Transcription:

For this session, the equipment that you'll need will be a comfortable floor, softish floor, a strap handy – and it's a longer strap than the one we've used before, and you'll see why when we get to that exercise, and also have your supports handy. We're going to do a nice little mobility sequence for the spine. Feels great. Then we'll do a little bit of back bending, a couple of versions of that. Then we'll do a groin stretch and stand up and do a forward bend. So let's get started. You can follow along with me. The start position, is all fours. So hands and knees. I've got my knees about hip width apart, and my hands are underneath my chest. Good. Follow along with me. The first movement is to round the spine. So you start that by curling the chin towards the chest. Start to press the middle back up towards the ceiling by pressing the hands gently into the floor, and use your bottom muscles to tuck the tail. Pause there for breath or two.

And then we'll transition to the opposite movement, which is a little back bend, a little back arch. You're in control of how much you let your bottom stick out behind you. See how your lower back feels with that. And then, think about moving the chest forward. And totally up to you how much you involve the head and neck. You can take it all the way back if you can. If not, don't worry too much about that. It's gotta be comfortable. What does that feel like?

And we're going to do two more of those in each direction. So the first one is the rounding. Curl the chin to the chest, round through the middle back and press up to the ceiling by pressing the hands into the floor, and tuck the tail. Couple of deep breaths into the back of the body. And then we move into the little back arch. So you can control the bend in the lower back. You can control the amount of neck movement. And let the whole front of the torso lengthen and the belly sag through. Breathe. One more in each direction. So moving chin to chest. Press the hands through the floor, press the middle back up to the ceiling. Use the bottom muscles to tuck the tail. Couple of breaths, into the back of the body.

And then the opposite movement. Little arch. Totally controllable. Totally scalable. Maybe this third time you can stick the bottom out a little bit more, a bit more bend in the lower back. Gently think about pulling the shoulders down towards your hips; increases the bend in the middle back. Breathe. And to complete the sequence, just come into a brief little round out. And then just settle in a straight spine. You're not curved over or arch backwards. Now, we're going to try looking around towards one ankle.

So keep the face pointing at the floor throughout. Look around, look around, look around. You'll be using the waist muscles on that side to curve you around to the side. Pause. And then come back through the middle. Same thing in the other direction. So you're staying looking at the floor. Using the waist muscles to pull you to the side and come back to the middle.

Let's do three more in each direction. By all means let the hips move to the side, just a little bit as well. Back through the middle. Other way. I like moving really slowly because then I can feel which muscles are being stretched and which ones are working to pull me into the position. Do you notice any difference one direction compared to the other? One side just might feel more coordinated, that you can go further. You feel more connected to moving in one direction, compared to the other. Perhaps. What do you feel? Last one in each direction.

Good.

Alright. And then, just back to the centre position. And then just do some little moving around. Little sideways movements, to which I'm adding some little circles around the chest. And then go the other way. You can be controlling how much you let the lower back get involved. There's really an infinite number of movements you can do here. And they all stretch all those tissues, all around the ribs, into the back itself, into the abdomen. It just feels nice, and what you're thinking is, fluid. There's no part of my spine and torso that can't move freely. That's what you're thinking about. It's likely not to be the case. And I used to be very rigid in certain parts of the torso and very mobile and others. And these sorts of movements are now much more even and free in my body. I really recommend them to you.

Okay. Now we're going to go down and do a backbend. We've done this one a couple of times befor together. So, down on your chest. Stretch yourself out long. Take a couple of counts to wriggle the hips and buttock, and you're trying to get the bottom muscles and the lower back muscles to be really soft. And the way we get into it, so that the back muscles don't engage, is one hand in a pushup position, roll off to the side, elbow in position, use the outstretched arm, press across and up you come. So you haven't used the lower back muscles to pull you into the position, and you're much better able to keep them relaxed as a result. Let the belly sag into the floor. Breathe deeply. Every now and then, another wriggle of the hips. Check that the bottom muscles and the back muscles are relaxed. Good. If you feel like the ears are connected to your shoulders, then gently press the elbows just to give you a little bit more height. Breathe. Let the belly sag on to the floor.

A nice visualization for this one is imagine there's a bit of string tied to your sternum, your chest bone, and it's being pulled straight to the front and then a long arcing movement up towards the ceiling. So there's a visualization there of a long spine to which you're adding this gentle backbend. Also, the visualization is of an even back bend, an even curve in the spine. One more breath. Remembering it's good to breathe in through the nostrils, out through the nostrils, rather than breathe through your mouth. And to come out, just slide back out to your chest. And we always do a little rounding after this one. So I'm just going to roll to the side, bring myself up. And we're sitting back on the heels. Lower the body over the thighs. And you could just have the elbows on the floor, or if you want to make this one slightly stronger than before, reach the arms out to the front just a little bit.

