Back Care Mat

Hey guys, Tracy Mallett here. The next 30 minutes is dedicated to your spine. Yes, you are only as young as your spine. We all need to take more care of our flexibility, our posture, today's society. We're walking around with our cell phones like this. Instead of like this, we're sitting at a desk like this instead of like this.

So these exercises are designed to help you overcome all these negative impact that we're having on our spine. So we're going to be focusing on trunk stabilization, strong core to support the spinal column, and we're also going to be working on opening your chest and working the mid thoracic spine, which obviously is very, very tight through being kyphotic a lot. So we're going to open that up, strengthen the core, and open up our chest. For this class, we're just going to grab a small squishy ball and let's get going. All right, so let's turn to the side here. No, just reach forwards. You fee a hit with the part, reaching the hands forwards with the ball. And we're just going to compress the ball by drawing your scapula down, your shoulder blades down towards your hips. Press the ball together. And then as you do that, you're going to really activate your labs. Yes sir.

Raiders and your back basically. So let's take a deep breath in. Inhale access. Slide the shoulder blades down towards your hips. And as you do that, you're going to lengthen through the crown of the head. Your neck is going to feel longer and it's gonna feel freer. Let's try that again. Inhale, exhale, slide the shoulder blades down. Perfect position to start in.

And then we're going to go into our lovely secret. As you reach the hands out, pull the ABS in in opposition. How old did that? And then just slowly roll down through the spine, sanding the arms all the way over your head. Move your heels close towards your sit bones. And from here we're going to take the ball and we're going to lift your hips up off of the ball. Off the floor should I say, and place your hips on top of the ball. Now we're just going to grab the ball and just make sure the ball is right underneath your tailbone.

And we're going to do some circles with our hips. So you're circling to the right and now circle to the left. Just keep that lovely circle. It's almost like you massage in your tailbone. Let's go back to the right again, this at some breath they want you to inhale and exhale just freely breathing, not holding your, and let's go to the opposite sides. Circle around, circle around. That's the tempo.

A little bit rhythm here and four and three and two and one come back to center. So now the tailbone is anchored down into the ball. From here we're going to reach the hands over your head. Now once you imagine someone's pulling your hands away from you, use, you're reaching away, then you're going to gently drool the scapula down. Place the shoulder blades down into those imaginary pockets and hold and hit there.

Place the hands all the way back down to the side of the body. And now pelvic tilt with the pelvis. So now you're going to rock your pelvis. And why don't I say rock in? It's almost like the pubic bone is coming towards the belly button. Now what this is actually doing is releasing your lumbar spine.

Just getting rid of all that tension, stress in that lower back. That's why I love the bull so much. It was so easy. Place the ball underneath your back when you're feeling tightness in your low back. Could you have been sitting at a computer for a long time? This just really helps. Lengthen out that lumbar spine. Now as you do in these pelvic tilts, I'm talking, but you should be breathing.

So it's exhale. Inhale, neutral. Exhale. And let's just do a few more of these. Okay, so you feel those abdominals tighten and then back. Get back into that neutral position your heels, uh, pointing toward your sit bones. Knees in line with the hips. From here, we're going to lift your right toes off.

Your heel is anchored into the floor and we're just gonna reach the heel out. Lengthen the leg, extend the knee. As you reach the leg out. Now press the heel down into the floor and progress back to that starting point. Again, these are called heel slides, so we're going to reach inhale as you lengthen that leg out and to feel the openness through your psoas and your quad, the front of your hip and press back.

That's get into a little bit more of a rhythm now. So we're going to inhale out, exhale back and inhale out and just keep that rhythm as I talk. As you extend the leg, you're going to feel the length in the quad and your hip flexes cause you're on that ball to give a little bit of hip extension here, which is why I love the ball. So just do a couple more. Drag the heel in and again, switched to the other side. Toes come up, put the heel into the floor on your left leg. Inhale out, accelerate [inaudible]. Inhale out. Lengthen that leg. Heck in. Now be mindful as you doing this to keep your pelvis as still as you can, which is not that easy because that ball is walking around.

So you abs. I've got to stabilize your transverse Abdominis, which is your deepest abdominal muscles. Stabilize in that pelvis. As we do this, that's why you need to exhale as you drag the knee back. And again, just keep going. How are you feeling? You should feel good. Feel that lengthen. Let's just do one more. Okay, inhale out.

Exhale back in. Perfect. From here we've gone to try and lift that right knee up without the power service moving. I say try because I know that's challenging and that bring that leg down. Very simple. Let's do that again. Lift knee up, neo, VA hip, Shin Palau to the sky and again, exhale. Use your core to lift the leg and then come back down.

