Transcription:

In this session, we will be exploring some movements of the hips and pelvis. We'll do our first exercises for quadriceps and the front hip muscles. And then we'll go down on the floor and do a little back bend for the spine.

I've got a few little bits of equipment here for this session. My chair. I've got a strap, any kind of belt. We're going to use that to grab the foot, if necessary. I've got a soft mat. It could be a cushion or a rolled up towel, anything that's soft. And I've got a couple of little supports there. They happen to be yoga blocks. You could use a thick book just as well. So let's get going.

I'm going to turn side on to the camera so you can see the first pelvic movement. You can hold the hips like this, or you can put your hands like this. Practice rolling the hips back and tucking your tail under, and then the opposite movement, which is sticking your bottom out behind you. So this is pelvic tilting forwards and backwards. The first movement, when we roll the hips back and tuck the tail under, we call the tuck. And the opposite movement, we call the untuck. Let's do a few more of those. Move slowly so you can feel via your hand support, whichever one you're using, you can feel the pelvis tilting forwards and backwards. You'll also be able to feel the change in the shape of your lower back. And you might also be aware of activity in the abdominal muscles, and even your bottom muscles, helping produce the tilts. So that's a tuck and an untuck. We will use those two positions in many, many of the lower body/hip stretches.

Now, come face on. I'm going to hold the hips in this way, and let's try some side to side movements. How does that feel? For many people, this is a very strong movement, even though it's a very small range of movement I'm using. Potentially, there's all sorts of sensation through the hips, through the waist, even coming down through the outside of your legs. I've got my knees bent just a bit. It feels very comfortable in my body. And now, let's do some pelvic circles. Keep them really small. Also, keep moving nice and slowly. It's completely controllable, plus you get to feel more when you're moving slowly. The hands on your hips allows you to feel where the hips are moving in space. Now, let's go back the other way. Again, my knees are a little bit bent. You could, by all means, try it with the knees straighter if that's more comfortable in your body. How does that feel? Is there movement available to you? Good. Okay.

So just some simple hip and pelvic movements to begin with. Now, we're going to do a stretch for these big muscles on the front of the leg here. We'll do them one at a time. You'll use your chair as a balance aid so you'll be maximally stable throughout this exercise. For the first side, let's use the strap to more easily hold onto your ankle. So take a little bit of weight onto one leg. Bring the other knee forward a little bit closer towards you. And then you'll be able to reach down and loop the strap around your ankle. And then you're very easily able to capture that ankle and come into the start position.

So every time you breathe in, make a little effort to lift the chest up towards the ceiling, nice lengthening through the spine, through the front of the body, I should say. You can pull the heel in towards the buttock, see how the knee feels about that and see what effect that produces in this front thigh. If that's uncomfortable in the knee, you could release that to some extent and rather focus on moving the knee back behind the body. Just try those two movements and see how they feel in your knee and in that thigh. And then back off both of those movements.

And here we use one of the pelvic tilts, the tuck. So before we go strongly into the stretch, tuck the tail, like you just practiced a moment ago, then pull the heel in towards the buttock, and then try to move the knee back a little bit without releasing that tuck. If you let go of the tuck, then all you're doing is bending in the back, not stretching the thigh at all. So tuck the tail first, pull the heel in and move the knee back. Breathe and relax. Very often, this is quite a tight line through your body. So make sure you're not straining, not working too hard here.

We're getting into some larger muscles of the body and we know that they tend to respond to a longer stretch compared to the smaller bodies. So we're going to try and hold this position for about 12 to 15 slow, deep breaths. Remembering to go further into any stretch as you breathe out each time. Move nice and slowly. Focus on your breathing. Are you still standing up nice and tall? And check is your belly soft? Is it able to relax?

Breathe in and out through the nostrils. Much as you can, bring your attention back to your breathing. Can you breathe comfortably, both in and out? And each time you breathe out, say to yourself, "The bits that are stretching, they're going to relax a little bit more and I can go a bit further into the stretch." Let's try three more breaths on this first side.

You might also be aware of how much work the standing leg is doing. That's good. Anytime you can practice standing on one leg, even with a little bit of support, that's a good thing to incorporate into your weekly routines. To come out of this one, let the knee come forward, let the heel come through, and release the strap.

