Video transcription:

In this session we will explore four movements of the spine and do one hip stretch. And the whole sequence is done in the chair today. Let's get going.

You'll be sitting astride the chair, try to have the feet flat on the floor, because you're particularly stable then. And you'll be holding the hands on the back of the chair, wherever is comfortable for you. Have a very quick look at the first two movements and then we'll follow along together. The first spinal movement we'll call a rounding or a slumping, making a nice C-shape with the spine. And the opposite movement we'll call a back arch, just trying to gently bend the spine backwards.

So now that you have an idea of what those two look like, let's do them together. So the first one is the rounding movement. Start by letting the top of the hips roll or slump back then picture and feel the middle back follow that movement. You have a rounding there, the shoulders are rounding forward and see how comfortable it is to take the head forward. Couple of breaths in and out in that first position and then we'll try the second movement. So as you breathe in, come up nice and slowly, lifting the chest up towards the ceiling, breathing into the top of the chest, and have a little feel of what it feels like to involve the head and neck. If it's too uncomfortable or too intense to take the head a long way back, just look to the front.

Breathe and relax there and let's repeat. So the first movement again, start the movement by letting the top of the hips roll back. That gives you a stretch in the lower back. Follow the movement through the middle back, let the shoulders round and take the chin towards the chest as far as is comfortable for you. Try to direct your breathing into the back of the body, particularly in between the shoulder blades. Couple more deep breaths in and out in that position. Every time you breathe out, let your whole body relax just a little bit more.

And back into the second movement. Moving nice and slowly, as you breathe in lift the chest up towards the ceiling. This time, pull a little bit more strongly on the arms, try and draw the shoulder blades together and down towards the chair. Again, whatever's comfortable for your neck. Breathing comfortably, breathe into the front of the body now, and every time you breathe out, let your belly go soft. Let it relax. Couple more deep breaths in and out here. And then we always finish this little sequence in the first position. So just do a very brief return to the rounded slumped position, couple of breaths. And then as you breathe in, up you come, wriggle around. Anytime any of the movements leave you with a little bit of tension anywhere just wriggle around. That'll make you feel totally comfortable again.

While we're here, let's use the chair to explore a little hip stretch. You need to reposition, turn ourselves around, sit towards one edge of the chair. So I've only got my right hip and leg on the chair. And the right foot, I want it to be flat on the floor. I've got quite short legs so I'm going to bring in my cushion for that. Stabilize yourself with both feet on the ground and sit up nice and tall and lean back so that you feel your spine in contact with the back of the chair, in particular the lowest part of the back. Then without bending forward and or without letting this happen, big banana back, we call it, a big bend in the spine, try this movement.

Creep the foot back as far as you can, any way that works for you, more of a shuffling action, but works for you until you become aware of a stretching sensation through this line here, the front of the leg and the front of the hip. Breathe there, sit up nice and tall. Don't let yourself bend forward and more particularly don't let yourself do a big arch in the spine. So we're using the back of the chair to feel the contact of the spine against the chair. And then we're seeing how far we can take this foot back. Breathe and relax there. So it's more an awareness exercise than anything else. It might not be a massively strong stretch. You might be getting a little additional toe stretch there with the foot on the floor.

Let's try the same thing on the other side. So switch over to the other side of your chair, make sure the support foot is flat on something – I need the cushion there – and sit up nice and tall, whole of the spine particularly the lower back is in contact with the back of the chair, and then start the reaching or creeping back of this second side. Move nice and slowly, breathe comfortably. Try to sit up really straight each time you breathe in, and as you breathe out, perhaps you can creep that foot back just a little bit further. How does the knee feel doing that? How do the toes feel, and how does it feel on this second side compared to the first side? Let's try just a couple more deep breaths in and out on this second side, and then we'll come away and we'll continue with the spinal movements.

The next one is a rotation. On the first side, I'm going to face away from you. Sit down in the chair, make sure your bottom is comfortably on the chair, you feel very stable, and my feet are flat on the floor for the same reason. And you'll have one leg braced on the chair so your legs can't swing around as you do the movement. So let's do it together. Reach around with this hand and hold onto the seat of the chair, wherever you can reach comfortably. The second arm comes through and reaches as far round the back of the chair. If you can hold like this, but if that's too far, just wherever you can comfortably reach.