So in your mind's eye, you want to imagine that your abs are actually floating the knee up. So try that. It changes the whole dynamic of that exercise. Inhale, [inaudible] pressed the apps in towards the back of the spine. Let's try that again and then come back down again. Let's do a transition to the other side and ready XL lift. Ah, inhale back. Exhale, keep that bull still pressed the abs in and then come back down.

So almost like as a seat belt wrapped around you, Mitch section, and as you lift your leg, it pulls tighter [inaudible] and then back down again. Keep the pelvis still. If you want a little extra challenge, you can always bring the hands off of the flow of so it's just the elbows touching the mat. That's another way to make the exercise a little different, a little bit more challenging. Okay, so just a one more here and down. Now we're going to bring the right left leg up. Now we're going to switch to the opposite leg. So transition, transition switched to the opposite leg. So now we're doing knee switches and I'm, my focus is my apps, but now let's think of the upper body.

Now that should be no tension in the upper body. Your chest is nice and open. The shoulders are relaxed and now bring your attention back to your midsection, your apps as you transition from one leg to the other. That's why you need more support. So that's where your Xcel wants to be. So it's Hex ELLs who switched the legs.

Hex Sal as you switch the legs and four, three, two one being your opposite leg up to join the leg that's lifted. Hold it there. Now we're going to lift, float the hands off the floor, keeping the owl balls connected to the mat and then press down. Float elbows are connected to the mat and back float and they're going to make a little bit more challenging as we lift the hands off the floor. We're going to try and toe dip down a goal to try and touch the floor or migrate down to the floor as far as you can see you XL down. Inhale back so you don't have to go already far as you get stronger, the toes will touch, but we are trying to keep the core engaged all the way down to the floor.

Now we're going to change the breath a little bit. Inhale down XL, booing the knees back up. Inhale down. Exhale, shins are parallel to the sky. Double check on that where your form is right now. Your shins are Powell out to the sky, knees have over your hips. Ian, how [inaudible] one more guys. And inhale XL. Press the hands down and just move the legs they want. Basically, when I say move the legs to switch the legs white and left, just want you to move.

Just move and full and three and 2:00 AM one. Bring your right leg down. Bring your left leg down. Now we're going to extend that right leg to the sky. Straight leg. Flex that foot. And I want to try and do some Lexa circles. So we're going to go outwards first.

So we're going to go out back to center and we drawing a circle with your heel on the ceiling and just circle and circle and circle and circle. Reverse it and circle, just brief and circle and circle. Hold it now we'll see if we can grab the lag if we can. Impress. Flexibility is so important for your spine, especially in your lower back, that hamstrings get tight.

They pull on the spine. We need to release the hamstrings so your spine can fall in its natural state, so it's really important. Flexibility is just as important as your strength when you're taking care of your spine and then bring the leg down. Okay, you're ready with the opposite leg. Lift that leg up. You slide your left leg now extend that leg, flex the energy out through the heel.

Now circled away from the body and you're drawing a circle on the ceiling or on the sky with your heel. When just breathe. Inhale and exhale and let's just reverse it to the other side. Inhale and exhale. Ah, and let's just do one more. All right, you already reached for your leg. If you can flex the energy going right out through the heel. And Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, that lovely leg to your chest does not feel good. That's stretching out those hamstrings. This is definitely what we need to do more of. Especially.

We'll sit down at a desk driving many, many hours traveling on a plane and then release that leg. Bend that leg down. Now lift your hips up off of the bowl. Place the bowl down onto the floor. How does your spine feel now? Doesn't that feel great? Your lumbar spines nice and relaxed.

So now we're going to reach the hands behind the head into lice. The hands. How am I going to take a deep breath in? Exhale, Chin comes off the floor. Now the towel bone is anchored down into the mat. Now look at your apps. Those apps should be flat. You're pulling those abs in.

Tailbone is anchored down into the mat in that neutral position. Now you can see mine is shaking. Yours are shaking because I'm lifting with my abs and drive in the navel, in, up and back. My glutes are relax and I'm just holding it here. Yes, you're right. Just hold it in that little head lift here and hold and then come back down again. Inhale here. Exhale, lift up. Hold. Drop that tailbone down. Don't talk. The pelvis, pelvis is relaxed, tailbone is down.

Now the head is lifted. We go into lift the heel, the right heel off the floor, and I going to abduct the leg to the side. Bring you back to the center, lower your head. So your right heel is off the floor. We lift up, relax the glutes, we open the leg, it's like a little clam. We bring it back and then we come back down again. We need to be mindful of the opposite.