So on the second side, I won't use the strap. Let's do it together. So stand on the foot, use the chair for balance. Come through, grab the front of the ankle, front of the foot, front of the shin, wherever works for you. And we start to bring the heel back, and we stand up as tall as we can. And like we did on the first side, just have a bit of a play with trying to pull the heal in. How does that feel, particularly in the knee? If that's too much in the knee or uncomfortable, let the heel come away. And then have a little play of taking the knee back. How does that feel? Good.

Okay. And now stand up nice and tall. Lift the chest, tuck the tail. And we're trying to keep that tuck held on throughout the exercise. And then pull the heel in towards the buttock. And then maintaining that tucked pelvic position, pull the thigh back.

Move nice and slowly. There's two reasons for that. One is that when you're moving slowly you can feel more. And this is all about feeling. The second is we're very good at avoiding sensation. If you move quickly, you tend to lose your form and completely avoid the stretch.

Let's come out of this side now. So simply let the bent knee move forward and lower the foot down towards the floor. Next, we're going to go down to the floor and do a little back bend. You don't need any equipment at all for this. Just move your chair back and move anything else out of the way. Coming down. And you'll be lying face down on the floor, like so. I'm going to keep my head up just so I'm not talking into the carpet, but please follow along with my instructions and keep your face looking down at the floor.

To begin with, just wriggle the hips from side to side, trying to get your bottom muscles to go as soft and relaxed as possible. And we're going to try and keep them relaxed throughout the exercise. To get into the position, just follow along with me. Bring one arm up into a pushup position, which is palm down, elbow pointing up towards the ceiling, and use that arm to press yourself over towards the other side of the body. And then bring the elbow into a position a bit like this. Then use the outstretched arm to press yourself across. Bring the other elbow into position. This is the position we'll be in for the exercise. You should feel supported on your elbows. Breathe deeply, breathe into the chest, and every time you breathe out, let your abdomen, your belly, sink into the floor. Pretty much from your belly button down will stay in contact with the floor. Are you still breathing comfortably? Breathe into the front of the body, into the chest, into the ribs, and down into the belly that's resting on the floor.

Head position is optimal, is optional, I should say. I'm totally comfortable with the head pointing to the front, but if you prefer to have the head a little bit more pointing towards the floor, that's your preference.

Check in with your bottom muscles. Are they still soft and relaxed? Give them a little wriggle from side to side. Keep breathing comfortably. And if you become aware that your shoulders are right up next to your ears and it feels a bit uncomfortable, very smoothly and gently press the elbows into the floor to give you a little bit more space there, a little bit more chest lift. Take a deep breath in and as you breathe out, again, let the belly settle against the floor. Breathe deeply into the front of the body. Big, deep breaths in and out, drawing the air in through the nostrils, breathing out through the nostrils.

To come out of this little floor back bend, simply creep your arms out along the floor. We're going to move into a little counter movement. So just roll over onto the side, bring the knees in, and that's a nice comfortable way to come up into a little kneeling position. If you find that you can't comfortably sit back on the heels, grab your mat, put it in between and you'll be able to sit down onto the soft padded mat. Hands here for support and simply curve your spine over your thighs. Rest the forehead on the floor. It's just a gentle rounding of the spine. I'm also wriggling my hips from side to side. That feels really nice in my lower back.

To come out, bring the hands next to the knees, take a deep breath in and lift yourself up with your arms. It's not unusual for people to feel some real tensing happening in the lower back when they're first doing that particular backbend, so we always do the little rounding out movement afterwards.

Okay, next, we're going to go back to the legs. A moment ago, we did a standing stretch for the quad here, the thigh. Now, we're going to do a version where we try and get the stretch higher up into the front of the hip joint here. This is where you'll need all of your equipment. The mat we'll bring in for knee padding. The blocks we'll bring in to rest our hands on. And keep the the chair handy because you'll need it for a little bit of support and stability, and some of you might need to bring it in in place of the blocks. We're going to find out.

