Transcription:

For this session, the equipment that you'll need is your chair, your supporst, and I'm positioned near a wall because for one of the exercises I'm going to brace the chair against the wall.

The first exercise we're going to do is a new exercise, or a new version of an exercise, to target a muscle deep in the back of the hip joint here. So follow along with me. Sit comfortably on your chair; you don't want to feel like you're going to fall forward, because there is a forwar- bending component to this. It's one leg at a time. The foot will be flat on the floor as a stabilizer. And if you need to, use the arms to help bring the foot up into this position, which is just the outside of the foot resting just above the knee there. You can hold on like this.

First thing to do is just explore how far can you comfortably let that bent top knee go down towards the floor. Not pulling it down, that's not the purpose, but just how far can it comfortably drape there, because it's not supported on anything. If you find that it's too much, then you might need to maintain a little bit of tension just to hold it where's comfortable for you. Holding on here, now we're going to practice sitting up as straight as we can – and just that sitting up movement might give you a stretch in the hip of this top leg – and then do the opposite, slump back and feel how that takes the stretch away completely.

This is our tucking and untucking, and for this exercise we want to emphasize the untuck. So just the action of really sitting up tall out of your waist, that untucks the pelvis. You can also imagine you're trying to stick your bottom out behind you. Good. Now at the moment we're centered to the front, let's all angle so that our chest is centered over the feet, just a little bit of a turn. Breathing comfortably. And now as you breathe out each time, how much can you bend forward keeping your back completely straight? Imagine you wanted to put your chest bone on the floor, way out ahead of you, just as a reminder to keep the spine long and straight. I'm not pulling on my arms; in fact they're providing a little bit of support. Breathe and relax here.

You might be aware of the lower back muscles doing some work; they are, to maintain that straight spine. Breathe comfortably. And now we'll do a contraction. Feel the outside of the foot resting on the knee here and ask yourself how could I press down into the knee and sweep out to the side? That's the action you're trying to do, and the leg that it's resting on provides the resistance, so there's no movement. So let's try that together. For a count of five you're trying to press that foot down and sweep out to the side, for five, four, three, perhaps press a bit harder now, two, one, slowly stopped pressing, take a deep breath in and as you breathe out, relax. Take another full breath in, and as you breathe out this time, can you bend forward just a little bit further?

The bending is happening at the hips, so the shape of your spine shouldn't be changing. Let's try for two more deep breaths in and out here. Good. One more deep breath. Try to let your belly relax, more and more each time you breathe out, and we'll come out now. Put the hands on there and press yourself upright. And bring the leg down and wriggle it around a bit.

Let's do the other side together. So foot needs to be flat on the floor, stabilizes you when you start to bend forward. Use the arms if you need to. It's just the outer part of the foot resting there. Hands. And on this side, just see what it feels like to let the leg drape to the side; no need to actively pull it down at all. Use a little bit of arm effort because we're trying to sit up as tall as we can out of the waist, so that's the pelvic untucked position – bum sticking out in other words – and then go the other way, and feel which pelvic position produces a stretch and which one takes it away completely.

It's chalk and cheese in this exercise; you'll feel it straight away. Now turn so the center of your chest is over the top of both feet, breathe deeply and each time you breathe out, try seeing how far you can bend forward. Don't need to pull on the arms. And again all that movement is coming from the hips. Good. How does it feel on this second side compared to the first side? Breathing deeply? Every time you breathe in additional chest lengthening cue or spine lengthening cue. Each time you breathe out, you're trying to relax into that straight-backed forward bend.

Okay, let's do the contraction on this second side. So become aware of the pressure of the outside of the foot on that knee there. And the action is to try and press the foot through the knee and sweep it out to the side. Let's do that together for a count of five, four, three, two, one. Slowly stop contracting, take a breath in, as you breathe out let the body relax a bit. Take another deep breath in, perhaps you can untuck the pelvis a little bit more, stick the bottom out. And now as you breathe out, can you bend forward a little bit more.

Support the weight of the torso on those two arms. You don't have to do quite so much work. Three more deep breaths in and out.

One more breath.