Hip doesn't move and going the same direction and then come back. So the opposite side is stabilizing, allowing you to disassociate and move at that right hip. So there's a lot of cool work going on. Here you are obliques on the opposite side are stabilizing as you opened that knee out to the side so your hip bones are staying facing the sky. So there's your hipbones here and the stain facing the sky so that hip is facing the sky. And then back. Let's try that again.

One Open in and back, as low as that hail down. Let's try that with the other side. So lift that heel up, head and shoulders as you XL lift up. Now find your adjustment. Clear the shoulder and blades. Drop the tailbone down. Really should glutes drive that naval into your spine. Open the leg to the side, come back to center, and then lower your head, neck and shoulders.

This side is going to be a little bit more challenging for me and you'll gonna find one side. He's gonna be easy than the other. That's why working unilaterally is so important for our bodies because we are not symmetrical. Atul, lift up, you hadn't showed us off the flow. Take the leg to the side, be mindful. He is stabilizing through that opposite oblique. As we come back and down, lift up and then open. And imagine that opposite oblique is pulling the knee back.

Can you focus on that and then come back down and lift up. Open that knee to the side. Come back to the center and now, all right, and lift up hoping that knee and then back to the center. And then [inaudible] calm down, lower both heels onto the floor, lift the head and shoulders off the floor. And hold it there. We'll lift both heels off both legs and back. Open and back and full.

And three and two and one. Lower the heels. Reach the arms over your head. Extend the legs, reach in. How here? Pull your scapula down. Am I going to roll all the way up into your secret and then come all the way up. Now we're going to transition onto our tummy here.

Placing the hands in front of you. Elbows are bent, kind of like a Spinx and you're dropping your shoulder blades down towards your pelvis. So you're in this position here, the elbows slightly in front of your torso here. Now from here, I want you to look at the floor and then you're going to look a little bit further and then you're gonna look in front of you and then you can see the [inaudible]. Whoa. You can see whatever's in front of you. I can see the wall right in front of me here and I'm just like looking. So most likely suspect him in front of me in a spot is closing up the wall and I'm watching that spider crawl up the wall and now it's going up to the ceiling or to the sky. But at the same time as I'm looking up, I'm driving the scapula down even further towards the pelvis. So my mid thoracic spine right now is firing and now I'm going to watch this spider and it's gonna cool back down again.

It's been a good spider and it's going back down. Good spider down a hunt to the floor. But unfortunately it's coming towards me and it's right by me here. Okay, can you go away spider now we're gonna do it one more time. Shoe ready reach. What's that spider? Go again. Pretty fast by to two. And then we going off going up that wall.

I want something. I want what that spider's eaten today and then we go all the way off up to the sky. It's going to hang out there for awhile and then we're watching him. It's going to come back down again, down again, down again, down again. And back to here. From here, we're going to rewalk the hands forwards. Walk the hand forwards and till we are nice and flat, Bingo legs together. From here we're going to try and go into a lovely hover by pulling your shoulder blades down, going up into a hover into a v position.

So open your arms a little bit further than your mat, right back for interview, and then come back down again. So we'll lifting up into a harbor. As you pull your shoulder blades down, before you even move, you go into your vape physician, come back forwards and down. So before you even move your set in your shoulders into those little pockets, as you lift up open, your lower body's completely relaxed. This is about your mid thoracic spine and down. Let's do four more of these. Okay, so we lift, we open Senta and we lift, we open and Sinte two more.

And lift. Release the glutes open and reach and down. One more, and lift and reach and hold it there. And into your swimming oppositions. So you're swimming is opposition. I'm going to go a little bit faster. When you're swimming, where are you moving fall? Think about it. You're moving, get your shoulder joint and your hip joints and you're moving the perfect exercise for you that no one likes to do and you should be doing this every day.

Can we do four more and four and three and 2:00 AM [inaudible]. Bring the hands back. Now. Press the elbows back behind the body as you draw the shoulder blades down. Look up and then transition back into a child's pose or shell position in that position here and hold. Stretch out that lumbar spine started out and I try and press the hips back and Elongate that lumbar spine.

From here, we're going to transfer forwards into your quad Japan position. Their hands are underneath the shoulder joint, knees underneath your hips. As always, we always need a gentle reminder of where we need to be. Now draw those abs in. Grab your ball. So now I'm pressing the hand on the ball.

From here, I'm going to push the ball away and then bring it back. If you don't have a ball, you can just reach the arm fours and back. If you've got a towel, you can push the towel along the floor and just go forward and back. So the key to this is we're going to five more from here. Five is keeping the upper body completely still. Four x health. Three exhale to one more.