So the knee is resting on this padded surface. That's super comfortable. The other foot, and I'm stabilizing myself on the chair all the while, will step forward, flat on the floor, like so. The first movement is to try and bend forward from the hips – and I'm supporting and taking some weight on the hand on the chair there – to see whether I can reach the block. If you can, then take the other hand down to your support. Okay? If the blocks are just too far away from you, come out of the position, put the chair there and rest on your elbows. Just a gentler version of the same movement. I'll just wait a couple of breaths here, let you all get set up with the support that you need.

This was just the setup. Now, we're going to do the actual stretch. Let your hips move down and forwards towards your hands on the support, into a lunge position. Don't be concerned about how far you can go, just try that movement. The front foot, we don't want the ankle trapped behind the knee. So I'm just creeping the foot forward a little bit so that the ankle's a little bit ahead of that knee. Okay? Rest on the arms. You got weight on the knee and the foot, and you're breathing comfortably into the front of the body, and every time you breathe out, you're letting the hips sink a little bit deeper. Breathe comfortably. Where do you feel the stretch? Where do you feel the stretch? Keep breathing and relaxing.

Just like the quadriceps we did before, this is a big muscle group. We want to try and hold it for about 15 slow, deep breaths in and out. These are just guides. Don't be concerned about the numbers. Breathe and relax.

We'll come out of this first side. To do that, press the hands into the support and move the hips back so the stretch comes away completely. Then put the hand up on the chair and use that arm to help bring your body back to upright. Now, let's do the other side.

Switch your padding across for the other knee. Still got the chair there to support. Step this other foot forward. My foot and my knee are not in a straight line, they're about hip width apart on the floor; it's much easier to balance and hold a position in this way. Supporting now on the front knee and the chair, the first movement is bending forward at the hips to see whether I can reach my support. If you can't, you might be using elbows on chairs. That's cool. Get comfortable here. Adjust anything that you feel you need to. And now to produce the stretch, we're trying to let the hips move down and forwards towards the hands on the supports, in a lunge movement. If you find that the knee is forward of that ankle, notice the little foot creeping action I'm doing there to move the foot forwards.

Are you breathing comfortably? Breathe into the front of the body. As you breathe out, let the belly relax, and allow the hips to sink down and forwards. How does this side feel compared to the first side? Where do you feel the stretch on this second side? Breathe and relax. In your own time, count yourself through five more slow, deep breaths in and out. Can you feel yourself relaxing a little bit more on each breath out? Is your belly relaxed? I've got two more breaths. One more breath.

And now we'll come out of this second side. To do that, press down through the hands on your support, move the hips back out of the stretch, and then use the hands, chair and knee to bring the torso back up to the upright position. So there is our basic floor lunge.

To finish off this session, we're going to do a rounding movement for the spine. You just need to be able to sit comfortably on the floor. Move all of that gear out of the way. And I'll demonstrate it side on to the camera and you'll see exactly what we're doing here. Very briefly, look at me to begin with so you see what shape it is. I'm going to hold behind the back of the legs and slump. It's a slump, a rounding movement for the spine. We call this exercise the C pose, letter C, because that's the shape your spine is making.

You'll be holding like this behind the back of your legs. So do that, and then follow along with me. Start to let the heels walk in towards your hips. And the first movement we're aiming for is letting the top of the hips slump back. You'll feel the weight move from the bottom back towards the base of your spine. This ensures that the lower back has some rounding happening. Follow that movement with letting the whole middle back slump. You feel the stretch, perhaps, between the shoulder blades. Breathe into there.

And I've got my head forward, chin to chest, because that feels very comfortable in my body, but you can try some different head and neck positions. Breathe into the back of the body. Let the shoulders relax. Every time you breathe out let yourself slump a little bit more. At this point your elbows will be pretty straight, if not completely straight, and you're quite literally hanging off your arms in this position. I've got my toes on the floor. If you feel like you need to lift them up to be more comfortable, that's okay. Let's try three more deep breaths in and out here. Breathe in between the shoulder blades. One more breath. And to come out of the position, take a breath in and just gently, smoothly, pull on the arms to bring yourself back up to upright. Great work in this session. See you next time.

Program 2: Quads, spine extension, lunge, flexion

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