Let the spine round. This is the counter movement to the back bend, you just did a second ago. And we'll come out. Bring the hands next to the knees, breathe in and hold the breath as you press yourself up. Okay. The next one is the one for which you will need your strap. I'm going to turn around. You'll start sitting on your bottom and you'll use the strap in this way, to hook it around the front of the ankles. We'll have the feet about hip width apart on the floor. And then you lie down on your back. And we've got the strap. So if your proportions mean it's difficult to reach and hold the ankles you don't need to, we're just holding on to the strap.

Okay? So everyone will do it with the strap the first time around. Lie there comfortably. To get into this position you're going to start to press the feet into the floor, so that the hips start to come up. And you get to the point where you can do a little adjustment of your shoulders. Pull them underneath a little bit more. Breathe comfortably. Drop the hips a bit. Tuck your tail. And then keeping on that tail tuck, use the pressing the heels into the floor action to lift the chip – the hips I should say – up, and they're moving forward towards your nose. And this is producing that even bend through the spine.

Breathe. A bit awkward to breathe in this one. Breathe deeply. If it's too intense in your lower back, lower the hips a little bit, tuck the tail more, and hold that tail tuck on as you push the heels through to get the hips up again. Couple more deep breaths in and out there. Where can you breathe into? I'm trying to breathe into the ribs at the front. It's quite difficult because that whole line is now lengthened, opened out, stretched out.

Allright. To come down simply slowly lower the hips. That's good. I'm just going to sit up, but if you need to you can roll to the side and come up that way. I've taken the strap away and we do a little forward bend here to ease out any residual tension in the lower back region. So I've got my heels to the front. My legs are bent so that when I come into this first position it's not a hamstring stretch, it's a back stretch. You can hold the top of the feet like this. Let the head hang forward. So do it with me. And then you're breathing into the back of the body. Breathe deeply into the back of the body, particularly where your waistband is crossing the lower back region.

Breathe deeply.

Couple more breaths.

You're just using this as a counter movement. It might not be as strong stretch, but because of the back bend you just did it might be a reasonably strong stretch. It is for me, this afternoon. And to come out, take a breath in and press up.

Okay. The next exercise is a groin stretch. It's called the squashed frog. You'll see why in a minute. Back on to all fours. And, it's really important that we maintain this relationship between the hips and the knees. By that I mean my hips are above my knees. When we go into the stretch the tendency will be for the hips to travel forward. We don't want that to happen. And I do a little bit of a tail tuck, just to flatten the curve here a bit. And the squashed frog is to see how far apart you can get your knees.

Little wriggle works fine. And it's way more comfortable to come down on to an elbow support than it is to stay up on your hands. So, it's really hard to tell yourself whether your hips are still in the line of the knees. So all I'm doing now is just a little forwards and backwards movement, maybe half an inch either direction, and your body will instantly tell you where is the tightest bit, and that's where you want to work. Good. In terms of the feet, I'm quite comfortable having the ankles the same width as my knees. But if that's not comfortable for you, you might prefer to have the heels a little bit closer together. Can you breathe here? Can you relax?

And now we'll do a contraction. The contraction here is to attempt to pull the knees together. But we don't want any movement when we're contracting. So if they slide at all press them into the floor a little bit more first, and then let's try that action togethet. For a count of five we're trying to pull the knees together against the resistance of the floor. Five, four, three – I'm sure you feel all those inside leg muscles – two, one, slowly stop. Take a deep breath in, and as you breathe, relax as much as you can, the whole body. Another deep breath in and as you breathe out, maybe you can slide the knees a tiny bit further apart. And three more deep breaths in and out here.

There's quite a few more details we'll talk about for this exercise another time. This is enough for our first go. To come out of this position my preference is to take the weight on to the arms and slowly move yourself forward on to your chest. There's no elegant way to get out of that position. There we go. Shake the legs out. I'm just going to push up. And now, working the same inside leg line, we'll do a standing exercise. So up you come on to your feet. Let's step the feet maybe three hip widths apart. If you know that bending forward and having the hands on the floor won't be possible for you you've got your supports handy. Start with the knees bent. Use the arms to lower yourself in as much as you need to. And when you feel you can transition to the support, do that. If you don't want the support, just move them out of the way.

Let the head hang forward. Get used to being upside down. Feel where the weight is through the feet. Really important that we feel some part of the abdomen or ribs touching the legs there. And this is the wide-legged version of the elephant walk, and the elephant walk action goes like this; little effort to try and straighten one knee, until you feel a stretch through the back of that leg, pause, and then ease it off. Same thing on the other side. Little effort, knee straightening, feel the stretch. And back you go. Let's do four more on each side. Good. So it's not a long held position on either side. It's a smooth, slow movement from side to side. Relax the head and neck.

Even after all my years of doing stretching, I still have to remind myself about that one. Relax the head and neck completely. Just easier for the body when everything's relaxing in the same direction. One more on each side. Perhaps you find you can straighten the knee just a bit more on each go. Pause in the centre. Lift the chest away from the supports enough that you can bring the hands onto your thighs. Take a full breath in and hold the breath as you press yourself up with the arms, rather than using the back muscles to pull yourself upright. That's it for today's session. And I'll see you next time.

Program 11: Cat sequence, elbow backbend, half-bridge, squashed frog, standing legs apart

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