Lessons

Lesson Info

Overcoming Back Pain

(upbeat ambient music) So we're going to train our bodies on how to unwind the old sensations of pain that we may have had. So pain can be supported by actually using manual therapy or myofascial release balls or foam rollers or electrical stimulation or acupuncture or rolfing, there's so many different ways to get into releasing held tension in the body. And then a part of the value in starting to relieve yourself of pain or a part of the path towards relieving yourself of pain is also creating more integrity in the body. So we're gonna go through kind of a combination of the yin softening opening side of relieving pain and then also a little bit more into the yang side of activation and engagement. So we're gonna start off, we're just gonna bring our bodies down in the ground and starting off from just a kneeling position to begin. So in the Align Method program, we covered the whole section around floor sitting so you guys can check that out over there. And you're gonna start off ...

just in this kind of like czar position. From here, you can start to play with raising the arms up over head, and just get a little stretch, a little reach up towards the ceiling, keep the ribs tucked down towards the hips and just play with a little, almost like you're climbing a rope from this seated position and starting to get a little rotation in the spine and elongation in the spine. So we're kind of blending that yin yang passive elongation with that active or engaging ourselves into length. So reaching up, getting a little rotation and just envisioning yourself climbing a rope, while keeping those ribs tucked. (inhales sharply) Follow the breath into the sides of the ribs. I just got a few little cracks and pops in my thoracic spine and then keep on playing with this motion. And then you start to open up through the wrists and actively reaching your fingertips out to the sides. So why we're doing this is we're starting to create space in the shoulder girdles and starting to, almost like, imagine your body is being pulled, stretched open from all your appendages. So your head is being pulled up towards the sky, your arms are being pulled down and out towards the opposite walls. So you're really creating a lot of space in this thoracic cavity and through the cervical spine, the lumbar spine, and also actively as you're reaching up, you're also actively reaching your feet down into the ground. So you really create as much space with your body as you possibly can. Next, we're gonna start to bring our hands down onto the ground. B-b-b-b-b-bum. So we're in a all four positions here, and I want you to start off with just exploring a little range of motion through the shoulder girdles. You can kind of get through a full range, pushing the shoulders down, shrugging the shoulders up, dropping the shoulders back and going through almost like a circular motion of the shoulders. Now from here, once you feel comfortable, you got some good lubrication through the shoulder joint, then you can start to play with creating an active cat-cow position. So cat-cow, you're always going to on an exhalation, you're gonna blow out and flex the spines up. (exhales sharply) And then inhale. (inhales sharply) Extend the spine, creating a global curve. We talked about this in "The Align Method" book, we talked about this in "The Align Method" program. (inhales sharply) And then flexing. (exhales sharply) Extending. (inhales sharply) Flexing. (exhales sharply) Extending. (inhales sharply) Extending on the inhalation, looking up with your eyes, up towards the ceiling, stretching that ocular tissue as much as you're stretching the tissue in the muscles of the rest of the body, flexing and blowing out. (exhales sharply) Now from here, you can start to kind of explore whatever feels comfortable and good for you. So you can kind of start to take the spine through almost like an S pattern if that feels good for you, you can start to side bend to the right a little bit, start to side bend to left a little bit, just starting to open up some plasticity, some flexibility, some hydration in the spine. (indistinct) all the neck to kind of start to go through that motion. And almost like imagining, like your body is like a jellyfish or some kind of aquatic creature. You can start to go through little motion around the hands, start to open up some space in those wrists. It's gonna be very viable for any folks that are doing any kind of wrist heavy, hand heavy activities or exercises. So we're going through these motions really actively engaging, pressing our hands down into the ground. So pressing through the index finger, pressing through the thumb on both side, elbow pits subtly driving forward, creating an external rotation. And the shoulder girdle is activating those muscles in the back side of the shoulders. And then you can start to walk your hands forward. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, thumbs facing up. (inhales sharply) Reaching the bum up in the air. Imagine your spine is like a ski slope. (exhales sharply) And just deep breath into this position. (inhales sharply) Every time you exhale, (exhales sharply) you can deepen the stretch a little bit. Again thumbs facing up, external rotation. Then the arms. You could actively press the hands down against the ground. So pressing yourself into, it's called shoulder extension, press down through the ground, hold that for a few seconds and then relax or an exhalation, you get a little deeper to the stretch. (inhales sharply) (exhales sharply) Again, press his hands down in the ground when driving down through the earth. Press, press, press. Breathe through the nose. Relax on exhalation, go a little deeper to this stretch. (exhales sharply) Good. And then you start to slowly draw yourself up and now you're gonna do that position, but now you're gonna go off to the side. So you are now reach yourself side bend, reach across, reach across, thumbs facing up into the sky. And turn the head to the left a little bit. Breathing through that side of the ribs, breathing into the lats through the side here, opening up space and the intercostal, it's opening up space in the quadratus lumborum, opening up space in the hips. And then drawing back, boom, boom, boom, pull yourself up. (inhales sharply) Inhale. And