Hello, everyone. Tutu Mora here with The Y bringing you tools to feel well
in your body, mind and spirit. So, today we're gonna work on building a properly
aligned plank and then we're gonna do some back extension, as well. So, before we
take a plank, you're gonna just stay seated here—or you can be standing. But,
we're going to just feel into our properly aligned posture
while we're seated and then we're gonna translate that to a plank. So you can
have that feeling, that sort of muscle memory from our proper posture, seated.
Okay. So, as you're sitting here, let's just take a moment and breathe into our
low belly. And I want you to see if you can breathe almost as if you're gonna
breathe into the back of your body. So, if you were going to puff out your low back,
like behind you. So, take a minute and just see if we can find that feeling.
And then, we're gonna do the same thing for right between your shoulder blades.
So the a plank—a really good solid plank— is all about scapular and pelvic
stability. So, as we did, breathe into the low belly, but feeling like we were
breathing, puffing out that low back, we're gonna breathe into the chest. But, I
want you to feel like you're breathing out of that space in between your
shoulder blades. So, see if you can find that feeling where you're breathing but
you're puffing out that space between your shoulder blades.
Now this breath can be a little bit tricky, especially since most of us sort
of stay in this super high-chest, front-of-the-body way of breathing. But, see if
you can just tune in and take a minute to find that, find that space where
you're kind of puffing that out. Okay. So now, I want you to feel in your heart, as
though your heart is on a string up towards the ceiling. So, it's not like
you're flaring out your ribs, more like you're just lifted slightly. And now, when
you find that, bringing that throat behind the heart.
So, from here add in that breath. Add in that feeling of breathing between the
shoulder blades, breathing out into the low back while holding that lift, throat
behind the heart.
So, it might feel a little weird, it might feel unnaturally upright, but that is
actually an alignment that facilitates proper breathing, proper movement of all
the systems in our body. So, let's try to translate that posture into a plank. So,
I'll meet you down on the mat. Gonna tilt my screen down. Okay. So, let's start here on
all fours. I need to bring this up slightly, but finding that position where
you're on all fours. And you can be on your forearms. You can have your hands
about like this and then you're carefully gonna step back with one foot
and then the other. So, we're in a plank position. And now, let's bring in that
alignment. So, let your heart be lifted, throat behind the heart. And find that
breath, that breath coming in between the shoulder blades out through the low back.
And let's hold here for two more deep breaths.
You can relax those knees, maybe coming back into a child's pose. But, you can
notice how when you hold that posture, you start to feel that sort of shaky
feeling and that feeling of getting heated up really quickly. So, that's what
we want. That means like everything is fired up and working to keep you stable.
So, just taking a moment to sink back into that child's pose. And we'll take
that plank a couple more times. So, let's set ourselves up, stepping back,
finding your alignment. Let that heart lift, throat behind the heart, breathing
towards the back of the body, through that space between the shoulder blades,
through that low back area. Two more deep breaths. And bringing those
knees back down, sinking back into your child's pose. And we'll take that one
more time. So, finding your forearms on the mat, stepping back one leg at a time.
And see if you keep finding that posture, finding that breath. Find that throat
behind the heart. Maybe tuck that chin a little bit.
Imagine there's a fluid line running from the crown of your head all the way
out your tailbone. One more deep breath. And knees to the
mat, sinking back into your child's pose.
And from here, let's take that little bit of back extension that I was talking
about. So, go ahead and lying on your stomach on the mat, elbows are gonna be
wide on either side of the mat, hands right below your face. And take a moment
just to let that pelvis sink into the mat. And then, just as we were thinking
about before, imagining that there is that line, that fluid line from the crown
of your head out your tailbone. And imagine that lengthening, lengthening in one
direction out your tailbone, the other direction out the crown of your head. And
as that lengthens, let those shoulders drop down and away from the ears, as you
just gently lift that chest up into a little swan, before bringing yourself
back down, forehead onto the mat.
And we'll take that again, thinking of that lengthening sensation, before
you gently peel up, letting those shoulder blades glide down the back, as
if they were gonna meet each other in back, as if you were gonna show off a
necklace to someone right in front of you, bringing yourself back down. And
we'll take that one more time.
And so from here, you can gently press up into another child's pose, letting
yourself sink back into your sit bones, reaching those fingertips out in front
of you. And let's just gently take this to one side, getting a nice stretch along
that side of the torso. And then, taking this to the other side. And again,
straight out in front of you. And then, you can just gently sit up here. And so, I
hope you found this helpful. I hope this warmed you up, made you feel
a little bit stronger, a little bit more upright and aligned. And I'll see you
back here next time on The Y's YouTube channel with more tips to feel well in
your body, mind and spirit. Take care.