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Hari Om, dear yoga friends, all friends from the webcast. Welcome here in Vape, Hungary, to our seminar. Our topic for this next hour is "Yoga in Daily Life for a Healthy Back Against Back Pain." First, I would like to explain, using my dear model, the cause of many problems in the area of the neck, chest, or lower back. The main reason is that our sitting and standing posture slowly, over time, becomes incorrect. We can ask why this happens. When we are born with a healthy body, we usually know how to move naturally. It is natural that we move correctly if we have no illness. As children, we do not have to tell our spine how to stabilize or to be in a straight, upright posture; we know it instinctively. So, how does it come that we have to learn again how to move correctly? It is mainly because during our growth, there can be physical reasons. We may grow very fast, become very tall, and want to make the picture of our body appear smaller. Consequently, our back, our spine, comes into a round position, which harms our whole body. It can also be that we are doing sport, some movements, or sitting—and these days it is very often the computer. We sit in front of the computer for a long time, and our muscles are used in a way they should not be used. We have to hold our muscles in tension for hours while sitting in front of a computer, and then they no longer know how to put the back in a correct position. I can give you an example. Do you know how movement develops? When we want to move, when we are a little child, a baby, we need something from outside—some noise or some picture—to have the motivation to move. Children who do not see anything from outside, unfortunately, just lie in bed in a dark room; they never learn how to move. They cannot move. When we get the motivation to move, before we move, we have the whole picture in our brain. This is called the feedforward. So our brain has already completed the picture of movement, and while we are moving, it corrects the movement. This is then feedback, feedforward and feedback. This functions in our brain normally. If there is some disturbance or bad habit, which could be a physical or a psychological reason, then our body no longer knows how to move naturally. For explanation, let me show you the possibilities of developing a bad habit of posture. Then I will show you, and we can do together some āsanas from Yoga in Daily Life to correct this. Here in the middle, we say we have three parts: the neck, the chest, and our pelvis with the lumbar spine. These are the three main parts. We very often talk about neck and neck problems, together with shoulder problems or with lower back problems. But we hardly talk about the chest, because the chest is more protected by the ribs, and we do not have problems here so often. We do have some, but not as often as in the cervical spine and lumbar spine. However, the cause is very often here. For example, when we start not to use our deep back muscles, the short back muscles here, to keep the chest upright, we slowly start to get this position. What does this position mean? When we come from the upright position of the thoracic spine into a round kyphosis in this area—and it is very often in young people, I repeat, who are growing very quickly—they want to be smaller, or they are somehow afraid. When you bend here, you can see what happens with the shoulders and shoulder blades; they also hang forward. So all your muscles here in the chest area become short, and your chest cannot move freely anymore according to your breathing rhythm. The chest is not open anymore. While you are inhaling, you need an open chest—not exactly like this, but yes. When you exhale, the ribs have to come together. When you are standing like this, you cannot do that anymore. If you got this posture because of unsureness, or if you are afraid of something, then it increases because your chest became more and more, instead of the abdomen, it was more and more here. So this is one problem. Look, if you go straight again, you again get a round thoracic spine because your muscles do not work. Look what happens with the neck automatically; it has to happen. If your chest bone goes downwards, your neck and your head move like this. It has to. What happens with the neck is it gets short. So we have, and many people have this. Another reason is that we are working on the computer. The mouse arm is here in front, and perhaps you also do not have the right glasses, or you have none, you do not want to wear glasses. You want to make the distance from the computer and your eyes a little smaller, and it starts now. The problem starts from the head. Here you come in front, and to make it easier to come in front, you make the chest round. Same situation, other course, yes? So, what does this mean? You see, the neck muscles—this distance between your head, the backside of your head, and your thoracic spine—is very small, very little. All the nerves from your brain come out here: all the nerves for the hand, for the arms, for the shoulders, for the shoulder blades, coming out of your cervical spine. So to release, to make this part again free and the muscles again relaxed and the blood circulation better, you have to make this part of