then an exhalation. (exhales sharply) Reach for yourself, opening up that side body on the left. (inhales sharply) (exhales sharply) Coming up, inhale, flex all the way up. (inhales sharply) Down forward. (exhales sharply) Inhale, flex. Down forward. (exhales sharply) (inhales sharply) Coming back on to the toes. So we're gonna go into a toe sit position. So you go like this. So tension in the plantar fascia, tension in the hamstrings, that whole posterior chain. Posterior being these muscles sequencing in the back of your body. There's tension in the lower body. That tension will travel upstream, the upper body. So your back stuff is not just a back thing, your back stuff is a whole body thing. It's a global nervous system thing. And so just basic movements like this, trying to just integrate more effective movement patterns into your daily life is really gonna be the thing that makes the biggest difference for one's tension or back pain than they might be experiencing. So this is a really beautiful way to start to open up the feet. Kind of bounce around a little bit like this. You can shake the shoulders out a little bit. (exhales sharply) Just find any tension you might have in the body. (inhales sharply) (exhales sharply) Just like hunting for tension essentially. Something that's really largely vacant in modern Western culture is having an understanding of how do we encounter the tension that we might be holding in our body. So there's a fellow called Moshe Feldenkrais, founder of the Feldenkrais method. He referred to some of the tensions, unconscious tensions that people are holding throughout their bodies as being parasitic tension. So as we're having this conversation, I'm in a czar position of kneeling, you guys at home, you can be doing the same thing. Just having a moment of talking. But even as we're talking, we're still moving, we're still working on the body as we're having a conversation. It's kind of the whole point of the whole Align Method and everything we're doing here. So that parasitic tension that the body can hold, it's these little tensions we have in our spine or our jaw or our ankles or hips or pelvic floor that's expending caloric energy throughout the day to just hold those contractions. And the end of the day, we feel maybe tired, we feel like we need a lot of calories, we feel like we can never get enough sleep. And our body's working so much harder than it needs to. So just going through and kind of shaking the hands out, shaking the wrists out, shaking the shoulders out, exploring all those ranges of motion through the spine, shrugging the shoulders up towards the ears, deep inhalation (inhales sharply) (exhales sharply) and let the shoulders drop. That introspection and investigation in your own body is gonna be paramount for you to start to encounter these potential parasitic tensions that you may have. Release those tensions, and then that leading you/us into a place of back pain relief. So next thing that we're gonna investigate is how do we start to create a little bit of strength and integrity in the spine. What we're gonna do, we got ourselves this sweet sultry 50 pound kettlebell. I was told is a 40 pound, even better, it's 50 pounds. And that's what we're gonna do is we're going to lift this guy from the ground in a symmetrical fashion. So it's called a farmer's carry, is a beautiful practice to start to create some stability and support in the midsection. And actually, before we do that, I want to teach a quick thing about inter abdominal pressure. So the way that I lift this kettlebell off of the ground, I'm gonna actually use a technique that I'm gonna learn on the ground. So what I'm gonna do is I'm going to, boo, boo, boo, bring the, oh, kettlebell down, oh, onto my abdomen, like so. And I'm going to, we should just go back, lay down. So I'm gonna actually use my breath to lift the kettlebell off of my, well, upward towards the ceiling. So I'm gonna create intra-abdominal pressure, this outward pressure that actually pushes into the kettlebell. And that pressure is gonna be crucial for you to be able to cultivate strength and relieve yourself of back pain. These are huge factors. If you learn this as a young person, you're going to be a better athlete, you're not gonna end up winding up with disc herniations and various different pains, 'cause you're able to use your internal pressure dynamics to create support in your body. So what you're gonna do is breathe into the kettlebell. (inhales sharply) Push that kettlebell up. And now that you've created that intra-abdominal pressure, that pushing out, think of your midsection like a barrel. Now you're gonna breathe normally, (inhales sharply) (exhales sharply) while maintaining that pressure. So just do this about five breaths. (inhales sharply) (exhales sharply) (inhales sharply) (exhales sharply) So the opposite of that would be allowing the kettlebell to drop. So (inhales sharply) pressure up into the kettlebell and then I let this go away. (exhales sharply) I just let it sink out. I get a very small abdomen there. So any weightlifter would be like, oh, that's gonna be problematic. You're losing all that pressure in the midsection. So, (inhales sharply) like I got a barrel chest, like I got a barrel abdomen, maintaining the kettlebell in that same position. (exhales sharply) (inhales sharply) (exhales sharply) So play with that at home. If you don't have a kettlebell or a dumbbell, you just use your hands just to feel that pressure on your hands or from your abdomen to your hands. So then next, so now we've figured out how to create pressure in our abdomen. We wanna also do that in the back as well. So we feel that pressure going 360 degrees. Next thing is we're gonna bring the kettlebell into our experience here. And so I'm gonna keep my midsection nice and stacked and elongated. So I'm gonna start off, imagine there's a string, reaching my head up to the ceiling, rib state subtly tucked down towards the hips. I could take a few breaths. (inhales sharply) Feel that outward expansion of the ribs. I cannot stress enough how supportive this will be of relieving humanity. You and I, in this case of back pain. If we have misaligned spinal mechanics and then we go and move throughout our day, we are asking for issues. So starting off with the breath, understanding your