- what's up everyone, welcome to yoga with adriene, i'm adriene. welcome to our new yoga room. this is our first videoback in the new yoga room,
tingle in lower back, or our first yoga video anyway back in the new yoga room. so i welcome you, help me christen it with some yoga basics.
this month we're kind ofgetting back to basics and today we're going to do back pain. well, we're not gonna do back pain, but we're gonna kind of address back pain and really just spendsome time on the floor remembering that your yogapractice has your back. welcome to the new room, it's probably gonna change. we might paint it,
we might even move toanother room, who knows. but i think that thispractice in particular, especially since it's for the back, and just our yoga practicein general is awesome for teaching us to findsupport from within and of course, to go with the flow. so let's hop on the mat and get started. (steady guitar music) alright my friends, so todaywe're gonna begin on our backs.
take your time getting there, maybe take a full bodystretch when you land. and begin to noticeyour breath as we begin. take a second to notice, some of you have probablyheard me say this before, that your yoga mat or your yoga practice, your yoga, has your back. literally in this moment, right? bring the hands to your ribs,
bring your feet to theouter edges of your mat, and then allow the knees to fall in. take your time getting here, no rush. then lift your lowerback, lift your pelvis and see if you can justtuck the tailbone in, maybe reaching it up towards the sky. so we're just lengthening out through the lower back, basically. then we'll draw the shoulder blades in
and together and down, so we're just crawling thoseshoulder blades underneath you so we can open up through the chest. and we soften through the belly, kind of soften through thebowl of the pelvis here. best you can, all these subtlebody things come with time, so if you're super newto the yoga practice, try not to get too caughtup on these things. just settle in and be whereyou're at today, of course.
so the best tip for beginners, for me, or like the most important yoga basic is to use your breath as a barometer. so today is gonna be nice and yummy, but as we continue through the yoga basics and you begin to amp up your practice, stick with your breath. so that's why today we'regonna close the eyes and take a moment to justnotice your breath now,
this natural breath. so nothing fancy, nothing forced. see if you can soften throughthe skin of your face. so you might be clenchingyour eyebrows right now or the eyes, maybe clenching in the jaw. just give yourself a second to relax and notice the natural rhythm, the natural ebb and flow of your breath. and perhaps you'll find, i tend to find
that just by noticing my breath, i begin to play with it. maybe extending the inhale, maybe lengthening the exhale. noticing if it's a deep breath, morning or day or night, or shallow breath. then beginning to play withthat just a little bit. a couple of mindful breaths here.
and i always say just acouple of mindful breaths can really change what'sgoing on in the mind, your mental capacity can really change your day. let's take one more deep breath in here. and then one big breath out. and then we'll slowly beginto heel toe, heel toe. so here's a beginner basic thing: when you hear that in class,
we mean heel to the earth, toes in. heels in, toes in. and that's what heel toe, heel toe means. so we heel toe the feet together. ugh, the more i say it themore i'm like, so dumb. (laughs) and then we'll scoop the kneesslowly up towards the heart. so we're moving nice and slow today. that way if you are ina moment of back pain,
you're moving mindfully and with ease. and if not, you're just slowingthings down for a change, working on preventative care. hug the knees into thechest nice and slow. we scoop the tailbone up again, lengthening through the lower back body, and we relax the shoulders, still crawling theshoulder blades underneath so we can open up throughthe chest and the heart.
cool. bring the palms to the kneecaps here, we're just gonna draw slow circles so we get a little massagein the lower back body. and when you feel comfortable,go ahead and take your gaze off the video, you mighteven close your eyes, and just begin to notice what's going on as you massage through the sacrum here. and then we begin to lay the breath in,
using the breath to inspire the movement. and using the movement toinspire the breath, in return. take your circle in the opposite direction of you haven't already. maybe you're already doingyour own groove thing, you know i like that. and then we'll draw theknees back to center and we'll use the palmsgently on the knees to kind of create an oar-like motion here.