the spine, your cervical spine, long, without tension, without too much. We just try first. It feels very strange, and then you make it a little bit more soft, and then it is correct. So when we do āsanas, and I tell you, "Make your head long," it is this movement. You can imagine here a fine thread, and it pulls you up a little bit, and the chin goes down towards your throat. You do this because you want to make your cervical spine long. And when you come back in this position... Another thing is, when you correct your neck, you see what happens automatically. It has to happen with your thoracic spine; it also becomes long. You are upright. So again, if your chest bone goes down, which you can see more or less very often, then you automatically have a short cervical spine. During our āsanas, it will always make your neck long, your chin towards your throat, and you can feel that your neck and your thoracic spine get longer. Another thing is our lumbar spine. The lumbar spine can also be hurt or overloaded by a wrong position of your chest. And again, if you do not use, automatically do not use, the deeper muscles in your thoracic spine, this whole weight of the chest is really sitting on your lumbar spine. Now it can be in different ways. It can be like this, so your whole back is completely round, or what is also very often, you have too little stabilization of your lumbar spine and pelvis, and you have it like this, so the knees are too stretched. You have hyperlordosis, and the chest is a little backwards. So it is difficult for you because it is not your problem. The other way is easier for you, but you can find this often. So the whole weight—and it is much weight: the head, the weight of the chest, and all the organs—are now sitting on our lumbar spine. What to do to protect it, and what will we do? How will I tell this in the āsanas which we are doing? We have to stabilize our lumbar spine, and we can divide our muscles—not really anatomically, but functionally—we can divide them. In two parts, we can see we have, from the navel to the chest bone, our upper muscles of the abdomen. Their duty is to, perhaps you can turn like this... The duty of these muscles is to make the abdomen small. So when you are exhaling, the ribs are going together. This is the duty of the muscles from here to here. Our muscles are not going from here to here; they are crossing, and we have the straight muscle. But we can functionally divide. And then we can divide from the navel down to here. We can say this is our lower part of the abdominal muscles, and they are very important to use to protect your lumbar spine. So we say first you put the lower part inside, so not here. Just this very fine movement. It should be fine because if you pull in like that, you have your big abdominal muscle coming from here to here, and this pulls your navel inside. So we can say the navel should not go inside, just here a little bit. So you can imagine it happens when you say, "From..." If you can turn again here... If we say we have one fine thread here—we talked about this—and we have on our... here is the sacrum, and on the end of our spine we have another fine thread. This pulls the sacrum downwards, and this makes the lumbar spine long. This pulling downwards, we need these muscles. So if you put your hand here, and then very slightly, just move your lower abdominal part inside, very little, very little. Then you have this, and this you need to protect your lumbar spine. This is one muscle, and the second muscle is on the bottom of your pelvis. On the bottom of your pelvis, this pose you need. If you imagine that the sacrum, the end of the spine, should make this movement to make your lumbar spine long, you need muscles on the bottom of the pelvis and here on the front. Can you understand? Because I will tell you this then, during the āsanas. So, our topic now, what I will especially say, is during all āsanas for our back, to make the whole spine long again. Making long means the neck up, then the head comes backwards. I do not need to say this anymore because it is automatic, yes, this one thing. Perhaps you can stand again, wrong. Wrong, I mean. So, I need, let us try with three words to tell you. First, you come up here. Really, more, more, more. More up. This is automatic. You do not have to think about this. Second, you have a thread on the end of your spine and sacrum, and this pulls the sacrum downwards and in front. Then you can correct yourself a little bit, but try to feel these muscles which are correcting; they are very deep inside. The problem with these muscles is when you have a wrong, um, when you hurt yourself, yes, and did not completely heal this wound, no matter if it is psychic or physical—so something is wrong with your body. Then you have, first, the deep muscles which are not reacting anymore. They have the duty to stabilize, and the other muscles, these big muscles on the back, where you can lift up your upper body and lift your legs, or when you make sit-ups with your abdomen, this makes these big muscles. But first of all, normally, automatically, there has to be a stabilization, and this is wrong, and this has to be corrected again. That means when you do āsanas and, for example, you have been doing āsanas for many years and you do