And now take a breath in and use your arms to press you back to the upright position, and bring this leg down and shake it around a bit. Okay, next, we're going to do a forward bend in the chair and we're going to add a twisting movement. You'll be upside down, so just have a quick look and then we'll do it together. You'll need the feet wide, feet flat on the floor. And this is where you'll bring your supports in. You may find you don't need them, but we'll have them there handy in case. So go into the first part, I've got weight on my arms, so I'm helping lower my torso through.

And I get to a point where the arms are kind of a bit constricted. And this is the point at which I reach down and hold onto my supports. Or if you feel like you could just go straight to the floor, take the supports away. And then, letting the head hang forward, lower yourself through as far as is comfortable. This is a back stretch, but also the hip muscles are getting involved. We'll hold that, and then we'll do a transfer of the hands and put one hand up on the knee, and here's where we can add a twisting action. Most of the work is being done by the hand pressing down through the knee, and you can also involve the head and neck.

So that is little sequence we're going to do together now. So starting upright, make sure the feet are flat on the floor – that's really important so you don't feel that you're going to fall off the chair. Weight on the arms, take a breath in and as you breathe out, slowly start to bend forward from your hips. Feel how far you can go. You'll get to a point where you really want to reposition the arms, so do that now one at a time, put them down on your blocks. Still got weight on the arms here. Next breath out, let the head hang forward completely and bend and lower the torso as far as you're comfortable with; you're in control. You can keep weight on the arms as much as you need. Breathe into the back of the body. Relax the head and neck.

Couple more breaths in this middle, centred position.

And then we'll add the rotation. So move one hand across closer to a foot, bring the other hand up onto the top of the knee there, take a breath in, and as you breathe out, press the hand down through the knee, to start a little twist happening. Can you breathe? Remembering it can be a bit awkward to breathe deeply in rotations; focus on the breathing, and each time you breathe out twist around a little bit further. Turn the head and neck, if you can; if that's too much, just leave the head and neck out of it. One more breath.

Excellent. Turn back through the middle. Slowly change the hands over. You can keep weight on the arms as much as you need to; that's the point. Bring the other hand up on its knee. Take a breath in, as you breathe out press the hand down through the knee in order to start a bit of a twist.

Breathe, and twisting a tiny bit further each time you breathe out. Let's try three breaths in and out on this second side. Good. Turn the head and neck if you want to. One more breath. And then slowly come back to the middle position. Just pause there. Take a deep breath in, hold it, ring a hand up onto a knee, other hand up onto a knee, and press down with the arms in order to bring you upright, and keep breathing. Nice. A little combination forward bend twisting there.

Next one. We're going to need to reposition our chair just so we're ensuring it's completely braced, it's not going to slide away from you.

The movement we're exploring here is this movement of the arms in the shoulder joints. And for some of you, it'll also involve a little bit of a back bend, depending on how much of this movement is available in your shoulders. Quick look first, then we'll do it together. Suggested arm position is this. You have your arms on the chair, comfortable, and just forearms crossed on top of each other. You'll be kneeling, so you might have to play around with your distance from the chair, and I've got my knees at least hip width apart so I'm really stable; I don't want to worry about rocking from side to side.

So just have a play with that. Work out how far away from the chair you need to be. I can feel that I need to shuffle my knees back a little bit. And then just look at the floor; you've got some weight on the arms, some weight on the knees. Picture a wall behind your bum, try and move your bum back towards the wall a little bit. It just gives you a little bit more space in the shoulders, and for most people that feels super comfortable. And now, breathing deeply into the chest, you're trying to move the chest down through towards the floor, the effect being that the arms are being taken back behind you.

Good. Focus breathing on the front of the body; into the chest, the very top of the chest, into the ribs, right down into your abdomen. It takes a couple of goes to get used to this movement, because you've got some load coming down through the shoulders, at the same time as you're trying to relax into the position. So just focus on breathing, relax whatever you can. And we'll do a little contraction here, which is to try to gently press your arms straight down through the seat of the chair that they're resting on. So let's do that together for five, four – brace so that nothing moves as you do the pressing action – three, two, one. Slowly stop contracting take a breath in as you breathe out, relax. Take another breath in, as you breathe out will your chest move a little bit deeper in towards the floor.