so the feet can stay soft here at first and we're just gonna draw the knees wide. open. and then in through center, scoop the tailbone up and keep going. i wanted you to startwith the feet soft here just so you could feel the difference when you point the toes
or just kind of add brightness. you might find those yogi toes, spreading the toes. energy in the feet. notice how when we have energy in the feet we can still keep theslow controlled movement, but we kind of support the stretch. sometimes teachers refer tohugging the muscle to the bones and that's just kind ofactivating everything
so you can move with integrity. and this is really great as you deepen your practice. so you may not feel that at first, but if you'e been practicing for a while and you're doing this video with me, this is something that we needto start paying attention to. activating from the crown of the head to the soles of the feet tocreate a full body experience.
so if you're like, i have noidea what you're talking about, just enjoy this stretch,enjoy your practice, keep breathing. let's do one more big circle here. awesome. and then we're gonna slowlypress the soles of the feet back down to the earth, andthese are going to hug in, heels in line with the hip points. so we're definitely payingattention to alignment in action
in these videos this month. notice if the shoulders havestarted to tense up again, you can crawl the shoulderblades back underneath you, open up through the chest and the heart. keep the left foot down on the earth, all four corners of your left foot, so even here we payattention to foundation. not just in warrior three ortree pose, balancing postures. even here, connectivity.
as you inhale, slide yourright leg all the way up towards they sky, maybestraighten that leg here. maybe it's a little tight, no worries. be in the moment. so as we begin to bringfocus to the right leg, the left leg wants to spill out, so we'll hug the left leg in. again, stay connected to your foundation. left foot strong.
back to basics today, really paying attentionto building our practice from the ground up, really gonna help. so whether we can extend the leg or not, we can find a little micro movement, maybe bending the knee andthen straightening the leg, maybe pointing and flexing the toes, rotating the ankle. this is great in general,
just letting the blood flowin the opposite direction, especially if you tendto be on your feet a lot. so good. then i'll interlace thefingertips behind my right thigh. if you're super tight andyou want to pause the video to grab like a tie or a towel, or if you're lucky enoughto have a yoga strap or one of those physio bands, you know you can strap itaround the ball joint there
and then use it kind oflike an arm extender. tailbone scoops up, lengtheningthe lower back body. once again, stay mindful there. we might just stay hereor we might inhale again and on an exhale slowly peelthe crown of the head up towards the sky. shoulders are gonna stayrelaxed here, my friends. tailbone scooping up. notice how your yogapractice has your back here.
interesting sensations right? in the sole of the foot right now, blood flowing in the opposite direction. take one more breath and then use your exhaleto slowly melt it down. take your right ankle, cross it on over to the top of your left thigh and we take a deep breath in and a deep breath out.
interlacing behind theleft thigh this time, right hand's gonna go through the hole and catch the left fingertips here, then i'm going to bringawareness through both feet here. so flexing, really showing thesole of your foot off here, right shin parallel to the ceiling. cool, if you're new to thepractice and you're tight, you might just stay here using your right elbow maybeto press the right leg out.
notice how the lower backwants to come up here and we're gonna keepmaintaining that length by scooping the tailbone up. cool, go ahead and tuckyour chin into your chest to lengthen though the back of your neck just in case you're stuck here. and then again, you can stay here, or we might extend theleft leg all the way up. and continue to squeeze thatleft leg in towards the heart.
so we're here, breathing into the outer right hip, staying long in the lower back body, relaxed in the shoulders, or we're here just kind ofadding that hamstring stretch, finding that sit bone to heel connection. cool, big breath in and we use the exhale toslowly release, nice and slow. unravel, right foot comes to the ground,
and we take a big breath in as we find all fourcorners of the right foot and lift the left foot up high. so if you're an experienced yogi, you might wanna just blow through this. like, oh i need faster tempo. so i encourage you, ifyou're feeling frustrated, to just kind of slow itdown, chill it out with me and feel your yoga mat riseup to support your back body.
