Prepare for Back Bends with Katie

My name is Katie. I am a teacher here at Hot Yoga Naperville. I am going to be working on a few back bends today. Opening our chest and articulating our spine. Especially contracting into the spinae  erector muscles down our vertebrae. So when we come into these postures we want to be nice and opened in the chest, which is a good way to start this. Also in the hips also in the shoulders. We can take a block or one of these egg blocks, put it along your spine. You can take a square block, highest height long ways. And you want to just relax back down on to the block. Let your shoulders be open let your chest be open your arms heavy down by your side. Supta Baddha Konasana is a good way to start. Hips are nice and opened. Soles of the feet together. Take a few breaths in and out of through the nose here.

Or perhaps even inhaling deeply through the nose, long exhales through the mouth. So perhaps starting a class this way for three to five minutes. Just so you feel relaxed and open. As we come out of the posture we can turn around do some cat and cows. Hands are underneath the shoulders, knees are underneath the hips. And again as you inhale you want to drop the belly.

So this prepares us for the articulation of the spine. Opening the chest. Dropping the belly down and pushing the heart forward. As we breathe in and take the gaze up. Gaze is so important. Especially in back bends. And as you round you’re drawing the naval in to spine. Pushing through the palms. Tucking the chin to the chest. Really rounding through the spine like you’re pushing someone up towards the ceiling from your back. As you inhale drawing that breath in. Dropping the belly. Pulling the shoulder blades down. And externally rotating the shoulders.

So you want to do this a few times. Exhaling, inhaling through cat and cow. Just to kind of prep the body through this. You can always push yourself through down dog as well. Pushing through the palms. Melting your heart towards the thighs. And maybe raising that right leg up nice and high. Doing some hip rotations here in one direction and then another. Again shoulders, chest, hips need to be nice and opened as we come into back bends. Getting that range of motion through the ball and socket joints. As we inhale you can come high on the toes and round forward dropping into cobra posture. You can uncurl the toes. Now one thing important to remember is your shoulders sometimes hunch forward. You want to draw them up towards your ear lobes. Round them back and down. Pull the scapula towards the hips. Again, externally rotating the shoulders open. The creases of the elbows moving towards the front wall or mirror. Curl the toes under. Push yourself into down dog.

And go through this motion a few times. Inhaling into up dog or cobra. Exhaling down. Inhaling pulling the chest forward. Sternum forward. Exhale down. So once you go through some warm up exercises, you can take this into camel or bridge. Obviously back bends, we’re taking our gaze back. So you’re changing your perspective on things. Anytime, take yourself back or upside down you’re reversing your perception. So it’s good. It stimulates blood flow to the brain. You have to learn how to trust yourself. It’s about trust, it’s about opening the heart. It’s about release. Letting go of emotions. Letting go of trauma. Being open. Opening through the throat. The facial expression, letting go. And trusting yourself. Okay, thank you for watching.

Hope to see you in class soon!