This session will help release upper and lower back tension as well as work on balance and hip opening poses. You will be taken through an hour of steady and gentle ways to bring awareness and opening to hips and shoulders.
Set up in Forward Virasana. Place a bolster with extra blanket height as needed along the trunk right up to the lower pelvis and lean forward over your support. Check to see that your trunk is parallel to the floor. Place an extra support between heels and buttocks if the knees are tight in this position.
Come up and put two blocks perpendicularly against the wall. Go to Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward Dog pose) with the heels up on the front edge of the blocks. Feel how this helps to lift the hips higher.
Then slide the heels down to or towards the floor, keeping the back of the heels right up against the blocks and observe how the lower back is now anchored and broadened.
Release down into Forward Virasana.
Come to standing and find a ledge or bench to use for the next poses
Half Uttanasana, with the palms facing down onto the ledge, heels under the buttocks and head in line with the arms. Open the chest by keeping the elbows up and the arms straight and long.
Two versions of Head Balance preparation are next. These are not so much to prepare for Head balance here, as to open the shoulders and release the neck.
Face the ledge and taking a block between your hands place your elbows onto the ledge. Step back as for half Uttanasana. Extend forward through the elbows, and then bend your arms and turn the block so that you can press the side of the block into your upper back vertebrae. Keep the forehead on the ledge or move a little further away to get a deeper opening in the thoracic spine.
Place the block to one side and now put the elbows onto the ledge with the hands in prayer position.
Then extend the fingers back towards the buttocks and press the fingers down into the upper thoracic and encourage those vertebrae back away from the neck to remove upper back ‘bunching
Stand and turn away from the ledge. Place the palms face down onto the ledge and walk a little forwards so that you can roll the shoulders back and press the back ribs and shoulder blades forwards.
Now take a belt and make the loop of the belt as large as possible. Slip the belt over your shoulders and then place the front end of the loop over the head as shown. Take hold of the long edge of the loop with your thumbs and pull downwards to traction the upper back and shoulders away from the neck. Hold for 30-60 seconds. Notice the fullness of the chest and the opening of the armpit area when the shoulders roll back and down. This helps the neck release.
Take a chair and standing with your back to the wall, place the seat of the chair facing you, about half a leg length away.
The wall will support you if the balance is unsteady, and also give you a sense of alignment. Stand on your L leg and bend the R leg to place the R foot onto the chair seat, heel under the bent knee.
Stabilise yourself and then raise the arms up and hold for a few breaths there.
Change sides.
Still with your back to the wall, now place the heel of your R foot onto the chair seat, leg extended straight. See if you can take the R foot a little higher by placing one or two blocks under the heel, without allowing the knees to bend. Once stable, raise the arms overhead.
Change sides.
Turn the chair sideways and face the wall. Bend the R leg and place the foot onto the chair seat, with a block between the wall and the inner knee. This will help bring opening to the hip and it creates a small rotation in the upper back. Change sides.
Chair twists next.
Sit on your chair facing the back rest of the chair, legs wide. Line the heels up under the knees. Take more height if needed so that the thighs are not above the hips.
Place your L forearm onto the back rest of the chair and hold the seat of the chair at the back with the R hand. Turn to the R side.
Change sides.
Now sit sideways on the chair, with a block between your knees. Placing both hands onto the back rest of the chair, turn to the R side. The block will keep the pelvis more even. Then change your position to turn to the L.
Do this same twist without the block between the thighs to get a deeper turn into the lower pelvis, front and back. Change sides.
Find a doorway (or chest of drawers or similar) for the next pose: Supta Padangusthasana I with support.
Lie on your back, R buttock to the wall and take the R leg up against the wall. The L leg is outstretched in the space to the side of the dresser or wall. Take the L leg further to the side if it feels tight for your lower back or hip. Stay a few minutes and change sides.
Now place your mat near a wall and lie on your back with the legs up the wall straight. Feel how the wall and the floor give support and the hamstrings can often release further to let go in the lower back.
Bend the legs down to Baddha Konasana. Hold a few minutes.
Then placing a strap around the outer edges of the feet, spread the legs out to Upavistha Konasana, the back of the legs still to the wall. Feel the opening in the pelvis and hips.
Turn to the side and set up for your final pose: a prone twist to create further release in the upper and lower back.
Sit in Dandasana and bend your L leg to Virasana. Have a bolster out to the side of the R hip. Turn towards the bolster, letting the R little toe turn to the floor and the L hip come up as needed.
It is important to rest your trunk as much as possible onto the bolster. Take extra blanket height as needed to let this happen. Observe the turn that comes and feel the release across the back of the body. This pose also has a calming effect on the nerves.
Change sides.
Set up for Savasana with a bolster for support under the knees to further soften the lower back muscles.
Stay in Savasana for 3-5 minutes.
Video stills from this sequence
