>>MARK: Hi, I'm Mark Perry the creator of BuiltLean
and today I'm joined by celebrity
yoga instructor Kristin McGee who's to my left and this is our second segment
in kind of a series, which is covering yoga for men.
And so one of the biggest challenges I find men have
is tight lower backs,
and even experiencing pain in their lower backs.
Specially in New York City,
where a lot of people are kinda sitting at your desk all day,
you know, a lot of people experience chronic pain
even men and women.
And so, we're gonna go through seven yoga poses
to help decrease the tightness in your lower back.
And with that said, I'm gonna hand it over to Kristin McGee.
>>Kristin: thank you Mark.
It's so true, so many people come to me
and come to yoga looking for relief for the pain in their low backs.
And, it's sitting at the desk all day shortens our hip flexors,
weak abdominals can lead to lower back pain,
stress in general, we just holding carry that tension in our lower back
so this is not only 7 great poses you can do for your lower back,
but also a little sequence you can do.
so it's a really great way to kind of remember this
and add these poses to you repertoire at the end of the day,
you know, three or four times a week if you can
and you'll really start to notice some difference.
Now, of course check with your Dr. before you do anything, make sure you are
not
you know pushing yourself too hard, but I'll take Mark through this gentle
Yoga plow, we start with the Boat Pose,
he's gonna sit down on his hips
and this is to strengthen your lower abdominals, particularly the
transverse abdominals which is that deepest layer of lower abs.
You can see he supported himself here with those lower abdominals.
And that's like a girdle that supports your lower back and spine.
You are gonna hold this for about five breaths,
trying to breath in and out through your nose,
and then he's gonna lower his legs down on the floor
and sit up kinda straight out of your lower back,
you can bend your knees if you need to,
keep that same activity in your lower abs and start to hinge forward on your hips
until a forward bend.
So tight hamstrings can pull in the lower back.
So here we're stretching the hamstring
and the lower back.
Again, hold each pose for maybe five to eight breaths
really listen to that gentle breath through the nose,
and exhale out the nose.
Then come out and sit, and take a seated twist.
His going to cross his right foot over his left knee,
left over outside right knee, and turn to the right.
So getting that mobility in the spine, really stretching and twisting
such a great motion for the back,
and then you can come forward and you're gonna repeat on the opposite leg.
and then I'm gonna show you after the twist, a great way to open up your hips.
And this is kind of a precursor to that, because already he's getting a little bit
into his internal hips here.
And come forward, and place that top ankle over the bottom knee.
It's an ankle to knee pose.
And you feel the stretching that outer right hip.
This an ankle to knee pose, a really great way to
get that pressure out of the hips which can
really intensify low back pain.
And then try the other side,
and again, maybe 3-5 breaths eight breaths however long you can hold the pose
and feel comfortable, and after you've done the external hip rotators,
you're gonna move into the front of the hips, so now Marks gonna come around on all fours,
and we'll start with some Cat Cow Pose.
This is an excellent way to really warm up your back, inhale hard and arch to the ceiling.
Look up and drop your hips, control it with your
lower abs,
specially if you have a lot of low back pain, and
then round your back and hollow,
and again only do it if it feels comfortable for you
but you can do a few cycles, so now go back to the horse, way back horse,
and then come to the angry cat.
After a few rounds of that, just stretch your
quads and your flexor, so step your right foot between you hands,
release the toes and back, so you are on the top of the foot,
and come up onto your finger tips or take your hands to your front knee,
and it's gonna stretch out the hip flexors, the quads, all of that area
that really gets tight and short when you're sitting at a desk all day long
we'll repeat on the other side
and finish up with a beautiful relaxing pose.
If you wanna take your left foot forward just to balance yourself out,
come to all fours,
take your left leg forward, crescent lunge, that's it Mark, nice,
bring your hands up to your knee,
make sure you're breathing in and out through the nose,
make sure you always stand connected to your core,
that's why I like starting with the Boat Pose, so you got that
abdominal connection,
and then bring your hands down
release your left knee back to your right knee,
now sit back on your heels, and come and do a Child's pose stretch.
Let your head relax, let your feet relax, and this pose you could hold,
for minutes if you want to.
This is such a good way to release your lower back
and you can also take your hands back to your waist,
and just let them fall back towards your, hip.
All the way back, now go forward again
[hup] keep your hands back but go forward, there you go,
that's another way to do Child's pose.
Yeah, so your hands stand back by your waist.
There you go.
So either Child Pose that you wanna do, the extended arms or the hands back
that was excellent Mark, so I really think this is a wonderful little sequence you can
add
that's gonna open up all tight areas, and also strengthen your core,
and support your lower back.
>>MARK: Okay so I wanna thank Kristen so much for sharing her time
she's a very busy schedule,
if you wanna learn a little more about Kristin McGee you can check her out at
KristinMcGee.com, she's got DVD's, you can try summer classes
if you're in New York City, or you can do a private session,
Just wanna thank you very much for your sharing your time today.
Thank you very much for watching and I'll see you next week.