TV Channel

Our topic today is again the spine, and I will talk a little about problems connecting with the spine and our postures. I will start with the lumbar spine, an area which causes many problems very often. I will show some causes of the problem with our demonstrator, our dear Gaṇeśa. I would ask you to stand up. A problem with the lumbar spine is very often a hyperlordosis. The cause of hyperlordosis, for example, is a bad standing posture. For instance, the whole chest is moved a little bit behind, and so this chest becomes a heavy weight for the lumbar area. You should always stand so that head, chest, and pelvis are in one line, and the weight comes towards the middle of your feet. When the chest is too much backwards, other parts of your body move forward: the head, which we talked about yesterday, and the pelvis. Consequently, the lumbar spine gets short and pressed. What can be done to correct this posture? First of all, you need to activate your abdominal muscles. If you do this movement from the bent position—activating the abdominal muscles and the muscles on the bottom of your pelvis—then your lumbar spine gets long and relaxed. Another problem in this area is the joint between your sacrum and the bone of your pelvis. The name of this joint is the ilio-sacral joint—'ilio' from the bone of the pelvis and 'sacral' from your sacrum. This joint needs a very small movement, very little. If the movement is too much, it becomes a problem and will hurt. If it is blocked, you will feel pain all down through your leg. This problem of the ilio-sacral joint is quite common and can cause issues like sciatica. I will now show some āsanas which help this area of the lumbar spine and the ilio-sacral joint. If you like, you can join in practicing. Please lie on your back. Place your arms high above your shoulders. Now, bend your right leg and with your left hand hold your right knee, so you can pull your right knee towards your left shoulder. What is the effect of this āsana? First, you must take care that when you pull your knee towards your left shoulder, the shoulder blade should move downwards toward the floor. By pulling the knee towards the opposite shoulder, you stretch a very important muscle on the side of the buttocks. It is a deep muscle connecting the sacrum with your hip and leg. It is called in Latin Pyriformis. In German, it is Birne. In English, I don't remember what Birne means—a beer, beach, beer—because it is the form of a beer [pear]. It very often becomes tense and pulls your sacrum out of the right position. While you do this āsana, you should feel the stretch on the back side of your buttock. It is a slight stretching. As you pull your knee towards your left shoulder, you should turn your head to the right side. This creates a slight twist on your spine, and you do it in coordination with breathing. You come to the middle while inhaling (also with the head to the middle), and you pull the knee slightly and turn the head while exhaling. This gives a fine, good stretch on your lumbar area and especially on this muscle connected to the sacrum. You can do it on the other side as well. This is one example to stretch this very often tense lumbar part. Another problem connected with posture is when your pelvis moves forward and you have lordosis. On the other side, the muscles in the area of your hip joints become short. The muscles in the lumbar area are shortened, and lumbar lordosis occurs again. They should be stretched. Here is one example of what you can do to stretch these muscles. There are many āsanas in Yoga in Daily Life which can help. We can do one example. We start in Vajrāsana so that people who want to practice with us can follow. While inhaling, lift your arms stretched high over your shoulders and come up onto your knees if possible, with a straight back. Then, put the weight on your left leg, bring the right leg forward, and place your hands on your right knee. What we do now is a part you can also find in Kaṭhūpraṇām. While inhaling, put your palms together and stretch your arms above the head. Now, what is important: move the right knee forward so that you feel a stretch on your left hip. Avoid too much lordosis from the upper part, from your chest. This is what we have to avoid. While exhaling, come back. You can do this two or three times. If you have problems with your knee, this could be because your knee on the floor bears too much weight. Then you can put a small pillow or a blanket underneath your knee. We can do it on the other side also. While inhaling, move your arms above the head. Do not lean your chest too much backwards. The arms should come upwards and backwards from the shoulders, not from your lumbar spine—not from here, from here. The benefit of this āsana, which you can do in your breathing rhythm, is that you stretch—and now you can see this area better—this is an opposite movement, contrary to the sitting position. The third example for problems of the lumbar spine is the protection of our lumbar area by our abdominal muscles. If they are too weak, or very often they are not too weak but are not activated at the right moment in coordination with other muscles. One āsana we did yesterday, the day before yesterday, was grinding, which is very good for abdominal muscles. We can show it very briefly. If you have problems with the lumbar spine and this movement is too hard, especially when you go back, then just do it in a little circle. Also, when you do the movement in this small area, it activates. In the moment when your back moves a little bit backwards, then you need your abdominal muscles. Another āsana is Aśva Sañcalanāsana. When you bend your legs and put your arms forward—we want to show it correctly—if this āsana is too hard for your lumbar spine because you have your stretched legs hanging on your abdominal muscles, then just leave your legs bent. You make it also in a very small amount. Lean back a little and don't stretch. Just lift your legs a little bit and come forward again. So you can choose the range of motion; you can do it very small, which everybody can do. The goal is to do it in the whole amount of movement. If this movement is difficult and you can’t do it, you can do it in a smaller range and only lift your legs without stretching them; they will remain bent. You can adjust the exercise yourself so that it suits you, and gradually add to it so that you get used to the correct exercise with stretched legs. These are a few examples for the lumbar spine and its problems. Another problem in the lumbar area is not hyperlordosis, but when you take something from the floor or from the table and bend forward, the whole weight is on your lumbar spine. This is a big problem from this area and a main cause of slipped disc when we bend forward like this. So, how to do it correctly when you have to take something from a table in front of you? You should put your legs in the direction of the object you want to take, and then move forward from your hips. You need not think that you can just take these objects which you need, because you can’t use them during the day. You have to bend forward, but it is important that you can stabilize the back and make the flexion from the hip, from the bottom to the top. Of course, we sometimes have to take a step forward. It is about the step coming out from the lumbar area, as