breath. That's what we're doing right now. It seems simple, but it's invaluable. So breath me out. (inhales sharply) (exhales sharply) Now from here, I'm gonna play without the weight and I'm gonna start to just drive my body straight up, activating through the glutes, really driving through the back foot, driving through the front foot. (inhales sharply) Creating that intra-abdominal pressure, and (exhales sharply) all the way up, back down. (inhales sharply) Keep this pressure. (exhales sharply) Narrow my stance a little bit. (inhales sharply) (exhales sharply) Now we're gonna bring the weight into the scenario. It's gonna come all the way down. (inhales sharply) Drive straight up. (exhales sharply) So as I'm going through this motion, I'm fighting the resistance of wanting to, oh, fall over to the side here. So that asymmetrical farmers carry is such a valuable practice because it's really causing your body build to fight this torsional force, which really starts to orient, stack and strengthen your spine. So if we can integrate that with understanding those pressure dynamics, creating that interim pressure like we mentioned, and take a little walk with a 30, 40, 50, whatever pound weight feels good for you. Keeping that big barrel of a belly, of a back pressing, that pressure against the sides, pressing that pressure against the front. If you can put your hand into the back of your torso here. (inhales sharply) Feeling yourself breathing into that hand. (exhales sharply) (inhales sharply) (exhales sharply) Every breath you're taking from these positions becomes like a subtle spinal decompression for your lower back. So that is the asymmetrical farmer's carry as I'm dropping it down, big pressure through midsection, straight down like an elevator shaft, boom, all the way down to the ground. Gonna just break down three quick core, in quotations, "exercise". Core is kind of a funny term. Doesn't make a lot of sense, 'cause core is kind of more of an event than it is, it's actually a specific location. Core is a sequencing or an integration of the whole body. And so what we're gonna do is play with this core experience here, and we're gonna go into a plank position to start. And so plank position, very simple stuff. We're just going to drive those hands down into the ground, elbow pits facing forward. Maybe come from here. Elbow pits facing forward. Ribs tucked down towards the hips and just starting to tinker with holding this position. Next from here, if this is easy for you, you could start to raise one foot up off of the ground. Alternate sides, raise the next foot up off of the ground. So you're actively driving that bottom foot down into the ground, alternating sides. If that feels available, dare I say easy, it's probably not gonna be easy if you're doing it right, you can play with raising the left foot up and start to explore with also raising the right. So from here, you could start to explore raising the arm up, switch sides. Drive that hand down in the ground, squeeze the ground with your hands, tuck the ribs down towards the hips. Play with racing that back foot up, reaching forward. So this might look not that hard, but try it. It's pretty hard. So next thing you're gonna play with is going into a side plank position. So the same thing, I'm actively driving my hands down in the ground, keeping this elongation like a bridge all the way, my torso down to my feet one straight post, raising this arm, you can go up overhead. You can reach over to a little side body stretching. If this feels available and easy, you could bring this leg up. That feels easy. You could reach it out to the side. If that feels easy, you could grab it. Do some stuff like this. And then from here coming back into a little, (exhales sharply) ah, sit up. So with the sit up, what we're gonna do. Most folks when we're doing a sit up type position, we end up crunching our neck and kind of going, oh, oh, and just exacerbating a bunch of dysfunctional movement patterns. So what we're gonna do with the sit up is you're gonna bring your hands underneath your bum. So bring your hands underneath your hips here and you're gonna bring your knees up. And as you're coming up into that sitting up position, I want you to really focus all of your awareness right into your core here, so your rectus abdominis. And so the sit up, your head is staying nice and long and you are really focusing on that elongation. So think of your spine like a fishing pole. So it's a global curve throughout the whole spine, not just a, ugh, a local crunch in the neck. So doing a few reps. Being pulled up from the spine. (inhales sharply) You could play with bringing one leg down. (inhales sharply) (exhales sharply) You could play with raising that leg up. (inhales sharply) (exhales sharply) Alternate legs. Actively driving that bottom foot down on the ground. (inhales sharply) (exhales sharply) And so going through about a total of 15 reps of that. So those four exercises, the asymmetrical farmers carry, the side plank, the front plank, and the sit up that we just did that's a little bit different than the standard. Those are gonna be invaluable assets in your journey of unwinding some of the tension that you may experience in your back or your neck. And if you guys like more information on the specific mechanics of that, you can tune into, we've done a ton of podcast episodes about it, but the particular one was with Dr. Stuart McGill. He's widely considered the world's leading spinal expert and we've had several podcasts together. He also wrote a blurb for "The Align Method" book. So I'm very grateful for him. So I'd recommend tuning into that episode, or with Gray Cook, Dr. Kelly Starret, there's a ton of people that I'd recommend for that. But those would be resources I'd recommend to go deeper in the mechanics of this and how to go just deeper into the topic in general. And that's it start to implement these basic movement patterns into your daily life. You can literally go through that whole practice, like a yoga flow that you could do once a day, you could do a few days a week, and I think this will be supportive for unwinding any back pain that you may be experiencing, and also preventing (tranquil ambient music) any back pain in the future. So thank you guys. Appreciate the time, let's get on to the next section.