if you're new to the practice and this feels superforeign to you, notice that. embrace that too, take note, because in a month you'regonna want to remember where you began and how muchyou've evolved and grown. but don't take my word for it! just kidding. okay, here we go. so whether that leg is straight or not,
you might begin to finda little micro movement. man, i stubbed my toe big time, it looks black and blue. classy. and i'll interlace the fingertips behind the left thigh this time. again, i'm maintaininga nice strong foundation in my right foot, expanding my awareness. scoop your tailbone up,
lengthen through the lower back body. keep breathing. and then i can stay here, inhale in, or i might exhale,slowly peel the nose up, shoulders stay relaxed. shouldn't be any pain here, so keep a nice spaciousness between your chin and your chest. definitely activating the abdominals here.
perfect, and importantfor back body strength. big breath in, use your exhale to release. awesome, we're gonnatake that left ankle over to the top of the right thigh and we just notice what's going on. slowing it down, nice and easy. so if your pelvis wants to twerk. twerk? (laughs)
i meant torque. but twerk, too. you know, yoga's greatbecause we're challenging the body's natural habits that we create when we sit at a deskor sleep on our sides, all this stuff, body history. so just notice. and then we'll interlacebehind the right thigh, lifting the right shinparallel to the ceiling
and we find our stretch here. so you can play with how much you squeeze. for most, just kind of cominginto this shape is enough. maybe pressing the left elbowinto the left inner thigh, if that works for you. keeping the chest nice and open, guys, and making sure wehaven't grown really tense in the shoulders, so we keeprelaxing in the shoulders and the neck.
we have a little energy,a little brightness connecting through both feet. you might take a deep breath in here and just stay here. or you might take a deep breath in and begin to extend thatright leg all the way up. find your breath. nice long smooth deep breaths. on an exhale, gently release.
both feet come to the mat. inhale, reach the arms up and overhead. exhale, slowly hug your kneesinto your chest one more time. this time you can rocka little back and forth, find what feels good, and then whenever you're ready, we're going to bring the handsto the backs of the thighs and begin to rock it up. so this is a great littlemassage for the spine,
connecting to a littleplayful energy here. maybe rock once, twice,three times a lady. or man. and we'll come to all fours. nice and slow, takeyour time getting there, no need to rush. so we'll stack the hipsright over the kneecaps, really paying attention tothe tops of the feet here, getting a stretch.
notice if the toes come in or come out, we're gonna draw them right in line with the knees, ankles in line. then bring your awareness to your wrists right underneath the shoulders. spread your palms super wide like starfish and then press away from your yoga mat coming into table top position. take a deep breath in
and a long breath out. find the extension throughthe crown of the head, so if your spine is kindof coming down here, see if you can bringyour gaze straight down and lengthen through the neck. cool, big breath in. big breath out. and on your next inhalelet's begin to drop the belly and open the heart towards the front.
tailbone reaches up towards the sky. on an exhale, start with the tail, begin to curl it under, tuck it in. we crawl up through the spine, nice and slow today, soresist the urge to rush. i do it all the time too. we're so used to moving ina hurried and rushed way, so unhurried and unrushed here as you draw your chinto your chest, navel up,
and press into your yoga mat. awesome, keep it going in your own time with the rhythm of your breath. inhale, reach the tailboneup towards the sky, stretch the front body,lots of space in the spine, nice and slow. and on your exhale, doesn'tmatter if you're in rhythm with me, you can move with you breath. we'll begin to curl the tailbone under,
rounding through the spine. take a couple more on your own, see if you can connect tothe sound of your breath. finish it up. then come back to table top position. curl the toes under. walk the palms out just a hair. and then with the knees bent, we're gonna lift the hipsup to downward-facing dog.
again, knees stay bent here,so lots of love for the back as we press away from our yoga mat. draw the shoulders away from the ears, knees bent generously. melt your belly and your lower ribcage to the tops of your thighs. melt your heart towards theback edge of your yoga mat. take a deep breath in, the deepest breathyou've taken in all day.