Breathe, a couple more breaths. The whole front of the body is being stretched, so breathe into there and let it relax a bit more as you breathe out. Okay to come out, take a breath in and hold it, as you just press into the chair, till you feel the weight come off the arms so you can just bring yourself back. And we'll do a little counter movement. Simply come up, sit yourself on your chair, hold onto the back of the chair and our little spinal slump we've done in the chair a few times now. It's just a counter movement. Doesn't need to be a strong stretch in its own right. Couple of breaths. All right and then take a breath in. Up you come. All right, now we're going to finish off this session with a few neck exercises done in the chair. So I'll come back face on, move this.

All right, to begin with simple neck rotation. So sit comfortably on the chair, feet flat on the floor, big breath in lift the chest and a rotation. How far can you turn your head in one direction? And you'll get to a point where the brain tell you you can't go any further. Take a deep breath in there, and as you breathe out make a real effort to go further. Try to keep the shoulders still. You'll reach another barrier; take a big breath in there and as you breathe out, make another effort to go a little bit further.

This is both a stretch and a strengthening movement for the neck muscles. Couple of breaths. And to come out just slowly come back through the middle, and do the same thing on the other side. So how far can you turn? And the same thing happens; your brain will say, I can't go any further. Take a big breath in, and as you breathe out, make an effort to go further. Then you should find that you can, and another barrier will be reached. Off you go, take a big breath in, and as you breathe out, make an effort to go further. And pause and breathe and relax in that final position.

One more breath.

And coming back through the middle, brief return in the first direction, makes everything feel comfortable, and back to the middle. And now we will do a side bend for the neck. For many people this whole line through here is the tightest line through their neck. So let's play with this. It's important to exaggerate lengthening the spine and straightening it. So as you breathe in, lift the chest, as you breathe out, just pull the shoulders back a tiny bit, just a little bit. And imagine there was a wall behind you and you wanted to move the head back so the skull touches it. So we're exaggerating the lengthening of the spine. Also imagine there's a mirror in the front of you and you want to be able to keep the whole of your face in view as you try to move the head into a side bend. That's it.

There's a tendency to incorporate some amount of rotation to look like you're more flexible, but actually you're completely avoiding the tight line through the side of the neck. So that visualization of a mirror to your front – and another time be all means practice it in front of a mirror – can you still see all of your face in view? Breathe and relax here, relax the shoulders each time you breathe out, in particular the shoulder that you've bent the head away from, sinking it down.

Good. To come out of this position, reach a hand up and help the head up to the middle position. Let's try the same thing on the other side. So again, lift the chest, pull the shoulders back just a small amount, and pull the head back into the plane of the shoulders, particularly if you know you tend to carry your head forwards. Breathe in, and as you breathe out slowly bend the head to the side and trying to avoid any turning. It's not wrong, you'll still get a stretch, but you'll probably be avoiding the tightest line in your neck. How does it feel on this side compared to the first side. Good.

Breathing deeply, let the shoulders relax each time you breathe out, in particular the side that you've bent the head away from. A couple more breaths. No real forces involved here, except the weight of your head, which is not insignificant. Good. And to come out, reach the hand and help the head up.

Good.

Now, after doing the side bend, we'll go back and repeat the rotation and see whether it feels any more comfortable. Back you go, probably find you can go straight back to the end position you found before. Couple of breaths in and out there, and then come back through the middle and the same thing on the other side. Having done the side bend, does it feel more comfortable doing that rotation? Definitely does for me today.

Come back through the middle. Brief return to the first side. And we'll finish off with a forward bend. So as you breathe out, let the chin come forward towards the chest. Breathing comfortably. When you're ready, take a couple of fingers of each hand, place them up on the back of the head there, and as you breathe out, you're allowing as much of the weight to the arms to rest on the back of the head as you would like to today. No need to pull on the head, rather you're using the weight of the arms to stretch the neck muscles. And we'll do a brief contraction here. For a count of three, without letting the head move, gently try and press the head back into the resistance of the arms, for three, two, one. Slowly stop contracting, take a deep breath in and as you breathe out, relax. Take another deep breath in and this time as you breathe out can you move a little bit further into the stretch? Two more breaths in and out. One more breath. And then run your fingers around to your temples.

Take a breath in and help the head up. That's it for today. Well done. See you next time.

Program 14: Piriformis, chair forward bend + sumo, shoulder flexion, three neck exercises

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