Transcription:

This sequence is a whole spine sequence and the only prop we need is our trusty chair.

The first exercises are done standing. I'm just going to step towards you a tiny bit. Bend my knees slightly to feel the weight evenly under both feet. Place my hand on the side of my waist like this. Tuck my tail very slightly. Lift my chest slightly. All of this is just to make the spine artificially straight. Take a breath in and on a breath out I'm going to lean sideways onto this arm.

Now you may be able to see that my hips and shoulders and head are all roughly in the same plane. I'm feeling a bit of a compression on this side of the waist and a nice stretch in this area here. And I'm just going to keep leaning to the side until I feel I've gone as far as I can in that position. And by subtle adjustments of hips and shoulders, feel that I'm stretching this whole side line here perfectly. Then I let my head go to the side as well. Many people forget the neck is part of the spine, and you definitely want to give it a stretch as well.

Now I'm going to take another breath in. Follow along as I do this. Reach your arm out in front of you like this. You'll see that will increase the stretch significantly. And if you need a bit stronger stretch watch with this arm, reach out to the wall to your side. That is now a strong stretch. And the whole weight of my upper body has increased because I reached this arm out. And you should feel as stronger stretch as a result.

Next, I'm going to roll the top shoulder towards you slightly and then reach out again. That increases the stretch but it also moves the stretch from here, more into the lower back. So, that's the second position. And watch, there's a third position. So, roll your top shoulder forward a bit. Reach out more. Reach out. Roll. Reach out. And about this point, you'll feel the stretch disappears completely.

And now, on the other side now. Now, I've got a transmitter here so I'm going to hold my waist a little bit artificially high. But I've got my hand on the hip bone and it's a good support. Take a breath in. Notice that when you take a breath in it lifts the ribs up. And with the ribs lifted up, we can find we can move more to the side more easily, usually. And you won't feel the ribs bump into the hip as some people talk about sometimes. Again, I'm trying to keep my shoulders and my hips in the same plane. And I'm letting my head go to the side as well.

So, in the beginning, just use the weight of the upper body itself to bring that stretch on. Then if you want more, take a breath in, reach this arm in front of your body like this, and then reach out. It's the reaching out that does all of that additional stretching, two ways. One, the traps here stretch the lats under your arms as you reach, that's what the reaching movement is. And secondly, the extra weight of the arm on this much longer lever does a very good job of adding extra weight to the stretch.

Breathe and try to go further. Reach more. Breathe. Try to go further. Reach more. Now, roll the top shoulder forward slightly. Notice it's a small movement and then reach out in that new direction. And you'll find that will change the stretch quite dramatically. Roll a bit more. Reach. Roll a bit more. Reach. Reach. And at about this point, it disappears. Bend the knees and let everything go soft.

Now the recovery pose looks like this. We call it the 'rag doll'. Oh, that feels sensational.

And the next little movement also done in the standing position is a backbend. So, we're going to combine these movements and maybe make some circles with the body. So, let me show you what that looks like. I'm going to put my hands on the back of my hips here like this. I might turn side on to show you this. Hands on the back of my hips like this, just above the hips. And then watch, I tuck the tail, bring the head back, and just gently lean back like this.

And you can let your knees bend if you want, that helps balance normally. And then in this position, I'm thinking about lifting my chest. Just watch the shape change it makes. I lift the chest. And then lift the chest. I'm also getting a fantastic front of the neck stretch. Turn the head slightly to move that stretch too. To come back, bring the head back first, bend the knees, and simply come back to your starting point.

Now, if we were to combine all of these just very gently for a moment. Bend the knees. And bend to the side. Roll backwards. And other direction. Bend to the side. Bend back. Side. To here. And again, just a little shake and a wriggle.

Now we're going to reprise the elephant walk and that will allow us to bend the spine forwards and then we'll combine all the movements. So, for the elephant walk, you've seen the elephant walk a few times now. So, follow along with me. I'm sliding my hands down my legs like this. And today my lower back is a bit tight, probably after yesterday. And so, I lean forward just until I feel my ribs starting to dig into the tops of my thighs here or the middle roughly. And then I'm going to reach down.

And remember, if you need blocks to be able to rest on something, by all means, use blocks. That's not cheating at all. We want the whole of the body to feel safe and secure in this position and having the fingers on something or the hands on something always helps that feeling.

Now, I'm going to wriggle my hips from side to side like this because today moving the hips is actually stretching something very nice on either side of the lower back here like this. And then let myself relax more onto my legs. And then the proper elephant walk, you can do it supported, or you can have your hands swaying like an elephants trunk. I'm going to do it supported today. I'm straightening my right leg. Relax. Left leg. Relax.