all steps of Yoga in Daily Life, all eight steps, and then you have some insurance, no, not insurance, injuries you had some around, then you have to learn your body again from the beginning. You have to be aware of what is now the matter with my movements, what is wrong, and you have to learn again. Then, after some weeks of practicing and feeling in your body, you can do your steps again, where you are at the moment. Any questions before we do it practically? Good. So we do some āsanas for our spine, and we will be aware exactly. I will tell you to watch these points which I just spoke about. We will start by lying on the back. Please, your head should be on this side towards the altar. Head here and there. First of all, while lying on the back, just feel your whole body and be aware of the contact of your head, the backside of the head, of your chest, which part of your thoracic spine is in contact with the ground. You can feel that your cervical spine is naturally not in contact with the floor. But when you take now the first fine thread which we spoke about, when you imagine a thread on the backside of your head, and if you pull a little bit this thread, then you are automatically, your chin will move towards your throat and your neck will become long. Your shoulders should be relaxed in this position. Again, be aware of lengthening your cervical spine. You can feel when you make your cervical spine long that you also have a fine stretch on your thoracic spine. So this lengthening is going from the cervical spine towards the thoracic spine. Then take the thread, this fine thread, on the lower part of your back, so where your spine is ended. You have also now your second fine thread, and you pull it a little bit so that your sacrum is moving. The end of your sacrum is moving a little bit downwards and upwards, so that your lumbar spine is also a little bit longer. In this position, feel your arms relaxed, your shoulder blades relaxed. You can feel the contact of the shoulder blades with the floor, and it is the same contact with your right shoulder blade and your left shoulder blade. If you feel your right side of the ribs, same contact with your left side. Feel it a little bit more towards your lumbar spine. It is natural that when your legs are stretched, they are not in contact with the floor. Feel your legs, relaxed, both legs. Now, bend both legs. Foot soles are on the ground. Knees are together. So what happens with your lumbar spine when you bend your legs? You can feel that the lumbar spine is now more, also completely on the ground, mostly. For most of you, it will be on the ground. So, if you have back pain, just prefer this position. When your lower back is hurt, it is better to bend your legs, because then your lumbar spine is protected by the floor. People will have problems with stretched legs, so avoid this. Lying on the back with stretched legs, just avoid this when you have problems with the lower back. You can feel when you bend your legs that your lower back is coming to the floor, but your neck is getting shorter. So make your neck long again. This all is happening just when you are bending your legs. Now, put your arms at the height of your shoulders, right and left. You can bend, if you do not have enough space, you can bend your elbows at my right ankle. You can feel, when you have your arms beside your body, that your chest is more open in the front. So this is a contra-posture against kyphosis. Now, feel your breath, especially in the abdominal area. When you inhale, your abdomen is moving upward. When you exhale, downwards, and we now make torsions. A torsion, beginning from the legs, promotes the flexibility of your spine. But if you have problems in the spine which are causing you pain—it can be a slipped disc, which is, of course, making much more or less pain—then you should not do any torsions at the beginning. Then slowly, slowly, if the pain is a little less, you can start with very small movements of the knee, right and left. Yes, this is important. So inhale, and while exhaling, move your knees to the right side and your head to the left side, but keep your neck long. While inhaling, now use the muscles which we talk of, the muscles of the lower abdomen and of the bottom of your back. The problem is when you know āsanas very well, you do them mostly always in the same way. Now, just try really to feel the muscles in your lower abdomen, from your navel downwards, and use them during the torsion just to protect your lumbar spine. So, exhaling, you activate the muscles down lower, below your navel, and on the bottom of your back. Head is moving on the other side. While inhaling, you come to the middle again, using your abdominal muscles. Try to keep your neck long during the entire movement. Head is going to the other side. So be completely with your awareness in the area of your pelvis, and stay in the middle again. Now, if we want to have the movement distortion more in the chest area, we have to do the torsion from the beginning, from our arms. So you have to come up a little bit. Now you need your arms stretched. Put your arms at the height of your shoulders. Elbows are stretched. Bend your knees again. Now, we do it rather slow. Again, stretch your knees. And before, just that you learn to