it is shown, and never bending in the lumbar spine. So, how to train this? What needs to be trained is to strengthen the muscles on the back side, and also the abdominal muscles have to hold this position. One example: Please go into Vajrāsana. If you like, you can join again. While inhaling, cross your fingers behind the sacrum. Try to keep your back straight. While exhaling, come slowly forward; the arms on the back side are a support so that you activate your muscles between the shoulder blades and on the back side. With the head, the eyes should look downwards, but you can say far away from one point on the bottom, so that your neck is in one line with the back. Next, while exhaling, you can relax. But please lift the hands together. Again, and you can relax. While inhaling, you again come into this position where you lift your head, and your shoulders are together. You lift your chest a little bit, but your abdomen stays on the thighs. So you have this situation of leaning forward with a straight back. In this way, we practice the bend before the bend with the back stretched out. Śaśāṅkāsana would be much more difficult. So if you can do this correctly, you can just come forward in small steps. We do it again. I will just show you. While inhaling, interlock your fingers. You can again imagine this thread, this fine thread I mentioned yesterday, where your neck is long and back. Now, while exhaling, come a little bit forward and for one breath stay in this position. It’s like you are here. Now inhale again and exhale the next part. You come until here. This is much more difficult for your back muscles. One more step. Always stay in one position with a long back for two or three breaths. Then you can relax again and lead your breath into your back, so that the whole back is again stretched and relaxed. Now, interlock your fingers again, keep your back straight, and while inhaling, come up from the hips again. It is very important that when you come up, it is again from your back. The problem is not just when you take something and have the weight on your lumbar area; more often, the problem is when you want to lift it as you come back. Therefore, it is important when you come up with your body that you stabilize your spine. Now we will finish with the lumbar area and go to the area of the chest and shoulders. The problem can be hyperkyphosis—a back that is too round. This causes problems. On the other side, many people have too little kyphosis; the thoracic spine is too flat. This also causes problems because in this case, the spine is not flexible enough. When this very long and wide part is too stiff, not flexible enough, it very often causes problems in the neck and in the lumbar spine, as they have to compensate for the stiffness of the chest. So, always think: when you have problems with the neck, always have in mind two āsanas to improve the flexibility of the thoracic spine. For example, we will do Marjari. You have seen Marjari yesterday. We will repeat it once, and then we will do a variation of Marjari especially for the thoracic spine. Please go into Vajrāsana and try to keep your spine long—'long' is a better word than 'straight,' because 'long' includes more flexibility. We do it once as we did yesterday. While inhaling, move your arms straight forward at half shoulder height and come onto your knees. While exhaling, place your hands against your shoulders. The first movement is the kyphosis and round back of the cat. While inhaling, come into the opposite movement, where you stretch your whole back and look up. Continue according to your breath. Just be aware of the area between your shoulder blades, as this is our subject now. Specifically, when you extend, try to bring your shoulder blades more together, and your chest bone should come close to the floor. After your next exhalation, come again while inhaling onto your knees, and while exhaling return to Vajrāsana. Now, a variation especially for the chest, for the thoracic spine. Again, please inhale and put your arms upwards, come onto your knees. Exhale, place your hands, and then your forearms towards the floor, so your elbows are underneath your shoulders. Again, when you are exhaling, make your back completely round. While inhaling, you extend. Now, in the extending position, try to move the front part of your chest close to the floor. Your shoulder blades should come close together. In this position on all fours, you reach your chest and thoracic spine more easily. Now, while inhaling, come up again, and while exhaling, come to Vajrāsana. Another example: Now stretch your legs. Sit with stretched legs. If you have problems straightening your back, you can bend your knees a little. This allows you to come easily into a straight position. Take a deep inhale, and while exhaling, turn to the right side. Feel the twist, the torsion of your spine. While inhaling, come to the middle. While exhaling, turn to your left side. If you can’t sit on the floor, you can also do this sitting on a chair during your work, in short breaks. You can also do it standing; it is also possible. Another example for flexibility in twisting is Meru Vakra Āsana. Place your hands a little behind your pelvis with your fingers turning backwards. With the help of your arms, straighten your back, but then stay in this straight position. Now, bend your left leg and place your left leg outside of your right leg. Take a deep inhale, and while exhaling, place your left arm on the left side. Perhaps place the right hand a little bit backwards so that you can turn more. In this position, try to keep both buttocks on the ground. Take a deep inhale. While exhaling, try to improve this twisting very softly. Look behind your back; your neck is twisted, and especially your thoracic spine is engaged. You can do one variation. The left leg stays in this position. Inhale and put your left arm on the left side. Exhale and put your right arm on the left side. This is like a preparation for Ardha Matsyendrāsana, but it is a good variation for twisting and improving the flexibility of the spine. Inhale, put your right arm on the right side, and exhale, stretch your left leg. On the other side: bend your right leg, put your right leg over your left. Be careful that your back is straight, and also your neck. Deep inhale. While exhaling, put your... You can lift the arm up, or you can directly go to the other side. Both are possible. Take an inhale; while exhaling try to improve a little, softly, your twist. Your back should be straight. Inhaling, put your right arm on the right side. Exhaling, bring your left arm to the right side. You can lift the arm, or you could do it directly. In this position, you could even support the twist by pushing a little with your left arm against your right leg. Now, while inhaling, move your left arm backwards, and while exhaling, stretch your right leg. This twisting can also be done while sitting on a chair. You can cross one leg over the other and make the twisting while sitting during short breaks. These were some explanations for Yoga in Daily Life for a healthy back and healthy spine—again for back aching, some explanations, and some āsanas for the lumbar spine and thoracic part. Yoga in Daily Life focused on the area of pain, on the problem of pain in the back, and we showed ourselves a few exercises just for this problem.