And then back you'll thinking that was harder than what you thought it was going to be, right? Because now I'm moving my upper body, but I've got to maintain the stability here. So draw those abs in. Pull your shoulder blades down before you even move forwards and back. Forwards and back. Keep everything completely still good. We are working on your mid up, back core stabilization. Let's do five more here by and four, three, two and one come back. Switch sides.

He asked you not out the woods yet. It's gonna get harder. So from here I'm going to make sure everything's all stable. Shoulder blades pull back and working on my shoulder. Girdle stabilization, abs stabilization. So now it's gonna get a little bit more challenging because we are trying now to lift that leg off the floor. Now your hips, your hips, which are in front of your body, they are facing the floor.

Imagine you've got like two little lights attached to the hip bones and the light's always going to be shining down to the floor. So your hips are square and you got length from your rib to your hip. You're holding here. Just hanging out here is not easy. You're not taking a break. Hold it here. That's it. Now we're going to move the ball move and then back and as you get stronger you can even add the leg with it up and down.

You don't have to, but that's just another challenge as you move at the hip and the shoulder joints still a formal here or 32 and one bring it back. Transfer, keep the stability, move the ball over. Okay. I'm trying to keep everything nice and still press the hand down. You lights shining down until the floor and lift that leg. Hold did that. So everyone's got that like lifted. The hand is on the ball, so it's make a nice adjustment. Now make sure your hip bones are facing the floor and you've got land from your rib to your hip.

You shoulders a depressed and you're pressing the hand into the ball. Are you ready? Now we can move. Reach the hand forward and then if you want, we can lift that leg. That's just an option. Remember, if you are lifting that leg, you've really got to keep your hips square. Okay? Keep it going. [inaudible] you breathe in [inaudible] yes, let's do three more here.

[inaudible] one more. [inaudible] holy here. Drew the knee down. Take the bull to the side. From here, we're going to come all the way back into your child's pose and just stretch. Hold as stretch. Now think of that length in your lumbar spine.

Now I want you to lift up, press your chest towards the floor and open up your chest. You're pressing your hands down and as they press the hands down into the mat, I'm thinking of lifting up. And as I do that, I'm really focusing on opening my chest and working right in that mid thoracic spine. And then come back and again, press down. Shoulder blades, lift up for me. I have very tight mid thoracic spine because they have a very over flexible spine. So this really helps me focus the mid thoracic spine, which is where we all need to mobilize even more. And then back one more time, lift up rich and then back slowly roll all the way up.

Grab your bowl to finish off with. Grab Your Nice Little Bowl. We're going to come onto our back and I want you to place the ball like right where your mid thoracic spine is. Okay. It feels good. And all I want to do is bend my knees and I'm going to take my head all the way back and light onto the mat. Reach, float the arms up over head palms facing inwards. Open your arms out to the side.

Okay. And then press the arms together. But keeping the shoulders wide and then open out again. Now as you opening your arms, be mindful that you've got that long beautiful neck because the shoulders are still pulling down towards your hips. And then we're gonna open again. Feel so nice and lift. Let's just do one more.

Open the arms to the side. Extend the legs, reach the hands, circle hands around and back behind the back of your head. Your palms are facing the sky, palms are facing skies. You open them back to the side and then we go back over heads and then back. Last time, reach the arms and legs out. Now I just want you to take a few seconds. Just close your eyes.

Take deep breaths. Imagine someone's pulling your arms and legs and the reaching out in two different directions. Take your arms out into a v position. Bend your elbow slightly, elbows on the floor. You're going to feel that openness through your chest. Okay? Take a nice deep breath in. Once again, for your heart rate coming back down to a steady pace.

Open your eyes, reach your hands over your head slowly. We're going to try and roll up. We guys can go all the way up until that seeker. Continue that roll up or roll to the side. Whatever's easier for you right now. And then lift all the way up and let's come to the side. We're gonna do a transition.

We're going to stand up, place their hands on the knees, feet, hip width apart, and just reach forwards. And we're going to take the hands onto the floor. I'm going to get myself up and there were holes all the way up, slowly to position as you roll all the way up. Okay, let's finish off with a lovely roll down. Anyhow, here. Xcel Chinch at chess. Joel, that was abs in roll down. How are you guys?

Feeding feels so much better, right? I know. I do feel pretty good right now. We're all the way up. My back feels good. My upper body feels good, huh? Good job guy. See simple sometimes is the best. It really truly is. I hope you enjoyed that journey with me.

Incorporate some of those exercises into your daily routine. As we age, we need to really take care of our spine. Like I said at the beginning, you only as old as your spine. Have a great day guys. Bye.