feel. This is the topic in this class now, yes? I know everybody knows this āsana. But now, be aware of your lower abdominal muscles. First, before you bend your knees, bending your knees always means you put weight on your lumbar spine. So before you bend your knees, really be completely aware of your abdominal muscles. Move your lumbar spine toward the ground. Activate the muscles on the bottom of your back and down to the navel. Now your lumbar spine is protected. Now it is very easy to bend the legs. For these people who have really problems with the lower back, it is not easy, what seems for us very easy now. So now your neck should be long. This is not automatic; you have to correct this. Now, stretch your arms very wide apart so that your shoulders are really very wide and wide on the floor. That is the reason why your palms should turn upwards, not downwards, not to the floor, but upwards, because then the shoulder blades are better on the ground. Now, take a deep inhale, and while exhaling, put your right hand to your left hand. Head is going with your right hand, knees are standing in the middle. You can feel that your chest is making a torsion, and your knees are standing in the middle so that the torsion is more in the upper part of the thoracic spine. While inhaling, you move the right arm back again in a big half circle. Continue, and the head is always following your right hand. Exhaling, the right hand is going to the left hand. Inhaling, the right arm is coming back. The eyes are following the movement of the hand. So you have a good training for your eyes, for your neck, because the neck and eyes are very closely connected. Also, our work with computers limits the free movement of the eyes, and this also causes stiffness of the neck. So after your next exhalation, when your right hand is on the left hand, please leave the right hand there. Right hand is on the left hand, and now you make the circle, half circle above your head. So inhale, and the arm is going above the head, so a little bit bending, and exhaling, you go back again. So now your circle is not vertical but over the head. That means you have free movement of the shoulder. Can you come a little bit more forward so that we have a place? Can you move a little bit further? Thank you. And you follow with your eyes, you follow your hand. So you are free. This will help you to free your neck from tension, to free your shoulders, your ribs from any tension. Those who did not get it can shortly look and then do it. Then, let your right hand again on your left hand. Place your right hand on your left hand, and now move your knees to the left side so you are lying on your left side, and again you make the movement. Right arm, just listen because it is not so difficult. It is now again the same movement: right arm on the right side. Eyes are looking to the right hand. Knees stay on the left side. And you come back while exhaling. Your right hand is moving to your left hand. This will free your thoracic spine from tensions and make it more flexible. You should not do it if it is painful. Movement is about the lower part of the thoracic spine. It is the main movement, and it is very good for your shoulders. Again, while exhaling, your left hand, your right hand should stay on your left hand. And now, again, make a circle above your head. Inhaling, your eyes go with the hand. And exhaling, you come back again like this. Or also, you stay with the hand on the floor. Both are possible. Feel the stretching and the lengthening of your whole side. All your ribs are moving, your thoracic spine, your cervical spine, your eyes, the whole side; the muscles are extended and relaxed. Then your right hand stays, your right arm stays on the right side. How to come back is very important. Again, use first your abdominal muscles, your muscles on the bottom of your pelvis. So you fix your pelvis and protect your lumbar spine. Then come again to the middle with the knees while inhaling. And exhaling, stretch your legs and put your arms beside the body. Feel the effect of the torsions. All torsions are good to relax these deep muscles which I talked about, which you have again put in your awareness when they do not function by themselves. When they do not, they can do the duty of stabilizing. So this is very good. But if you have pain, or if you have hyperflexibility, if you have one problem with too much movement of the spine, then you have to be careful. Careful means if you have any pain, do not do this. So, for two times, deep in and exhale, and then slowly come up, move to the side, and from the side, you sit up and come in Vajrāsana. So, have you any questions for these examples of torsions? There are many distortions of the soft; they are not so, putting so much weight on the spine. So they are very often very good for the back. Did you like it? Was it good for you? So it gives a free feeling also for the chest, which is very often stiff. No, it should not. It should stay. It should make the torsion from... You know, we have, in further steps from Yoga in Daily Life, we have in the first step then this movement where we make torsion like this, the same, but it is more difficult. This is a good preparation where your pelvis and your legs should stay in one position, and you