You'll find that you would've slumped a bit to get into that position. So the first thing we do is take a deep breath in, lift the chest, lengthen and straighten the spine, keep breathing comfortably, and each time you breathe out use the arms to twist you around. Breathing deeply. Every time you breathe out, let everything relax just a little bit more. And it's as you breathe out each time that you try and take yourself a little bit further into the stretch. Breathe into the chest, breathe into the ribs. Every time you breathe out let your belly go a bit softer. And perhaps you can turn round some more into the stretch. Try and hold each of these positions for about eight to 10 slow, deep, comfortable breaths in and out. Not straining anything.

Good. Let's do two more breaths on this first side. One more breath. Notice I'm breathing in through the nostrils, mouth closed. Good. Okay, to come out, simply slowly unwind yourself, smoothly come around and we'll do the second side together. This time I'm facing you so you can see the feet are flat on the floor. You can see the leg braced on the chair. Reach around, hold the seat of the chair wherever's comfortable. Other arm follows and holds as far around the back of the chair as you can. You're probably slumped a bit there so first of all we want to lengthen and straighten the spine, breathe in and lift the chest up towards the ceiling. And as you breathe out, the arms are doing the work of pulling you around into that twist.

Keep breathing comfortably. At any point you find you can't breathe, you're probably going too far. So you're best served to back it off a little bit, reestablish that comfortable breathing. And as you move further into the stretch on the breath out, do it nice and slowly. How does this side feel compared to the first side? Can you breathe into the top of the chest? Can you breathe into the ribs, to the front, to the sides? Can you let your belly go soft?

If you want to, explore adding the movement of the head and neck as well. Let's do three more breaths in and out in this position. Breathing through the nostrils, breathing out through the nostrils. And to come out you can let yourself slump a little bit, swing around nice and slowly, always in control. And just do a very brief return back to the first side, and that should make everything feel super comfortable. But notice I'm just wriggling around a little bit. In case there's any sort of residual tension in the back here, you can just wriggle that out.

Cool. All right. The next exercise is a side bend. I'm going to reposition my chair front on to the camera. I'll be sitting towards the front of the chair, but not so far that I feel at all like unstable and I'm going to fall off the chair. Notice I've got my feet wide and flat on the floor, and that gives me extra stability as well. We find that many people, for many people, this is the strongest of the side bends. So anticipating that I've got an extra prop, a simple cushion, and we'll try it with the cushion. So grab your cushion, put it up on the leg there. I reached across and held the seat of the chair because I'm going to be hanging off that bottom arm.

Let's do it together. Take a breath in lift the chest, lengthen the spine. And then as you breathe out, all you do is see how far you can bend towards the side. And ideally we want the arm resting on the cushion firmly. And if that's not allowing you to go as far in the stretch as you'd like to, then you could take the cushion out. Okay? Breathe and relax here. In this first position, all I'm feeling is a bit of a stretch around the waist. So where do you feel it? Down in the waist area. As best you can, let the head and neck relax into the stretch as well. So just try that. Can you relax the head into the side bend? Are you still breathing? Breathe into the side that's being stretched.

Imagine there is a wall behind you. Do you think that both shoulders would be back against that wall? It's just an alignment guide in your mind. Now this position might be sufficiently strong for you, and if it is just keep holding this position, breathing and relaxing. But if you wanted to, the way to make it slightly more intense is to bring this arm across the front of the body. It doesn't matter where it ends up. For me today, just about here is sufficiently more intense for me; you might find that. You can make it even more intense if you wanted to by gently reaching that arm off the body. Are you still breathing? Breathe into the waist, breathe into the ribs, breathe right into the armpit on that top side.

Excellent. Every time you breathe out, say to yourself, I'm going to relax just a little bit more into the side bend. To come out of any side bend position, the nicest way for the body is to bring this hand down, place it on the cushion or the thigh, and use that arm to help bring you back up to the upright position. And wriggle around a little bit if that feels good. I like wriggling around.

Let's do the other side together. So reposition your cushion. Even if on the first side you found you didn't need the cushion, start with it. Just we'll see what we find on the other side. So you need to be able to hold comfortably onto the seat of the chair because you're hanging off this bottom arm. Take a breath in, lift the chest, lengthen the spine. And as you breathe out, slowly go to the other side and just see how it feels. How does it feel compared to the first side? Do you find that you're comfortably resting on the cushion and that feels good for you? Do you find that you need to take the cushion away?

