Hello everyone, Tutu Mora here with the Y bringing you tools to feel well
in your body, mind and spirit. So, today we're going to be strengthening the
upper back muscles which are an important part in keeping your
posture in alignment. So, many of us,
from looking down at screens or sitting at a desk,
can adopt a head forward, or a little bit of a rounded posture.
And posture influences our body and the way energy
can flow smoothly in our body in a number of different ways,
but if this is a posture that you feel that you have started to adopt and you'd
like to correct that or if you'd just like to strengthen
the muscles in your upper back, this is going to be a great video for you. So,
you're not going to need any props. You're just going to need a
mat or a soft surface to lay down on. And I'll go ahead and meet you down on
the mat.
So, let's start laying down. And we're going to be on our stomachs.
So, elbows wide. And you can rest your head
on your hands. And so, as you're here what's going to be
important is keeping your pelvis really heavy into the mat. So, it can be
easy to want to like clench your butt cheeks
or to lift that pelvis a little bit, but as much as you're
able, feel that pelvis just sinking towards the mat - as that's going
to help protect your low back. And if you can, keep those butt cheeks
from clenching because that is also going to be
protecting your low back. Now, what you'll want to keep in mind is
having enough space for your arms to reach
overhead and out to the sides. So, we're going to just start here with
our elbows out to the sides, bringing in a feeling of gently hugging
the sides of the mat with your elbow tips.
And what we're going to do is just gently keeping the shoulders
down, as if your shoulder blades are sliding down your back,
and coming together in the center of your back. So,
finding that feeling and we're going to gently
leading from the sternum, head following along,
staying in line with your spine, we're gently just going to lift
that chest ever so slightly. Keeping those shoulders down.
Shoulder blades gliding down the back and then bringing yourself back down.
And let's take that two more times. Just gently warming this space up.
Lowering back down here. And what we're going to do is, we're going to
bring your arms, forearms sort of in line with the sides
of the mat here, and you're going to just gently lift
your face from the mat. And what I want you to
feel into is keeping those shoulders down and away from your ears and that
feeling of your shoulder blades gliding down, the gliding down the back
and as if they're coming together a little bit as well. So,
what we're going to do, holding on to that feeling, holding under
that posture, nice and slow we're going to just reach
those arms overhead, circle them to the sides,
back to the starting point. And again. Nice and slow so you can keep that
posture. And the chin is going to be tucking in
towards the throat to keep your head in line with the spine.
So, you're going to kind of have to double chin it.
Let's take three more here. Keeping that head in line with the spine.
Chin towards the throat, giving yourself that little double chin.
Shoulders down and away from the ears.
Last one.
And then resting those arms back down on the mat.
You can widen those elbows and give your head
a little bit of a break.
In between this set we're going to gently, once
again, hug the mat with our elbow tips and just find a little lift
through the sternum.
Two more.
And so now, we're going to take those arm circles in the reverse
direction. So, let's find our forearms in line with the sides
of the mat here. And instead of taking it up and around
first, we're going to take it first around
and then up, bringing yourself back down through the center.
And around.
And down.
Three more.
Last one.
Resting back down and let's take that little
elbows wide, little lift and hug, lifting from the sternum. Hugging the
sides of the mat with your elbow tips. And resting back down.
Two more.
So let's bring, once again, our shins to the side of the mat here.
And we're going to take that little lift of the sternum, once again. So, we're
going to start right about here - again keeping that pelvis heavy into the
mat - and we're just going to gently
straighten out those arms. Keeping your shoulders down, little
extension. Only bringing yourself up as far as
feels good for you. Back down and we'll take that two more time.
Resting all the way back down. And now, we're going to come up onto all fours.
Knees right beneath the hips. Wrists right beneath the shoulders.
And we're just going to sink, sink that, those sit bones back towards
the heels. Resting into a child's pose. Reaching
those fingertips out in front of you.
And then we're going to bring that left hand a little further to the side,
right hand coming over the left, stretching out that
right side of the torso.
And then same thing to the other side.
One more time back at center.
And then you can come all the way up and off.
Standing up, letting your shoulders drop, and just noticing how it feels - how your
posture feels - once you stand up. So you might notice
that you feel a little bit more upright. Your chest feels a little
bit more open. Your shoulders are able to relax away
from your ears a little bit more. And so, the more that you strengthen this
posture, the more that you'll feel a little bit more upright and that
energy will be able to flow a little bit more smoothly throughout
your body. You'll feel a little bit more energized as well.
So, I hope that you found this helpful and I'll see you back here next time
on the Y's Youtube channel. Take care.