make them—you have two parts: the shoulders and the pelvis. The pelvis stays, and the shoulders, and with this, the thoracic spine is turning. So you prepare this with this āsana, lying on the back. Yes, if you have problems with your neck, then use a pillow and support. The question was if it is good to use a pillow, and if you need it, it is good. You should support your head and your neck if you have problems. The problem can also be that your chest is too much in kyphosis. If you are like this, if you are too much in kyphosis, then your head needs protection. You cannot lie on the back, but if you do not need it, it should not be automatically better. Without better, your spine. It is straight, and it is one line: the head and the back. And it is not too soft, also not too hard, but not too soft. You are met, and it is without pillow impossible if you have no pain. The second āsana I would like to do with you is the Marjari, and Marjari for the different parts of our spine, especially for the whole spine, the flexion, as it was now torsion, and now we have extension and flexion. And again, the main thing, the main point, mostly by the position of our chest, is that we can move our chest bone in front and a little bit upwards. So this movement, you can also sit or stand up. The movement of our chest bone is mostly like this. I mean the end of the chest bone is too much down and backwards. So many āsanas, when you sing a Bhujaṅgāsana, it is always to try to put your chest bone in front and upwards, and then you can get an upright thoracic spine. But be careful. Can you shorten this? Put this out again. That this upright is, and so our body is completely connected. We have to be aware of all together. Slowly, slowly, we have to learn how to stabilize our lumbar spine and how to get our thoracic spine straight. But then it should function automatically, and this we can learn by the āsanas also. So be aware when we say the chest bone should come in front and upwards, that you are not doing the movement from the lumbar spine. This is the problem. This causes us many problems. Therefore, first, put your deep abdominal muscles inside, not moving the navel inside, but making the lower part of your abdomen small. Many people have to learn this again. Yes, we are lost to use these deep muscles. With one abdominal muscle, this is the transversus. This is very important. It goes from here to here. And if you imagine that your pelvis gets small, it is also a possibility. Imagine these bones are coming together. Then you can feel here that you use this muscle, which you need to stabilize. So, this is to do before. First, stabilize, and then put the chest bone in front and up. You see, and now he can make his spine long without using the hyperlordosis. The same when our shoulders cannot move freely. We make this movement very often during the day, and if we have some blockades here in some of the many joints we use to put the arms up, then we do this movement all the time from here, 100 times a day, because we do not use, we have, we forgot. Our muscles forgot to be used correctly. It is not anymore automatic, so we go to Marjari, and you can do, we can do together, the normal way of Marjari for the whole spine, and just be aware of the movement of each part of your spine. So while inhaling, put your arms up and let your body straighten so that the muscles of your legs are doing the movement, and while exhaling, you put your hands to the floor. Now, try to stay a little bit in this position of round spine, and the head is hanging. This is important. You look towards your navel, and now use your muscles. This I cannot show you, you have to do it because the muscles are so deep. Use your muscles on the bottom of your pelvis and the muscles which are down from your navel, downwards, yes, to even more make you increase the kyphosis in your lower back. These muscles use now. And then, while exhaling, you extend your whole spine, especially now between your shoulder blades. Now your chest bone moves downwards, more downwards. What is important now? That your neck stays long. You look upwards, but the neck stays long. Understand? Can you again stand up? The last point which I tried to, it is very difficult just to speak about one thing because everything is so much connected. We have the possibility to look upwards like this. Here you see the movement is just in the upper part of our cervical spine, and it harms us quite a lot. So when we have again this posture, which is not good, we have all the time the main movement here. And it is a sensitive part, this bridge between our head and our neck. So when we correct our position of the spine and now look upwards, you can try it by yourself, then you see that the lower part of the cervical spine is involved in this movement. And this we should now, the same thing we should now do while we are doing Marjari. Not like this, but like, sorry, putting the head backwards and like this. Yes, it is longer and not just between the backside of the head and the upper part of the cervical spine. Shall we do it? And I would say we can do it together, because you know now. So again, inhale and come up. And then exhale, place the hands on the ground. Now, when you are round with your back, then increase your round back