Can you relax the head and neck as much as possible into the stretch. And where do you feel that on this second side? For me, it's slightly higher up, even in this initial stretch; more into the waist itself. Are you able to breathe comfortably. Wherever you feel the stretch most intensely, try and direct your breathing into there. And each time you breathe out, say to yourself, those little tissues are going to relax a little bit more.

Good. So like the first side, if this feels sufficiently intense, you just stay in this position and keep breathing and relaxing. But if you want to, by all means, with me, bring this other arm across the front of the body. Again, it doesn't matter where it ends up. We just move the arm in to give you a more intense stretch. And for me today, it's a different stretch. This is right up high towards the armpit. Breathe into the side of the body that's under stretch. And each time you breathe out, relax more, always moving further into a stretch position on a breath out. Let's try for two more breaths here. By all means, reach the arm off the body if you want for slightly stronger stretch. And to come out of any side bend, bring the top arm down onto the cushion or the thigh, and use that arm to bring you back to the start position.

I don't need the cushion anymore so we put that down. A really nice little recovery thing to do after any side bend is simply to stand up, bend the knees, you're completely stable, and you just do a very gentle swinging movement. I call this one the ragdoll. You're floppy, and you just very gently swinging. It's very relieving after side-bending movements.

Okay. So that's our four spinal movements done in the chair. And to finish off today's sequence, we're going to do a hip stretch. So for the first side, I'm going to turn side on it to the camera and stretch the leg closest to the camera. Again, you'll be sitting towards the front of the edge of the chair, feet flat on the floor so you're stable. Let's do it together. Many people find just pulling the leg up into the stretch is a little bit too much for the hip. So a nicer, gentler way to do that is to hold the leg with the arms, bring the foot up, and it's just the very outside of your foot ankle that will be resting. It's not a cross-legged position.

So bring your leg up into that position and just feel how that feels. For some people even that is a little bit of a stretch. Then follow along with me. The opposite arm comes through and hooks ideally right to the crook of the elbow, but you just reach where it's comfortable, and you can put this hand pretty much wherever you like; I tend to do a grip like this. Just to get into that first position, you would have slumped a little bit. So we want to undo that round or slump in the spine. And this is the key action for this exercise. So let's do it together.

Slowly and smoothly as you breathe in, you're trying to move your chest along the thigh towards the knee. It lengthens and straightens the spine, and should give you a very strong stretch sensation in this hip-buttock region. We don't need to be any more specific than that. Let's just feel whether we feel something in that hip. Are you still breathing comfortably? Every time you take a breath in, another little action of taking the chest along the thigh. And every time you breathe out, relax.

Something else you can do once you've got the spine as long and as straight as you can, by all means use the arm holding onto the leg to smoothly pull the leg in towards the body. Breathe deeply. As you breathe out that's when you're feeling the relaxing happening. That's when you're potentially going a bit further into the stretch. And try to let your belly go soft. Let's do two more breaths on this first side. One more breath. Good. And to come out of this position, simply let yourself slump away, hold the back of the leg and lower the weight of the leg back to the floor.

Let's do the other side together. I'm going to swing around, be front on so you'll get a different view this time. Have the grounded foot flat on the floor for stability. Reach down, help this leg come up into the first position, which is just the outside of the foot resting above the knee there. The opposite arm comes through and hooks around the outside of this top leg, ideally to the crook of the elbow, ut if you can only get to here that's completely fine. And you would have had to slump to get into the first position. So the key cue for this exercise, let's try it again, is slowly smoothly move the chest along the thigh.

Good. Soon as you feel the stretch start, pause there. Take a couple of breaths in and out and make sure that you are able to relax a little bit as you breathe out. The breathing and the relaxing the parts that are under stretch is key. Not just making a shape and holding a position. Holding is not stretching. Every time you breathe in repeat that effort to try and move the chest along the thigh. Key cue there is chest along the thigh, not just throwing your head back. If you want a slightly more intense stretch, use the arm to help pull the leg in towards the body.

This is another left–right exercise. How does it feel in this hip compared to your first hip? Let's do three more breaths in and out on this second side. Can you feel the tissues under stretch relax a little bit more as you breathe out? Can you let your belly go soft as you breathe out? And to come out, let yourself slump away, hold the weight of the leg and lower it down to the floor.

So that's the end of this session. We did four spinal movements in the chair and a hip stretch to finish off with. See you next time.

Program 1: Spine flexion, extension, rotation, hip flexors, side bend, hip

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