and then on an exhale,we begin to straighten through the left leg, right knee stays bent. inhale, bend both knees. exhale, straighten through the right leg. so we're obviously justpedaling it out here. inhale to center. exhale, left heel drops down. inhale to center,
right heel drops down. one more time, on each side. inhale to center, shouldersdraw away from the ears. exhale, left heel reaches,doesn't even matter if it comes anywhereclose to the yoga mat. inhale to center and right leg extends. awesome, slowly lower to the knees, knees come together. we come onto the tops of the feet,
we rotate the wrists, shakeit out if you need to, and we come into balasana. so really mindful child's pose today. knees are together, big toes are together, we're gonna allow theshoulders to round forward and releasing slowly the head to the mat. now, if this is not jiving with you, some options are to use alittle blanket between the knees if that's hurting you, canalso lift the earth up to you
with a block or pillow for the head. if this is not acomfortable position for you because of your torso, then you can take the knees wide and practice in anextended child's pose here. okay? but give balasana a try and ultimately, listento your body, right? a couple breaths here, nice and slow.
inhale, fill your back with air. so, see if you can feel theskin of your back body stretch as you inhale in. and then on your exhale,imagine the weight of your buttocks, your hips, kind of dropping down, melting down to kiss the soles of yourfeet as you breath out. so there's a lot of stuff we can do in these beautiful,simple restorative poses.
close your eyes for one more breath cycle. you got it. then we'll slowly draw the palms back up, come to all fours. come back to your table top position, doing awesome everyone,just a couple more poses and then we're done. so, stick with the mindfulness here. we're just gonna shake the,
shift, not shake, shake! shift the hips to the right and send the crown ofthe head to the left, just nice side bodystretch here, big breath. and then through center, opposite side. hips shift to the left, crown of the head to the right stretch and then back to center, awesome.
extend the right legout here, big breath in. on your exhale, we're slowlydrawing the right knee all the way up in for a one-legged pigeon. so you might need towalk your palms out here, and then slowly we hike that right leg up. slide the left leg back, we have a foundational video for this so you can check it out. then we're just gonna play with how close
or how far the right heel is. so listen to your body, move nice and slow as if you're moving through water here. connect to your breath,press into your fingertips, big breath in as you inhale,see if you can find space through the front body. so it might look like this, it might not. just be in the moment with your breath.
and then, yogi's choice, you can stay lifted here or you can begin to melt itover for a couple breaths. pulling gently back inthe right hip crease, staying active in the feet as we've mentioned allthrough this practice. and then finding your blisshere for just a couple breaths. use the palms to gentlywalk yourself back up and if you're already up,
we'll slowly begin tocurl the left toes under and come back to all fours. nice and slow, though. again, imagine moving through water, just kind of honor your body. cool, and inhale, extend the left leg out. and same thing on the other side. you're walking the palmsforward if you need to
and we find it here. nice and slow. playing with how close or howfar your left heel is here. i encourage you to loop the shoulders, maybe find a gentle lift inthe heart wherever you are. and then maybe we experimentwith coming forward, maybe not. couple breaths here, goahead and close your eyes or just draw your attention inward,
notice what's going on. feel the whole body connected. so we're going for 110%full body experience here. just do your best. gently using the palms to press back up. this time we're gonna go ahead and shift our weight onto our left hip and swing the rightleg all the way around. go ahead and extend the legs out long,
coming to stiff pose. (chuckles) the was hilarious, stiff pose. i mean staff pose, but i'mfeeling kind of stiff, so. it's good to be back! go ahead and take the fleshypart of the buttocks aside. if it feels right, youcan press into the heels, feet can be flushedtogether or hip width apart. tops of the thigh bones draw down, we bring the palms behindus or the fingertips lifted
and we just stand up niceand tall through the spine. so crown of the head lifts, lower belly draws in. maybe you're familiarwith uddiyana bandha, this idea of drawingthe navel lock in and up so it kind of cultivates an energy here, a lifting, if you will. one more breath. it's hard work.