Now, notice the timing that I'm using as about a second. Straighten, straighten, straighten. Relax. Straighten, straighten, straighten. Relax. But you could do it quicker or slower. You will find by practicing, a rhythm that works. Here's a quicker version. See if the quicker one works for you. And then go around further. And to come out, lift your head up, put your hands on your knees. And always use your arms to bring yourself up.

Now, we're going to get down on the floor for two stronger backbends than we've done before. So, follow me down. You lie down on your comfortable surface like this. And I recommend always just letting yourself down on your elbows like this for a moment and just feeling whether the lower back is feeling relaxed or not. And if it's not, just wriggle your hips from side to side like I'm doing now until it does feel soft. Or you can start like this with your head on your hands and do the wriggling there.

The way to get up into the actual exercise position is, reach one arm out like this. Roll onto your side, like this. Put the elbow in position. And then use this hand here to lift yourself up onto that elbow. And then bring the second elbow in position like this. And the reason that's so good is that you're not using your lower back muscles to get into position. And if someone were to feel your lower back muscles, they should still feel really soft. And the reason why this is important is that a huge number of people when they're doing back bending find that their lower back muscles cramp.

So, following along with me. Just wriggle your hips from side to side and try to let everything go completely soft. And I've got my weight on my elbows and my whole body is just sinking between my shoulders and the front of my hips. So, next, just watch and follow along with me. Press your elbows straight away from you into the floor like this and that will elevate your shoulders. See how that happens? Then gently pull on your hands and you'll see that that lifts your ribs along the floor and you'll feel it. It's quite an easy and strong sensation to get. And then let the ribs settle on the floor once again. And if you look at the shape of my back now, even though I'm only on my elbows, it's quite a stronger shape than it was before. And everything is completely soft.

Next, just take a cautious little look around the corner and look at your heels. And the reason is we think that we need to be able to move the spine in all different directions, not just in a single plane. And so, playing with these movements like this is a very good way to start encouraging that. So, I would normally do that a couple of times. And then I'd lower myself to the floor like this. Take a little rest.

If you want to try a slightly stronger version, this is what it would look like. Put your arms out to your sides. You'll see why in a moment. Let your head rest on the floor like this. Then once again, keeping the entire lower body completely soft, just press your shoulders off the ground. And you'll see how my head is dangling down. Press the shoulders off the ground. Wriggle. Keep soft. Press the shoulders off the ground. Wriggle. Keep soft. And you'll find you'll be able to come up a bit higher this time.

And notice your tummy or my tummy is still on the ground. So, let your tummy relax on the floor if you can. And then look to the front. Lift the chest slightly. Pull back on your hands slightly will also increase that bend. And once again, let the body settle in between the shoulders. So, I'm now being suspended effectively between my hands and the front of my legs but because my arms are straight, I'm a lot higher off the ground. And as before, you should find actually you can twist around quite a bit further. Wonderful.

And then let yourself settle to the ground. While we're here, I'll give you a little recovery pose. Very simple one. Sit on your feet like so. Let the hips slump back. Let the chin go to the chest. And very gently pull your body into that 'C' shape. And you'll find everything from here and perhaps even up into the middle back ... add a little rotation, will also get a stretch. And move backwards and forwards like this a couple of times and that should settle your low back down completely.

Next, this is a stronger backbend but it's a completely different one from a sensation perspective, as you will feel. So, low down on your back like this. Settle yourself on the floor. Let everything go soft. Part of the discomfort of stretching is people anticipating that somebody is going to hurt when they do something. If you just let everything go soft, then you can wait and see what will actually happen and you'll be surprised.

Then hold one ankle like this. Notice also I'm using my whole hand around the ankle, not a pinch grip like this because most people are much stronger with the whole hand wrapped around the ankle. And the same on the other side. Hand wrapped around the ankle like this. I've got a good grip. And I tuck my tail. See how that lifts the hips off the ground? So, tuck your tail. Feel the muscles you're using to do that. And then push your hips up like this to about this point here, wherever you can get them up to easily, and then move your shoulders around so you come up higher on the top of your shoulders. Then watch. Take a breath in. And on a breath out, slowly try to straighten your legs like this.

Oh, that's fantastic. We'll do that again. I always find the second iteration of this particular exercise always feels wonderful. And if there's any cramping at all in your lower back, then simply hold your knees like this and curl yourself off the floor like this. That'll relieve that little compression sensation immediately.