on the lower part of your back by using your deep muscles of the abdomen and of the bottom of your pelvis. Stay in this position and try to feel these muscles in their position. Then, while inhaling, you move your spine in the other direction. And now, be aware of your neck, that you lift up your head by a long neck. Neck is long, and you can look upwards, and move your chest bone downwards. That is it. And try it again. Make, again, the flexion of your spine, but not as you do always. But really be completely aware of the lower back, and try even to make it more round. Use the deep muscles of your pelvis and your abdomen, and then come back with a long neck. You come up, and we are doing this movement so often, and then again. Make your spine, while exhaling, round, and while inhaling, come in a position. Come slowly back on your knees and in Vajrāsana. You know, it is good to practice in a position which we do not use during the day, because for your brain it is completely different. You are used to standing and looking up like this, and now you make it in a position which you are not using during the day. So it is easier for your body to learn something new. A variation, which is affecting more, automatically more on the chest, is when you do Marjari while standing on your lower arms. We can do this. And then slowly put your lower arm on the floor. So the same movement while exhaling, your spine gets round. It is now easier for the lumbar spine to come completely into a round position. But even increase by using the right muscles of your dominant bottom. And now, while inhaling, you extend your whole spine. Your neck, do not forget, your neck is long. And your chest moves toward the floor. So your shoulder blades come together. And again, once again, and when your spine is round, increase it by using your muscles of the lower part of your abdomen and of the pelvis. And once again, inhaling, you extend your whole spine, especially your thoracic spine, and your cervical spine is long. And while exhaling, your back is round, completely round; try to increase it. Now inhale, come up, and while exhaling, move. And also, it is also an āsana when you come from this position back to Vajrāsana, using still the stabilizing of your lower spine. As much as you think on this, the better it becomes, again automatic, an automatic movement, or automatic activating. When you want more relaxing or extending the muscles in the lumbar spine, which are quite often short, there is another variation which, for what you need, a little bit more strength, a little more strength of your arms. And it is a combination of both variations of Marjari. I will show you here, because this you do not know. If you do not see, then stand up. Sorry, we cannot lift till now. So, inhaling, you come up, and while exhaling, you come down. So normal. Your spine is completely round. You again be aware of the lumbar spine. Use your lower muscles and the muscles of the bottom of your pelvis to protect your lumbar spine, and now, still while exhaling, you move your pelvis backwards towards the heels, and you see, the more backwards, the more stretching you have of your lumbar spine, so you slowly come into the position of Śaśāṅgāsana. And now you come again in front, so now extend your spine. You come down here, and you come up again, and you make round, exhaling again round, especially lumbar spine. And now you increase the extension of lumbar spine while moving backwards, and now you... Extend, you come on the lower arms. You move in front until your shoulders are in height of your hands, and come up again. So this is when you practice first normal, and then first normal Marjari we did, and then by the variation when you are on your lower arms, and then this is one combination you find in the back pain book. In one of the steps of the back pain book, so you can try this. I thank you for your attention. So, we are actually just doing two of the āsanas with variations. We have the torsions of the spine, which are very good to relax your deeper muscles. And you have learned to use, if you really did not use your muscles on the lower part of your spine for a long time, you have really to practice, but you can learn it in different positions. The easiest way is lying on the back. So you use your muscles, abdominal muscles, in the area of your pelvis and on the bottom of your pelvis, to protect your lumbar spine. You have learned how to lengthen your neck and the muscles on the neck, and the correct lifting up of the head. And you learn this by doing the Marjari. And Marjari, you mostly can do, almost everybody can do it. If you have pain by doing it, then do it in very, very small movements. So then the picture in the brain is still there, that you can imagine, that you can move with very big movement, that you can do very big movement. So, practically, you do it small, and then you increase the movement. And with torsions, as I said already, if you have a slipped disc, if you have pain, then just for two weeks, do not do any torsions, and then slowly, slowly start with the torsions. And you can, if you have problems with the lumbar spine, start the torsions with the arms. It affects more the upper part of the spine. So, thank you for being with us and for practicing with us.