Hello everyone! Tutu Mora here with the Y bringing you tools to feel well in your body, mind and spirit.
Today, we're going to be focusing on a postural adaptation called a lumbar lordosis or it can also be a hyper lordosis.
So lumbar, the lower back, that last lower part of the spine can adopt a kind of curve
especially if you're consciously or unconsciously sticking that bum out and arching the low back.
That posture can put a lot of strain on the low back when there's that kind of hyper arch in that space.
So today, we're going to be doing some stretches just to relieve some of that pressure as well as to encourage
that spine, posture to gently correct itself.
Now with anything, the postural corrections they take time to integrate especially if you think about how much time
you're spending with your arched back posture vs. the time you're spending correcting that posture.
So work with this video consistently and you might notice that pressure start to relieve as well as your posture gradually start to shift and change
a little bit.
So you won't need any props today, you're just going to a mat to lay down on
and you can go ahead and lay down on the mat here. I'm just going to bring the camera around.
Okay so we're gonna start here laying on the back
knees bent
and just take a moment to feel your spine resting down on the mat. Now many of us with different body types, it can
the body can rest a little bit differently on the mat, so we wan to just be aware of the structure, the bones
and how they're resting as well. So bring your awareness to the pelvis. Do you notice where your sit bones are resting? Where your hip bones are resting?
And how that spine of the low back is arched or whether it's flat. And so just taking a moment
to breathe and notice how your bones, how your spine is resting down on the mat.
And now while you have that awareness, we're going to take a couple gentle pelvic curls.
And so just allowing that pelvis to gently tilt as if you're sliding that tail bone between your legs.
And then come back to what's called a neutral pelvis where you're kind of resting right between your hip bones and your sit bones.
And we're going to take that back and forth and just noticing, noticing how your bones are resting.
How your spine is resting.
And how that arch in the low back is responding.
So we're just take a couple here back and forth.
Now for those of us with a lumbar lordosis or hyper lordosis, resting on the mat can already feel like you've got this arch
in the low back. And so to gently stretch that, we're going to take a little pelvic tilt here, just enough
so that it feels like your spine is resting a little more heavily and flat on the mat.
Now that can feel a different way depending on your body type
so just see if you can find that pelvic tilt and find that awareness of your spine gently relaxing that arch just a little bit more into the mat.
We're going to bring the arms up, finger tips towards the ceiling, gently finding a plugged in feeling
in the arm through the shoulder.
And we're going to start floating those arms overhead. Now you might notice pretty quickly
that you're chest wants to pop out a little, your shoulders might start to round forward
or you might be tempted to shift that pelvic tilt that we have going
on and so just finding the edges of this movement
right up until your spine kind of wants to change.
And then take a deep breath and bring yourself all the way back.
So your arms may not make it to the bottom, back to the mat here, so just
finding the edges. We're going to take a couple here
keeping that pelvic tilt.
Keeping that feeling of your spine resting heavy on the mat.
And right up until you wanna feel that spine change, take a deep breath at that spot
perhaps reach those arms away a little bit from the back of the armpit
find a little stretch. Lengthen through that spine and bring yourself back.
to the starting point. Let's take a couple more here.
Holding onto that little pelvic tilt.
Finding that reach.
And floating those arms in as you take that back and we'll take two more here.
And last one.
Resting those arms back down. And lets take a couple little curls of that pelvis and uncurls.
Just feeling that pelvic tilt, feeling that neutral pelvis.
Perhaps feeling the difference of how that spine is resting on the mat.
From here, we're going to come over onto all fours.
I'm going to tilt the screen up just a little bit.
Okay. So onto all fours here.
Wrists directly beneath the shoulders, knees directly beneath the hips.
And we're going to find that same sensation. So once we're in a flat back. I'm going to tilt up just a smidge more.
Alright.
So once you're in a flat back position here, you're going to find that little pelvic curl again.
Now you might be tempted to arch from here, but see if you can find that little pelvic tilt.
Kind of the opposite of that arched back, so pelvic tilt
and then we're just going to float that back into a child's pose. Holding onto that feeling of that rounded, curved, tilted pelvis.
The opposite feeling of that lordosis
arched back and just sinking into this stretch, breathing into the low back.
Now holding onto that feeling, that little pelvic tilt, onto your forearms, we're just going to lean this forward
holding onto that pelvic tilt and taking that back.
Nice deep breath and we're going to take that three more times.
Widening through the sit bones to help support you through the glutes
and taking it back, maintaining that little pelvic tilt.
Deep breath and two more.
And last one. Widening through the sit bones so those glutes help you yet you maintain your pelvic curl.
And sinking back one more time.
And breathing.
Perhaps reaching those arms forward.
Just breathing into that stretch.
And then you can go ahead and sit on back up.
Standing up.
And just feeling into your posture standing up here.
And noticing once again as if the mat were behind you, how is your pelvis resting on what would be the mat behind you?
So are you kind of resting on your sit bones
with that arched back?
Or do you have that neutral pelvis and seeing if you can integrate that as you stand here
Just breathing.
And we're going to gently tuck the chin
articulate down the spine to whatever degree feels comfortable as you maintain that posture that you'd like to strengthen.
Now if you make it all the way down to the ground, that's great. If you don't, that's okay
And just hanging out at the bottom if you make it all the way down there.
Bending the knees as you articulate all the way back up.
Once again, noticing how you're standing
Finding that posture correction
And we'll take one more, gently tucking that chin maintaining that little adjusted pelvis.
As you gently stretch that articulating down
and stacking all the way back up.
Alright.
So go ahead and notice how you're feeling here, how you're standing
and taking a few minutes to perhaps turn to your posture if you notice you've adopted that arched back posture
just to gently stretch out that space, relieve some of the pressure and gradually shift that posture to a more aligned space.
So I hope you found this helpful and I'll see you back here next time on the Y's YouTube channel! Take care!