. 8:02Let's come out of the posture. Take a deep breath in and exhale out,
103. 8:08following your breath back to center and planting the left palm. Again,
104. 8:13this time, we're not walking into the center, but keeping it nice and open.
105. 8:16As I inhale, right fingertips reach up towards the sky, and then exhale,
106. 8:21diving through, right fingertips under the bridge of the left arm as I come
107. 8:25to the outer edge of my shoulder here. Hello.
108. 8:30Breathing here, each side will be a little bit different. I can use my left
109. 8:35fingertips here to tent the palms. Bring that left elbow up. Another option
110. 8:42that I sometimes offer students is to come palms-together here and just
111. 8:44kind of gently extending those right fingertips. That feels nice.
112. 8:53Another option to go a little deeper, again, is to extend the left leg.
113. 8:56Curl those toes under, breathing into that upper body, that upper back.
114. 9:08Then following your breath to come out of the posture, moving nice and slow
115. 9:13and mindfully here, and back to all fours.
116. 9:17Okay. So now, we're going to come onto the belly for a little cobra
117. 9:22sequence, gently coming onto the belly, drawing the palms underneath the
118. 9:27shoulders here, and then keeping the feet just nice and hip-width apart
119. 9:31here, pressing into the pelvic bone, looping the shoulders. The elbows are
120. 9:35coming in nice and close to the side body.
121. 9:38Go ahead and rest your forehead on the mat. Then we're going to move nice
122. 9:42and slow here, inhaling and exhaling, pressing into the pelvic bone,
123. 9:48pressing in your foundation, drawing the shoulder blades in together and
124. 9:52down, as we slowly look up. Not a big move here at first, just a nice
125. 9:56gentle thing, and then exhale back down. Forehead kisses the mat, moving
126. 10:03with the breath.
127. 10:06Now, whether you rise up on the exhale or the inhale is totally your
128. 10:12choice. I say for a sequence like this that's therapeutic and about getting
129. 10:17into those dark nooks and crannies, it's just about following your breath.
130. 10:21You might start to find a little more space. We're moving in a nice speed,
131. 10:28nice and mindful. Notice lots of space between the ears and shoulders.
132. 10:37Then if you want, from here, you can build this into upward-facing dog.
133. 10:40We're not going to do that today. But if you already have a practice and
134. 10:44you're ready, you can begin to take this into a nice upward-facing dog.
135. 10:53When you feel satisfied, you can send it to a downward-facing dog or just a
136. 10:57nice little counter pose here, as we come into extended child's pose,
137. 11:03swimming the fingertips forward, up and back, and then resting the
138. 11:07forehead. Shoulders melting forward as we breathe into the back and rest.
139. 11:17Okie doke. So that was a yummy sequence for the upper back. This actually
140. 11:22was a request from a viewer. So if you have other things that you're
141. 11:26craving some relief, or you want some yoga knowledge or advice on, leave me
142. 11:30a comment below. Leave your requests. Questions always welcome. Subscribe
143. 11:35to the channel if you haven't already, and I will see you next time.
144. 11:50Namaste.