Then once again. I'll start it differently this time. I've got ahold of both of my ankles. I tuck my tail. Take a breath in and use the tucked tail muscles to press the hips like this. You'll find they come up to about here. Take another breath in. Redouble your grip and on a breath out, come up on the top of your shoulders, press the hips up and then try to push your feet away from you.

It's beautiful. And the little relieving that we'll do this time, looks like this. Just sit up. Same position. We've done this one before. I'm going to hold my wrists behind the back of my knees like this. Walk my feet closer to my bottom. Let my hips slump back. I'm just redoing that to show you. Do the same, following along with me. And then I slump. And see how the whole of my spine is making a shape like the letter 'C'. And doing that and wriggling around a bit, that will relieve any tendency for there to be a cramp in the lower back.

Okay. The next exercise we're going to do is a rotation. So, we want to move the spine in all directions. And I'm going to do the rotation on the chair. I'll just bring it into the set. Now, the reason I'm sitting across the chair like this, with this part of my leg up against the chair back, is so when I reach around, which is what we're going to do, when I reach around my hips won't slide on this shiny wooden surface. To put it another way, my lower body is held in this position.

So, watch. I'm going to reach this hand around like this. Hold the side of the chair. Reach the other hand around and hold the base of the chair. Then I'm going to lift the chest. So, do that with me. Lift your own chest and feel how that straightens everything. And then watch. Take a breath in and do this yourself. Pull yourself around. Now, you'll find, generally, that you'll tend to slump when you do that. So, when you get halfway around and you feel the stretch starting to come on, lift your chest a bit more and pull yourself around like this.

That feels wonderful. And spin around on your chair. And we'll do the other side. I reach the top arm around and hold the side of the back of the chair. Reach this hand around and I'm trying to reach round. As far as I can. I lift the chest, that's critical. And then use both hands. And also, what I'm doing here, I'm just moving backwards and forwards to make sure that my bottom bones are sitting firmly on the chair. Take another breath in. And lifting the chest all the while. And always spin around to the first side and go back to the first side just for a moment to relieve everything.

Now I can feel in my body that I've moved the spine in all possible ways. And as a result, everything is simply feeling more relaxed.

And now for the last part of this program, we're going to do some jaw exercises. A quick side note here, most people, and I think we can say based on our workshop experience, pretty much 99.9% of people hold an immense amount of tension in this part of the body here. And if you're not sure whether you do or not just try pressing into these jaw muscles. And you locate the jaw muscles by just very lightly clenching your teeth like this. You'll feel straight away they're these big muscles in here. When you press in, on most people they're extremely painful. So, we're going to show you how to relax the jaw tension. And a lot of people with bruxism; a lot of people who grind their teeth at nighttime and a lot of people who have sleep problems have found these jaw exercises to be spectacularly effective.

So, sit up straight. Open the mouth. Put the web of your thumb on the lower jaw like this. And very gently press the lower jaw down. Just watch. Then, if that's not enough of a stretch, you can try a little contraction. And the contraction movement in this position is a very gentle, biting action. But softly done so that nothing actually moves. So, once again, open the mouth wide. Put the web of the index finger and thumb on the jaw. And to here. I'm doing a contraction, it's impossible to talk while I'm doing that. So, I'll do a contraction. And then watch. Oh, the sense of opening up in here is phenomenal. So, that's one movement opening the jaw wider.

The second movement is to bring the jaw back. "Jaw retraction", it's called. So, it's the same web of the hand here. This time I'm going to pull my own jaw back. It's a bit hard to see. So, just follow the verbal instructions. Pull your own jaw back like this. Press the jaw against the web. Oh, I'm going back a bit further. That's retraction.

Then protraction, we're pressing the jaw out. So, this time we'll use the thumbs behind the arch of the jaw here. So, I'm going to my thumbs in behind my jaw, like this. Rest the fingers lightly on the very muscles that we're working on. Push the jaw forward. I have to describe this. It's impossible to talk while doing this. I press the jaw forward with the protraction muscles. And then I pull the jaw back against the effort of my thumbs. So, press your own jaw out. I realize you look completely weird when you do this. And I'm sure I do too. But the sensation following it is fantastic.

And the last movement here is a simple side to side. Side to side. And then try this, opening the mouth as wide as you can. And when you move your jaw around, following that sequence, for most people, any clicking noises that they feel up in the temporomandibular joint here, or any discomfort they feel in the face, generally that's helped.

So, have a play with those and let us know what you think. See you next time.

Program 19: Side/back bend, elephant walk, floor back bend, 1/2 bridge, seated rotation, jaw sequence

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