press into the heels. and exhale. on your next inhale, reach the fingertips up towards the sky, reach reach reach. and the exhale bend the knees,soften through the knees and take it forward. tops of the thighs andthe belly become one, so bend your knees asgenerously as you need to here.
then go ahead and allowthe weight of the head to relax over. breathing from the tip of the tailbone, all the way to the crown of the head. and if you're like, whatthe heck does that mean, just maybe close youreyes and imagine a line from the crown of your headto the tip of your tailbone, and then breathe deeply asyou relax your shoulders, each exhale relaxing the shoulders.
you can play with straighteningthe legs here, of course. alright, take one more deep breath in here and then you use your exhale to unravel and release back up. go ahead and send your seat towards the front edge of your mat so that you can bring thehands behind the thighs and slowly roll it down. so nice and slow, best you can,
there will be that breaking point. and then we continue the journey down. awesome, we're gonna end today's practice with a reclined twist. again, feel the earth risingup to support your spine, feel your yoga practice, your yoga mat having your back in this moment, feel that support. hug the knees into the chest.
then we'll send the fingertipsout left to right, texas t. now just take a couple breathshere to close your eyes and just notice what'sgoing on in the shoulders. find your foundation here, thatwhich is touching the earth. so really ground downthrough all ten knuckles. spread the fingertips out wide. then we'll inhale, scoop the tailbone up, we'll lengthen through thelower back body once again. and then we'll either melt the knees over
towards the left here, or you can experimentwith shifting your hips to the right first, just to give yourself a little more space. so if you're new to the practice, you might shift yourhips to the right first and then melt your knees to the left. or if you've been practicinga while and you know that you just like totake it from the center,
then go ahead and release. other options: put a pillow or a block between the legs, or maybe underneath to stack. we're gonna be here for a couple breaths, maybe you turn onto your right ear. everyone breath into yourbelly as you breath in and use your exhale toground gentle energy down through that right shoulder,
eventually we'll be able to connect. if you feel and sharpness, any pull, anything that doesn't feel good, back off. maybe try lowering theknees a little bit here. another option, to just engage more, is to extend the right leg out long. we have a foundations ofyoga for this pose too that's super yummy, check it out!
big breath in, use the exhale to melt back to center, gonna go wide legged here, teeter totter a coupletimes left to right, and then when you're readywe'll take it to the other side. either melting the kneesright onto the right, or taking a second to shiftthe hips over towards the left, and then on over to theright side of your room. find what feels good here,
so i like to offer a lot of options but it's really just youstaying curious in each posture. breathe. enjoy. on an exhale, wheneveryou're ready come back, unraveling back to center. you can bring the hands tothe backs of the thighs here and rock and roll up to acomfortable cross-legged position, maybe heading into a little meditation
or just a moment of stillness there. otherwise, you can joinme in kind of inching out on your yoga mat, taking some space, extending the legs out long and just noticing how theback feels if you do this. coming into a shavasana. if the back is troubling you and that's why you sought out this video, maybe you're in thatimmediate, acute pain phase,
then you might wannareturn to where we started. feet as wide as the mat. knees together. lower back lengthened nice and long. so we have options, here or here. awesome work, my friends. tuck your chin into you chest, lengthen through the neck,
open your heart, open your chest, open your mind. let the nutrients of yourpractice begin to settle in. as much time as will allow, spend some momentshere, just in shavasana, letting the nutrients of yourpractice seep in, settle in, letting your energy ground. it's so nice that we take thistime to kind of roll around on the earth, feel, again,your yoga has your back,
find support and reallywork from the inside out to heal your body and heal your life. thank you so much for sharing your time and your practice with me. i wish you a beautiful rest of you day and i hope that you find a pain-free back. take good care. namaste.